A Valentine’s Day Challenge for Husbands

One day at the end of his days, the man passed through the valley of the shadow of death and entered into the joy of heaven. He stood immediately in the presence of the One he loved the most.

Welcome, Child. I’ve been waiting for you. Thank You so much, Lord. I’m so grateful You died for me and brought me all the way home.

We’ll have all eternity together, Christ said with a radiant smile. And now, my son, I need to talk to you about your stewardship. Yes, Lord, I think I’m ready.

I entrusted you with intelligence and creativity, and I gave you a good way with people. Yes, Lord, I know those gifts were from You. I used them to get a good education and to build a successful business. The product we made helped a lot of people, and our company employed over 100 folks. I paid them fairly and they all said they liked working for me.

And I know you maintained an unashamed witness of Me at work. Well done, good and faithful servant. Thank You, Lord.

Another thing. My blessings on your business made you a wealthy man.  Yes, Lord, all because of you. And You know from the beginning I gave generously and sacrificially to my local church, to missions, and I set up a private foundation to help people. And the family business will make it possible for all my grandchildren to get a good education.

            Well done, good and faithful servant. Thanks, Lord.

            I sent you a large circle of friends over the years. Yes, thank You. I was never a great evangelist, but I let every one of them know about You, and some of them even believed in the gospel. Well done, good and faithful servant. Thank You, Lord

            Now I want to talk to you about the most important gift I gave you, your wife.  Okay. We were married a long time, and she was a real blessing to me.

I know she was, Child. Were you a blessing to her? I think I was.

Were you aware that she was lonely after the kids moved out? Really? She seemed fine to me.

Did you pray for her? Sure. When? You know, Lord – mainly on the way to work I guess.

Did you know she wanted the two of you to serve for a summer on the mission field after you retired? I remember her saying something about that.

But you didn’t encourage her or even consider it. No, I thought we should take to take a cruise that summer.”

How ready do you think she is to meet Me? Well, I’ve always thought of her as a strong Christian – stronger than me. Really? So did you ever think about her soul?  Lord, that’s pretty much your department, isn’t it?

Did you know that she wanted to go back to school and get a Bible college degree? Yeah, but she was too old for that. Really.

            So you remember how I said, love her like I love you. Right. And nourish and cherish her. Right.

You know she was My gift to you, and I made you two one flesh. Right. 

So what went wrong?

Chapter Twelve: "The God I Worship is a God of Love"

This is my last post about Kevin DeYoung's What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? I still encourage you to get the book. (Click the title.)

Kevin DeYoung has a footnoted quote that well summarizes this chapter. Jean Lloyd, a former lesbian, said, “Continue to love me, but remember that you cannot be more merciful than God. It isn’t mercy to affirm same-sex acts as good…Don’t compromise truth; help me to live in harmony with it.” (Footnote #2, p. 127)

Chapter Eleven: “It’s Not Fair!”

“It’s not fair that God would give me these desires and then forbid me to act upon them. God wouldn't want me to be miserable.”

That’s the argument, at least. Author Kevin DeYoung is pastoral in dealing with it – he acknowledges the real anguish of people within his ministry who struggle with same-sex attraction. And he discusses the biological and behavioral roots of sexual orientation.

Chapter Ten: "You're on the Wrong Side of History"

In case you're a new reader, this is an ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung's What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? I'm trying to summarize his arguments chapter by chapter. Click the title to order the book.

Supporters of same-sex marriage claim the traditional view of traditional marriage is “on the wrong side of history.” That phrase is, as Kevin DeYoung says, an “attempt to win an argument by not having one” (p. 103).

Chapter Nine: "The Church is Supposed to Be a Place for Broken People"

Revisionists insist that the church’s traditional condemnation of homosexual behavior is wrong because it doesn’t emphasize the grace of Christ that we all need. We’re all sinners, we all need unconditional love, we’re all broken people.

Chapter Eight: "What About Gluttony and Divorce?"

In chapter 8, Kevin DeYoung lays out another argument of the revisionists: "You’re being selective about what sins you emphasize! How come you don’t condemn other sins – like gluttony or divorce?"

This is the “you’re a hypocrite!” argument. Supporters of same-sex marriage argue that the traditional view ignores other sins – like gluttony and divorce – and unfairly singles out homosexual behavior.

Chapter Seven: "Not That Kind of Homosexuality"

The last chapters of Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? answer the most common objections to the traditional understanding of marriage and sexuality. (Click the title to order)

Chapter seven is focused on a favorite argument of the “revisionists” who try to reinterpret the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality. Their contention is: “The Bible isn’t really condemning the loving, committed, same-sex relationships we have in our world today. What Scripture is denouncing is exploitation and violence which expressed itself in the ancient world in homosexual activity. It’s only a bad kind of homosexuality that the Bible is against.”

Chapter Six: “The Bible Hardly Ever Mentions Homosexuality”

The first five chapters of Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? are devoted to the key biblical texts on the subject. The last seven chapters focus on the most common objections to the traditional understanding of marriage and sexuality. (Click the title to order)

The objection of chapter six is that the Bible has very little to say about homosexuality, so why make a big deal of it? DeYoung responds with six points. He says that “the reason the Bible says comparatively little about homosexuality is because it was a comparatively uncontroversial sin among ancient Jews and Christians." (p. 72) Scripture may devote more time to others sins (like idolatry) because these were more common. God’s word says even less about bestiality or incest, but nobody (so far) would argue that those behaviors are unimportant or ambiguous.

Chapter Five: A New Word from an Old Place

My ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung’s What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. (Click the title for Amazon purchase.)

This may be the most technical chapter in the book, but DeYoung writes so clearly that it’s easy to follow his logic and to see his conclusions borne out in the Scriptures. He focuses on two New Testament passages which seem clearly to condemn homosexual behavior.

Chapter Four: The Romans Road in the Wrong Direction

My ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung’s What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. (Click the title for Amazon purchase.)

In chapter four, DeYoung explains Paul’s argument in Romans 1, and shows how same-sex activity is an affront to God’s design. Paul's description of humanity's downward spiral into sin includes three “exchanges”: 1) Ungodly men exchange the glory of God for the foolishness of idolatry; 2) ungodly men exchange the truth about God for a lie; and 3) they exchange natural relations with members of the opposite sex for relations with those of the same sex.

DeYoung answers the arguments of “revisionists” who try to explain away the Scripture’s opposition to same-sex relations. Romans chapter one is about homosexual activity in general, and not just (as revisionists claim) sexual abuse of adults with youth or masters with slaves.

Chapter 3: Taking a Strange Book Seriously

Ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung’s What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. (Click the title for Amazon purchase.)

Chapter 3: Taking a Strange Book Seriously

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination (Leviticus 18:22).

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both to them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them (Leviticus 20:13).

In chapter 3, DeYoung looks at the prohibitions about homosexuality in Leviticus. Critics of the traditional view of sexuality and marriage try to undermine the clear condemnation of homosexuality in Leviticus as if it, and indeed the Old Testament itself, were no longer applicable to New Testament Christians. DeYoung offers six reasons why the prohibitions of Leviticus cannot be set aside. For example he shows how Jesus referred to a verse from Leviticus (19:18) more than any other verse, and how both Peter and Paul quote the book to teach on holiness.

Obviously Jesus, Paul, and Peter found the moral obligations of Leviticus still binding upon Christians today.

A Quote: The reason for the prohibitions against homosexual behavior in the Mosaic law, and the reason the prohibitions are stated so absolutely, is because men were designed to have sex with women, not a man with another male. (p. 41)

Chapter 2: Those Infamous Cities

Just to remind: I'm reviewing Kevin DeYoung’s book What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality which you can purchase by clicking on the title. 

Chapter 2: Those Infamous Cities

Genesis 19 records God’s judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (We get the term sodomy from the type of sin most associated with them.) DeYoung answers the revisionists who suggest that what led to the cities’ destruction by God was not homosexuality, but violence and social injustice.  He documents how Scripture itself (in Ezekiel 16 and Jude) and second century Jewish literature support
the traditional understanding of Genesis 19. God's wrath may have fallen upon Sodom and Gomorrah for many sins, but certainly homosexual practice was at the rotten center of it all.    

A quote: Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of a great many sins; we don’t have to prove that homosexual practices was the only sin to show that it was one of them. (p. 38)

Chapter One: One Man, One Woman, One Flesh

This is another post in a series I plan to do about Kevin DeYoung’s excellent book What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. My plan is that for each of his twelve chapters, I’ll provide a short summary and a quote or two. (I’ll use his chapter titles for my blog post titles, too.)

My hope is that you’ll both be informed, and also that you’ll buy and read the book. Here.

Chapter 1. One Man, One Woman, One Flesh.

DeYoung proposes that God’s original design for marriage is one man, one woman, in a covenant relationship that is sealed by their physical union and which is capable of bearing children. He shows how traditional marriage is a symbol of God’s divine design in ways that other unions cannot be.

Now for a quote:

 “... monogamy makes sense only within this Genesis understanding of marriage. Apart from the complementarity of the two sexes there is no moral logic which demands that marriage should be restricted to a twosome… If marriage is simply the formation of a kinship bond between those who are committed wholly to one another, there is no reason why multiple persons or groups of people cannot commit themselves wholly to one another. There is no internal coherence to the notions of monogamy and exclusivity if marriage is something other than the reunion of two complementary and differentiated sexes…It’s because God made the woman from the man that she is also for the man (1 Cor. 11:8-9, 11-12). And it’s because the two – male and female – are divinely designed complements each for the other that monogamy makes sense and same-sex marriage does not."  (p. 31)

What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?

I’ve not been blogging much lately, but I’m returning to some new posts because of an extraordinary book I’ve just read: Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? This is an extremely timely topic because of the unique political climate in our country, and the pressure on evangelical Christians to change our views on subject that seemed settled and clear for thousands of years.

I hope you’ll consider reading this book. At 150 pages, the author speaks with wisdom, grace, and especially with biblical clarity. You can find the book on Amazon, though to be honest with you, even with Amazon Prime, it took two weeks to deliver. I wonder if the book’s title had something to do with the shipping delay. Still, please consider buying it. Here’s the link.

Russel Moore, President of The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, says “This is the best book on this subject I have read. Every Christian…should read this book.”

After the Supreme Court Ruling: The Biggest Danger to the Church

Last week’s Supreme Court decision on homosexual marriage has sent shock waves through the American Church. Many people of faith are afraid of the consequences of this decision. They predict the church will lose its tax exempt status, will be subject to crippling lawsuits, and that clergy who decline to perform homosexual weddings will be heavily penalized.

I confess fearing these things, too. But I think the greatest danger for the church is that it will become “the church.” Here's what I mean:

The Secret of a Happy Marriage

Today my wife Dionne and I celebrate 41 years together. I have no doubt that we are in our happiest season of all the many seasons of our marriage. My love for her is deeper than ever before, which is saying a great deal.

But I don’t think I know “the secret of a happy marriage,” if there is one. (Sorry.)

The best I can do is this little diagram.

At the top of the triangle is Jesus. On the left apex is Jim, on the right is Dionne. The closer we get to Jesus, the closer we get to one another.

As simple, maybe even hokey as that might seem, it is absolutely true.

So, as kind of a reverse anniversary gift to all of you who read this: pursue Christ. He is the secret and the key and the source and the blessing, the beginning and the end, of all things.

Was Jesus Married?

Last week various news outlets reported the discovery of a small papyrus fragment that includes the words, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife..'" 

I guess some people thought this would cause evangelical Christians to flip out. “Oh, no, maybe Jesus was married!”

The fragment, only the size of a business card, dates to the fourth century—300 years after the completion of the New Testament. And it turns out that this “controversy” is part of a larger agenda to try to discredit the historic Christian faith. The Harvard professor who “discovered” this manuscript is already on record for rejecting the traditional view of God’s word.

Here’s a good summary by Al Mohler:  

The energy behind all this is directed to the replacement of orthodox Christianity, its truth claims, its doctrines, its moral convictions, and its vision of both history and eternity with a secularized — indeed, Gnosticized — new version. Just look at the attention this tiny fragment of papyrus has garnered.

The Oranges

At our recent anniversary celebration, our daughter-in-law read the following story, something I wrote a few years ago but had never shown anyone. It’s about three times longer than I usually post on this blog, but in the hope that it might honor Christ and encourage others, I decided to include it. It’s all true.

 He woke that morning, thanking God it was Saturday. His roommate had left with his drinking buddies the night before, so he had their small dorm room to himself for the weekend. Today he had nothing on the horizon except to meet her for lunch.

            He rolled out of bed, showered, and pulled on some old jeans, a T-shirt and his sneakers, the 70’s uniform of the college freshman.

            Breakfast today consisted of a candy bar he bought from the vending machine downstairs in the lobby. Unwrapping it, he headed across campus.

            That first year he didn’t have a car, so he did a lot of walking. Any dates they had were on campus or carefully planned around the city bus routes.

            His dorm was on the extreme northwest end of campus, and her apartment was a couple blocks south and central, right in the middle of campus near the old chapel. He could walk it in his sleep, and usually zoned out as he made the familiar trek across parking lots and behind buildings to short-cut his way to her place. Her kitchen window overlooked the front door, and he knew she would be watching for him.

            You’d have to say they were an unlikely couple. Not that they didn’t have areas of compatibility. Both were bookish and shy. He could be bitingly funny and she laughed at his jokes. Both of them were planning on becoming teachers, though lately he’d been talking about going into the ministry.

            The thing is, though, they were so young. At eighteen he was short and skinny, with long brown hair past his collar. He looked 14. Seven months older, she was slight and pretty, but when her eyes blinked behind her small glasses, you had the sense she was shutting away some kind of inner pain.

            You’d probably have concluded they were together out of mutual neediness. Neither had dated much in high school. He was the resident bookworm and egghead in a small high school where jocks were royalty and smarts were an embarrassment. His dad’s death four years before had set him adrift, and he was still looking for an anchor.

The First Forty Years is the Hardest

Today my wife and I celebrate 40 years of marriage.

This blog is about “admiring Christ,” and our marriage gives me many reasons to do so.

• Jesus brought me a woman who loves Him more than me, and for that reason loves me far better than I will ever deserve.
• I’ve learned more about Him, and especially about listening to Him, from the wife He gave me than from anyone else in my whole life.
• He has taken us through heartache and trial over the years, but it seems that the journey has always led us closer to Him and to one another. And so it’s been worth it.
• He has shown His mercy and grace by keeping us together when our marriage might easily have become a casualty of our own selfishness and brokenness. We might have given up, but He never did.
• Our life in the ministry often has not been "smart" financially, but Christ has always provided for us.
• He has used us separately and together to draw other people closer to Him, even though neither of us is worthy of the honor of lifting up His name.
• Jesus is the Bridegroom who perfectly loves His bride, and I'm not even close to being the husband I should be. But I feel incredibly blessed to have had the chance to love my sweet wife.
• Our sons are men of honor who follow Him, a legacy we’d be proud to claim. But we know their character and faith is a testament to His faithfulness, not ours.
• He has given us wonderful daughters-in-law who love Him and our sons.
• We have five grandchildren, each of whom is a source of joy.
• I love her more today than I did when we married 40 years ago. And that’s a lot.

"Evolving" Attitudes, Gay Marriage, and Jesus

President Obama, who claims to be a Christian, has recently “evolved” to support gay marriage. When MSNBC’s Chris Matthews interviewed Bishop Harry Jackson, an African American pastor who has spoken out against the President’s endorsement of gay marriage, Matthews said he hoped Bishop Jackson would “evolve.” 

The mainstream media in our country portrays any objection to the homosexual lifestyle, or to redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, as bigotry, or radical, or on the wrong side of history. Not evolved.

This blog is my attempt to “admire Christ.” I have no desire to be political. I want to lift up the character of Jesus. But the President’s recent "evolution" made me ask, So what does Jesus say about these things? Has Christ evolved? Or will He?