Refreshing Faith
Have you noticed, commitment goes only so far? I decided to give up sugar—for a while. That night my husband came home with three large chocolate bars and said, “Your favorite dark chocolate is on sale.”
I promised to hold my tongue and say only encouraging words. Well, that didn’t last long!
Every personality carries inherent strengths and weaknesses. People who feel strong in an area emphasize commitment to overcome flaws. Jesus highlighted connection.Continue Reading
A small area of warped flooring caught my eye after we moved furniture for construction work a year and a half ago. Since my living room backed up to our master shower, I feared another leak. A small poke behind the sheet rock revealed wet insulation. Our workers ripped off the drywall and exposed a four-foot by five-foot wet area laced with black mold—toxic mold, as I’d soon learn.
Photo by: Coley Christine
After the discovery, the workers left for the weekend. I asked if it were safe of us to stay in the house. “Oh, yeah, you’ll be fine. We’ll be back on Monday,” they assured me. They were wrong.Continue Reading
My heart hurt when I saw Bruce Jenner’s distress in his interview with Diane Sawyer (April 24, 2015) and heard of his family’s grief. I grieved for the viewers who listened in the hope of having their confusing thoughts and desires explained.
Jenner believes his pain comes from the pressure he feels to live a lie. I believe it comes from believing a lie.
Jenner’s unsteady emotions stood in stark contrast to his set mind. Despite the fact he won the Olympian male decathlon, has a normal opposite-sex attraction to females, and has never been sexually attracted to men, he’s convinced God gave him a woman’s soul. Doesn’t the desire to marry and love a woman reveal a male soul? Jenner says no; sex and gender are two different things. That belief rules him.
At age ten Jenner donned a dress for the first time. The urge to cross dress grew over time. This conflict cost him marriages with women he loved. He’s hoping more drastic measures will finally bring him the peace that’s eluded him.
I wish I could tell Jenner, and anyone else badgered by alarming desires, that deceitful desires come because we are broken creatures in a fallen world. The enemy that slithered into Eden and polluted paradise wants to destroy us too. But we don’t have to follow this seduction.
Would you think less of Jesus if you learned He’d been tempted in the area of homosexuality while He was on earth? Homosexuality has become a hot button that divides families and churches. How are Christians to treat it? How do we relate to those who wrestle with it? How do we treat those who flaunt it?
First, the Bible is clear that God condemns the practice of homosexuality. He also bans sex outside of marriage, gossip, pride, greed, and showing favoritism, to name a few (1 Cor. 6:9-12). If we shunned everyone who’s ever messed up in the areas the Bible calls taboo, there would be no one left. As James 3:2 says, “We all stumble in many ways.”
As Christ followers, we need to differentiate between those who struggle against temptations and movements that applaud and promote behavior the Bible bans. Jesus was a friend of sinners. He came for those who need a doctor (Mark 2:17).
Take heart. Jesus understands. “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses since he had the same temptations we do, though he never once gave way to them and sinned,” (Heb. 4:15 NLT).Continue Reading