Entangled

This is a very good sermon about pornography by Kyle Rodell, our student minister. The testimony at the beginning of the sermon is from Bryan Champ, our connections minister.

Why I Don't Support Same-Sex Marriage

A few weeks ago, a reader asked me to support the legalization of same-sex marriage as a civil right. As a Christian, I had to decline.

Jesus taught that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. "'Haven't you read the Scriptures?' Jesus replied. 'They record that from the beginning God made them male and female.' And he said, 'This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one'" (Matthew 19:4-5, NLT).

As God created people, according to Jesus, a man and a woman are meant to form a marriage, a sexual union. Whenever sexual activity occurs outside of a marriage between a man and a woman, Jesus refers to it in such terms as fornication (in older translations of the Bible), sexual immorality, adultery, and unfaithfulness. He affirms sexual activity within a marriage between a man and a woman, but he sees all other sexual activity as a violation of God's intent. He sees it as sin.

However, Christ gave his life on the cross as a sacrifice to take away the legitimate wrath of God against sin (including sexual sins such as homosexuality). He wants to forgive anyone and everyone who will trust him and turn away from sin to follow him. As the earliest Christians discovered, Jesus could forgive all kinds of sins and change all kinds of people. As the apostle Paul recorded, "Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people--none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NLT).

Jesus Christ offers the same kind of grace to us today. For more information about sin, the Savior, and our response to him, please see my other blog at this link.

Foster Care Awareness

This was today's sermon at Cedar Ridge Christian Church. The congregation is cooperating with Oklahoma's Department of Human Services to care for children in the foster care system. More information about the state of Oklahoma's need for churches to help can be found here.

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you" (James 1:27, NLT).

Guest Post at the Thoughtful Blog

Last week, Kirra Antrobus sent a message asking me to write a guest post for her blog. You can read it at this link. Thank you, Kirra!

How Did God Inspire the Bible?

Last month, I was leading a Bible study for my den of Cub Scouts and their parents and grandparents. While teaching about how we listen to God by reading the Bible, a question arose. How did God inspire the Bible?

Second Timothy 3:16 states, "All Scripture is breathed out by God." However, it does not mention the methodologies used by God.

 I gave the boys a list of a few different methods used by the Lord to inspire the Scriptures:

 1. Dictation Sometimes the Lord dictated his message word-for-word to the writers of the Bible. For example, God told Jeremiah exactly what to write. "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you'" (Jeremiah 30:2).

 2. Enhanced Memory Sometimes God enhanced the memories of the Bible's writers. Jesus promised his apostles that the Holy Spirit would help them to remember what he had said to them (John 14:25-26).

 3. Visions For example, as Jesus started sharing the visions of Revelation with John, he told John, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches" (Revelation 1:11).

 4. Research For example, the Gospel of Luke was based on extensive research. As Luke stated, "Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus" (Luke 1:3, NLT).

 This may not be an exhaustive list of the methodologies employed by God to inspire the Scriptures, but it helps to answer the question. However the Lord chose to inspire specific portions of the Scriptures, we can be assured that "those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:21, NLT).

The Jesus Movement: Revolution

This is Greg Pittman's sermon from last Sunday at Cedar Ridge Christian Church (our home congregation) in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

I Was Wrong

On March 4, I wrote a post ("What Can Salt Do?") which indicated that salt cannot reverse the process of corruption; it can merely slow the process. I implied that Christians, as the salt of the earth, cannot reverse the corruption within our societies; we can only slow the process.

However, I have been reading through the New Living Translation of the Bible this year. When I came across 2 Kings 2:19-22, I realized that I had been wrong about my understanding of the effects of salt. When it has the miraculous power of God behind it, salt can reverse the process of corruption. This has huge implications for the people whom Jesus called the "salt of the earth."

Here is the text:

"One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. 'We have a problem, my lord,' they told him. 'This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.'

"Elisha said, 'Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.' So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, 'This is what the LORD says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.' And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said" (2 Kings 2:19-22, NLT).