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Friday, October 10, 2014

Ah Hah Moment

I've been long frustrated with younger Christians dancing...or worse...with the issue of homosexuality.

I have wondered, "Why?"

Is it "just" because they now know friends, relatives etc who are "out-of-the-closet"? Is it "just" because the issue is no longer academic, but personal?

That's certainly a contributing factor (and not only for younger Christians; for instance the seminary prof who used to label homosexual behavior a sin, until his son "came out"...and then the professor wrote a book stating he was "wrong" and that such activity was now okay).

But something happened today that gave me pause, and perhaps is an "ah hah!" moment...

In another discussion a 20-something Christian rebutted an article I posted that linked premarital sex with a "loss" of faith by saying out-of-wedlock-sexually-active young people are not abandoning their faith, but don't want to come to church to be "shamed."

Hmmm.

Is it possible that, consciously or not, some Christians who have been involved in premarital sex are dancing with homosexuality because...golly gee, if homosexual behavior is okay than certainly premarital sex is okay? Not "just" in theory, but my premarital sexual activity?

I don't want to paint with a broad brush...but I think I'm on to something here.

And it's not good.

Because, among other reasons, if homosexuality...if premarital sex...is okay, than certainly extramarital sex must be okay also...

As far as "shame" is concerned; it should never be the goal of anyone to merely shame someone; but it is certainly okay to be ashamed...and if the Lord uses His Word to bring me to shame and repentance...thanks be to God.

As I told the young lady, if a preacher refuses to speak truth because it might make someone "ashamed" or "feel bad," he has become a motivational speaker; not a proclaimer of Go'ds truth.

Much of this brings to mind Jeremiah 6.15:

Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
    at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord


"Did not know how to blush" reads the e.s.v.; some translations read "They have forgotten how to blush..."

If conviction leads to shame alone, mores the pity; but if conviction leads to shame which births repentance...thank You, Holy Spirit...


Thursday, October 9, 2014

The Times They're Not a Changin'

This quote is from 1994....not much has changed in two decades:

"The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is not inadequate technique, insufficient organization, or antiquated music and those who want to squander the church’s resources bandaging these scratches will do nothing to staunch the flow of blood that is spilling from its wounds. The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, His grace too ordinary, His judgment too benign, His gospel too easy, and His Christ is too common."
 
David Wells
God in the Wasteland, Eerdmans, 1994, p. 30.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Rosie Cover Up?

Rosie O'Donnell made some pretty ridiculous comments (you should recall that she is one of the flakes who early and often theorized that Bush was involved in the 9/11 attacks) on the program she cohosts, "The View", yesterday. (Read more if you dare by CLICKING HERE.

In the midst of the stupidity she says this:

Here's my point as a mom: I think you can never do anything to kill an innocent child. That's what I think, a child that's alive. Adults do horrible things to each other, but once you drop a bomb and kill a baby, I'm sorry. It's over for me. I know what those people did in those planes were horrific. But I don't think by killing each other we're going to solve the world's problems. 

Did you catch it?

"I think you can never do anything to kill an innocent child."

Then it's like she realizes what she has said, so apparently tries to clean it up by continuing, 

"That's what I think, a child that's alive."

See?

She says nothing should ever kill an innocent child...but then it seems to me she realizes she has just uttered a pro life phrase, so she sanitizes it (in her mind) by saying "a child that's alive."

Whether it's a bomb or a surgeon, the death of an innocent child in the womb is horrific.

If you consider that child to be alive.



Friday, October 3, 2014

Read It Before CHRISTmas...

I rarely read books more than once. (although at my age I may be so doing without knowing it)

Unbroken is an exception.

When I read it was being made into a movie I thought I should read it again...it had been a couple years.

Then when I learned the subject of the book had died, I knew I had to reread it.

Took a while, but I finished it last night.

It is an amazing book (by the author of Seabiscuit) that describes the absolute horribleness of man while also portraying the heroic actions of desperate people.

The book describes the good, the bad, and the ugly about it's "hero."

It reveals God working through a young man named Billy Graham.

It illuminates both a heart consumed with a desire for revenge; and a heart changed into one offering forgiveness.

Have no idea how accurate the movie will be, but here is a trailer that includes the now-deceased hero:



And here is a more, well, dramatic trailer:



I know I won't see it CHRISTmas day...but if there is a late late show I might see it that evening...

As in all my book reviews, if you order it from amazon on the link below, I get a few cents: