Velvet Elvis Quotes/Passages Part III

Hopefully, you've seen the pattern now and can figure that these are the quotes/passages from Movements 5, 6, and 7 of this fantastic book, Velvet Elvis by the fantastic Rob Bell. Here we go...


"God has an incredibly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things. I have been told that I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that Jesus believes in me. I have been told that I need to have faith in God. Which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that God has faith in me. The rabbi thinks we can be like him."

"The point isn't sin management. The point is who we are now."

"True spirituality then is not about escaping this world to some other place where we will be forever. A Christian is not someone who expects to spend forever in Heaven there. A Christian is someone who anticipates spending forever here, in a new heaven that comes to Earth."

"But the thing we are searching for is not somewhere else. It is right here. And we can only find it when we give up the search, when we surrender, when we trust. Trust that God is already putting us back together. Trust that through dying to the old, the new can give birth. Trust that Jesus can repair the scarred and broken image. It is trusting that I am loved. That I always have been. That I always will be. I don't have to do anything. I don't have to prove anything or achieve anything or accomplish one more thing. That exactly as I am, I am totally accepted, forgive, and there is nothing I could ever do to lose this acceptance."

"It is our turn to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people, surrendered to God and to each other, really can change the world."

"The church doesn't exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; it's about all the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart."

"If the gospel isn't good news for everybody, then it isn't good news for anybody. And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion. expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display. To do this, the church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever."

"Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor, and our neighbor can be anybody."

"We are all created in the imagine of God, and we are all sacred, valuable creations of God. Everybody matters. To treat people differently based on who believes what is to fail to respect the image of God in eeryone. As the book of James says, 'God shows no favoritism.' So we don't either."

"Oftentimes the Christian community has sent the message that we love people and build relationships in order to convert them to the Christian faith. So there is an agenda. And when there is an agenda, it isn't really love, is it? It's something else. We have to rediscover love, period. Love that loves because it is what Jesus teaches us to do. We have to surrender our agendas."

"The way of Jesus is a journey, not a destination. On a journey, the scenery changes. A lot. We can prepare for some things but not all. We make mistakes, figure it out as we go along, and try new things. Failures are really just opportunites to learn. If you are part of a church, is the dominant understanding of faith in your church that of journey or destination?"

"Most of the messages we recieve are about how to make life easier. The call of Jesus goes the other direction: It's about making our lives more difficult. It is going out of our way to be more generous and disciplined and loving and free. It is refusing to escape and become numb and check out of this broken, fractured world."

"Not only is the way narrow, but it involves suffering. To truly engage with how the world is, our hearts are going to be broken again and again."

"Suffering is a place where cliches don't work and words often fail."

"Ultimately our gift to the world around us is hope. Not blind hope that pretends everything is fine and refuses to acknowledge how things are. But the kind of hope that comes from staring pain and suffering right in the eyes and refusing to believe that this is all there is. It is what we all need-hope that comes not from going around suffering but from going through it."

"The church is like a double-edged sword. When it's good, when it's on, when it's right, it's like nothing on Earth."

You made it! Kudos to you, even more if you've read all of the passages I've posted. Even if you haven't, they're still there, waiting for you. This ending will still be here when you get back. I hope you've enjoyed this, though I know it's a ton of reading. Hopefully you're interested and perhaps thinking about actually getting the book and reading the entirety of it, rather than the pieces I've given you. Again, leave a comment. Tell me which ones you like, which you don't, what you agree or disagree with, what challenge you, which confuse you. I'd love to talk about them with you! :]