Answering Questions #3

Question #3 in this series has the potential to stir all kinds of emotion as we discuss it. It is one of 'those' subjects that just tends to rile people up. Here is the question: How do you approach someone living in a life of sin (homosexuality) that talks like they believe in Christ and are alright (in their mind) with their salvation? Let's start here -- First of all, The Bible is clear that homosexuality is sin (see Romans 1). Also, The Bible is clear in places like Galatians 5 that, regardless of the sin, anyone who is blatantly rebellious to God's law by practicing sin in an unrepentant manner will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore, while I do not claim to know who is in or who is out, I fear greatly for someone who justifies their sinful lifestyle and claims that their "belief" in Christ will allow them in the gates.
At The Bridge, we take Jesus at His word that salvation comes to those who "repent and believe the Gospel." To really believe in Jesus, we must have the correct Jesus identified. The Messiah, the King of the Universe, has given His all to bring the good news to us; therefore, he deserves our obedience and love in whatever He asks of us. If we have been involved in a lifestyle of sin when we come to faith, we have one choice -- leave it. To refuse to do so denies Him as God and proves that we never believed Him on His terms to begin with. That does not mean that this will be easy, especially in the case of homosexuality, but "all things are possible" with God.

I have a feeling that the unrepentant homosexual in the question would possibly agree with all of that. His or her problem is that they have not recognized their sin as sin. While we can, with gentleness and respect, point out that Bible does declare homosexuality as an abomination before God, the Holy Spirit and the 'never comes back void' Word of God will have to do their thing for this person to identify himself/herself as an unrepentant sinner. While we have a role to play, God is the one that comes and 'cuts to the heart.'

A further note on homosexuality ==
I can assure you that as the lead pastor of a quality, Biblical church, I have no 'homophobic' bents. Homosexuals are welcome in our church or in my home anytime. Also, I will admit that the immature church has terrorized this sin more than others, so some of the bad feelings about the church by the gay community are warranted. However, to be clear I view this sin as no more egregious than others, but the activists, even inside the church, make it seem that it is picked on. The reason for this is that this is the only group of sinners that I know of that are organized. I am not aware of the "adulterer's rights groups" or the "extortionist's church organization." Only the homosexual community lobbies Christian denominations and churches for acceptance. This comes from the fact that these folks have been deceived into believing that their sin is not sin, and, therefore, they believe that they should be pastors, teachers, and elders within the church. I love these folks, but on those points we will never agree, and that will not happen at The Bridge.

Answering Questions #2

Sitting in front of a warm fire on Christmas, I am flipping through some fantastic questions that our church has given the pastors to answer. The one that has caught my eye is this one because I will be preaching the answer from Luke 18 in just a few weeks. Here is the question: If God has a plan & will (He is sovereign), why do we ask God to heal (etc.) if He is going to do what He wants anyway?
I hear this person asking if everything is pre-ordained or if we can sway God to intervene by praying. Let me answer this with scripture; Jesus speaks:
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Luke 18:1-8 ESV
Previously in the Bible, persistent prayer by the saints had changed God's mind, so my advice to the current saints is to petition God with great boldness and persistence about what you need. Behind the question, I hear some possible frustration that this person maybe prayed for a loved one's healing and God did not act. Maybe He did act -- He asks us to trust Him that He knows what is best. That can really test and grow our faith.

What God wants is our company, our attention. I think he loves spending time with us. We must spend time in earnest prayer. God is faithful; it is His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. His giving of the Kingdom may just not always look like we want it.

You May Have Not Seen

I try and make myself an open book so that people who I do church with see just how whacko I really am. I posted this on Halloween at Tim's Journal.

Conquering Addiction is unbelievable -- the single best discipleship tool that I have ever seen.

Answering Questions

I have decided to take some time over the holidays and blog some answers to these questions that Ben has coming in from our church that are pressing on people's minds about their faith. Since I know that there are more people nationally and internationally that read my blog than my own church, I am not worried about messing up the sermons that we are going to do from these questions. Here we go: Is it okay to drink alcohol on occasion? The quick answer to that is "yes." Otherwise, Jesus sinned because we know he drank wine and we know that he was sinless. I am very open with my personal stance on this. I have an occasional glass of wine with a meal like authentic Italian chicken Marsala that just calls for the perfect wine to compliment. If you are eating chicken Marsala and not cooking a beautiful white wine into the sauce, you need to call it something else because that is just wrong. Flat out, a sip of an alcoholic beverage is not a sin.

Let's go just a little deeper though. The Bible states on multiple occasions though that drunkenness is a sin, and we are to put sin to death. Often, when people come to Christ, they continue drinking to the same degree that they drank before their regeneration. That is a problem. I believe that God teaches us that he wants us to be clear-minded for a couple of reasons. The first is that we are to be focused on Him. If Biblical Christianity is truly a call to 24/7 worship, how effective of worship can we engage if our mind is clouded by alcohol? We cannot pray without ceasing and make the Word of God a jewel of our mind if we have just knocked down a six pack. Have you ever tried to let the "Word of God dwell in you richly" after too much to drink. It cannot be done. We are to be clear-minded in our worship and sanctification. Alcohol limits our correct, intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.

The second reason for have a clear mind is so that we make good judgment in avoiding sin. I am a little more likely to linger on the "Victoria Secret special" on TV after a little too much alcohol than not. That gives the devil a fertile playground. I am a little more likely to say things that do not honor Christ when drinking. Just think into your past and think how much you would have limited the major sin in your life if you had not drunk enough to fog your judgment and you had gone to bed (by yourself) at 10:00.

I, personally, do not drink in public because our slightly misguided western Church-world frowns so hard on anyone who drinks alcohol saying anything on behalf of God. Misguided or not, if someone grew up in a Baptist or Pentecostal background sees me drinking one glass of wine with my dinner in public, they have probably written me off as someone who can speak on the Gospel with them. I want to have voice so I respect their feelings and just make it a non-issue. I also do not want to cause a "little one to stumble." This stance is not hypocritical because I never say that all drinking is wrong and then have a glass of wine at home.

I do not believe that most church-goers do a good job with temperance on this issue. If they bring their pre-conversion attitudes about drinking with them into the new relationship, repentance is probably needed.

Harsh Stands for Christ?

Sorry, I have not posted in a while. Preparation for Conquering Addiction is a lot of work and we have had little things like ordination, baptism, membership, building a building, and finals at MAC taking a bit of time as well. Fun stuff though. Some of us have been discussing how harshly to take on the public in the name of Christ. I think sometimes while Christians are protesting abortion clinics, there are 3 young teenage girls in their immediate circle that are pregnant or living a lifestyle that could cause pregnancy and the protester is so busy protesting that he/she misses creating a relationship that could love these young ladies toward Christ and some Christ-like decisions. I am not saying that we should not make large public declarations on behalf of Christ, but we should not do so at the exclusion of paying attention to the OTHERS that we supposed to love from the Great Commandment. Maybe this story will provide my point:
About 4 years ago, MAC took a stand about not letting any churches use their facilities, not even to rent like the regular public is allowed. This was explained as separation of church and state. It is a horrible misread of the constititution and had I took a harsh stand representing all churches, I would have won in court. Instead, I protested very softly and then went about my business. In those 4 years, the Bible has been openly discussed in the athletic department, I have counseled many faculty members as they have experienced pain and difficulty, about a dozen students have come to know Christ, and the school donated $30,000 worth of seats to our church the other day, and GAP was actually allowed to use a room for CA -- none of which would have happened had a taken a hard line and brought in the ACLJ and sued the school for violating constitutional rights because they would have been watching their 'enemy' like a hawk. Sometimes it is better to drop the hard line and focus on people instead.

Jesus does not aak us to win every battle in His name; he asks us to love Him and others more than ourselves. A court case here would have been done in my name and for my pride's sake much more than for His. There are times to step up and make history in Christ's name; I just did not think this was one of them. And I think He is honoring my decision.

However, when I retire....

Don't forget to invite folks to church Sunday and let's honor Christ in a big way on His birthday.