Jumping through Hoops – Part III

In our last installment of the interview we hear a few words of warning and encouragement to both daughters and their parents as to the dangers and unique challenges of the collegiate sports world.

What advice would you give parents whose daughters are involved in collegiate sports?

I think it is important to talk about this issue with them particularly with college-aged daughters.  I didn’t deal much at all with this in high school but it is definitely becoming more of a problem at that level now.

If you suspect anything hinting at homosexuality going on around your daughter, ask her about it. Teach her the biblical stance on homosexuality and make sure that she knows that it is a sin against God, no matter how many of her friends are doing it.

If they lack a substantive defense based in the truth and in why they believe what they do, when they are presented with the opposite belief amongst their peers, they will fold because they can’t combat it. On the other hand, if they have a deep understanding of the Gospel then they have the greatest weapon there ever will be in fighting the battle. Also, make sure that you are not telling them to hate homosexuals or to treat them wrong because of their lifestyle.

Make sure they understand that just because they are telling someone what God’s word says and they disagree, doesn’t mean that they are unloving or judgmental. In fact, that is the most loving thing your child can do- share truth in love. Ensure that they have a strong sense of family and feel loved and accepted showing them proper affection for the more love they get from home the less likely they will go looking for it elsewhere.

And don’t be naive.  I have seen it happen a lot where the parents of a girl who is involved in a homosexual relationship are being lied to because the girl is so fearful of their parents finding out. If you see anything suspicious developing, don’t turn the other cheek and say that there’s no way your daughter would do that. Try to get to the bottom of it.

What advice would you give the girls who are entering collegiate sports?

Man, there is so much I would love to say to each girl- including giving each one a deep, rich presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation for all those that believe.. But in general, in speaking to the Christians, I want to tell you that you have no business entering this environment of collegiate sports unless you have been specifically called by God to do so. I know this may sound really extreme and harsh, but take it from me.  I’ve been on a long spiritual journey with the Lord through this; most of the time learning the hard way. Make sure that you are not entering this environment looking to consume it for your own lusts. You will be disappointed every time, if you do. Sports will let you down 100% of the time when you put your trust in it. Especially at the college level, where the temptation to make it your life is increased because they demand so much of your time.

I give you that warning because if you are not spiritually equipped beforehand you can get swallowed up. The temptation is great. The trials are even greater. Without being rooted in the word you will have no foundation to stand on. And soon enough, you will find your life morphing into one that looks just like everyone else’s around you.

Also, make sure that you find a group of people inside and outside of the athlete world who are like-minded and who will build you up in your faith. It is always good to have a group of sincere Christians who don’t care one bit about how well you perform in your sport, but instead want to see you grow in holiness. This is crucial. You need that balance after hearing all day about your sport and how it needs to be number one in your life. Find a great local church that preaches the unadulterated word of God and welcome the accountability and support in your life.

As far as homosexuality is concerned it is hard to predict what kind of situations you will find yourself in, but no matter what, do not compromise what you know is right. It may mean that you are the ‘weird Christian girl who always talks about the Bible’, but trust me, it is all worth it when you think about what it is you are there to do.

Don’t shy away from building relationships with girls that you know are homosexual. Some of my best friendships have come from teammates of mine that are gay. I care about all of them deeply and I make sure that they know that I love and care about their lives outside of them being on the basketball court with me.   People respond differently to you when they know that you genuinely love them

Make sure that they know they can talk to you about the issue without you condemning them to hell in the process. This is why having a deep understanding of the Gospel is so important. Knowing the doctrines of human depravity and the like are crucial so that you are able to explain to them why being a homosexual is wrong, but also not placing them any higher on the sinner list than any other depraved human being…nor does is place them out of the reach of the glorious grace of God.

In short, always be ready and able to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. If you live your life for Christ, they will come up to you and ask you genuine questions about it- be ready to give an answer! And also, enjoy the opportunity that the Lord has blessed you with. It is by far an exciting time in your life and it is full of fun, but make sure you don’t lose focus on what it is we are here on earth to do- glorify God in all that we do.

Holiday Song Poll

Christmas time ushers in two separate holidays and celebrations co-existing in one season.  Part of the party is about festive pagan remnants and tales that include flying Santas, mysterious gifts and good cheer, and strange elves making all sorts of gifts and goodies. Another part of the equation involves a unified recognition and focus upon the birth of Jesus Christ.

A major part of the festivities we play, sing  and listen to all sorts of familiar songs. It is in that spirit that I’d like to take a little poll of the folks who read this to see what your favorite holiday song might be.  Of these selections, which is your favorite?

Growing Worse or Seeing Clearer?

One of the last lessons we effectually learn, is that true godliness is a constant conflict in a believer’s heart–between sin and holiness.  Some sincere believers mistake a clearer view, and deeper sense of their depravity, for an actual increase of sin. The Christian seems sometimes to himself, to be growing worse, when actually it is only that he sees more clearly what in fact he really is!

In the early stages of our Christian life, we have usually but a slender acquaintance with the evil of our sinfulness, and the depravity of our heart. The mind is so much taken up with pardon and eternal life, that it is but imperfectly acquainted with those depths of deceit and wickedness, which lie hidden in itself.

At first we seem to feel as if the serpent were killed. But we soon find that he was only asleep–for by the warmth of some fiery temptation, he is revived and hisses at us again! Nothing astonishes an inexperienced believer more than the discoveries he is continually making of the evils of his heart. Corruptions which he never dreamt to be in him, are brought out by some new circumstances. It is like turning up the soil, which brings out worms and insects, which did not appear upon the surface.

Or to vary the illustration, his increasing knowledge of God’s holy nature, of the perfect law, and the example of Christ–is like opening the shutters, and letting light into a dark room, the filth of which, the inhabitant did not see until the sunbeams disclosed it to him.

John Angell James, “Christian Progress” 1853

Playing the Hypocrite

The book of James hits us like a two by four every time we read it.  The call to right behavior is a good tool for self-examination before God.  Watch this video. There is no dialogue. It doesn’t need any.

“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” James 3:10

God Loves a Cheerful Giver

It’s been said that if you want to know where a man’s heart is, follow his wallet.  Check out a man’s spending habits and you’ll see what he values the most.

Jesus put it this way in the gospel of Matthew chapter six,  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

As our recent financial chaos in this country can attest to – men love money.  In fact, it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil according to Scripture and our Lord said that no can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

This is quite amusing when you think about it because to worship wealth is to bow down to the byproduct without recognizing the producer.  It is to pay homage to the grocery bag and banana while ignoring the one who made the fruit in the first place.

God is the source of all good things.  He is the source of all of our blessings and to miss the beauty of His glory for a mere created thing is most miserable indeed.  Why worship a penny when we have the King?

Giving in the church should be regular, proportionate, and sometimes sacrificial.  It should be done voluntarily and with great joy and seen as privilege and not a burden.  God does not want your minimum wage mentality where tithing becomes your focus and you quibble over percentages and net incomes.

We should learn to move on beyond that limited view of giving and see that our standard of giving has now become the self-giving example of Christ Himself who gave all so that others may profit.  The tithing of first fruits is merely a good base to work from but is by no means the end.

Listen to more details here when I recently preached on this often mistaught doctrine. I pray you are encouraged and challenged as I know I was by what God’s Word has to say on giving cheerfully.

Most Peculiar Momma

It is during times like these that I wonder where we will end up by the end of the year or decade.  Our financial horizons are so pathetically entrenched in political pandering that John McCain actually looks like a conservative and Barack Obama is being heralded as some revival juggernaut while the reality is that he’s simply a liberal socialist re-presenting the same Ole anti-American nonsense that the Clinton’s tried to feed the nation before Bill was impeached.

We have homosexuals demanding equal treatment and the right to be married as if one’s sexual orientation should be their self-defining feature and marriage can mean anything else other than what God has intended.  Even mere biology attests to the fact and function of our sexual organs’ use and non-intended use and if anyone dare point out that a man’s anatomy is designed to work with a female’s body, then suddenly they are labeled intolerant and bigoted.  Strange days indeed.

Legislators can’t seem to decide if inutero-living is actually living at all or whether taxing Americans more will be a good or bad thing, as if the last century never even happened.  Babies in their mother’s womb are just that – babies in their mother’s womb; they have a seperate DNA, their own blood-type and their own heart beat. The only real debate we should be having is about how fast we should be shutting down these infanticidal murder factories and what to do with all the extra phone systems and reception room chairs that will become available from Planned Parenthood’s closure.

Madness abounds from the right and from the left as our standards are eroding in every possible arena.  The new standard in our culture seems to be that there is no standard as a post-modern feeding fetish seems to make the masses glad. Logic is an antiquated ideal that has worn out her usefulness and in her place is an emotive gelatin that neither provides vision or nutrition.

Strange and yet, predictable.  And so we stand on the fringe of uncertainty as our sight cannot tell us what the next day will bring, but then again, it never could and it never will.  These are the times when I am so glad that the One who does know tomorrow calls me Blessed.  These are the times when our glorious Savior and King shines the most brightly. These are the times when our faith is tested.

I am glad that we do not put our hope in chariots or politicians or economic markets. Instead, we put our hope in God above who never leaves us and who never forsakes us and who is orchestrating all the events of history so that His perfect work of redemption, justice, and mercy may be fulfilled as the consummated Kingdom gets closer and closer and closer.  And unlike some pop artist’s may sing, somebody did tell me there would be days like these… and for that I rejoice.  Come Lord quickly!

A Bedrock and A Body

The church is not a building or a place of worship; the church is the assembled people of God. It is a family of believers who are united in Christ as a spiritual organism- unified by a common bedrock of faith.

Christ’s church is a holy and royal priesthood, a people set apart by grace and decree – a chosen race for God’s glory, a temple indwelt by the Spirit of God, a household that all have the same heavenly Father, a blood-bought possession of Christ. The church of God shares one body, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, and one Lord.

In Scripture, the word ‘ekklesia’ means a gathering of citizens – it’s an assembly or a meeting, but specifically it is used in the New Testament to mean an assembled Christian community; a congregation both local and universal. The church [ekklesia] is the assembled people of God who are believers in the gospel of Christ and who understand what it means to have a new life; being brought out of darkness and put into the visible light of the glory of God.

They are the called out ones, his adopted children, his elect, the remnant of humanity that the prophet Jeremiah spoke of when he said, “You shall be My people, And I will be your God….Behold,(the) days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, (a covenant) not like the covenant which I made with their fathers…, I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 30:22; 31:31-34

Throughout history, from the primitive church and early beginnings under intense Roman persecution to the turn of the century battles against rampant Pharisaical fundamentalists, the trail of corruption and division can be charted with ease. And whether we are dealing with wicked leadership and murderers or anti-Trinitarians and Judiazers, one thing stands as the grand corrective – the Word of God itself – the testament of God’s prophets and apostles delivered to the church once and for all. And so, when we investigate the schisms and factions from Demas to Rastafarianism, we see that the simple exit from Scripture is to blame. Deviations from what God has said lead the visible church astray.

Wherever the position, place, and prominence of the Word of God is less than absolutely preeminent and those who are supposed to hold fast to it have abandoned sound reasoning; the professing church will begin to fall into the devil’s trap.

Since he cannot destroy the church, Satan’s strategy consists of creating an enticing pit of ear-tickling teachings that appeal to vain desires of human weakness and pride -appeals made to power and prestige, money and wealth, ease and comfort.

His cry comes in pretty packages like, “Don’t talk about sin! Don’t talk about hell! Don’t talk about the blood or the wrath! Don’t talk about the need for repentance! Ease them into it.  Ease them into it. Love, love. Love! No one can be offended by love. Forget about those old and dark days and reach for a table where there is room enough for all! Exclusivity alienates, don’t be so dogmatic!”

Muddying up the truth is the devil’s forte for it is much easier to die and suffocate while eating half-truths dipped in myths and lies than it is feed a flock open rat pellets. The trap’s pit is filled with doubt and indecision and lined with roads of endless opinions where to be certain of anything is to be misled and to be open to anything is to be enlightened.

It is a place that allows for invention, innovation, and philosophy to override Scriptural mandates and principle. A place where absolutes are mocked and godless soul-theories are coddled as long as they can be monogrammed with the name of Jesus.  Feelings and emotive responses wire the trap and personal preference, prejudice, and experience test the text instead of it being the other way around.  Subjectivity becomes the objective pulse and the jots and tittles turn into accents of liberty rather than anchors of assurance.

God’s promises become hopeful stories and the surety of a suffering Savior who completed all and who suffered all for my iniquities becomes a mere possible Jesus who roams the earth begging to be believed.

From Eden to glory the clarity and usefulness of Scripture is continually attacked and denigrated while the true church forever builds upon the unchanging truth of Holy writ and holds tight to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.

It is to this end that we fight. It is our call. It is our duty. It is our joy.

As William Chillingworth once wrote – “I am fully assured that God does not, and therefore that men ought not require any more of any man than this, to believe the scripture to be God’s word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to it.” William Chillingworth, The Works of William Chillingworth: In Three Volumes, Vol. 2, pp.411

For further edification, listen to both sermons on the Identity, Purpose, and Practice of the Church here and here.

Dead in Sin and Tresspasses or How We Managed to Rob the Girls Scouts with Glee

We hear the arguments often that man is basically good and that he only occasionally does bad things. Notwithstanding the definition of good being rightly defined, it doesn’t take too much effort to see man’s depravity at work. It isn’t difficult to see constant reminders of man’s wickedness. Just go to Google news and you’ll get your fill.

Headlines speak of lies, deception, murder, theft, hatred, racism, addictions, divorce, abuse, scandal, and war yet few ever think that they are as messed up as their neighbor. Poor, poor Mr. Otherguy.

When you parent children you learn quickly that you are not about the business of instilling evil and manipulation into their little minds and hearts; instead, you are the teacher of virtue and morality. Children bite, scream, curse, strike and beat each other without ever being taught how to sink their teeth into their sister’s arm. While we may never be as evil as we could be, we certainly have no footing when we attempt to claim the moral highroad. And if our parents go MIA from the discipline and instruction camp we usually end up on the front page.

Christ spoke directly to those who thought they were better than murderers just because they hadn’t actually committed the act when He said, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER ‘ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” Matthew 5:21-22

Jesus went after the heart. We are all born sinners and with that corrupted nature we are dead in our sin. (Eph. 2:1) We are wicked and estranged coming right out of the womb according to the Psalmist and if not for the grace of God seen in His free choice of mercy and pity, we’d be just as horrid as the most horrendous. “There, but for the grace of God, go I” isn’t just a cute bumper sticker, it’s true. I pray that rather than being in shock over sin and in dismay over evil, we can learn to grieve more because of its presence and see it more evidently in our own lives for this is what brings about humility. I believe this is the thrust of Matthew 7’s speck and plank exhortation and Galatians 6’s warning about considering yourself to be more than the nothing that you truly are. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. The empty hand of faith.

So in light of this meditation take a look at this video. Here is a great example of what the unrestrained and untrained heart looks like in youth. All I kept hearing while watching this was Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom, But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.” Shame, now there’s a word we don’t hear anymore.

More on this story is found here and here.

A Call to Live in Faith Communities

Recently, I had the privilege of spending some time with a kindred spirit. I first met Dr. Grier a few years ago in Michigan and ever since then his heart has been knitted together with mine. It’s a strange union because we’ve not spent much time together nor have we been in the same circles much but what we do share is a common Christ and a common vision for the church and her work in this life. I’ve transcribed a bit of his sermon “The Glorious Hope for which We Stand” which was delivered this month at the 2008 national FIRE conference “Defending the Hope: Kingdom Apologetics” in Felton, CA. I pray that it will challenge and encourage you as we co-labor for Christ’s glory.

 

“God engages people redemptively right in their present history by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Nothing has to happen in this culture for the Spirit to regenerate people. He will address them right there in the midst of the post-modern shift, we can be absolutely confident in that.

Mission begins in the person of God.

We don’t have to wait for anything to go back, we don’t have to yearn for the Puritan days… we don’t have to yearn to go back when America was supposedly a Christian country… we don’t have to wait for Roe v. Wade to be reversed before the gospel will indeed, blessed by the power of the Spirit, address the people of this culture in midst of this present worldview shift… I am confident about that. We should not back down because of the concern that we have and the insecurity we feel as this shift takes place.

In doing apologetics and evangelism, not only do we have to be confident that the Spirit will engage the culture redemptively, but there must be a faith community in which this gospel is lived out and thus is seen in reality to fulfill the purpose for which it is given.

We have got to get over this individualism, we have lived so long with everybody coming to church and when they come, they are looking for increments of personal holiness, they want to move up another notch on the ladder, they want to be told of some more benefits they have received in Jesus Christ so they can sit and bask in the benefits.

But may I say to you that the force of the gospel is not to make us sit and bask in the benefits…the force of the gospel is to send us on a mission …the benefits are the basis to prepare us for that mission.

We’ve made mission almost a percentage of our budget that we give for overseas. But may I suggest to you that mission begins in the person of God. God is the one who sent His Son, the Father and the Son sent the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the Father and the Son and the Spirit send the church- it isn’t the sending church it’s the sent church.

We’ve lost that focus. We have become almost a community in the Reformed structure that is committed to a cognitive head-shop kind of approach where we fill with all the niceties of doctrine and all the things that we would die for, and I’m willing to die for them, but I want you to know that increased knowledge brings increased accountability.

I want you to know that the focus of the church of Jesus Christ is not inward it is outward.

The task of apologetics in a post-modern culture is going to have to be to show that this biblical redemptive narrative – Genesis through Revelation – is coherent and is cogent on its own terms. The day is past when we’re going to be able to marshal arguments and deductive reason in order to prove certain things to be true.

The day is present when we are going to have to master this narrative, this entire content of God’s biblical revelation. We are going to have to learn to be able to demonstrate how that hope fits all the way back to Genesis 3, how it comes to its consummation in Revelation 21 and 22… that means we can’t stop with just preaching expositorily through books of the bible we’ve got to put the content of the book into the larger structure of the redemptive narrative. We must master this narrative.

We must be able at any moment when we are asked to defend our hope to defend it not by going external to the narrative, not by going out to archaeology and proofs that we’ve tended to use in the past in a much more rational time period. We are going to have to be able to listen carefully to people of other faiths and to the people of post-modernity and we are not good at listening.

We need a redemptive community that is a foretaste of the consummation.

When somebody is talking to us we are thinking more about how we are going to answer then we are listening to what they are saying, that’s what we do when we pray in groups, right? You don’t pray with the person praying… you’re thinking about what you’re going to say when you pray. We’re not good listeners.

We’re going to have to be able to take the content of this entire redemptive canon of Scripture and show how it all goes together and not just isolate little pieces of it.

What we need is a redemptive community that is a foretaste of the consummation. I should be able to bring any post-modern person to your church and say, “If you’d like to get a taste of what the consummation of the work of Jesus Christ is like in the future come along with me to this church and you’ll get a taste of it today!”

I preach in a lot of churches and quite frankly if that’s what the consummated Kingdom is going to look like I just as soon not go. That’s what I mean by a faith community. A community that lives under the rule of God for whom this narrative is embracive of every part of life… for whom the study and the grasping of this narrative and the ability to use it and to put it together in its wholeness becomes the basis of witness and the basis of giving an answer, defending, the hope in your midst. “

Additional Information:

James M. Grier, Th.D. – Seminary Vice President and Distinguished Professor of Theological Philosophy at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

www.jamesmgrier.org

 

Gay Marriage, Spot and Beautiful Vases

I was in San Francisco right after the historic ruling that legalized gay marriage. Not that New Orleans is foreign to overt homosexual communities, but it was a bit surreal to actually be in the midst of the news rather than hearing about it from afar. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George has said that this ruling is based on the impressions that he had while visiting the south’s racial ‘no Negro allowed‘ world and sees this as simply another form of discrimination. To him and many others this is merely a civil rights issue.

If ever there were a proof of living in a transmodernity that has become overwhelmingly post-logic this would be it. Definitions mean little anymore and along with redefining comes a loss of logic. Based on George’s definitions and attitudes why not legalize bestiality next and allow us to marry our pets? I know many loving people out there who are in love with Biffy and Spot and Smoochie pup. Why not let them have the dignity of getting married? Are they, too, not in a committed relationship of mutual love and affection? Some of the most happy and committed relationships I’ve ever seen are between a man and his dog or a woman and her cat so why not let them marry ? Certainly these outdated discriminatory laws against intercourse with animals need to be overturned!

“…an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation.” – Chief Justice Ronald George

Where does the redefining end? Marriage was not instituted by man, it was given by God. Just as we are not the byproducts of chance, mutation, and primordial soup explosions, we are also not autonomous agents floating in the ether who can invent any type of familial relationship and call it good.

If a man chooses to get breast implants and take female hormones and use his anus as a vagina that does not make him a woman. And if a woman decides that she will wear her hair short, dress like a man and purchase a penile-substitute so that she can be her girlfriend’s boyfriend she isn’t a man either. This is a self-authenticating truth. I’m not a dog if I bark and eat Science diet anymore than Spot is my wife. God created all things in kind and He made us in His image – man and woman. If someone were to make a beautiful vase for you and you then in turn decided to use that wonderfully created centerpiece as a personal latrine would not the creator of that vase be angry? Would you not be disgracing the intended purpose of that vase by urinating and defecating in it day after day? We would throw someone in jail if they went to a museum of fine art and began to use the painting canvases as toilet paper yet somehow we don’t have the same respect for our own bodies?

Homosexuality misuses the intended and obvious design of the human body which is why it is proper to label it as deviant, perverted, and wrong. Comparing being against the redefining of social constructs and marriage laws to suit homosexuals equal to not allowing a black man from Georgia to eat at Denny’s is patently absurd. They are not even in the same category which is why categories must be reworked in an attempt to make it all ‘fit’. God created mankind from one blood and He made us both male and female. Following the created order is honoring to Him; following unjust racial divides and invented gender-nastics is abuse.

This is a great evangelical time we live in – a great time to use these events to dialog with others as a platform in proclaiming the unchanging truth of the Gospel.

For more thoughts on this you can listen to James White’s commentary here.
Or Al Mohler’s guest here.

And if you think my comments on Spot were whacked, read this.