Welcoming

This morning, James White tweeted this:

‘Welcoming’ in a Christian worldview means ‘all repentant sinners are welcome to hear the gospel and believe.’

This is true as far as it goes, but I think many conservative Christians don’t really practice this. I don’t know Dr. White personally, so I’ll assume what I consider to be the best and guess that he has actually done what I’m going to suggest.

The ‘F’ word

Saw this article today in my RSS feed. It’s worth a careful read, especially by pastors who struggle to know what to do with parishioners who struggle with sexuality issues.

Getting It Right

Tags

Christianity, friends, homosexuality, sexuality

Getting It Right

This is a great article from the Odd Man Out blog. Check it out!

Savagery

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Dan Savage, false teaching, homosexuality, politics, repentance, Scripture

Savagery, \ˈsa-vij-rē\, noun.  An act of cruelty or violence.

Dan Savage made some comments recently which posted to YouTube. Certainly, as an American, he has the right to say whatever he pleases under the first amendment. He has issued what may be considered by many to be an apology subsequent to the public outcry against his posture to religion and adherents thereof.

Crushes, Theology, Girls: Not in that order

As a tie-in to the post “What if there was a girl?“, there was. She and I are, however, only friends. But I would be lying if I said that I didn’t wish there was more. I waited to ask her out officially because I wasn’t sure I was physically attracted. I became sure–it was only the second time that has ever happened for me with a member of the ‘fairer sex.’ By then, she’d decided against dating me. I respect her decision, though I do wish she’d change her mind. I don’t like any other girls, so it’s not like there’s anyone to “move on” to; so friends it is, for the moment.

Not the Only One

It seems I’m not the only one who has lost out on a job because of my sexuality.

Truly sad. I’ve often wondered and reflected on how to be a good neighbor to those who are concerned about my sexuality or the way I even talk about it. After all, they’re people who are made in the image of God just like me. I didn’t arrive at my conclusions about sexuality overnight, and neither have (or will) they. Tolerance at this point seems like settling and sub-par. The Gospel talks of love borne of a grateful heart to God…so how do I love ones who are genuinely homophobic, even just professionally speaking?

What to say?

There is a price for Gospel honesty. It’s a rather steep one.

Before I go on, I want to define “Gospel honesty.” I’m using the phrase to indicate honesty about one’s sin and the redemption of Christ through His blood on the cross, which takes the reality of God’s grace and amplifies it to the world without shame or reservation since Christ has, indeed, died for me…for all who believe. The Gospel allows me to be honest about what tempts me because my Savior has paid the price for my shame.

Temptation and Consequence

Tags

temptation, Tim Challies, unexpected experience

Blogger Tim Challies wrote a great piece on temptation. I recommend you read it.

I had an unusual and unexpected experience on Sunday—one that struck me as rather significant. I have been doing quite a bit of preaching at Grace Fellowship Church and elsewhere and knew that Sunday marked the last time I would have to prepare a fresh sermon until the end of the calendar year. Somehow this made me feel like I would be crossing a finish line when the service came to a close. It was a milestone I was looking forward to as it will allow me to focus on some other things for a while (good things, ministry things, but not preaching things).

I finished the sermon—quite an emotional and difficult one for me—and, after the service, was greeting people and then doing whatever else needs to be done at the close of a service. Very suddenly, and very unexpectedly, I was faced with a temptation to sin—to commit a sin to which I am particularly prone. I will not tell you what that sin is because I fear it would detract from what I am writing here. It could be envy or lust or fear of man or idolatry or any of the sins we find ourselves particularly drawn to. It is a sin for which I have experienced the Lord’s grace so that I am usually able to redirect my heart, at least in the moments that I am eager to honor God. And that is what I did. I saw the temptation to sin and immediately directed my heart to something better.

But then something happened. I don’t even know how this can happen, but in just a brief second, less than a second, a thought flashed through my mind. It was something like this: “Come on now. You’ve finished preaching, so go ahead and indulge. God won’t punish you now.” It stopped me dead in my tracks for a moment. It was an ugly thought and one that somehow seemed extrinisic to me. I truly don’t know where it came from. At least, I don’t think I’ve ever thought that before.

Read the rest of the article.

Absenteeism

I know I’ve been an absent presence on the internet. I’m working four jobs and doing school full time. But I did manage to get a post up over at the Dead Pastors’ Society blog, so go check it out.

New blog

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blogging

I have begun blogging over at the Dead Pastors Society Blog. I blog over there with John Downey, Jay Miklovic (my favorite Methodist!), and Aaron Gardner. Please pray for us as we try to represent the Gospel to the blogosphere in a direct and winsome way.

And, as always, you can follow me on Twitter.

Come visit!