Compromise?

I just read an article about the United Methodist Church proposing to split itself into two denominations. At issue are the questions over openly gay clergy members and as same-sex “marriage”. I use the quotations on the word marriage because I do not recognize same sex civil unions as marriage. Marriage is between one man and one woman (See Genesis 2:21-24).

As The Steadfast Watchman, I cannot stay silent in the face of this evil. Why is a denomination of Christianity that traces its roots to John Wesley in the 18th Century “compromising” on Biblical principles? How can they even continue to call themselves a Church when they thumb their noses at the Word of God? Satan has his dirty hands all over this.

This is also an example of the decline of the American Church that began some 50 years ago. The decline has become much more precipitous over the past five years or so.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a non-denominational follower of Christ. But my great-grandfather was a Methodist Circuit Rider in West Virginia in the early 20th Century. He would be horrified at what is happening to his Church.

God created us in His own image, male and female, with the intention of being fruitful and increasing in number (see Genesis 1:26-27). That cannot happen with sexual relations between two men, or two women.

The Scriptures are quite clear on the fact that homosexual behavior is sexually immoral. And God considers to be detestable. Leviticus 18:22 says: “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.”

If we move beyond the Mosaic Law of the OT, we’ll find that the Apostle Paul dealt with homosexuality and sexual immorality in the NT. Without going into a long detail, I’ll put the relevant Scripture passages here for you to read when you have the time: Romans 1:24-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:8-11; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:3-7; Revelation 22:15.

It is bad enough that this evil has pervaded our society. It is even worse when it pervades our Church. The Church is supposed to be the bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2).

The Steadfast Watchman is now finished ranting. You may return to your originally scheduled programming.

Do Unto Others…..

We have seen an inordinate amount of distrust, division, hatred, and revolting behavior in our society over the past few years. As followers of Christ, this can cause a lot of consternation, sadness, and maybe even guilt because of our own actions. So these questions arise: Just exactly how are we supposed to act? And how are we supposed to treat others? Especially those who treat us badly?

I think the answers to these questions can be found in God’s Word as contained in the Scriptures.

Matthew 7:12 says: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

We know it as the “Golden Rule”. This should be our starting point. Most of us have heard this all of our lives. And we understand it to means to only do things to others that we would want done to ourselves. But do we really follow this rule? There are times when each and every one of us can become angry and lash out. Or can speak harshly to someone else. These things only serve to cause more trouble. And they solve nothing.

I think there is a deeper meaning here that goes beyond treating others as you would like to be treated. I think it also means that we should love others as we would have them love us. We all want others to love us, right?

Now this love isn’t the same you have for your spouse, family, or friends.

This type of love can be referred to by it’s Greek word: “Agape”. Essentially “Agape” love is benevolence, goodwill, faithfulness, commitment, and a willful act of love. The Apostle Paul does an excellent job of describing this type of love in 1 Corinthians 13.

I think we could boil all of this down to two words: “unconditional love”. We want others to love us unconditionally, so we should love them unconditionally as well. That is not always easy to do now, is it? I think that’s because we are born into a sin nature. And sin is mankind’s default behavior. Why is that true, you ask? It is because the sin nature is diametrically opposed to the divine nature of God.

When we become believers in Christ, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to live within us. The Holy Spirit can guide us in our decisions, actions, and words. It is through the Holy Spirit that God speaks to us. Does that sound like something you would like? Sure it does! All followers of Christ want to hear God speak to us. Is there something that is required of us to make this happen? The answer to that question is, yes there is. We must be able to listen to what God is saying through the Holy Spirit. This is of the utmost importance.

Now, what does it mean to listen? Maybe we should define the word before we go any further. The dictionary gives us several definitions. But I think we can focus on two of them: “make an effort to hear something; be alert and ready to hear something”; “take notice of and act on what someone says; respond to advice or a request”. These are two interesting concepts.

I think to be successful in listening to God, we must follow each of those concepts in the order that I listed. First, we must be ready to hear. And second, we must act upon what we hear. This may sound easy, but I can assure you that it is not. We are constantly bombarded with distractions in our society. There is news on the television 24 hours per day, seven days per week. There are all the different types of social media. People are constantly looking at their phones. All of these things can impede on our ability to be ready to hear God. And if we cannot hear Him, we cannot act upon what He says to us.

You may ask how can we be ready to hear God and then to act? I think it starts with something very simple that can be summed up in one word. Prayer. Prayer is the way God has given us to talk to Him through Jesus Christ. We just need to ask Him to help us to listen. If we are willing to give up control to Him, He will give us the ability we need.

Leviticus 19:18 says: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

This is a direct commandment from God. God loved us enough to send his Son to die on the cross for us. We see this in John 3:16. This is probably the most famous verse of the Bible. We even see people holding it up on cardboard signs at football games.

The word “love” is a recurring theme throughout the Bible. For example, in the NIV translation it appears a whopping 551 times. And in the NASB translation 348 times.

Now that I’ve talked about all of this, do you feel like you’ve learned anything? Has this moved you in any way? Please feel free to let me know by commenting below. Thank you for reading!

My First Blog Post

Forgiveness….

What is forgiveness? Let’s find out….

The Dictionary defines “forgive” as:

VERB

stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake:

“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive David for the way he treated her”

synonyms: pardon · excuse · exonerate · absolve · make allowances for ·feel no resentment toward · feel no malice toward · harbor no grudge against · bury the hatchet with · let bygones be bygones · let off (the hook) · exculpate.

Now that we know what it is, let’s talk about it.

The Bible tells us of a forgiveness that is Divine. That is, God restoring a relationship with man that was severed by sin. He removes all guilt. He forgives the sin and the sinner alike.

In the Old Testament, one of the things associated with God was mercy. Some descriptions are “slow to anger”, “abounding in love and mercy”, and “compassionate and gracious”Exod 34:6 ; Num 14:18 ; Neh 9:17 ; Psalm 86:15 ; 103:8 ; 145:8 ; Joel 2:13). God does not treat his people in the way their sin deserves (Ezra 9:13-15 ; Psalm 78:35-38 ; 103:8-10 ),

But He is also jealous ( Exod 20:5 ; 34:14 ; Deut 4:23-24 ; 5:9 ; 6:15 ; Joshua 24:19-20 ; 1:2 ). Don’t forget, God is righteous and holy and will punish sin ( Exod 34:7 ; Num 14:18 ; Nahum 1:3 ).

God can also forgive a nation or city. For example, take the city of Nineveh. They were an evil people who did evil deeds. And that’s being nice! God was going to judge them, but decided to be merciful. He sent Jonah to warn them of the impending judgement, to give them a chance to repent. Jonah didn’t think he was up to the task. But God made a way to get him to Ninevah. The Ninevites believed Jonah, repented of their evil ways and were spared (Jonah 3:8).

The way God forgives nations can be summed up in Jeremiah 18:7-8 “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.”

Jesus has instructed us to forgive our brothers and sisters who sin against us seventy-seven times (Matthew 18:22)

The concept of forgiveness and the word forgive appear in many forms throughout the Bible.

The word “Forgiveness” is mentioned in the NIV bible 14 times. Once in the Old Testament and 13 times in the New Testament.

Forgiveness, as a concept, is mentioned more frequently. For example, the word “forgive” appears 42 times in the Old Testament and 33 times in the New Testament. The word “forgiven” appears 17 times in the Old Testament and 28 times in the New Testament. And the word “forgiving” appears 6 times in the Old Testament and 1 time in the New Testament.

I know this is a lot of information to take in, but I hope that you will feel enriched and encouraged. Thank you for reading.

My Story

I’m a relatively new believer in Christ. I had my conversion on August 28, 2007. It was a long time coming. And there were several things that led to it happening.

For a couple of years before that, I had a coworker who was a believer. He consistently witnessed to me, and prayed for me. Despite my constant rebuffing, he never gave up on me. All the way up until the time he left the company.

In June, 2007 there was a huge storm that dumped 5″ of rain on us in one hour. The water started to flood into the house. My wife was yelling at me to do something. I went outside and opened the gate to let some water through. We had a stockade fence. I went all around the house with no other idea of what to do.

Eventually, I stopped and stood there in ankle-deep water with rain pouring on me. It was around 1:00 am or so. I looked up asked God for a little help. Suddenly a calm came over me. And He told me to check the drain line. I did, and it was blocked. Then the rain suddenly let up. Looking back, I think that whole event was my own little miracle.

Then someone gave me a copy of “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. On my second day of reading, I made the decision to believe, and accept, Jesus Christ is my Savior.

I was born with a handicap in 1964. It was Cerebral Palsy. Thankfully, it was a moderate case. It had no bearing on my intelligence, or speech. I was eventually able to walk, but it wasn’t normal.

I was subject to mocking, ridicule, and job discrimination. I wasn’t able to find a job until I was almost 19. There was no ADA back then. So the hiring managers could actually come out and tell you they weren’t hiring you because of your handicap.

I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Business in 1987. I began a career in the underground utility construction industry. It spanned 29 years. And ended in 2016 due to health problems. I have been wheelchair-bound since 2014.

I knew that God had a purpose in allowing me to be brought low like that. He has a purpose in everything He does. For a long time, I asked Him to reveal to me what that purpose was.

I found out at church one day. Someone who had known me long before all this started told me that I was an inspiration to him. He said that when he complained about not feeling well, or having some pain, he would think of me. He knew that if I could get through everything, then he could too.

I’ve also found out that being in a wheelchair can help me evangelize. Especially out in public with people I’ve never met. To a lot of people, having a stranger walk up to them can make them feel uncomfortable. Maybe even threatened a bit.

But when a guy in a wheelchair comes up to them, they don’t seem to feel threatened at all. In places where people are seated, I can roll up to them and be at eye level. As opposed to standing over them.

God was gracious to me when granting me spiritual gifts. Things like faith, wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, discernment, and teaching.

The faith and discernment came after I was a believer. The others I had earlier. I let my gift for teaching go to waste when I was younger and healthier.

Because of the internet, I’m able to put all of my gifts to good use. It has allowed me to connect with people I would’ve not been able to otherwise.

Thank you for reading through all of this. And thank you for allowing me to share my story with you. I hope it will inspire or encourage you in some way.