Labyrinth Journey: Westby, Wisconsin Remembered: Letter From Norway D...

Labyrinth Journey: Westby, Wisconsin Remembered: Letter From Norway D...: Westby, Wisconsin Remembered: Letter From Norway During WW II : By RuthAnn Wilson This article, found in a folder of very old newspaper ...

Westby, Wisconsin Remembered: Letter From Norway During WW II

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From the Heart . . .: B36. Sexual Orientation: It's Not a Sin

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Pub Ponderings: A Response to the Recent Violence in Norway

Pub Ponderings: A Response to the Recent Violence in Norway

Dear Cousin,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns about Rob Bell.  Yes, I hope we can agree to disagree agreeably.  I think we share the important basics of belief in Jesus Christ, our Savior, God Incarnate, who suffered, died, was resurrected and is coming again.  I have not actually read Rob Bell’s recent book – I did follow some of the blogs and media both pro and con, as I find it interesting to hear various and even differing viewpoints from people I respect. 

I have a deep trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring people to faith, to teach me wisdom, give me strength, and to guide my heart, mind, hands and feet.  I believe He does that in various ways, including through listening to others, not only to their beliefs but to their questions.  And so I find Rob Bell a worthwhile person to study, along with so many others of differing Christian understandings.  We are all in a process of growing! 

The verse God gave to me when I was preparing to leave for Africa in 1992 was Ephesians 4:11-13:   “The gifts he (Christ/God) gave were that some would be … teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”  The first 4 chapters of Ephesians have blessed me over and over, as I have tried to live faithfully. In my work and travels, I have discussed faith with people of many different Christian  understandings, as well as many other religions and no professed religion.  One of my gifts (and burdens!) is that I tend to see both sides of any story, which leads me to look for unity, for common ground, when discussing faith with others of different beliefs.  That so often leads to an opening for sharing my own faith, after my listening to the other.  And sometimes I simply listen, and leave the work to the Holy Spirit.  After all, it is only by the Spirit that anyone can come to and grow in faith! 

Well, as for the Hell and Universalist questions, I understand those are stumbling blocks for people on both sides of the questions.  I care about hearing both sides and I leave that to God to sort out!  Um, can I safely say that those are two of the questions I struggled with as a very precocious 8 and 9 year old, reading my Bible for the first time.  Even at that tender and untrained age, I deeply loved Jesus with all my heart, and I could see the contradictions in some of the passages – passages which Rod Bell still sees as contradictory and which you do not see the same way.  So that’s all the more reason that I trust God to sort that out.  By Grace I am saved, through faith, not my understanding. 

One of my favorite statements is this:  "We meet one another finally, not in our agreements or our disagreements, but at the foot of the cross - where God is faithful, where Christ is present with us, and where, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are one in Christ." - Rev. Mark S. Hanson

Love, RuthAnn