I'm still confused about the Angel Ashley case - what exactly happened? Can someone simplify it for me?

Agree, sometimes we just have to give up nitpicking. And what you blogged about reminded me about what Paul said about some people during his time preaching out of bad intentions (envy, jealousy, to be more famous). But Paul said, if they can further the mission that we're given by Christ than he'll rejoice.

I don't really 100% love PDL - my main complaint about it is the marketing hoopla around it - but I am glad it could be used to help others.
Messy Christian | Email | Homepage | 2005-03-17 - 02:22 | #

Hey Messy,

There were many news stories that has been published about the case. Perhaps if you googled news items about Ashley Smith you will find the whole story.
As for PDL, like I said, perhaps we can rejoice in the fact that God is using that book as a pre-evangelistic tool to get people to consider why they are here and what claims their Creator has over their lives, rather than nitpick as you say over what it says and how it says it. And, the marketing hoopla probably cannot be avoided if the aim is to get it out there widely. The great news is that it is a powerful message allows the public to consider the message of the Bible without feeling threatened by religious overtones. Perhaps that is one way for the Spirit to work in some people. Christians should pray that this book gets read by as many people as possible and pray that God will work through the book, but we also ought not stop other ways of evangelization as well. We ought to view it as only one way of evangelization. In fact, it might only be a pre-evangelization tool. God works differently with different people I believe.
TheBloke...IntheOuter | Email | Homepage | 2005-03-17 - 08:00 | #

Amen to everything you said about the Purpose Driven Life. I'm not a great theologian, but a passionate Christian: I'm just over half way through the book and I wouldn't say it has transformed me, but has certainly helped me immensely. I will be reading it again (and more slowly) in a few months time. I recommend it highly!

Rich
EasyRew | Email | Homepage | 2005-03-17 - 15:03 | #

Isn't it fascinating when people are amazed by Christians showing compassion? Is the irony lost on everybody but me?

I'm with you on the PDL - I had my own little meltdown about folks in my denomination talking trash about it over here - check it out. What it evidently comes down to is either (a) "the book is pushing theology contrary to my own, which needs to be called out (because of course, ours is right)" or (b) "we're jealous because somehow he's gotten 20 million people to buy his book, and we can't get people out of bed on Sunday." I may be cynical about this (naw...I *am* cynical about this) but, as I said in my post, the opposite of "faithful" is not "successful."
Steve F. | Email | Homepage | 2005-03-18 - 06:15 | #

Thanks Rich for your comments and Steve, I went to your site and read your post. Great post! I agree with your sentiments.
TheBloke...IntheOuter | Email | Homepage | 2005-03-18 - 10:07 | #