Avalanche!

Adam and Chris had been best friends since grade school. They grew up in the same neighborhood and graduated high school together. And even though they went off to separate colleges and separate lives, they still stayed in touch.

They were in each other’s weddings, and they got together at least once a year to fish or hike or go to a ballgame.

Two weeks before Adam’s 40th birthday, he invited Chris to join him for a weekend of skiing and hiking up in the mountains. They rented a cabin and both left work early on Friday to drive up. The weather was clear Friday night, but snow was expected Saturday.

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)

Abigshag and Hume Lake Volleyball

Sam Talbert is our church’s resident Bible scholar and Pastor Emeritus. After retiring from the pastorate, he has continued to serve in a variety of roles, including on our elder board. Sam shared this devotional at an elder meeting recently, and I thought it was too good not to pass on.   

Throughout the Scriptures are passages that have caused me to scratch my head. One of these is II Kings 1. As you remember king David is old and near death and cannot generate enough body heat.  So, a young maiden named Abishag is hired to minister to him, even to share his bed to keep him warm.

When the Worst Thing Actually Happens

This is Good Friday, but it wasn’t good for Jesus. It was indescribably terrible, when He who knew no sin became sin.

Last night I was reading the story of Jesus’ Upper Room ministry to His disciples. Right before He washed their feet (including, of course, Judas’), John said this: Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist (John 13:3-4, my emphasis).

What? All things were given into His hands? Did the “all things” include His own impending torture, death, and separation from the Father by being identified with the filthy sin of all God’s elect?

Yes, it did. Jesus said of  the laying down of His life: No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father (John 10:18).

The worst thing imaginable happened. The best Man who ever lived, the only truly innocent man, was charged and convicted by false testimony of crimes He never committed. The kindest, most loving, Man our race will ever know was cruelly humiliated and tortured, and then slowly put to death.

Somehow, in ways I cannot untangle, the worst thing that ever happened was the best thing that ever happened.

I know people who have had the “worst thing” actually happen to them. Loved ones die, awful disease afflicts, women are brutalized, evil people abuse little children. 

Our God really is in charge of all things, yet without being the author of sin. Scripture says that the worst things that happens are still held in the hands of Jesus. I don’t fully understand, but it helps that those hands have nail prints in them.

Christ's worst thing became Good Friday. It became the complete payment for the sins of His own, and opened heaven to people like me who were sliding to hell. 

I believe that in His timing, wisdom and love, the worst things that happen to us will become best under His kind and all-powerful hands. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Let 'em Go

If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because man, they're gone. 
Jack Handey, Deeper Thoughts: All New, All Crispy.

Twenty years ago I used to love "Deep Thoughts" on Saturday Night Live. But sometimes humor reveals "deep" truth. "Let 'em go" is good advice. Especially if you're trying to follow Jesus.

Because it's a serious question: how do you keep going in this life of faith? Following Christ is not a sprint, but it is a race. We’re supposed to run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1). But how?

Well, one thing is to lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely.

“Weight” (NIV: “everything that hinders”) means mass, bulk. In the ancient world it was sometimes used of a person’s pretensions. Pride adds a lot of unnecessary weight. But really any bulky thing that keeps us from moving toward Christ needs to be dumped.

And “sin that so easily entangles” pictures a guy trying to run in long robes. In the first century world, you had to “gird your loins” – hike up your robes to keep your legs from getting tripped up.

Sin will entangle and ensnare us, trip us up, just like the weight of our own egos. We've got to let them go. Following Jesus is too important.

Wretched Man

Recently I was rude to a telemarketer who called the church office. The church secretary was out and I made the mistake of answering the phone. The poor man who called was just trying to make a living. I was unnecessarily abrupt, downright discourteous. I've asked the Lord for forgiveness and would apologize to the telemarketer if I could speak to him again.

One of the disappointing things about getting older, for me at least, is my limited progress in spiritual growth. Twenty or thirty years ago, when I thought of being the age I am now, I assumed I would reach a point of unbroken holiness, steady faith, and unflappable joy in the Lord. I imagined I would be winsomely Christlike in character, always displaying the fruit of the Spirit.

Now the years have passed and here I am. I suppose I have made progress, but there are plenty of days when I don’t resemble that guy I hoped to be.  

This is a humbling truth that even the Apostle Paul learned the hard way. Right in the middle of writing Romans, Scripture's most exalted explanation of God’s redemptive plan, Paul spoke of his own spiritual life. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)

But this blog is not called “Disparaging Myself” but “Admiring Christ.” And here are two truths I've learned, both of which cause me to admire and exalt my Savior.