Hi ,
I don’t use Facebook. If I go on at all, it's for a very specific reason. Recently, I noticed that I had been added to a group that graduated from the Bible college I attended back in the 70s. I have no idea how I wound up there or who put me on, but since I’m a graduate of the college, I at least know why.
The very first time I opened this site, a statement to the effect of “The Bible is not God’s Word” jumped out at me! I was shocked…until I read the perspective of the writer. He is now engaged in an "alternate" life style, and his article was designed to elicit pity, compassion, acceptance and understanding (though his personal page is the opposite, interestingly).
Like all of us, I am a sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. I have nothing over anyone else. I don’t pretend to know why some people wind up with struggles I don’t have, or why I wound up with the struggles I personally do have. It just seems to me that each of us has been dealt certain weaknesses and “bents”, if you will, that become the “sin that so easily entangles us” (Heb. 12:1). Furthermore, some people seem to have more of a cross to bear than others. Again, I have no idea why. I’m
very aware that people who have certain types of struggles can find life a severe challenge, especially (and unfortunately) from people within the church.
However, I do know that the Bible IS the word of God. Without its pure message, there is nothing for us, including any kind of moral compass for us humans to operate under. I am also a person who has to deal with the sins that so easily entangle me, and without being judgmental, I can tell you that the answers do not lie in finding comfort among an “affirming community” *, and they certainly don’t lie along a path that looks for “new ways of understanding Scripture” *.
That leads us immediately down the path that the Jews took in Judges, where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes”.
The way to handle our sins is not to cover them, to accept them, to appeal emotionally to others for acceptance, or to look for approval for our actions among the like-minded, or to bend Scripture to try to make it say what we want it to say. Rather, it’s in repentance. It’s in agreeing with God about our sins and daily taking up our cross, and it’s in the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2). Like I heard one pastor say many years ago --- we might indeed have to
battle for the rest of our lives the sins that easily entangle us. But, let’s continue the battle against our personal sin. The answer doesn’t lie in giving in. May God help us!..
