Open Letter to The Church & My Generation

So we’ve got this debate raging all around us, my generation is screaming things like this: http://dannikanash.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/an-open-letter-to-the-church-from-my-generation/ and wanting the Church to change for equality sake.

I’ve been hesitant to write anything about this topic for a long time. I’m hesitant now as I write because there are faces of friends at coffee shops and others in my life who are gay streaming through my brain, (And I love them, and in my mind their homosexuality is no different than my pride) but I cannot keep quiet anymore. Hence the open letter:

(If you didn’t read the above link, give ‘er a check out, it’s well written and there’s a song too!)

Dear Church and My Generation,

The cry of our generation is not wholly to throw biblical authority away. The cry of my generation is not wholly to give up the beauty of Scripture for a social issue that makes us cool or not cool. The cry of my generation isn’t completely about being comfortable in the midst of a rapidly changing landscape.

There are those of us that desperately cry for biblical authority to override all of our hopes, dreams, feelings, and wishes. There are those of us who want the Bible to be all it says it is – and in so being, just the tip of the iceberg of eternity. There are those of us who keep quiet when our intolerance is intolerable. There are those of us who will loose our friends because our beliefs are different than theirs….

You see there are those of us that see this issue of equality not as an issue of social standing and social pretenses but as a matter of who we worship. In this generation of change stand some who would much rather see God worshipped as he is revealed in Scripture than to worship man and his wants - because that’s what’s at stake here.

What’s at stake is who we worship. Do we worship God as he is revealed in Scripture or do we make Scripture say what we want it to say and therein create for ourselves our own god? Do we believe that there’s a God who hates sin (and in his hatred of sin sends Jesus to die for our sins in the greatest act of love imaginable), tells us that fearing him is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge while at the same time being the God who created all, sustains all, and will make all things boldly new, or do we make for ourselves a god of love who accepts all, cherishes all, never hates, and never fights?

Yet culturally we’ve boiled all these arguments down to one overly simplified question: What would be more tolerant?

It would be much more tolerant to have a god who’d accept all and love all no matter their sexual orientation, their pride issues, their theft disposition and/or their lustful hearts. It would much more tolerant to believe that all are right and none are wrong…. But that’s not the way it is; that's not the way reality works.

Believe us when we say there are those in this generation who stand against homosexuality while at the same time have their hearts break for their gay friends because they want them to be happy and have love too. Believe us when we say there are those who think it would be nice to be standing united with all their generation on this topic. But also believe us when we say that there are those who cannot, will not, and should not give up the foundational authority of the Bible.

Therefore they are, “bigots.” Therefore they are, “conservative nut jobs.” Therefore they are, “intolerant.” Therefore they are, “narrow-minded.” Therefore they are, “hateful.” Therefore they are ____________ (Fill in the blank, they’ve heard it all before).

So our generation’s cry is not wholly the thirst for a rapper’s lyrics, but there are some in our generation whose cry and thirst is for the Word of God – and because of that cry and that thirst they will be hated for their intolerance. Church see this. My Generation know this.

There are those of us who think like this, and I am one of them. 

With best regards,

Sam Morris

Romans 7:24-25

Personal Post

There was a time a couple of months ago when I was heavily impacted by this statement:

"There is a God-enthralled, Christ-treasuring, all-enduring love that pursues the fullness of God in the soul and in the service of Jesus. It is not absorbed in anthropology or methodology or even theology - it is absorbed in God. It cries with the psalmist, 'Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.... Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of the earth (Ps. 67:3-4; 47:6-7). There is a distinct God-magnifying mind-set. It is relentless in bringing God forward again and again. It is spring-loaded to make much of God in anthropology and methodology and theology. It cannot make peace with God-ignoring, God-neglecting planning or preaching or puttering around." ~ John Piper

I first read this leading a small group of junior-high boys six years ago. Then it set something off in my heart that has lead me to where I am now.

Now I pray it again.

To be a God-centered man, not a man-centered man. To be a God-honoring man, not a man-honoring man. To be a God-fearing man, not a man-fearing man. To look at past failures and pains and know that by the grace of God he has lead me to where I am for his own sake and therefore to breathe grace and forgiveness in the same manner I have been shown it. To be forgiven my sins of man-centeredness and man-fearing, of future-worrying and past-atrophy, of making much of man, methods and books but forgetting God.

May it be that freedom reigns, freedom which was purchased at the highest of costs to cause this once bound and dead soul to live and move finding all it's being and hope in the God of the miraculous and mundane. The one who both spoke the world into existence and taught my soul to know there are acres of hope in him because there is none like him, none.

Understanding Failure

Sunday's sermon was two things for me: 1) it was refreshing to hear things that I love preached; 2) it was hurtful to see – in my own life – my failure to be those things.

First, it was refreshing because as single men we need to learn to grow up and be responsible. To take hold of our decisions and be able to say, “Yes, I did that,” and if it was wrong to take the right blame and be repentant in our confession of failing; and if it was right to not gloat it over the heads of others.

To learn what it is to pay bills and keep and manage a budget while working a job and learning about who you are in God. Aiming to see Him glorified in all of life in work and responsibility as well as fun and relaxing. Then, by the grace of God someday bring and woman into that, to learn to love her well – in a God-fearing, God-trusting, God-exalting, Jesus-clinging way.

Second, this hurt like a ton of bricks dropped on my heart. “Passive” is scary word to me; I hate passivity – yet that is exactly what I’ve been in almost every dating relationship I’ve been in. Sure it’s one thing to take the lead when the person on the other side of the phone or the other side of your cup of coffee doesn’t know you deeply, but it’s something else entirely to tell a woman, “You’re not trusting Christ the way you need to be," or, "I've sinned against you by making you my idol."

The gut-wrenching reality is I’m not trusting Christ the way I need to be. Rather than knowing my mantra  (“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness”) to be true, I look into her eyes and I’m more worried about making her happy than seeing God 1) honored, 2) glorified, 3) followed.

So what’s a single man to do? (Time to speak to myself in a third person kind of way.) He should aim at being so committed to God that a girl cannot and will not sway him from seeing God glorified in his life. He should be believing the gospel for all his passed failures and future screw ups. He should be praying, “Make me a better man, one to love my God, one to follow him, one to be in Jesus. To – one day – love a woman, to raise children, to be a leader-follower. Help me be a better man; to leave my wants for hers, to leave my needs for hers, to look to you for comfort and peace. Make me a better man for your glory.”

The Story of a Friend

A friend of mine (a friend I’d consider close) told me a story the other day. The story is true, and it’s beautiful. It’s been running through my head since he told me it. So, I’ll do my best to re-tell it here:

She’s a mother, not married and therefore cast off by the church. Because her sin is so visible: it runs and jumps and plays and laughs and sings (but to call a child a sin is a travesty, she’s no sin, she’s a joy, but the church see the scarlet 'A' not the beauty of a little life).

Sure the act was wrong, but a thousand times over the heart of the woman had repented and wept for the forgiveness, which is so freely hers in Jesus. But to see that forgiveness played out in tangible ways was something she didn’t know (aside from family).

He was a band man. Playing, singing, rocking.

How they met I can’t tell you. How they fell in love, I’d assume it was gradual and both hearts were hesitant. But nonetheless love came.

Then it came, a time for a ring. But not just one ring, no there are two rings in this story. One for both of this man’s loves. One for his future wife and one for his future daughter.

I can imagine the scene now, “My little love?”

“Yes.” Comes the small girl’s voice.

The man kneels to one knee, “Will you be my daughter? And my dear, will you be my wife?”

Forgiven. Not just forgiven, but loved. Not just loved, but loved to the point of sacrifice. Not just sacrificed for but taken wholly into the loving embrace of a man.

            

This is a perfectly clear picture of Jesus and how he redeems us broken.