Exhibit A:

Tony Jones.  Heard of him?  Leading “emergent church” guy.  Turns out Tony is taking a stand on the homosexual, gay, lesbian agenda:

“I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state.”

You can read the full article here.

Prepare your minds for action!

Ok, RS gang.  You know we talk a lot about discernment.  And we challenge you to “think” and “dig” and grab hold of those “rocksolid” truths and principles of God’s Word and the historic, orthodox faith - and hang on, right?

Well, hang on friends, because the truth is, many of your friends and my friends - um…”christian” friends that is…are likely much closer to dangerous doctrine than they are aware.

The evangelical american church as we know it has been undergoing slow but steady shifts in the last decade. (And longer obviously…) But “movements” have trajectory.  And sooner or later, it will be made clear if you really have a rocksolid foundation on truth and God’s Word or if you are drifting with a progressive, postmodern culture.

We have to stay engaged and be discerning what I’m calling the “liberal slide”.  Call it what you will.  But it’s a move away from Truth.

And some of you (or your parents, friends, youth pastors, et al) may be reading books by guys who are doing the Liberal Slide…all the way off the pages of Scripture.  In the name of “love, grace, relevance, etc…”  It’s twisted.  It’s not love.  WARNING:  Do not be deceived.

Along these same lines, there’s an excellent post titled: What to Do When Your College Goes Liberal: Some Thoughts From Someone Whose Been There from RS worship leader/new blogger/stud:  Carey McPherson over at the Paul & Timothy Blog.  These guys have started a great thing, very needed in the church today and there’s several great posts over there.  Carey’s latest deals with the liberal shift that takes place at Christian universities, seminaries, etc… It’s excellent and I highly recommend it.

aj

[HT: Justin Taylor]

I’ve received several questions from Christians young and old about Rob Bell.  Bell has authored several popular books including Velvet Elvis:  Re-painting the Christian Faith and Sex God, and also the well-known NOOMA videos.

I’m working on doing some more first hand research that I just haven’t gotten around to yet.  The little I’ve done (reading through his church’s website, reading from those I respect and generally share convictions with) leads me to think I’ll have similar concerns as these from a Pastor in California.

I’m interested if you have any thoughts?

More to come…

Stop.  Think.  Discern.  Grill session.

Unfortunately, this was far too often the case for me during my high school days.  I would discern something for what it was (sin/evil), choose not to be a part of it, and then lambaste my other Christian friends who were partaking fully in it.

In my defense, I believe my intentions were good, for I could see the havoc it was causing in their life and I so desperately wanted them to experience more than what they were calling “Christianity.”  But again and again I was faced with the question… “How do I handle this situation?”  A movie would get put in that I did not want to watch.  “Am I the only one who feels this way?  Should I speak up?  What do I do?  Get up and preach?  Stay but just not watch it?  Leave?” No matter what I did, it seemed, I would have to make a scene.  GRRHHHHH!!

Time and again I was faced with these situations.  Sometimes I handled them well, other times I didn’t.  But two things I was clear on…(1) compromise was not an option, and (2) I would not be held responsible for others choices when God returned to settle accounts.  In other words, I would be held responsible for my choices.

And again, these problems didn’t arise out of a long list of “things I don’t get to do because I’m a Christian,” (said with a role of the eyes and a drop in my voice like I was really missing out on something.)  Rather, it arose out of a genuine fear of God, a passionate desire to love Jesus more and the world less, to please Him in all I did, and to obey His Word.  For I truly believed that “By them (God’s commands) is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward!” (see Psalm 19:7-11)

So the tension exists…two weeks ago, by the grace of God, many of us had our hearts re-sensitized to the things God loves and the things God hates.
Many of us our now living with true Daniel-like vigilance in the guarding of our mind and heart.  And this is wonderful.  Praise the Lord.  Again I say, praise the Lord!

But then we all had to go home.  And for some, I’m guessing, you immediately ran into resistance by friends.  “What’d they do, brain-wash you at that camp?”  “Seriously, dude, lighten up, haven’t you ever heard of grace?”  “What are you now, holier-than-thou? Yeah right, I know what you’ve done before…you think one week makes all that go away?”  And on and on it comes.  And most of this, probably, coming from your “Christian” friends.

So what do you do?  How do you respond?  Where do you start?  While you were at Bible Boot Camp, they were home building mud-pies.  Now there seems to be a chasm between the way they’re living and the way you want to live.  Great, now what?

These are hard questions that will require much wisdom.  Two thoughts:

First, have you talked with your parents about it?  Share with them what you’re struggling with in your heart, and ask them how they would handle those situations.

Secondly, wrestle with this phrase…GRACE-FILLED DISCERNMENT.  What do you think that means?  How can you exercise the seemingly paradoxical nature of it?

Remember, it’s not enough to simply be RIGHT.  You can be RIGHT and be a JERK.  And it’s not enough to equate humility and grace with tolerance and liberalism.  That’s condemned by God’s Word too.  So how do you find the balance?  Chew on it and email us your thoughts, or situations you’ve found yourself in where grace-filled discernment was needed.  We’ll write more soon on some of our thoughts on applying G.F.D.

read.think.pray.live.

josh