the gate

it is a shame that there is such a push in our country to violate the sanctity marriage.  in fact, marriage is being threatened even from within the walls of the Church, which bothers me even more.  i expect the world to push the boundaries of sin, but not the Church.  we’re supposed to defend the Scriptures, right?

marriage is an amazing and beautiful thing, and it is a union that is blessed by God Himself.  He ordained it, He stands behind it and it should not be tampered with.  furthermore, He couldn’t think of a better way to describe the relationship of Jesus to His Church than to use the relationship of marriage.

so why are there so many within the Church that are trying to harm it, supporting bogus teachings about marriage that are nothing more than lies from the devil himself.  the very foundation of the Church is being modified by these acts, not because they are heresies about God, but because we are slowly choosing to allow what we think about marriage to be shaped by the thoughts of our cullture and not by the Scriptures.

and that is why i chose to write on this subject.  it know it’s difficult and controversial, a hot item among God’s people.  and most of us know someone who is on the wrong side of the Scripture regarding marriage.  it should touch us all.

so next time you have an opportunity, stand in defense of the Scriptures and of marriage.  when someone asks you what you think about the subject, be courageous and speak the truth as told by God.  when asked what the Scripture teaches, don’t beat around the bush or make excuses for it.  just say it.

“God hates divorce”.

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1 thessalonians 4:30-33:  what shall we say then? that Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. why? because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. they stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “BEHOLD , I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

it’s a little difficult for me to think of Jesus as a stumbling block.  but here it is, plain as day.  it goes hand in hand with Jesus’ teachings on how He would turn son against father in matthew chapter 10.  it’s almost counter-intuitive given what we know about God.

but i think this particular teaching is a lot like peter walking on water.  peter was fine as long as he was focused on Jesus.  as soon as he took his eyes off of Him and placed them on the water, physics took over.

jesus is only a stumbling block if our focus is in the wrong place.

is the Law bad?  did God get it wrong when he penned the Law through his prophets?  did He regret His teachings and admit that somehow the wisest being ever to have existed, the alpha and omega and creator of our universe, made a mistake?

nope.  the Law is and always will be God’s words, and furthermore, His truth and wisdom.  the reason that Jesus is ever a stumbling block is that we have our eyes fixed in the wrong place.  we can look at the Law without any understanding of faith, and suddenly we trip over Jesus.  but when we look at the Law through the eyes of faith, suddenly we walk on water like Peter did.

why did Israel fail?  was it that they had bad information?  no.  it was because they did not pursue the Law through faith.

we should all be striving to live lives worthy of our calling as adopted sons and daughters, but it must be through faith and not law.  otherwise, we’ll fall flat on our face having tripped over Jesus Himself.

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“every other power is either fraudulent or subordinate.” love that line…

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There is an oft-neglected principle taught in the New Testament. I call it the principle of “graduated responsibility.” This principle is taught by Jesus in Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (NIV).

This saying is part of the parable of the faithful steward. It underscores the terms of the judgment the lord in the parable renders to his servants. The punishment meted out is given in direct proportion to the prior knowledge each servant had:

“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.” (vv. 47-48, NIV)

Here we see that judgment and punishment are rendered according to knowledge as well as action. The greater the knowledge, the greater the accountability.

Are you a faithful steward over all that God has entrusted to you?

For Further Study

Luke 12:47-48: “And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”

1 Corinthians 4:2: “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” 

– R.C. Sproul - Accepting Graduated Responsibility

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i’ve always thought that is we took the Law and Grace side by side and voted to see which life is harder, i would vote for grace.  i’m not referring to salvation necessarily, because fulfilling the Law to “earn” salvation is not just hard but impossible.  but in the sense of “lifestyle” for lack of better terms, i think grace is much harder.

see, with the Law, we had clearly drawn out rules and expectations that we could enumerate and follow.  for example:

• do not murder - pretty easy (for me at least)
• observe the sabbath - pull up your bark-o-lounger (sp?) and a coke and watch football all day.  what a sacrifice…
• give a tithe of your money to the Lord - grab your calculator and checkbook, not too hard

however, with grace, we have to listen to the Holy Spirit.  we have to consider our character and our values and what is truly important to us.  consider the opposite of the above passages:

• do not be angry at your brother - not so easy is it?
• live in community and fellowship with your brothers and sisters - that can get messy and difficult, right?
• give generously - i don’t necessarily consider 10% generous, it’s more like a calculated expenditure

in 2 corinthians chapter 8 paul teaches the Church about giving generously.  he uses the example of the macedonian churches that “in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality”.  they gave “according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord”.  and trip on this:  “…begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints”.

i’m pretty sure that the macedonian churches had moved on from the tithe at this point.  they were looking for ways to use their earthly resources to support the work of the Gospel and to support the saints.

paul uses a reference to the days in the wilderness where He fed His people with manna in v15 as if to remind them that the Lord will provide for them.

we shouldn’t be storing up our treasures here on this earth.  that stuff rots by morning.  but we should be living in a way that allows God to give us our daily bread, figuratively and literally.

i’m not speaking against all posessions necessarily, i own a house myself.  but our value to support the Gospel work and the saints is evident in how we choose to spend our money.

in v8 paul says “i am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also”.  how we use our money says alot about what is truly important to us.

giving according to the Law = not so hard.  giving generously according to grace = not so easy.

where are your treasures stored?

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what is the criteria for mercy?  do we need to ask for it?  do we need to deserve it?  do we need to have remorse for our offense?

last thursday, famed member of the “manson family” and cold blooded murderer of sharon tate and her unborn baby (among others) was denied parole yet again, close to 40 years after her conviction.  this time, her case was one of medical mercy as she is dying in a bed from brain cancer, a paralyzed amputee.  she will die very soon it seems.  all she wants to do is die somewhere other than prison.

lemme start off with a susan atkins quote.  speaking of sharone tate, atkins says:

“She asked me to let her baby live,” Atkins said. “I told her I didn’t have mercy for her.”

suffice to say that this woman is cold, evil, and showed no mercy to sharon tate and her baby.  so does she deserve mercy?

i think to begin with, we cannot speak the words “deserve” and “mercy” in the same sentence.  mercy is never deserved, it is granted.  it does not require us to even want or request it.  mercy lies solely in the giver.

the Bible tells us in the same breath to “do justly and love mercy” in micah 6:8 as a requirement from our God.  in the case of susan atkins, wouldn’t justice and mercy lie in opposition?

i believe that the entire message of the Scripture is like that verse, to do justly and love mercy.  as ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything.

** my opinion ** is that we should send her home.  i just came to that conclusion mind you, i’ve been thinking about it since i read the article last week.  we can never love mercy if we do not, on occasion, put aside justice.  and in this case, she is no longer a threat to anyone.

it’s a hard lesson, and a very “grey area” matter.  if you think we should leave her in her cell to rot, i can respect that.

let’s just be grateful to our God that He is rich in mercy and lavished it upon us.  let’s be grateful that He set aside justice (I know, I know - He fulfilled justice on our behalf - go with me here) and chose mercy for us “while we were yet sinners” and “enemies of God”.

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have you read/heard obama’s speech given to the school kids today (this was written before the speech aired - i read the text of the speech instead here)?

i’m getting a little irritated at all the right-wing conservatives that immediately assumed that this speech was going to be a communist democratic manifesto of some kind, as if the white house was going to broadcast subliminal messages to abort babies and give them control of health care.

i grew just as weary of the left-wing liberal ”W” haters that immediately looked for a gun rack or a war/oil conspiracy under every rock.

at the end of the day, we need to objective people in our politics.  after all, our politics do not define who we are, our faith in Jesus and our belonging to His family do.

i’m not a big obama fan, but i’m TOTALLY down with this speech.  play it for your kids, bump it over the school loudspeakers.  print it out and make it assigned reading for crying out loud.  our kids need to be educated, and they need to be inspired to stay the course.

chill out for a second crying lady and give obama a chance. 

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another major christian denomination has chosen to set aside clear Biblical teaching on homosexuality and voted to allow openly homosexual people to be ordained and act as clergy.  this is a steady spiral and I don’t really see this being the last of it.  this quote sums up my thoughts pretty well.  it’s a sad day for God’s Church.

“Those who have been actively campaigning for a change of this sort in the other mainline denominations will see this as a sign that they should intensify their efforts,” Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, said in an e-mail. “For those of us who have opposed this on Biblical grounds, it is bound to reinforce the sense that we are no longer welcome in the mainline.”

check out the whole article in the l.a. times

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Of all I would wish to say this is the sum; my brethren, PREACH CHRIST, always and evermore. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our great, all-comprehending theme. The world needs to be told of its Savior, and of the way to reach him . . . Blessed is the ministry of which CHRIST IS ALL . . . No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.

- Charles Spurgeon

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our brother in prison sent me an article this week that i thought was pretty interesting.  i don’t know anything about the author or the source of the article so i’m not widely endorsing him, but this is an interesting read.

an exerpt:

I believe that Jesus, right now, has both hands outstretched to us. In one hand is revival, and in the other is correction. If we ignore the hand of revival, there is only one hand left—the hand of correction. Correction can bring revival too, but who in their right mind would choose that method?

So, if correction comes, who will we blame? Will we blame Hollywood, adult entertainment, abortionists and the gay community? Probably. We always do. However, from God’s perspective, it’s inaccurate for His people to blame others when the fault lies with them: Both John the Baptist and Jesus began their public ministries by calling for God’s people to repent.  

 

Read the entire article here.

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