It is reported that religious leaders in Ethiopia are pushing for a constitutional ban on homosexuality (link). While it is great that a nation would condemn sin, governmental action is not enough. The church needs to be active in preaching the true Gospel of repentance and faith in Christ. While the government does have a role in restraining sin, the primary responsibility for transforming the heart of the nation, so that sins like homosexuality will continue to be detestable, is on the ministers of God.
May God give Ethiopia greater reformation of its Christianity,
-TurretinFan
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
1 comment:
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10. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; and abstain from doing to others what you would not wish upon yourself.
With regard to any and all sin, the Church will do better when we raise up the Truth about getting rid of it Biblically and not philosophically or scientifically or by any other means being offered.
ReplyDeleteWe have all sinned. There is no sin greater or lessor in the eyes of God. Whatever separates and rebells against God is enough to cause the anger of God.
Psa 76:5 The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil; they sank into sleep; all the men of war were unable to use their hands.
Psa 76:6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned.
Psa 76:7 But you, you are to be feared! Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused?
Psa 76:8 From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still,
Psa 76:9 when God arose to establish judgment, to save all the humble of the earth. Selah
It is a natural phenomenon that we "lower than the angels" creatures, put emotional ties on a particular sort of sin making distinctions about one's sinning. Oh, how does that help the sinner struggling to be freed from such shame? It does not.
That is utter foolishness and unwise to make such distinctions before the Eyes of God.
No matter what sinful "problems" lurk underneath the skin of a sinner, the only solution to the pollution is not dilution, but absolution.
Now absolution does something when one is absolved thus solving the sin problem we all face in our life and lifetime.
One, dead in that particular sin, whatever it might be for you and me, is "made" alive in Christ. This is the only solution.
Christ is the only "life" giving Spirit afforded fallen mankind whereby one "must" be saved. Every other solution is a dilution and absolves and solves nothing in one's need for salvation from one's sin nature. It is death, squarely done to the sinner, burial, and then the resurrection power and life of Christ thereafter, daily, for the remainder of this life on earth and afterwards, Life forever more:::>
Rev 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
Rev 22:2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Rev 22:3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Life after death, that's what we are looking for. We are all dead in trespasses and sins and are particularly made alive ourself by the Hand of God. He is the One to do it. He hasn't given that task to anyone else!
1Co 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1Co 6:12 "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything.
1Co 6:13 "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"--and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
1Co 6:14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
That word in verse 14, "raised, raise" is:
ἐγείρω
egeirō
eg-i'-ro
Probably akin to the base of G58 (through the idea of collecting one’s faculties); to waken (transitively or intransitively), that is, rouse (literally from sleep, from sitting or lying, from disease, from death; or figuratively from obscurity, inactivity, ruins, nonexistence): - awake, lift (up), raise (again, up), rear up, (a-) rise (again, up), stand, take up.
That word in verse 14, "power" is:
δύναμις
dunamis
doo'-nam-is
From G1410; force (literally or figuratively); specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself): - ability, abundance, meaning, might (-ily, -y, -y deed), (worker of) miracle (-s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work.
The Ethiopia government and individuals with such governmental authority, will serve their nation well when they make sin big and Christ bigger and the only solution to all sinful natures Ethiopian!
The Gospel bears its own fruit the Apostle Paul wrote. It is working well there in Ethiopia too:::>
"....Col 1:6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,...."