In NC, there is much controversy over the proposed Marriage Amendment. Following is a post by a dear friend and sister in Christ on on this topic. Definitely worth sharing!!!
Marriage amendment exposition
by Jennifer McGee Porter on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 4:11am ·
I have finally reached my limit of self-control on the marriage amendment postings. I have closed apps, quickly scrolled past postings, and turned off the iPad at times in an effort to keep my tongue in check, but there is certainly an overwhelming tugging in my spirit to say something. I suppose this is just a glimpse of what Jesus mentions in Luke 19:38-40. As He came into the city (on what we now know as Palm Sunday) a crowd of His disciples began to shout “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
“I tell you,” He replied, “IF THEY KEEP QUIET, THE STONES WILL CRY OUT.” (emphasis mine)
I feel like we are in the midst of the same scene repeated thousands of years later. What’s the old adage, “if you don’t learn from it, you’re doomed to repeat it”?
Once again, to draw a line in the sand and voice an opinion outside of the “social norm”, particularly in accordance with biblical principles, is met with fists shaking at the sky in hopes that, perhaps THIS time, He will “rebuke His disciples!”
He didn’t then and, based on the authority of scripture, I’d be willing to chance that He’d repeat the same retort:
“I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Why?
Because the truth is still the truth, whether you agree with it or not. You can either say it, or creation will shout it for you.
I can say with some certainty that anyone who has opened the Bible has chanced across at least a dozen verses that have stepped all over our proverbial toes. It’s unsettling. At times it’s even rankling, if we’d dare to be honest. We try to skim past. We pride ourselves in our high-brow, intellectualized attempts at justifying to the “feeble minded” that it was just for that time, but not applicable now. We try to play author AND editor in speaking by assumed authority on what He must’ve meant or intended to “imply”. We even try to fool ourselves into believing that if we *choose* not to believe it to be that way, it must not be true! We turn phrases like “My God is a loving God and He would never….” or “Your God is hateful and closed-minded!”….
How do I know this? Because I was once one of those too….and now the error in that vein of thinking is almost more than I can sit back in indifference over. Romans 1:21-22 says:
“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.”
Folks, there is no “your God” or “my God” – there is THE GOD. Only He gets to be Author and Editor. Only He gets to set laws and truth. You don’t have to believe or accept them anymore than you have to believe in gravity, but it doesn’t change the truthfulness in question and (thankfully) God doesn’t need our validation.
Shocked? Offended? Don’t be!
This is one of the most extravagant ways He loves us: He doesn’t NEED us for one single thing. Not one. This doesn’t mean He thinks us trivial and expendable – quite the contrary. Think of it this way: We don’t have children because we NEED children…we have children because we WANT children and we want TO LOVE them. Our Heavenly Father is different only in the sense that His love for us is at a magnitude beyond our comprehension. So no, He doesn’t NEED us…He WANTS a relationship with us and LOVES us beyond our wildest imaginations. How could His track record show anything less than all-surpassing love and care for us?
-We are called His prized creations (James 1:18), even though we daily defy His laws and smear His name.
– He left a throne of splendor, glory, adulation, and endless praise for what? Here, He likely wore blisters on His feet from being constantly on the move in His ministry (Luke 4:43), yet He washed the disciples feet as a servant would (John 13:4-5). The only care He received was from a sinful woman who washed them in tears (Luke 7:37-38).
– He suffered the fatigue of constant crowds with constant needs (Luke 4:42) and constant opposition (Luke 4:29; 5:17,21) , yet was still moved to tears when others were hurting (Luke 7:13; John 11:35-36)
– He loved the unloveable (Luke 5:30-32)- the reviled, the outcasts, the lepers, the unclean, the prostitutes, the demoniacs, the thieves, the adulterers, etc. – but was hated most by the very ones who were anxiously awaiting His arrival (Luke 5:17; Mark 3:6).
– He faced constant temptation, even in keeping His own limitless divinity in check.
– How much easier to allow a single thought to fulfill all the requests made of Him versus the difficulty in being obedient to the Father and to His ultimate Kingdom plan/timeline? (Luke 4:43-44)
– How much easier to show His glory and call legions of angels to eradicate those who sought to kill Him versus the difficulty of enduring a hellacious scourging, intense labor, debilitating blood loss, and HOURS of excruciating pain….for the very ones that put Him there (Luke 23)?
No, those aren’t rocks in my pockets….those are just the sins I’ve accumulated since noon…so I’m not speaking as one above the rest, by any account. However, I think we can agree that anyone willing to go to those lengths must have an incomparable love for us. I think it’s also fair to say that anyone willing and able to go to those lengths, out of the immensity of His love, must surely have our best interests at heart. Translation? Any laws He has set down before us can only be for our good and any fences He has put up are only for our protection. Is it not the same as we do for our own children? We don’t cage them up to keep them from freedom and secured snugly under our thumb! Likewise, we don’t turn them loose at a busy intersection for fear of “imposing” on their freedom! Instead, we open the door and let them run out into the backyard, where we’re still able to see them from the window and they’re safe within the fence. How much different is God than this? He sets the parameters and asks for our obedience because He cares deeply for us. We’re welcome to step outside the fence, but it is to our own detriment, even when we can’t see it. (See 1 John 5:3; Deut 4:40; 5:29,33; 6:17-18; 7:12-14; 10:12-13; and Psalm 119)
So it is with the marriage amendment – To support it is not to be a hate-mongering bigot or a simple minded Bible-thumper. It is being obedient to the parameters set out by a loving God for the benefit of His children. To label that support as anything else is reckless and self-serving. Furthermore, to add “fear factors” to sway the argument (such as loss of domestic violence protection, loss of child custody, etc.) is baseless and misleading. I no longer choose to sit idly by in silence while obedience to God’s Word is misconstrued as being judgmental, detrimental, and hate-filled. Isaiah 5:20 says:
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Also, in 2 Peter 3:3, 16-18:
Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. Some of his (Paul’s) comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.
Bottom line for our family is this: God created us and is the Author and Creator of marriage, therefore He gets to define it….and He has. It’s not for me to change or to question. Isaiah 29:16 says:
“How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and He is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the One who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The Potter who made me is stupid”?
So once again we find ourselves facing a line in the sand….but on which side will you stand? Because I love Him, I will keep His commandments (John 14:15). You certainly don’t have to agree with me, but I’ve had my fill of the new characterizations given to Christians lately based upon their willingness to go against the grain.
Bottom line?
I voted FOR the amendment because I had the opportunity to stand up for the One who hung on a tree for me.
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
(Josh 24:15)
eGirls 