How should Christians respond to the issue of homosexuality & so-called homosexual marriage?

"My Eyes Shed Streams of Tears"— Thoughts on the New Calamity by John Piper

Jesus died so that heterosexual and homosexual sinners might be saved. Jesus created sexuality, and has a clear will for how it is to be experienced in holiness and joy.

His will is that a man might leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and that the two become one flesh (Mark 10:6-9). In this union, sexuality finds its God-appointed meaning, whether in personal-physical unification, symbolic representation, sensual jubilation, or fruitful procreation.
For those who have forsaken God’s path of sexual fulfillment, and walked into homosexual intercourse or heterosexual extramarital fornication or adultery, Jesus offers astonishing mercy.

Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

But last weekend this salvation from sinful sexual acts was not embraced. Instead there was massive celebration of sin.

One estimate said that 400,000 people celebrated gay pride in Minneapolis. That’s more than the population of the city. The number is probably inflated, but for the first time in history, it did include the governor of the state, Mark Dayton.

The Bible is not silent about such parades. Alongside its clearest explanation of the sin of homosexual intercourse (Romans 1:24-27) stands the indictment of the celebration of it. Though people know intuitively that homosexual acts (along with gossip, slander, insolence, haughtiness, boasting, faithlessness, heartlessness, ruthlessness) are sin, “they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). “I tell you even with tears, that many glory in their shame” (Philippians 3:18–19).

This is what our governor was doing on Sunday along with millions of others across the country—knowing these deeds are wrong, “yet approving those who practice them.”

Not only that, we are moving from celebration to institutionalization. On June 24 the New York legislature approved a Marriage Equality Act. This makes New York the sixth state where so-called homosexual marriages will be institutionalized: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, (and the District of Columbia).

My sense is that we do not realize what a calamity is happening around us. The new thing—new for America, and new for history—is not homosexuality. That brokenness has been here since we were all broken in the fall of man. (And there is a great distinction between the orientation and the act—just like there is a great difference between my orientation to pride and the act of boasting.)

What’s new is not even the celebration of homosexual sin. Homosexual behavior has been exploited, and reveled in, and celebrated in art, for millennia. What’s new is normalization and institutionalization. This is the new calamity.

My main reason for writing is not to mount a political counter-assault. I don’t think that is the calling of the church as such. My reason for writing is to help the church feel the sorrow of these days. And the magnitude of the assault on God and his image in man.

Christians, more clearly than others can see the tidal wave of pain that is on the way. Sin carries in it its own misery: “Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27).

And on top of sin’s self-destructive power comes, eventually, the wrath of God: “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5–6).

Christians know what is coming, not only because we see it in the Bible, but because we have tasted the sorrowful fruit of our own sins. We do not escape the truth that we reap what we sow. Our marriages, our children, our churches, our institutions—they are all troubled because of our sins.
The difference is: We weep over our sins. We don’t celebrate them. We turn to Jesus for forgiveness and help. We cry to Jesus, “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
And in our best moments, we weep for the world. In the days of Ezekiel God put a mark of hope “on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in Jerusalem” (Ezekiel 9:4).

This is what I am writing for. Not political action, but love for the name of God and compassion for the city of destruction.

“My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.” (Psalm 119:136)

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/my-eyes-shed-streams-of-tears-thoughts-on-the-new-calamity?md5=42436ecd28f108024b7c68f554db19fe

Wait, who's the problem?

When we rightly identify the source of our problem, we are on our way to a solution that celebrates the grace of Christ. But we must first acknowledge that the problem is us! It is inside us, deep in the recesses of our hearts. How do you react to this news? Are you shocked? Disappointed? Offended? Angry? It's certainly not what we want to hear. When I am impatient with my parents, the last thing I want to admit is that it is my fault. I want to blame my mom or my dad and justify my sin! But if we don't face our own sins, we will never get to the real solution. We will minimize the redeeming love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, or bypass it completely. This is deadly. There is nothing more serious!

Taken from "How People Change" by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp

Got Acceptance?

Being accepted by others can be a lifelong painful journey with no end in sight. I'll pass. God already accepts me. - Lecrae

The Perfect Father

Some of us have been blessed with great dads, some of us have not. Because of this reality, we may not all look forward to fathers' day (this Sunday) with the same feelings.

But, regardless of what kind of dad you have (or don't have) here on earth, let me encourage you to focus this fathers' day on the kind of Dad you have in Heaven. For those of us who have been reconciled to our creator, through the death and resurrection of Jesus (If this is confusing or unfamiliar to you, check out Romans 5:6-11 or John 3:14-21 here: Online Bible) we are now the sons and daughters of the Perfect Father. Check out how Matthew describes just one aspect of our relationship with our heavenly Father.
 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6).

We have no reason to worry. God is sovereign (in control), he loves us, he provides for our needs, he gives us a mission, a purpose, for which to live ("seek first his kingdom and his righteousness) and as we are busy living out our mission, he takes care of us in amazing ways! In fact, people who don't know God as their father have to spend all their time worrying about and running after the things of life. Not so for us. Follow God with all that you have. Follow God with all that he has created you to be. Your perfect Father will see that your needs are met. Trust Him. There is no Father like Him.

 

A Time to Weep.

In chapter three of Ecclesiastes, the writer penned these words;  "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the sun...a time to weep...and a time to mourn..."

This is a season to weep. It is a time to mourn with the family of fallen Deputy, Kurt Wyman. Kurt leaves behind his wife, Lauren, an 18-month old son, and a daughter who was born just one day after her daddy died. It is a time to weep, a time to mourn. When words fail, and tears flow, pray for the family. Jesus is the only one that can give them the kind of comfort needed for such a time as this. The God we serve is the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). Weep, mourn, pray.

Video Report from the Memorial Service for Deputy Kurt Wyman