Has Judgement Come?

A couple of weeks ago I was in Omaha on a business trip. I was meeting two colleagues for breakfast downstairs at the hotel. One man I have worked with for years but the other was a woman that works in another state and I had never met her before. She came downstairs for breakfast with another woman, walked up to the table where my male colleague and I were sitting and proceeded to introduce us to her 'wife'. This wasn't a woman who was ashamed or trying to hide anything. It was a person who was proud of her perversion.

This really got me thinking over the next couple of days about Romans 1.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. - Romans 1:24-31

You'll notice that 3 times it says that God 'gave them up' or 'gave them over'. The Greek word used here is 'paradidomi' - which means to 'commit' or 'cast in prison'. I've heard a couple of messages on this over the last year or so stating the fact that the verses here carry the idea of judgement - that when a person, people or nation engage in the sin of homosexuality that judgement has already come.

So what do you think - has judgement come? Is there still hope for this nation to repent and turn back to God or do you believe the acceptance of our nation of the sin of homosexuality is a sign that judgement has already come?

I look forward to your comments.

Leaving the Nest

I just passed another milestone in life - my oldest son just recently moved to Virginia to go to school. That reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend a couple of years ago. I had heard that his son had moved out so I asked him about it to see how he was doing. He said "the two saddest days of my life were when my son moved out and then when he moved back in". I don't think he was serious :)

A lot of people have been asking my wife and I the same question: "How are you doing?". The funny thing is that we really haven't been that sad about it. Do we miss him? Terribly. But we're proud of the young man that he's become. We have enjoyed seeing him grow and mature and now it's time for him to make his own life. That shouldn't be a time of sadness, but of celebration. Obviously I'd like him to be right next door where I could just pick him up and go fishing anytime I want - but it's more important to me that God works His plan in Joshua's life. And I believe with all my heart that is exactly what He is doing.

His moving out has caused me to think about our Heavenly Father and what He expects from us, His children. C.S. Lewis has a wonderful quote concerning this subject in "Mere Christianity".

“Every father is pleased at the baby’s first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same way, God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.”

Just like we expect our children to grow and mature, God expects the same thing from His children. He is pleased with our feeblest attempts to serve Him and to keep His commandments. But He is never satisfied. He expects us to continue to grow and mature in Him and in His Word - to continue to be conformed to the image of His Son.

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So Joshua - this last part is for you.

I love you and I am proud to be your Dad. Whatever life brings for you, please always remember that there is one thing that matters, and you have to keep that one thing primary in your life. That one thing I want for you is this - that you will one day hear these words:

‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Now go make your Heavenly Father proud.

Acts 17:11

I'm sure that many of you who have been around the church for any length of time at all have heard the song "Thank You". It's a great song. When you hear it you cannot help but be moved emotionally. You know the one I'm talking about - the chorus goes like this:

Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.

The author of the song, Ray Boltz, was a Christian musician who sold about 4.5 million records before retiring several years ago. And one more thing - he came out last September and declared he was a homosexual. If you want all the details, you can Google his name and you can read all about it, but I've got another point to make here.

Discernment takes work. You can't just flip on the Christian radio station and say "I'm safe. I know this is good teaching because it's on Christian radio." You can't just pick up the book in the Christian bookstore and assume that it contains sound doctrine because it's sold in a Christian bookstore. You can't assume that just because a person is a skilled song writer or author that they are going to lead you down the right path.

Many influential Christian artists and authors are very good at writing songs and books that speak directly to our emotions. They are very good at describing problems in our lives and in the church. It seems that they can write in such a way that your heart really resonates with what they are saying because they are describing your life, your exact feelings and emotions and even the questions that you have.

But just because they describe all that so well does not mean that the solution that they give you is going to be a right one. Just because they can seemingly walk through your life and describe all that you've been through does not mean that you can turn off your discernment and just blindly accept what they say. You can't assume that the prescription that they give you will be true to God's Word.

We must be like the Bereans in Acts 17. We are told that they searched the Scriptures daily to make sure that what Paul said was true. If they would verify the words spoken by Paul, how much more should we verify the things we hear?

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. - Acts 17:11.

Walk it Out

How do you become what you really want to be? Is it a matter of faith or a matter of action? If you listen to the Word of Faith peddlers they will tell you that you just need to believe it and speak it.

No matter what you need today, find a promise from God’s Word and believe it. Put it in your heart and in your mouth, and it will begin to work for you—that’s faith. There’s no getting around that process. Why? Because faith is a law. Jesus said, “According to your faith be it unto you”. So start calling things that be not as though they were. What are you calling your body? Your family? Your bank account? Say what God says about those things. Speak the answer you desire. - Gloria Copeland

In fact, this is nothing but New Age confession and visualization techniques. Kenneth Copeland has even admitted as much, although stating that the New Age is copying the Bible and not the other way around.

"Words create pictures, and pictures in your mind create words. And then the words come back out your mouth ... And when that spiritual force comes out it is going to give substance to the image that's on the inside of you. Aw, that's that visualization stuff! Aw, that's that New Age! No, New Age is trying to do this; and they'd get somewhat results out of it because this is spiritual law, brother." - Kenneth Copeland

So let's take a look at what the Bible says. We know from Galatians 5:22-23 that the 'fruit' of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control. These are attributes that a Christian should exhibit. So how do we obtain these? The Bible tells us what to do in the next verses.

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. - Galatians 5:24-25

So exactly what does it mean to 'walk in the Spirit'? You'll notice that those three words shown in bold above are verbs. They denote action on the part of the believer. Let me give you an example.

Let's say you want to be a more generous person. So what do you do? The first thing you do is you pray and ask God to change your heart and make you a generous person. The next thing you do is believe - believe that God is going to do it. Then do you just sit back and wait for it to happen? Of course not! You begin to live and walk like you are a generous person. You can start simply by tipping your waiters and waitresses more than the recommended 15%. It won't be easy at first and you'll have to think about it every time you do it. But after awhile an amazing thing will happen. As you 'walk it out', the Holy Spirit begins to produce the real thing inside of you. It becomes more than an action on your part - it becomes part of you.

My point is this - obviously faith is extremely important. Without faith it's impossible to please God. We should believe that He is and that He rewards those who seek Him. We should speak positive words, because the Bible teaches that life and death is in the power of the tongue. But what we have to understand is that to place all the responsibility on faith and the power of the spoken word is bad doctrine - it negates the responsibility of the believer to walk out their faith which is clearly taught in Scripture.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. - James 1:22

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." - Matthew 7:21

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock." - Matthew 7:24

What do you need in your life?

Do you need to be a person of the Word? Walk it out. Start reading your Bible daily and asking God to make you a student of His Word. You'll be amazed what will happen.

Do you need to forgive? Ask God to help you and then start living like you are a forgiver. You know what I mean. You can't say you've forgiven and then get up everyday and talk and walk as though you haven't forgiven. You have to walk it out.

Do you need self-control? Ask God for strength and then start practicing it. If you struggle with lust and pornography it's not going to magically disappear if you keep going to those same website on that same computer late at night. Get rid of it! Do what you have to do to walk it out!

Let us have faith, of course. But if it stops there our faith is dead, no matter how much we 'speak' it out. We have to walk it out.

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. - James 2:17

Lovers of Pleasure

Just recently I was asked to take on some additional responsibilities in my local church. I hesitated to accept, because I knew these responsibilities would take up a lot of my time and would also be a long term commitment. I would venture to guess that most people would completely understand that hesitation. However, as I thought and prayed about whether I should do it something odd happened. I began to focus not on the time and effort and commitment required, but I began to focus on something else - what was the real reason behind my hesitation?

We all say that we want to make a difference in other people's lives. In theory, we all agree that we should give of ourselves and our time in order to make that difference, but most of us never really do it. Sure, we're ok with a short commitment here or there - but don't ask us to do anything long term. Why is that? What is it that prevents us from doing what we know we should? What is it that prevents us from giving our time - our free time - to do His work? For me, the answer was found in this verse:

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. - 2 Timothy 3:1-5

We live in a society that loves it pleasure. We love to vacation, read books, watch TV, hunt and fish, play sports, shop and just hang out doing nothing. Don't get me wrong - there is nothing inherently wrong in any of those activities. But when we hesitate to do His work because of a love of our own pleasures then we have a problem. We work - not so that we have to give to others (as the Bible commands) - but to give more to ourselves. I hear people (myself included) saying "I just don't have time right now". Is that really true? Is every hour and minute of our day literally packed with activities that we just have to do? Of course not. What we are really saying when we make those statements is "I've got other things I'd rather do".

So I repented of my hesitation (or I should probably say I repented of my reason for hesitating). I decided to go ahead and make that commitment. I find myself pretty busy these days, but I find myself pretty fulfilled as well. As I write this, I hope I'm not putting any condemnation on anyone. That is certainly not my reason for writing. But as I get older I just realize more and more that our time is limited. We only have a short season to labor - to live our lives for the One that gave His life for us. Let's not waste it.