Sometimes, I feel as though I'm fighting against the majority.
Here in England as you may have seen on the news, there has been a huge push to allow equal rights marriage. Sadly, there is a great demand to change God's design for marriage (the joining of one man and one woman for life in sight of, and under the blessing of God). For a long time, traditional marriage has either been ignored or forsaken, by an increase of unmarried or divorced couples. But this is another level. Seeking to give to someone something that is completely against the will of God. Same sex marriage.
The "fight", or debate occurred when i questioned on Facebook how our society could glorify and see as being a "human right" for people to indulge in sin. What followed was a 5 hour, 150+ comment debate between born again Christians and some lovely but spiritually lost friends of mine. Those who believe in God, and those who don't. People who trust in His word, and those who willfully disobey it. This is not the first time my faith has lead to these sorts of debates, and i guarantee it wont be the last. I've come to the conclusion that more and more we are going to have to stand up and be counted, to be more public in our backing of scriptural truth, and more outspoken about sin.
This, and through the encouragement of my friend Tate, has lead me to think once more of the position we're in as Christians The Christian's walk is not meant to be a stroll in the park. If it is, perhaps you're not walking it correctly? We are told in the bible that it's a battleground we're in, not a playground!
God wants us to stand up for Him, and in coming months and years its only going to get harder to do. There will be more voices against us, and soon the enemy will even have the law on his side.
Paul said at the end of his life "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim 4: ESV)
He lived his life in a state of war, always fighting, always running, always believing, and eventually his part in the war and race was over. Now it's our turn. Now we are the soldiers. We now have the race to run.
Are you in the fight? Which side are you on? Paul told Timothy to "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (1 Timothy 6:12) Timothy was to fight against those who opposed the Christian faith, and to defend the eternal life that is given to those on the side of the Lord Jesus.
Here are a few reasons why we should keep fighting and for your own meditation:
1) God gives us the armour to fight in. (Ephesians 6: 10-20)
2) we are already on the victory side. (1 Corinthians 15: 50-58)
3) God gives us the strength to fight for Him. ( Ephesians 3: 14-21)
Are you prepared to fight? Are you going to stand up for what is right, rather than for what is popular? If you're a Christian, you've already been enlisted!
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - (Philippians 4:14 ESV)
Here in England as you may have seen on the news, there has been a huge push to allow equal rights marriage. Sadly, there is a great demand to change God's design for marriage (the joining of one man and one woman for life in sight of, and under the blessing of God). For a long time, traditional marriage has either been ignored or forsaken, by an increase of unmarried or divorced couples. But this is another level. Seeking to give to someone something that is completely against the will of God. Same sex marriage.
The "fight", or debate occurred when i questioned on Facebook how our society could glorify and see as being a "human right" for people to indulge in sin. What followed was a 5 hour, 150+ comment debate between born again Christians and some lovely but spiritually lost friends of mine. Those who believe in God, and those who don't. People who trust in His word, and those who willfully disobey it. This is not the first time my faith has lead to these sorts of debates, and i guarantee it wont be the last. I've come to the conclusion that more and more we are going to have to stand up and be counted, to be more public in our backing of scriptural truth, and more outspoken about sin.
This, and through the encouragement of my friend Tate, has lead me to think once more of the position we're in as Christians The Christian's walk is not meant to be a stroll in the park. If it is, perhaps you're not walking it correctly? We are told in the bible that it's a battleground we're in, not a playground!
God wants us to stand up for Him, and in coming months and years its only going to get harder to do. There will be more voices against us, and soon the enemy will even have the law on his side.
Paul said at the end of his life "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim 4: ESV)
He lived his life in a state of war, always fighting, always running, always believing, and eventually his part in the war and race was over. Now it's our turn. Now we are the soldiers. We now have the race to run.
Are you in the fight? Which side are you on? Paul told Timothy to "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (1 Timothy 6:12) Timothy was to fight against those who opposed the Christian faith, and to defend the eternal life that is given to those on the side of the Lord Jesus.
Here are a few reasons why we should keep fighting and for your own meditation:
1) God gives us the armour to fight in. (Ephesians 6: 10-20)
2) we are already on the victory side. (1 Corinthians 15: 50-58)
3) God gives us the strength to fight for Him. ( Ephesians 3: 14-21)
Are you prepared to fight? Are you going to stand up for what is right, rather than for what is popular? If you're a Christian, you've already been enlisted!
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - (Philippians 4:14 ESV)
Remember you can follow this blog on facebook at One Door Closes, Another Opens, or follow me on twitter (see right hand side under "recommended sites").
Yours in Him
Dan
Hi Dan
ReplyDeleteWhile I certainly agree with the theme behind this post (stand up for what's right, not what's popular), I wonder if I could gently push back on the way you phrase your view of same-sex marriage? Just a couple of things I spotted:
1. You call it 'equal rights marriage'; I'm not that comfortable calling it that - I don't think marriage is a right but rather a privilege, and while I'm all for equal rights, I don't think that same-sex marriage is a question of equal rights. I think that when Christians start standing up AGAINST equal rights we need to start to question what we're doing!
2. I actually think that it's definitely a human right that we can indulge in sin. If we lived in a society that forced us all to never sin we'd simply be moving away from the Good News of grace, and back to the Law. The truth is that in Jesus we have the freedom to not sin.
3. The issue around same-sex marriage isn't that society is allowing (or encouraging) sin; society already does! Gay couples have relationships, live together, sleep together...but so do straight couples who aren't married, and if we're honest we all sin, and society doesn't really care. The issue around redifining marriage is that:
(a) This 'redifinition' of marriage isn't even that - same-sex marriage will have different legal rights to straight marriage, and straight couples still won't be able to have civil partnerships while gay couples will do - it's a question of equal rights!
(b) It's only a matter of time before churches will be forced to put the law before the Bible, at which time society won't just be encouraging sin, they'll be enforcing it!
So it's a good encouragement, but I wonder sometimes if some of that conflict could have been avoided through educating your non-Christian friends, rather than perhaps running the risk of coming across as judgmental?
PS I wrote an article about the same thing at http://samisaacson.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/redefining-marriage/ - feel free to rip apart my article if you like!
Hi Sam, no problem at all with you commenting and ripping it apart. Lol. I see your point, and with hindsight should have placed the phrase into quotation marks, as that is what I've heard it referred to, not what I personally view it as. You've made some excellent points which I think expand my post, so I'm very grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the way most couples live as they please without society batting an eye lid shows how far removed it is from the ways of God doesn't it. Marriage in its purest sense is so degraded and ignored its shameful. Thank you for your points of view, youve made them very clear and I agree with all that you've said. Perhaps we're making a stand too late in the day, but I've friends who work for the christian institute and they have fought hard against it for a while. Thanks again.
Dan
P.s. we will have a lot more to stand up against in coming months and years, as I agree it will soon be our faith AGAINST the law. Not just on this subject, but on many more that people are pushing to bring in and or change. D
ReplyDeleteThe battle has been raging for many many centuries, but be prepared for it to increase, because the days are truly evil, and I believe that Satans time is short, he will be trying his best to do the three things he does best, Kill, Steal , and Destroy. The nations reject Christ and the church sleeps, may we awake and be clothed with Christ. He is our only Hope and Salvation!
ReplyDeleteGood word brother. Stay in the fight!
ReplyDelete