Struggling with Homosexuality Like a Christian

Note from blogger: don't get to the phrase "homosexual Christians" and stop reading. Rather, keep reading and let the author Wesley Hill tell what he means that by that odd phrase. The excerpt comes from a book in which Hill reflects on the biblical teaching on homosexuality out of his own personal struggles. And at 160 short pages, it's well worth your time.

"When we homosexual Christians bring our sexuality before God, we begin or continue a long, costly process of having it transformed. From God’s perspective, our homoerotic inclinations are like “the craving for salt of a person who is dying of thirst” (to borrow Frederick Buechner’s fine phrase). Yet when God begins to try to change the craving and give us the living water that will ultimately quench our thirst, we scream in pain, protesting that we were made for salt. The change hurts.

“Are homosexuals to be excluded from the community of faith?” asked one gay Christian in a letter to a friend. “Certainly not,” he concluded. “But anyone who joins such a community should know that it is a place of transformation, of discipline, of learning, and not merely a place to be comforted or indulged.” Engaging with God and entering the transformative life of the church does not mean we get a kind of “free pass,” an unconditional love that leaves us where we are. Instead, we get a fiercely demanding love, a divine love that will never let us escape from its purifying, renovating, and ultimately healing grip.

And this means that our pain—the pain of having our deeply ingrained inclinations and desires blocked and confronted by God’s demand for purity in the gospel—far from being a sign of our failure to live the life God wants, may actually be the mark of our faithfulness. We groan in frustration because of our fidelity to the gospel’s call. And though we may miss out in the short run on lives of personal fulfillment and sexual satisfaction, in the long run the cruelest thing that God could do would be to leave us alone with our desires, to spare us the affliction of his refining care.

“Not only does God in Christ take people as they are: He takes them in order to transform them into what He wants them to be,” writes historian Andrew Walls. In light of this, is it any surprise that we homosexual Christians must experience such a transformation along with the rest of the community of faith?

The Christian story proclaims that our bodies belong to God and have become members of the corporate, communal body of Christ. This is yet a third reason Scripture and the church’s no to homosexual practice make sense to me."

-Wesley Hill, Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality (2011 A.D.) http://www.amazon.com/Washed-Waiting-Reflections-Faithfulness-Homosexuality/dp/0310330033/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330522662&sr=1-1

C.S. Lewis: Children Are Never Deceived by Fairy-Tales

"Those who wish to be deceived always demand in what they read at least a superficial or apparent realism of content...[Without] at least some degree of realism in content...no deception will occur at all. No one can deceive you unless he makes you believe he is telling the truth. The unblushingly romantic has far less power to deceive than the apparently realistic. Admitted fantasy is precisely the kind of literature that never deceives at all. Children are not deceived by fairy-tales; they are often gravely deceived by school-stories. Adults are not deceived by science-fiction; they can be deceived by the stories in the women's magazines. None of is deceived by The Odyssey, the Kalevala, Beowulf, or Malory. The real danger lurks in sober-faced novels where all appears to be very probable but all is in fact contrived to put across some social or ethical or religious 'comment on life.'" 

--C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism (1961 A.D.)

Did Jesus Ever Get a Stomach Virus?

This piece by Russell Moore is now the foreword for Patrick Henry Reardon's new book The Jesus We Missed: The Surprising Truth about the Humanity of Christ.

http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-We-Missed-Surprising-Humanity/dp/1595553711/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330290712&sr=1-1

"Several years ago, a brutal stomach virus crept through the seminary community where I serve as dean. One day, knowing that most of the students in my classroom were on the upswing from this sickness, I posed the question, “Did Jesus ever have a stomach virus?”

On a more typical day-a day in which the question of such illness would have been a more abstract reality-I doubt there would have been anything less than consensus. Of course, these future pastors would have asserted, Jesus assumed everything about human nature, except for sin.

But this wasn’t an abstract question. These students were still reeling not just from the discomfort of the stomach flu, but also from its indignity. They had been wracked with vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and chills. They still smarted from the sense of having no control over the most disgusting of bodily functions.

So when I asked this question, these ministers of the gospel hesitated. The stomach virus wasn’t just awful; it was undignified. And thinking of Jesus in relation to the most foul and embarrassing aspects of bodily existence seemed to them to be just on the verge of disrespectful, if not blasphemous.

Why is it so hard for us to imagine Jesus vomiting?

The answer to this question has to do, first of all, with the one-dimensional picture of Jesus so many of us have been taught, or have assumed. Many of us see Jesus either as the ghostly friend in the corner of our hearts, promising us heaven and guiding us through difficulty, or we see him simply in terms of his sovereignty and power, in terms of his distance from us. No matter how orthodox our doctrine, we all tend to think of Jesus as a strange and ghostly figure.

But the bridging of this distance is precisely at the heart of the scandal of the gospel itself. It just doesn’t seem right to us to imagine Jesus feverish or vomiting or crying in a feeding trough or studying to learn his Hebrew. From the very beginning of the Christian era, those who sought to redefine the gospel argued that it doesn’t seem right to think of Jesus as really flesh and bone, filled with blood and intestines and urine. It doesn’t seem right to think of Jesus as growing in wisdom and knowledge, as Luke tells us he did. Somehow such things seem to us to detract from his deity, from his dignity.

But that’s just the point.

The very beginning of the Christ story itself tells us that part of the sign of the Messiah is that he is wrapped in cloths (Lk. 2:12). Why do you wrap cloths around a baby? For the same reason you might diaper your infant, or wrap her up in a blanket. The point is to keep the baby warm, and to keep him dry from waste. From the very beginning Jesus is one of us, sharing with us a human nervous system, a human digestive system, and as we’ll see every aspect of human nature.

It didn’t seem right to the world to imagine the only begotten of the Father twisting in pain on a crucifixion stake, screaming as he drowned in his own blood. This was humiliating, undignified. That’s just the point. Jesus joined us in our humiliation, our indignity.  In this Jesus is, the Scripture tells us, not ashamed to call us brothers (Heb. 2:11).

I thought intensely about this as I was asked to read, and write a foreword, for my friend Patrick Henry Reardon’s new book on the humanity of the Lord Christ, The Jesus We Missed: The Surprising Truth About the Humanity of Christ (Thomas Nelson). This is the best contemporary treatment of this subject I’ve ever seen.

This book prompted me to think and to ponder. But, more than that, this book prompted me to pray and to worship, to see the Jesus it is so easy for me to forget: the Jesus who was really and truly one of us, so that we might be, with him, the heirs of the Father and the children of God. The one who took on every aspect of our flesh and blood in order to redeem us from the power of the devil (Heb. 2:14-15).

Reflecting on the humanity of Jesus always drives me to see what I’ve missed in my own humanity. Too often, we’re tempted to excuse our own bitterness, our rage, our lust, our envy, our factiousness as “only human.” The mystery of Christ shows us that such things aren’t human at all, but satanic. We define humanity in light of our brother, in light of the alpha and omega point of humanity-Jesus of Nazareth.

Reflecting on our Lord’s humanity can drive you to the Jesus you might have forgotten or, might never have seen. It can also propel you with longing-for the day spike-scabbed hands wipe away your tears as you hear a northern Galilean accent introduce himself as your Lord, as your King, but also as your brother."

Protecting Ourselves To Death

"Sometimes we want to want to protect our children or our flock from too many things. For instance, we sometimes try to protect them from the caustic scorn of peers who have little time for Christian values. After all, we console ourselves, the Bible says much about earning a good reputation with outsiders. But that reputation is for integrity, kindness, love; it is never to be won at the expense of silence. I look at my children, and I wish for them enough opposition to make them strong, enough insults to make them choose, enough hard decisions to make them see that following  Jesus brings with it a cost. A church that is merely comfortable, that never evangelizes, never encourages its people to stand on the front line, will never be a strong, never be a grateful, never be able to sort out profoundly Christian priorities."

--D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil (2006 A.D.) 

Narnia: National Security, Small Government, with a Little Environmental Regulation

"These two Kings and two Queens governed Narnia well, and long and happy was their reign. At first much of their time was spent seeking out the remnants of the White Witch's army and destroying them, and indeed for a long time there would be news of evil things lurking in the wilder parts of the forest--a haunting here and a killing there, a glimpse of a werewolf one month and a rumor of a hag the next. But in the end all that foul brood was stamped out. And they made good laws and kept the peace and saved good trees from being unnecessarily cut down, and liberated young dwarves and young satyrs from being sent to school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary people who wanted to live and let live."

-C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

 

We're a Bunch of Phonies

"One of our greatest problems today is that we have gotten caught up in our culture-wide quest for authenticity. We want our jeans authentic (pre-ripped at the factory), we want our apples authentic (grown locally instead of somewhere else), we want our music authentic (underground bands nobody ever heard of), we want our lettuce authentic (organically manured), we want our literature authentic (full of angst), we want our movies authentic (subtitles), and we want our coffee tables authentic (purchased from a genuine peasant while we were on some eco-tour). In short, we are a bunch of phonies. We are superficial all the way down.

We are not going to get out of this snare until we see the quest for authenticity for what it is--a hypocrisy factory cranking out tight-weave superficiality by the yard."

-Douglas Wilson, Wordsmithy (2011 A.D.)

The Social Importance of Motherhood

"No matter what the outcome being examined–the quality of the mother-infant relationship, externalizing behavior in childhood (aggression, delinquency, and hyperactivity), delinquency in adolescence, criminality as adults, illness and injury in childhood, early mortality, sexual decision making in adolescence, school problems and dropping out, emotional health, or any other measure of how well or poorly children do in life–the family structure that produces the best outcomes for children, on average, are two biological parents who remain married. 

Divorced parents produce the next-best outcomes. Whether the parents remarry or remain single while the children are growing up makes little difference. Never-married women produce the worst outcomes. All of these statements apply after controlling for the family’s socioeconomic status. I know of no other set of important findings that are as broadly accepted by social scientists who follow the technical literature, liberal as well as conservative, and yet are so resolutely ignored by network news programs, editorial writers for the major newspapers, and politicians of both major political parties."

 -Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010 (2012 A.D.)

8 Things I Hate about Modern Worship Songs

This is great! A must-read!

http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2010/08/rant-worship/

Aslan, Nature, and Uncle Andrew the Atheist

“We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene has looked like from Uncle Andrew’s point of view. It had not made at all the same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children. For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing, and on what sort of person you are.

Ever since the animals had first appeared, Uncle Andrew had been shrinking further and further back into the thicket. He watched them very hard of course; but he wasn’t really interested in seeing what they were doing, only in seeing whether they were going to make a rush at him. Like the Witch, he was dreadfully practical. He simply didn’t notice that Aslan was choosing one pair out of every kind of beasts. All he saw, or thought he saw, was a lot of dangerous wild animals walking vaguely about. And he kept on wondering why the other animals didn’t run away from the big Lion.  

When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the whole point; for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that it was a lion (“only a lion,” as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that it wasn’t singing and never had been singing—only roaring as any lion in a zoo might in our own world. ‘Of course it can’t really have been singing,’ he thought, ‘I must have imagined it. I've been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?’ And the longer and more beautiful the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan’s song.”

-C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew (1955 A.D.)

 

A Lutheran and a Baptist Testify before Congress on Religious Liberty

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2012/02/19/a-lutheran-and-a-baptist-testify-before-congress/

As the Waters Cover the Sea

"The heavens and the earth are the stage on which Yahweh will display beauty, truth, and goodness, and that beauty, truth, and goodness are his glory. Adam was charged to rule over the earth and subdue it, which seems to mean that he was to expand the borders of Eden until the place where Yahweh’s glory was known by his image bearers covered the dry land as the waters cover the sea. Adam rebelled, sought to be like God himself, and was expelled from the garden. The Lord then chose Abraham, and he promised land to him and his seed. Then the Lord brought the seed of Abraham into the Land, and it was as though a new Adam, the people of Israel, were given a new Eden, whose boundaries they were to extend. As Israel subdued the nations round about, the land in which Yahweh’s word was law, the land where Yahweh dwelled among his people, would grow. Here again, Yahweh’s purpose was to cover the dry lands with his glory, and so he invited the messiah, king of Israel, to ask of him, and he would make the nations his inheritance (Ps. 2:8). Like Adam, Israel sinned. Like Adam, Israel was expelled from the land. As with Adam, Yahweh means to save through judgment. The exile displays Yahweh’s justice, and the return is lavish mercy."

--James Hamilton, God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology (2010 A.D.)

How to Disagree About Bible Translation Philosophy

Good post from Andy Naselli.

http://andynaselli.com/how-to-disagree-about-bible-translation

The Cost of Sexual Immorality

"We can find a good example of such further penalties [for violating the natural law] in the consequences of breaking the precept that confines sex to marriage. An immediate consequence of their violation is injury to the procreative good: one might get pregnant but have nobody to help raise the child. Another immediate consequences is injury to the unitive good: one misses the chance for that total self-giving which can develop only in a secure and exclusive relationship. And there are long-term consequences too, among them poverty, because single women must provide for their children by themselves; adolescent violence, because male children grow up without a father's influence; venereal disease, because formerly rare infections spread rapidly through sexual contact; child-abuse, because live-in boyfriends tend to resent their girlfriends' babies and girlfriends may resent babies that their boyfriends did not father; and abortion, because children are increasingly regarded as a burden rather than a joy. The longer people persist in violating the natural law, the heavier the penalties for violation. Provided they do not refuse the lesson, eventually even the dullest among us may put the clues together and solve the puzzle. Over the course of its history a culture may have to relearn the timeless truths many times over. It may of course refuse to learn them and be destroyed."

--J. Budziszewski, What We Can't Not Know 

Ramming Our Heads Against the Law

"For breaking the foundational moral principles that we can't not know, one penalty is guilty knowledge, because deep down we can't help but know the truth. For breaking any precepts of the natural law..there are other penalties, too. Those who cut themselves bleed. Those who give offense to others are hated. Those who live by knives die by them. Those who betray their friends have none left. Those who abandon their children have none to stroke their brows when they are old. Those who travel from bed to bed lose the capacity for trust. Those who torture their consciences are tortured by them in return. Those who suppress their moral knowledge become stupider than they intended. Those who refuse the one in whose image they are made live as strangers to themselves. We see that the principle that God is not mocked, that whatever one sows he reaps, is woven into the fabric of our nature. Not all our disobedience can unravel a single stitch. Some penalties show up within the lifetime of the individual; others may tarry until several generations have perished in the same wrongdoing. But the penalties for defiance are cumulative, and eventually they can no longer be ignored."

-J. Budziszewski, What We Can't Not Know (2011 A.D.) 

Tim Keller on How the Law Functions in the Christian Life

This article is Tim Keller at his best.

"The Grace of The Law

At Redeemer we talk a lot about how we are saved by grace, not by our good works or obedience to the law. Indeed, Paul says we are not ‘under law’ but ‘under grace’ (Romans 6:15.) But what does that mean as far as having an obligation to submit to God’s will as written in his Word? Do we still have to obey the law? Absolutely.

To be ‘under the law’ refers not to law obeying but law relying (Galatians 3:10-11). When we think we can win God’s approval through our moral performance and obedience becomes a crushing burden, then we are ‘under law.’ But when we learn that Christ has fulfilled the law for us and that now we who believe in him are secure in God’s love, then we naturally want to delight, resemble, and know the One who has done this. How can we do this? By turning to the law! Paul puts it this way. Though he is not under the law, ‘I am not free from God’s law, but I am under Christ’s law” (1 Corinthians 9:21.) Though he is not ‘under’ the law (as a way to earn salvation) he now is freed to see the beauties of God’s law as fulfilled in Christ, and submits to it as way of loving his Savior. How does this work? 

First, we embrace the law of God in order to learn more about who our God really is. Leviticus 19 is a magnificent chapter which both expands on all the Ten Commandments, and also summarizes them into ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ It shows how God’s law was not a matter only of ritual purity, but was to transform every corner of one’s practical life. In Leviticus 19:2, however, God introduces the whole law by saying, ‘be holy, for I am holy.’ In other words, if you want to know who I am, what I love and hate, if you want to know my heart and become like me, obey my law.

Second, we embrace the law of God in order to discover our true selves. Deuteronomy says, “What does the Lord require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you this day for your good?”  Here we see that the law of God is a gift of  grace that is the foundation of human flourishing. It is not “busywork” assigned just to please the arbitrary whims of a capricious deity. The law of God simply shows us what human beings were built to do—to worship God alone, to love their neighbors as themselves, to tell the truth, keep their promises, forgive everything, act with justice. When we move against these laws we move against our own natures and happiness. Disobedience to God sets up strains in the fabric of reality that can only lead to break down.

Third, we understand the law of God as fulfilled in Christ. This means two things. One we already mentioned. Christ completely fulfilled the requirements of the law in our place, so when he took the penalty our sins deserved, we could receive the blessing that his righteousness deserved (2 Corin-thians 5:21.) However, we also recognize that many parts of the Old Testament law no longer relate directly to us as believers. Since Jesus is the ultimate priest, temple, and sacrifice, we observe none of the ceremonial, dietary, and other laws connected to ritual purity. Also, Christians of all nations are now members of the people of God, and God’s community no longer exists as a single nation-state under a theocraticgovernment. Therefore, the ‘civil legislation’ of the Old Testament is no longer appropriate. Adultery in the Old Testament was punishable by a death, but in the New Testament it is dealt with through exhortation and church discipline (1 Corinthains 6-7.)

Fourth, we realize that the law’s painful, convicting work is ultimately a gracious thing. When we fully comprehend the kind of life the law requires of us, it can be intimidating. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus expounds the Ten Commandments in this comprehensive way. He shows us the attitude we should have to the world, being salt and light, investing ourselves in the needs of our communities. He shows us that if we even disdain and ignore our neighbors, calling them ‘fools’, we are attacking their creator, in whose image they are made. He calls us to never look on another with lust, living lives of purity and chastity. He insists we should speak with as much honesty in all our daily interactions as if we were testifying in court under oath. We are told to forgive and love our enemies, turning the other cheek rather than seeking revenge. We are to give to the poor without expecting any thanks or acclaim. We are to give our money away in astonishing proportions, and carry on a dynamic, secret, inner prayer life. We are never to be judgmental or condemning of others, and we are to live a life free from worry. One minister said, after reading through Matthew 5-7 carefully, “God save us all from the Sermon on the Mount!”  If you listen at all to the law of God, you will feel naked and exposed, ashamed and helpless, and you will seek out the mercy of God. That is why Paul says that though the law, when listened to, is devastating (Romans 7:9-11) it is nevertheless ‘spiritual, righteous, and good’

(Romans 7:12, 14) and its work is ultimately gracious (Romans 7:7.) It acts as a kind but strict schoolmaster who leads us to Christ (Galatians 3:24.)

Fifth, we turn to the law of God in order to get a true definition of what it means to love others in our relationships and in society as a whole. There was once a school of ethics called ‘situation ethics’ that rejected the Biblical law as too rigid. Instead, we were told, we only need to always do the loving thing, what is best for the person. But this begs the question—‘how do you know what is the best thing for a person?’ Is sleeping together with someone before marriage the best thing or the worst thing for him or her? How do you know? The law is God’s way of saying, ‘If you want to love others, act this way. I created people. I know what the best thing for them is.’ That is why Paul could write:

The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:9-10

The law of God, then, gives Christians guidance not only in personal relationships, but helps us as we seek to make our society a more just and merciful one. What do people need? What does it mean to treat people with dignity? The law informs Christians’political and social involvement.

Finally, we turn to the law of God because sometimes we need to do things just because God says so. In the garden, God told Adam and Eve not to eat the tree, but he never told them why. Some of us simply hate to follow a direction unless we know all the reasons why the direction was given, how it will benefit us, and so on. But God was saying to Adam and Eve, I think, ‘Obey this direction, not because you understand, but because you recognize that I am your God and that you are not.’ They failed in this. But every day we have the opportunity to put this right. Do God’s will, not because it is exciting (though it will eventually be an adventure) not because it will meet your needs (though it will eventually be a joy) not because you understand why this is the path of wisdom (though it will eventually become more clear.) Do it because he is your Lord and Savior and you are not. Do it because it is the law of the Lord. And if you do it—if you obey him even in the little things—you will know God, know yourself, find God’s grace, love your neighbor, and simply honor him as God. Not a bad deal."

--Tim Keller 

How Strongly Do You Believe in Gun Control?

Christian Persecution on the Cover of Newsweek

Read the article here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html

Worshiping the God of Corn and Oil and Wine

"The thought at the back of all this negative spirituality is really one that is forbidden to Christians. They, of all men, must not conceive spiritual joy and worth as things that need to be rescued or tenderly protected from time and place and matter and the senses. Their God is the God or corn and oil and wine. He is the glad Creator. He has become himself incarnate. The sacraments have been instituted...After that we cannot really be in doubt of his intention. To shrink back from all that can be called Nature into negative spirituality is as if we ran away from horses instead of learning to ride. There is in our present pilgrim condition plenty of room (more room than most of us like) for abstinence and renunciation and mortifying our natural desires. But behind all asceticism the thought should be, 'Who will trust of with the true wealth if we cannot be trusted even with the wealth that perishes?' Who will trust me with a spiritual body if I cannot control even an earthly body? These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may someday be free of horses altogether, but that someday we may rise bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King's stables. Not that the gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else--since he has retained his own charger--should we accompany him?"

-C.S. Lewis, Miracles (1947 A.D.) 

Tim Keller on New York's Banning of Churches

"Statement on NYC School's Decision to Ban Churches

I am grieved that New York City is planning to take the unwise step of removing 68 churches from the spaces that they rent in public schools. It is my conviction that those churches housed in schools are invaluable assets to the neighborhoods that they serve. Churches have long been seen as positive additions to communities. Family stability, resources for those in need, and compassion for the marginalized are all positive influences that neighborhood churches provide. There are many with first-hand experience who will claim that the presence of churches in a neighborhood can lead to a drop in crime.

The great diversity of our city means that we will never all agree completely on anything. And we cherish our city’s reputation for tolerance of differing opinions and beliefs. Therefore, we should all mourn if disagreement with certain beliefs of the church is allowed to unduly influence the formation of just policy and practice.

I disagree with the opinion written by Judge Pierre Leval that: “A worship service is an act of organized religion that consecrates the place in which it is performed, making it a church.” This is an erroneous theological judgment; I know of no Christian church or denomination that believes that merely holding a service in a building somehow “consecrates” it, setting it apart from all common or profane use. To base a legal opinion on such a superstitious view is surely invalid. Conversely, I concur with Judge John Walker’s dissenting opinion that this ban constitutes viewpoint discrimination and raises no legitimate Establishment Clause concerns.

A disproportionate number of churches that are affected by this prohibition are not wealthy, established communities of faith. They are ones who possess the fewest resources and many work with the poor. Redeemer has many ties with those churches and their pastors, and our church community invests time and resources to assist them to be good neighbors in their communities.

Let them be those good neighbors. I am hopeful that the leaders of New York City and the legislators of New York State will see the value of a society that encourages all spheres of culture—the church, government, education, business, etc—to work together for human flourishing.

Dr. Timothy Keller
Senior Pastor
Redeemer Presbyterian Church

The Susan Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood

See Russell Moore's article in Christianity Today about the Susan Komen Foundation's backtracking on Planned Parenthood last week.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=95231

Ten Reasons Why God Loves Muslims and You Should, Too

The following are from Zane Pratt's class notes from his lecture last Tuesday.

"Reasons I Love Muslims, And You Should, Too

1.      Muslims are human beings, made in the image of God

2.      Muslims are among the tribes, tongues, people and languages of earth, and Jesus redeemed people with His blood from every tribe etc

3.      Muslims are among the tribes etc of earth, and there will be people from every tribe etc worshiping God around His throne at the end of time

4.      Muslims are our neighbors, and we are called on to love our neighbors as ourselves. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, this explicitly includes people who are religiously wrong.

5.      Some Muslims are our enemies, and we are commanded to love our enemies, pray for them, and do good to them.

6.      Being an enemy of Israel did not exclude anyone from redemption, even in the OT. Ruth was a Moabite, God redeemed Nineveh

7.      Muslims are no more resistant to the Gospel than anyone else. Dead is dead.

8.      Danger is no reason whatsoever to disobey the Great Commission, or any other command of God.

9.      God is calling Muslims to salvation more abundantly now than any other time in history.

God loves Muslims, and so should you!"

--Zane Pratt (2012 A.D.)

Always in God's Sight Lovely

"He that believeth on him is not condemned." If we are not condemned, then at no time does God ever look upon his children, when they believe in Christ, as being guilty. Are you surprised that I should put it so? I put it so again; from the moment when you believe in Christ, God ceases to look upon you as being guilty; for he never looks upon you apart from Christ. You often look upon yourself as guilty, and you fall upon your knees as you should do, and you weep and lament; but even then, while you are weeping over inbred and actual sin, he is still saying out of heaven, "So far as your justification is concerned, thou art all fair and lovely." You are black as the tents of Kedar—that is yourself by nature; you are fair as the curtains of Solomon—that is yourself in Christ. You are black—that is yourself in Adam; but comely, that is yourself in the second Adam. Oh, think of that!—that you are always in God's sight comely, always in God's sight lovely, always in God's sight as though you were perfect. For ye are complete in Christ Jesus, and perfect in Christ Jesus, as the apostle puts it in another place. Always do you stand completely washed and fully clothed in Christ. Remember this; for it is certainly included in my text."

--Charles Spurgeon, “None But Jesus”

"Does Jesus Hate Religion?"- Jefferson Bethke, Kevin DeYoung, and David Brooks

Jefferson Bethke's "Why I Hate Religion but Love the Church" went viral a few weeks ago and now has 18 million hits on YouTube. In the following link, Kevin DeYoung asked us to watch the video, then responded gently and critically.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/13/does-jesus-hate-religion-kinda-sorta-not-really/

In the follow-up post, with Bethke's permission, DeYoung posted some of the friendly exchanges between the two of them, highlighting Bethke's humble teachability. 

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/14/following-up-on-the-jesusreligion-video/

As a testimony to how big this story has gotten, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote the following column narrating the saga and drawing lessons from it. Note, Brooks is not a Christian, and some of his advice reflects that orientation. His description of the story is respectful, however. I link it mainly as a testimony to the publicity the story has received, as well as to give an outsider's view into our Christian interactions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/brooks-how-to-fight-the-man.html?_r=1&ref=davidbrooks

Jefferson Bethke

Kevin DeYoung

David Brooks

Worth More than My Measly Opinion

I think I'm going to start posting a photo (or portrait if he or she lived before the age of cameras) of the person I'm quoting, just so we can see and appreciate who we're listening to. I may get tired of doing this later, in which case I'll quit doing it.

"Once, a few years ago at a youth convention, a lovely young lady came earnestly to talk with me. She asked me what I thought about a certain matter in sexual ethics. I answered her with the most careful biblical reading and ethical nuancing I had gained in years of training.

She responded, “Well, I just wanted to know your opinion.”

“That wasn’t my opinion,” I replied. “If I had given you my opinion, it would have been the opposite because I really would like to escape these biblical truths and say what pleases everybody. I tried to tell you as faithfully as I could what all my studies have discerned God is saying. That’s much more sound, more reliable, more eternally true than my measly opinion.”

She looked at me in shock. How could anyone question the importance of personal opinion? How could anyone give an answer different from her own private feelings? Is there really such a thing as public truth?

Yes, there is. And truth’s name is God."

--Marva Dawn, Talking the Walk (quoted on Trevin Wax's blog) 

 

Kevin DeYoung on T.D. Jakes and The Elephant Room

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/02/01/seven-thoughts-on-the-elephant-room-and-t-d-jakes/