Yesterday I took the morning off from work so that I could take Hannah to a follow-up doctor appointment. Since I had a little extra time in the morning, I did something that I haven’t spent much time doing lately. I listened to a few clips from some people I follow on You Tube. While I struggle to want to invest a lot of time into media at all right now, I know that we need to be men and women who will not profess Christ and then simply stick our heads in the sand like an ostrich and pretend we do not see or know what is going on in the world around us.
What I heard were two very dedicated, Christ-following men, standing against evil that is being presented as good. The first was a video podcast of John Cooper talking about a prayer book that apparently has been gaining popularity and recognition over the past couple weeks. Please understand, I am not exaggerating when I tell you that as John read a prayer from this book I instantly started feeling sick in my stomach. The woman that wrote the book was asking God to “help her hate white people, or at least help her want to hate them.”
Let’s pause right there.
This is a prayer book? This is a book being marketed as something we should be emulating? Praying that God increases our hatred? This is not asking God to help us “hate sin” or “hate evil” and turn our hearts to obedience. No. This is presented as a call to arms as a social warrior. This is a “prayer” asking God to move hearts against him, his will, and his character.
Do you think that this honors God in any way? Do you think God will be pleased by this request? Can you imagine him desiring to fill the hearts of his followers with something that contradicts his nature – not reflects it? No. God never contradicts himself. He doesn’t change and evolve. He doesn’t love to hate. He simply loves. God’s plan has never been to make decisions about people based on the melanin of their skin, or any other part of their appearance. No. God has always been concerned about matters of the heart. Our core. Who we really are – not the presentation we display – but who we really and truly are.
John 2:25 reminds us that “No one needed to tell him (Jesus) about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.” God knows our core. He knows our hearts. That’s what matters to him. How hateful and full of error to wish for evil to fall on others. How disturbing that this is somehow literature that is not only being published and sold, without calling it “hate speech,” but even beyond that it is sheer heresy.
I move to the second video.
In this particular video it was quickly made clear that some sort of panel had been put together to talk about or debate a story that was making headlines. Apparently it was regarding a Christian athlete (I believe they said he was a rugby player) who made a post after hours on Facebook and was now under fire by the media. This panel appeared to consist of a host, one well known Christian representative from Australia (Martyn Iles, and a group of men and women who were for lack of a better description – not.
The athlete had made a statement regarding his faith and something along the lines of the fact that we are sinners who need to be forgiven of our sin. (Bear with me – you can search for the video yourself if you’d like to see it – but that is the jest of what was posted.) At any rate, this deeply “offended” a gentleman in the crowd who neither professed to believe in God, nor follow him, but rather openly shared his sexual preference was the homosexual lifestyle and he felt that this was yet again the Christian voices needing to be silenced because Christian voices hurt people.
Martyn was asked pointed questions regarding his faith and as a representative for other Christ-followers. What was interesting was how much Martyn appeared to look like he had landed smack dab in the middle of a lions den. He handled himself with grace and wisdom – which frankly, I credit to the Holy Spirit speaking through him. But honestly, this wasn’t the totality of why this video struck me. Of course, Christians are being attacked right now – our faith does not permit us to follow subjective truth – which is what culture wants to implement currently. No, what struck me most was the comment of one of the men debating against Martyn. I literally heard him say something like this: “I don’t care if God says that what I choose is sin and I should repent of it. I assure you, I will never repent of it. I’d rather live how I want and I am not going to give this up.”
Isn’t that the dangers of sin? Isn’t that our problem? I have known this conceptually, but rarely – if ever – have I heard someone say it so directly and with such confidence. And equally shocking, he received applause and encouragement for saying it.
Fast forward to this morning. These two videos still being mulled around in my mind, and I read John 3. John 3 holds the most famous verse in the Bible and yet we may not have realized that this verse is a part of a middle of the night conversation between a priest/teacher of the law and Jesus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night because he is curious and wants to know more, but is afraid to be seen with him.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear that their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” (John 3:16-21)
These are the words of Jesus.
“Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” (John 3:33-36)
Friend, for those who love sin and desire to remain in it, my heart breaks. I can only imagine how this decision breaks the heart of God. And yet it is a choice to follow Him and His ways. He will not force us to follow Him – just invite us to.
Sin promises what it cannot provide – happiness, contentment, power, a good life. Sin is believed to be freedom from the rules of God. Yet sin is deceptive. Sin enslaves mankind, it does not liberate.
It is only when we are willing to confess our sins, repent of them – not attempt to hide them – that we can truly discover what it means to be set free and receive the freedom that God designed for us through Christ Jesus. It takes humility to confess. Transparency before a holy God. But the payoff is huge. The LORD’s ways are right and true.
So let us pray for God’s hand to be at work in our hearts. Let’s ask him to fill us with a love for truth and a passion for him and what pleases him and not the world.
Blessings.