Posted on 06/27/2013 5:42:29 AM PDT by shortstop
For more than 200 years, the United States was a Christian nation.
And then right was wrong, down was up, evil was good, and the vote was 5-to-4.
Our judicial masters spoke and the gleeful reporters shoved microphones in the faces of people wearing rainbow t-shirts.
Something God placed in the heavens as a sign of his love, and something man put on a flag to tell God to go screw himself.
The course has been set to make gay marriage the law of the land, the first giant step has been taken, and yesterday’s vice has become today’s virtue.
The Bible doesn’t matter, the vote of the people doesn’t matter, the tradition doesn’t matter.
And opponents are to be mocked and ridiculed. Indeed, to be Christian – real Christian – is to be stigmatized in today’s society, to be a presumptive bigot and to be blackballed.
Which naturally raises the question: How should believers react to a Supreme Court ruling that they know is not only wrong, but wicked?
The answer: Ignore it.
Not just the decision, but the entire topic.
Believers should remember that the best affirmation of faith is an affirmation of faith. The best way to convincingly communicate what’s in your heart is to focus on what you’re for, not what you’re against.
Yes, Islam, Judaism and Christianity all condemn homosexual sex as a sin. There is no confusion about that. Religious leaders who teach otherwise are blind leaders of the blind, wolves in sheep’s clothing who defile the ministry by their presence and unbelief. The embrace of homosexual practice by various denominations is nothing more than proof that those denominations have long since strayed from any sort of biblical or spiritual foundation.
Those things are all true.
But they are not particularly relevant.
Because, typically, the best way to advance your case is to describe what’s right about what you offer, not what’s wrong about what your opponent offers.
The abomination of gay marriage is either self-evident or non-existent, depending on your largely unchangeable perspective. You either get what’s wrong with it, or you don’t.
And you’re not likely to be argued out of your position, no matter what your position is.
So believers should declare the truth. They should not focus on the darkness of sin, but the light of truth.
If the topic is marriage and the family, let the topic be marriage and the family. Real marriage and real family. In a society where we have the lowest marriage and birth rates in our nation’s history, and the highest out-of-wedlock birth rates, job one is not telling people what’s wrong with gay marriage, it is telling people what’s right with real marriage. We gain very little by attacking a negative; we may gain the world by defending a positive.
If we really are concerned about marriage and family, we have to recognize that the grave danger is heterosexual attitude, not homosexual marriage. If you want to strengthen the family, teach the beauties of love and marriage combined together to produce parenthood.
Remember that “gospel” means “good news,” and the core of Christianity is the “good news” that a Savior has been sent, that sins can be forgiven, that salvation can be found. Properly done, Christianity is not a gloomy religion. It is a faith of hope and joy, and of loving one’s neighbor.
It offers peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come. Those are pretty joyous things.
And they are what should be talked about.
They are what believers should be sharing with their neighbors and friends. If there is a spiritual battle going on – and there is – the way to win it is to invite others to discover the spirituality that brightens your life, in the hope that it will also brighten their lives.
That’s what it’s all about.
Gay marriage is a side show, it is a distraction, and people of faith must remember that.
They should also remember that the truth will not always be popular. For a couple of hundred years, Christian values were respected in America. That will soon no longer be the case. They may become extremely unpopular. Holding to them may well come at a price.
No reader of the Bible can be surprised by that. No true follower of God can be surprised if his faith draws the ire and persecution of those who do not share it.
So how do you respond?
With faith, courage, humility and resolution.
Daniel faced the lions, Stephen faced the stones, and Jesus faced the cross.
Why should we automatically assume that our fate will be any better?
For more than 200 years, the United States was a Christian nation.
But that’s changing.
Though, thankfully, we’re not.
Or rather FEAR of being attacked.
Matthew 18: 15-17
15 “If your brother sins[k], go and [l]show him his fault [m]in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every [n]fact may be confirmed. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as [o]a Gentile and [p]a tax collector.”
Clearly fellow Christians are to adhere to a higher standard than non-believers are. We should not be treating non-believers as if they were Christians.
Matthew 7:6
“Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.”
If you DO try to treat non-believers like believers, this is the sort of treatment you should expect in return.
First They Came for the Jews
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.~Pastor Martin Niemöller
Community and individuality are not opposites. People cannot survive on their own. When the odds are stacked against you, you must rally with the oppressed and hated.
When a growing oppressive regime is taking hold, you must act, otherwise you will soon face your enemy alone and hopeless.
Strength of community is a strength as much as individualism, as long you are willing to face weaknesses in your own community. Ignoring slacking values will mean that you will be rallied against by those you oppress.
Niemöller affirms we must rally against unhealthy organized regimes. We must also stay vigilant with those that appear to be good natured, as all organisation attracts corruption. Niemöller also warns us that if it is you who are corrupt, then you will face a stronger combined force of foe!
~Vexen Crabtree
Revolt is coming.
And in the end, the WILL LOSE.
Same as always: Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is the Law and the Prophets.
yep- I am a florist and am a believer, am thinking of just getting out of the wedding end of it all together.also because it is getting old working every Saturday.
Agreed.
Christianity has been flourishing in underground China.
Persecution leads to growth.
It’s important to remember that the US has also had a Jewish community since colonial days, starting in 1654, paralleling the early Dutch immigration, and also indirectly from the Spanish expulsion of the Jews, via third countries.
While they were less than instrumental in the fighting of the Revolution, being only 2000 out of a population of 2 million, they leveraged their support with logistics, outfitting units, providing smuggled armaments and raw materials, and funding key elements of the war effort. The Revolutionary leaders rewarded them as well, smuggling Jewish religious artifacts away from where the British would destroy them.
The end result of this was that “when the rules were written”, they were done in such a way to endorse the best ideas from the Age of Enlightenment, the Christian religions, and with respect to the Jews as well, that all Americans would be treated justly and equally before the law.
Let us pray that they do. But difficult times are ahead either way.
Do we respond to such overt aggression by giving up and going hardshell? I think not. Such a thing would be the opposite of what we are admonished to do in scripture.
I am unable to argue against your well stated points. Honestly, it is not something that I considered, but now must, and will.
I believe Daniel would be an example of your comments.
Agreed. Your comments can be summed up in two words: Natural Marriage. Conservatives need to start differentiating between Gay Marriage and Natural Marriage. Words matter and, besides, the term "Natural Marriage" will give the Left conniptions.
One more thought regarding so-called gay marriage and its proponents. The day isn't far off when churches will be forced to sanction and perform said marriages. What will happen when they say no?
We as a nation have cursed YHvH. Dashle in 2001 See Isaiah 9:9 through the end of the chapter. Isa 9:10 "The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with smooth stones; Isa 9:11 Therefore the LORD raises against them adversaries YHvH has judged this once Godly
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
nation and found it wanting.
Edwards in 2004 and
Obama in 2009 Isa 9:9....Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:
The sycamores have been cut down, But we will replace them with cedars."
from Rezin And spurs their enemies on,
Well put, thank you.
Homosexuals are demanding recognition by the government, your backside is safe.
The way I see it there are two fronts to be fought on, the cultural battle and the legal one. Making a huge fuss, being bellicose, and dramatic, throws the homosexual community into a publicly sympathetic light as well as giving it a sort of avant garde appeal. The David and Goliath aspect (along with any crimes done in the name of “belief”) also lends credence to the idea that spoken opposition is dangerous and should be punished to the fullest extent of the newly minted law.
The Christian community is regarded as a cliche and you see how well that has worked to marginalize it despite the fact that the Evangelical community makes up 41% of the population. That tactic can just as easily be used by Christians as it has been against them. We do have a lot of repair work to do.
Russian Paper: “Weak Eyed Obama” Is Leader Of Sodom & Gomorrah
June 26, 2013
Court Declares Marriage Defenders ‘Enemies of the Human Race’
The rainbow God created was to signify that He would not kill mankind by way of a flood.
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