LGBT and the Gospel

What does the LGBT community and Christianity have in common? Both are hated by many, both stand for something that both shapes their worlds and is moving through the world, and both in essence are an identity. Each looks at the other and says "You're wrong!" But don't follow the train tracks too far. The LGBT has come to a point where they assign their own gender, they create a network that recognizes them as they want to be, and they find comfort, happiness, and peace in who they are. They have become their own mini-gods, taking their lives into their own hands and creating a plan for their lives. Christians believe that gender was assigned to them by God. Furthermore, they believe that those who are born-again receive a new identity that is based off of who Christ is and what He has done, and not who we want and try to be. In Christ alone does the Christian find comfort, true happiness, and peace. How can we as Christians explain to homosexuals that they are living a lie, usurping God's position, and glorifying themselves? The truth is, we can't. In his book Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges states that, "For the godly person, God is the center and focal point of his or her life….However, such a God-centeredness can be developed only in the context of an ever-growing intimate relationship with God. No one can genuinely desire to please God or glorify Him apart from such a relationship." As Romans 1 says, their "foolish hearts are darkened" and they cannot see that their idolatry has taken blotted out the true God to them. As much as we would like to go out and storm the gates of hell and see everyone come to a right relationship with God, a Christian's lifestyle is as futile to the LGBT as theirs is to us. In a recent article about Facebook's installation of gender options, there is a quote that says, "There's going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing, but for the few it does impact, it means the world." 1 Corinthians 1:18 has what could be seen as the Christian restatement of this, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." As a Christian and lover of theology, I know that eventually all sinners must face the fact that their idols pales in comparison to the True God. though some may see their beliefs as merely a worldview, we know that from the beginning when God created everything, all heaven and earth was declared under the umbrella of God's sovereignty, so that there is no other way to be saved than through Christ. Only when a person's sexuality, and whole being for that matter, becomes Christ-centered, then they can truly see the flaws of their thinking. The gospel is the only way that can show someone the error of their ways so therefore we must never underestimate the power of the gospel over the power of sin and in the changing of lives. Bridges, Jerry. Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2007. Print. "Facebook Expands Gender Options: Transgender Activists Hail 'big Advance'" Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.​

You Only Know

***I know this song is over two years old, but it has only in recent weeks gone viral and became wildly popular and covered, and that’s why I chose to use the song***

       In 2012 the British band Passenger released a song called ‘Let Her Go,” a bittersweet tune about newly realized values after a breakup. Two years later in the past few weeks this song has boomed to a Top Hit having been covered, quoted, and listened to by millions. At first glance there’s nothing striking about the softly crooned lyrics, but a closer examination would reveal deeply thoughtful and convicting lines. “You only miss the light when it’s burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow, only know you love her when you let her go, and you let her go.”

       Having been struggling with longing for summer after facing the effects of  snow for the past few weeks and having just realized how much I enjoy being healthy after catching a cold, these lyrics are easily relatable-- sometimes you take your surroundings for granted until they change.

      This is a classic example of the old proverb, “A fish in water doesn't know it’s wet.” We passively meander through life as we know it, not even realizing our surroundings until they are gone, changed, or until someone points them out to us. To put it bluntly, our comfortable lives and naivety about the rest of the world shows a self-centered view of life. Of course many times we can’t help that our lives are shaped by our experiences, but have you ever thought that maybe your view of the world is too narrow?

      Proverbs 18:17 says that, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” This is a clear illustration of our own simple-mindedness. Our lives are shaped by our own minds until we are challenged by a person or circumstance. From a theological mindset, our sin nature has darkened our hearts so that we can only see life from a narcissistic view, but what if we decided to dive into life a little deeper and explore different perspectives on what we think is set in stone? What if we allowed God’s Word to mold our world into reality and renew our minds? What if we trusted God’s sovereignty so much that when we encountered view-changed experiences or ideas, we find joy in the fact that we still have so much left to learn in the world?

     And what if we really started to see our lives not in context of our own small views but in the context of the Gospel? We may quickly see that the sins we so easily tolerate are offensive to God, and that our sin affects not only ourselves but others as well. Sometimes we don’t know how truly sinful we are until we hold up our life up to the light of the gospel. Taking time to meditate on and store the Word of God in our hearts is  the only true way to see life outside of yourself and not live with a blind eye to the world outside of ourselves.

      You only know you've been blind when you use your eyes, You don’t know how little you know until you’re wise. 

Passenger. “Let Her Go.” All the Little Lights. Linear Recording. 2012.

"Passenger - Let Her Go [Official Video]." YouTube. YouTube, 25 July 2012. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBumgq5yVrA>.

The Sex Trade, the Superbowl, and the Symptoms of Sin

        It exploded all over the media in a cloud of indignation. Who would have thought that the Superbowl-- a fundamentally fun family fling, has recently been labeled the largest location for licentiousness. The sex trade booms during the Superbowl, "as hundreds of thousands of people (mainly men) flock to the New York City metro area for the week’s festivities" (Dimon). People caught wind of this horror this past week and plastered their thoughts and statistics all over Facebook, twitter, and various blogging sites in order to raise awareness in hopes of ending this atrocity.

         Sadly, the Superbowl will continue to happen, men will still swarm to prostitutes, women will still be trafficked, and though some justice may be served, sex trafficking will not come to an end because most of the people posting about the scandal merely posted about the scandal and did nothing more. They believe that by simply exposing the scandal they have done their part to bring the injustice to an end.
         The truth of the matter is that sex trafficking will not stop because people expose it, because laws are regulated, and because sting raids are carried out. Sex trafficking is a result of lust and lust is a result of the fall and our disobedience. Until sin is remitted in the world, sexual sin will always be a problem. 

       As a lover and student of theology, I tend to see life in a slightly different light than others. I believe that nothing that happens in the world is an isolated event, for it is all a result of God's plan and because He is the Creator, everything can be related back to Him and we can learn more about Him and about ourselves through the world.
      The Superbowl sex trafficking scandal is a picture of our own lives. When our awareness of our issues are heightened, we try to get rid of the problem by lopping off the results of the sin. We throw away our computers to help us stop looking at pornography, quit our jobs because our co-workers contribute to our problem of foul language, and we don't go to stores because they cause us to envy intensely.

        Diagnosis doesn't equal a cure, Awareness does not mean cessation, and just because we change our circumstances does not mean that we've dealt with sin. Yes, maybe we have reached small victories in the areas we struggle with, but has the real problem really been dealt with? Has the lustful heart been made pure? Has the proud heart been humbled? Has the envious heart been satisfied? Perhaps we need to stop merely pruning the branches of sin and pull it out wholly by the root.

       Jesus illustrates this as cleaning the outside of a cup but leaving the inside filthy still. What good does that accomplish? Instead, Christ explains that the proper way to deal with sins is to, "First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean." (Matthew 23: 25-26) The remedy for our sins is the gospel and the gospel works from the inside out, not only changing our actions but our hearts.
       Don't resort to merely exposing sin; turn your eyes to Jesus Christ to extinguish sin and deal not only with the symptoms, but the actual illness as well.

Cited:
Dimon, Laura. "You'll Never See This Side of the Superbowl." Web log post. PoicyMic. Mic Network, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. <http://www.policymic.com/articles/79235/you-ll-never-see-this-side-of-the-super-bowl-on-tvx>.