Sex.God. – Chapter One: God Wears Lipstick

Genesis 1:27 says God created us "in his own image" thus making us image bearers of our perfect creator. Everybody. Everywhere. We were all created to reflect the image of the one who delicately designed us.

In this chapter, Bell speaks of the "hell on Earth" that comes when people choose to treat God's creation in inhumane ways. This ranges from ignoring the physical needs of others to treating God's creatures as objects [Bell refers to the sexual objectification of women]. Bell argues that our anti-human actions not only degrade and devalue the subject of our abuse but also cause the abuser to lose some of his/her own humanity.

To avoid this, Bell asserts, we must become part of "The New Humanity." No, it's not some creepy cult where you have to wear Nikes and drink Kool-Aid. The New Humanity refers to a mindset where we understand that having been created in God's image, we are more alike than we are different. "The New Humanity is about seeing people as God sees them." It's about realizing that although you may see somone as vastly different from yourself, we are all image bearers of Christ. So, the Jew and the Gentile, the Pastor and Prostitute, the Marine and Iraqi - the humanity that unites them comes from being image bearers of Christ thus making these odd pairs more similiar than different.

The most profound, yet obvious and simple, part of this chapter hit me like a ton of bricks. Bell writes:

"How you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the creator. When a human being is mistreated, objectified, or neglected, when they are treated as less than human, these actions are actions against God. Because how you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the creator."

He goes onto write that "To be a Christian is to work for The New Humanity" and that "A church exists to be a display of The New Humanity."

I am so proud to be a part of a church [C3 Church] that embodies "The New Humanity." A church that is committed to meeting both the spiritual and physical needs of others - because to ignore either is to be anti-human and thus anti-God. A church that recognizes we are all image bearers and embraces the similarities in all of us instead of letting the differences divide us. A church that values the Pastor as much as the Prostitute and the Marine as much as the Iraqi. A church that doesn't discriminate on who is welcome to worship with us and guards against those who try to ruin and discourage "The New Humanity" attitude among us.

Graceful Barbarians. The New Humanity.

Sex.God. – Introduction: This is Really About That

I love it when books are infused with the voice of the author – when they’re written in a conversational style and you feel as though you’re sitting, drinking coffee next the author while having this amazingly articulate conversation. Donald Miller has perfected this, and Rob Bell has done an impeccable job with it so far in Sex.God. He communicates in such an authentic and relatable way, and I dig that.

In this chapter, Bell uses the story of Jacob and Esau to illustrate a point. After deceiving his father and having Esau threaten his life, Jacob flees his home and finds himself helpless and alone. Instead of God abandoning Jacob, God promises to watch over and restore him. Out of gratitude for mercy give him, Jacob builds an altar for God out of rocks. But the altar isn’t just an arrangement of rocks to Jacob. To him, it is so much more. It marks the place where God called him out on his deceptions and instead of leaving him choose to intercede and turn Jacob’s life around.

“They’re rocks, but they’re more than rocks,” Bell states.

He goes on to say how that’s true for us in our lives too. A treasured picture holds much more than the image of what took place in a certain place in time. In our minds it translates to memories, relationships, commitment, love. When a tear rolls down my cheek after stumbling across pictures of an old boyfriend I haven’t quite gotten over, I’m not crying because of the image before me. I’m crying because of what is stirred up within me as a result of that photo. Feelings of nostalgia, rejection, delight, and pain all at the same time. It’s a picture, but it’s more than a picture.

“This is actually about that.”

When exploring human sexuality you have to discuss how we were physically created which leads us to identify and evaluate who it is that created us. And that leads us to God. Sex and God. They’re connected. Imagine that.

“And that is what this book is about.”

A Novel Idea

As a result of growing up without a television for a significant part of my childhood partnered with majoring in English Literature in college, I've read a lot of books in my twenty-two years of existence. Some books have entertained me, while others have had a profound impact on the way I view and live my life. Thinking back to books that have done the latter, I often forget exactly why they meant so much to me or what they taught me. Instead, I just have this general notion of how the book changed my perspective on things. So, in an attempt to avoid such nostalgic ambiguity, I've decided to log my thoughts as I read a few books I've been dying to dive into.

For Christmas I received Sex.God. by Rob Bell and Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller, so I figured those two would be a good place to start. I'll begin with Sex.God. [it is the more enticing title of the two, wouldn't you agree?]. So, feel free to join my little book club of sorts and read along with me, or just read the Cliff's Notes [with commentary from yours truly] via this blog.

Coming Soon: Sex.God. - Introduction: This is Really About That