Part of my weekly routine is listening to the latest sermon from Mars Hill each week while I'm running. Like I've mentioned before, I really get a lot out of it, and I draw from what I've learned in other areas—my sunday school class, summer camps, etc. Part of the problem is that I hear it while running and can't capture what I'm thinking. I'm going to try to start blogging about them and taking better notes, so that when I think of an issue, I can refer back to it. This would be a good time to plug having a "trusted system" (Getting Things Done term) for keeping up with notes about projects, life, ideas, important information, etc. I use Yojimbo as my database of information. Whenever I see something online that is a good idea or a good thought that I might use someday, I capture it into Yojimbo and tag it. Could be a hint on how to do something, a recipe, a quote, my car tag number, my IRA account number, a bookmark to a site that I won't need except for when I have a specific project that I'm working on, etc. I run another program called Webjimbo that lets me access that stuff via a web browser from anywhere in the world, and even better—on my iPhone. On to the real point of this message.

Philippians 2
1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

This was a great message that talked about unity in Christ. One might imagine that it was at least somewhat aimed at what CRNinfo calls the ODMs, the online discernment ministries. Just Google Rob Bell's name and you'll get plenty of bile spewed forth about him being a heretic, etc., from a lot of fundamentalists, etc. Sometimes this bothers me. I listen to his sermons and think, wow this is so great, so thought-provoking. This message has really helped me understand God in a deeper way. And then I read of people online not feeling that way at all and it makes me wonder, "what am I missing here?" But in praying it over, the Holy Spirit reminded me of John 15:1-17: in other words, where do you see the fruit? I have seen a lot of fruit in my life over the last year or so since I've been listening to Rob Bell's sermons each week and learning more and more about Judaism and how it helps us understand Jesus as a first century Jewish rabbi.

The crux of the message is that we're going to have different opinions and interpretations. But there's something bigger going on than our differences... He shared that Robert Winslow had done a study about house churches and that people tended to leave those groups when they found out that their interpretation of scripture differed from their own. Very true. In looking for a church to attend, I have paid a lot of attention to the differences between what I believe and what they believe. Mainly because I want my daughter to be raised in an environment where she is taught the interpretations that I hold to be true. But what Bell is talking about here is more than just biting your tongue, it's about us having a church where we can be together and still disagree on some issues. He talks about us deciding to start with Jesus: "an we agree that the body of Christ was broken and His blood was spilled out for the healing of the world? Can we agree on that? Can we?" Paul isn't saying that we have to agree on everything.

Romans 14:
1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. 11It is written:
" 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
'every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.' "[a] 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. 14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food[b] is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. 16Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by me.

All of that has a heavy influence on my view of alcohol and wine, exactly the point I was trying to make when I was having the argument with our speaker from the Encounter weekend last year. There are things that are not a sin for me that are a sin for you, and vice versa. Let's stop passing judgment on one another and not look down on one another. Bart Campolo made a great point about this very issue when he shared a story about a friend who became a Christian and gave up cards, because she was told that card are of the devil. That included UNO. He was saying that he believed that God would honor that because it was done in the right spirit, even though he didn't agree with it. He felt like God would be pleased.