Selling Water By the River

For the next weeks I plan to post quotes from Shane Hipps' book, Selling Water By the River, (here) a book about the life Jesus promised and the religion that gets in the way.

Shane Hipps has served at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI, and as pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church in Phoenix, AZ. He is a graduate of Fuller Seminary and writes and speaks about the effects of technology on faith.

The summary on the book jacket says of this book: "Work, sex, ice cream, religion - they all promise fulfillment. But what they deliver is fleeting...We want something that lasts, that doesn't rise and fall with the fate of the stock market. Jesus understood this quest. He came to show us that peace is possible in this life, not just the next one. Yet Christianity, the very religion that claims Jesus as its own, has often built the biggest barriers to him and the life he promised."

In this book Shane Hipps shows how available the water of life is; it's a river available to all, but we build our institutions next to the river to sell the water. In so doing, we often create hindrances for people to get to directly to the river of life, Jesus.

"...problematic are the beliefs we are taught to adopt that truncate our imagination of God...Then there is...fear. Fear is one of the great barriers to this river...Ironically, religious Christianity is often the purveyor of the very beliefs and fears that get in the way of the water.

"...What we believe matters, but not for the reasons we may assume. Our beliefs (or lack of beliefs) do not qualify or disqualify us from the river. Instead, they determine how clearly we will see the river...Some beliefs clear the way and give us high visibility, while others create a thick fog..."