I M Perfect lady

Rob Bell is an author, who is reflecting my experiences with the juxtaposition between being a God created wonderful intricate moving living breathing piece of Art, and then what my church and parents believed about me.

The space between is wide and expansive, the differences are too huge to even comprehend.

My old self, the one of the church's teachings was that I was wretched and a sinner. My parents actions shown me I wasn't worthy. Hence, my self- image grew from my parent's eyes and in the eyes of the church…they matched each other.

After leaving the church and family, I began to search for who I was…already knowing to the depth of my being, who they thought I was, but was this true?  I knew that their idea or view of me wasn't correct in how it matched reality; for I wasn't the one who created the family of dysfunction, at least not in my family of origin, however, I had taken their model and began to recreate it in my home.  

My unworthy feelings about myself….were being passed on to my children. 

I began to question everything; me, my church, my family, my mothering….nothing was beyond my reach.  Everthing was torn apart to find its goodness.  And I pretty much came up empty.  I had to start from scratch, rebuilding, relearning and reteaching and redoing….in order to not replicate unworthiness.

The book, Velvet Elvis understands my total transformation….from old to a new me…he is able to show how the religions are upside down.

Rob Bell is flipping the church on its head.

Taking the model of christian and showing its flaws and the way it isn't right with God in how He sees us.

Here is a part that struck me from the "Velvet Elvis".

"These first Christians kept insisting that something so transformational was happening in the lives of followers of Jesus that they could refer to their old lives as "the life (we) once lived."

"It is not that we are perfect now or that we will never have to struggle. Or that the old person won't come bcd from time to time. It's that this new way of life involves a constant, conscious decision to keep dying to the old so that we can live in the now."

"Paul describes it as Christ being our lives."

"Paul go so far as to insist in another letter that if we are having this new kind of transforming experience with Christ in which we are taking on a new identity, we are literally now a "new creation".

"I am being remade."

"I am not who I was."

"I am a new creation."

"I am "in Christ."

"When God looks at me, God sees Christ, because I'm "in" him.

"God's view of me is Christ."

"And Christ is perfect."

"This is why Paul goes on to say, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy, and dearly loved."

"Did you catch that word in the middle?" "Holy" "Not, "going to be holy someday." "Not, "wouldn't it be nice if you were holy, but instead you're a mess." But, "holy".

"Holy means pure, without blemish, unstained." "In these passages we're being told who we are, now."

"The issue then isn't my beating myself up over all the things I am not or the things I am doing poorly; the issue is my learning who this person is who God keeps insisting I already am."

"Notice the words from the letter to the Philippians: "Let us live up to what we have already attained."

"There is this person who we already are in God's eyes. And we are learning to live like it is true."

"This is an issue of identity. It is letting what God says about us shape what we believe about ourselves. This is why shame has no place whatsoever in the Christian experience. It is simply against all that Jesus is for. As the writer to the Romans put it, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

"None." "No Shame." "No list of what is being held against us." "No record of wrongs." "It has simply been done away with." "It is no longer an issue." "Bring it up is pointless." "Beating myself up is pointless."

"Beating others up about who and what they are not is going in the wrong direction. It is working against the purpose of God. God is not interested in shaming people; God wants people to see who they really are."

"Let us live up to what we have already attained." "I am not who I was." "You are not who you were." "Old person going away, new person here, now." "Reborn, rebirthed, remade, reconciled, renewed." "Jesus put it this way. "You are in me and I am in you." Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

What is so shocking to me is that I now agree with the Bible and its teachings.  I no longer feel so repelled by it.  I was repulsed and nauseated by the way the FALC used its words…and/or the teachings of Jesus and kept wiping the pedophiles clean.

It wasn't teaching the worthiness of innocence.

It wasn't teaching we are holy.

It was completely the opposite….to the point that evil is treated better than good folks.

I know as shocking as Rob Bell is to many, it is only because you have believed and bought into your own unworthiness and wretched sinning value….AND, that the church is there to save you….so when you die, you find Heaven.

I found Heaven on earth, by leaving the church, and walking away from people who didn't value me.