Did I see that someone here goes to Rob Bell’s church? If so, please email me privately. Someone needs to talk to you……TY
RAbane

P.S. Sorry to use this post for the question, but time is essential and I didn’t know a quicker way to do this…..

RA

Great post Eugene!! I discovered Mark’s sermon a few month’s back, and linked it in a comment….It might be this sermon ( he’s spoken 2x at Pipers confrences),the full sermon is well worth a listen ..

doesn’t “DG” stand for “Desiring God”?

I thought PB was “fasting” from this site?
Or wasn’t Thurstin doing a good enough job?

I think the rose thing is sensationalism, a gimmick, and detracts from sola scriptura. It’s something a seeker church would do.

The evnt we commemorate today caught me unawares in 1975. I had grown up ina Lutheran church with my mother as choir director. I attended catechism for three years and was confirmed as a believing member when I was 13 or 14 years old. I was profoundly lost.

To say I was a used rose would be demeaning to used roses. I was a disgusting rebel who set about to expand the boundaries of personal hedonism. I resist revealing the extent of my drug and alcohol use but suffice to say I am fortunate to be alive. Not content with consumption I sold drugs into the high school at age 20 through my senior high girl friend.

At 6′4″ and 220 pounds I was violent and intimidated everyone I could and rode my van and/or motorcycle through the community recognized by friend and foe alike. I have a police record as well.

So during a street fight I was seriously injured and had to lay up at my aunt’s house to heal. It was there I saw Billy Graham on TV and in March of 1975 I was saved by God’s grace. When I returned to the community to face some lingering charges against me the entire courtroom was mezmerized at my appearance.

No longer the biker look, I now looked like some choir boy. By some miracle I was acquited of these last charges, and I went to one of my former friend’s apartment where about 10 of my friends gathered to drink beer and smoke pot. In that setting I shared my faith and having been the absolute ringleader they all listened intently to my story.

I pleaded with them to invetigate Jesus Christ apart from formal religion and see if He is the way to life eternal and abundant. Later on several of my friends came to Christ while others went to jail or even died.

I cannot fully project in words the change that God brought in my life. Words fail to showcase the work of the Spirit. But I was a rose with no petals and with a broken stem. But even though I do not observe days, today most of the Christian world commemorates an event that saved my life forever.

I must testify of the saving power of that cross. Argue all you want about this view or that view, but a profound sinner like me knew nothing of those arguments, all I knew was that Jesus was God’s Son and He died for my sins. I have preached about that cross, I have shared about that cross, I have written about that cross, and I have read about that cross, and it has never lost its newness, its lusture to me.

I have nothing but that cross and its captive. All my so called literary prowess is just worthless bluster compared to the Christ and His cross. I stand naked of any good works against the work of that cross. I cannot but speak of that which reached down and rescued a rebel like me and allowed me to even speak of Him.

I would not desire Charles Manson to speak well of me, and yet Jesus allows me, and is pleased to hear me speak well of Him. It is a spiritual dream to imagine who I was and who I am, and sometimes it would do us all well to take a respite from all the doctrinal squabbles and return to that simple day when God found us.

Call me what you will, point out my many compromises, identfy my living inconsistencies, accuse my falsely and accuse my rightly of sin, to it all I embrace my guilt as I embrace my Savior. Today is the day in which I will live forever.

May the Lamb that was slain receive the rewards of His suffering!!!

Jerry,

I think PB echoed the point of the video. Every time I see a post by PB I expect it to be condescending, judgmental, and sensationalist – but this time I think he meant to agree with the OP.