Over the past week or so, there have been a few events that have challenged the thinking of Christians in North America, in the United States in particular. With the re-defining of what is a legal marriage in the eyes of the state, many Christians simply do not know what to think. Some celebrate equality, while others deplore how the state takes a different view of what marriage is than what the Christian Church understands it to be from God and His Word. And truthfully, some actually fit both of these descriptions, and that leaves many others wondering what to make of it all.
Then, on top of that kind of news, we also mourn as another racist shooting happens in a church building, in a place where racial tensions have run high for decades. We look around and see the hatred that some have toward people of different skin color, which likewise is contrary to the universal grace and compassion that our Lord would have us have toward others. In many respects, this leaves many Christians wondering about matters of their safety, even in their places of worship (and which challenges the old word used to describe the gathering place as a sanctuary).
In some ways, we are always having to react to the sinfulness of the world in which we live. There will never cease to be challenges to the Christian faith so long as sin, death, and the devil still exist. Our own nature will resist the things of God, and the devil continues to prowl around. And so we keep a wary eye, knowing that these kind of challenges really are nothing new. The Christian Church has faced them from the earliest of times.
At the same time, we do not stand idly by. This could mean many things. It could mean actively working to change the laws of this country, though I would suggest that such an attempt would be futile for the foreseeable future. But perhaps it also means that we extend a hand of grace out to those who may consider the Christian faith to be about a bunch of laws and rules. If we show that God's design for our lives is a good thing, but that God also reaches out with grace and forgiveness, we could possibly cause those who are opposed to God's way to reveal that they actually have a degree of intolerance about them.
Is it going to be easy? Will there be agreement throughout the Christian church as to how to go about this? No. And yet, one thing stands sure. Our unchanging God, who has forgiven the world in the death and resurrection of Jesus, has withstood even greater challenges than these. He has promised that His Church will endure, no matter what the devil and the world may throw at it. Nothing can remove us from the nail-pierced hands of our Savior, even if the worst should come to pass in our nation.
Then, on top of that kind of news, we also mourn as another racist shooting happens in a church building, in a place where racial tensions have run high for decades. We look around and see the hatred that some have toward people of different skin color, which likewise is contrary to the universal grace and compassion that our Lord would have us have toward others. In many respects, this leaves many Christians wondering about matters of their safety, even in their places of worship (and which challenges the old word used to describe the gathering place as a sanctuary).
In some ways, we are always having to react to the sinfulness of the world in which we live. There will never cease to be challenges to the Christian faith so long as sin, death, and the devil still exist. Our own nature will resist the things of God, and the devil continues to prowl around. And so we keep a wary eye, knowing that these kind of challenges really are nothing new. The Christian Church has faced them from the earliest of times.
At the same time, we do not stand idly by. This could mean many things. It could mean actively working to change the laws of this country, though I would suggest that such an attempt would be futile for the foreseeable future. But perhaps it also means that we extend a hand of grace out to those who may consider the Christian faith to be about a bunch of laws and rules. If we show that God's design for our lives is a good thing, but that God also reaches out with grace and forgiveness, we could possibly cause those who are opposed to God's way to reveal that they actually have a degree of intolerance about them.
Is it going to be easy? Will there be agreement throughout the Christian church as to how to go about this? No. And yet, one thing stands sure. Our unchanging God, who has forgiven the world in the death and resurrection of Jesus, has withstood even greater challenges than these. He has promised that His Church will endure, no matter what the devil and the world may throw at it. Nothing can remove us from the nail-pierced hands of our Savior, even if the worst should come to pass in our nation.
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