February 22, 2013
Like Other Men
Last Tuesday my post
was about a woman in my community who publically stated in the newspaper, “I don’t think the Creator had anything to
do with the institution of marriage. It’s a societal necessity, not a rite of
‘God’.” She also stated that because of today’s standards, we should extend
the ‘commitment ceremony’ of marriage to same sex couples. Her comments have
caused quite a stir in our faith community, but I was really caught off guard
when I learned she is a member of a local mainline, protestant church, albeit a
very left-leaning church. I can’t begin to imagine how her church leadership
and fellow worshippers were feeling after having read her comments. Certainly
the Bible gives us church discipline instructions, but normally the need for
correction isn’t newspaper fodder. Let me confess that the first thing to run across
my mind was, ‘I am so glad she’s not a
member of my church.’ Of course the Spirit immediately chastised me with
Jesus’ Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Pharisee who was
confident in his own righteousness stood up and prayed about himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other
men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.” (Luke
18:11 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Char and I were discussing this lady and her brilliance when returning home from the mainline, rather left-leaning protestant church we attend. I surprised myself by saying something a bit out of my character. Then I felt a twinge of comfort in that. Usually I am very prepared to stand up for the new life of those effervescing error while claiming Christ. After all, what of us does not leak at least a spot of blunder now and then? And if God and His heaven are not such that the most minute particle of error ruins the entirety of its perfection, then I want nothing of Him or it. Thank Him, the perfection He’s called us to will tolerate not a hint of miscue. So then, what chance have we? None by our doing, every chance possible by His. The Word says all who call upon Him will be saved, because His mercy answers their call, not the Law. I would be rather concluded that if “marry anything” woman attends a place of calling upon the Lord, then she is probably calling upon the Lord. And as such, I would expect to meet her in heaven.
-----Well, then, that certainly raises the question of what calling upon the Lord might be. Proverbs helps us a bit in cautioning us to not lean on our own understanding. Psalms paints an attitude of learning all God’s Word so that we might not do what He does not want us to do. Yah! That’s right, so we don’t sin. Knowing that sin is simply getting it wrong, however minutely wrong, really indicates the heart of the attitude. I trust not myself because the shortest glance at me reveals error; I trust the Lord because my closest examinations of Him find nothing but more perfection. My call upon Him for salvation is then a request for my alignment with His understanding. For that effect, one must return to the starting line of thought, “From where does correct His understanding come?”
-----If God does not communicate with man, then why pay attention to any idea about His desires. They will not be known. If He does, then how? If I say how, then I have merely postulated my own ideas. I am God. I call upon myself. Yet if God says how, then I must turn to the how that He says. This requires some searching and analysis of whatever might evidence the question’s answer. Cutting to the chase, not from my own ideas, but from search and analysis I’ve done two-thirds of my fifty-nine years, when you pick up the Holy Bible you pick up what God said. When you claim to call upon Him and deny what He says in its simple terms, one or the other is a lie. I can assure you which one it is.
-----So, on the way home from our lovely little church, I simply said to Char about “marry anything” woman, “You know, Honey, those guys who will retort, ’But Lord! Lord! Did we not prophecy, cast out demons, and do many works in your name?’ were thrown into outer darkness even though they 'called upon His name’.” It isn’t because we are messed up that we are cast into Hell. It is because we don’t agree with the simple formula which defines heaven, whether or not we go to His church.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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