From the Morass to the Madness

The face-palm, head-scratching, bewildering events just continue, becoming ever more common and confounding. A man can self-identify as a woman and have it celebrated — yet a white woman can self-identify as a black woman and be castigated by the same crowd. A variety of leaders, journalists, media hosts, and celebrities can spew blather and lies — but only occasionally admit to having misspoken. Christians can be sued, fined, and ruined financially for choosing to not participate in the sacramental celebration of immorality — yet would a devout Jew or Muslim be sued, fined, and ruined financially for choosing to not participate in a celebration that conflicted with any of their food laws or holy days? And this barely scratches the surface!

How is it that truth and reason and justice seem to be increasingly absent from society? Quite literally — a plague of madness seems to be epidemic!

As perplexing as this may seem, it is perfectly logical.

Over the past century, society, by its actions, has progressively rejected God — denying and ignoring Him with ingratitude, dishonor, and disobedience. Over the past few decades, society, by its words, has more aggressively and purposefully removed God from the public forum.

Any clues yet? We simply cannot be surprised by this morass!

God is light (John 8:12; 1 John 1:5), wisdom (Dan. 2:20; Rom. 11:33), truth (Isa. 65:16; John 14:6), justice (Deut. 32:4), love (Ps. 136:2; 1 John 4:7-8), peace (Isa. 9:6; Phil. 4:7-9; 1 Thess. 5:23), and more! And His Spirit is not to be grieved or quenched! (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 4:19) Everything good is from God. (James 1:17)

No society can think to dispose of God and retain anything that is of Him. But for the grace and mercy of God, all that will remain will be darkness, foolishness, deceit, corruption, exploitation, hatred, strife, chaos, and worse.

Nominal Christianity should be well-understood as dead and defunct as it ever was. Jesus is purging and proving His Body — His Bride … the waste will be burned away and only the tried and pure gold will remain. He who is light will expose the darkness.

Pray and welcome the work of the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus. He will search the heart and convict and grant repentance and cleanse us from all unrighteousness — if we will but be faithful and confess and receive His repentance. Then, in the midst of a world starkly reflecting God's absence, as Christians we will shine forth in the image of our Father's Son, Jesus our Lord and King!

Oh, that we may walk worthy!

A Brief Testimony

So, how would you put into words a concise, yet comprehensive statement of who you were in sin, who you are in Christ, who you are becoming by His grace, and the glorious hope of who you will be? I’ve been rather verbose about it on numerous occasions :) although I’ve never taken the time to compose a synopsis. The pastoral residency I’m in calls us to respond to every facet of the Gospel and evangelism is perhaps the most essential call of every Christian. And that makes this effort rich for me in both substance and purpose.

Here’s what I would say if I had just a couple minutes of your time...

From the earliest age, I recall always being in church, seeing as I was raised as a pastor’s kid. I don’t remember not being a Christian — my faith as a child was strong and my heart was tender; but I do remember becoming increasingly and intolerably rebellious as I entered and began through my teenage years. A crisis of faith developed toward the end of high school when I knew I could no longer allow self-will to harden my heart and destroy the faith God had given me. I knew Jesus died in my place for my sin. I knew I could only live in Him. This was the beginning of a long journey back to God.

The personal, spiritual battles that continued into adulthood were often lost due to my preoccupation with self — achievement, satisfaction, fulfillment — all things that were sometimes merely secular, but for entirely the wrong motives, or even more often, blatantly sinful. I could never quite satisfy my desires — I was always left incomplete. Although guilt repeatedly led to what was often private confession, the secret shame and lack of true repentance left me a slave to the insatiable.

God allowed me much success in my career — perhaps in part to prove to me just how hollow it could be. Yet as I found myself being crushed by guilt and emptiness, the evidence of God’s love and mercy began to overwhelm me. I found that He was ever so patiently drawing me to Himself. I was filled with deep longing for true repentance and freedom — God wonderfully granted me that repentance and I found such freedom in the love of Jesus like I had never known! My guilt and emptiness were replaced with such joy and contentment.

The gracious gift of Jesus’ righteousness has begun a work in me that continues as I grow and am transformed by the Spirit and the Word of God. The Spirit of God living in me guides and directs me, convicts me of sin and righteousness, and makes me Holy, reminding me I am His own. As I confess my sin, He faithfully and justly forgives me as His child. God continues to strengthen me when temptations to lust and covet confront me — giving me perfect peace in His complete fulfillment of my every need.

As I continue to obediently seek and honor God and His kingdom, and to faithfully respond to God’s call on my life to minister the Gospel, no matter the sacrifice, He proves that His providential grace is perfectly sufficient. All my hope is in Jesus, my Lord—because He arose from the dead in the power of His Holiness, whether today or tomorrow I live or die, in Jesus I have life eternal.

How about you?

No--Sin is Not Ok

It is a perversion of the Gospel to continually proclaim “love, don’t judge!” Seriously? Does it have to be explained that even to love involves judgment? Furthermore, Jesus never looked at sin and denied that it was sin. To the woman caught in adultery, His lovingly compassionate response to her concluded with, “Go and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:11) Not, “It’s ok, I know you just can’t help that you are [fill in the blank whatever the excuse of the day is]."

Were you born with a proclivity or tendency to sin? Yes—we all are! Are some more tempted to one sin over another? Yes. Are some weaker in one area than another? Yes. Are there influences (negative and positive) on our weaknesses due to people and circumstances? Yes. Are there spiritual forces at work oppressing different people in different ways and at different times? Yes.

Whether you are rebellious, immoral, unholy, profane, homosexual, murderous, deceitful, slanderous, covetous, idolatrous, drunken, abusive ...
NO MORE EXCUSES! In earnest prayer... Confess your sin. Mourn and repent of your sin. Receive forgiveness for your sin. Go and sin no more!

Excuses do nothing more than to deny the effectual, victorious, perfectly complete work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Sin and death have been defeated! We proclaim that victory by confessing and repenting and receiving forgiveness and being empowered by the Holy Spirit indwelling and cleansing us by the Word and in His blood—continually—until the day we are transformed and "the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality.” (1 Co 15:54)

But be warned, just as we proclaim Jesus' victory in our confession, we deny His victory on the cross when we ignore or hide or deny our sin by failing to confess it. And in that denial we are proclaiming Satan victorious. Hear the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah (5:20-21): “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!"