Pseudo-christian and Religious Freedom

With all the recent news of Kim Davis and gay marriage, as in the past, I see individuals posting comments that basically can be summed up as this, “I am a Christian and Kim is a disgrace to Christianity”.

In reality it is the very opposite. Sure she has a sordid past, but don’t we all? God doesn’t save saints, He saves sinners. What she is saying is Biblical Truth. The problem is not the sword of Biblical Truth she is wielding, the problem is she’s swinging it on the wrong battlefield. Though they are trying to spin it as such, this is not an attack on religious freedom. As the judge noted, she is simply choosing not to do her job and issue certificates. Albert Mohler did an excellent job of breaking down this particular situation:

http://www.albertmohler.com/2015/09/03/in-this-world-you-will-have-trouble-welcome-to-rowan-county/

I had the same thought when I first read about this, Jesus said give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Doing your job issuing certificates for the government as an elected county clerk is not condoning or attaching yourself to the act. Now compare that with attending and taking part in the actual celebration of the wedding as a guest…that is condoning the act and a situation a true Christian would have to decline to attend. So Kim chose an unnecessary battle. Please, just issue the certificates and also just bake the cakes people, you are just providing a service. As for the private businesses, use that as an opportunity to share the Gospel. If they don’t want to hear it, they can take their business elsewhere and you won’t get sued for discrimination because you declined to provide a service. The reality is if you are going to decline to open your doors to homosexuals based on Biblical principles, you can’t just choose that one sin, you must apply that position across the board for all sins, and at that point, you would not have one customer. You wouldn’t even be able to issue yourself a marriage certificate or bake yourself a cake.

Back to the pseudo-christian. God’s Word, our conscience, and biological function is very clear. If you are finding a way to justify any sin, whether it is homosexuality, adultery, stealing, coveting, etc., then you are an idolater who has created and follows a god that does not exist. When I see one of those comments, it is just evidence that with all the social\morality discourse right now, the wheat is being separated from the chaff. Pseudo-christians are being exposed and true Christians are standing out brighter in the darkness, even if it is the wrong place…Kim.

Sin is Sin, Including Homosexuality and Lesbianism

In my life, homosexuality and lesbianism seems to be more and more of a regular encounter.  Personally, my uncle lived a homosexual life.  Over the course of my life in recent years I have come across multiple individuals who live in this type of lifestyle.  Many of these individuals are more pleasant to be around than heterosexual friends who struggle with other sinful issues. I love the Ellen Show and she seems to be a wonderful person, so I don’t have homophobia or an angst against humans caught in this sinful web.

Off the bat, I direct you to http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/70-18-2.htm to read a detailed, enlightening and informational dialogue by John MacArthur using Scripture as support…and to sum it up, sin is sin.

We have all been born with different challenges, different vices that demand our attention.  Some of us struggle with gluttony, some with alcohol, some with an ego the size of Texas, and some of us are drawn to the same sex.  Sin is sin, no matter what you say, the Truth is the Truth.  To say one is born that way is a futile excuse to condone the act.

I have major sympathy for homosexuals based upon my personal experience with my uncle.  He was the sweetest, kindest, gentlest person I ever knew but he gave himself over to a temptation that ultimately destroyed him and he is no longer with us.  Consequently, his loving partner stole all is wealth on his death bed from my mother which my uncle had promised her, but don’t get me wrong, the money is not important, the end result of his actions is just further evidence of the baseness of this lifestyle and the self-pleasuring arrogance it harbors.  His partner now prowls around town in a new sports car with the plates “2hot4u”, or something like that, and may God have mercy on his soul.

Our society is slowly being handed over to this as the advocates of it’s legitimacy push for rights as a minority as if they are a race.  Just another thread being unraveled from the moral tapestry our world is based upon.  Just like after the Romans accepted all and any act as okay and eventually was destroyed, our country is on the same path.  Not a surprise, it is all written in the Word and expected, so I sit as a casual observer doing what I can to help those around me and pray they are able to pry the talons of this smothering sin from their lives and find the Truth before God hands them over to their perverse desires.

I find the following an excellent answer to, “What is life all about?”, by Rick Warren.  I may not be on board with everything Mr. Warren has written, but I love this text and to sum it up, this life on Earth is a dress-rehearsal of our real lives, whether in Hell or Heaven.  I totally respect what he has done with the wealth and success God had granted him.  Do you want to know why you are here and want a good example to follow, than read on what Rick has to say:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life?

And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:

If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free..

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do.

That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD..

Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Every moment, THANK
GOD.