30 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Savagery, \ˈsa-vij-rē\, noun. An act of cruelty or violence.
Dan Savage made some comments recently which posted to YouTube. Certainly, as an American, he has the right to say whatever he pleases under the first amendment. He has issued what may be considered by many to be an apology subsequent to the public outcry against his posture to religion and adherents thereof.
02 Monday Apr 2012
Tags
contentment, experience, friendship, insecurity, loneliness, Martin Luther, relationships, repentance, sanctification, sexuality, temptation
"For I am content..." (Philippians 4:11)
Sometimes I fear how God will teach me this lesson.
Today, a friend expressed a desire to move on to the next phase of life and ministry, saying he was tired of being a student and couldn’t wait to be done. I was frustrated because seminary is where God has called us. Why would we want to hurry God’s work? I sure don’t. And when I tried to point that out, it wasn’t well received. Maybe I said something wrongly.
I was sitting at a coffee shop a few days ago and really struggled to keep my mind on my work. Will temptation always be this strong? I wondered. I was sitting at another coffee shop today and thought, Yeah…if today is any indication, it will be.
17 Saturday Mar 2012
Tags
This past weekend, I was in a class that Kevin Twit taught on the History of Hymnody. It was a weekend seminar at my seminary, covering the hymn as a genre of writing (not specifically the music thereof, though we did sing periodically in the lectures).
For the class, we’ve been reading Faith Cook’s Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns. I have been stirred, even as I’ve cried, as I’ve read about people dying well, trusting their Savior while passing on their love for Christ and the experience of joy in Him and sorrow in weakness and sin to others through their music.
In chapel an excellent new tune by Joel Littlepage to a hymn by Ora Rowan (altered by Kevin Twit) was introduced. The words were especially moving and I cried as I sang them on Friday:
02 Monday Jan 2012
Tags
false teaching, Gospel, homosexuality, leadership, parenting, repentance, sex ed, temptation, theology
From the time I was a small child, I’ve worn a uniform. Not a school uniform, not a uniform on a sports team. Ok, so I *did* wear a physical uniform all ten (yes, ten) years of marching band–four in high school for Hazelwood East HS in St. Louis and six during my undergrad at Missouri State (formerly Southwest Missouri State).
The uniform I’ve worn is that of a conservative Christian. It’s not as nice-looking as it once was. It’s worn in the knees and I think the shirt is a bit tattered. It’s still recognizable, though. I made it well past the age of 21 before I got drunk or kissed anyone. (I have yet to do both at the same time.)
I’ve never dated.
I made it well past 25 before I even *tried* to smoke. (I don’t care for it…except for hookah. Hookah is amazing.)
I’ve carried a Bible to school since the fourth grade and to church since I was too young to recall.
And I’ve believed that God, through the words of Scripture, has the final say on what I do with my body in my spare time. I’ve spent a great deal of time on telling others through this blog about the good news of Christ and the importance of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Christ.
However, for some, this is not enough.
23 Friday Sep 2011
Posted in Theology
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.
22 Friday Jul 2011
Tags
culture, homosexuality, leadership, loneliness, relationships, repentance, Scripture, sexuality, theology, witnessing
This morning, an Australian pastor I follow on Twitter asked me two questions about homosexuality because he’s going to be talking about it to his congregation. So I dashed off this email prior to hitting the gym this morning.
1. As a Christian who has same-sex attraction, what are some of your challenges that you face in your daily life?
Because of my orientation, I develop crushes on guys. This should be no surprise, since guys have crushes on and are attracted to girls all the time…and girls, the same with guys. Two things happen: internally, it’s hard to escape condemnation, especially when the guys I’m attracted to are godly men and that’s one of the reasons I like them in the first place. Externally, it’s difficult to be open about just the reality of the crush situation because I fear that it will push away men in my life who will fear that I’ll crush on them at some point, instead of trusting that I can sort it out in community and with God’s help in my sanctification.
I’ve been bullied by other Christians in a couple of ways. Once, I was slandered by a fellow church-member who thought that by telling the world on my mother’s facebook wall that I was a homosexual and that I’d lied to the elders in order to teach Sunday School and lead worship on Sunday mornings that somehow he’d scored a victory for the truth. The reality was that the elders had known I was gay but celibate and had allowed me to serve and lead because of my repentance. But since I’m not “out” everywhere on Facebook to all of my friends, it was hurtful. The man never did apologize and the elders didn’t take action. I left that church, of course.
13 Wednesday Jul 2011
Posted in Personal
One of the promises of the Gospel is that we will be conformed to the image of Christ. This is our sanctification and ordinarily looks like our disliking our sin progressively and loving the fact that we are being made holy by the Spirit of Christ. We look progressively like Him. It’s a little more complicated (read: a LOT more complicated) than getting better every day, but that’s sort of a general thrust of the thing.
Last night, I visited a bar and realized I wasn’t very happy while I was there. I was conscious of my inadequacies and my lust. I wanted almost nothing to do with homosexuality, while at the same time wanting everything to do with it. And, as we know, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So there was a lot of tension last night between what I wanted and didn’t want, all at the same time.
26 Thursday May 2011
Tags
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).
19 Tuesday Apr 2011
From Spurgeon:
Charles H. Spurgeon
When men change [their opinions about the truth] often they generally need to be changed in the most emphatic sense. Our “modern thought” gentry are doing incalculable mischief to the souls of men, and resemble Nero fiddling on top of a tower with Rome burning at his feet.
Souls are being damned, and yet these men are spinning theories. Hell gapes wide, and with her open jaws swallows up myriads, and those who should spread the tidings of salvation are “pursuing fresh lines of thought.” Highly cultured soul-murderers will find their boasted “culture” to be no excuse in the day of judgment.
from Lecture #15.
Let’s pray for those who seem to fall into this category in our day and age. Perhaps God might grant them (and me) repentance. Them, for their fresh lines of thought–and me, for failing to pray for them previously.
30 Wednesday Mar 2011
Tags
Christians, fellowship, friendship, Gay Christians, homosexuality, Jesus, loneliness, Mark, relationships, repentance, sexuality, theology, witnessing
This article originally appeared here as a guest post for the GrowUp318 blog. Thanks to Heather for the encouragement and the privilege of writing a piece for her blog.
When the word homosexuality is mentioned in a Christian context, most of the responses one receives will be negative. Gays are usually talked about as “those sinners out there.” But not all who are gay are outside of the purview of the Church. (And by gay, I’m talking about all those who experience homosexual temptation, whether or not they routinely give in to those temptations.) This may not be self-evident to all who read this, so it should probably be said: gay people are among us. They serve on our committees, sing in our choirs, give us financial advice, teach our Sunday School classes, and play instruments in our services to lead us in worship.
Some of them are fully convinced that acting on their attractions would be the unforgiveable sin. Others are doing their best to keep their ‘baser desires’ in check so they won’t be invalidated for ministry. Others are off-the-radar simply because they’re between relationships, but would want a relationship with the same sex if the right one presented itself. So what is to be done with such a wide divide? And how should we as Bible-believing Christians respond?
Gay and Evangelical 
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