WHO SURRENDERS THEIR LIFE TO CHRIST?
(This reply is a response to that question)
The key
to this dilemma boils down to the same
uncomfortable questions it always does for every one of us who is considering Christianity:
Who is God? Does He know what's best? What is His remedy for my dilemma? This is why I stress the absolute necessity
of objective truth, based upon God’s Word alone. God gives no place for subjective truth or alternate
reality. Once we move the bottle, as it
were – we’re adrift in our own sea of man-made rules which bend and sway as
often as our daily emotions. Those
emotions, left to their own devices, are unstable concoctions ready to explode
at any given whim or moment. Something
has to hold those in check and we have neither the ability nor even desire to do so
without a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Notice I did not say God. Most
everyone, in some form or fashion believes in God, hence the argument. If not for some at least mitigated belief in
God, there would be no conversation. A
belief in God, however, has no power to change a life. James
2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and
shudder" James 2:19 (NIV). My greatest concern, maybe moving me all the way to fear, is
that we have a world of “professing Christians” who shudder at God, but refuse
to believe and receive His Son in whose righteousness we are saved and by “whose stripes we are healed” Isaiah
53:5.
I know
this seems long and tedious and doesn't answer the question about sex but the
question is not about “sex” per say; it’s about who controls life and gives His
followers, “…the desire and the power to
do what pleases Him” Phil. 2:13 (NLT). Apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ,
we have neither desire nor power. I’m going to quote a book everyone, including the LGBT community, questioning and non-questioning, should read.
Rosaria
Butterfield was a tenured Syracuse University English professor, who also held a joint teaching appointment in the Center for Women's
Studies. As director of women’s studies,
Butterfield promoted everything left, including her own lesbianism and pro-gay
lifestyle. The book,“The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert,” is her story of the dramatic change that led to,
as she puts it, “a train wreck of contradictory
feelings.” Here is an excerpt from
her testimony she gave to a group of students at Geneva College:
“One
student asked: “how do you know you are healed if you are not having sex with a
man?” In return, I asked him, “Why is my health as a Christian determined by
having sex at all?” I went on to explain what has always seemed obvious to me,
but often comes to a great shock to Christians. I explained that too often good
Christians see sexual sin as merely sexual excess. To a good Christian, sex is
God’s recreation for you as long as you play in God’s playground (marriage). No
way, José. Not on God’s terms."
“What
good Christians don’t realize is that sexual sin is not recreational sex gone
overboard. Sexual sin is predatory. It won’t be “healed” by redeeming the
context or the genders. Sexual sin must simply be killed. What is left of your
sexuality after this annihilation is up to God. But healing, to the sexual
sinner, is death: nothing more and nothing less. I told my audience that I
think that too many young Christian fornicators plan that marriage will redeem
their sin. Too many young Christian masturbators plan that marriage will redeem
their patterns. Too many young Christian internet pornographers think that
having legitimate sex will take away the desire to have illicit sex. They’re
wrong. And the marriages that result from this line of thinking are dangerous
places. I know, I told my audience, why over 50% of Christian marriages end in
divorce: because Christians act as though marriage redeems sin. Marriage does
not redeem sin. Only Jesus himself can do that.”
Butterfield
goes on to say…
“When
Christ gave me the strength to follow him, I didn't stop feeling like a
lesbian. I've discovered that the Lord doesn’t change my feelings until I obey
him. During one sermon, Ken (Butterfield's pastor at the time) pointed to John
7:17, and called this “the hermeneutics of obedience.” Jesus is speaking in
this passage, and he says: “If anyone is willing to do God’s will, he will know
of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from myself.” Ah ha!
Here it was! Obedience comes before understanding. I wanted to understand. But
did I actually will to do his will? God promised to reveal this understanding
to me if I “willed to do his will.” The Bible doesn’t just say do his will, but
“will to do his will.” Wanting to understand is a theoretical statement;
willing to do his will takes action.”
Butterfield,
Rosaria (2012-09-06). The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Kindle
Locations 494-500). Crown & Covenant Publications. Kindle Edition.
