This year was the first year that I attended RUF Summer Conference at Laguna Beach, Florida.

It was awesome. It was an entire week of learning, having fun, eating, and not getting enough sleep.

It was so awesome that I wanna take some time to recap some of the most significant things I learned while I was there–the first of those being what it means to “take up your cross” and to “die to yourself.”

I didn’t understand them because I didn’t understand what it meant to forgive others.  I always figured it was some happy zen moment where I would think, “I am at peace.  Therefore, I can forgive my brother/sister for his/her sin against me.”

Haha.  Yeah.  Right.

Forgiving others for their sins against me (or my loved ones) means I will never have the vengeance I want for what they’ve done, and that sucks.  The pain of knowing that I can’t make that person pay is there to give me a glimpse into what God felt when he came down as Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.

God gave up his right to vengeance by forgiving us so that we could know his love for us and it cost him a lot to do it.  Therefore, in my love for others, I should also “take up my cross” and “die to myself”–even for those who I don’t think deserve it (Colossians 1:21-22, Romans 7:4).

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll never be able to confront others for their sins, because even though our sins are forgiven before God, He still disciplines us out of love for us.  But that’s a topic for another blog post.

The Bible is pretty explicit about homosexual acts being a sin.

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.  (Leviticus 18:22 ESV)

…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.  (Romans 1:26-27 ESV)

Clear enough, right?

But Jesus commands us to love one another (John 13:34-35).  He even goes so far as to tell us to love our enemies (Luke 6:27-36).

I like to think that a lot of us of the younger generation aren’t homophobes, Christian or no.  But the general sentiment among older folks (from my experience) is that homosexual people are enemies of the church, thus they should be reviled and hated.

In part 1 of this series, I used this definition for an idol:  A good thing that has been turned into a god thing which is a bad thing.  That is, to do anything to glorify anything other than our Creator is to commit idolatry (see Romans 1:25)

And so I would like to ask that by reviling and hating homosexual people, what exactly are these people trying to glorify?

Is It Idolatry?  Part 1

[ image by ShilpuClicks ]

Soooo…I try not to post my thoughts on theology in the public domain too often.  This is because I am by no means a fancy theologian.  Regardless, this is an issue that’s been bouncing around in my head for a really long time now and I think it warrants discussing.

Mark Driscoll gave a lecture/preached about Ministry Idolatry at Advance09.  His key points included the following:

• Idols are often good things turned into god things which are bad things
• To idolize one thing is to demonize another

I realize this controversy is a wee bit…played out, but it’s still current nevertheless.  This may not even be a very original thought.

So here’s the question I’ll be trying to tackle for this next series of posts:  Has the Western church turned heterosexuality into an idol?

I will by no means be trying to make an authoritative statement on the matter.  It’s more like thinking out loud–and I’m asking you all to help me along with the process.

“Jesus saves.”

I don’t like this phrase. I think it fails to capture the bigger, more beautiful picture that surrrounds Jesus’ death and resurrection.  I think it would be appropriate to say that Jesus saved.  If you think of it that way, the issue goes beyond whether or not Jesus can save you.  The question becomes whether or not you’re willing to accept salvation on His terms.

By accepting that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, you acknowledge that

• You are inherently flawed
• Your sins can not be atoned for through any human act
• God’s plan is infinitely bigger and more important than yours (i.e. you revolve around Him, not the other way around)
• Because He has forgiven us for our sins through the death of Jesus, there is nothing He cannot ask of you
• There is no satisfaction in life outside of God

I’m sure there’s more to be added to that list, but I’ll just leave it at that for now.

This scares a lot of people because they feel like they are giving up all autonomy in their life for a God whose existence they are not even certain about.  Paradoxically, there is much freedom to be found in accepting these so-called restraints.

I want you to think about something you’re really passionate about doing.  Maybe you’re a musician or an athlete.  To become good at either of those, you have to practice regularly and in a disciplined manner or else you’re doomed to fail at it (or be mediocre, at best).  They place obligations and restrictions upon themselves so that they can thrive. But one can also say that if they truly loved their craft, they aren’t really obligations or restrictions at all.

The same goes for when you’re in love with someone.  You give up a lot of the freedoms that you would have had if you remained single, but it’s not a big deal.  In fact, you give up those freedoms with great joy because you know you’ve got something that’s worth it.

By giving your autonomy over to God and repenting for your sins, you gain more freedom in knowing that you have been forgiven an your place in His kingdom has been secured. You don’t have to be perfect, but that doesn’t give you the excuse not to try.  Just because you’re forgiven does not mean you are not accountable.  When you disobey God, you do have to face the consequences of it.  However, those consequences are the direct result of your actions.  If you play with fire, you get burnt.  If you drank too much last night, you’re gonna wake up with a hangover (and possibly someone undesirable in your bed next to you).  God doesn’t punish you for your sins–you do.

When you accept that you have to give God control of your life, you accept that you now have a purpose to fulfill–a purpose that will matter in the long-run.  You are now an instrument of the biggest mission on Earth–bringing people closer to God.

Jesus doesn’t save.  He’s already saved us.  It’s only a matter of taking the plunge.

Last weekend, the some of the ladies of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship got together for an all-girls’ fondue night. There was a lot of great discussion about the Scripture and some of our different takes on what the Bible had to say. One topic in particular really stood out to me, though, and it was about how time is perceived. Well, to be more specific, how God perceived time.

One of the girls there believes that everything in time has already happened and is set in stone. God sees the past, present, and future simultaneously (comparable to how Dr. Manhattan sees time). I think the gist of what she said is that God has meticulously planned every event in time and that each one has a purpose and that this belief is very Calvinistic in nature.

However, I don’t think it’s true. The primary reason for this is the fact that a Hell exists. Now, if God purposely made some people to be nonbelievers, would it not be hypocritical of Him to allow those people to end up there after death? Also, He calls us to spread the word to others so that they may also be redeemed in the eyes of God (and not end up in Hell). Evangelism would be pretty pointless if everything was set in stone already, wouldn’t it? I just have a hard time believing that God would plan for us to fall into sin (not to be confused with Him letting us fall into sin. See Luke 15:11-32).

So what do I believe regarding this? Well, have any of you seen the movie Push? If you haven’t, then you’re better off for it. It was a terrible movie. But anyway, in the movie, there are these people called “watchers” who are able to see into the future. However, the future is constantly subject to change due to…well, stuff happening. So whenever someone makes a decision to do something, the image of their projected future changes a bit.

I’m not saying that God doesn’t intervene into our lives at all, but He doesn’t necessarily dictate every moment of it. Instead, He manipulates the events happening around and to us based on our decisions. Now, if we were all to obey God’s every command like we were supposed to, then I would find the hypothesis that everything that happens in the world was planned by Him to be a bit more believable.

But anyway, that’s the end of that spiel. I’m pretty tired, so I’m not sure how much of this is going to sound logical. I’ll probably revise it tomorrow.