Today is August 1st which means it is Chick Fil A Appreciation Day.
What does that have to do with the bible? Well, you have, no doubt, heard, read, seen, partaken in all the debate going on with the CEO coming out with a statement against gay marriage. While I do have my opinions about the statement (which side mostly with the CEO), I have chosen to remain out of the debates...out of the firing off of words. I do find it interesting that a company can come out FOR gay marriage and the troops will rally around the company and praise it for it's bravery in stepping up and taking up "their cause", but a company who is KNOWN for being a Christian owned and operated company comes out with an opposite view and the outrage is ferocious and a mayor bullies a company for standing on it's principles.
Ok, that is enough of my views.
I have spent time reading some of the debates being put out there on facebook and the news. I read as people go back and forth on the topic...one shouting out for allowing people to love who they wish and calling the other side haters....the other shouting first amendment rights and trying to explain why their views are their views. I have seen harsh words exchanged...by both sides.
There are two things that have really gotten to me:
1) It bothers me that Christians argue so with the other side. Is this furthering the kingdom? What is really going to happen when you make your point clear? Will it even be clear to the one sparring with you, or will it cause harm to the cause? Jesus did not come with fire in his tongue, but with a tongue as sweet as honey...and even if our typed out words on the screen are intended to be that of honey, is that the way it is perceived by the one reading it on the other side. I think not. That other person is set in their mindset just as you are set in yours. You get frustrated and consider them to be hard headed, close minded and blind....and they think the same of you. To what end does this bring? Could it's end be a further pushing of that individual on the other side of the screen away from your cause...and what of those, like me, who are simply reading the exchange. What impression does that leave.
Oh, I think the cartoons with cows holding up "First Amendment" signs are cute. Promoting today is great. Showing your support for the company by purchasing food today is a strong show of support (and a positive show). But the arguing, the condemning, the banter...I just do not see how this does anything to further the kingdom. I think of Pat Robertson (yes, a much more public figure) and the damage he has done by opening his mouth and saying things like...God sent hurricane Katrina to New Orleans because of the evil that resides there. I, personally, felt the punch in the mouth of Christianity in that one. Who wants to hear from a group (Christians) who could have such an outspoken leader as that....I know we often get associated with people like this and I think we should do all we can do to distance ourselves from that. This is not to say the CEO should not have come out and said what he said...I applaud him and his bravery. I speak to those who argue with those who protest. Let those who protest say their piece and just smile and know who your God is. It is He that will be glorified in ALL things.
BUT, on a different note...my #2 reason for writing this and the #1 reason I titled this The Bible!
In reading the different debates that are being written throughout facebook, news sites, blogs and other media, I have been shocked at the number of "Christians" who are coming out in SUPPORT of gay marriage and are speaking out against this CEO for taking such a stand.
It is a trend I am seeing more and more among Christians...and not just with gay marriage. Christians are becoming God...or trying to be anyway.
When we become Christians, there are 2 truths....we are now and forever saved by the grace of Jesus who died for us on the cross....and we have a handbook that was written especially for us that is 100% true and God breathed. When we start taking a magic marker and crossing out the parts of the bible that do not fit our ideal, we are playing a dangerous game...and when we decide to start ripping out pages, we are getting in the fire.
In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, there is a pirate code the pirates are supposed to go by. In the movie, though, they admit it is just "more of a guideline", not necessarily to be taken at 100%. I can assure you, the bible is NO guideline. God did not put things in the bible to have them later ignored. It is 100% truth. When God said, Thou shalt not kill, do you think he was just being blase about it? No. And this is an easy law to follow...it doesn't get the black marker treatment. But, somehow, along the way, people began to take their markers out to black out those truths that do not "fit" into what they think God should be.
I see so many Christian women who gather together and lust after men who are not their husbands.
Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman (man).
Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman (man) lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
1 John 2:16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
I know many Christian women who lust after men (Hollywood) when their eyes should go to their husbands alone. Black marker...
And now, Christian women are coming out FOR gay marriage...proclaiming that men and women should be allowed to love whom they love. WHAT?!!! That goes against God and what he placed in the Bible.
Romans 1:24-27 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
If you believe in God...if you believe that He would send His ONLY son to die for our sins, you MUST also believe in the handbook...the living word that He BREATHED into being. You can NOT choose for yourself what to believe or not believe. YOU ARE NOT GOD. You CAN NOT know more than HE does!!
Isaiah 55:8-9 New International Version (NIV)
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
It is disturbing, this turn in Christianity. The picking and choosing what to believe when it is convenient for us. The damage it can do to our marriages, our children, our lives.
While I am not interested in participating in a debate about gay marriage (if asked, I will stand firm in my belief, but will not be sparred into a firing of my tongue), I am interested in why...why is it that so many Christians feel it ok to ignore, black out, rip out so much of God's instruction. It wasn't put there for the benefit of God, but for the benefit of His people...of you...of me. Now, I am not without sin. I can list off some significant sins He speaks against (debt) that I have myself and I have to work on these. But I recognize His authority and while I do question Him at times, I have to just tell myself Isaiah 55:8 over and over again. I am NOT God. Neither are you!!
What does that have to do with the bible? Well, you have, no doubt, heard, read, seen, partaken in all the debate going on with the CEO coming out with a statement against gay marriage. While I do have my opinions about the statement (which side mostly with the CEO), I have chosen to remain out of the debates...out of the firing off of words. I do find it interesting that a company can come out FOR gay marriage and the troops will rally around the company and praise it for it's bravery in stepping up and taking up "their cause", but a company who is KNOWN for being a Christian owned and operated company comes out with an opposite view and the outrage is ferocious and a mayor bullies a company for standing on it's principles.
Ok, that is enough of my views.
I have spent time reading some of the debates being put out there on facebook and the news. I read as people go back and forth on the topic...one shouting out for allowing people to love who they wish and calling the other side haters....the other shouting first amendment rights and trying to explain why their views are their views. I have seen harsh words exchanged...by both sides.
There are two things that have really gotten to me:
1) It bothers me that Christians argue so with the other side. Is this furthering the kingdom? What is really going to happen when you make your point clear? Will it even be clear to the one sparring with you, or will it cause harm to the cause? Jesus did not come with fire in his tongue, but with a tongue as sweet as honey...and even if our typed out words on the screen are intended to be that of honey, is that the way it is perceived by the one reading it on the other side. I think not. That other person is set in their mindset just as you are set in yours. You get frustrated and consider them to be hard headed, close minded and blind....and they think the same of you. To what end does this bring? Could it's end be a further pushing of that individual on the other side of the screen away from your cause...and what of those, like me, who are simply reading the exchange. What impression does that leave.
Oh, I think the cartoons with cows holding up "First Amendment" signs are cute. Promoting today is great. Showing your support for the company by purchasing food today is a strong show of support (and a positive show). But the arguing, the condemning, the banter...I just do not see how this does anything to further the kingdom. I think of Pat Robertson (yes, a much more public figure) and the damage he has done by opening his mouth and saying things like...God sent hurricane Katrina to New Orleans because of the evil that resides there. I, personally, felt the punch in the mouth of Christianity in that one. Who wants to hear from a group (Christians) who could have such an outspoken leader as that....I know we often get associated with people like this and I think we should do all we can do to distance ourselves from that. This is not to say the CEO should not have come out and said what he said...I applaud him and his bravery. I speak to those who argue with those who protest. Let those who protest say their piece and just smile and know who your God is. It is He that will be glorified in ALL things.
BUT, on a different note...my #2 reason for writing this and the #1 reason I titled this The Bible!
In reading the different debates that are being written throughout facebook, news sites, blogs and other media, I have been shocked at the number of "Christians" who are coming out in SUPPORT of gay marriage and are speaking out against this CEO for taking such a stand.
It is a trend I am seeing more and more among Christians...and not just with gay marriage. Christians are becoming God...or trying to be anyway.
When we become Christians, there are 2 truths....we are now and forever saved by the grace of Jesus who died for us on the cross....and we have a handbook that was written especially for us that is 100% true and God breathed. When we start taking a magic marker and crossing out the parts of the bible that do not fit our ideal, we are playing a dangerous game...and when we decide to start ripping out pages, we are getting in the fire.
In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, there is a pirate code the pirates are supposed to go by. In the movie, though, they admit it is just "more of a guideline", not necessarily to be taken at 100%. I can assure you, the bible is NO guideline. God did not put things in the bible to have them later ignored. It is 100% truth. When God said, Thou shalt not kill, do you think he was just being blase about it? No. And this is an easy law to follow...it doesn't get the black marker treatment. But, somehow, along the way, people began to take their markers out to black out those truths that do not "fit" into what they think God should be.
I see so many Christian women who gather together and lust after men who are not their husbands.
Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman (man).
Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman (man) lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
1 John 2:16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
I know many Christian women who lust after men (Hollywood) when their eyes should go to their husbands alone. Black marker...
And now, Christian women are coming out FOR gay marriage...proclaiming that men and women should be allowed to love whom they love. WHAT?!!! That goes against God and what he placed in the Bible.
Romans 1:24-27 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
If you believe in God...if you believe that He would send His ONLY son to die for our sins, you MUST also believe in the handbook...the living word that He BREATHED into being. You can NOT choose for yourself what to believe or not believe. YOU ARE NOT GOD. You CAN NOT know more than HE does!!
Isaiah 55:8-9 New International Version (NIV)
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
It is disturbing, this turn in Christianity. The picking and choosing what to believe when it is convenient for us. The damage it can do to our marriages, our children, our lives.
While I am not interested in participating in a debate about gay marriage (if asked, I will stand firm in my belief, but will not be sparred into a firing of my tongue), I am interested in why...why is it that so many Christians feel it ok to ignore, black out, rip out so much of God's instruction. It wasn't put there for the benefit of God, but for the benefit of His people...of you...of me. Now, I am not without sin. I can list off some significant sins He speaks against (debt) that I have myself and I have to work on these. But I recognize His authority and while I do question Him at times, I have to just tell myself Isaiah 55:8 over and over again. I am NOT God. Neither are you!!
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