Well, to say its been a while is a gross understatement…
I don’t know if anyone reads this blog, or if this is displayed anywhere else, but I had an itch to blog and figured I’d scratch it.
Today the Iowa supreme court decided that it should rewrite our constitution to allow same-sex marriage. I’m sure there are lots of ongoing discussion about this politically, but im not concerned with politics, im concerned about morality. It matters to me what God thinks about all of this.
A couple of years ago, I went on this idealist road trip to doctrinal hell. Its a place where Jesus loves everybody, where the things we don’t have answers for, you just make excuses for. I actually had a blog post on same-sex marriage where I argued that the Church shouldn’t try to hinder same-sex marriage. I was dead wrong. God is very clear about what constitutes good stewardship of the sexuality he has given to us. One man + one woman = marriage = family. Everything outside of this setup is sin, its outside of God’s plan. Pornography is sin. Extramarital sex is sin. Premarital sex is sin. Lust is sin. Homosexuality is sin. Incest is sin. There are some things that the Bible doesn’t mention specifically, homosexuality is not one of them. Its quite clear in its presentation of God’s opposition to anything outside of marriage between one man and one woman.
Does sin anger anyone anymore? Today’s supreme court decision was saddening. But I think what upsets me more is when Christians call this day a good day. You know, I get it. We have friends who are homosexual. Homosexuality is very confusing, a lot of times it involves abuse of some sort, its not black and white. This shouldn’t surprise us, thats just the way sin and evil are. Righteousness is simple. Follow Jesus. Sin always makes things confusing. I know this may offend some people, but when we as Christians tell people living a homosexual lifestyle that its ok to live that way, go ahead and date someone of the same sex, we are enabling people in their sin. We are being accessories to murder. Let’s just think about this for a minute, what are we telling people when we tell them, “Well, we know that fighting off homosexual tendencies is hard, so God will understand if you pursue that lifestyle”? We are telling them that homosexuality is stronger than God is. Thats a lie straight from hell. God is way more powerful than any sin or temptation. What we should be telling people is that yes, we know its hard to fight off temptation, especially of a sexual nature, but God IS more powerful, and God wants to deliver people from sin. Thats why He sent His Son to die in our place.
We need to wake up. This isn’t a game. I’ve struggled with lust/porn ever since I was a teenager. A lot of guys do. Just because something is painful and hard to persevere through doesn’t mean we just give up and that its ok with God. We do ourselves and our friends caught in these traps such a huge disservice when we just make excuses. Jesus didn’t make excuses, He offered people a way out. He forgave people and told them to stop sinning. We need to do the same. We need to extend God’s grace to people, but then we need to speak the truth in love. “I know its hard, I know you struggle with this, but God has made a way out for you, stop sinning!” Our culture needs to hear the truth of God’s word, and they need to hear it in love.
This is our task. We must not shrink back from the Bible. We have to know the heart of God. And we have to communicate that to our culture. We are ambassadors, handpicked by God to persuade the people of the nations of the world to join God’s kingdom. Paul tells us in ephesians that we are not waging war against flesh and blood, but against the demons and satan. If you can’t see the intense spiritual battle playing out right now, open your eyes. More lives will be lost unless we suit up and learn how to fight. In Romans, Paul tells us that creation was subjected to futility, by God, and that all of creation is waiting for the day when God will set everything right. Let’s fix our eyes on our God who will come back to this earth and establish his kingdom. On that day, there will be justice. Sin will be done away with. No more abuse, no more disease, no more tyranny, no more failure, no more disappointment, no more evil. As Christians, may we never tolerate sin, but always long for the day when it will be completely destroyed by our great God. That great and awesome day is coming, but until then, we’ve got to take a stand.
12Behold, I am coming soon, and I shall bring My wages and rewards with Me, to repay and render to each one just what his own actions and his own work merit.
13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last (the Before all and the End of all)
-Revelation 22:12-13 (AMP)
