‘Tis The Season

We know that there are seasons in our lives. Mainly, we do not think of them beyond Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall. Yet, now, I feel that we have arrived at the season of grieving.

Ecclesiastes 3 says: There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct,

A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace. (verses 1-8, MSG)

 

I find that there is a definite heaviness to all that is happening in our world right now. The massacre in Orlando, the shooting death of a family in New Mexico by the father, the shooting death of The Voice singer, the death of the 2 year old…and the politics that are swarming in and callously pushing their agendas. Where is the compassion and the empathy? The thing is that no one even pretends to care anymore.

Social media has placed us in a place of cold distance, a place to be a bully and to be abusive, to call names and to gossip. I am ashamed to admit that it still hurts me deeply that a family member called me a bigot. I can be a strong force for what I believe, yet the emotional, mental, and verbal abuse is not needed. I never said you have to agree with me. It would be great to feel loved, though.

We see an amazing outreach online, as well. Times of compassion and genuine love. I think that is the only reason that the internet and social media can still be as popular as it is. The Bible tells us that a soul can survive when a body is sick, but no body can survive a broken soul. That is so true.

I have wept a great deal of late. I have thought about the loss experienced by so many, the fear that takes hold of hearts and minds, the trauma that comes in the aftermath, the healing, the struggle…yet, life. Seasons. Why are we in a season of grieving?

Truly, America and most churches have left the Word of God and have begun to do whatever feels good in the moment. While we’ve allowed sin to prosper and grow without concern, we are seeing two extremes: the love and accept everything mantra and the hate-filled and anti-Christ screaming. In between, however, are the ones that are trying, trying so desperately, to live love and speak truth.

Our hearts are heavy, our minds are plagued, our souls are wounded, and the world continues to spiral into ungodliness. We actually expect this because God’s Word tells us this is the way it must go as we draw nearer and nearer to the return of Christ.

But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift. (Ecclesiastes 3:9-13, MSG)

Solomon reached a place where he despaired of life. Why? Because he had it all! He was wise and wealthy beyond measure. He was feared and adored. He was king and he had royalty from other lands coming to him for guidance and bringing gifts to him. He built the Temple of the Lord. He had many wives and hundreds of concubines. He had peace and victory. Yet, his soul was in turmoil. Why? Because he wasn’t focused on God anymore. He had turned his attention to the temporal pleasures of this world and the above portion of Scripture shows the depth of despair that filled his heart.

This world is seductive and the devil wants nothing more than for us to live in the dredges of morality so that we are bound by shame and sin and temptation. 2 Timothy 3:1-9 says, “Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people. These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself “truth.” They get exploited every time and never really learn. These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were rejects from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself. But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax.” (MSG)

Essentially, and more powerfully, we are living in a world that is “holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith].” (AMP, verse 5) This is what we’re seeing lived out this very day. And it’s getting worse.

Matt Walsh wrote a blog that encouraged Christians to stand. Even in the midst of all that goes on, we need to stand. We don’t need to stand the way that Westboro Baptist Church chooses to stand, by attacking anyone and everyone, but rather we need to stand as Christ stood, declaring God’s truth, living with joy, and being obedient to the Word of God. We need to stand for what we believe and live for what we believe.

It is far easier to just shrug our shoulders and go with the flow. Even dead fish flow downstream. People may wonder why it matters so much, and the reason is simple and sound: eternity. It matters because it isn’t just the here and now…it’s forever. It’s eternal. There is much more at stake than feelings and temptations. We are talking about the soul that lives on forever…either in the presence of God or eternally separated from Him.

Consider that we have never, ever experienced a day without feeling the presence of God. He is everywhere. He is all around us. He is in us and flows through us. There has never been a day when He has abandoned us. We have no concept of the torture we would face on the other side of this life, when we are truly separated from God and His presence since we rejected His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus felt this separation for us on the Cross, when He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” In that moment, He felt the true separation from God because in that moment, He took our sin and penalty upon Himself. All at once, He felt the separation that sin creates between unholy people and a holy God. Even with this, I don’t believe that He experienced the ultimate separation that those who die in their sins ultimately feel.

God is calling us to turn from our wicked ways and repent. We cannot expect the nation to do so. The sign of the times are glaringly obvious. Yet, we must do so as the Bride of Christ, as the church, as followers of Christ. We must set aside our approved of sins and align our lives under God, bringing our flesh under control, and presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him (Romans 12).

“I’ve also concluded that whatever God does, that’s the way it’s going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God’s done it and that’s it. That’s so we’ll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear. Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That’s how it always is with God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15, MSG)

 

True Christians will not watch or read 50 Shades of Grey

Voyeurism is a sin, even though Hollywood tries to tell us it’s okay. MHC states, “And if we share with others in their sins, we must expect to share in their plagues.” Truth.

In 1995, a highly sexualized film, Kids, was released in theaters with a rating of NC-17. Rarely is such a rating given. This rating means that no one, absolutely NO ONE, under the age of 17 would be admitted, even if they are with their parents or legal guardians. R-rated movies are all at the parental discretion and I do not know if theaters even check the age of the ticket purchasers or guard the doors for those that would sneak in.

Fast forward 20 years and we have Fifty Shades of Grey and it is rated, not NC-17, no, but rather an R rating, based on “the MPAA designated the R rating based on “strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity.”

Kids was “rated NC-17 for graphic sexuality and drug use involving teens, and a brutal beating.”

Graphic sexuality involving teens…graphic nudity and “unusual behavior”…call 50 Shades of Grey what it is: Pornography. No Christian WHATSOEVER, no person who claims any form of godliness, will watch this film. Period. There is no justification in any way, shape or form for a godly person to see this. Ephesians 5:3 (NIV), But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

Matthew Henry Commentary: Filthy lusts must be rooted out. These sins must be dreaded and detested. Here are not only cautions against gross acts of sin, but against what some may make light of. But these things are so far from being profitable. that they pollute and poison the hearers. Our cheerfulness should show itself as becomes Christians, in what may tend to God’s glory. A covetous man makes a god of his money; places that hope, confidence, and delight, in worldly good, which should be in God only. Those who allow themselves, either in the lusts of the flesh or the love of the world, belong not to the kingdom of grace, nor shall they come to the kingdom of glory. When the vilest transgressors repent and believe the gospel, they become children of obedience, from whom God’s wrath is turned away. Dare we make light of that which brings down the wrath of God? Sinners, like men in the dark, are going they know not whither, and doing they know not what. But the grace of God wrought a mighty change in the souls of many. Walk as children of light, as having knowledge and holiness. These works of darkness are unfruitful, whatever profit they may boast; for they end in the destruction of the impenitent sinner. There are many ways of abetting, or taking part in the sins of others; by commendation, counsel, consent, or concealment. And if we share with others in their sins, we must expect to share in their plagues. If we do not reprove the sins of others, we have fellowship with them. A good man will be ashamed to speak of what many wicked men are not ashamed to do. We must have not only a sight and a knowledge that sin is sin, and in some measure shameful, but see it as a breach of God’s holy law. After the example of prophets and apostles, we should call on those asleep and dead in sin, to awake and arise, that Christ may give them light.

Have we lost our focus?

I think we’re losing our reason/focus for maintaining our purity. It isn’t for our future spouse so much as it is for ourselves. The Bible states it simply:

13 You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!14-15 God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.
16-20 There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
-1 Corinthians 6, The Message

Simply put, we stay pure because God wants us to stay pure. We abstain from sex outside of marriage because it is the healthiest thing to do for ourselves. As with anything in life, if you do it for what might be or who might care, it won’t last. The only person that can inspire right living in me is Jesus Christ. It is Him that I desire to please, not because of who He might be to me one day or because He might love me one day or because He might be in my life one day, but because of who He is in my life right now and because He loved me first and pursued me first and chose me first and still loves me today and because it is my great delight to honor Him with my life.

For those that have already made those choices, or had them made for them, there is forgiveness and renewal and peace and comfort and no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Yet, we must be very, very careful not to downplay the cost of sin in order to soothe our souls. Sin is expensive and though we are forgiven, there is a grave danger in churches today where we lessen sin in an attempt to make us feel better about ourselves. Rather, let us say, “Yes, I have failed and I have fallen and I wish I never had. Yet, I am saved and redeemed and a new creation in Christ. The old me has passed away and I am not who I once was. My past does not define me.” From there, we can explain the truth that one will reap what they sow and that the consequences of our choices do exist, without feeling judged or lower than others or of less value, and in so doing, instill the truth that sin is sin is sin and one must not excuse it or dabble in it or play around in it, just because others have before us.

Does this make sense?

Purity: The New Bad Word Of The Church

Years ago, I never would have even given purity a second thought. Now, it permeates my heart and mind and life and everything I do and do not do is measured against it. Purity.

I grew up like every girl did: dreaming of romance and love and fun adventures with friends. I lived out my life daring myself to reach past the barriers and experience all that life had to offer. Sadly, I was reaching out to sin, not to Christ, so I was only getting the pain and the wounds and the darkness of life, none of the joy or peace or prosperity or comfort that Christ brings.

The scars still exist, but the wounds have healed.

I don’t think anything has damaged me more than my loss of purity and innocence. Thankfully, I was protected by my loving Father and never had boyfriends. He covered me in so many ways. Just like the majority of us, the damage inflicted on my purity was primarily by my own actions.

Much later in life, I began to desire to be clean. I was serving God, and had been for many years, and the weight of bondage kept me from gaining any traction. I struggled to overcome anything, due to the things that held me tightly in their grasps. I knew that I could have freedom, for Christ promised us that and purchased it for us on the Cross, but I seemed to be stuck in a vicious cycle and there was no hope I’d ever get out.

When I fully turned my focus on Christ, things changed, and I was free for two or so years. I slowly began to look for studies and conferences on purity, in the hopes that I could find others like me, others that struggled in the darkness and now longed for the light. Alas, the studies were few and far between and the one purity conference I had discovered in my area were for youth groups only.

Set adrift, God revealed the call of purity onto my life in a light way. “Study it for yourself,” He said. And so I began.

It feels like centuries since that happened, and so much has happened since, but it has only been 5 or 7 years. And, in that time, it has come for mere purity to radical purity and a call so foreign in this day and age that it frightens people when I speak of it.

No one wants to believe that they can do more in regards to purity’s call. It requires too much, doesn’t it? I mean, what would you have to let go of? What would you have to release from your life? Who would you have to walk away from? What would you have to stop doing? Too much. Just too much.

When you consider the fact that purity covers all of your life: Heart, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Body and Eyes…it’s a pretty big call. Too big for most. It’s easier to let the little compromises of life have their way. It’s easier to watch what you want and listen to what you want and say what you want, than to try to be radical in the realm of purity.

Sadly, purity is not preached anymore. I have yet to hear it touched on. I had thought, a few months ago, that God was bringing our church to a new level of purity, to a new place. I could almost feel it vibrating in my soul. However, this is not the case. I stand here and I think, “Well, Lord, I know now that I must carry on alone, until the time when You send others to walk alongside me.”

Radical purity is a lonely road.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, due to the loneliness of this road, I am procrastinating as best as I know how. But, I cannot do that any longer. There is a call to purity, a call to radical purity, that the church refuses to hear. Purity has become the bad word of the church today, along with modesty. The fact that churches now embrace sexual sin as normal shows us how far we’ve drifted from the call of God.

Did we truly forget that Christ has called us to be holy as He is holy? Have we truly lost sight of what holiness is? We wrap up our sin in a veil of grace and continue on our merry way, ignoring the warning signs and the traps laid by the enemy to snare our souls.

Consider the fact that most single’s ministries are actually dating clubs. Consider the fact that there are actually Christian dating sites and Christian speed dating and that they are popular. Consider the fact that women have been date raped on a first date with a man they met on said sites…meaning that they had to be alone with a strange man in order for that to happen. Consider the fact that our teen girls cringe at the word ‘modesty’ and consider it to mean ugly, out-dated and out of fashion. Consider the last time you heard a sermon on purity from the pulpit in your church. Consider the fact that, due to lack of understanding, our young girls are lured out of the church by flattery, not knowing the difference between genuine compliments and false flattery. Consider the fact that many women were low-cut blouses daily, including Sunday, showing more than they ever should. Consider the amounts of affairs that happen within the ministry and within the church due to people ignoring the warning signs and spending time alone in mixed company, selling their hearts through emotional entanglements, and losing more than they thought possible by falling into fornication and affairs.

I wonder, does the church want to change, or do they desire to just keep going on and on down this road? Where is our desire for purity? Where is our longing for it in our own lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ? Why is the subject taboo, hidden under the guise of grace and mercy and love? Deal with the sins of the people. Stop tap dancing around the truth.

Tolerance is the god of America

I read a post and shied away from answering it, which I have done a great deal of late. I fear the response of men, and why should I? I don’t know. I blame the influx of the words “intolerant”, “bigot”, “hatemonger”, and “judgmental”. Finally, I decided, well, letting ignorance go unchallenged is the same as being ignorant yourself. Thus, I replied.

 

So, the post was about gay marriage, which is primary in the news today. There are three sides: one is the equality sign tossed all over the internet like candy at a parade, another is the one man+one woman message that is actually being shared just as readily, and the third is absolute and complete avoidance of the subject altogether.

 

I began commenting about, first of all, why the homosexual lifestyle is not something I embrace. Now, let me take a moment here to say that I do not hate those that have chosen this lifestyle, however it is the lifestyle itself that I take issue with. So, my post read:

 

When it comes to homosexuality, I refer to Romans 1:18-32. Verses 26-27 tells us that men and women abandoned the natural way and did shameful things, men with men and women with women, and thus suffered the penalty within themselves.

 

The response to this was not horrible, thankfully, but one man commented something that triggered another response in me…in a good way. He said:

 

Where do you draw the line on peoples rights? Let us suppose that after we allow gay marriage, then someone wants to marry more than one person at a time…or pedophiles want acceptance like in Greece…or people want the right to be married to animals? Where should we say no?

 

I have oftentimes compared homosexuality to pedophilia in that sense, where do we draw the line? Homosexuals feel that they were born that way and cannot help it. Well, I daresay that pedophiles feel much the same way. And, add this, that a great deal of people say that they can’t help who they’re attracted to. This can be used to defend the foulness of pedophilia too. So, where do we draw the line? My response was:

 

That is part of my argument, too.  Where do we draw the line, ultimately? Once we redefine marriage, we open the door to a great deal more.

 

So, of course, the dialog is then opened up to the debate about judging others. We are called not to judge lest we ourselves be judged. Now, we look at that with a skewed eye, I believe. What is the fear in that? I will be judged, according to my life and the choices I’ve made, or failed to make. Now, it says that we will be judged by the same measure. If I am calling people out of sexual immorality and yet living a sexually immoral life myself, not only am I a hypocrite, but yes, beware the judgment. I think, however, that this is tossed about so much that Christians are afraid to stand up and challenge immorality.

 

Okay, I am not talking about slapping people around with your words or physically. Any correction must be done in love. You can’t just stand on a rooftop and call out all sinners and start spewing judgment. But, we are called to stand for the moral laws of God, for the right living, not to look the other way and let immorality run roughshod over ourselves, our families, and our nations. Look at the prophets. They spoke God’s words, God’s judgment, without being called intolerant. If you don’t believe me, read Isaiah.

 

So, here was my response to the love and tolerance debate, the not-judging others debate, though I feel I gained better traction in this blog than I did in my original response.

 

I believe the Bible is there partly for us to uphold the moral law of God. We are in danger of being cowed into corners under the label of tolerance, thinly disguised as love. Look at the price of love. Jesus loved us enough to die for us, for the very sins we ‘tolerate’ because we don’t want to appear unloving. Jesus loves me and He deals with me in regards to my sins and immorality. “Go and sin no more,” He says. Is it truly love to accept sin under the label of tolerance and let thousands fall into eternal judgment? I am my own harshest judge. I do not claim perfection. I also do not ask that others accept my sinful practices as [being] a part of me. I want to be called to the mat because I belong to Christ and when I see Him in eternity, I want it to be as my Savior.

 

We are raising up wishy-washy Christians due to tolerance. We tell them to love their neighbor, which is one hundred percent true, yet we define love as acceptance. Accept them for who they are, don’t challenge them, eventually they will see the truth because of your love. Jesus loved and He challenged. Even those close to Him were not safe from being called out. Why do we think that love is silent? Why do we think that love is accepting of sin?

 

Here is the issue for me: people are going to Hell. Every single day, people are dying and will stand before God and face the second death because tolerance said that what they were doing was okay. Tolerance is the new god of America. Be tolerant, its worshippers say, and that shows that you love them. Look the other way, tolerance says, and let them do as they will. What’s the harm?

 

The harm is eternal! The choices we make now and today dictate eternity. Today is temporal. The things of this earth, the passionate love affairs and the sinful indulgences are here for a mere second, a whoosh of breath, but the consequences are eternal. Unless…

 

Unless you repent of your sins, turn to Christ and accept Him as Lord and Savior, and go and sin no more. Now, we are all human and we will make mistakes. There is a difference between living for God and being human and making mistakes here and there or using grace, love, tolerance, and judgmental labeling in order to willfully continue sinning. The difference is life and death.

 

Due to this temporal world being so visible to us, it is easy to forget that we have lasting consequences for our choices. There are days when I wonder why I still draw breath, being so rebellious against God, but He is ever patient, ever merciful, far beyond what I deserve. Yet, one must remember that He is also just, which means that no sin will be excused. The only reason my sin is gone is because Jesus Christ paid the price for it on the cross. My debt is paid because I repented and am walking the path beside Him, not excusing my sinful ways, but seeking His will and strength to change and be completely set free from sin.

 

Tolerance is the god of America and I will not bow down to it. I will not turn aside and say, “Eh, to each his own. They love each other. That’s all that matters.” Because, honestly, we are not here for ourselves. We are here for God. He is all that matters. And whatever is contrary to His design and will and purpose is not to be accepted. Otherwise, this life truly has no point and let the immorality rage.

 

NOTE: there were a lot more responses to this post, but I’ve only included mine and one other’s, as that was what worked for my blog entry. This dialog was between four of us.