Reading - Do You Really Believe Anything Happens After You Die? by Frederick Buechner
The Wide Road Called Orthodoxy Selections from Historic Christian Teachers on Last Things
Q&A with Rob Bell: An Interview by David Vanderveen
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by Jack Heaslip
Do you know how many times the phrase “Do not be afraid” appears in the Bible? One website says it is 365 times. I prefer to say “lots of times.”
What has fear to do with a book on love? God’s love at that? Even before Love Wins was released, fear was at work. People had opinions about a book they hadn’t read. I was told I needed to be skeptical, suspicious, nervous, critical, afraid, but mostly “cautious.” Caution must be good, mustn’t it? The trouble is that caution can be fear dressed up to look right and proper and maybe a shade holy.
Fear also could be heard in the questions being asked. Is it okay to question God like that? Is he destroying faith? Why doesn’t he respect our tradition, our catechism?
If you are in a group, look around and see how many people show signs of fear and suspicion. Look in a mirror for the same signs.
Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.” Angels said, “Do not be afraid.” God said it too.
After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand.” (Gen. 15:1, MSG)
But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you.” (Luke 1:30, MSG)
But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.” (Matt. 14:27, MSG)
So why shouldn’t we be afraid? Because God can be trusted.
So with a God who can be trusted we can head off into new territory or a fresh experience of old territory. We can ask questions. We do not need to be afraid.
Because we can trust God and not be afraid, we are then free to love. Love is the bottom line!
Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. (1 John 4:7, MSG)
It is like love meeting love. Our shallow attempts at loving are embraced by God’s mighty love. That, for me, is powerful stuff. With that sort of confidence we can really go for the experience and the understanding of God.
There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. (1 John 4:18, MSG)
God is love! It’s that simple, that profound.
Paul believed this. He gave the Corinthians a wonderful description of what our religion should involve and what it should look like: “For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love” (Gal. 5:6, MSG).
Isn’t that brilliant? Religion and nonreligion are firmly put in their place by God’s love. And our intellects are given something to work on. Paul encourages us to think! It is okay to think! Sometimes our little gray cells are put on the back burner by those who want us to follow a faith they prescribe. It is good to unwrap a package. How can we receive the gift if we don’t delve a bit?
Do not be afraid. God can be trusted. You are free to love, to explore, to ask questions, to think. That is the invitation Rob Bell puts before us in Love Wins and now in The Love Wins Companion. We are invited to step outside of the boat and draw closer to the one who calls us and wants to be known. Do not be afraid. God appreciates our efforts and smiles at our failings. He loves our humor when we lighten our load and when we enjoy the presence of his Spirit in our lives. God is willing to be found—by anyone who is looking. That’s good news. And the password is love.
by Rob Bell
I’m thrilled that you are interested in going deeper into the ideas I present in Love Wins. A couple of thoughts before we get going.
First, some words out there in our culture have incredibly heavy emotional attachments to them, words like heaven, hell, judgment, salvation. You throw these words into a conversation, and people have strong opinions and ideas whether for or against, negative or positive. This is true especially when it comes to the Christian faith, and specifically when it comes to where people are with God, who has a relationship with God, who doesn’t, who’s a Christian, who’s not, who’s going to heaven, who’s going to hell.
One of the things that drives this book is my desire to simply say, “Here’s what the Bible says.” If some people are really, really passionate about a particular perspective, I want to know where they got that from. So when it comes to heaven and hell and judgment, what I’ve tried to do in the book is lay out what the Bible actually says, what Jesus said, and then, conversely, what Jesus didn’t say.
I believe that God loves everybody. And I believe that the heart of the Christian faith is this God who loves everybody, this Jesus who came to show us this love, give us this love, and invite us into this love. So, from my perspective, the Christian faith at its core is an experience of the love of God through this Jesus, who insists that God loves everybody, everywhere. As you read through this Companion, as you wrestle with the questions and go further into the ideas, as you look at this passage and that passage and that story, and as you recount your own experience or reflections, my wish is to create the space where you can meet this God and experience this God’s love.
I’m fascinated when Jesus talks about how he’s water. It’s hard to build a systematic theology around water. Try building a denomination around water; it’s very fuzzy and nebulous and ambiguous—unless, of course, you’re thirsty. Then you know exactly what the water is.
Or when Jesus says he’s light. Light can be hard to get your hands around; it can be hard to quantify or systematize—unless you know you’re far from home, and then light shows you how to return to the place from which you came.
Jesus speaks in metaphors and parables, because ultimately he comes to bring us a living, breathing experience of the love of God right here, right now. At the heart of this book is this simple, beautiful, compelling declaration that this love wins. So I hope this guide helps take you to places you haven’t been before, places that are thrilling and convicting, that fill you with wonder and awe. May the peace of God be with you the whole way.
When my publisher shared with me the idea for this companion guide and asked if I could suggest who should help put it together, my first thought was my friend of twenty years Dave Vanderveen. I was of course thrilled when he said he’d do it and then continually surprised with the fresh insights and people and ideas he has brought to this project.
We have found that a lot of people are preoccupied with the question, “Is there life after death?” That’s a good question, an interesting question, and one that has received a good deal of speculation and discussion. But that isn’t the question that