Honked.
There are people for whom there is hardly anything that is wrong in the world except for "intolerance", which of course is itself a contradiction.
I hope that someday someone might actually have the moxie to ask me, as a Christian, why I think certain things are 'wrong' or 'right'. I will give him the example of two books which I am fairly sure he has read: Animal House and Lord of the Flies. In each of those books the characters are "freed" from normal law and order, so they make up their own. And of course it ends up a bloodbath in the end, and the reader is left with a certain nausea because we realise that whatever is in the book lurks also within ourselves. We are nauseated because it is patently obvious to us what is wrong and what is right just by reading these stories. It's obvious that our laws have to come from Someone Who is outside us-- Someone Who is above us-- Someone Who has the authority to name and ordain those laws and execute true righteousness and justice. Our laws are based on Judeo-Christian legal roots-- that is, the Law given by God Almighty Over All. Is it not interesting that the following verse is repeated twice in Proverbs, in 14:12 and 16:25?
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
True Christians do not hate homosexuals. Let me repeat: True Christians do not hate homosexuals. True Christians love homosexuals enough to want to tell them that their way is leading them to a death that could be avoided, not because we say so but because God has said so all along. True Christians judge with the judgement that they themselves have had to be judged with -- the judgement that says "All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God." True Christians warn sinners and listen to the warnings of other Christians. They turn to God, agreeing with Him that their ways are sinful, and apply to Him for strength to stop doing those sins. They plead with the world to recognise that the laws of man will lead to death in an effort to turn these lost ones to life.
The stupid thing is that we can even sin in our attitudes when we share this Word. We can think ourselves better then the homosexual with his/her leather pants and aqua colored hair amd the bruises from Kaposi's sarcoma. We can think we are better, even when we abuse our loved ones with angry and destructive words, when we peruse porn on the Internet or phone, when we tell juicy, hushed stories about one another, and when we do not respect our husbands or fail to love our wives sacrificially.
In truth, all the true Christian has learned to do is call the stinking sinful garbage that hangs off all of us what it is, and put it where it belongs: on the Cross, on Him Who was made a curse instead of us.
Oh, Jesus-- give me a chance to tell a listening and needy heart about you, and to do it in humility!
I hope that someday someone might actually have the moxie to ask me, as a Christian, why I think certain things are 'wrong' or 'right'. I will give him the example of two books which I am fairly sure he has read: Animal House and Lord of the Flies. In each of those books the characters are "freed" from normal law and order, so they make up their own. And of course it ends up a bloodbath in the end, and the reader is left with a certain nausea because we realise that whatever is in the book lurks also within ourselves. We are nauseated because it is patently obvious to us what is wrong and what is right just by reading these stories. It's obvious that our laws have to come from Someone Who is outside us-- Someone Who is above us-- Someone Who has the authority to name and ordain those laws and execute true righteousness and justice. Our laws are based on Judeo-Christian legal roots-- that is, the Law given by God Almighty Over All. Is it not interesting that the following verse is repeated twice in Proverbs, in 14:12 and 16:25?
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
True Christians do not hate homosexuals. Let me repeat: True Christians do not hate homosexuals. True Christians love homosexuals enough to want to tell them that their way is leading them to a death that could be avoided, not because we say so but because God has said so all along. True Christians judge with the judgement that they themselves have had to be judged with -- the judgement that says "All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God." True Christians warn sinners and listen to the warnings of other Christians. They turn to God, agreeing with Him that their ways are sinful, and apply to Him for strength to stop doing those sins. They plead with the world to recognise that the laws of man will lead to death in an effort to turn these lost ones to life.
The stupid thing is that we can even sin in our attitudes when we share this Word. We can think ourselves better then the homosexual with his/her leather pants and aqua colored hair amd the bruises from Kaposi's sarcoma. We can think we are better, even when we abuse our loved ones with angry and destructive words, when we peruse porn on the Internet or phone, when we tell juicy, hushed stories about one another, and when we do not respect our husbands or fail to love our wives sacrificially.
In truth, all the true Christian has learned to do is call the stinking sinful garbage that hangs off all of us what it is, and put it where it belongs: on the Cross, on Him Who was made a curse instead of us.
Oh, Jesus-- give me a chance to tell a listening and needy heart about you, and to do it in humility!
posted by craigellachie at 1:01 PM
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