Showing Grace

We are working our way through Philip Yancy's "What's So Amazing About Grace" and that week"s discussion was on how to show grace in maintaining a relationship with  those who refuse to acknowledge their sin.  Although not the only sinful practice discussed, homosexuality was a focus of the  discussion since Yancy had a deep friendship with Mel White who was an avowed homosexual and the lesson centered around how Yancy handled their relationship.

It was then that one of the participants chimed in with what I thought was an excellent Christian response to the homosexual.  A response filled with grace while not denying truth.  It went like this:

"This is what I would say to the homosexual:  "Given the things that I have done in my life, I am a much worse person than you.   There is a difference between us though.  I am broken.  I have acknowledged my offenses against God, have confessed them before Him, have asked forgiveness for breaking His heart  and thrown myself on His mercy by trusting that Jesus paid my debt.  Moreover I have turned from my sin because I have come to love Christ more than I loved what I was engaged in and because I love Him, I want my life to be one of obedience.

You on the other hand are not broken.  You want have it both ways.  You want to trade on the love of God while refusing to acknowledge that the behavior that you are engaged in is an affront to Him when He clearly says that it is.  God loves the sinner, but will not welcome the sinner who trades on His love to remain in sin.  God is holy and those who seek His friendship must strive to be holy also.  Our right of access to God through Christ does not give us the right to do whatever we like.

   

You can't fatten a pig on market day.

This is from search ministries:

Market Day

We were in the middle of one of our golf-themed events, where one of the chaplains interviews a couple of PGA players about life on tour, favorite golf memories, best tournaments, and a bit about their faith. 

Depending on time and circumstance, we'll let the audience throw in a few questions, this was one of those nights. 

All three of our panelists this evening had been excellent student-athletes, and a proud father asked what advise they could give his son who had earned a Division 1 golf team scholarship. 

Stewart Cink threw out some good words about honoring the significance of the contract that the scholarship represented, and spoke about getting ahead in your preparations and practice. Then he unleashed this bit of redneck wisdom that had our suburban crowd jumping for their smartphones:

You've got to fatten the pig ahead of the fair. You can't fatten a pig the night before market. 

Perhaps this timeless wisdom is commonplace in your neck of the woods. Nobody at my table, or the two beside us, had heard it before. I watched a half dozen phones light up to EverNote, Facebook, or Twitter. 

It speaks deeply of the tension of our age that this picturesque parable meant to convey the idea that some important things take a long time can be captured, categorized, and broadcast worldwide in a matter of seconds. 

So much of life these days seemingly can be accomplished in a short burst of time that we lose perspective and patience on the things that take time. That list is pretty long, and full of the things that we don't really want to think about. 

I want to draw your attention to three of them, that are the keys to a relational approach to sharing your faith. 

1. We need to earn the right to be heard. Relationships take energy spent over a long time. Very few adults are open to trusting new or strange acquaintances. If we'd like a voice into their life, we'll have to demonstrate that we can be trusted to have their best interests in mind. This takes time. 
2. We need to have something intelligent to say once we've earned the right to be heard. Preparation takes time. Do you know what issues they wrestle with? Can you handle at least the most common objections and misconceptions about faith? Can you share the message of salvation clearly? You can't master these in a night, or even a week. This takes time to do well. 
3. We need to have a faith worth sharing. What is the spiritual life you are calling them to? How is your own personal relationship with God? This relationship takes no less time to develop than others. Do you love Him? Do you seek out His presence? Do you hunger for the scriptures? This takes time. 

They say the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today. Start today investing in all three of these areas. Look for ways to deepen relationships. Make plans to sharpen your skills or broaden your knowledge. Seek hard after God. Don't wait until one of these trees blossoms to start planting the others. 

You can't fatten a pig on market day.

Cultural Malaise

"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private [virtue], and public virtue is the only foundation of republics." -John Adams

There is no surer indicator that the culture is headed down the toilet than the case of Mark Sanford, former governor of South Carolina.  As a reminder, when Governor, Sanford suddenly disappeared, not even telling is staff where he was, to run off to South America to be with his “soul mate”.  The only problem was that Sanford was married at the time.

Now he is trying to resurrect his political career in running for the House seat vacated by Tim Scott in South Carolina”s District 1.   Here is where the cultural malaise kicks in:  amazingly, Sanford won his primary and now is in the midst of a tight race with his Democratic opponent.

Think about it.  Here is an individual who violated the most sacred vow that a man can make, his wedding vows, and no one seems to care.   What makes voters think that if Sanford had no problem in rationalizing his lack of integrity in his marriage that he would have a problem with violating his oath to uphold the Constitution?

Now along comes an organization that really illustrates how sick the culture has become.  An outfit called AshleyMadison.com has made Sanford their poster boy.  It founder Noel Biderman is quoted as saying that, “He represents what we have been articulating for the past decade, which is, what happens in someone’s personal life, that’s their personal choice—it doesn’t mean that they’re not able to govern….”

This seems to be the conventional wisdom in a culture that doesn’t believe in moral absolutes: that one can separate public and private virtue.  But truth is born out in reality, and experience shows that any politician who routinely indulges in immoral practices in his private life, very quickly betrays the office he has sworn to uphold.  Examples abound, Newt Gingrich, John Edwards, Anthony Weiner, but the most famous is Bill Clinton, who had no core ethics, but would go wherever the political winds blew.

In his book the, “The Meaning of Marriage”, pastor Tim Keller quotes Sara Lipton of the New York Times:  “For most of Western history, the primary and most valued characteristic of manhood was self mastery……A man who indulged in excessive eating, drinking, sleeping or sex—who failed to “rule himself”—was considered unfit to rule his household, much less a polity.”  My how times have changed.

We are a society that derisively dismisses Biblical ethics and find it strange that politicians sell us out at every turn.