Tossing out the Word
I struggle with groups and people who intentionally set aside the Word of God because it does not fit their agenda. To be honest, I am probably guilty of that from time to time myself.
Compromise or Confront?
What really stokes my frustration is when organizations and leaders who have in the past strongly supported the Word of God and diligently tried to apply it to their lives and ministry, abandon the Word to accommodate the world.
Embrace or Exhort?
1 John 2:15 – 17 tells us that we are not supposed to love the world or the things in the world – you know the passage. But it seems like more and more believers are accepting the world’s view rather than God’s on the roles of men and women, marriage, and sexual perversion.
Tasteless Salt?
So that leads me to ask again, if we define manhood and womanhood like the world does, if we define marriage like the world does, if we define sexual perversion as a life choice like the world does, how is that not loving the world?
I struggle with groups and people who intentionally set aside the Word of God because it does not fit their agenda. To be honest, I am probably guilty of that from time to time myself.
What really stokes my frustration is when organizations and leaders who have in the past strongly supported the Word of God and diligently tried to apply it to their lives and ministry, abandon the Word to accommodate the world.
Embrace or Exhort?
1 John 2:15 – 17 tells us that we are not supposed to love the world or the things in the world – you know the passage. But it seems like more and more believers are accepting the world’s view rather than God’s on the roles of men and women, marriage, and sexual perversion.
Tasteless Salt?
So that leads me to ask again, if we define manhood and womanhood like the world does, if we define marriage like the world does, if we define sexual perversion as a life choice like the world does, how is that not loving the world?
Amen brother Cunningham! PREACH it! That felt good in my spirit hearing the truth spoken out by a great man of God!
ReplyDeleteThanks.
~ Bro. Jed
You are very kind.
DeleteThis has been an issue in the Church at least since the latter part of the First Century as you point out from 1 John, and likely earlier. A passage that for me parallels it for me is Hebrews 13:14, "...here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."
ReplyDeleteI have known about that city all my life, having grown up in a Bible-believing family although my understanding of it has changed through the years. This has always at some level been my desire, pursuing the path to that city.
Then thirteen months ago the Lord called to Himself the earthly love of my life of 45 years. It's not much of an exaggeration when I say that everything has changed. As I've evaluated my responses I've wondered, did I love her too much? Did she take the place of Christ? What does my overwhelming grief and sense of loss tell me about my heart? I know one thing, all of a sudden my sense of priorities have flip flopped. The "looking for" in this verse has become almost an obsession. I seek to control it in balance since as I'm here, God must still have something for me to do in this temporary city which has lost all glitter and beauty.
This is a new journey in a shroud of mystery. May Christ increase my love for Himself; may I truly be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "...for me to live is Christ...." I've got the "to die is gain" part nailed down....