Gay Marriage – Page 3 – Michelle Lesley

Ladies- if you haven’t joined Satisfaction Through Christ’s Community Group on Facebook, I’d like to encourage you to do so. It’s a great group for Christian women. One of our weekly features is Tough Questions Tuesday. Each week, I answer a tough biblical or spiritual question sent in by one of our readers. From time to time, I’ll be reprinting those questions and answers here under the title, In Case You Were Wondering.

Should Christians boycott businesses or charities that financially support abortion, homosexual marriage, or other unbiblical things?

This question has gotten a lot of attention lately because of the ice bucket challenge and the ALS charity that funds embryonic stem cell research. I think whether or not to boycott a business or charity is something every Christian needs to decide for herself based on Scripture and her own conscience. Some good Scriptures to study to help with your decision are 1 Corinthians 8 and 10:23ff, and Romans 14:5-12.

Since there’s no one right answer to this question, I’d like to just share with you how I have come to handle it in my life, in case it might be helpful.

I used to do boycotts (I was on an e-mail list that was basically a constant call to boycott this or that business), but it got to the point where there were so many companies and subsidiaries of those companies that donate here and there to unacceptable causes that it was impossible to track all of them down and keep up with them all. Since I would have felt like a hypocrite for boycotting one company but not another, I amended my “policy” on boycotting:

1. I don’t boycott places where I get necessities for my family–phone company, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. If there were a very big public splash about one of these places supporting something unacceptable and I had another option, I might reconsider a boycott.

2. If there’s an alternative to a “boycottable” business, I take it. For example, I would not donate to Komen because they support Planned Parenthood, but I might donate to another cancer/breast cancer charity that doesn’t.

3. If it’s not a necessity and there’s no alternative, I probably wouldn’t donate/buy/shop there. For example, within the last 5 years, Starbucks has, among other very publicized pro-homosexuality actions, filed a brief against DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) and worked to support legislation in Washington state to legalize same sex “marriage.” Starbucks isn’t a necessity, and if there weren’t an alternative coffee place in my area, I would just do without. (Full disclosure- Starbucks is expensive and several miles from my house. My coffee maker is cheap and only several yards from my bed. So, I don’t go to Starbucks, but it’s because I’m broke and lazy, not because I’m boycotting.)

My way isn’t the perfect way, and there’s probably still some hypocrisy in it that I can’t see or reconcile, but it works for me.

For further reading:
Should Christians boycott companies that support anti-Christian policies? from Got Questions
Should Christians Boycott Boycotting? from The Gospel Coalition

Do you boycott any businesses for certain reasons?
How did you arrive at your decision to boycott?

Gospel, Homosexuality, Salvation, Sin

The Hole in World Vision’s Gospel: UPDATE #2

March 26, 2014June 21, 2021 Michelle Lesley

Update #2: Some readers wrote me with some concerns about this article. I have done my best to address those concerns here.

Update: World Vision released this statement today (March 26) reversing its earlier decision. It’s my prayer that this decision is born of genuine repentance (which would truly be cause for rejoicing!) rather than a reaction to negative PR and loss of donors.

Earlier this week, World Vision’s U.S. President, Richard Stearns, publicly announced that the relief organization would change its employment policy and begin hiring practicing, unrepentant homosexuals who are legally “married.” Understandably, many in the evangelical community (including me) are shocked and saddened that this Christian organization would decide to bow its knee to the world instead of to God’s word.

But all Stearns’ bloviating about “unity,” whether or not World Vision now endorses homosexual “marriage” in the political arena, and uniformity of hiring practices is gnat straining. The camel is in the headline: “gay Christians.” And ever since World Vision opened up its throat wide enough to swallow that dromedary, it’s been gulping down the gnats as a chaser.

There is no such thing as a “gay Christian.”

There just isn’t. When a person comes to Christ for salvation, he doesn’t cling to, rationalize, or defend his sin, whatever it may be. He abandons it and flees to the cross for mercy and forgiveness. That’s why there’s no such thing as a “Christian prostitute” or a “Christian murderer” or a “Christian thief” or a “Christian hatemonger,” and there’s no such thing as a “Christian homosexual.”

There are people who repent of those things, are graciously saved by God, and who may continue to struggle against those sins:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11

You see, the good news of the gospel is not that Jesus accepts you the way you are. Because the way you are -whether you’re a homosexual, an idolater, a thief, a drunk, or the average Jane down the street- is a putrid, rotten, decomposing corpse. Dead. That’s what you are: dead. I’m talking Lazarus in the tomb, dead. “Lord, he stinketh,” dead. D-E-A-D, dead in your trespasses and sins.

Now, just who is this puny little so-called “Jesus” Stearns (and many others) speaks of who just leaves people in that awful condition? Not any Jesus that’s found in the Bible, that’s for sure.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus loved you enough to go to the cross to take the punishment for your sin so He could raise you from the dead and give you life. Holy life. Forgiven life. Peaceful life. Joy-filled life. Jesus isn’t in the business of holding the hands of cadavers. He’s in the resurrection business. And Christians are supposed to be about the business of carrying the deceased to the feet of Christ so He can do His mighty and miraculous work.

But, I guess World Vision isn’t, anymore.

And it’s both shameful and abominable that an organization that claims the name of Christ would spinelessly cave to Satan’s twisting of God’s word about salvation, because, ultimately, people’s eternities are at stake here. When someone has the life-giving truth of the gospel, refuses to extend it to people, and tells them lies that keep them in bondage to sin, that someone has blood on his hands.

Soteriology is the foundation of ecclesiology, even for para-church ministries. And World Vision’s foundation has a huge crack in it.

Homosexuality, Legislation, Prayer

SCOTUS to Rule on Same Sex “Marriage”: A Call to Prayer and Godly Response

June 25, 2013 Michelle Lesley

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 26, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases related to same sex “marriage” (SSM): Hollingsworth v. Perry, which seeks to overturn Proposition 8, California’s current ban on same sex “marriage,” and United States v. Windsor, which challenges the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

I’d like to ask you, my readers, to pray for God’s mercy as the United States faces these decisions tomorrow. May He be merciful by allowing all bans on same sex “marriage” to stand:

For His people:
Ever since same sex “marriage” became a hot button issue, and despite the claims of the homosexual lobby that legalizing it won’t harm Bible-believing Christians, there have been numerous cases of Christian bakers, photographers, florists, and even churches who have been sued because they cannot, in good conscience, tacitly endorse same sex “marriage” by providing their services at such weddings.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of SSM, these cases will increase and expand in scope and will affect far more individuals, churches, and Christian-owned businesses. Please pray that God will show mercy to His people and protect their businesses and churches.

For homosexuals:
God established the concept and practice of government for our own good (Romans 13:1). Without law and order, anarchy would reign. Any current local, state, or federal law against same sex “marriage” is a gift from God to those caught in the sin of homosexuality. Just as a fence around a yard is designed to keep children from wandering away, the boundary of the laws against SSM is one of God’s ways of protecting people from their own sin. If they won’t listen to Him, perhaps they will bounce off the brick wall of the law and turn back to Him.

But if SSM is ruled in favor of tomorrow, that boundary will be removed, and, as Christians, that should grieve us for our homosexual friends and loved ones. Although God has always done so on an individual basis, we will begin to see what it looks like for God to “give them up” to their sin on a corporate level.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 1:22-32

The legalization of SSM will be tragic for homosexuals because it will bolster their rebellion against God and separate them from Him even further by encouraging them to stay in, celebrate, and flaunt their sin. I can’t tell you how many times I have thanked God for protecting me from myself and my own sinful desires. I am praying that God will protect the homosexual community in the same way, and I ask you to join me.

What if God says “no”?
What if, in His wisdom and timing, God chooses to allow the Supreme Court to legalize SSM tomorrow? What is to be the Christian response?

Will we grieve for our homosexual friends and loved ones? Our country? Ourselves? Yes.

Should we act out and speak out in vitriolic anger and bitterness? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Our battle is not against people whom God loves and desires to rescue. Our battle is against Satan, who is holding those precious people as his captives and slaves to sin.

And how do we battle him?

With the gospel.

The good news of Jesus Christ –that He took the punishment ALL of us deserve for ALL of our sin– still has the power to save anyone, homosexual, heterosexual, or otherwise, who will repent and trust in His death, burial, and resurrection to save him.

What if God says “yes”?
What if, in His wisdom and timing, God chooses to protect the bans on same sex “marriage”? How should Christians respond?

In humility and gratitude in our hearts to God, and with the gospel.

There could hardly be a less Christlike response on the part of those who claim to be His than to boast and gloat in a snotty “We won! We won!” sort of attitude. Are you kidding me? We didn’t “win” anything. A court decision doesn’t change anybody’s heart. The same people who were lost and on their way to hell today will still be lost and on their way to hell tomorrow unless we share the gospel with them and God saves them.

At the end of the day, it’s not about rights or legislation or which side won or lost. It’s about a King who hung on a cross so that His subjects, held as prisoners of war, could be set free.

Remember that with me, and let’s pray.

Evangelism, Gospel, Homosexuality, Salvation, Sin

Cancer: A Love Story

April 7, 2013May 15, 2017 Michelle Lesley

Cancer.

The dreadfulness of the word hung heavy in the air between Jana and her friend Denise.

“The doctor says it’s terminal,” Denise choked, “I’m so confused. I don’t know what to do.”

Jana’s heart broke as she envisioned the difficult emotional road ahead for Denise and watched the tears streaming down her face.

“I’d do anything to take that pain away,” thought Jana. “Anything.”

For days after they parted, Jana’s thoughts were consumed with how she could help Denise accept and feel better about her condition. By the weekend, when they met for coffee, Jana was ready.

“Denise,” she began, “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and I think I know why you’re so uncomfortable with having cancer.”

“Oh? Why?” asked Denise.

“Well, first of all, you shouldn’t be fighting against the idea of having cancer. It’s a completely natural biological event. In fact, you were probably born genetically predisposed to cancer. It’s part of who you are. Accept it and embrace it as something that makes you unique and wonderful!”

Denise seemed skeptical, but Jana plunged ahead.

“You’re also worried about what other people will think of you. Maybe they’ll think you’re weak and try to help you with things that you’d rather do for yourself.”

“But maybe I’ll need some help,” Denise suggested quietly.

“Nonsense!” Jana retorted, “Having cancer doesn’t make you different from anybody else. It’s exactly the same as not having cancer. What we need to do is show that to the world. Maybe we should have a rally for cancer equality!”

“Jana, that’s great and all,” Denise whispered somberly, “but I’m going to die. That makes all the stuff you’re talking about seem a lot less important.”
Jana seems like a very loving and kind person, but does the “help” she was offering Denise seem…well…helpful?

What if I told you that during this entire scenario, Jana personally knew a doctor who had a proven cure for Denise’s type of cancer, and was giving it away, yet Jana never told Denise? How loving and kind does Jana seem now?

Now read back through this story and substitute homosexuality for cancer.

We live in a culture that tells Christians that we are to “love” our homosexual friends and loved ones by embracing homosexuality as good and natural. We even hear people who claim to be Christians saying this. But is this how the Bible defines love? Is this how Jesus loved people?

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:10-11

Think back over the encounters Jesus had with people, from the woman at the well, to Zaccheus, to Nicodemus, to the woman caught in adultery, to the rich young ruler, to anybody else Jesus ever interacted with.

Did Jesus ever “love” someone by telling him it was OK to stay in his sin?

No, He didn’t.

Jesus loved sinners by calling them to repentance, forgiveness, and a new life in Christ.

Why? Because it isn’t love to help the slave to embrace his chains. It’s love to set him free.

Christ loved us by going to the cross and becoming the propitiation –satisfying God’s wrath—for our sins. He laid down His life for our freedom.

And, Christian, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We must lay down our opinions, our politics, our ideas of what we’d like the Bible to say, maybe even our actual lives, in order to help people know freedom in Christ. We have the cure for their spiritual cancer—the gospel—and it is not “love” to knowingly misdiagnose them or keep that cure from them.

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

But as important as it is to rescue the perishing, there’s an even greater issue at stake here for those of us who claim the name of Christ.

For our sin, our Savior endured wrongful conviction, ridicule, mockery, and bullying.

For our sin, our Savior was slapped, punched, spit on, had His beard yanked out, and thorns and brambles mashed into His skull.

For our sin, our Savior had the skin flayed off His back, buttocks, and legs, whipped nearly to death until He was a bloody mess.

For our sin, our Savior, beaten, bloody, and broken of body, hoisted a heavy, splintery cross onto His shoulders and carried it through town and up the hill to His execution.

One nail.

Two nails.

Three nails.

For your sin. For my sin. For our neighbors’ sin.

How dare you, or I, or anyone spit in the face of our bleeding, dying Savior by saying that the sin that put Him on the cross is OK?

How dare we?

How can any of us claim to love Christ while celebrating the nails, the spear, the crown of thorns?

By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
1 John 2:5b-6

Jesus walked the way of leading people to repentance from sin and to the beauty, the freedom of a glorious new life through faith in Himself. Will we, who say we abide in Him, love Jesus and our homosexual neighbor enough to walk in the same way in which He walked?

Evangelism, Faith, Gospel, Homosexuality, Salvation, Sin

There’s Mor Than Just Chikin at Steak* Here

July 26, 2012February 26, 2015 Michelle Lesley

*Yes, I know I spelled it wrong in the title. That was on purpose. See the cows? :0)

If, this far into the game, you don’t know about “Chick-fil-A-gate” –as I’m calling it– you must have been living in a cave over the past few weeks. Without internet access, newspapers, cable TV, or, especially, social media.

In a counter response to the homosexual community’s response to Dan Cathy’s response (you’re following this, right?) to an interviewer’s questions, former governor/presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee created a Facebook event called “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day”. Basically, he’s encouraging all who agree with Mr. Cathy’s position on traditional marriage to support him and the restaurant chain (and make up for any business he has lost from the pro-homosexual community) by showing up at their local Chick-fil-A next Wednesday (Aug. 1) and buying some chicken.

In the broad scope of things, this day of appreciation is a nice idea, but one that will quickly be over when Chick-fil-A employees mop up and lock up at close of business. For better or worse, the whole brouhaha will soon blow over and people will go back to their lives.

Or will they?

You see, I’m betting that in a counter-counter response to the Chick-fil-A supporters, there will be some pro-homosexual groups of protesters who also show up. (Don’t hate on that. As long as they aren’t breaking any trespassing, traffic, etc., laws, they are well within their Constitutional rights to do so.)

That’s why I say there’s more at stake here than just chicken.

What if you had a chance to impact one of those people for eternity? What if you could play a part in making next Wednesday the turning point in someone’s life? What if you could be the first person ever to show someone what real Christianity looks like?

As nice of an idea as it is to throw Chick-fil-A some love, Jesus didn’t command us to support businesses we agree with. He commanded us to carry the gospel.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;” Matthew 28:19-20a

If we walk into a Chick-fil-A next week, past a group of people who are dying in their sins, and ignore them, are we any better than the priest and the Levite who left a beaten and bloody man to die in the road rather than rescuing him? Even if they aren’t conscious of it themselves, these people have been battered, bloodied, and enslaved by Satan.

And we’re going to “pass by on the other side” to buy a chicken sandwich?

“Go and do the same” as the one who showed mercy, said Jesus.

Take them a cooler of iced down cokes. Tell them you love them. Ask them if there’s anything they need. Show them you love them by taking the time to take an interest in them, personally. (Nobody feels loved if they think they’re just a notch on your spiritual belt.)

And share the gospel.

You might get laughed at or cursed at or mocked, but there’s no greater way to show mercy than to show someone the Savior.

Your chicken sandwich could change somebody’s life.

Forever.