Saturday, July 26, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Steady in tottering times
I will judge with equity
When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
it is I who keep steady its pillars.
--Psalm 75:2,3
from all my fears
--Psalm 34:4
The LORD will answer
it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
--Psalm 38:15
Teaching life not "rules"
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Purity and Justice
I apologize for writing so much, but school has slowed down at least a little, so you will have to put up with the free time I have to write. I want to address an issue that I have seen in my life and the Lord has been challenging me on. It is in the area of the movies that I watch. I think we all know that the scripture calls us to be careful at what we put before our eyes. And we all know that watching nudity or a sexual scene is wrong and sinful. I know most of us if watching a movie with a scene like that would turn away at that part or skip over it while watching the movie. Perhaps that keeps us from lusting, I am not totally convinced on that, I know I have seen otherwise in people who would espouse that, but I won’t argue about that, now. I will, however, say that I do not think it is the proper response, regardless. I do not think it is the response that Christ would have, nor even us, if Christ were physically present watching the movie with us.
Several months ago, I was watching a movie that was great, except an unexpected scene where for a moment where there was a woman naked. In this movie, it was very discrete and you could not see anything, but the Lord stirred something in me and started challenging me. Lust is not the only issue; we must also capture God’s heart for justice. After watching the movie, God asked me if I should watch a movie that asked a woman to perform naked, regardless of how discretely they did it or whether I turned my head during the scene. Is this honoring to women? Yes, maybe, I doubt it, but maybe, I could get away from that with out having a seed of lust, but what about justice for the woman, who was asked to dishonor herself for the sake of a movie. For a woman to be asked to perform naked, to be put in a sex scene, to be dressed inappropriately, or to be dishonored in any way is wrong and unjust, and as men we need to stand up and be a covering for our women and stand up against this injustice. Let me put it this way, how would I respond if that woman were my daughter or my wife. I would be angry, and not just a little so, but intensely angry. That anger is righteousness and it is how we ought to respond when we see these things in the world. Why are we willing to put up with a woman being dishonored for the sake of mere entertainment, why not, act as men of God instead?
Since pursuing this stand (I say pursuing, because I am still growing), I have been accused of being legalistic and a weaker brother and more, which is a perversion of the scripture. It is not legalistic to believe in the beauty, the sweetness, and goodness of the scripture, nor is it weak to honor and to protect women and to value them above your desire for entertainment. On the contrary, I think it is scary when we take a scripture like “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be not filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” and we “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” like the Pharisees so that we can have an excuse to watch a movie. We legalistically say that we are not committing adultery or lusting, but disobey the heart of God in justice and honor. We seek to shape the scripture to our image in stead of obeying Romans 12:1,2 in becoming conformed to the image of Christ. This verse says there should not even be a hint of sexual immorality, and yet we are willing to put up with movies that have course jokes about sex and are lude and disgraceful, which the scripture elsewhere, as well, speaks directly and sternly against.
What do I feel like the Lord is asking of us? Love honor. Love justice. Do not put up with such things. Do not watch movies that dishonor women. If you are watching a movie and these things are in it, do not just turn your head, but get angry with the things that anger the Lord and turn it off. Why would you want to watch a movie that dishonors women that should instead be cherished? Why not instead, make a stand against such things? Men, stop being the weaker brother, and be men who honor the Word and make a stand for honoring women. I am writing this mainly for men, because we ought to not be put to shame in this, but instead we ought to lead out in this and be the first to act, but, women, also to you, I say do not put up with this. Do not watch these things. Also do not watch things that dishonor men. And I would say also do not let a man pursue you, if he is not willing to make a stand on this. If he does not know how to honor women, then how will he honor you? I will also ask for you as women to pray for us, because our culture has really pushed these things and we often need the Lord to take us aside and show us His heart and teach us how to be men. I know I need prayer. Also encourage us to be men in this.
This letter has been mostly about watching movies that dishonor women, but I think this is, obviously, not the only movies we need to stay away from. I want to challenge us to look at the scriptures and see what it says about the movies that we watch and to seek justice and to not put up with immorality for the sake of entertainment. And I want to challenge, especially the men, to be men and to have convictions, to be first in this, and to start taking a stand.
Also, I want to say that I am not saying that I am there yet, but that is not an excuse for us not to encourage each other in the Lord to live life to the fullness. Let us be men in challenging each other to grow in our pursuit of joy and beauty and honor and abundant life.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The ease of murder
Sunday, July 13, 2008
failed
O God, let the sweetness, of your Honesty, Confrontation, Discipline, Truth, and Healing come over me. Let your Love bring out Your heart in me. Let me become less and you become more.
"Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me."
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Dangerous arguments for the leadership of women
I have been reading and listening to arguments that are made to defend the allowing of women to have authority or over men,. I did this to challenge myself. Is what I believe about the woman's role in the church true? You see, I have no stake on either side; my heart's desire is only to be submissive to the word of God. So I want to know if there is any objective challenge to what I believe. If I am wrong I want to be corrected. And I have no fear to proven wrong, because I trust God at His word.
In reading the arguments for allowing women to lead and have authority over men, it has amazed me and shocked me to see how those who believe that women can lead and have authority argue and defend their position. As I see them present their arguments and lay out support for what they believe, it is the exact same arguments and scriptural presentation used by those who seek to prove that homosexuality is not a sin. (I am debating on whether to present this information; I want to make sure I present it well, so that it doesn't cause people to stumble. It can sound good if you're not being objective with the scripture. It scares me a little. If people are so quick to buy into these arguments when it comes to women in leadership, will they do the same with homosexuality?) I know most who make these arguments for women leadership don't know that they are same arguments that people use to defend homosexuality. And I am not accusing them of going that direction with it at all here. And I know that this error is not intentional, but it is still dangerous.
I also have not read any arguments for women having leadership over men that candidly use the scriptures within the context or meaning within which they are presented. When I read or here the arguments its like a circus act connecting points that aren't there and disconnecting points that are connected. Basically the scripture is interpreted to fit an already preconceived idea, instead coming to the scripture with no preconceived idea and allowing the scripture to define itself. Scholarly and objective presentation of scripture is not used. Because the scripture is God's word, we ought not to be afraid to approach scripture objectively and candidly and allow it to present what it says.
Also in reading a lot on this issue, on both sides, and after hearing the other side presented, I am amazed at how biased and unfair their arguments are. I can say that those who believe that women should not have leadership or authority over men, often present both sides of the issue, and after reading both sides I can tell that they honestly portray the opposing side of the argument, presenting the exact arguments of the opposing side and what they believe. They give a fair presentation of both sides of the issue, not being afraid that doing so will hinder their position. But when I read those who argue that women can lead and have authority over men (now, I am basing this on what I have seen), they will distort the opposing side and what they believe and even state that they believe something that they don't, instead of objectively presenting both sides. They basically build a straw man and tear it down. This is not a fair presentation of the issue. I don't think this is purposeful either, at least I hope it is not. I think they are hearing what the culture is telling them the opposing side is saying or they have heard people who talk who do oppress women, and they hear this instead of really listening to what the opposing side has to say. And so their arguments get distorted. So I do not mean to be harsh in saying this.
I know some might say, I am biased on this issue. What made me look at this issue more and to want to see what both sides said about this, is that I wanted to marry someone who at one time believed that women could lead. I was not about to ask her to do something that the scripture did not ask of her. I wouldn't ask any women to do that. And I was ready to be proven wrong, why should I lose a great woman over this issue? I also hate the idea of oppressing women and would not support something that did that. Like I said before, I had no stake in believing either side.
Honestly, I am shocked by this. I didn't expect to find this. Even though I might disagree with the opposing side, I did expect to find some objectivity. I am not writing this because I want to tear apart the opposing side. I'd rather not be the case. What I have written here is more of an emotional response. I am heart broken and hurt, to see the word of God used in this way, to see faith torn apart, to see such a lack of trust in God. And to see arguments that are so dangerous and that lead people away from scripture and toward things like homosexuality. I don't think its intentional and my I want to be gentle.. Emotionally, I am in a place where I am unsure how respond to it accept to say that it hurts and my heart is broken..