It shouldn't be news to anyone that there's a lot of contention in our country right now. There are a number of angry people to be found and conversely there are a number of jubilant people to be found wherever you look. Whether you're angry or jubilant could easily depend on which side of the current issues you're on. As for myself, I belong to yet another group (on the other hand, maybe the three of us are just standing out in the field alone - me, myself and I) - I like to think of it as the "group seeing signs of the season" . It's not that I don't have personal preferences or feelings about the issues at hand. I do, but I'm trusting in the God who reigns above it all. For example, I wish that homosexuality wasn't an issue in our country. But it is and like so many other sins (yes! I said the S_ _ word), it exists in defiance of what our God has taught and told us. So many of us aren't happy about it. But if you're a member of this unhappy group, I'm wondering if you've taken a minute to define for yourself exactly what the reasons for your unhappiness are. I would quickly acknowledge that there could easily be a few, but when you boil it all down to the leading most basic reason, what would that reason be?
As laws regarding homosexuality's legality are being discussed, I personally believe that we should be weighing in. But once adopted as man's law, in reality we still have no less personal choices given us by our God and it's His laws that we have to observe most highly. For myself, after boiling it down in my own mind and sorting through the various possibilities of the basic source of my own displeasure, I came to a conclusion. I came to the conclusion that I believe that I know what my primary objection should be and it's this: sin has a price and people will suffer because of it. I came to this after thinking about Christ's spirit and His heart for the people that He sacrificed Himself to save. So I'm thinking that above anything else, this should be the basic root of my passion against it. I further determined for myself that if it's not, ... I may not be thinking with the mind of Christ.
The declarations regarding what constitutes marriage and sin weren't made by any mortal man, but by a sovereign God and He (certainly not me) will be the only righteous judge. As such they're not subject to man's motivations to deceptively try to change the list. So if calling homosexuality a sin or the definition of marriage is offensive, I would suggest that complainants should direct their objections to Him. But I wouldn't stake my life on changing His mind because the odds of winning that case are against them - it's not going to happen. He hasn't changed from before time so why would we think His definition of anything has changed? Many societies have come and gone - they're continually changing, but He doesn't. He is continually righteous and just regardless of man's moral flailing about. Personally, I adhere to His definitions even if that means I'm out of step or have failed in my own life - and I admit to both. I have sinned in my lifetime.
I'm not happy that people in the world are offended by what is declared to be sin. I would much prefer that they embraced God's perspective and live flourishing according to His positive ways. Our God's perspective is the truth of what exists and how this life is lived to the fullest - really. I would much prefer that all people listened to our Creator, gladly accepted His declarations and that we all worked together living in obedience to Him. But that's not the way it is and in honest truth, my own obedience has suffered more "technical difficulties" than I care to try to think about - which is why I'm so deeply grateful to my Savior. The choice of those who choose not to live by our God's wisdom was given to them by Him. Though it may make us cringe and even deeply sad to see defiance toward our Creator, He gave them the right to make that choice. Our compassion for them, the positive hope we have for the future through Christ and the humility of our own lives should be the spirit of our appeal to them - not anger.
If I declared that my passion against homosexuality were in defense of my God (who will powerfully defend His own reputation in the end), or that I am as a person any better than those who are guilty of homosexuality because I'm not a homosexual ... then I would be a hypocrite. The non-Christians of the world have been calling us Jesus followers hypocrites with a reasonable amount of accuracy at times, for a very long time. The only real problem with that in my opinion has been our reluctance to admit that it's true. I don't believe that there is a one of us that could stand before our God on our own merit without Christ's grace to have covered our eternally fatal debt. In addition to that, unless my passion against homosexuality is equally inflamed against lying, cheating, adultery, murder, the neglect of the widowed, the sick and the poor, and anything else the Lord has spoken against (however common among men it may be) ... I am exactly ... a hypocrite. I'm certainly not contesting God's declaration that it's a detestable sin - but it's not the only one. This begins in my mind, to point to where the real battle is ...
James 2:10 (NLT) tells us that: "the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as the person who has broken all of God's laws". Now, couple that with Paul's statement in Romans 3:23 (NLT); "For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard" and you come pretty quickly to the realization that we're all burnt toast except for one thing: Jesus. He's the only thing standing between any one of us and a permanent future reality that none of us want to consider. Bring on the wave of grateful humility for Christ's saving grace ...
Jesus' anger was not displayed against all of the sinners He encountered when He walked the earth (which He did in part to give us the example we are to try to follow). His related anger or disgust was primarily against those who made a spectacle of declaring that they followed God and deemed themselves to be righteous while sinning in their hearts against the very spirit of the God they claimed to serve. Jesus' demeanor and passion for the sinning rest ... was compassion and a desire to forgive. So if I am to "follow" Christ, then what choice do I have than to "follow" His example? Emotions, thoughts and values that don't match up to my God's sometimes provide a field of battle in my own heart and mind regarding the things that I encounter in this life...
My reference to the "group seeing the signs of the season" in my previous comments comes with our God's plan, satan's plan and Jesus' own words regarding the end times in mind. If by some chance you're reading this and you're unfamiliar with God's plan, you can find much regarding this in the book of Romans chapters 7 & 8 as well as other places throughout the New Testament. Jesus' foretelling of the signs of the end of times is easily found in Matthew chapter 24 and if you're unfamiliar with it, I urge you to get familiar. I'm personally comfortable that we're seeing it start to play out before us. Mind you I cannot say when the end will come - I don't know that. Jesus said that only the Father knows when the end will come. But Jesus did talk about reading the accompanying signs and about what we would see in those days. It appears to my humble and not infallible mind that the stage is set, the acting parties are in place and the show has started with many still unaware extras wandering around on the set. So I'm not totally surprised by what I'm seeing in the world today. My hope and my resultant peace are in my omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God.
We as followers of Christ in this day have a successful plan for this life and a vision of its promise (the latter in its appeal to our desire becomes our goal). Both have been given to us lovingly and knowingly by our Creator who established the plan to navigate this path we momentarily call life and who also determined the rules and boundaries that govern it. They chart the successful course to navigate this life that He created for us. They've been recorded and reported by those who were witnesses to the many parts of its delivery and it's only fully captured by us now by ingesting it wholly from beginning to end and allowing it to truly become our understanding of what actually exists. Without absorbing it from cover to cover in its completeness it becomes a fragmented plan and the hope of realizing the full wealth of its accompanying vision suffers accordingly. The choice to walk that path and reap the positive benefits of it is ours to make.
In addition to what was previously known of Our God's instruction and heart at the time, Jesus came not only to pay our debt, but also to give us an example to follow. The nature of His spirit, His priorities and His deeds in action laid the foundation by example for a course that would allow we who "follow Christ" as "Christians" to follow successfully. Actively following in submission becomes an active transformation and growth - daily addressing the issues that He brings to our attention from our hearts and minds - things that are out of step with His own spirit and the example that He gave us to follow. I know personally that however far I've come, I still have a long way to go to perfectly emulate Christ's beautiful spirit. But the journey with Him is in itself a deeply rewarding experience.
Beyond the things that we wrestle and battle with in our own hearts and minds, we can't forget that the real battle isn't fought with the people in front of us - whoever they might be. The real battle is even closer to us than they are. It's the battle for our hearts and minds and for those of the people in front of us and it's waged by forces that aren't even human.
He who both created and then demonstrated the course ... surely knows the way...
As laws regarding homosexuality's legality are being discussed, I personally believe that we should be weighing in. But once adopted as man's law, in reality we still have no less personal choices given us by our God and it's His laws that we have to observe most highly. For myself, after boiling it down in my own mind and sorting through the various possibilities of the basic source of my own displeasure, I came to a conclusion. I came to the conclusion that I believe that I know what my primary objection should be and it's this: sin has a price and people will suffer because of it. I came to this after thinking about Christ's spirit and His heart for the people that He sacrificed Himself to save. So I'm thinking that above anything else, this should be the basic root of my passion against it. I further determined for myself that if it's not, ... I may not be thinking with the mind of Christ.
The declarations regarding what constitutes marriage and sin weren't made by any mortal man, but by a sovereign God and He (certainly not me) will be the only righteous judge. As such they're not subject to man's motivations to deceptively try to change the list. So if calling homosexuality a sin or the definition of marriage is offensive, I would suggest that complainants should direct their objections to Him. But I wouldn't stake my life on changing His mind because the odds of winning that case are against them - it's not going to happen. He hasn't changed from before time so why would we think His definition of anything has changed? Many societies have come and gone - they're continually changing, but He doesn't. He is continually righteous and just regardless of man's moral flailing about. Personally, I adhere to His definitions even if that means I'm out of step or have failed in my own life - and I admit to both. I have sinned in my lifetime.
I'm not happy that people in the world are offended by what is declared to be sin. I would much prefer that they embraced God's perspective and live flourishing according to His positive ways. Our God's perspective is the truth of what exists and how this life is lived to the fullest - really. I would much prefer that all people listened to our Creator, gladly accepted His declarations and that we all worked together living in obedience to Him. But that's not the way it is and in honest truth, my own obedience has suffered more "technical difficulties" than I care to try to think about - which is why I'm so deeply grateful to my Savior. The choice of those who choose not to live by our God's wisdom was given to them by Him. Though it may make us cringe and even deeply sad to see defiance toward our Creator, He gave them the right to make that choice. Our compassion for them, the positive hope we have for the future through Christ and the humility of our own lives should be the spirit of our appeal to them - not anger.
If I declared that my passion against homosexuality were in defense of my God (who will powerfully defend His own reputation in the end), or that I am as a person any better than those who are guilty of homosexuality because I'm not a homosexual ... then I would be a hypocrite. The non-Christians of the world have been calling us Jesus followers hypocrites with a reasonable amount of accuracy at times, for a very long time. The only real problem with that in my opinion has been our reluctance to admit that it's true. I don't believe that there is a one of us that could stand before our God on our own merit without Christ's grace to have covered our eternally fatal debt. In addition to that, unless my passion against homosexuality is equally inflamed against lying, cheating, adultery, murder, the neglect of the widowed, the sick and the poor, and anything else the Lord has spoken against (however common among men it may be) ... I am exactly ... a hypocrite. I'm certainly not contesting God's declaration that it's a detestable sin - but it's not the only one. This begins in my mind, to point to where the real battle is ...
James 2:10 (NLT) tells us that: "the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as the person who has broken all of God's laws". Now, couple that with Paul's statement in Romans 3:23 (NLT); "For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard" and you come pretty quickly to the realization that we're all burnt toast except for one thing: Jesus. He's the only thing standing between any one of us and a permanent future reality that none of us want to consider. Bring on the wave of grateful humility for Christ's saving grace ...
Jesus' anger was not displayed against all of the sinners He encountered when He walked the earth (which He did in part to give us the example we are to try to follow). His related anger or disgust was primarily against those who made a spectacle of declaring that they followed God and deemed themselves to be righteous while sinning in their hearts against the very spirit of the God they claimed to serve. Jesus' demeanor and passion for the sinning rest ... was compassion and a desire to forgive. So if I am to "follow" Christ, then what choice do I have than to "follow" His example? Emotions, thoughts and values that don't match up to my God's sometimes provide a field of battle in my own heart and mind regarding the things that I encounter in this life...
My reference to the "group seeing the signs of the season" in my previous comments comes with our God's plan, satan's plan and Jesus' own words regarding the end times in mind. If by some chance you're reading this and you're unfamiliar with God's plan, you can find much regarding this in the book of Romans chapters 7 & 8 as well as other places throughout the New Testament. Jesus' foretelling of the signs of the end of times is easily found in Matthew chapter 24 and if you're unfamiliar with it, I urge you to get familiar. I'm personally comfortable that we're seeing it start to play out before us. Mind you I cannot say when the end will come - I don't know that. Jesus said that only the Father knows when the end will come. But Jesus did talk about reading the accompanying signs and about what we would see in those days. It appears to my humble and not infallible mind that the stage is set, the acting parties are in place and the show has started with many still unaware extras wandering around on the set. So I'm not totally surprised by what I'm seeing in the world today. My hope and my resultant peace are in my omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God.
We as followers of Christ in this day have a successful plan for this life and a vision of its promise (the latter in its appeal to our desire becomes our goal). Both have been given to us lovingly and knowingly by our Creator who established the plan to navigate this path we momentarily call life and who also determined the rules and boundaries that govern it. They chart the successful course to navigate this life that He created for us. They've been recorded and reported by those who were witnesses to the many parts of its delivery and it's only fully captured by us now by ingesting it wholly from beginning to end and allowing it to truly become our understanding of what actually exists. Without absorbing it from cover to cover in its completeness it becomes a fragmented plan and the hope of realizing the full wealth of its accompanying vision suffers accordingly. The choice to walk that path and reap the positive benefits of it is ours to make.
In addition to what was previously known of Our God's instruction and heart at the time, Jesus came not only to pay our debt, but also to give us an example to follow. The nature of His spirit, His priorities and His deeds in action laid the foundation by example for a course that would allow we who "follow Christ" as "Christians" to follow successfully. Actively following in submission becomes an active transformation and growth - daily addressing the issues that He brings to our attention from our hearts and minds - things that are out of step with His own spirit and the example that He gave us to follow. I know personally that however far I've come, I still have a long way to go to perfectly emulate Christ's beautiful spirit. But the journey with Him is in itself a deeply rewarding experience.
Beyond the things that we wrestle and battle with in our own hearts and minds, we can't forget that the real battle isn't fought with the people in front of us - whoever they might be. The real battle is even closer to us than they are. It's the battle for our hearts and minds and for those of the people in front of us and it's waged by forces that aren't even human.
Ephesians 6:12 (NLT) "For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms."
He who both created and then demonstrated the course ... surely knows the way...
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