This post on Facebook by Pastor Tim Cash (Modern John the Baptist – my nickname for him) brilliantly captured Ken’s and my heart about the Supreme Court’s Ruling on June 26th. Here is Pastor Cash’s ponderings:
These are mere reflections. I have family members that I love that are living in the struggles of sexual bondage. I have battled sexual sin, pride, arrogance, lust, conceit, rebellion and many other flesh driven issues over the years. That being said, I do not write this with any condemnation BUT with much compassion. I am not mad. I am just sharing from a heart that is heavy.
GK Chesterton said “that tolerance is the virtue for the man with no conviction.”
We must define what is meant by being Tolerant in today’s world. Tolerance today means respecting and even supporting someone’s opinions, practices, and behavior even if their opinions, practices, and behavior are sinful or promote sin. This is crucial!!!Loving the person but not accepting and respecting the behavior or practice when God calls it sin. Can tolerance and truth co-exist?
Based on this definition above, since tolerance accepts sin and God doesn’t, it is impossible for tolerance and truth to co-exist. What is the effect of tolerance? For the believer, acceptance of tolerance affects his spiritual life; specifically, the understanding of Christ and His Word, the ability to love and worship, and the freedom to live the spiritual life. What does the Bible say about tolerance? But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality… (Revelation 2:20)
We believe that:
The Core fabric of a healthy society is the family that is made up of a man and a woman. Not same sex homosexuality or lesbianism. I have met some Christians that judge homosexuals as hopeless and assign a higher degree of sinfulness to homosexual behavior than their own sin that separated them initially from God. Sin is Sin! All sin is wrong. But the greater mistake that most people make is assigning a moral identity to homosexual behavior and never looking beyond the surface to what the root of homosexual behavior really is.
Reality is this: every human being that has ever existed struggles with lies about our self-perception and this leads us to intense self-focus. Personality differences can determine the path our own sin will lead us down. When we can grasp that reality, none of us are really that different from the next person. We ALL need a Savior. We ALL need Jesus.
I am praying for REPENTANCE and REVIVAL. Truth is narrow. Struggles are wide spread. Truth cares for those who struggle. Same sex attraction is a struggle of the flesh. It’s a real struggle for some. God calls it sin to live in a same sex relationship. That’s the Truth. Can people repent? Yes. I am living proof.
Tolerance is accepting that lifestyle as being OK and even some have voiced that it is orchestrated by The Lord. Truth is narrow. Repentance and Submission to Jesus is the call. I do not want to see others enter a slippery slope of reasoning. This is a huge issue. When Truth is compromised, it hi-jacks our intimacy with The Savior. As a person who loves Jesus we cannot negotiate certain passages in order to not be offensive to anyone.
Many have concluded that you are born that way. I believe based on scripture that we are born into SIN and have a great ability to pursue the desires of the flesh. The Truth speaks about being righteous, holy, sanctified, sin, confession, repentance etc. We love people!!!! We have compassion for people. We believe the Gospel is inclusive. We believe that certain lifestyle choices are excluded. God loves the person but states that living in sin can lead to an abomination.
“Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”(Ez. 9:4)
Ken and I have been marked in our grief but so encouraged by Tim’s reflections.