Monthly Archives: October 2024

Amy E Hamilton—What We Need Now: My Father Give Me Bread: What the LGBTQ+ Community Needs from the Church

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As compelling and real a testimony as I have ever read. Here is Truth spoken in love with all of its power, complexities, and struggles. And it is applicable to so many other areas than sexuality—whatever the sin or sins that have enslaved us. This woman gets it—in spades. God bless her and God bless her testimony.

For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.

For the first time in many months, I had a conversation with God that went something like this: “God, I don’t know how I got here. But I can’t live without You. And if there’s any way You can bring me home, bring me home.” I had to return to the Father’s house. And just as in the parable, my Father was running to meet me.

My feelings, however, remained unchanged. I did not want to leave my lesbian life, yet I knew Jesus was calling me to lay that down. I was deeply conflicted and felt at an impasse. “I am a lesbian. If I am gay, how does one repent from who they are?” As I wrestled with this question, I providentially happened upon a television program on gay rights. Among the mainly gay-affirming messages, there was a brief portrayal of Christians who were leaving homosexuality behind to follow Christ. I was shocked. I had never heard of anyone like this. Unsurprisingly, they were being portrayed as fools. The interviewer grew impatient with one woman as she admitted her continued struggle: “Come on, all this God stuff, tell us the truth. Right now, if you could choose, who would you choose? Would you choose to be with a man or a woman?” Her reply? “I choose Jesus.”

And with those words, light streamed into my soul. I thought, “I can do that. That’swhat I can do. I choose Jesus. Because I cannot say that I would choose a man. One hundred percent of me would choose a woman. But I can choose to follow Christ in obedience. My sexual feelings do not have to define me. I choose Jesus.”

Thus I surrendered my sexuality to God and focused on following Him. In doing so, I never thought my attractions would even lessen in degree, and I fully expected to be single, celibate, and perhaps struggling with longings, for the rest of my mortal life. But I was willing to do it, because I knew Who was asking: “Lord, to whom else shall we go? You have the words of life.”

In those early days, my battle with temptation truly was fierce and felt constant. I had never really struggled with lust before, but now I did. I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it, and my determination to walk a different path was a white-knuckled one. In desperation, I began meditating on Jesus and the temptations in the desert. I contemplated how, after forty days, Jesus had legitimate hunger; however, He did not wrongly use His power to meet His needs. He refused to turn stones into bread. And it was after He resisted Satan’s offers that the ministry of the angels came. I called this to mind often as I struggled to wait on God.

My repentance was still fresh when the biggest temptation yet arrived in the mail—a card from my ex-girlfriend. Of course she would come back into my life now. “I’m being kicked while I’m down,” I told a friend, “here I am trying to follow Christ, and this is the one woman I can’t resist.” I finished my rant by declaring, “But I’m not going to do it. I will not turn these stones into bread.”

Read it all.

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Martin Davie: A review of Christopher and Richard Hays, The Widening of God’s Mercy

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I am always saddened when an orthodox Christian scholar plunges into apostasy. I am also grateful for scholars who still stand firm in the face of ever-increasing resistance. Here Martin Davie offers another excellent critique of the Hays’ new book. May God show them mercy and cause them to repent of their heresy.

For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.

In the rest of this review, I will work through the bullet points and conclusion in turn (they are the quotations in bold type) examining whether the argument set out in them, and in the book as a whole, is persuasive.

3. Bullet point 1 – the revision of biblical law.

‘Contrary to the common idea that biblical law was written once, in stone, and is unchangeable, the actual biblical story of God and humanity is one in which laws are under constant negotiation and revision. Often different law collections in the Torah say different things about the same topics. There are also stories of Moses rethinking laws when he was pressed by people with a good cause.’ (p.12)

With regard to this bullet point, the first thing to note is that there is precisely no evidence that the laws of God are a result of negotiation. Rather, God gives his laws sovereignly and unilaterally. As Psalm 1:2 puts it, it is ‘the law of the Lord’ given by God to Moses and by Moses to Israel.

Secondly, there is no evidence that God’s laws, having once been given, are then revised. They may be re-expressed in different language, as when Deuteronomy says things differently from the previous books of the Pentateuch, and they may be superseded by a new development in redemptive history as, for example, when the once for all offering of Christ supersedes the laws regarding sacrificial offerings (Hebrews 10:1-18). However, the laws themselves are never said to be revised. In the words of Psalm 119:89 ‘For ever, O Lord, thy word is fixed in the heavens.’

Thirdly, while it is correct to say that ‘different law collections in the Torah say different things about the same topics’ this does not mean that the laws in question contradict one another.  Rather, they complement one another.

Read it all.

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Saint John Chrysostom on Repentance

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Are you unhappy with your life? Do you have a real hunger for something more than this world offers, for peace, for meaning, for purpose of living? It all starts with repentance, a word that describes the decision to engage in the process of turning away from ourselves and our own selfish desires and turning toward God the Father, intentionally ordering our lives to be consistent with his will and the order of creation. It’s the only thing that will ultimately satisfy our deepest human desires and needs, counterintuitive as it seems. Here, Saint John Chrysostom, one of the great Fathers of the Church, tells us how we can start to truly repent of our sins and fallen desires so that the Lord can heal us. Repentance is very hard, but the rewards are even greater. Don’t take my word for it. Learn about the testimony of millions of Christians over time and culture who testify likewise.

For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.

Would you like me to list also the paths of repentance? They are numerous and quite varied, and all lead to heaven.

A first path of repentance is the condemnation of your own sins… [T]hat will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for if you condemn your own sins you are slower to commit them again.

…Another and no less valuable one is to put out of our minds the harm done us by our enemies, in order to master our anger, and to forgive our fellow servants’ sins against us. Then our own sins against the Lord will be forgiven us. Thus you have another way to atone for sin: ‘‘For if you forgive your debtors, your heavenly Father will forgive you.”

Do you want to know of a third path? It consists of prayer that is fervent, careful and comes from the heart.

If you want to hear of a fourth, I will mention almsgiving, whose power is great and far-reaching.

If, moreover, one lives a modest, humble life, that no less than the other things I have mentioned takes sin away. Proof of this is the tax-collector who had no good deeds to mention, but offered humility instead and was relieved of a heavy burden of sins.

Thus I have shown you five paths of repentance: condemnation of your own sins, forgiveness of our neighbor’s sins against us, prayer, almsgiving and humility.

Do not be idle, then, but walk daily in all these paths; they are easy, and you cannot plead your poverty. For, though you live out your life amid great need, you can always set aside your wrath, be humble, pray diligently and condemn your own sins; poverty is no hindrance. Poverty is not an obstacle to our carrying out the Lord’s bidding, even when it comes to that path of repentance which involves giving money (almsgiving, I mean). The widow proved that when she put her two mites into the box!

Now that we have learned how to heal those wounds of ours, let us apply the cures. Then, when we have regained genuine health, we can approach the holy table with confidence, go gloriously to meet Christ, the king of glory, and attain the eternal blessings through the grace, mercy and kindness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

—Homily on the Devil the Tempter 2, 6

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