Gospel – Page 10 – 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, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, Salvation, Sin

The Gospel According to Lot

February 26, 2013October 8, 2024 Michelle Lesley

Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
Genesis 19:12-14

The story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah would make an epic movie. You’ve got your good guys: Abraham, Lot, and the angels. Your bad guys: everybody else in town. Violence, dramatic tension, a narrow escape, major pyrotechnics, and the good guys take the day. Epic, I tell you.

But that’s just what’s happening on the surface.

If you look closely, you can see the light of the gospel casting a shadow over Sodom. A shadow that’s the size and shape of a cross.

The city of Sodom was so wicked that God personally came down to deal with it. Judgment was coming. There was hell to pay—quite literally.

God revealed His plan of destruction to Lot, His only follower in Sodom. But God didn’t stop there. Did Lot have anyone in town that needed to be rescued from the coming devastation? Hurry! Go get them and urge them to flee!

“My sons-in-law!” thought Lot. Perhaps he raced out the back door, slipped carefully past any of the blinded mob left on his front porch, and scurried surreptitiously through town to avoid other hostile neighbors. Arriving at the respective homes of the two men betrothed to his daughters, he must have pleaded with them to drop everything and come with him. It was the only way they could be saved.

But they wouldn’t go with him. They didn’t believe him.

The next morning, judgment came. And that handful of people—righteous Lot, and those who believed with him that God would save them if they left everything behind and followed Him—were the only ones spared.

Is that shadow becoming clearer?

This world is a frightfully wicked place. And, one day, God is going to come down personally to deal with it. Judgment is coming. It will be swift, it will be terrible, and it will be final. God has revealed this to us in His word. He has also revealed to us, His followers, the plan of escape: Jesus.

But God doesn’t stop there. Do we have friends and loved ones who need to be rescued from the very real and eternal hellfire and brimstone that await them if they stay in the Sodom of their sin?

Jesus tells us to “go out and…compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23), and that they “must be born again” (John 3:7).

This isn’t some kind of “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” game we’re playing here. It’s urgent, a matter of life and death.

Eternal life. Eternal death.

And God’s way is the only way out.

God didn’t offer Lot’s sons-in-law the option of having their cake and eating it, too, by remaining in Sodom and being saved from His wrath. And it doesn’t work that way for us either. We don’t get to have Jesus and continue to rebel against Him by remaining in our sin.

Just as Lot’s sons-in-law could not survive God’s judgment any other way than fleeing the sin of Sodom and following God’s escape route, there is only one way we may escape. We must flee from our sin and into the forgiving arms of our crucified and risen Savior.

This is the gospel with which we must compel them. It is the only gospel that saves.

“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for. – C.H. Spurgeon.

Faith, Salvation

Layers

October 30, 2012August 21, 2024 Michelle Lesley

And one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet and pleaded with Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come, that by coming, You may lay Your hands on her, so that she will be saved and live.” And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” But Jesus, overhearing what had been spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. And they came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly crying and wailing. And entering in, He said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and crying? The child has not died, but is asleep.” And they began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. And taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”). And immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that some food should be given to her to eat.

Mark 5:22-24, 35-43

Did you see it?

The wall in my bedroom isn’t painted very well. It’s obvious that someone rolled on a dusty rose color, but I can also see through that layer of paint to an underlying cream color. I have to take a moment and really look at it, but it’s there. Two distinct, yet bonded, layers of paint.

Do you see the two layers to this story? Take a moment. Really look at it.

There’s the obvious top layer:

Here is a daddy who loves his little girl. She’s dying. He’s in anguish.

Here is a Savior who has compassion on both father and daughter. He raises her back to life, and there is great rejoicing in their home.

Jesus, our Messiah, has the power to heal. Power over death. He is exactly who He claims to be: God in human flesh.

But look more closely. Do you see it?

This isn’t just a story about a nameless little girl in first century Israel. It’s about us and the strikingly beautiful story of salvation.

Here is a little girl. Not a son, so highly prized among the Israelites in that day and age, but a daughter. Virtually valueless, except to her father.

There was nothing intrinsically worthy in her to earn Christ’s favor or attention. She had no wealth, no position, no power, nothing to offer anyone. And on top of that, she was dead.

But her father loved her for no other reason than that she was his, and he was willing to lay down everything he had to save her. He sacrificed his dignity. He risked His reputation and laid aside His position of authority. All for the love of this child—a child whose past had offered him nothing but childishness and disobedience. A child whose future promised the same.

Do you see it?

We are that little girl. Valueless. Unworthy. Childish. Disobedient. Dead.

And for no other reason than our Father’s love for us, Christ comes to us when we cannot come to Him, and raises us from the dead.

And you were dead in your transgressions and sins… But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:1, 4-7

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.

Faith, Gospel, Salvation, Sin

Risque Business: Or, How an Adult Product Company Provided Some Very Interesting Content for my Blog

July 21, 2012February 17, 2015 Michelle Lesley

I received a hilarious e-mail today. Was it a video of a cute and bumbling puppy? No. A clever joke or anecdote? No. A funny political cartoon? No.

It was actually a piece of spam from an up and coming …shall we say… “adult” products company.

Normally, I would just roll my eyes that my spam filter didn’t catch it and simultaneously click delete, but due to the fact that there were no pictures in it nor a subject line that would raise a red flag, I didn’t realize what it was until I started reading it.

This company wasn’t trying to sell me one of their products, they wanted me to review one of their products.

On my blog.

Which sent me into hysterical fits of laughter.

The company wants to provide me “with the opportunity to write interesting content for [my] site.” And, “If this project goes smoothly, there are probably other ways we could work together as well.”

Do tell.

No, on second thought, don’t.

Sorry, my friend, I’ve already got the most interesting content on the planet for my site.

I’ve got a God-man who came to earth, lived for three decades without ever committing a single sin in thought, word, or behavior, turned water into wine, healed blind eyes, deaf ears, crippled limbs, and broken minds, fed tens of thousands of people from one plate of food, and spoke the wisest words that have ever been uttered.

And to top that all off, He willingly let His own community butcher him. Why? For billions of rebellious people who hate Him. So that He might set them free and rescue them from an excruciating eternity.

Oh, and then there’s that bit about Him coming back to life.

My reply to the spam e-mail I received was this:

I’m just curious, have you actually read my blog? Take a look and let me know whether you still think it’s a fit for your product: (web address)

I truly hope my e-mail makes it through and is actually read by someone. Because it turns out that “Brian” at the adult product company was right. They did give me the opportunity to write interesting content for my site: the Gospel.

And, Brian, if you want to discuss this interesting content more, get in touch and we’ll chat. I believe you have my e-mail address :0) “If this project goes smoothly, there are probably other ways we could work together as well.”