Thursday, October 1, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Suggested by my pastor...
"I know that NOT EVERYONE WILL CHOOSE TO BELONG to Mountainview. Some will flat out refuse Jesus and His message. Others will reject the Biblical truths we stand on and teach. Still others will struggle to deal with the reality that all people sin. Still others will refuse to be vulnerable with other believers. While there are many reasons why people will not choose to BELONG to Jesus and to Mountainview, please hear me on this one...I want us to continue to do everything possible to help those who God is calling into relationship with Himself to BELONG to Him and to our church family.
"There’s a song that captures much of what I wanted to communicate. "
City Harbor - Come However You Are...
"There’s a song that captures much of what I wanted to communicate. "
City Harbor - Come However You Are...
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
What the Bible really says about homosexuality...
I found this chart on Facebook this morning...
Unfortunately, scripturally, it is not quite this simple, or else I think most Christians would have moved on by now.
While yes, Leviticus - "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (20:13, NIV) - is one of the go to verses for a lot of condemnation, theologically it is not the current foundation of the declaration of homosexuality as a sin.
The reason why we don't worry about tattoos or eating shellfish is that the New Covenant replaces all of these old laws with a couple much simpler ones: "The first is... Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31, NIV)
This would also seem to take care of the law against male homosexual sex, but things do get trickier, since Paul, in the New Testament, does write that we should still try to obey the old laws as well as we can, but that our eternal salvation does not depend on it.
These old laws, covering every aspect of life, are seen by Paul as essential guidelines for leading a happy and productive life, for understanding what is and is not sin, and for building a closer relationship to God, but they have nothing to do with whether or not one is saved or not saved. As he states in Romans 6:14: "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." (RSV)
In fact, transgressing many of the old laws is no longer even seen as being sinful, depending on circumstance, especially when looking at circumcision and the old dietetic laws.
There are three versus from Paul that refer to homosexuality, and these are the only three times when homosexuality is even referred to in the New Testament:
Romans 1:21-31 (NIV)-
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
1 Corinthians 6:8-10 (NIV)-
Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 (NIV)-
We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
Of course, most Christians do not follow all of the recommendations in Paul's letters, especially when it comes to women. He has some pretty strong opinions on such things as women wearing veils - "For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil" (1 Corinthians 11:6) And, of course, women should never speak inside of a church, "For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church" (1 Corinthians 14:35)
Unfortunately, scripturally, it is not quite this simple, or else I think most Christians would have moved on by now.
While yes, Leviticus - "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (20:13, NIV) - is one of the go to verses for a lot of condemnation, theologically it is not the current foundation of the declaration of homosexuality as a sin.
The reason why we don't worry about tattoos or eating shellfish is that the New Covenant replaces all of these old laws with a couple much simpler ones: "The first is... Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31, NIV)
This would also seem to take care of the law against male homosexual sex, but things do get trickier, since Paul, in the New Testament, does write that we should still try to obey the old laws as well as we can, but that our eternal salvation does not depend on it.
These old laws, covering every aspect of life, are seen by Paul as essential guidelines for leading a happy and productive life, for understanding what is and is not sin, and for building a closer relationship to God, but they have nothing to do with whether or not one is saved or not saved. As he states in Romans 6:14: "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." (RSV)
In fact, transgressing many of the old laws is no longer even seen as being sinful, depending on circumstance, especially when looking at circumcision and the old dietetic laws.
There are three versus from Paul that refer to homosexuality, and these are the only three times when homosexuality is even referred to in the New Testament:
Romans 1:21-31 (NIV)-
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
1 Corinthians 6:8-10 (NIV)-
Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 (NIV)-
We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
Of course, most Christians do not follow all of the recommendations in Paul's letters, especially when it comes to women. He has some pretty strong opinions on such things as women wearing veils - "For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil" (1 Corinthians 11:6) And, of course, women should never speak inside of a church, "For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church" (1 Corinthians 14:35)
April 25, 2022
While working on my first post for this blog in a long, long time, I saw this post sitting incomplete in the drafts. When I was working on this back in the day, it was less about the actual flowchart and more about the fact that I'd just read Unfair: Christians and the LGBT Question by John Shore, and while that book is very good and covered a lot of important points, I also felt there were a few theological gaps in Shore's defense of the LGBT community.
At this point, unfortunately, that is all I remember, not the arguments I was aiming for themselves! I could piece it all together and finish this, and perhaps I will someday, but it's seven years (!?!) later and I've got much on my task list ahead of this...
At this point, unfortunately, that is all I remember, not the arguments I was aiming for themselves! I could piece it all together and finish this, and perhaps I will someday, but it's seven years (!?!) later and I've got much on my task list ahead of this...
Monday, June 29, 2015
Some scribbles on the June 26 Supreme Court ruling on marriage
Some words that I posted here and there on the internet over the past few days, pasted together... This was not written as a single coherent piece.
Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him. (Mark 12:17 NIV).
Unless I am asked to perform one of these marriages (which I can't since I am not ordained), or decide to marry some one of my own gender, which won't happen either, then this is really an issue for the state that does not effect my faith at all, unless it impairs my ability to love everyone, which is still ultimately an issue of my own sin, no one else's... Let's worry about our own marriages first, many of which are in crisis, before wasting any time or effort worrying about a distraction like this.
As a Christian, I am far more concerned about the state of our own marriages and I fear that issues such as this tend to turn the faithful against each other...
The enemy gains far more ground in these ways then through anything the Supreme Court has done today.
Christ spoke much on marriage, and most of what he said tends to be ignored or dismissed by many, and I feel we should spend a lot more time trying to live up to those messages than worrying about these mere political distractions.
Just to clarify, I am not suggesting an "as long as it doesn't affect me" attitude as much as I am advocating keeping these things in a proper scale. All the energy put out today from both sides... Imagine if that was put towards advocating for healthy marriages in general? Just to give one example, such as battling the idea in our culture that marriage is a disposable institution. "Oh well, he or she didn't work out, but I hope it goes better with my next spouse."
And of course, Jesus himself had some pretty strong words about folks who get divorced, much more than he had to say on today's issue, by far...
“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:7-9 NIV)
This effects many, many, many more of us than gay marriage, and it would be nice to see this sort of passion directed towards supporting healing our millions of broken marriages in America.
And when it comes to sin, even the best of us are horrendous, dirty sinners who deserve death and eternal torment, according to scripture. Whatever one's sins are, they are no better or worse than anyone else's, and salvation cannot be attained by any righteous mortal act we can ever do on our own, any lifestyle we choose or are born into through no "fault" of our own...
So all these folks so worried about who's going to hell or not are critically misinterpreting their Bibles.
All sin is abhorrent in God's eyes and the only way out is to turn over our own sins in exchange for grace, not earned through any other action, but given away freely to those who truly desire it. Nowhere in that equation is hating on others, condemning others, or denying rights to those who have different beliefs than you, in fact such behavior is clearly labeled as being vile in God's eyes and anyone doing that just has more sin of their own that they, eventually, must turn over to God.
So they ain't Savin' anyone, including themselves, by being awful in the name of Jesus. Rather, they need to be more focused on their own faults.
As Paul wrote: ...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)
As Paul wrote: ...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)
Friday, April 24, 2015
A Good Discipleship Article
Discipleship is one of the current big "fad" movements driving churches right now, which is good because it is the most important function of the Church. However, because of this, there are a lot of fluffy little articles and posts constantly drifting through my Facebook feed.
While talking about discipleship is better than not talking about it, most of these articles have little meat on their bones other than a few plithy tips and comments that do little to truly inspire or instruct on how to become more effective disciple-makers.
I share a lot of these fluffy links on my Facebook page... Why not? But here's one I wanted to share here on the blog to keep a little more handy for future reference.
At first, I thought this would be little different (lists are usually pretty soft on depth), but what I like is the tremendous number of links the author provides to explore each of his points in greater depth.
I haven't explored most of these links yet, but I plan on it. Hopefully they are more thoughtful than most of the discipleship content floating around out there these days...
5 Signs Your Disciplemaking Design Isn't Working (and 10 Ways to Create One That Works): " Isn’t obvious that certain results or a lack of results would indicate a bad disciple-making strategy? Remember, “your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing.” If you don’t like the results, you must change the design. I love this line from Winston Churchill. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” If you don’t like your results, change the strategy."
While talking about discipleship is better than not talking about it, most of these articles have little meat on their bones other than a few plithy tips and comments that do little to truly inspire or instruct on how to become more effective disciple-makers.
I share a lot of these fluffy links on my Facebook page... Why not? But here's one I wanted to share here on the blog to keep a little more handy for future reference.
At first, I thought this would be little different (lists are usually pretty soft on depth), but what I like is the tremendous number of links the author provides to explore each of his points in greater depth.
I haven't explored most of these links yet, but I plan on it. Hopefully they are more thoughtful than most of the discipleship content floating around out there these days...
5 Signs Your Disciplemaking Design Isn't Working (and 10 Ways to Create One That Works): " Isn’t obvious that certain results or a lack of results would indicate a bad disciple-making strategy? Remember, “your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing.” If you don’t like the results, you must change the design. I love this line from Winston Churchill. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” If you don’t like your results, change the strategy."
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
"If there are words for Him, then I don't have them..."
Below is the full video, but click on the link instead to get to the best part...
https://youtu.be/huFra1mnIVE?t=6m28s
"The Word" by Isaac Wimberley
"If there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
You see, my brain has not yet reached the point where it could
form a thought that could adequately describe the greatness of my God,
and my lungs have not yet developed the ability to release a breath
with enough agility to breathe out the greatness of his love,
and my voice, you see,
my voice, is so inhibited, restrained by human limits
that it’s hard to even sing the praise of…
You see… if there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
My God,
His grace is remarkable, mercies are enumerable,
strength is impenetrable, He is honorable, accountable, favorable,
He is unsearchable yet knowable, indefinable yet approachable, indescribable yet personal,
He is beyond comprehension, further than imagination, constant through generations,
king of every nation.
But if there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
You see, my words are few, and to try to capture the one true God,
using my vocabulary will never do,
but I use words as an expression,
an expression of worship to a savior,
a savior who is both worthy and deserving of my praise, so I use words.
My heart extols the Lord, blesses his name forever,
He has won my heart captured my mind and has bound them both together,
He has defeated me in my rebellion,
conquered me in my sin,
He has welcomed me into his presence,
completely invited me in.
He has made himself the object of my sight,
flooding me with mercies in the morning,
drowning me with grace in the night.
But if there are words for Him
then I don’t have them.
But what I do have is good news,
for my God knew that manmade words would never do,
for words are just tools that we use to point to the truth,
so He sent His son Jesus Christ as “The Word”, living proof,
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation,
for by Him all things are created, giving nothingness formation,
and by His words he sustains, in the power of His name,
for He is before all things and over all things he reigns, holy is his name,
so praise him for his life…
The way he persevered in strife,
the humble son of God becoming the perfect sacrifice,
praise him for his death…
that He willingly stood in our place, that he lovingly endured the grave,
that he battled our enemy and on the third day rose in victory
He is everything that was promised,
praise Him as your risen king,
lift your voice and sing for one day he will return for us
and we will finally be united with our savior for eternity, eternity.
So it’s not just words that I proclaim,
for my words point to “The Word” and “The Word” has a name,
hope has a name,
joy has a name,
peace has a name,
love has a name
and that name is Jesus Christ.
Praise His Name FOREVER!"
https://youtu.be/huFra1mnIVE?t=6m28s
"The Word" by Isaac Wimberley
"If there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
You see, my brain has not yet reached the point where it could
form a thought that could adequately describe the greatness of my God,
and my lungs have not yet developed the ability to release a breath
with enough agility to breathe out the greatness of his love,
and my voice, you see,
my voice, is so inhibited, restrained by human limits
that it’s hard to even sing the praise of…
You see… if there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
My God,
His grace is remarkable, mercies are enumerable,
strength is impenetrable, He is honorable, accountable, favorable,
He is unsearchable yet knowable, indefinable yet approachable, indescribable yet personal,
He is beyond comprehension, further than imagination, constant through generations,
king of every nation.
But if there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
You see, my words are few, and to try to capture the one true God,
using my vocabulary will never do,
but I use words as an expression,
an expression of worship to a savior,
a savior who is both worthy and deserving of my praise, so I use words.
My heart extols the Lord, blesses his name forever,
He has won my heart captured my mind and has bound them both together,
He has defeated me in my rebellion,
conquered me in my sin,
He has welcomed me into his presence,
completely invited me in.
He has made himself the object of my sight,
flooding me with mercies in the morning,
drowning me with grace in the night.
But if there are words for Him
then I don’t have them.
But what I do have is good news,
for my God knew that manmade words would never do,
for words are just tools that we use to point to the truth,
so He sent His son Jesus Christ as “The Word”, living proof,
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation,
for by Him all things are created, giving nothingness formation,
and by His words he sustains, in the power of His name,
for He is before all things and over all things he reigns, holy is his name,
so praise him for his life…
The way he persevered in strife,
the humble son of God becoming the perfect sacrifice,
praise him for his death…
that He willingly stood in our place, that he lovingly endured the grave,
that he battled our enemy and on the third day rose in victory
He is everything that was promised,
praise Him as your risen king,
lift your voice and sing for one day he will return for us
and we will finally be united with our savior for eternity, eternity.
So it’s not just words that I proclaim,
for my words point to “The Word” and “The Word” has a name,
hope has a name,
joy has a name,
peace has a name,
love has a name
and that name is Jesus Christ.
Praise His Name FOREVER!"
Friday, April 3, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
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