For the Christian, we must recognize that sexual identity is not consistent with the Word of God. Neither hetero- or homosexuality. The idea of sexual identity is a very recent concept. As Rosaria Butterfield says, sex is something you do, not a core element of your identity.
PermalinkInstead of common thinking that our kids need to "sow their wild oats" when they are young, research suggests that the behaviors, addictions, and poor choices of our developmental years stay with us. God can always help us to overcome the baggage, but it's never an easy process.
Unfortunately more information has come out about Josh Duggar. The media loves to shred people and— using information from a website, specifically built to help people have affairs, that was hacked and published online— have jumped on the story of Josh Duggar having an affair. This is horrible and a major hit to his integrity has a Christian, even more for it to be happening in the public square. Often times, these things come out behind closed doors and families deal with them and no one ever hears a word.
We need to realize that this family needs our prayers more than anything. Our God is a god of mercy and grace, forgiveness and love. The desires of the Lord are that this marriage stay together, that forgiveness is sought and given. The lions are circling and waiting, pushing and prodding to make the opposite happen. We need to pray that this family circles around this young couple in prayer and as wise counsel.
As for us, we need to be reminded if our sin and the wages of sin over time when not confronted. Our children today are not only encountering sexual sin much earlier, but be encouraged by their elders to partake in it much earlier. We must talk with our children earlier than ever and warn them, coach them, and parent them. We will be the weird ones of the world, but we always have been.
PermalinkNone of us can afford to sit idly by. We must be diligent to coach our kids on healthy sexuality. We must tell them that it is precious, beautiful, and worth saving for marriage. We must share with them about the addictive dangers of porn. Beyond the "just say no" language of many, we have to have frequent, relevant and usually awkward conversations about what it looks like to choose God's best in a world that commonly chooses poorly.
A compelling 6-minute argument against abortion by Matt Chandler. This has gone viral for good reason.
Posted by AskDrBrown on Wednesday, August 12, 2015
In a culture that glorifies death, does any life matter? We walk around trying to make sense of the senseless, find meaning in the meaningless, peace in a war zone. Born blind and deaf, only able to scream out in the empty darkness.
This isn't how life was meant to be. You aren't made to be living for the next nap, the next weekend, the next sexual encounter, or the next high. This is death. This is meaningless.
Wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead!
There is a life that welcomes all to pick up their cross and follow a King not of this world. Our leaders in this world might fail to meet our expectations, but this King set our expectations for something more because He wanted us to yearn for more.
Nothing here is good enough to fulfill that yearning. You've all felt it. That need for more. A different job, more money, a different girlfriend, the latest gadget. Maybe that will make me happy. I'm sorry to spoil it for you, but none of it will work.
Wake up.
This world is but a glimpse of the eternal, a taste of the divine. The best steak doesn't compare to the eternal. Neither does the most amazing woman, the highest paying job, or even a secluded island with no worries. We long for the eternal.
Your King knocks. Do you hear Him? Will you get out of bed and invite Him in? Wake up.
PermalinkWe in the pro-life movement have no enemies to destroy. Our weapons are chaste weapons of the spirit: truth and love. Our task is less to defeat our opponents than to win them to the cause of life. To be sure, we must oppose the culture and politics of death resolutely and with a determination to win. But there is no one—no one—whose heart is so hard that he or she cannot be won over. Let us not lose faith in the power of our weapons to transform even the most resolute abortion advocates.
Great article about Bernard Nathanson, a leader of the original pro-choice movement that brought forth the legalization of abortion in the 1970’s and his subsequent convertion to Catholicism and fighting alongside the pro-life movement.
It’s fascinating that abortion was legalized before ultrasound technology gave us the inside look at the unborn life of babies. A year ago tomorrow a doctor, looking at our baby on the screen, told us to head to the hospital to be induced. For nine months, we had seen our li’l girl grow from a bean-sized baby to an almost nine pound baby.
It is no wonder to any of us that have had babies that the ultrasound changed the mind of Bernard. Without seeing something, it can be hard to understand it. Even to this day, abortion activists fight against any law that would require a woman to see their child on an ultrasound before an abortion. These activists know that it would change the mind of anyone that is not sociopathic.
PermalinkFor abortion says, “Your life for mine,” but Jesus says, “My life for yours—even if you’ve killed your own child.”
This cold calculation is a lie. Whether embryo, fetus, baby, toddler, college student, or senior citizen, the product of a successful human conception is a human being.
But perhaps there is reason that Dr. Gunter’s lies can be perpetuated. In one way, she is right: As a culture, we fail to understand the truth about early pregnancy. The public conversation is hushed at best, leaving room for falsehoods and misconceptions. The absence of public discourse concerning early pregnancy diminishes the thing itself, leaving women confused and unprepared for the worst.
For the last day I’ve been buried in old hymns, trying to ease my heart ache. In 3 days I will be celebrating being a father for a year. My daughter, my Charm, is easily one of the best things that has happened to me. And while we are preparing to celebrate, the news is inundated with the atrocities of Planned Parenthood. With each video released, their crimes against humanity, funded by our tax dollars, becomes more clear. To say that a cloud has been over our house is an understatement.
@rdbrdd The darkness of our land has become a lot more clear. Blessèdly, our Lord is a light that cannot be snuffed out.
— James Finley (@thefinley) August 4, 2015To avoid these videos, as most of the elected Democrats are doing, would be to turn a blind eye, but to watch is gut-wrenching and makes my heart cry out.
@rdbrdd I keep thinking how amazing it will be to see the 55 million children as they return as part of the Lord’s army on the final day.
— James Finley (@thefinley) August 4, 2015@rdbrdd Sacrificed to a god of convenience, given up to a God that will wreck the wickèd hearts of man.
— James Finley (@thefinley) August 4, 2015Many of us turned to our politicians and demanded that this evil organization be defunded, while our President said that he would veto any such bill and even those that we elected into office refused to watch the videos and do anything. I’m honestly not surprised by their actions, or lack thereof. The one that we should be turning to is Jesus. Our country needs revival. Our country needs Jesus. As we remove the Bible and faith from more and more institutions, the effects of that are being felt more rapidly. Without the one that gives life, death becomes ever-present.
PermalinkSo glad to have Mark Driscoll back preaching, and he’s doing an 18-week series on Ecclesiastes, one of my favorite books.
PermalinkWe went back up to Naperville over the weekend, after moving down to St. Louis a couple weeks ago. Of course that meant returning to Harvest Naperville to hear a guest preacher preach one of the most relevant messages I’ve heard in a while on a passage I had somehow skimmed over before.
And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.
That stood out to me. How many of us have been told recently that we are out of our mind? It’s why I love the quote from Orwell:
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell
The truth is revolutionary. Many will say that we are out of our mind, but we are the ones speaking true and rational words.
PermalinkClaim 1: Jesus didn’t speak about same-sex marriage, so he’s at least neutral if not open to it. What Jesus doesn’t condemn, we shouldn’t condemn.
This is an argument from silence, but the silence doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Jesus addresses and defines marriage in Matthew 19:4–6 and Mark 10:6–9 using both Genesis 1:26–27 and Genesis 2:24 to parse it out. Here Jesus defines and affirms marriage as between a man and a woman, a reflection of the fact that God made us male and female to care for creation together. With this definition, same-sex marriage is excluded. Had Jesus wished to extend the right of marriage beyond this definition, here was his opportunity. But he didn’t take it.
Jesus never discussed same-sex marriage because the way he defined marriage already excluded it. He was not as silent on the topic as some claim.
An argument from silence. Know your logical fallacies.
This article has some great answers to the questions that, if you are a Christian, you have heard a few too many times.
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I love Adam4d and this comic hit a phrase that has bothered me for some time. Jesus is not my copilot, he is my pilot.
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