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March 19, 2004
Prayer
Filed under: Hot Topic
The dictionary defines prayer as:
1. A reverent petition made to God, a god, or another object of worship. The act of making a reverent petition to God, a god, or another object of worship.
2. An act of communion with God, a god, or another object of worship, such as in devotion, confession, praise, or thanksgiving: One evening a week, the family would join together in prayer.
3. A specially worded form used to address God, a god, or another object of worship.
Wayne Grudem in his book "Systematic Theology" defines prayer as "personal communication with God." Grudem goes on to say why prayer is not asking God for things, rather having the faith for God to do/provide what it is you are talking to Him about. The Creator/Creature relationship functions best in that format - the creature relying on the creator.
The Psalms are full of David pleading "Hear my prayer..."
Psalm 39:12
"Hear my prayer, O LORD , listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping. For I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger, as all my fathers were."
Psalm 54:2
"Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth."
Psalm 86:6
"Hear my prayer, O LORD ; listen to my cry for mercy."
Is prayer more for our benefit or for God's? I suggest both. Grudem suggests three reasons God wants us to pray. 1) Dependence; 2) Deeper fellowship; 3) Involved in activities that are eternally important.
Jesus is in example of what it means to pray as He prays to God all throughout the Gospels.
Matthew 19:13
"Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them..."
Mark 1:35
"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."
John 17:1
"After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed"
Luke 5:16
"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."
Luke 6:12
"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God."
Matthew 26:36
"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."
Prayer seems to be a very "spiritual" thing by definition. Spiritual in terms of its intimacy with the person to whom you are praying. Just as talking to someone about matters of the heart or requesting petitions of grace with a parent, so too prayer is a holy thing to do. It is vulnerable. It is honesty and truth seeking trust and triumph.
Throughout history, many people have given their comments on prayer:
"Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow." - Benjamin Franklin
"Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused." - Spurgeon
"Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray." - Oswald Chambers
"Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer." - Martin Luther
"Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural." - Oswald Chambers
"Pursuing prayer is prayer on a mission. It is diligent, fervent, constant, persevering, determined, and convinced." - David Bryant
"The Christian needs to be alone during a definite period of each day for meditation on scripture...and for prayer...even during times of spiritual dryness and apathy. It matters little what form of prayer we adopt...or how many words we use. What matters is the faith which lays hold on God, knowing that He knows our needs before we even ask Him. That is what gives Christian prayer its boundless confidence and its joyous certainty. We simply make petitions and requests to One who has the heart of a Father. Of course, God's will must be the primary object of our prayers... and we must recognize prayer as an instrument of God's will. Therefore, we pray that God's will may be done throughout the world...and in intercessory prayer we bring people... from around the world...into the presence of God. Every intercession potentially draws the one for whom it is intended into a life-changing relationship with Christ. And in intercession I move into the other man's place. I inter his life...his guilt and distress. I am afflicted by his sins and his infirmity. If...as we pray...we recognize our own responsibility for the world's guilt and our own guilt in the death of Christ...then we can act upon and affect the lives of men and women throughout the world." - Dietrich Bonhofer
Grudem outlines some key ponder points to prayer:
1. Prayer changes the way God acts.
2. Effective prayer is made possible by our mediator, Jesus Christ.
3. Praying "in Jesus' name."
4. Praying to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit.
5. Role of Holy Spirit in prayer.
6. Praying according to God's will.
7. Praying with faith.
8. Obedience.
9. Confession of sins.
10. Forgiving others.
11. Humility
12. Praying earnestly.
13. Waiting for the Lord.
14. Praying in private.
15. Praying with others.
16. Unanswered prayers.
In my own life, I want to pray more - not for the sake of being spiritual, but to connect with a Savior, friend and father who wants to connect with me. In my generation's cry for community, I want my relationship with God - through prayer - to be my example real connection.
There is a place where thou canst touch the eyes
Of blinded men to instant, perfect sight;
There is a place where thou canst say, "Arise"
To dying captives, bound in chains of night;
There is a place where thou canst reach the store
Of hoarded gold and free it for the Lord;
There is a place--upon some distant shore--
Where thou canst send the worker and the Word.
Where is that secret place--dost thou ask, "Where?"
O soul, it is the secret place of prayer!
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
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March 5, 2004
Homosexuality
Filed under: Hot Topic
The dictionary defines homosexuality as:
1. Sexual orientation to persons of the same sex.
2. Sexual activity with another of the same sex.
"When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." - Epitaph of Leonard P. Matlovich, 1988
"War. Rape. Murder. Poverty. Equal rights for gays. Guess which one the Southern Baptist Convention is protesting?" - The Value of Families
Distinctions
I see two major distinctions in this topic of being "homosexual." I see the issue of being a Christian and being gay/lesbian and being a human and being gay/lesbian. Both have very real implications yet very different worldviews.
Can Christians Be Gay?
In a July 2001 Charisma magazine cover story by Bill Shepson, he refers to Joy Metropolitan Community Church in Orlando, Florida. The church would be viewed as normal by all accounts with the exception that the congregation of 200 is nearly all openly gay. According to the article they have "reconciled their faith with there homosexuality." They believe the Scriptures regarding homosexual behavior are out of context or not what God meant. They tell gay and lesbians who visit the church that God does not have a problem with their sexual behavior. Joy Metropolitan Community Church is a part of a denomination (UFMCC) that is 300 churches strong in over 18 countries representing 32,000 people.
Mel White, a dean of UFMCC's Cathedral of Hope in Dallas - the largest gay church in the world - says, "Homosexuals, like heterosexuals, shouldn't repent of their orientation, but of their sinful responses to their orientation."
Although I don't agree with UFMCC and their position, I do think White has a point. What would we think of homosexuality in terms of being something like ADD, or a compulsive gambler, or a drug attic, or a person who has a "porn" problem? It certainly isn't the issue in my opinion as much as the response to it. I wanted to have sex before I was married - was that thought wrong? Had I acted on it, it would have been. If the argument is "we're born that way" then fine, argue that. But that logic breaks down very quickly because can you be born to want to kill, or rape, or lust, or be jealous, or greedy? Absolutely! But that doesn't make it right. The real question of being a homosexual comes down to a moral issue of whether it is right or wrong - just as you have to ask the same question of everything in life. Is ignoring the poor wrong? Is getting drunk wrong? Is cheating on your taxes wrong? Is infidelity wrong?
What happened to our moral compass? Our conscience? Our quest for truth and not just tolerance? I think the reason this "gay" issue is such a hot topic now - and will continue to be - is because as a culture/society, we've been on the downhill dive losing our morality with every sloping inch. This isn't the first time we've had issues with sin and its implications. And it definitely won't be the last.
Can Humans Be Gay?
Exodus International is the largest Christian referral and information ministry dealing with homosexuals. They estimate that 1% to 2% of the population is gay (not the 10% as widely spread). Their response to the question "Is homosexuality genetic?" is educated:
"Relatively recent brain studies done by Dr. Simon LeVay examined a portion of the hypothalamus believed to control sexuality. He used cadavers from a very small sample of homosexual and heterosexual men (their orientation was, in some cases, presumed but not confirmed), and heterosexual women. Some of the men had died of AIDS. He measured this portion of the brain and found it significantly smaller in homosexual men. Although LeVay did not say this proved inborn homosexuality, some among the media and activists eagerly reported the tentative findings as being conclusive.
However, the results are highly speculative. This particular area of the brain is not much bigger than a pinhead anyway. And in fact, researchers debate whether weight or volume is a more accurate measurement method. The results do not shed light on causation: did genetic homosexuality cause a smaller portion of the hypothalamus that governs sexual behavior, or did chosen sexual behaviors cause a change in the hypothalamus? Or neither? Studies of twins aren't any better. If homosexuality were truly genetic, you would expect to find an absolute, one-to-one correlation of sexual orientation for identical twins. In other words, any time one twin was homosexual, the other sibling would be, too.
Yet, that is definitely not the case - findings of 40% to 50% correlation don't match up to the 100% standard needed to "prove" genetic causation. Seeing that research findings do not prove their case, some gay-affirmative researchers and others attempt to bypass this barrier by saying that even a 40% to 50% correlation shows that genes are "at least one component" in a homosexual orientation.
If homosexuality is genetic, then that doesn't explain why we see such a similarity in personal backgrounds among the men and women who seek our help. There is a pretty uniform picture of poor family dynamics in general, a rift in the father-son or mother-daughter relationship growing up, feelings of being an outsider among one's peers during childhood and adolescence, and instances of sexual abuse/incest. These are root issues that men and women can address.
And even if homosexuality were partially or completely genetic in origin, that does not change the moral question involved."
Conclusions
1 Corinthians 6:8-10 says, "Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
Leviticus 18:22 says, "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." A couple chapters later in Leviticus 20:13 says, "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."
Romans 1:26-27 talks about humans not being born gay. "Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either--women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men--all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it--emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches."
In terms of being homosexual - it is wrong. In terms of accepting homosexuals into society, regardless of their sin - we must. Do we condone it? No. (Do we condone adulterers by making the divorce process easy?) If the homosexuals want a civil union, I say give it to them. A civil union (partnership) is no more than two people starting a business together. Let them see each other in a hospital, let them save on taxes. If they want to be seen as married, than they have an absolute contradiction in their hands! Marriage is a spiritual (Christian) concept, not a civil concept. The more they beg to be married, the more they need to realize that marriage is a God thing, and if you want a God thing, you do it God's way.
Martin Luther may have had good intentions by separating marriage from the church and giving it to the "State," but man did he make things a challenge for us today!
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