Thoughtful treatment of a rarely treated subject

While checking out the landing page at The Gospel Coalition I came upon an article who's subject line caught my eye. "End of Sexual Identity". The book being reviewed, ' The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We Are' by Messiah professor Jenell Williams Paris suggests that within the Christian community we allow too much identity to be wrought from sexual labels. The author purports that we do this so much so that we usurp the identity which we are to find in God and diminish and marginalize the homosexual community because of it, and do the same in the opposite direction with the heterosexual label though to a lesser extent.

Over the past year and a half my wife and I have befriended a homosexual coworker of hers from her last job, and have since developed a relationship not just with him, but his boyfriend as well. In all honesty I wrestle frequently with the reality of this friendship. Is it healthy or not? How long and how many times should we witness to them before we disengage? Is that even the right way to think about it? If there's any segment of evangelism I'm unqualified for having been a vocational missionary for three years, it's to homosexuals. However, this article helped clarify some of the questions I wrestle with as far as identity is concerned.

If someone were a drug addict I wouldn't unfriend them on the evangelical facebook. Sure, they'd know I don't agree with their drug use and I'd get them help if they'd take it, but I wouldn't tell them we can't be friends anymore simply because they refuse to stop doing drugs. So far as I see it. why should it be any different for someone who struggles with homosexuality.

I'm not sure I stand with the reviewer of the book and author of the article in that using the label 'gay' is a good thing for a celibate Christian to do, but I do think on the identity discrepancy from the label homosexual gets in the way of ministering to an entire subculture of broken, lost souls who God loves.

I'll be interested to hear from the rest of you since for the most part we all come from similar cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Left...Left...Left...RIGHT!

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her by the washing of water with the Word." -Ephesians 5:26-27

Lately the Lord has been bringing Ephesians 5:25-26 to mind. I've been thinking more seriously about how to love my wife so as to pour myself out in leading her to greater holiness. In other words, I want to do more than simply make her feel loved; I want to be a crucial part in her sanctification. To be honest, I hadn't come up with any groundbreaking ideas, and I certainly have not transformed into Super Husband. Nor has this passage occupied every spare moment of my life. It's just been there, replaying in my head every few days.

Also, I've felt a burden of sharing Jesus with my brother (again) and with my dad (for the first time) when we visit them over Easter. Usually when I pray to share the gospel, I feel guilty because I'm so weak and scared about sharing in an awkward manner. Lately, I've been feeling strangely empowered by God by the simple message of the gospel and my responsibility to be an ambassador of God.

Also, my wife and I are expecting our first child at the end of August.

I now perceive all these things to be a series of left jabs. The Lord was setting me up for the right hand, and I think He just hit me with it:

"Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;

your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord."

-Psalm 128:3-4

To be honest, I have a lot of fear of man issues. I'm good at blending in with people, and adapting myself to match a dynamic that I'm presented with. I'm a bit of a chameleon, but certainly not in the double life sense (I'm not doing drugs with the addicts or watching porn with the perverts). But I do seem to always try to blend in, and a big part of it is because I care too much what other people think. The Lord connected with His right hand in Psalm 128:3-4 to tell me that my wife's and kid's fruit-bearing in righteousness is related to my fear of no one else but God.

In other words, my purity is crucial to lives of my wife and kids (did I mention that He "randomly" brought to mind "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" to mind today?)

I have to cling to Him and His guidance and stand up amidst the opposition that will come as I seek to share the gospel with non-believers. I have to cling to the bible despite the ridicule that may come as my wife and I seek wisdom about how to raise this child in the Lord. The Lord is telling me to revere Him above all else; to take Him more seriously, and to confidently and consistently obey every last little thing that He instructs. I sense the Lord desiring that I spend more serious time in His word to help overcome what I perceive to be "normal."

So, why post this?

It seems to me that Psalm 128:3-4 states that a fruitful family begins with a father's reverence for God. Men, are we taking this seriously? Do we comprehend how our prayers, Bible-reading, discipleship, and obedience to the word of God is linked to fruitfulness in our families? Is our time with the Lord of the absolute utmost of importance to us, or has it all become a To-Do list? Are we doing what He commands? Is God's word transforming us internally and externally? Will we if we understand that our families depend on it?

I say these things as the man with a plank in his eye. Maybe you've got merely a speck; but don't be deceived by pride. The bottom line is that God created us, bought us at the great cost of His Son, owns us, and deserves our absolute reverence and obedience; and our wives and kids likewise need such a man if they are going to flourish.

Men, let's stop playing around. Let's spend hours in prayer. Let's spend hours in the word. Let's spend hours in worship. Let's invite our families into it. And let's revere the Lord above all things and do all that He says.

Ezra 1, Big Idea 4

4) God is not tolerant!

Cyrus was not a true believer in God. He was a mere instrument who was used for a good purpose; however, due to his unbelief, God didn’t know him (Isaiah 45:4), and therefore, though he was good, is not saved.

God does not think that if you do the best you can on whatever path you choose to take that you deserve eternal life – as if He were some kind of self-help guru trying to enrich your disobedient life. No, He is holy, and to disregard this is to spit in the face of your Creator. It is roughly equivalent to having loving parents who desire nothing but good for you, and have worked endlessly to that end, and you say to them that they are as good as dead to you. No, God does not tolerate sin. He loves diversity – people from every tongue, tribe, and nation are His children; but He upholds the truth and despises what is false.

Romans 2:5-11 puts it this way:

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

To say, “I do good, the very best I can; so I should get eternal life” is just silly. God’s response to that is no one is good (Romans 3:10-12), and the good that you think you do is equivalent to a soiled menstrual rag (Isaiah 64:6). Also, we can only be righteous if regenerated and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be like Jesus. It is sobering to know that God will judge everybody’s actions, and that the standard for heaven is perfection. How assuring it is, as Christians, to know that Jesus merits our eternal destinies, and not ourselves. How assuring it is to know that when we are judged for our works, it is for reward, not destination (1 Corinthians 3:10-12). How foolish it is to assume tolerance on a God who does all things for the glory of His name when we do otherwise.

Ezra 1, Big Idea 3

3) God provides spiritual wealth for His people. The world is not enough! (1:2)

The Israelites received a bunch of gold and silver; however this was so that the temple would be a worthy location for the presence of God. It was not for them to be wealthy. Furthermore, notice how they were not delivered in order to follow their own desires. God delivered them in order to commission them to rebuild His Temple – the place where He would meet with them, and they would worship Him.

A few things should be noted.

First, we don’t have such a place in the New Covenant. There is not a single place where we must go to be in the presence of God. We are more blessed – we have Him constantly in the temples of our bodies. Paul writes, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 – the “you” is plural, indicating that the body of believers is the new Temple where God dwells); “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19 – this one is singular). Jesus also referred to His own body as a temple in John 2:19, which makes sense, seeing as how Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit (see Luke 4:1, 14, 18, for example)

Second, just as the temple was adorned with gold and silver, so ought our bodies to be adorned with righteousness. Paul finishes this thought in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” See also Colossians 3:9-10, 12-13: “…seeing that you put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator…. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and…forgiving each other.” We are to be adorned – not with gold and silver, but with Christ! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). How blessed we are to have the substance of the New Covenant and not that foreshadowing of the Old!

Lastly, our true spiritual richness given by God is the adornment of the new man that God so desires to give us. Ephesians 3:16-17 says, “According to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Notice that this is not so that we can be made much of, but that we can see the glory of God and honor Him: “But God, being rich in mercy…made us alive together with Christ…and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4, 5, 6-7). Just as the Old Temple is for worship, so the New Temple of our bodies is meant for worship. God seeks to glorify Himself in us (Ephesians 1:6).

Ezra 1, Big Idea 2

2) God works effectually in believers and non-believers for His glory (1:1, 5; Isaiah 45:1)

Notice how the events of rebuilding the Temple begin: “God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus…. Everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord…” (Ezra 1:1, 5). This was not man’s idea, nor was it presented to men for agreement. God wanted this done to fulfill His own Word, so He spoke and it came to pass. God’s present reign over the universe continues just as it began: He speaks, and it is.

Notice He does not just use the men of His household. God may use non-believers to accomplish His purposes. Here Cyrus, an unbeliever, sets into action what God’s eternal decrees.

It seems as if Cyrus may be a believer, for he even gives the God of heaven the credit for allowing him to conquer so much (Ezra 1:2-4). However, this guy is very manipulative or very misinformed. He actually did a very similar thing to the Babylonians and their false chief god about a year before this. The Cyrus Cylinder recounts the time Cyrus took over the Babylonians, and describes how he restored the city and, unlike their former King, he respected their false god Marduk. Yes, he is very tolerant; but that only means he either deceives all people with false conviction (manipulation) or he truly thinks that many gods exist (misinformed). Either way, Cyrus doesn’t truly believe in the one true God of heaven (notice Cyrus says in verse 3, “may his God be with him,” and in verse 5, “He is the God who is in Jerusalem.”). Rather, he is manipulative (trying to please people) or polytheistic (believing that different gods reign in different areas/peoples). Cyrus tried to please them all, and in the end, God concludes, “I name you, though you do not know me” (Isaiah 45:4).

In the end, God uses whoever He wants to accomplish His purposes (even vile sinners like His grace-received children), and He gets all the glory.

Ezra 1

Hi everyone,

When I'm really studying a book of the Bible, I try to write out some thoughts, applications, comments, etc. I've actually only completed this process for Ezra, and am closing in on completing my study of Nehemiah in this manner. Since a lot of the content of those two books deal with church planting, I thought I'd try to share some of my thoughts on here. Basically, I just plan to post my way through Ezra and Nehemiah from time to time. Sometimes I'll post everything, sometimes only a bit. Here is some stuff from Ezra 1:

Background on Cyrus

Cyrus, King of Persia, was a very good guy. According to his Wikipedia, Cyrus was a master leader and administrator. He set up a phenomenal government. He set up governors called satraps to help rule his people. Cyrus’s motto was “Diversity in counsel, unity in command” – meaning this guy sought guidance so that all might be united in his decrees. He’d win in a landslide if he ran for office in the US.

Cyrus was a lover of diversity. He proclaimed a freedom of religion. He helped the Jews rebuild their temple as well as reestablishing many cult sanctuaries. He helped the homeless and freed slaves as a leader in human rights. This guy was generous and turned conquered victims into loyal supporters. Cyrus was even pleasing to the Babylonian chief god Marduk (the chief god of the people he conquered!). Cyrus’s legacy is that he replaced his contemporary cruel cultures with a “humanitarian” love for people. One of the artifacts from his conquests, the Cyrus Cylinder, proclaims how much he respected all peoples and their gods.

The Bible is clear on Cyrus’s purpose in Isaiah 47:28 – 45:4; 45:13: Cyrus is God’s instrument to glorify God’s name – even though “[Cyrus does] not know [God]” (Isaiah 45:4).

Big Idea 1) God’s word is true (1:1)

Notice how God’s purpose in raising up Cyrus was that His word would be true. He gave Jeremiah His very word to preach to the people in regards to their enslavement to Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11) and His subsequent restoration of His people (Jeremiah 29:11). The repentant nature of His people is not given for His reason of acting, for God need not have man’s approval or agreement to do anything. Rather, God said it, and so He will do it. It is true what He said through Isaiah: “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it” (46:11).

This is why there is no need to question anything in the Bible. We may be amazed, or shocked, or dumbfounded, or unsure; but we ought not to disbelieve. To disbelieve the Word is to “make Him a liar” (1 John 1:10), for we are saying to God that what He has said is wrong. To think that a finite creature can say to the infinite Creator, “You are wrong!” is absurd. If ever tempted to disbelieve what the Father has said, we should humble our finite selves in presence of the Eternal God and ask for wisdom or repent of disbelief.

Under the Law

I just read this in John Stott's The Cross of Christ. It is a succinct and clear explanations of what it means that we are no longer under the Law if we are in Christ:

"First, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of the law. It comes to many people as a surprise that the law, God's good gift to his people, in itself 'holy, righteous and good,' could ever have become a tyrant that enslaves us. But that is exactly Paul's teaching. 'Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.' The reason is that the law condemns our disobedience and so brings us under its 'curse' or judgment. But Christ redeemed us from the law's curse by becoming a curse for us. It is in this sense that 'Christ is the end of the law' and we are no longer 'under' it. It emphatically does not mean that there are now no moral absolutes except love, as the advocates of 'the new morality' taught in the 1960's, or that we now have no obligation to obey God's law, as other antinomians teach. No, since the tyranny of the law is its curse, it is from this that we are liberated by Christ, so that we are not 'under' it any more. The law no longer enslaves us by its condemnation.... The first four verses of Romans 8 bring these strands together. They say that for those who are in Christ there is 'no condemnation' (Rom. 8:1), for God has already condemned our sins in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:3), and he did it in order that 'the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us' (Rom. 8:4). So the same cross of Christ, which frees us from the law's condemnation, commits us to the law's obedience."