Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 3 of 5)

“Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.”  Corrie Ten Boom

Have you ever noticed that those who have committed horrible acts of betrayal eventually come around to saying one thing about those whom they betrayed?  “They just need to forgive and move on…” Of course if they honestly felt like helping the wounded along in the process they would admit to their sin, repent of it, and do whatever is necessary to make amends, but therein lies the rub, the reason for them making the statement is driven more by their own desire to absolve themselves of any responsibility, to pretend that there was no harm, no foul.  However selfish and self-serving the reason for making the statement, they nevertheless are correct, but for the wrong reasons. 

To them and if you were to admit it, to yourself; forgiveness always seems so easy, when we need it and so hard when we need to give it.  So how do we do the impossible, forgive those who are not sorry for the harm they have caused?  How do we forgive when we don't feel like it? 

It begins with a decision, a decision to pursue forgiveness.  How do we translate the decision to forgive into a change of heart?  We forgive by faith, out of obedience. Since forgiveness goes against our nature, we must forgive by faith, whether we feel like it or not. We must trust God to do the work in us that needs to be done so that the forgiveness will be complete.

I believe God honors our commitment to obey Him and our desire to please Him when we choose to forgive. However it does not happen overnight, sometimes the journey to forgiveness may take years, but we must persist in our commitment to honor Him by forgiving those who do not deserve it.  In His time He will complete the work He has begun in us.  We must continue to forgive (our job) by faith, until the work of forgiveness (His job) is done in our hearts.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”  Philippians 1:6   

Forgiveness is not saying that what the person did against you is okay, it is releasing to God that which is reserved for God.  If as a Christian you accept that God is your heavenly father, how does a father respond when one of his children deliberately hurts another of his children?  He does not overlook it.  He acts with mercy to the injured and with justice to the guilty; always tempered with love.  What someone has done against you is one thing, however if you take the bait of unforgiveness, your decision will cause much more damage then they were ever able to.  

Your father wants you to forgive, because the decision to not forgive is the decision to hate; to hate another created in the same image as you were, to hate someone that God loves.  Every moment you hold on to that hate, it acts like a drug slowly poisoning your soul.  You cannot praise God and curse another made in His image, one is fundamentally opposed against the other.  Hate or love, only one can win.

God commands you to forgive, to give you life, a future, hope.  Forgiveness is an act of faith; it is the ultimate submission of your will to God’s will. To choose to forgive makes your heart more like His.   Forgiveness is how love wins. 

Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 2 of 5)

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you  Colossians 3:13

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.  Matthew 18:21-22

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Luke 6:37

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  Matthew 6:14-16

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.  Mark 11:25

Jesus is very clear … Forgive…  However He does not tell us how to do so.   He gives to us the impossible mandate, something that we are incapable of doing on our own.   A command that leaves us twisted and turning knowing what He expects of us being pitted against our own desires for retribution, or at the very least, vindication.   I believe that is precisely the point, that as we make the decision to pursue forgiveness, we are naturally drawn closer to Him.  Anyone who has ever pursued the act of forgiving quickly realizes that we can not, it goes against our very nature; that the act of forgiveness is in fact a divine act, one that we are only capable of achieving with the help of God.  Thus we begin a new series on the command to forgive. 

How does a person know if he has forgiven?   It is when you have crossed over that bridge, where you no longer feel rage over the circumstances, in it’s place you feel sorrow.  The anger at the individual who has caused you such pain and suffering is replaced with a genuine emotion of feeling sorry for them.  When finally, you have nothing left to say about it all.

Writing how you know that you have forgiven is the easy part, the journey to that point, however is hard.  It’s filled with emotional upheaval, anguish, self-doubt, insecurity, and any number of false ideas.  The journey of forgiveness itself, is frequently sabotaged by ourselves before we begin.  The road towards forgiveness must begin with ‘accountability’.  As you pass through the junction of accountability there are three paths that exit the far side of it, only one of which can show you the way to forgiveness.  Some, choose the path of denial, of justification; you know who they are, it is your co-worker who blames his wife for his infidelity, the neighbor who only backed into your car because you parked in his blind spot, the employee who takes home a few items from work, because his boss doesn’t pay him enough, or the woman at church who only gossiped about you because everyone else was. 

Then there are those who choose the path of self blame,  of blaming themselves for the actions of others, the woman who tells her best friend that it is her fault that her husband is having an affair,  the neighbor who apologizes for parking where his neighbor  could back into him, the manager who thinks that if he were a better manager then his employees wouldn’t take things from the company, or the member of your church who smiles and says that it her fault that people gossip about her, because she deserves it.  

Finally there are the few, the very, very few who know that to honestly forgive someone you must first know precisely what it is that you are forgiving; you must face the truth.  Those who tell the adulteress husband that she was not there when he made the decision to betray his family, the neighbor who informs his neighbor that it was not his car that was moving when it was hit, the employer who lets an employee go because they accepted the position knowing what the benefits and requirements were, and lastly the member of your church who confronts those gossiping with a gentle reminder to read James 3

It is only when you are honest with and about yourself as well as those whom you seek to forgive that you can begin the journey.  Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger, it does not excuse evil, and it does not tolerate or smother it. Genuine forgiveness begins when we look evil full in the face, call it what it is, let it’s horror shock, stun and enrage us, only then are we capable of beginning the road to forgiving it.  

Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 1 of 5)

Forgiveness is not something you choose to do because of who someone is, or because they have earned it; rather it is what you choose to do in spite of who they are.  Because they can never earn it; and neither can you.

"Forgiveness is the remission of sins.  For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again" 1  "Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again" 2 

1. Saint Augustine 2. Dag Hammarskjold

Forgiveness by Mathew West

True and False Repentance (Part 4 of 4)

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.”  2 Corinthians 7:10-11  

In concluding this 4 part series on true and false repentance, the distinction between them is the difference between light and darkness.   Perhaps the simplest test to ask of yourself is this:  Are you ashamed to have any person talk with you about your sins?  If you are, all you have accomplished is to experience worldly sorrow, the effects of which are short lived and contrary to what you may think, act only to drive you further from Jesus and forgiveness, then you were before.  Why then do so many, who are still unrepentant sinners, get the idea that they have repented?  The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. 

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. What is false and counterfeit repentance:
IV. How it may be known: 

How will false repentance be known? 

1.    It leaves feelings unchanged:  the disposition to sin remains unbroken within the heart.  The feelings as to the nature of sin are not changed, but rather the individual still feels a desire for sin. He abstains from it, only from the dread of the consequences of it.

2.    It leads to hypocritical concealment: The individual who has exercised true repentance is willing to have it known what he has repented.  He who has only false repentance, resorts to excuses and lies to cover his sins, he will cover up his sins with a thousand apologies and excuses, trying to smooth them over, and minimize their enormity.  He commits one sin to cover up another.  Instead of that genuine, open-hearted breaking forth of honesty and frankness, you see a smooth-tongued, half-hearted mincing of words that is intended to answer the purpose of a confession, and yet to confess nothing.  He is ashamed to have anyone talk with him about his sins, his sorrow is only a worldly sorrow, and works only death.

3.    False repentance produces only a partial reformation of conduct:  The change that is produced by worldly sorrow only extends to those things of which he has been strongly convicted of.  The nature of his heart remains unchanged.  He will only avoid those cardinal sins, about which he has been humiliated by.  He has no desire to alter or even recognize the pervasiveness of the sinful life that he lives.   Overtime you will witness that he continually relapses into his old sins. The reason is, the disposition to sin is not gone, it is merely restrained by fear, and as soon as he has a hope and is in the church, he gets bolstered up so that his fears are allayed, you see him gradually wearing back, and presently returning to his old sins.  They love to call this ‘backsliding’, or something in that vein; but the truth is, they always loved their sin, and when the occasion offered, they returned to it.

4.    Lastly false repentance leads to a hardened heart:  The individual who has this type of repentance grows harder in proportion to the number of times he is sorrowful.   If he has strong feelings of conviction, and his heart does not break in response to his guilt, the fountains of those feeling dry up, and his heart more and more difficult to be reached.   Not so a true Christian, take a real Christian, one who has truly repented, and every time the truth bears down upon him, it crushes him before God and he becomes more mellow, more easily affected, excited and broken under God's word. His heart gets into the habit of going along with the convictions of his understanding, and he becomes as teachable and as a child born again.

True and False Repentance (Part 3 of 4)

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.”  2 Corinthians 7:10-11  

Why do so many, who are simply filled with regret and remorse get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. This is the third part of a four part series on repentance, touching on four aspects of repentance

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. What is false and counterfeit repentance:

IV. How it may be known:

This is not difficult, yet so many of us seem intent on making it so. In America today even the clergy seem to have diluted repentance down to regret.  However, just because you call a sparrow an eagle does not make it so.  So what is false repentance?  False repentance is said to be worldly, the sorrow of the world, that is, it is sorrow for sin, arising from the worldly considerations and motives connected to your present life, or at most, has respect to his own happiness in a future world, and has no regard to the true nature of sin.

1. It is not founded on such a change of opinion as I have specified to belong to

true repentance, there has been no change in the mind in regards to sin.  As such the  change is not on fundamental points.

A person may see the evil consequences of sin in a worldly point of view, and it may fill him with anxiety. He may see that it will greatly affect his character, or endanger his life; that if some of his concealed conduct is found out, he would be disgraced, and this may fill him with fear and anguish, but it does not alter his conduct, his disposition, nor does it lead to any restitution to those whom he has sinned against.  It is very common for a person to have this kind of worldly sorrow, when some worldly consideration is at the bottom of it all.

2. False repentance is founded in selfishness.

It may be simply a strong feeling of regret, in the mind of the individual, that he has done what he has, because he sees the evil consequences of it to himself, because it makes him unhappy, or exposes him to the wrath of God, or injures his family or his friends, or because it produces some injury to himself in his lifetime or in eternity. All this is pure selfishness.  

He may feel remorse of conscience--biting, consuming REMORSE—and yet no true repentance. It may extend to fear--deep and dreadful fear--of the wrath of God and the pains of hell, and yet be purely selfish, and all the while there may be no such thing as a hearty abhorrence of sin, no change of conduct, no restitution, no altering of his character;  and no feelings of the heart going out after the convictions of the understanding, in regard to the infinite evil of sin.  You know this person, it might even be you, the person who regrets their sins, the one who feels deep sorrow and remorse for what he has done, but does not turn away from his choice, rather he tells you that God has forgiven him, while he fashions the noose around his neck  (so to speak).   

Judas regretted what he did, Judas felt deep sorrow and remorse for his betrayal of Jesus.  Judas hung himself in remorse.  But Judas was not repentant, and he took his sin with him into hell.   

True and False Repentance (Part 2 of 4)

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.”  2 Corinthians 7:10-11  

Why do so many, who are still unrepentant sinners, get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. This is the second part of a four part series on repentance, touching on four aspects of repentance

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. What is false and counterfeit repentance:

IV. How it may be known:

II. How will true repentance be known? 

It is the purpose of this post to show you what are the works of true repentance, and to make it so clear to you, that you will know without any question whether you have repented or not. You must possess all 5 qualities below to have truthfully repentant, 4 out of 5 simply means that you are lying about the other 4.

1. If your repentance is genuine, there is in your mind a conscious change of views and feeling in regard to sin.  On this you will be just as conscious of this change of viewpoint as your are about any change of view and feelings on any other subject. Can you honestly say this? Do you know, that on this point there has been a fundamental change within you, that the old things are done away with and all things (meaning your viewpoint towards not only the sins you are guilty of, but all sin) have become new?

2. Where repentance is genuine, the disposition to repeat sin is gone.

If you have truly repented, you do not now love sin; you do not now abstain from it through fear, and to avoid punishment, but because you hate it.  How is this with you? Do you know that your predisposition to commit sin is gone?  Look at the sins you used to practice before you ‘repented’.  How do they appear to you now?  Do they look pleasant, or merely acceptable given the right ‘excuse’, would you be willing to commit them again or still, if you knew no one would know?  --If they do or you would, then you are only convicted. Your opinions of sin may be changed, but if your willingness remains to commit that sin remains, you are still an unrepentant sinner; and you are not forgiven, and you are right to fear the punishment that awaits.

3. Genuine repentance works a reformation of conduct.

This to be the idea chiefly intended in scripture, where it says "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death...” 2 Corinthians 7:10  Godly sorrow produces a change of conduct.  What the Apostle Paul is speaking of was a change of mind that produces a change of conduct, ending in salvation. So again, let me ask you, are you really reformed?  Have you forsaken your sins? Or, are you practicing them still? Here is the big point in case you like so many in our society seem to want to overlook, anything that first begins as a sin, will always be a sin, it does not matter how long you do it, or even if you attempt to make it look right in man’s eyes; for example if you were to divorce your spouse for another woman that you have been having an affair with {Adultery} and then marry that woman a couple of years later, it remains Adultery, you are still a sinner. While you may have changed your mind, about your sin, if it has not brought a change of conduct, an actual reformation, it is not godly repentance, or such as God approves, merely worldly sorrow.

4. Repentance, when true and genuine, leads to confession and restitution. The thief has not repented, while he keeps the money he stole. He may have conviction, but no repentance. If he has repentance, he will go and give back the money and be willing to accept whatever the consequences are for his sin. If you have cheated anyone, and do not restore what you have taken unjustly; or if you have injured any one, and do not set about it to undo the wrong you have done, then your claim of repentance is a lie, you have not truly repented.  You may be convicted, you may feel worldly sorrow, but you do not have Godly sorrow within you as God demands before He will forgive of your sins.

5. True repentance is a permanent change of character and conduct.  Scripture says it is repentance unto salvation that leaves no regret.  What the apostle Paul means by that expression is that true repentance is a change so deep and fundamental that the person never changes back again?  What the scripture means is that repentance that will not be regretted, so thorough is the repentance, that there is no going back (there is no possibility of backsliding) the love of sin is truly abandoned. The individual, who has truly repented, has so changed his views and feelings that he will not change back again, or go back to the love of sin.  Keep this in mind, that the truly repentant sinner now exercises feelings and beliefs of which he will never regret. The scripture says it is "unto salvation." In other words his repentance goes with him all the way to heaven. The very reason why it ends in salvation is because it is such as will not be regretted.  True repentance is such a thorough change of feelings and beliefs that the individual who exercises it comes to hate sin that they will persevere, and not go and take back all his repentance and return to sin again.

True and False Repentance (Part 1 of 4)

"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" 2 Corinthians 7:10

Why do so many, who are still impenitent sinners, get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. Thus I begin a short series on repentance, touching on four aspects of repentance

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. What is false and counterfeit repentance:

IV. How it may be known:

I.              What is true repentance?

The short one paragraph definition of True Repentance would be that TRUE REPENTANCE involves a complete change of opinion on the nature of sin, and this change of opinion is followed by a corresponding change of feeling towards sin.  Feeling is the result of thought, not emotion; and when this change of opinion produces a corresponding change of feeling, if the opinion is right (as defined by God) and the feeling corresponds, this is true repentance.  The opinion now adopted, by the sinner would align with the opinion that God holds respecting sin.  Godly sorrow, such as God requires, must spring from such views of sin as God holds, nothing less.

First.  There must be a change of opinion in regard to sin.

To someone who truly repents, sin looks like a very different thing from what it does to someone who has not repented. Instead of looking like a thing that is desirable or fascinating, it looks the very opposite, it is repulsive and detestable, and she is astonished at herself that he ever could have desired such a thing.  She looks at her own conduct as perfectly hateful; she looks back upon it and exclaims, "How hateful, how detestable, how worthy of hell, such and such a thing was in me."

Impenitent sinners might look at sin and see that it will destroy them, because God will punish them for it. However, it appears so desirable. They love it. They roll it under their tongue, savor it in their mouth. If it could end in happiness, they never would think of abandoning it.

Sinners do not see why God threatens sin with such terrible punishment. They

love it so much themselves, that they cannot see why God should look at it in such

a light as to think it worthy of everlasting punishment.  When they are strongly

convicted, they see it differently, and as opinion is concerned, they see it in the same light as a true Christian does, then they only want a corresponding change of feeling to become Christians.

Many a sinner sees their relation to God to be such that they deserve eternal death, but her heart does not go with her opinions.  This is the case with the devil and wicked in hell.  Therefore; a change of opinion is indispensable to true repentance, and always precedes it. The heart never goes out to God in true repentance without a previous change of opinion.  There may be a change of opinion without repentance, but no genuine repentance without a change of opinion.

The unrepentant sinner has almost no right ideas, even so far as this life is concerned, respecting the sin. Suppose she admits in theory that sin deserves eternal death, she does not believe it. If she believed it, it would be impossible for her to remain an unrepentant sinner.  She is deceived, if she supposes that she honestly holds such an opinion that sin deserves the wrath of God forever. However the truly convicted sinner has no more doubt of this than she has of the existence of God. She sees clearly that as a simple matter of fact, sin must deserve everlasting punishment from God.

Secondly.   In true repentance there must be a corresponding change of feeling.

The individual who truly repents, not only sees sin as detestable, vile and worthy of abhorrence, but she genuinely hates it in her heart.  A person may see sin to be hurtful and abominable, yet her heart loves it, desires it and clings to it (you know the person who says adultery is a sin, yet keeps doing it). But when she truly repents, she reels backwards in repulsion of it and renounces it.

The individual who truly repents feels sin as it is.  When she views sin in its tendencies, it awakens a vehement desire to stop it, and to save people from their sins, and roll back the tide of death.  When the Christian sets her mind on this, just as if she saw all the people taking poison which she knew would destroy them; she lifts up her voice to warn them to BEWARE.

She has not only an intellectual conviction that sin deserves everlasting punishment, but she feels that it would be right, reasonable, and just for God to condemn her to eternal death, that so far from finding fault with the sentence of the law that condemns her, she thinks it the wonder of heaven, a wonder of wonders, if God would forgive her.  Instead of thinking it hard, or severe, or unkind of God, that unrepentant sinners are allowed to sent themselves to hell, she is full of adoring wonder that she is not sent to hell herself.  It is the last thing in the world she would think to complain of, that all sinners are not saved, but, it is a wonder of mercy that the entire world is not damned.  And when she thinks of such a sinner's as herself being saved, she feels a sense of gratitude that she never knew anything until she was a Christian.

Gay Marriage, - The President verses Manny Pacquiao

‘Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.  I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ…. And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.’  Jude 1:3-4, 7

I do not on this blog involve myself with politics. While it may appear at first glance that I am breaking with that on this post, it is only because so many within our country are working to make a morality issue, a political issue, and for the most part they have succeeded.  The issue at hand has nothing to do with politics, even though political parties, politicians, celebrities and the like are all driving the issue; rather the issue is a clear cut morality issue.  It did not begin with the current topic that is being thrown around Washington, and the rest of the country, nor will it end with it.   The people of this country began this journey long ago, they just didn’t realize it, where it ends up – personally I do not think that it does end.  As a nation and a people we just keep sinking lower   the outcome within this country is already a forgone conclusion. However, victory does not make the victors correct, or those who appear to have lost this battle – wrong.  

Recently the President of the United States announced that he was in favor of gay marriages. Previously the Vice-President said that he was “absolutely comfortable with gay married couples”.  Celebrities (i.e. Hollywood) across the country jumped at the opportunity to chime in their support for gay marriage, and to state how proud they were of the President for switching his previous position in opposition to gay marriage.  Then something curious happened, Manny Pacquiao (the first 8 division world boxing champion) and one of the most well liked sports celebrities in the world stated simply that gay marriage was against God’s law.  The torrent of hate and anger that was poured out at Mr. Pacquiao for his comments was relentless, even from those who profess to the world that they are Christian. 

Now before I go on to the central point of this posting, you need to stop and re-read that last paragraph, and think about it, I mean really think about it.  A man, who is obviously following God’s word, gets blasted by those within a “Christian Nation” for saying that the President of the United States is wrong and that gay marriage violates God’s word.  Hmmm…. so much for the President's claims to be a Christian, perhaps yours as well.  But what is really amazing is that those who scream the loudest for ‘tolerance and acceptance’ are the most intolerant when someone disagrees with them, guess it makes them happy to berate someone with a different opinion.   As a side note Mr. Pacquiao is absolutely correct, the Bible is absolutely clear on the issue.

This is the jest of why the president and those who support gay marriage say that they support gay marriage – ‘Everyone has the right to be happy’.  That’s it, nothing deeper than that, nothing more profound - just the time honored argument that has been used through the ages to commit unspeakable sins, “just do what makes you happy”.

I am not going to argue the morality of the issue, my opinion does not matter, any more than yours does; God has already decided the morality of it, and regardless of what you and I think, He isn’t going to change His opinion (and His is the only one that counts).  What I am going to discuss is the glaring flaw in the argument used by the President and those who use that argument to advance causes that will make a particular segment of the population ‘happy’.

Simply stated, once you sign off on the argument that a particular  segment of the population is entitled to do what they believe will make them happy, there is no going back from it.  There is no end to it.  You can not (without being a hypocrite) state in the future that others can not do what will make them happy, regardless of what you think is the morality of it.   It was that exact fatal flaw that gay activist used to silence those within the church.  The church and professing Christians had signed off on heterosexual couples divorcing for any reason and remarrying (in direct violation of God’s word) all under the guise of ‘God just wants you to be happy’ so don’t worry you are forgiven.  The Church took the first bite of the apple years ago.  

I am not going to make a long winded argument to support my position; instead I am going to ask you to think about a several questions.

Should a woman be allowed to marry her brother?  How about her father?

Is committing adultery with your neighbor’s husband okay? How about your neighbor’s 17 year old daughter? 

Is premarital sex something that you want your 13 year old daughter to engage in?

Is it alright for a 50 year old man to marry a 17 year old girl? How about 16, 15, 14, 13 (you know they do grow up faster these days)? 

Is it morally acceptable to divorce your wife because you found a newer younger model?

For that matter, why do we make such a big deal out of prosecuting those who have more than one wife? 

If you agree to the argument that gay marriage is not a sin and should be allowed because everyone has the right to do what they think will make them happy, then what are you going to say to those who tell you in the future that doing any of the above is what makes them happy.  How do you tell them that they can not do what makes them happy, when you are already doing the same.  Who are you to judge?  Sing off on one, and you have signed off on all of them.

Let me be perfectly clear, I am against gay marriages, I am also against divorce, adultery, fornication, child molestation, incest, polygyny etc. etc.  I do not distinguish between any of them, neither does God.  Each is a sin, and those who commit them, or encourage others to do so, will ultimately face the wrath of God.

America, if it doesn’t already, will soon make Sodom and Gomorra pale in comparison.

“If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”  Matthew 10:14-15

Follow Your Heart..... (Otherwise know as the Path to Hell)

I interact a lot with those who are either going through a divorce or who are thinking about one.  On a daily basis I witness the worst in people.  I listen to their excuses, their selfishness, their lies. Which make the conversation I recently had with a woman no different then the one I have had a hundred times over.    She was thinking of divorcing her husband ,  and in the depth of  the conversation she revealed that  she was having an affair with another woman’s husband.  Which if you do not know, is a sin, which I in a direct manner pointed out to her.  Needless to say she wasn't very happy with me for saying that, so I asked her if she thought she was a Christian.

"Of course I do," she said.

To which I responded "do you believe the Bible is true?"

Imagine my surprise when she said, "Absolutely."

So then I quoted  verse after verse that identified what she was doing as a sin. She told me, "That is your opinion. That's your interpretation. You just don't understand and besides you are not suppose to judge and God forgives everything."  Like I haven’t heard that before.  Interesting how people always tell you that you are not suppose to judge, when they are committing the evilest of sins. 

In the end  I simply told her the truth, “You will do what is right or you will do what you want.  However, they are not the same and whichever course you choose you will reap what you have sowed.” 

Which brings me to this point:  Do what your heart tells you is a creed believed by millions today.  It is one of the great cultural myths of the Western world, a gospel proclaimed in movies, songs, television programs and stories.  Heck I have even heard pastors say it.  But the truth is, if you want to stamp your ticket to hell, then just follow your heart.  However, don’t be surprised at your final destination. 

The Bible is very clear on the matter,  "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" (Jeremiah 17:9).  

Adultery, Divorce, Fornication, Gay marriage, the list goes on and on; as long as it doesn’t intrude on me, live and let live… you just don’t understand.  To which I reply “No, you do not understand. Your opinion, your desires, do not alter God’s laws, they have been, are and always will be the same.”  If you need proof that you will reap what you sow, just look around, look at the decline of America. 

We need a higher standard of authority than our heart, a higher standard of authority than mere opinion, and that is the Word of God.  

The problem we have today is a watered-down gospel and because of that, many have a watered-down Christian life.  We have Christians who have become so much like the world that the world doesn't want to become like them.  What is considered normal Christian living in the first century would be considered radical by today's standards. But that is what we need: radical Christianity. To put it another way, we need biblical Christianity.

Instead of trying to accommodate the Word of God to our changing culture, we need to accommodate our culture to the unchanging Word of God.