The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention’s President, Russell Moore, wrote a stellar piece in response to the SCOTUS decision on gay marriage in Obergefell V. Hodges recently. In it, he enumerated why the Church should neither cave to the powers that be, nor panic with respect to the decision made.
You can view that article here.
Concerning all the activity this week, I have some observations.
1) No matter how people choose to marry, or how elected officials choose to recognize the right to marry, marriage is an institution that God set up with certain parameters, and no one can actually change those parameters. The kingdom recognizes only those marriages between a husband and a wife, as consistent interpretation of Scripture details.
2) Any setup that violates the design is a farce, and is not recognized, no matter the codification of laws or the orders of the state.
3) Those who choose to walk in a violation of that Principle of Design–whether homosexual practice, fornication, adultery, or pornography–do not know what they are doing and are stumbling around in darkness, sadly.
4) As a result of this lack of knowledge, refusal of knowledge, or willful violation of the principles set down by the Father, they have opened the doors to greater bondage. It was the Father who set all of these principles down out of love, so that we would walk in liberty, free of bondage, deception, and offense.
5) Moreover, to consider another nuance of this discussion, perhaps some large portion of those people who walk these various sinful lifestyles out, do so out of abuse by parents, or members of either the same or opposite sex.
6) As a result of those areas of wounding or trauma, the victims described in #5 require prayers for healing or deliverance, instead of words spoken out of due season against them. And, where the church has failed in this area, it ought to repent.
7) There is a place for us as the Church to pray for release of those in sexual bondages of all kinds, whether through trauma or choice. Moreover, we also should pray for the deception to roll back from their eyes.
8) Moreover, we as the Church should minister to the sexually compromised variously in tender affection, love, and with the truth nonetheless, AFTER we fled our youthful passions; pursued righteousness, faith, love, peace, and purity; and have thoroughly bathed them in prayer, that they might be freed, after the manner described in 2 Timothy 2:22-26. Credibility for ministry comes following personal sanctification. NOTE: Please do not heckle me if you are a Christian about the impossibility of sanctification. God would not tell us to walk in something (Matthew 5:48) and then not give us the resources (He gave us Himself, what is a little bit of personal holiness?) to help us attain that progression (Matthew 6:33).
9) We are ministers of love, grace, holiness, truth, righteousness, faith, and a really great path, that does happen to be narrow. Let us do this well.
10) The Constitution and SCOTUS butchering of the same are not going to change hearts. Lowering a flag is not going to change a heart. Only the Lord can do that. But, he is capable of softening a heart. So, let’s work at cultivating more of the Fruit of the Spirit, and walking in more of the principles of the Lord found in Scripture, though not at the expense of realizing the depth of what has taken place in the SCOTUS decision. They have usurped authority that was not theirs to take. Our responsibility is to discern what has just happened, and to really grasp hold of what the Spirit is saying in this hour, including the shift that has just taken place in the Spirit realm.
It is time, Church. It is time for us to fight that the sexually-bound might be redeemed and returned to Him, healed and restored, and repentant. They need us to walk in our identity, and the fullness of the authority Christ has died for us to possess, in order for them to walk in liberty and out of the deception so completely foisted upon them. Remember, the enemy has sold the gay/adulterous/fornicating/porn-addicted community a Ship-High-In-Transit bill of goods.
It is time for us to pray for liberation.
That means it is time to walk in liberation, and to begin to strap on some armor and a sword on our side, and enter into His presence, abide in Him by the cool waters (Psalm 23, Psalm 91) as the sheep of His pasture, and let Him come among us, and transform us into His majestic horses fit for battle (Zechariah 10:3).
Are you ready?
Humility and holiness are the bedrock for this fight.
The Paraclete’s Hammer.
