Faux Self-Empowerment for the Self-Centered
I love the title and the article is spot on.
Do You Know Stephen Colbert the Catholic?
Stephen Colbert will be taking over for David Letterman soon. It will be interesting to see how is Catholic faith plays out in this.
Aaron Armstong believes there is a better question…
Parents need to bookmark this and apply it.
We are considering doing a Social Media seminar at our church. If we do, I’m confident that we’ll attempt to learn this catchy song:
On May 8th (or May 9th or 10th pending on how the draft plays out), Michael Sam will become the first openly gay NFL player. He joins a growing list of openly gay athletes. A list that now includes Derrick Gordon, a guard for UMass, who came out last week.
I grieve for these young men.
As a Bible believing pastor it should come as no surprise that I grieve their sinful lifestyle choices. And I must note that I grieve their broken sexuality in the same way I grieve the young men I counsel that are addicted to pornography. But what I really grieve is the lie that our culture is feeding them.
Michael Sam will now be known primarily as the first openly gay NFL player. He will no longer be known simply for his defensive skills. Every sack will now be a sack by the first openly gay NFL player and not a sack by Michael Sam.
And our culture will celebrate. And at the same time they’ll mock and chasten believers that stand upon biblical truth. They’ll continue to blame Christians for every suicide by a gay teen. And they’ll point to Michael Sam and others and encourage us to celebrate homosexuality to prevent such terrible tragedies.
The Greater Tragedy Unnoticed
But all the while the greater tragedy will go unnoticed–the tragedy of degraded humanity. Michael Sam is so much more than a gay man. He is a man that is made in the image of Almighty God. His sexuality was never meant to hold the weight of his identity. Every time that he is referred to as the first openly gay NFL player what is happening is that his humanity is being robbed.
The greatest tragedy here is not that our culture celebrates homosexuality. The greatest tragedy is that as our culture celebrates homosexuality these men and women are being decimated and their identities are being minimized to their sexuality. It is not the church—at least it should not be the church—who is raising the bar so high.
We believe that Michael Sam and other men are so much more than their sexuality. Yes, we’ll call them to fight and battle and pursue holiness in the Lord. In the same way that we call straight men and women to fight and battle and pursue holiness in the Lord. If we do not accept into our membership an openly gay man, it is not merely because he is gay and we cannot tolerate this sin. No, if we are healthy, we refuse him membership in the same way that we would refuse the membership of a man that was living in adultery or cheating on his taxes. We believe that sin is sin. And it is all deadly.
It is not we that have made homosexuality the issue. It is our culture that has raised the bar so high. It is our world that is attempting to make our sexuality bear the entire weight of our identity. It cannot hold.
It will break.
It will come crashing down.
It will leave empty, broken, and desolate men and women.
Church, may we be there when it all falls apart. When the weight of a God-given identity causes the flimsy legs of a fallen sexuality collapse. Let us be there to encourage these men and women to build their house upon the only Rock which can bear the weight of our identity.
The Great 1980’s Dungeons and Dragons Panic
I never got into D & D, though I am a nerd. Yet, I did find this piece by the BBC quite interesting.
This is a question that usually comes up this time of year. This is a solid answer.
Help My Kids Are Looking at Porn!
It’s one of the nightmares that parents have. If your nightmare becomes a reality consider this from Tim Challies.
If you think cutting isn’t a problem with someone in your church you might want to open your eyes.
If you acted like Disney characters it’d look like this and it would creep people out:
Awhile back I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a couple of Mormon missionaries. They explained to me the way that Joseph Smith received the Book of Mormon. Here was a bit of my response.
“So…let me get this straight. Joseph Smith saw these golden plates. And he was permitted to read them. But nobody else was with him…”
They corrected me and informed me that one other fella was with him and saw some of it, but later denied the whole thing. (If I’m getting some of my Mormon history incorrect please forgive me, I’m only going by what these two chaps told me).
“Okay then, so one other guy saw it but then later denied it. But nobody (and I really was emphatic on the nobody) else saw these golden plates? And this doesn’t bother you? Why didn’t he show other people these golden plates?”
“No, he tried to show other people,” they informed me. “But when he went to show them the plates had disappeared and an angel told him later that they weren’t ready to see it. So yes, Joseph Smith was the only one that saw the golden plates. And no, that doesn’t bother me. We have faith. It is by faith that we believe and receive these things.”
—
Now pause with me for a moment and ask yourself a question. “Is my faith different than that of these Mormon missionaries?”
Sadly, a number of Christians have an understanding of faith that is similar to these Mormon missionaries. Their faith is a blind faith. It is a faith that values the unverifiable claims of Joseph Smith as somehow a more pure test of faith than a reasoned faith.
Misunderstanding John 20:24-29
In part I believe this comes from a misunderstanding of John 20:24-29 in the account of the aptly named Doubting Thomas. Here Thomas refuses to believe that Jesus is really resurrected until he can see with his own eyes and touch the wounds of Jesus with his own finger. The Lord Jesus in his grace shows up and admonishes Thomas to touch his side. As he does this he admonishes Thomas, “Do not disbelieved, but believe”. Thomas responds in faith—a faith that responds to sight.
Jesus notes his faith as sight response and then says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”.
It is at this point that many make a leap that is not in the text. They read this as if what Jesus is saying is that there is the faith of sight and there is a blind faith—and those with blind faith are better than those that see with their eyes. Not seeing=blind faith. But is that really what Jesus is saying?
We have imposed this idea of blind faith onto the text. What Jesus is contrasting is the faith of Thomas and the other disciples—that see Jesus with their eyes and were able to touch him with their hands—with that of those that will believe after the Ascension. Once Christ returns to the Father then the faith of sight is no longer an option until His return.
Yet this does not mean that our faith is a blind faith. Notice the way that Paul reasons with the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection. He points to the written Word of God in 15:3-4; the written—verifiable, see with your eyeballs and see with your brain–Word of God. he then backs it up with eyewitness testimony in 15:5-6; go ask those 500 other dudes that are still living and they’ll tell you the same thing, type of testimony.
There isn’t in 1 Corinthians 15 any sort of, “Well, you see we saw an empty tomb and the risen Lord, but whenever I went to go tell somebody else…well the darndest thing happened, he was back in the tomb and he had disappeared. But you know I still believe what I saw—after all that is faith—believing in something that cannot be verified”.
There is none of that. And there is none of that because the Bible doesn’t exalt blind faith. There is the faith of sight that was given to the apostles and will some day be given to us. And there is reasonable faith—an I’ve tested this thing and found it legit type of faith. But there is no such thing as an “I just feel this in my heart and know that it’s true” type of faith in the Bible.