Post by Rev. Jim Cunningham on Nov 19, 2008 2:40:18 GMT -5
From: Manager Rev. Jim (Original Message) Sent: 11/29/2004 11:14 AM
"Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O Congregation?
Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of me?
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness;
ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth."
Psalm 58:1-2
One of the pleasures which many gay Christians enjoy about their local MCC (Metropolitan Community Church) or other church which has a high level of pomp and ceremony, is that there are usually no strict teachings, no "hell fire and brimstone preaching", and the pastor’s message is usually about love love love and how to get along with other people. Don’t get me wrong, those are important things at the right time, to be sure! However, as King Solomon said, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. There is a time for that chummy preaching where you are made to feel you have a safe and cozy faith where you’ve been able to keep God just outside arms length, never being truly accountable to Him. Actually, come to think of it, no, there is NEVER a time for that. But there is definitely a time for us to stop sucking on the baby bottle of Milk of the Faith and to take a big healthy helping of solid Meat of the Word. Christ Himself tells us in Revelation that, contrary to the "once saved always saved" doctrine, if we are luke-warm He will spit us out of His mouth. God does not like half-hearted people with a wishy-washy faith. Either be hot or be cold, or else He will knock us off the fence altogether.
In the Psalm above, God does not speak to enemies and sinners of the world, but to His own people. People who say they love God and that they are "good people", yet what they call "good" is merely subjective. I can’ tell you how many times I’ve heard drug addicts and alcoholics and sex addicts and Republicans come to me for counseling, saying "but I’m still a good person, I never hurt anyone." I’m sure you’ve heard that one too, or perhaps you yourself have said it. So their life isn’t great but they are still nice to people and they don’t do bad things to others, and in fact they often do nice things for people. First, what they are trying to do is justify themselves and their actions and thoughts. But what does God have to say about this? "IN HEART ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth". God wants more from us than just being nice to people. He wants obedient HEARTS, too. But we have weighed our deeds, as though one was better than the other. We do good to others, yet we defile our own bodies with drugs or fornication. We never hurt others, yet our hearts are far from God so that we (think) we can do what ever pleases us – then we say that others are judging us when they rightly correct us for this recklessness. Justifying ourselves, when only Jesus can justify us, and if we’ve kept Him at arms length then He can do not such thing for us.
You see, it isn’t enough that you "love your neighbor as yourself". That law is not the WHOLE law but only half of it. Our salvation is based on faith, not deeds, so why would anyone think that they are good merely because they do good to others? The FIRST part of the law is to love the Lord, and Jesus clearly defined this by saying, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." And what are those commandments? Yes, the obvious deeds such as Do Not Kill, Do Not Commit Adultery, Do Not Steal, Do Not Lie, etc. But, those are all the laws pertaining to the way you relate to others. What about the laws pertaining to the way you treat YOURSELF and GOD. If you are commanded to love your neighbor as yourself, what good is that love if you treat yourself with abuse. You cannot love your neighbor as yourself if you do not love yourself enough to take care of yourself and keep yourself from the filth of the world. If you are living in sinfulness by keeping God at a distance, then to tell your neighbor that you love him as yourself is equivalent to a violent father telling his neighbors that he will care for their children as if they were his own! When we accepted Christ, it was on HIS terms, not ours. And those terms do not involve our own righteousness. It is Christ’s righteousness alone which secures our salvation, and if we want to obtain that salvation, then we need to embrace more of God’s Word than just the part that talks about loving each other. We need to start realizing that we are accountable to God for every thought and word and deed, and we need to judge very carefully which "pleasures of the flesh" are acceptable to God and which ones are not.
Let’s talk more about this next time.
Your brother,
Rev. Jim
"Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O Congregation?
Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of me?
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness;
ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth."
Psalm 58:1-2
One of the pleasures which many gay Christians enjoy about their local MCC (Metropolitan Community Church) or other church which has a high level of pomp and ceremony, is that there are usually no strict teachings, no "hell fire and brimstone preaching", and the pastor’s message is usually about love love love and how to get along with other people. Don’t get me wrong, those are important things at the right time, to be sure! However, as King Solomon said, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. There is a time for that chummy preaching where you are made to feel you have a safe and cozy faith where you’ve been able to keep God just outside arms length, never being truly accountable to Him. Actually, come to think of it, no, there is NEVER a time for that. But there is definitely a time for us to stop sucking on the baby bottle of Milk of the Faith and to take a big healthy helping of solid Meat of the Word. Christ Himself tells us in Revelation that, contrary to the "once saved always saved" doctrine, if we are luke-warm He will spit us out of His mouth. God does not like half-hearted people with a wishy-washy faith. Either be hot or be cold, or else He will knock us off the fence altogether.
In the Psalm above, God does not speak to enemies and sinners of the world, but to His own people. People who say they love God and that they are "good people", yet what they call "good" is merely subjective. I can’ tell you how many times I’ve heard drug addicts and alcoholics and sex addicts and Republicans come to me for counseling, saying "but I’m still a good person, I never hurt anyone." I’m sure you’ve heard that one too, or perhaps you yourself have said it. So their life isn’t great but they are still nice to people and they don’t do bad things to others, and in fact they often do nice things for people. First, what they are trying to do is justify themselves and their actions and thoughts. But what does God have to say about this? "IN HEART ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth". God wants more from us than just being nice to people. He wants obedient HEARTS, too. But we have weighed our deeds, as though one was better than the other. We do good to others, yet we defile our own bodies with drugs or fornication. We never hurt others, yet our hearts are far from God so that we (think) we can do what ever pleases us – then we say that others are judging us when they rightly correct us for this recklessness. Justifying ourselves, when only Jesus can justify us, and if we’ve kept Him at arms length then He can do not such thing for us.
You see, it isn’t enough that you "love your neighbor as yourself". That law is not the WHOLE law but only half of it. Our salvation is based on faith, not deeds, so why would anyone think that they are good merely because they do good to others? The FIRST part of the law is to love the Lord, and Jesus clearly defined this by saying, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." And what are those commandments? Yes, the obvious deeds such as Do Not Kill, Do Not Commit Adultery, Do Not Steal, Do Not Lie, etc. But, those are all the laws pertaining to the way you relate to others. What about the laws pertaining to the way you treat YOURSELF and GOD. If you are commanded to love your neighbor as yourself, what good is that love if you treat yourself with abuse. You cannot love your neighbor as yourself if you do not love yourself enough to take care of yourself and keep yourself from the filth of the world. If you are living in sinfulness by keeping God at a distance, then to tell your neighbor that you love him as yourself is equivalent to a violent father telling his neighbors that he will care for their children as if they were his own! When we accepted Christ, it was on HIS terms, not ours. And those terms do not involve our own righteousness. It is Christ’s righteousness alone which secures our salvation, and if we want to obtain that salvation, then we need to embrace more of God’s Word than just the part that talks about loving each other. We need to start realizing that we are accountable to God for every thought and word and deed, and we need to judge very carefully which "pleasures of the flesh" are acceptable to God and which ones are not.
Let’s talk more about this next time.
Your brother,
Rev. Jim