Practice prep Matthew 5:9

The Village Church is currently in the middle of a series on the be-attitudes from the Gospel of Matthew chapter five called "Blessed : From the Inside Out"

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been encouraged to be more spiritually and practically disciplined. So today I've decide to reflect on the focal text for this upcoming Sunday's sermon. Essentially I'm prepping a sermon. After studying this is what I would want someone to know about themselves, and about God, from this verse. I don't know what direction my pastor will be led to take this text, this is in no way a substitution, just an attempt to be a better teacher and student, even if only to the children in my home. Here are some thoughts that I have taken away so far...

Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

My big take away from the study of this verse is that "Heirs with Christ are, led by the spirit, to seek peace with all, by the life and power of the one who gave all, that we may have ultimate peace with the one who made all. "

This is my nifty concise way to say that because Christ lived in perfect peace and obedience with God the father, we can now have peace with God the Father. Peace that was disrupted and obliterated by our own sin and our own disobedience. Now, free from that sin, we can seek to make peace with all others in creation where peace still no longer exist, inviting others to join us with Christ as brothers and sisters.

Let me hopefully explain how I got there. The text breaks down, for me, in three parts. "Peacemakers", "shall be called", and "sons of God." When I started cross-referencing these parts in my study bible it led me to James 3:13-18, 1st John 3:1-24 & Romans 5:1-11.

Fortunately none of these phrases are rare through scripture, and in these verses, as well as many others, we begin to see a full picture of what Jesus may of had in mind.

I read through these passages and then begin to ask three questions that Tim Keller says should be asked in every sermon. (I'm paraphrasing the questions a bit)

Question 1. What is God telling us to do?

Simple enough, he's telling us to be peacemakers! But why is he telling us this? Obviously, from God's perspective (the only perspective that matters), peace is broken or even lost and needs to be made again to fill its void.

When God evaluates all of his creation he looks down and sees no peace. So what is God talking about when he talks about peace? Well he's not just talking about any peace, but a perfect peace, more than just a mere end to conflict. I mean we are talking about God and he wouldn't settle for anything less than perfect.The bible is as helpful here, as it is just as helpful anywhere. It shows us what this looks like; we had perfect peace in the beginning, and will have perfect peace in the promise of the coming kingdom. Now somewhere between the begining and the end, perfect peace was broken.

We are told through the narrative in Genesis that we once lived in peace with God, we walked through the garden like a friend, or even better like sons and daughters. Everything was "good" God even proclaimed it to be so. We read in revelation that peace will return again forever once Jesus returns to reign as king.

This perfect peace has three dimensions that we need to be aware of. We lived in perfect harmony with God, in harmony with each other as seen through Adam and Eve as husband and wife, and with the whole of creation and nature through careful and loving stewardship. Peace with God, with men and with creation. Peace, once broken among our relationship with God, our relationships with each other, and with the rest of creation began to swiftly crumble.

Question 2. How do we mess this up?

We disobey God's instruction and sin, this was not only true for our first parents, but true for us today. From then on we became wise in our own eyes and vainly began to seek how to restore peace by ourselves, and apart from God. The effects of sin on this peace are complete and evident in all of culture, in all societies, and through all of history. We don't have peace with God, we don't have peace with each other, we don't have peace with nature and if truth be told we all feel this loss of peace deep within ourselves.

James 3:13-17 helps to show us the difference...

James 3:13-17 ESV

"Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere."

Take note that trying to find peace by our own wisdom instead of the wisdom from above leads to "bitter jealousy... selfish ambition" it is "earthly, unspiritual, demonic" it produces "disorder and every vile practice", this should read to us as: produces more and more sin.

Doesn't this sound like the world we live and the relationships you have? Think about it, you may not use these exact terms, but even in your best and most healthy relationships I bet there is some disorder, some sin. Have you ever thought that your spouse was being selfish? Do you get upset when your children refuse to listen and ruin your plans? All of this is the result of our loss of peace with God. Let's look back at Genesis for a bit.

Adam and Eve sin against God, they attempt to make right by covering their nakedness. God confronts them, and instead of turning to him they try to reestablish peace by turning against each other with blame. Their sons have some strife and one thinks the best solution to end this strife is to get angry and kill the other! 

It only gets worse from their. See how these family fights lead to wars against nations?

We try, without success to restore the peace. Environmentalism, psychology, counseling, self-help are all efforts to "make peace"! All ultimately fail because, even though they are not all bad, they are not sufficient enough to handle the scope of our broken peace. At best the can only offer help to one aspect a time. For example, environmentalism seeks to restore peace with nature, but not peace with each other, or peace with yourself, and definitely not peace with God. 

May I suggest a different approach. Instead of handling the fallout, let us go back to when and where and to whom peace was broken originally and seek to restore peace there. The narrative of Genesis is yet again helpful. Again, peace is broken with God, then husband and wife, the with their children and shortly from that brokenness, nation vs nation, the whole creative order is out of whack. We can strive for peace with the world, but without peace with God we are still lost.

Let me try and string question 2 together. We, in our sin, have lost peace with God, We try to restore this peace with efforts to manage the brokenness in the areas of life affected by this loss of peace. When in reality we need to go back to the one who peace was first lost with.

Well then, how do we have peace with God? The answer that is always the answer, is Jesus.

Question 3. How does Jesus fix this?

Here it is best to let the bible speak for itself. 

"Romans 5:1-11 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

You should probably just read all of Romans 5, or better yet all of Romans, but verse 1-11 make the point.

Here's what you need to understand from this text concerning peacemaking.

-Because of sin there is no longer peace between us and God, here it says that we are his enemies. (As a side note, we are his enemies, he is not our enemy, don't flip this.)

-The way to restore the peace is perfect sinless obedience, but as the text points out, we are too weak to do this on our own.

-So Jesus on your behalf, inspite of yourself, "while we were yet sinners" died for you as a sacrifice in your place. 

His death gives you access, but it's what he did before his death that gives you acceptance.

-His perfect, sinless, obedient life is given to you over your imperfect, sinful, disobedient life, and sealed but his blood marking the new covenant. His perfect life gives you acceptance!

-Placing our hope in Jesus for this peace with God we receive new identities as children of God, as evidence by our character that is the fruit of regenerated hearts. Out of these new identities as sons and daughters we can seek to make peace in all areas of life, as we await for the return of our king.

Peace with God is now restored! Praise God! We no longer are subjected to futility, now our attempts to "make peace" are no longer in vain, because peace with the person that peace was first destroyed had been restored!

So what does this mean? We have peace with God but we still live inbetween the two bookends of perfect peace.

Here is what I think the practical implications are.

1.With peace with God restored through Christ you can rest knowing that peace will stay restored. Nothing will ever break it again, when Christ saves someone, he never loses anyone.This is the founding hope for all future peace.

2.If peace with the God of the universe has been made, then peace with your neighbor is possible. I won't say it's easy, but compared to restoring peace with the creator of all things, it is. It is still difficult, and I'm sure that in some cases it may never happen. However, we are free to pursue peace with all, because Christ gave all that we may have peace with the one who made all.

3.We can pursue making peace in all other relationships with confidence and humility. Confidence that Christ is the king of peace and thus reigns over peace, and humility that he has given it to us when we least deserved it, that we might make it with others.

I think there is more, actually much more, but this is sufficient to get us started as peacemakers. God has given us a lofty task to make peace, but he, through Christ, has neither left us alone or made us unable. He is with us as we seek to make peace.

Who do you need to make peace with? Where do you need to have peace? 

Make peace with God, then make peace with your neighbor. It starts on the inside, peace overflows from the heart that has been given peace with God. Now that we have been reconciled we can now offer reconciliation to others, from the inside out.

Lunch time read along.

In a effort to be more productive, I'm trying to devote lunch time to more training and studying and reflecting. I thought I might post what I'm reading and you can join along and maybe we can have a conversation or two about them.

9 myths about discipleship
http://www.gospelcentereddiscipleship.com/9-myths-discipleship/

5 church phrases scaring of millennials
http://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/11/12/5-churchy-phrases-that-are-scaring-off-millennials/

How to be a man at home
http://www.brianhowardblog.com/how-to-be-a-man-at-home/

Hopefully the links work, if not copy and paste. If you have an interesting article to share please do.

This week I am also mediating in this verse...

Matthew 5:9
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Jonah pt6 (Notes from the way back machine.

A great advantage of technology is the ability to easily archive and then revisit what is hopefully find memories from the past.

I'm sharing some notes from www.myvillagechurch.com sermon series JONAH. If memory serves me correctly, or small church plant was still meeting at our local YMCA. Read and enjoy.

Transformation is not the goal, but the symptom of true repentance

Apart from the pursuit of God attempts at restoration are merely fronts to cover our sin

This is the opposite of humility, and causes us to attack each other

Taking stances contrary to the bible making accusations giving in to our sin and our pride

The people who thought they could do everything right are the ones Jesus came and opposed

The church is bad at confessing sin and good at hiding our sin

Transparency in community with humility and wisdom is crucial

God is not fair, but just, and pursues an entire city to true repentance

Jonah offers no hope or Grace with his message to ninevah , and you get the idea that Jonah is prideful in his message

5 things to learn from ninevah repentance

1.true repentance is not defensive, its confessional. The king makes no excuse for his sin, or why Gods judgements might be unfair.

He repents in sackloth and ashes, representing total humility, that he is torn and deserving of death

Our pride makes us so hard towards repentance Augustine says we must unndecieve our sin

We have a false presumptions of our own good and worth. At the end of the day everyone is responsible for our own sin.

Two option when confronted by Grace of Jesus...a.deny and blame circumstances or b. Repent and confess

2 true repentance doesn't led to guilt but a realization of Gods worthiness.

We are great at motivateing by guilt and vain obligation to right living, not out of the overflow of the heart that has been changed

Don't trust in yourselves for righteousness, you will treat others with contempt...like the pharasies prayer and the tax collector.."God be merciful to me a sinner"

A healthy way to understand your role...he must increase I must decrease....if you think you are something then you need to repent

Years of repentance are nessecary to blot out sin

As Christians we should not heap guilt, but offer Grace like God

3. True repentance bares fruit

There is no good in you, you are corrupt, heart transformation is needed and initiated by God

4 true repentance is not just turning from evil, but running to God

Call out to God, then turn from evil

We are bad trees that think we produce good fruit, and build our pride on what is in us that is actually rotten

If we turn from sin and not to God we only turn to another sin

Jesus is the redeemer and restorer of our hearts. Asking him to change our thoughts motives feelings and intentions

5. True repentance moves the heart of God

An Evening with Paul David Tripp (Getting to the Heart of Parenting)

Last Night, and this morning, Apex Community Church in Kettering Ohio hosted a parenting conference with speaker/teacher/writer/stylish mustache advocate Dr. Paul David Tripp. We live about 45 mins away, have five children, and are greatly appreciative of Dr. Tripp's teachings. Sadly we were not able to go to the sessions for this morning, but in the opening sessions Paul did a terrific job laying the foundation of the weekend's conversations. My hope is to transfer my notes from the first two session and hopefully it will give you a springboard for further growth, study and evaluation. Also, if you ever have a chance to hear these talks, the seminar was called "Getting to the Heart of Parenting", I highly suggest you go.


SESSION I

What are you doing as a parent? What are you working on? What are you trying to produce? In other words, what is this (Parenting) all about?

The Bible is a Grand Redemptive Narrative, not arranged by topic, every word within has something to say about every part of our life. Simply turning to the passages that obviously pertain to you specific topic of interest means that you will miss the majority of what the bible actually says about that topic. Turning only to the verse that specifically mention parenting or children means we will fail to see the whole picture for God's purpose in parenting.

So, about that. What is God's intent/focus/job for families?

(Judges 2:6-15) What happens here and what does it have to do with parenting? Israel's premiere historical event has just taken place, they have entered that land of Promise and the first generation is passing away. The second generation, those born in the land of promise, have very quickly forgotten their God and are completely pagan. Who failed?

(Deuteronomy 6) Is the list of instruction that God gives Israel as the enter the promised land. Notice specifically verese 7 "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Essentially when you wake up, go on your way and fall asleep you should be opening you children's eye to the wonders of God everywhere, lest we forget. The failure in the promise land is not in any school, institution or church, but solely on the parents. There are essential facts about who God is that you must download into your child daily, facts that they must know in order to know what God wants. 

So what do these verses start to reveal about God's plan for the family?

1. The Family is...a theological community. That in your family God is THE CENTRAL FACT that everything revolves around. Teach you children that they are NOT the center, that God is the center. If you can look at your world and fail to see the evidence of God to point your children to, well then you are tragically blind. God's glory is revealed everywhere and we are to point our children to his revelation. We need sight to see His glory around us so that we can be instruments to open up the eyes of our children.
Three things children ARE...

• Revelation Receivers. God is everywhere and the brilliance of his mind and creation is displayed in everything, and you children need to be awaken to this fact. We worship and show to them the awe and beauty of God everywhere. If they are not already in awe of God then when it comes time to read the book he wrote they will be completely uninterested in what he has to say. On the other hand, "Oh the God that made the trees, and gives us food and revolves the earth around the sun wrote this book? I better pay attention!" See the difference? It is completely natural to talk about God all the time because he is everywhere, it is unnatural not to talk about Him!
• Interpreters. Children do not base and shape their lives based on the facts, but on the interpretation of those facts. They are constantly thinking, trying to learn, to make sense of, reason and philsophize information. Your children need to understand that the correct place to receive truthful interpretation is at the feet of the creator.
• Worshipers. Worship is an IDENTITY not an ACTIVITY. Like you, your children want to be their own god and make gods of things. Your child needs to understand that only one person is worthy of worship and it is not them! God must always be the center of affection, if not your child will truly insert themselves at the center.

2. The Family is...a sociological community. If being a (theological community) is commandment number 1, "love the lord your God with all your heart", then (sociological) is command number 2, "and your neighbor as yourself". In the family is the best place to learn true love, love that is self sacrificing and, loving others more than yourself precisely because they live in a home with people they did not choose to live with. Children are raised and sent out as adults with no real concept of this type of love or any intention to live in it. Parents, children learn this type of love from your example.

3. The Family is...A redemptive community. Are we modeling the grace & forgiveness in our families when our family members fail? We need to push everything back to the central fact of God. Does our language and actions reflect a God who will never leave us and nothing we say or do can push him away from his children?

SESSION II

Lets rethink our perspective in parenting. Parenting must be about getting to the heart of the issue. The greatest danger to you and your children is not something external, but something internal. (Matthew 15:11)

People live from whats inside their hearts, we tend to believe the opposite, that what we do is due to what has been done to us, but not out of the overflow of our hearts.

Let's DEFINE THE HEART: The Heart is the causal core of one's person-hood. (Where the Heart goes, so the behavior follows)

To often we address the behaviors of our children and not the heart. Our children's sinful behaviors flow from sinful attitudes of the heart. Again, behavior is not the problem, behavior is the result of the real problem, the sin problem that exist in the heart.

Lasting change in behavior therefore always travels the path of the heart. Treat the cause and not the symptom. Usually we are too easily satisfied with exchanging bad behavior for good behavior. Being so easily satisfied does not address the deep inward motives of the heart and doesn't produce real change but just smarter sinners who know how not to get caught. On top of this is un-biblical, an anti gospel, a reveals nothing of the way that God is, for God is NOT easily satisfied with mere change in behavior.

There 3 Main ways we treat the externals only.

(none of these deal with the heart)

1. WE THREAT: "If you don't do what I told you to you'll be in big trouble!" This puts you in the central position of God and demands that your children obey your sovereignty or face you wraith, but does teach them to honor an obey the one true God.
2. MANIPULATION: "If you play nice with your sister you'll get a reward." Now the child is in the central position of god, and they will act favorably towards you if you give them the right sacrifice.
3. GUILT: "I work so hard, and this is the thanks I get!?" Your children should learn about what grieves the heart of God, not what upsets you when your inconvenienced and don't feel like parenting the way that God has called you to.

Your call as a parent does not end when you are tired, when its after bed time and you just want them to go to sleep, or you have work to do and they won't leave you alone.

We have no real ability to change the hearts of our children, we can only serve as eye openers to the way that Christ changes hearts. Christ changes hearts through...

Confession & Repentance: Owning personal responsibility (you can't confess what you haven't grieved; you can't grieve what you can't see; you can't repent of what you haven't confessed) Lead your Children to confession.

5 Practical Questions to help get at the heart

(note, the wording and verbiage of each question is not important, but the order is)

1. (Get a grasp of the situation.) What's going on here/What happened?
2. (point them to examine their hearts, to look inward at the real problem) What were you thinking & feeling as this was happening?
3. (examine the behavior that the attitude of the heart birthed) What did you do in response?
4. (examine their motives and goals) Why did you do it/what were you seeking?
5. (get them to own it) What was the result?

CHANGE IS NOT AN EVENT IT IS A PROCESS

These questions don't lead to regenerate gracious Christian, but help to let them see how God views their sin and responds to it. These conversations with these questions happen a 100 times a day and a million times until they are no longer you children and hopefully the God of heaven will use this inward heart evaluation to reveal to them their deepest need for Jesus Christ. This conversation/question model the way that God shape's our own hearts.

It doesn't matter how well adjusted your kids are, if they don't know how to interact with God then they are anything but "ok"! Addressing the externals and not the heart will make your children like the Pharisees, clean on the outside but dirty on the inside

When we are angry at out children we are never actually angry because they have broken God's law, but because they have broken our corrupt laws.

So as parents we need to examine our children by first examining ourselves and our hearts. Start by humbly confessing that you don't want to parent needy whinny kids in the way that God wants you to parent them. Remember that no one gives grace better than someone who knows they need it and celebrates that they have received it.

Nine reasons you should buy Scott Hubbard's art.

1. It supports local art. Local art is important, it just is. Usually it is the creative types in a community, either directly, through charity involvement, or indirectly, through inspiring those with influence, that move the culture forward. Face it, you are influenced by art in one form or another. Sadly guys and gals like Scott, and his wife Jenni, will go by largely unnoticed except by the few that are inspired and influenced by their art. It is important to support local artist, not necessarily to spread their own agendas as some may think, but to spread beauty. Beauty inspires and energized anyone and everyone from all walks of life.

2. It supports a family. Scott is not a "starving artist", he works full time and supports his wife and three boys (Evan, Koji, Wiley). His art suppliments his hard work. You wouldn't be paying someone to sit around and whine and shun their responsibilities for the sake of their "art". In reality it would be awesome if Scott could work full time arting it up, but he can't do that without your support. Scott uses his art primarily to help take care of, and serve his family, and secondly his community. In all my chats with Scott about art, it always drifts back to using art to help people.

3. Each piece is customizable. The piece my wife commissioned for my birthday was made specifically with me in mind. I love rock climbing, and Scott nailed it! My heart lept when my wife have it to me.

4. Incredible detail.  If you look closely at my original Scott Hubbard art, you'll begin to notice terrific detail. The climbing equipment in the belt, the way the climbers foot is bent, is all incredibly accurate. Most impressive is the rock formation in the background, it is an actual rock formation you can visit at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky,  and I was instantly able to recognize it. "That's Chimney Rock!"

5. Each piece is unique and one of a kind. Even if someone where to request the exact same picture as you, there is absolutely no way that any two pieces can be exactly 100% the same. If anything imagine how impossible it would be to find the exact same type of metal to draw your picture on. There is no way you can mad produce these babies, each one has to be made to order.

6. It's just plain awesome.  'Nuff said.

7. It honors the talent involved. With the exception of an occasional straight edge, all of Scott's pieces are hand drawn. I was sitting next to Scott at a local event here in our beloved city. He took out his pen and scrape metal and began to draw the silhouette of the skyline in front of us, using nothing but his eye and his amazing talent.

8. It is environmentally friendly. Scott's canvas of choice is reclaimed pieces of scrap metal. Discarded for whatever reason, Scott reuses these panels for the unique look they give each piece.

9. Did I mention that they are just awesome?

STOP CALLING HOMOSEXUALITY A SIN

"Stop Calling Homosexuality a Sin"

I guess this is shocking coming from me, a Christian who holds to the historical orthodox views of scripture. However two profound conversations have changed my views, not to the historical teachings of the bible, I still very much affirm them, but to the Christian approach on loving and caring for the homosexual community, and the persons therein. I want to share those two moments with you and then explain how I have decided to respond in my life as a witness of the Gospel, to those who find themselves outside the fold of God, especially the LGBT community.

Honestly I don't think its fair to even say that I've "changed" my views, but more accurately I think the church needs to change theirs. Let me be clear I am a part of the church, and I love God's church. So I ask you to hold on with me and think prayerfully about these two stories, search your own heart and ask the creator "How do I live towards the homosexual community that reflects most, God's desire to love them that they may repent?" A big heavy question. I warn that there is a bit of reading a head so for those with short attention spans I will say from the start that my statement "Stop calling homosexuality a sin", has some parameters around it and by the end of this post changes slightly, don't call me a heretic just yet.

The first of these two moments was a blog posted shared by Justin Taylor on his blog over at The Gospel Coalition entitled ''An Open Letter to the Church from a Lesbian". To save you some effort I'll repost the content of that post here...

To the churches concerning homosexuals and lesbians:
Many of you believe that we do not exist within your walls, your schools, your neighborhoods. You believe that we are few and easily recognized. I tell you we are many. We are your teachers, doctors, accountants, high school athletes. We are all colors, shapes, sizes. We are single, married, mothers, fathers. We are your sons, your daughters, your nieces, your nephews, your grandchildren.

We are in your Sunday School classes, pews, choirs, and pulpits. You choose not to see us out of ignorance or because it might upset your congregation. We ARE your congregation. We enter your doors weekly seeking guidance and some glimmer of hope that we can change. Like you, we have invited Jesus into our hearts. Like you, we want to be all that Christ wants us to be. Like you, we pray daily for guidance. Like you, we often fail.

When the word “homosexual” is mentioned in the church, we hold our breaths and sit in fear. Most often this word is followed with condemnation, laughter, hatred, or jokes. Rarely do we hear any words of hope. At least we recognize our sin. Does the church as a whole see theirs? Do you see the sin of pride, that you are better than or more acceptable to Jesus than we are?

Have you been Christ-like in your relationships with us? Would you meet us at the well, or restaurant, for a cup of water, or coffee? Would you touch us even if we showed signs of leprosy, or aids? Would you call us down from our trees, as Christ did Zacchaeus, and invite yourself to be our guest? Would you allow us to sit at your table and break bread? Can you love us unconditionally and support us as Christ works in our lives, as He works in yours, to help us all to overcome?

To those of you who would change the church to accept the gay community and its lifestyle: you give us no hope at all. To those of us who know God’s word and will not dilute it to fit our desires, we ask you to read John’s letter to the church in Pergamum. “I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore!” You are willing to compromise the word of God to be politically correct. We are not deceived. If we accept your willingness to compromise, then we must also compromise.

We must therefore accept your lying, your adultery, your lust, your idolatry, your addictions, YOUR sins. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
We do not ask for your acceptance of our sins any more than we accept yours. We simply ask for the same support, love, guidance, and most of all hope that is given to the rest of your congregation. We are your brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not what we shall be, but thank God, we are not what we were. Let us work together to see that we all arrive safely home.
A Sister in Christ

For me, my inner skeptic takes over, I want to know the real deal behind this letter. Is it authentic? Does it reflect the hope of other members of this community? That is, are there other homosexuals that feel this way? I think the letter is profound and full of truth, it does show an understanding of the Gospel and the message of the bible, and I think the application is sound. (I'll share a few of my favorite tidbits later.) What makes this letter even more profound is the second conversation I had following it.

I am not going to pretend that I have tons of homosexual friends, therefore I am a great accepting tolerant Christian, I don't, but I do have two that I genuinely consider friends. I would have no problem sharing a meal or my home with them, I would even share what I love the most with them, the Gospel. One of these two homosexual men is actually a guy I grew up in church with, and fortunately is also my best means to verify the feelings and emotions in this article. Here is our facebook convo...

• Samuel ChaseHey JM, I didnt want to post this on your wall and cause any sort of weirdness... but I came across this letter apparently written to a church by a gay woman. A while ago we talked across facebook, and I said that I am always trying to be more compassionate because I think Jesus was always compassionate. So I though it would be sensitive of me to send you the link in a private message and just simply ask your thoughts so that I can be more understanding and caring to all people. I thought the letter was pretty thought provoking. I really appreciate your time and your insights.http://thegospelcoalition.org/mobile/article/justintaylor/an-open-letter-to-the-church-from-a-lesbian
  

  10:17pmJMNot ignoring you I'm out right now, ill read and respond tomorrow10:17pmSamuel Mary Chasethanks bud, no hurry, again I really appreciate it!10:18pmJMAnytime!
  

  • Friday

  1:36pmJMVery interesting article. From my experience with the gay world, most people won't go to church because they either feel like they would be attacked as soon as they walk in the doors or that they know what the bible says so why bother. For me, I still go to church. I've been gay for as long as I can remember, it's like someone telling you that you can't be straight, that it's a sin. To me it's something I can't help. But I still believe in god and I'm still the same person I have always been. I didn't wake up one day and just decide to be gay, trust me, and most of my gay friends agree, we would all much rather be straight lol. As for the church, I think they need to not be "accepting" per say, but needs to have more grace and compassion. If loving another person truly is a sin, than like the letter says, the church needs to realize that everyone sins. That's just my view point lol
  

  • Today

  9:20amSamuel ChaseThanks so much for your input JM! I think you're right on my friend, there is plenty of room for grace and compassion, unfortunately Christians for some dumb reason have a hard time showing it. I think good conversations like this go a long way to changing that.

  
  
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Here is his specific response to the article again for you consideration...

"Very interesting article. From my experience with the gay world, most people won't go to church because they either feel like they would be attacked as soon as they walk in the doors or that they know what the bible says so why bother. For me, I still go to church. I've been gay for as long as I can remember, it's like someone telling you that you can't be straight, that it's a sin. To me it's something I can't help. But I still believe in god and I'm still the same person I have always been. I didn't wake up one day and just decide to be gay, trust me, and most of my gay friends agree, we would all much rather be straight lol. As for the church, I think they need to not be "accepting" per say, but needs to have more grace and compassion. If loving another person truly is a sin, than like the letter says, the church needs to realize that everyone sins. That's just my view point lol"

 Now for the tidbits, or my attempt to tie these strings of thought together.

Both responses do not want acceptance, the first letter openly denounces "acceptance", and my friend's facebook response says that it is not necessarily, or as he puts it "per say" what is needed. What both the letter and the response say is that grace, compassion, and the "open letter" would also add hope as being the most needed. The great thing about this is that the bible prescribes these three things to the brokenness of all sinners, the prideful Christians like me, and the homosexuals like my friend. Both sins are just as damnable as the other, both sins, and all sins for that matter, need the Grace of Jesus Christ, both sinners need him to look upon us with compassion, and for any and all between this is our only true hope. That's right, I just dropped some gospel on you.

The problem is not acceptance, although that is the word most would use, what they want is to be loved and given hope, that is what I want most for myself, and I think love and hope is what brings us into acceptance This is hard for us to do, one because of our own sinfulness, and two its just hard to grasp. Its is the same as the very nature of Christendom itself, it is both completely "inclusive", everyone is invited, and completely "exclusive", but not all will come, at the same time. I believe this, Jesus saves both the homosexual and the bigot alike and delivers them from their sin, and further more they are both accepted by the Father based on the acceptance of Jesus, who is fully accepted.

I hope you do not hear me saying that homosexuality is not a sin, or that all people will go to heaven, I do not believe this. I do believe that any homosexual that places their hope fully and truly in Jesus Christ will be given the reward of sons from the Father. That statement will lose some of my Christian friends that are unable to read through the lines and see what I am saying.

Let me start to end with an example from the bible. 

(Joh 8:2)  Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
(Joh 8:3)  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
(Joh 8:4)  they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
(Joh 8:5)  Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"
(Joh 8:6)  This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
(Joh 8:7)  And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
(Joh 8:8)  And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
(Joh 8:9)  But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
(Joh 8:10)  Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
(Joh 8:11)  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."

Jesus had every right to cast the stone, he has never sinned and he is the giver of life and it is his right to take it. Instead, he holds back his right to stone, and sees this woman's need NOT for further condemnation, but for rescue. What if we, as Christians stopped showing our condemnation but instead offered the grace, hope and compassion that Christ has shown us. Stop arguing over whether or not they "choose this lifestyle" or if they are "born that way", and instead identify with our LGBT brothers and sisters in the same thing that is true for both of us, we need grace! In other words, what if we confessed and repented of our sins openly that others might see humility instead of bigotry? Stop using persecution as your excuse to why people don't understand or call you a bigot, you may just actually be a jerk.

Surely this issue is surround by much emotion and passion, but the cross is surrounded by even greater emotion and passion. What I see expressed in both of these conversations is that my gay friend and the lesbian who wrote the letter are very aware of their need for grace, so maybe instead of emphasizing their distance from grace to where they feel further from it, why don't we compassionately tell them of our hope that they would draw near themselves? Remember, you cant save anyone, you cant make someone love Jesus, but you can love them yourself.

So why should I "STOP CALLING HOMOSEXUALITY A SIN"? Alright  time to come clean, let me confess, the title is meant to hopefully draw you into this conversation. So let me offer some concessions. I am not saying the we should stop calling certain actions sin, or sinful, if asked directly we should always answer biblically.  I am saying this "STOP CALLING HOMOSEXUALS (the people involved) SINNERS"! See what I did there. This is not "Hate the sin and love the sinner", I'm actually not a big fan of that idea. This IS remember that you too ARE a sinner, but Christ has called you "Son", and just maybe the homosexuals that we keep calling sinners will one day be called "Son" as well. I believe that heaping more condemnation on a sinner is the least effective way to help them know and trust Jesus, and if it is ever successful they came to Jesus by guilt and not by grace.

I dont need to tell my friend that he is a sinner, or the woman who wrote the letter, I DO, however, need to assure them that their only hope is the same as my only hope, Jesus. Notice that both responses to the issue suggest that the Church lead in confession and repentance of it's sin first. I think they are absolutely right. We are all sinners, I am the worst sinner that I know, and I humbly ask that anyone, regardless of you sexual preference, follow me in repentance, as I try my best to follow Christ. If you are nervous, I understand, it is hard, but Jesus is absolutely splendid, and I cant wait for you to meet him!

I am afraid my stance on this issues is probably not harsh enough for either the left or the right. To sum up my position for those of you who are wondering even though it is not the main thrust of this article...

"I support wholeheartedly any attempt to find meaning value purpose and hope, I may however, disagree on the means that you use to achieve it, and the things that you believe will ultimately give it to you. If Gay Marriage is permitted, my opinions to the matter aside, I will continue to love for and care for and show the greater grace and compassion, that has been shown to me by Christ, to all my homosexual friends. Doing this would have probably prevented much of the fuss that Christianity finds itself in. On marriage I would say this to anyone, hetero or homosexual. Marriage is not held together by love alone, it is important yes, but merely a part of a much larger machine, more than feelings and even desires that lead to love are desperately needed. Secondly all humans desire a few essential things. Meaning, Value, Purpose and Hope.

It has been my experience that marriage does not give any of these things, but exposes my even greater need for them. That is marriage, if understood rightly, pushes us to something beyond itself. What it pushes us too is ultimately up for debate, and I believe this is the real issue. I have found, that in all my vain pursuits, Christ has given to me more meaning, value, purpose and hope than any thing else. Again, the real issue is this. "What can truly add to our heart and soul the ultimate satisfaction that they so desperately crave?" In other words; "What can give us our deepest desires?" Love is not sufficient, marriage is not sufficient, however, Christ is sufficient. Whether you hear me or not, or completely misunderstand what I am saying, I encourage you to do whatever you think will make you the most happy. Do what will give you ULTIMATE meaning, value, purpose and hope. This is where true joy is found. If you find it, please let me know, although if I were you I would not settle for anything less than perfection."

For the Christian Readers...

"Be careful not to label disagreements over agendas, political issues, personal beliefs and silly things like status updates as persecution. As serious as they may be, this is not persecution. Ask the guy with nails in his hand if this is what he meant by persecution."

There, now that I have offended everyone let me end. The Holy Spirit convicts and draws people away from their sin, it just simply is not our job or even in our ability. It is our job to be truthful to the teachings of scripture, to be marked by compassion, overflowing with grace, and ever telling of the greatest hope the world has ever known for its rescue, Jesus. Let me end with the latest message my friend just sent me today.

• Samuel Mary Chase
  

  
  

  Thanks so much for your input JM! I think you're right on my friend, there is plenty of room for grace and compassion, unfortunately Christians for some dumb reason have a hard time showing it. I think good conversations like this go a long way to changing that.
• 11:25am
  

  JM
  

  
  

  I agree, good conversations really do go a long way!

God is Holy, We (especially Christians) are sinful and Christ is sufficient.

Grace&Peace

Slavery and Bondage:Pt3

So I have been away for a while, like over a year while...but seeing as I am the sole contributor, and probably reader, of this blog I guess its not a big deal. The reason I started this blog is two fold; I needed an outlet and secondly a certain life event led me here to start this blog, and similarly a life event has brought me back. As to the first life event you can learn about that here and here, and the second life event is much more simple. I told my wife about the blog, read a couple entries to her, and she said it was good, so if she thinks its good then I will try my best to be a more faithful poster.

This entry requires a brief, or as brief as I am capable of being, explanation. Its actually part 3 of a series (if you cant tell by the title), its not that I didn't have a conclusion previously, its just that my life shifted drastically and my attention was required elsewhere, and with good reason. Now I will briefly sum up the previous two post and their main points, or you can just go back to the archive and read them for yourself. In the first post I question the idea of freedom, freedom nowadays is usually summed up on the ground level as "People should be allowed to do what they want!" which if we really think about it is utterly ridiculous. So to fix this we normally add to it by saying something like "as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else." Sounds nice, but this does not fix the problem, you cannot give people the leeway to be completely selfish and permit them to do everything and expect it not to affect anyone else negatively. We could go into endless examples I am sure.

In the second post we dived into the lies that dominate this way of thinking, and how they are kept hidden from us. Things like the illusion that we are in control, that we are basically good and we would never do anything destructive or hurtful with our freedom; in-spite of all human history as evidence to the contrary. Then we talked about the false identity your  "freedom" wants to put on you. Let me give one example of this.

I have now three daughters (prayers are appreciated), I consider it an honor to protect their purity, I hope that all three hold back from sex until they are married. This is not idealism, or some vain hope, but in conversations, even with well meaning people, they always say "well, wait until they are teenagers." They assume that teenagers have to experiment with sex or that they are most likely going to, and here is the thing...That may very well be my daughters story one day, but just because it happens, and even if it happens to the majority, it does not mean it has to be my girls story. I hope that this is something that I make clear to them all of their lives. That the truth is that whatever is considered normal in their culture "does NOT have to be their story." The identity being forced on them is this goofy overly sexualized idea of adolescence, and by telling them that this doesn't have to be their story, I am actually giving them more freedom in how they choose to shape their lives

In a nutshell, our westernish concept of freedom is hacked up in such a way that it actually binds us up. 

So here is the kicker, this is where I attempt to bring it all home. We are all bound, a "slave" if you will, to something. Its just obvious if we ever take a time out to look at ourselves and the world around us. Everyone is living for something, but this false "freedom" wants you to think that you are totally in control, the master of your destiny, which is also a silly notion if we really think about it. The follow through lie then offered to us is that you, unlike everyone else, are serving something positive, that your motives are pure. I want to offer myself up as an example to hopefully disprove this to you.

I previously mentioned my daughters, and I think through very specific and intentional things to hopefully teach, love and serve my daughters well. No one would fault me for this, but I am constantly drawn back to my motives for doing so. The Christian answer is that I do these thing for the Glory of God, because he loves my daughters more than I do, and he gave them to me to learn how to steward hearts and sacrifice and consider others better than myself, and sometimes, by God's grace and not my strength, this is absolutely where my heart and my motives are. However, I would be lying if I said this was the reality all of the time, or even most of the time. Normally its because I want my daughters to comply, to serve my kingdom, I want them to behave to spare myself some embarrassment  or I want others to see how good of a parent I am or I just want them to be well behaved.

So I want you to do two things for me. Examine yourself for a moment and figure out what your master is, and the what are your motives for chasing it down, are they really pure? Go ahead, I'll wait...

Usually people tend to think that the bible is about morality, and although it does contain morals, and does have something to say about morality, this view of the bible is simply lacking and untrue, it is not merely about morality, not even barely about morality. So with confidence, and evidence to show this that can be saved for a different post, I want to share a scripture that proves my point. Maybe you don't believe in all this stuff, then please just humor me and go on this journey in a hypothetical sense. If the bible is the word of God then we should probably pay very close attention when Jesus is speaking. I think this is a fare assumption, so Jesus tells us, recorded in two gospels that we all serve a master, and in fact it is impossible to serve two masters at once, you will hate one and love the other.

How does this tie in? Well Jesus is telling us that there really is no freedom, at least not in the American since. There are masters and slaves, and for those of us that think we are truly free we are really only fooling ourselves. I am sure it wouldn't take too long in conversation to find out what you truly value and how it controls you. You may for instance be a slave to money, so you spend endless amounts of time at work and ignore your family (I know there are variables to this, but this is a pretty straightforward and easy example.) You may get to be closer to your master, and may convince yourself that you did all of this for your family, but the sacrifice you pay is that your kids may not have a relationship with their father. You chased the happiness you thought the money would bring at the cost of the joy you would of had spending time with your family. However, you can go the opposite way and live for and idolize and worship your family, specifically your children. If we want to see this in action go watch toddlers & tiaras, there are just too many problems to name with that show.

So Jesus identifies that we all serve a master, and in his statement he suggest that its either him or someone or something else. Fundamentalist would say the "devil" which may be true in part, but the whole answer is actually much broader. It is that we either serve Jesus or anything else. Whatever we place our ultimate hope in trust in, even if that is ourselves, is our master. So Jesus draws a pretty solid line, and later the apostle Paul clings to this identity that Jesus offers, in his letter to the Romans he even introduces himself as a slave to Christ. The reason you and I dont, is because we dont really understand what is being offered two us, and in our foolish little hearts we think that we can find the goodness that Christ offers in things other than him. It really is that simple.

We want the benefits of serving Christ without actually serving Christ. It's very common, and very appealing. Maybe my hiatus didn't help to tie all three post together neatly, but at the very least, maybe there is some food for thought.