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Tag Archives: confession

What Christ Says about What I Do in the Bedroom, part 2

27 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by David L. Gill in Personal, Theology

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

assurance of pardon, confession, experience, Gospel, homosexuality, insecurity, loneliness, repentance, sanctification, sexuality

Repentance.

Not a self-punishing ritual, but a ritual of turning away from sin and turning toward Christ.

Whether I sin while sleeping alone or if I sleep with someone else out of wedlock, I need repentance to mark my life.

I need the grace of forgiveness which comes from Christ’s sacrificial death to be applied to me on a daily, hourly basis.

Even my thoughts about others–my bitterness, my lust, my anger, my judgmentalism–need to be subjected to this repentance. God’s kingdom extends even to my bed…and fornication is not the only sin that can happen in one’s bed. Not by a long shot.

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Should the Church ask for forgiveness from gays?

02 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by David L. Gill in Theology

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

assurance of pardon, confession, forgiveness of sin, homosexuality, repentance, sexuality, theology

Much of what passes as “Christian love” irks me…and worse yet, most of it is stuff I’ve done. From telling people ambiguous statements like, “Gay is a choice” to “Jesus is the answer,” the American evangelical church has made some colossal blunders in the past 70 years.

But the guys over at One Minute Apologist have done a video with renowned Christian apologist, Dr. Michael Brown, asking the question this post centers around: should the Church ask for forgiveness from gays? (Spoiler alert: the answer Dr. Brown gives is yes.

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Why have music education in a Christian school?

23 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by David L. Gill in Theology

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Tags

confession, experience, Gospel, Law, music, repentance, sanctification, Scripture, theology

The following is a text of a short address I gave for the Grandparent’s Welcome convocation at the school for which I work. I’m a first-year faculty member and a third-year teacher. I teach Pre-K thru 5th grade this semester and will add 6th grade next semester (just to give you some context for what I do).

The mission verse for the school this year is Proverbs 20:11 and I wrote a song using the text (NIV of 1984) to help the students internalize it. When I finished the address, the students stood up, faced their grandparents and sang the verse, accompanied by another faculty member.

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Do Not Love the World?

26 Thursday May 2011

Posted by David L. Gill in Personal, Theology

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1 John, assurance of pardon, confession, homosexuality, loneliness, Paul, prayer, relationships, repentance, Scripture, theology

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

–1 John 2:15-17, ESV

And yet again, I’m struck by the way the Scriptures read me. They say things about me that I would never want anyone to know.

The desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions–these are my sins. Obviously, they aren’t my only sins. Still, they represent a large quantity of the presence of sin in my life. And with one mind, double-mindedly, I want those things and I want them removed. I find myself in the classical Pauline Dilema, a la Romans 7 all over again. That which I do not want to do, I do. That which I want to do, I do not.

I see things…and I want them. I see a nice set of furniture…an expensive turntable…a nicer car. By grace I’m learning to want Christ more.

I desire physical touch (even inappropriate touch) and sometimes it’s an idolatrous desire. Physical touch isn’t bad, nor do I think I have to somehow deprive myself of it for aesthetic reasons. Simply put, I crave it more than I want God’s design for me, which is chastity (since I’m single).

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Silence!

28 Tuesday Dec 2010

Posted by David L. Gill in Theology

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christmas, confession, Gospel, hymns, music, prayer, theology, worship

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. from the Liturgy of St. James, trans. by Gerard Moultrie, 1864.  As published in Cantus Christi 2004 revised edition, pg. 241.  (For those keeping track, this particular hymnal was produced by Douglas Wilson’s church.)

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Now that the semester has ended…

18 Saturday Dec 2010

Posted by David L. Gill in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

assurance of pardon, confession, experience, Gospel, homosexuality, hymns, Law, repentance

A 10" 78rpm disc

So what do I do now that the semester has finished?  Well, I’ve worked a little, relaxed a lot.  I have quite a collection of old jazz 78s which I’ve been recording to my computer so that I can listen to them on my iPod.  It’s a bit of a time-consuming dubbing process, one which involves sitting and listening to each recording, applying filters so that annoying high-pitched crackle goes away, using one’s ears to make sure it sounds good overall, saving the file, importing to iTunes, creating an mp3 copy, plugging in all the pertinent information, deleting the wave form (and its copy), and repeating the process for the next disc.  But one can’t be in a bad mood and listen to Dixieland (which is most of what I’ve been dubbing lately).

For those who care, I use a Crosley USB turntable which has 3 speeds.  I use an after-market needle to play the 78s because the standard stereo needle which comes with it just doesn’t seem like a great idea to play both 78s and long-playing (45 & 33 1/3) records.

In addition, I’ve gotten some feedback lately from various people who read the blog.  I’ve gotten everything from “I appreciate what God’s doing in your life” to “You need to leave the lifestyle and repent” and everything in between.  My goal is to be the type of man where I would listen to negative feedback and instead of dismissing it, I would consider it carefully to see if anything is valuable from it.  For example, even though I am not in the lifestyle, I do need to live a life of repentance.  Repentance isn’t just the doorway we get through to be reconciled to God…it’s that, for sure…but it’s also the path a Christian treads.

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Strategies to Keep from Falling

15 Wednesday Dec 2010

Posted by David L. Gill in Book Discussion, Theology

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

books, confession, Gospel, Law, leadership, purity, Randy Alcorn, repentance, Scripture, sexual sin, theology

What should pastors do to keep their noses clean…or, as we say in the Christian world, themselves pure?  Randy Alcorn has an article which has been highly distributed over the years which I would like to comment on.

In 1989, the book Sins of the Body was published in The Leadership Library, edited by Terry Muck.  It featured articles written by a wide variety of Christian authors.  The article which shares the same name as this blog post, was written by Randy Alcorn.  Christianity Today has the article available on its website here. Recently, some folks asked me what I thought of Randy Alcorn.  It’s been a significant amount of time since I’ve read a book by him, but I wanted to sketch out the apprehension I have for Alcorn using this article as a foil.

My operating assumption is that Randy Alcorn doesn’t understand law and gospel properly and therefore gives rather toxic advice.  Alcorn offers himself as the example instead of Christ and in doing so, contributes to the problem.

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New music and good friends

28 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by David L. Gill in Personal

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Tags

confession, friendship, music, relationships, repentance

My Cry Ascends

First, before I get onto the reflective part of my post, go check out this new worship CD. I never recommend worship CDs anymore…but this one is rocking my face off, especially Paslm 68.  Isaac Watts’ words +Celtic flavoring + men’s choir in unison + 6/8 time signature = SCRIPTURAL AWESOMENESS!

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I Lost My Nerve

20 Friday Aug 2010

Posted by David L. Gill in Personal

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

confession, experience, Gospel, homosexuality, relationships

I went to dinner last night with a couple of guys who are starting seminary with me this fall.  I don’t know them very well, but I invited them to join me for a drink at Bar Louie.  We had a good time talking about the Gospel and necessity of its clear proclamation.

We also talked about the Church’s response(s) to homosexuality.  And we talked about our dating types.  One of them asked me mine…and I pretty well shut up.  I described the girl I’d liked in college because, in all truthfulness, she does tend to represent an ideal for a potential mate to me.  But I wasn’t forthright about my attractions.  I hesitated and then back-pedaled.

Why did I do that? Was I afraid of being dismissed?  Was it that I don’t want to be “that guy?”

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Should we confess sexual sins publicly?

12 Saturday Jun 2010

Posted by David L. Gill in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

assurance of pardon, confession, Gospel, repentance, Scripture, sexual sin, theology, worship

Great Creator, we thank You
for the gift and mystery of our bodies.
We thank You for the gift of loving sexual intimacy.
Forgive us the misuse and abuse of that gift:
For taking it too early, with the wrong person,
for replacing love with lust,
for separating concern from self-fulfillment.
Make us pure in love, discerning in passion.
Make us choose commitment over possession.
Christ Jesus, who came to reconcile and restore all relationships,
heal and restore our fragile or broken marriages.
In your name, Lord, we pray, Amen.

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