On October 1st a law went
into effect in Massachusetts that specifically cites churches as falling under
the public accommodation restrictions in regards to its anti-discrimination
laws which is, of course, code for pro-LGBT legislation. It is essentially the
reinforcement of the usual gender flexibility gobbly gook, placing claims of
sincerity above biological reality. Any place that “accepts the patronage of
the general public” would be required to abide by the commissions directive,”
which states,
“Even
a church could be seen as a place of public accommodation if it holds a secular
event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public.”
As
far as my understanding goes, churches are always open to the general public. I
have yet to be turned away at the doors of any church anywhere as being
ineligible for admittance due to my “general public” status.
To
anyone whose been paying attention, this really shouldn’t come as much of a
surprise. The tides have been trending this way for a while now. It is troubling
for sure. But surprising? Certainly not. Before long, churches, Christian
schools and organizations will be forced to choose between compliance with what
has been traditionally held as immoral and a-scriptural or loss of their
tax-exempt status and any kind of federal or state aid. This is no longer an
issue of mere tolerance or acceptance. Anything less than exuberate and open
celebration will be viewed with disdain, disapproval and swift ramifications.
The
middle ground is quickly disappearing. In truth, I suppose the middle ground
never really existed. It was as fictitious as Don Quixote’s ferocious windmill
giants. Really, what we had imagined as being issues that we could take a
neutral or unobtrusive stance on are bulldozing us all to the middle line that
runs between the two sides. It turns out, No-Man’s Land has an owner. There is
no fence for us to walk on. It’s one side or the other, and by side I don’t
mean one being the traditional or biblical view of sexuality and the other the frantically
bizarre view advocated by politicians and radical fringe groups; I’m talking
about the line between a biblical worldview and all other worldviews.
By
the end of the book of Joshua, the children of Israel had been led into the
promised land. They had overthrown the cities of the nations hostile to Jehovah
and the land had been divided amongst the tribes. Joshua was old. He had
brought the people into the land that God had promised to them. In a place
called Shechem, Joshua reviews all that the God had done for them, from the
covenant with Abraham to the occupation of the territory of Canaan. Then he
says to them,
“Now therefore,
fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which
your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the
Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this
day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were
on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you
dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
The
Israelites had a choice. God wasn’t going to force them to follow Him. He
hadn’t done so in the wilderness, nor would He do it here. The choice was
theirs. Of course, they said that they would follow the Lord, far be it from us
to forsake the God who delivered us from the hand of Pharaoh and all that but
that was followed by about 400 years of apostasy. Joshua has seen the flakiness
of the people in the wilderness, how they had complained against the Lord,
doubted Him, disobeyed Him and rebelled against Him. He warned them, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a
holy God. He is a jealous God. . .” If the people were going to pledge to
serve the living God, they would have to be of an undivided heart, both
personally and as a nation.
I
find myself in a similar place. With a history of faithfulness, God is offering
me all of His promises, His presence, His power and His perfect will. My heart
would cry out, Yes! As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! But so
often my flesh comes in and prattles on some religious platitudes and 2 pages
later I begin to struggle with the concept of being wholly devoted to Christ,
and maybe this isn’t really compromise, and surely this small thing doesn’t
hurt anyone, and so on and so forth. Maybe the reason that Joshua was able to
follow the Lord whole heartedly was because Joshua’s commitment was based on
who God was, while the Israelites only made mention of what God had done for
them. One worshiped God for the very person that He is, the other for how He
benefitted them.
But
back to the middle ground issue, I think that we as the body of Christ are
going to see more and more the truth of the what Jesus said in Matthew 12:30,
about us not being for Him is being against Him and that those who do not
gather with Him scatter. It is all or nothing. For anyone who knows me, this
election cycle has really moved me to a different place in regards to how I am
going to handle the candidates put before me. To accept this as being a binary
choice and voting for the “lesser of the two evils” is, for me, a violation of
my conscience, an attempt to stay on the middle ground. While my political
views are unpopular and misunderstood by many of my fellow conservatives, I am
grateful that at least in that arena, I am pretty grounded in as much as making
the right choice according to what my principles dictate. But what about other
areas, areas that perhaps I don’t feel so inclined to have to explain, things
that maybe are more private, issues that don’t seem to be as big of a deal so I
don’t think about them or pray about them as much as I probably should.
How
about my relationships with my family, friends and even strangers? Do I find my
patience wearing thin with those closest to me because they just don’t seem to
be changing or even willing to change? Bear in mind that it is quite possible
that they need to change. But when prayers seem to go unanswered and words seem
to fall on deaf ears, do I give up and write them off? Do I treat others to a
cameo of the old self, the one who cared only about self and what they could
get out of a relationship with little or no thought to the other person’s needs
and desires? Do I spend my time flirting with superfluous accessories instead
of committing my time to Jesus and letting Him lead me to do what He wants me
to do with it?
When
we become so wrapped up in living a double life, compromising between spiritual
things and temporal things, we end up not living life at all. Pastor Gregg
Laurie once said that a compromising Christian is the most miserable of people.
They have too much of the world to be happy in Jesus but too much of Jesus to
be happy in the world. We want to hold on to other things instead of simply
clinging to Jesus, but with all that stuff in our hands, it becomes impossible
to hold on to anything. In an attempt to not lose it, everything falls apart.
“Now
it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, ‘Lord, I
will follow You wherever You go.’ And Jesus said to him,
Foxes
have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere
to lay His head.
Then He said to
another, Follow Me. But he said, ‘Lord, let
me first go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him,
Let
the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.
And another also
said, ‘Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who
are at my house.’ But Jesus said to him,
No
one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom
of God.
(Luke 9:57-62)
Believers
have a high calling. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that living a life of
devotion to Christ will be a charmed life, void of offenses and untouched by
conflict. Following Jesus will cost us our lives. Bringing about redemption cost
Jesus His. I have a choice to make, to live a life committed to being a
disciple of Jesus, or to live for myself. I can live where it’s comfortable and
deal with the consequences later or I can live where it’s uncomfortable and
reap the rewards later. But I feel inclined to believe that the time is coming
swiftly when the choices will not be so benign as we would have made them out
to be. They will be made for us. The only relevant answers will be, “Yes I
follow Jesus,” or “No I do not know Him.” Just know this: no coward wakes up in
the morning and suddenly decides that today is the day he will do something
courageous. The makings of a hero have been brewing inside of him, shaping his
character, molding his fortitude and driving his passions. There will come a
day when God will require an answer from us on who we decide to serve. I pray
that in that day, I will be found ready and able to answer, Yes Lord, I will
follow You.
