What Does it Mean to Walk by Faith?

by Dena Johnson Martin 

"For we walk by faith, not by sight ."(2 Corinthians 5:7).

Those words seem simple enough.

However, I am learning that fleshing out those words, that simple concept, can be a much tougher assignment. It requires tremendous courage and strength. You must be willing to be misunderstood and even abandoned. You must be willing to give up any semblance of control of your life that you thought you might have. You must be willing to look like a complete fool.

But it is a journey of tremendous blessing and reward. It is a journey that is exciting, life-altering, and mind-boggling. It is a journey that will allow you to see and experience God as he was meant to be: in all his fullness and grace. 

What Does it Look Like to Walk By Faith and Not By Sight?

Walking by faith and not by sight requires you to go to a place you do not know, one that God will reveal as you walk in obedience. Just look to Abraham as an example (Genesis 12:1).

Walking by faith means that you continue to cling to the dreams God has planted in your heart, even when you’ve been thrown away, taken to prison for crimes you didn’t commit. Just look at all Joseph endured (Genesis 37-50).

Walking by faith requires a strong determination to follow God’s plan regardless what life throws your way. Look to Daniel to discover how to have the resolve not to sin (Daniel 1:8).

Walking by faith means you have the courage to stand up for the hurting, broken, and down-trodden, to face death yourself for the good of others. Look at Esther and how she risked the death penalty to save the Jews (Esther).

You just may have to play the part of a fool. Think about Noah building an ark for a flood when it had never even rained on earth. Think about Abraham clinging to the promise that he would be the father of many nations even though he was childless at the age of 100. Think about Moses standing before the Israelites in the wilderness telling them they would eat meat until it disgusted them but having no idea where that meat would come from. Think about Joshua marching around the walls of Jericho as God had told him to and wondering what good it was going to do.

If you choose this path, you must be willing to get out of your comfort zone, to run from the Americanized brand of Christianity that so many of us have known our entire lives. You must be willing to let God take your world and turn it upside down, shake it up, and start all over again. You must be willing to let God out of the neat little box that you have put him in, to let him show up as he sees fit.

Maybe it will be a calling to do something you never dreamed before: foster or adopt children, leave your job and become a missionary, trade in the worldly comforts for heavenly treasures.

Maybe it won’t be that clean and neat and socially acceptable. Maybe, like me, your world will be turned upside down by the pain of adultery and divorce. Or maybe you will be faced with infertility or addiction. Maybe you will have a prodigal child that completely changes the direction of your life. Or, maybe you’ve experienced the loss of a child—a hurt like no other.

I don’t know what your shake up might look like, but I know that if you will give it to God—throw up your arms in surrender and ask him to use it to change your life—he will honor your request. He will take you on a journey, teach you to walk by faith, entrust you with some of life’s most treasured moments.

He will build a faith in you—faith that moves mountains and moves God’s hands. He will teach you to live this life with abandonment, giving you a freedom to walk in all his fullness and grace. He will prepare you to be used mightily in this life for his glory.

Perhaps you’ve already experienced your life being turned upside down, toppled without any control. Perhaps, like me, you’ve found yourself wandering in the wilderness, watching his fire direct your every step by night, a cloud lead you by day. Perhaps you sense you are on the edge of the Promised Land, just waiting for him to give the command to take possession.

And yet, you are tired and weary. You’ve lost friends who don’t understand how you can continue to cling to a promise that is so obviously dead and gone. You are so close and yet feel so far away. You are struggling with temptations to just settle, even though you know it is less than God’s best. You simply don’t know how much longer you can stand.

You are not alone. I see God raising up a remnant of believers, those he knows will be obedient. He is looking for those with clean hands and a pure heart, those who will choose obedience even if it costs them everything this world has to offer. He is looking for those who will throw caution to the wind, believe that he has an abundant life (John 10:10) waiting if we will follow his ways. He is looking for those whose hearts have been purified, whose faith has been strengthened by the trials of this life (James 1:2). He is looking for those who will cling to his promises even when it seems there is no hope.

Be strong and courageous, my friends!

God has specifically chosen you to be a part of this remnant, those who will allow him to take their lives and mold them into what he wants. He has chosen you to have your faith tested and tried, and he promises that the fire will only purify you—not burn you. He has promised that he will be with you every single step, walking with you, carrying you, supporting you. He promises that he is still in control even when life seems to be spiraling wildly out of control.

He is teaching you to trust him so he can do something bigger and better than you ever dreamed possible (Ephesians 3:20-21). He is teaching you to let go and trust him with your heart, your soul, your life (Proverbs 3:5-6). He is teaching you to walk every single day in the spirit so that he can do even greater works in you and through you (John 14:12). He is preparing you to be a beacon of light and hope to a world which desperately needs to see Jesus.

I don’t know where you are on this journey of walking by faith, but I encourage you—beg you, plead with you—to wave the white flag of surrender. Let God take your life, your pain, your loss and use it for his glory. Ask him to do an amazing work in you so he can do an amazing work through you.

Get out of that boat and step onto the water…and never take your eyes off him. It is a decision you will never regret!

Dena Johnson is a busy single mom of three kids who loves God passionately. She delights in taking the everyday events of life, finding God in them, and impressing them on her children as they sit at home or walk along the way (Deuteronomy 6:7). Her greatest desire is to be a channel of God’s comfort and encouragement. You can read more of Dena’s experiences with her Great I AM on her blog Dena's Devos.

5 SIGNS YOU MIGHT SEE CHRIST

by David Jeremiah

Sitting like giant golf balls on the bleak Yorkshire moors of northern England are dozens of strange globes protected by sophisticated security fences. Known as Project Echelon, this is one of the world’s most secret intelligence operations. It’s located at Menwith Hill, a Royal Air Force station eight miles from the English town of Harrogate, and it is the largest electronic monitoring station in the world. Within its 560 acres is an extensive network of spherical domes, satellite dishes, radio masts, computer centers, and processing stations. 

During the Cold War, Menwith Hill intercepted Communist messages, and it broke codes from the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations. Now it’s thought that this RAF base is capable of the world’s most advanced global electronic surveillance, including the interception and content inspection of telephone calls, faxes, e-mails, and broadcasting signals. Project Echelon is the key link in a worldwide eavesdropping network operated by America’s National Security Agency, and it is linked to the spy agencies of several other nations.

 Advocates claim that Echelon will help the West win the war against terrorism. Critics warn that it represents a dangerous invasion of privacy and a grave threat to personal liberties. Some alarmists claim that Echelon has the power to potentially monitor the conversations of everyone anywhere on earth at any time. That may be far fetched, but only a few super-secret souls know the true reach of Echelon, and even fewer know what new technologies are just within the reach of specialists. 

While Echelon may serve a vital role in our national security, think of this tool as one day being in the hands of the Antichrist. Think of Echelon in terms of Eschatology (the biblical study of the End Times). 

And think of this. Project Echelon can never—regardless of technological advances—eavesdrop on the secret counsels of the Trinity. It can never penetrate God’s mind. But the Lord has already revealed to us vital secrets about the future, and He has declassified and released important data about great events soon to engulf the world. We have a source of secret intelligence that no spy agency on earth can duplicate.

Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost wrote in his book, Things to Come: “God, the architect of the ages, has seen fit to take us into His confidence concerning His plan for the future, and has revealed His purpose and program in detail in the Word. A greater body of Scripture is given to prophecy than any other one subject, for approximately one-fourth of the Bible was prophetic at the time it was written.” 

When we study biblical prophecy, we’re investigating the case of current events with secret intelligence provided by the God of time and eternity. 

“24” 

Some of that data is contained in our Lord’s sermon in Matthew 24. In the final week of His life, prior to His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus left the complex of buildings on Temple Mount, hiked down the Kidron Valley and onto the slopes of the Mount of Olives. As they paused to rest on Olivet, the disciples looked back and the view was stunning—the sun setting on the temple. Jesus used the occasion to preach His premier message relating to His return, and in Matthew 24, He gave several signposts to watch for. 

• False Prophets (verses 4-5): Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Messiah,” and will deceive many (NIV). Perhaps you’ve heard terrible statistics regarding the number of sites on the internet devoted to pornography. But did you know that according to a report some time ago on CNN, there are more sites devoted to religion than to porn? With the click of a mouse, you can suddenly summon up any one of thousands of sects and cults and religions with millions upon millions of electronic pages devoted to an ever growing number of false Christs. Never in human history has there been such proliferation of religious information.

• Wars and rumors of War (verse 6). Just since the year 2000, large portions of the world have been devastated by conflict. America sustained more than 3,000 causalities in the attacks of September 11, 2001. The 2003 War in Darfur has caused nearly 5 a half-million deaths. The death toll in Iraq amounts to many thousands. Over 7,000 died in the 2006 war in Somalia. Over 22,000 have perished in the War in Afghanistan. There are ongoing conflicts and insurgencies right now in a host of other nations. As you read these words, someone’s home is being shattered by wars and rumors of war. 

• Famines and earthquakes (verse 7). If you’ve been listening to the news recently, you’ve heard reports of food shortages in various parts of the world. The price of food is rising, and severe famines are forecast, especially for parts of Africa and portions of Asia. Regarding earthquakes, I find it fascinating that there are internet sites devoted to monitoring and reporting on the occurrences of earthquakes on an hour-by-hour basis. For example, one website has a map detailing 208 earthquakes that rattled different parts of the globe over the course of seven days. 

• Persecution (verse 9). As false religions, wars, famines, and earthquakes increase, so does the violence of persecution. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death,” said Jesus, “and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” It’s a marvel to me that the news media can spend days talking about the latest celebrity outrage while ignoring the plight of 600 million Christians now suffering persecution and various forms of harassment because of their faith. Advocacy groups estimate that the twentieth century saw more Christians die (about 45 million) just for being believers than in the first 19 centuries (25 billion) after the birth of Christ. And there’s every reason to believe the twenty-first century will be just as bad or worse. There is nonstop persecution against Christians in many countries in the world. One expert, Nina Shea, wrote, “Millions of American Christians pray in their churches each week, oblivious to the fact that Christians in many parts of the world suffer brutal torture, arrest, imprisonment, and even death—their homes and communities laid waste—for no other reason than they are Christians.” 

• The Spread of the Gospel (verse 14). Nevertheless, Jesus indicated that the spread of the Gospel would accelerate. According to missionary experts, 74.5 percent of the world was unevangelized in the year 1800. That percentage had reduced to 54.3 by the year 1900. There was an explosion of evangelism in the twentieth century, and by the year 2000, only 28.3 percent of the world remained unreached. 

As He continued His discourse on the Mount of Olives, Jesus went on to say that other great and perilous events would take place—the Abomination of Desolation described by Daniel the prophet (verse 15), the Great Tribulation (verse 21), and the coming of the Son of Man (verse 27). 

THE END TIMES 

Other passages—especially in Daniel, Zechariah, 1 Thessalonians, and the book of Revelation—add vivid and fascinating layers of information about the End Times, and taken together present a reasonably clear outline of the last days. The purpose of biblical prophecy, after all, isn’t to confuse us but to inform and motivate us. In the process, it does even more. It reminds us that God was present at the beginning of history, He is superintending the progress of human history, and He Himself will be the great consummation of history. 

The God of Scripture is eternal and omniscient. He encircles time and space, and He knows the future as fully as the past. He possesses absolute and ultimate power, and He has written the script of the ages. That script is called Scripture, and studying biblical prophecy is nothing less than an investigation into God’s plan for the future. 

It appears to me that we could well be living in the last days. Alarming as this is, it has always been part of God’s plan, and there’s great comfort in knowing that His program is right on schedule. I’m excited about the future because I’m excited about Christ. In Him, we’re safe and secure from all alarm. We’re hidden in the cleft of the Rock. We’re engraved on the palm of His hand. 

And His hand is at the helm of history

WAKE UP CHRISTIANS!!

We must get ready for the second coming, says RT Kendall

What would you say is the most apt description of the Church today? Would you say it is on fire? Thriving? Turning the world upside down?

People often ask me, “What is the Church doing today in the world?” I usually reply: “Not a lot, in my humble opinion.” There are exceptions, mostly in developing countries and remote places. I also think of the amazing work of Alpha. But generally speaking I think we are living “between the times”, to use Richard Bewes’ phrase.

The famed preacher Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones often railed against the “superficial”. He would have probably used that word to describe today’s Church. AW Tozer wrote that if the Holy Spirit were completely withdrawn from the Church, “95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference”. More recently, theologian JI Packer has commented that America’s Bible Belt is “a thousand miles wide and one inch deep”.

If the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) is eschatological – referring to the last days, as many Bible interpreters believe – we can easily see what our Lord would say about today’s Church. He’d say it’s asleep. Jesus said, “The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all [both the wise and foolish virgins] became drowsy and fell asleep” (v5).

The parable of the ten virgins is introduced by Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:1 “At that time” (NIV) or “Then” (ESV). That would refer to what Jesus has said in Matthew 24, surely a chapter that partly describes the last days. If that is true, the parable of the ten virgins is not only eschatological but prophetic: Jesus is telling us in advance what the Church would be like in the very last days. Most Bible interpreters would agree that the parable of the ten virgins in some sense refers to the Church. Five of them were wise, five of them were foolish. But all were asleep.

There are three characteristic of sleep:

1. You don’t know you were asleep until you wake up. We’ve all done this – to lie down for a moment to relax – only to find out we slept for a while!

2. You do things in your sleep you would not do if you were awake. Our dreams prove this. Whether such dreams are unexpressed fears or wishes, as Sigmund Freud might say, we do things when asleep we would not do if awake.

3. We hate the sound of an alarm. How would you like to be awakened at 2am? We resent being woken up. We want to sleep on.

But I believe the Lord intends to wake the Church up and that the next thing to happen on God’s calendar is the Midnight Cry: “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’” (Matthew 25:6). This does not necessarily mean twelve midnight; the Greek literally means “in the middle of the night” – like 2am, when the Church would be in a deep sleep, metaphorically speaking.

A sleeping Church

Here are some signs we are asleep at the present time:

• The absence of conviction of sin
• A lack of the fear of God
• Little sense of outrage over the godlessness of society
• Watching pornography and feeling justified
• Avarice, greed and lack of financial integrity
• No sense of outrage over the Church’s lack of credibility in the world
• Little or no concern about people going to hell
• Little concern about the lack of knowledge of God’s word
• Indifference to the biblical view of marriage
• Indifference to holding grudges and unforgiveness
• Indifference to talking to people about Christ
• Tolerating heresies such as open theism and hyper-grace teaching
• Indifference to the teaching that the Bible is infallible
• Indifference to how much time is spent in prayer and quiet time

I believe that the parable of the ten virgins is very relevant at the present time. It depicts the Church today. We are asleep. We don’t realise it. We may sincerely believe we are wide awake when we are in fact asleep. I would even say: in a deep sleep – like at 2am. Furthermore, we don’t want to be disturbed.

The greatest evidence that we are asleep is our lack of outrage over what is tolerated in the Church and what is going on in the world. Not only are we indifferent to what is happening before our eyes, we have become so used to it that we are virtually impervious to it. The biblical view of marriage is on the way out. Terrorism is at our doors. Church attendance is declining more than ever. We are losing our young people. If someone calls things like this to our attention we say, “Oh yes. It’s pretty awful.” Then we roll over. Zzzzzzzz. “Let me sleep on.”

It's not too late

I believe the next thing to happen on God’s calendar is not the second coming of Jesus but the awakening of the Church before the second coming. It is when the word and Spirit ultimately come together as on the Day of Pentecost. The simultaneous combination of the word and Spirit resulted in spontaneous combustion. The next great move of God on the earth will be an awakening precipitated by a cry that will be so real and eventful that the event of 11th September 2001 will be insignificant by comparison. This awakening will begin in the Church. It will lead to millions of conversions, including many Muslims. The blindness of Israel will be lifted and many Jews will come to Christ. Then will come the second coming.

I would like to think that my book Prepare Your Heart for the Midnight Cry (SPCK) will be a mini wake-up call in advance of the big one. For when this Midnight Cry comes it will be too late for the foolish virgins to become wise. But it is not too late now.

There are three categories of people described or implied in the parable of the ten virgins: the wise virgins, the foolish virgins and Christians not asleep but who lead the way in waking up the Church that will result in the greatest revival in the world since the days of the early Church. These people will announce the soon coming of Christ and, incredible as it may seem to us now, the world will believe it!

Sixty years ago I had a vision of revival that went right around the world. It is what I have looked forward to all my life. The message, in short, was: Jesus is coming soon. And everybody believed it. People everywhere were shaken rigid. I am very aware that they don’t believe this now. They laugh at the thought. But no one will be laughing then. What is more – in my opinion – it is coming soon.

Awakening

What should sadden us at the present moment, however, is that the world does not respect the Church. There is virtually no fear of God in the land.

When Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ on 8th July 1741, the immediate fallout was that men held on to church pews and trees outside to keep from slipping into hell. God only did this once during the New England Great Awakening. But the power of it was so profound that word of that sermon and its immediate effect spread all over New England in days and all over England in weeks. For some reason God does this sort of thing rarely. But when he steps in like that the world is affected by it.

In 1802, in an area called Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky a Methodist lay preacher stood on a fallen tree on a Sunday morning before 15,000 people, taking his text from 2 Corinthians 5:10 – “We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of things done in the body, whether good or bad”. As he spoke hundreds fell to the ground by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the beginning of the camp meeting phenomena. The Great Awakening lasted for over 20 years. The Cane Ridge Revival lasted only four days.

Both of these phenomena brought about a fear of God that spread all over America for a good while. But who fears God today? Not many, I suspect. An awakened Church will help restore a fear of the Lord in the nations. No election will do it. No act of Parliament will do it. But God can do it. And I believe he will do it. Soon.

RT Kendall was the minister at Westminster Chapel, London from 1977-2002. His latest book Prepare Your Heart for the Midnight Cry (SPCK) is out now

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About the Author

RT Kendall

Robert Tillman (R.T.) Kendall pastored at Westminster Chapel, London for 25 years and has authored dozens of books. Find him at www.rtkendallministries.org 

What In the World Is Going On? David Jeremiah

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned

the love you had at first.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen;

repent, and do the works you did at first.

If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand

from its place, unless you repent.

Revelation 2:4-5

America's first love . . . .  

Columbus' journal:  He believed his voyages were ushering in a millennial age . . . and initiating a messianic period.  The journal from his first voyage shows that the primary purpose of his explorations was to take the message of salvation through Jesus Christ to the people in this unknown land. He referenced Isaiah 59:19 "so they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west" concerning the lands west of Europe that had not yet been discovered. The great explorer discovered the New World "by accident," but yet not by accident. God had His hand upon the wheel of the ship and brought it here. (Peter Marshall)

George Washington set the tone for the nation's governmental authority when he said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

Abraham Lincoln: "God is my witness that it is my constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this nation should be on the Lord's side."

In 1911, President Woodrow Wilson said:  "The Bible . . . is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."

General George Washington wrote in the general orders to his men on July 2, 1776: "The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.

Abraham Lincoln consecrating the Gettysburg battlefield:  "We here highly resolved that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Benjamin Franklin:  "The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of the truth - that God governs in the affairs of Men. And, without His aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel." 

Henry Wilson:  "Remember ever, and always, that your country was founded, not by the 'most superficial, the lightest, the most irreflective of all European races,' but by the stern old Puritans who made the deck of the Mayflower an altar of the living God, and whose first act on touching the soil of the new world was to offer on bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God."

President Calvin Coolidge:  "The foundation of our society and our government rests so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country." In other words, when America turns from its position of being under God, we can no longer expect His blessings on this nation to continue.

President Reagan's 1981 inaugural address:  "Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women." 

In 1947, forward-looking sociologist Dr. Carle Zimmerman wrote a text call Family and Civilization. He identified eleven "symptoms of final decay" observable in the fall of both the Greek and Roman civilizations:

1.   No-fault divorce

2.   "Birth Dearth" - increased disrespect for parenthood and parents

3.   Meaningless marriage rites/ceremonies

4.   Defamation of past heroes

5.   Acceptance of alternative marriage forms

6.   Widespread attitudes of feminism, narcissism, hedonism

7.   Propagation of anti-family sentiment

8.   Acceptance of most forms of adultery

9.   Rebellious children

10. Increased juvenile delinquency

11. Common acceptance of all forms of sexual perversion

How many on this list would you consider symptomatic of today's condition in the U.S.?

God blessed this country for a reason: our nation was founded on submission to Him. But now as the reasons for His blessings upon America are eroding, we can expect the blessings themselves to fade as well.  America is now infected with the deadly disease of moral decay. Scripture often warns us that even a long-suffering God will not forever strive with men. A limb that cuts itself off from the trunk will not continue to live. Today our precious heritage of freedom is being challenged internally by the erosion of our culture. 

America's historic support of Israel is based not so much on efforts by Jewish lobbyists in Washington or the presence of Jewish groups in our society, but on the Judeo-Christian heritage of our nation. President Truman's determination to recognize Israel as a modern state was fueled by his lifelong belief that in the book of Deuteronomy, God had given the land of Israel to the Jewish people for all time. The historic love that Christians have for the land and people of Israel is based upon their shared religious heritage and scriptures. God has promised to bless those who bless Israel (Genesis 12:1-3). He has amply fulfilled that promise. America has been abundantly blessed as a nation because we have blessed the Jews. 

Today, we see a U.S. Congresswoman coming out against Israel in a most hateful way and gaining public support. 

Today, we have a growing group of citizens who support a socialist form of government.

Today, we have legalized the killing of millions of innocents. And not only legalized, but celebrated.

Today, we condone homosexuality and gay marriage.

Today, cheating on your spouse is commonplace and shameless.

Today, groups of women hate men and multitudes of men have abused women.

Today, we live for ourselves in indulgence and gluttony. 

Today, all forms of prayer and God have been removed from our public schools.

David Jeremiah reminds us that our trust has never been in governments, civilizations, or cultures. These institutions last but a moment, crumbling into dust to be swept away by the winds of history. They are helpful while they are here, but they have never been worthy of our trust. We have always put our trust in the One who stands above institutions, above history, and even above time itself - the One by whose power and permission these things exist, and who knows their times and the ends of their days. Only He is worthy of our ultimate allegiance.

Come, let us repent and return to our first love  

From Atheist to Christian at Yale

By the Roots

James MacDonald

Monday, October 29, 2018

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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing (Matthew 23:37, ESV)!

I really hate dandelions. The harder you try to get rid of them, the more they hang around. It doesn’t really matter what you spray or what kind of program you get on, they’re coming up anyway. There’s another one—here, there, everywhere. That’s just the way dandelions grow. They spring up all over the place.

And sin, I’m sad to say, is a lot the same. Contrary to popular opinion, the longer you live and the more time you spend in self-examination, that’s how certain you can be of spotting a new one sprouting up where you thought you’d already treated for it.

“THE LORD WANTS YOU FREE, ONCE AND FOR ALL, FROM THE SIN THAT HAS ONLY MADE YOU RESTLESS AND MISERABLE FOR SO LONG.”

But as discouraging as it can sometimes be to discover even more things in your life that grieve the Lord, this dandelion count is to be expected. We were wrong to think we’d become more content with ourselves the longer we knew Jesus, that we could spend more time sitting back, admiring our green fields of self-righteousness. It’s good, in fact, to become more acutely aware of how badly we need His grace. And to find He is not there scolding us, offended by us, but rather is eager to work with us so we don’t stubbornly resist His intentions to bless us, encourage us, and give us life.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” Jesus cried out, looking over a rebellious city that God had previously destroyed, then rebuilt, and would destroy again. But notice His heart. It wasn’t harsh. He wasn’t flying off the handle. He was wanting them to come to Him, out of the pain and heartache their sins had cost them, and into His loving embrace. He wanted them free, once and for all, from those things that had only made them restless and miserable for so long.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem”—hear Him say it again—“how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Here, then, is the encouragement you can take from those patches of dandelions you keep noticing. Are they areas where you’re leaning on a crutch of some kind, rather than leaning foremost on Jesus? Are they matters of job-related integrity? Are they images of other faces appearing at the corners of marital intimacy? Are they pockets of financial fear, where you’re not sure you can trust His Word and the faithfulness of His provision? Are they places where you’re not prioritizing your family, or not being loving and forgiving?

Nobody wants to keep seeing these blemishes in their lives. But they are less of a cause for condemnation and more of a reminder of how much you need Jesus. So, unlike the generation of His day, who wouldn’t gather up close to Him, who wouldn’t accept His relief, use these sightings to draw nearer to His side. And He will pluck those weeds for you, one at a time.

The field won’t ever be totally rid of them. But you will love Him increasingly, as you allow His uprooting in your life.

Journal

• What are some of the weeds you’ve noticed lately, that you hadn’t recognized before?
• Why does it make sense that our sanctification would be a lifelong endeavor?

PrayLord, I admit to sometimes becoming discouraged. I’d hoped I wouldn’t still be finding so much that needs work in my heart. But thank You for not being surprised at my continual need for You. And thank You for looking on me with grace and compassion, eager to do for me what I can’t do for myself. I yield to You today. I come up close to Your side. In the strength of Your arms, You give me hope in my discouragement. I pray this in the life-giving name of Jesus, amen.

Gay Rights, Hate Speech, and Hospitality

by Rosaria Butterfield

That particularly bitter New York winter whipped harsh promises against the front door of my neighbor’s house — promises that remained elusive and unimaginable.

Behind that door, my neighbors, Ken and Floy Smith, and I were talking.

Ken leaned in, a warm mug of weakly percolated decaf coffee in hand, and asked the question that put our opposing worldviews into perspective: “Do you believe that what is true determines what is ethical? Or do you believe that what is ethical determines what is true?”

Before It Was Hate Speech

Decades ago, when this question unsettled my God-rejecting-but-otherwise-moral life (as I would have described it then), I believed the latter. I believed that ethics drove truth, and that truth was a cultural creation, born out of the sheer goodness of humanity and the felt needs of people. When my neighbor asked this question, I immediately rejected it as ill-informed and vulgar — somewhat like the weak decaf in my mug. I shot back with years of schooling in situational ethics: Truth is a social construct. Truth takes its shape in the eyes of the beholder.

We were talking, my neighbor and I, about gay rights. This was a topic both personal and political for me. I identified as a lesbian, and lived happily in a committed relationship with another woman. I loved my girlfriend the way it felt best to me. I cared about my queer community. I co-authored the first domestic partnership policy at my university. I was poised to become a “tenured radical” — a university professor with enough job security and hutzpah to take queer theory from the university to the street.

I was standing, so I believed, on the right side of history. But my neighbor, Ken Smith, then-pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church, was also my friend. He, his wife, and I shared weekly meals — sometimes at my house, but mostly at theirs — where we talked about deep and weighty matters of life and faith and worldview. Where we listened and disagreed and came back again the next week to do this again: to break bread and talk.

Enter Intersectionality

Twenty-two years ago, it was not considered hate speech for Ken to tell me that he accepted me as a lesbian, but did not approve. I rejected Ken’s worldview, and he rejected mine. We were on even ground. We saw clearly our worldview differences, but those divisions, back then, did not come with the accusatory weight of personal attack. In today’s playbook, that wouldn’t fly.

Why? What is standing in our way of becoming friends with our neighbors who think differently than we do?

1. Unbiblical Anthropology

My conversations with Ken and Floy came before the idea of “intersectionality” had moved from the academy to the streets. Intersectionality was, in 1997, still just an academic idea. Its premise was this: personhood and identity, who you really are, is best determined by how many social oppressions you have suffered.

Originally, intersectionality dealt with material, structural oppressions — highlighting how race and class and the glass ceiling of sexism weigh heavy in a society made up of sinners. But when feminism shifted allegiance from Marx to Freud, when it turned from numbers to feelings, sexual orientation and gender identity took on new forms.

When ideas like “dignitary harm” (the harm accrued to your dignity by someone’s refusal to approve of your sin) found its place in civil law, intersectionality unleashed a monster. And with that monster came a message: homosexuality is not a sin; it is an aesthetic, an erotic orientation or way of looking at the world and everything in it. Today, the gospel is on a collision course with this message.

2. Compromised Churches

Intersectionality informs the divide between Christians and our neighbors who think differently, but God’s people should never be sucker punched by the current fad in worldview — even if some segments of the evangelical church are smitten by it. The real problem is not what the world thinks, but rather that parts of the evangelical church are allowing the world to preach to it about personhood and identity — about who people really and ontologically are, and what they need to flourish.

Many tragedies occur when the world preaches to the church (and the church listens), and one is that false conversions multiply. We live in an evangelical world whose prophets may be convinced of gospel promises, but who are not necessarily converted under gospel truth. And what is the sermon topic that they preach? They preach sermons of questions, relocating what God calls sin into the category of aesthetics — the observation of beauty amidst the pain. They reject God’s truth as “bumper sticker” logic, and answer questions with more questions, with no answers, always favoring a sinner’s point of view over that of the crucified and risen Christ.

Once leaders in the evangelical church locate something that God calls sin into an aesthetic framework, the great gift that the Lord Jesus holds out to his people, the gift of ransom and repentance, is no longer considered necessary. The blame shifts from a person’s sin to the church’s perceived prejudice.

What to do? Make sure that you are a member of a biblically sound church whose practices embrace the marks of faithfulness: handling rightly the word, the sacraments, and the practice of church discipline. If your church fails to meet these standards, or you refuse membership because it ties you down, or you think that making peace with sin will allow you a place at the table to witness Christ to the world, think again. Your church membership is part of your spiritual discipline for engaging with the world. If you hold membership with a church that practices or endorses sin, you have made yourself corporately guilty of this sin.

3. Social Media Infatuation

Social media infatuation has removed distinctions between private and public. Ken and Floy Smith and I had private dinner gatherings. Often other people joined us. But our heartfelt differences were not subjected to the harsh glare of Twitter, Facebook, or blogs.

Instead of mocking or attempting to destroy each other on social media, we pondered our differences, and brought a hot dish to the next Thursday night meal. This response helped us to let some offenses slide and focus instead on the big picture. It encouraged us to regard each other as human beings — not blank slates filled by competing ideologies and power relations.

Open Doors

Ken and Floy and I became friends before this current cultural moment. We could see that our humanity was intimately connected to, but not completely absorbed by, our differing worldviews and the sets of ideas, vocabulary, books, and values they represented. We could see each other as human beings even across our differences. And because of this perspective, we could come to the table, break bread, and talk.

So, Christian, how can you begin to constructively engage with your neighbors? Know your culture, take membership vows in a biblically faithful church, and return to a practice of privacy. Yes, intersectionality has found its foothold today, not only in the wider culture, but also in some segments of the evangelical church. It’s a worldview that comes with ultimatums (“love me, love my dog”). It’s a worldview that rests on unbiblical notions of ontology (who people are). It rejects that original sin is really sinful, preferring to regard this sin that registers in our hearts before we take our first breath as merely a form of aesthetic difference.

And the best way for God’s people to say “no” to unbiblical reflections of personhood and intersectionality is to say “yes” to biblical hospitality. When you gather around the table with your perceived cultural enemy, not once, but weekly, you show that culture is not king. Jesus is. Ask good questions and listen to people’s answers. Perhaps you could start with this one: Do you believe that what is true determines what is ethical, or do you believe that what is ethical determines what is true?

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is a former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University. She has taught and ministered at Geneva College, is a full-time mother and pastor’s wife, and is author of The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World.