Velvet Elvis

I just finished reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell this week. I highly recommend it to everyone!! I got so much out of this book that I know it will be one that I will continue to reread from time to time. Below are several of my favorite quotes from the book. Obviously, they are taken out of the book, so they make much more sense when read in context. Just another reason you need to go out and buy it :)! I have highlighted the ones that really speak to my life in so many ways.

"Doctrine is a wonderful servant and a horrible master."

"A question by its very nature acknowledges that the person asking the question does not have all of the answers. And because the person does not have all of the answers, they are looking outside of themselves for guidance. Questions bring freedom. Freedom that I don't have to be God and I don't have to pretend that I have it all figured out. I can let God be God."

"The idea that everybody else approaches the Bible with baggage and agendas and lenses and I don't is the ultimate of arrogance."

"The goal is not to be a 'New Testament church.' That makes the New Testament church the authority. The authority is God who is acting in and through those people at that time and now these people at this time."

"If you come across truth in any form, it isn't outside your faith as a Christian. Your faith just got bigger. To be a Christian is to claim truth wherever you find it."

"The point of the cross isn't forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restoration. God isn't just interested in the covering over of our sins; God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be. It is not just the removal of what's being held against us; it is God pulling us into the people he originally had in mind when he made us."

"'Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be. And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it.'"

"What happens in our lives becomes so heavily oriented around the expectations of others that we become more and more like them and less and less like ourselves. We become split."

"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."

"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, forgiven, and there is nothing I could ever do to lose this acceptance."

"God has no boundaries. God blesses everybody. People who don't believe in God. People who are opposed to God. People who do violent, evil things. God's intentions are to bless everybody."

"Most of the messages we receive 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 to and check out of this broken, fractured world."

Just as an FYI...I was accepted into the alternative certification program and I started my classes yesterday. I will be in class until mid-July, but should take my state test and get my probationary certification in June. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to fight the battle with my anxiety and am scared to make this transition into a new career.

Also, I was thinking that I need to change the name of my blog since I'm technically not a newlywed anymore. Any ideas for names? I have limited creativity :)!