Quotes from Rob Bell

For Jesus, the question wasn't, "How do I get into heaven?" but "How do I bring heaven here?

Nerves are God's gift to you, reminding you that your life is not passing you by, Make friend with the butterflies. Welcome them when they come, revel in them, enjoy them, and if they go away, do whatever it takes to put yourself in a position where they return. Better to have a stomach full of butterflies than to feel like life is passing you by.

The Psalms show us what healthy spiritual life looks like. You name everything that's happening inside of you. You give it language and expression, You articulate exactly what the desolation feels like. If you don't drag it up and give it words, then it's buried down in your being somewhere. And it will come out in other ways. Unhealthy, destructive ways. You'll keep it bottled up. And you'll be miserable.

The Bible tells a story. A story that isn't over. A story that is still being told. A story that we have a part to play in.

What's disturbing, then, is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about hell here and now. As a Christian I want to do what I can to resist hell coming to earth: poverty, injustice, suffering--they're all hells on earth and as Christians we oppose them with all of our energies.

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.

God doesn't wait for us to get ourselves polished, shined, proper, and without blemish—God comes to us and meets us and blesses us while we are still in the middle of the mess we created.

The Bible is not an argument. It is a record of human experience. The point is not to prove that it's the word of God or it's inspired or it's whatever the current word is that people are using. The point is to enter into its stories with such intention and vitality that you find what it is that inspired people to write these books.

I can't find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identity ourselves first and foremost as sinners.

God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2). So does God get what God wants?

It is possible for music to be labeled Christian and be terrible music. It could lack creativity and inspiration. The lyrics could be recycled cliches. That Christian band could actually be giving Jesus a bad name because they aren't a great band. It is possible for a movie to be a Christian movie and to be a terrible movie. It may actually desecrate the art form in its quality and storytelling and craft.

How we respond to what happens to us - especially the painful, excruciating things that we never wanted and we have no control over - is a creative act.