Loving people before you approve

I’ll spare you a second straight post on love tomorrow, but let’s start preparing for the Love Wins study with some simple discussion!

Everyone wants to be approved (loved). Some people just want a few people to appreciate them, and some believe the world should appreciate them. Instead of loving their enemies, they expect everyone (including their enemies) to love them. We all receive love in different ways, but I haven’t met a person yet that can live a life void of love. Some sure are good at faking it though!

Digital Disciples need to be loved, don’t we? But the question I have to ask myself is, as a Digital Disciple living part of my life online, how do I love people as myself like Christ requires us to do in Matthew 22:39? Am I expecting people to love me before loving them? How exactly do we show each other love online? That sure seems like a strange, but difficult question!

Could I hop over to your blog or one of your social networking accounts and tell you that I love you without that seeming flat out odd? I don’t believe that would be necessary, thanks to 1 John 3:18 for clearing that up for us. Do I need to approve of every one of your blog posts or status updates before responding? I’m thankful for the privilege of getting to know each of you in a deeper way through stuff like this. Can love really win online? I think so! Let’s keep it simple and share a way or two that we’ve felt loved online by our peers? Or maybe a way that we’ve felt the opposite / rejected?

Why label Rob Bell?

Love wins. That’s the point Rob Bell will be trying to make in a few weeks when his latest book hits shelves. After hearing what he’s said in the video trailer below, some (most notoriously in a tweet by John Piper) have rushed to judgment and already gave him two thumbs down. He’s been labeled a universalist. As Christ-followers do we really have to choose to follow Bell or Piper?

We’ll chat more later about Ghandi (who Rob quotes in the video below) and his famous quote. He asks really good questions in the video, and hopefully he provides as many good answers in the book. What we (at least I) won’t do here is rush to judgment before hearing / reading Bell out. Hollywood should hire Rob to make trailers for their movies, that’s one thing I know I’m certain of. Tell me you don’t want to read the book after watching the video below?

Before the book comes out I’d like to take a few days here (while mixing in some Digital Disciples profiles) and talk about love. On March 14th, the night before the book does come out, come hang out with the rest of us and watch him taking questions on Livestream. Once the book comes out, I’d like for a group of us to share in a weekly read-along, starting the first week of April (sharing our blog posts or comments). If you’re up for that, please pre-order the pbysical book or Kindle version (releases 3/15, already at #13 ranking) and let me know in a comment below. I’d definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts around this / the video too!

Pausing to hear from God

We’d love to still have Digital Disciples apply and share what God’s doing through them here on the blog, but I’ve really been struggling with whether or not God wants that to be “the only thing” that happens here every day. I’ve enjoyed hearing from people as much as you have, but I’ve also missed the opportunity of growing closer to God together……something that I believe is a challenge for creatives / techies like myself (and maybe you or those you’ve seen listed here).

I think we have a great thing going by connecting with new people, and it’s my prayer that more continue to come. But it’s not about numbers, it’s about God just being able to speak into lives through those that enjoy what you might enjoy or might live near you. But where are we all headed? Is this just a blog, or is God really up to something here? I think this is just the beginning of a movement. I sense that God is up to something, but I sense that He wants to speak to us here. I believe He’ll speak to people for the first time here.

Today’s the first day we’re not highlighting “one of us” since we launched our new site on 1/1/10. Nothing’s wrong with standing on our soapbox when God wants us to be in the light, but it’s time to dig deeper. This is as much about what God is doing in you as it is what He is doing in me. What are your thoughts about us occasionally asking deeper questions or cracking open God’s Word here on Digital Disciples? Do you have some topics that you’d like us to discuss here…..some that might lead to more Studies for our local gatherings to use as they start meeting up?

Launch of new website

After completing the 1 Photo Per Day commitment for the year of 2010, I kept asking myself what I needed to be more dedicated to in 2011. The Digital Disciples network has been around for around 18 months, but I’ve been the only roadblock to what God wants to do with / through it. So here we go!

I thought about just leaving our old / lame website alone and update friends about Digital Disciples through my personal blog more frequently, but I just felt that that wasn’t a big enough commitment. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God wants to begin a movement across the globe through this network…….so I’m dedicating myself to the network alone in 2011.

Every day I am going to let this site put the spotlight on what God is doing through another Digital Disciple that He lets me come in contact with. Initially we wanted to start our own “social network” on a small scale, but I don’t really see the point of that. I long for meeting new Digital Disciples and hearing what God is up to in their lives. If they somehow decide to either join / help create a monthly meetup in their city GREAT. But at least I can live another day in 2011 knowing that God has the freedom of speaking to us all through the lives of fellow Digital Disciples!

I’ll be sending out personal invitations to those I know are already interested in the movement / would probably want to be featured for a day here. If we haven’t met or I haven’t sent one to you yet, feel free to visit this link to submit your details to be featured. Oh yeah….be sure to join up with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Also be sure to subscribe to the blog (see right panel), since we’ll be starting to lay the foundation of the network these next few months. Our goal this week is to start listing the Daily Digital Disciple articles and to launch our weekly live chats on Thursday evenings at 9pm EST (LIVE link will be in menu above then). What do you think about this? Are you as pumped as I am?