WHAT'S A CHRISTIAN TO DO?

The Real Problem With Anti-gay Comments from Duck Dynasty's Daddy Phil

First, why is Phil Robertson in GQ Magazine?  Anyone take a look at how Phil dresses and grooms (or more accurately, 'doesn't' groom) himself?   I've been reading GQ for many years and 'Redneck Sheik' has never been acceptable for GQ, so why now?  It just goes to show you that GQ is more likely to appeal to guys who are, well, into other guys sexually.  Sure there are the few guys who really are 'Metrosexuals', but I've always believed, and have seen ample evidence, that for many the prefixes, "Metro" and "homo" are more likely to be interchangable.   But before opening that can of worms further, let's get to the point...

Is Phil Robertson being true to the gospel of Jesus Christ or is he simply another in a long line of hateful religious jerks?   Technically, Phil is absolutely right.  Homosexuality is called a sin in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments.   Telling the truth about sin is one things, but we're told in John's gospel the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  (John 1:17).   Am I just bantering semantics here or is there something really different between what God brings through Moses, and what Christ brings when he comes on the world scene as the God/man?

It isn't simply a matter of semantics there is a vast difference between the Law of Moses, and the "...law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus..." (Romans 8:2).   With the Law of Moses comes death.  The only answer the law gives for sin is death.   In Leviticus 18:22 we're given perhaps the most damning of all pronouncements against homosexuality in the Bible.   "You shall not lie with mankind as with woman kind: it is abomination."  (Leviticus 18:22, KJV).   The proscribed punish for breaking the law spelled out in Leviticus 18:22 and again in Leviticus 20:13, is death.   "Do not pass 'GO', do not collect $200, go straight to Hell."  All the law can do, through Moses, is kill.  The Holy Spirit, through St. Paul, explains it to us... "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Simply put, "No one, having sinned, can expect good from the Law of Moses.

Now if we stop at the Law of Moses then Phil Robertson's comments would be perfectly acceptable.   Well, Phil's comment would actually be wrong, because all his comments do is  cause God's judgment to come upon Phil.  Phil by merely pointing out the sin of homosexuality condemns himself.   Phil is calling out sin, by pointing to the Law of Moses, but we know that Phil is a sinner himself.  Phil even admits he was a sinner, before coming to Jesus Christ for salvation.   Was Phil saved by keeping the Law of Moses?   He was not saved by through the Law of Moses.   Phil plainly confesses that he is a sinner, and alluded to Jesus Christ being his savior.   The problem with, or for, Phil is that he's a hypocrite.  He points to the Law of Moses when speaking of the sins of LGBT persons while at the same time saying he was saved by Jesus Christ.   Either we all live (and die) the law, or when offered, we accept salvation and the lordship of Jesus Christ.  Christ followers can't have it both ways.   We go with the law or we go with grace and truth.   There cannot be grace and truth, through Jesus Christ, for Phil, while Phil pulls out the law on LGBT persons.   If Phil gets grace and truth, then so do LGBT persons.

Now someone will say to me, "Yes, but Phil is only pointing out the truth, that God condemns homosexuality."   That sounds good and proper, but in the end it doesn't work.  First, let me reiterate, the Law of Moses only has one answer for sin: DEATH.   Where is the grace in the Law of Moses?   There is no grace in the law.   Second, we're told in John 1 that in addition to grace Jesus brings truth.   Now  many will argue that the Law of Moses is truth.   How can anyone argue that the Law God gave Moses isn't truth?    The Law is for law breakers, that's why God gave the law through Moses.  The Law of Moses is sent not to task humans, but to show humans that they are past, present and future law breakers, and completely enslaved to sin, without hope of ever being anything else.

The grace and truth of Jesus Christ are the new law, The Law of the Spirit of Life.   The grace and truth of Jesus Christ is eternal life, eternal freedom, and eternal relationship with the triune God, and his born again children.  These children are born of the same Spirit who created Jesus' body in Mary's womb.  (Jesus has always existed as the second person of the God head, but only as spirit with the rest of the God head).

What does this new law mean for me, a person guilty of abomination, according to Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.   The Law of Moses means death to me, but bring the grace and truth of Jesus Christ to this  life ending law and suddenly what once gave death becomes something new.   Before God drew me to his Son, and the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come, I was a hopeless and helpless lawbreaker.    But when God found me, and by his prevenient grace enabled me to make the first freewill choice I'd ever truly made in my life.  When I'd accepted God's forgiveness and grace by faith, then God made me born again, transforming me from a dead lawbreaking slave to a new spiritual creation in the likeness and image of Christ Jesus.  The truth of God in Jesus Christ always frees; the truth of God in Christ always brings eternal life; the truth of God in Jesus Christ always brings eternal relationship with God and his new creation children, the  Church.

When I was a dead slave to sin, what we might call a zombie today I was an object of destruction.  I treated other men as objects of my lust, and objects to be used sexually.  I also accepted that  I was a thing to be lusted for and used sexually.  And like mere objects we were meant to be thrown away after being used up.   With the salvation and Lordship of Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).    In Christ The Holy Spirit has made me alive to God.  In Christ I am not a thing of lust, I am a beautiful humanized creation enabled to love and serve God.  I am free to turn away from lust and the abomination I'd created with my sexual immorality.   No longer does Leviticus 18:22 give me death.  Leviticus 18:22 is now a continual reminder that God has made me free, that God has overcome me, my sin, my sin nature, and the power of the world to conform me to the life of a slave to sin.   There is no death in Leviticus 18:22 for me, now there is the joy of being made new, clean, and free by God.

I cannot agree with Phil Robertson, Duck Commander, or not.  Papa Phil isn't telling the truth of God in Christ.  For the truth of God in Christ is freedom from sin, not judgment and eternal punishment.  Anyone who gives the Law of Moses without the truth and grace of Jesus Christ, is not telling the truth at all.   When we give law, but not grace and truth we  cover the face of Christ; we bury the truth under a pile of rules none of us can keep; when we give law we deny the slave the face of the merciful, loving, and gracious master who frees slaves and then adopts them into the very family of the only true God.    The Law condemns but the grace and truth of Jesus Christ always brings life, hope, peace, and eternal relationship with God.

There are not enough words to express my great gratitude for you and your husband.   What you are doing is the work of God and shall prove it to you.

Not long after salvation I started work at the soup kitchen my church had opened in one the poorest and dangerous parts in my home town.  God had saved me and pulled me out of homosexuality.   But simply saving me didn't fix the brokenness in me.   Saved or not I didn't know how God take out of me all the "abomination" I had chosen to give myself.  You know the "abomination" of which I speak don't you?   Leviticus 18: 22,  

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

 I was filled with fear, hopelessness, bitterness, and the rejection of my fellow Christians.  When I told my first pastor about my past I thought I was telling him about the most amazing freedom God had already worked into my life.  The night Jesus Christ saved me he showed me what he was offering through eternal relationship with him.  I had a little vision of this small silver wrapped box, with a beautiful silver bow holding closed.   So real was this vision that I simply asked, out loud to, an empty room, "What's in the box?"   Immediately words seemed to well out of a place within me.  I didn't sense the thought originated in my mind.   It was a simple thought, but it destroyed my life in homosexuality as sure as nuclear bombs obliterate all life.   The thought said, "This is My gift to you:  Unconditional love, unconditional understanding and unconditional acceptance.   (What Jesus meant by unconditional acceptance didn't mean Jesus affirmed that he created me to be gay.   Jesus accepted just as I was, and he would take the sin out of me.)    BUT HOW?!  How can even God change an abomination into a child of God?!!   

A couple of years later God sent me to work in the soup kitchen my church ran in one of the worst and most dangerous neighborhoods in my home town.   Ministering at that soup kitchen was incredibly difficult to do.  I didn't look down on the patrons of the little soup kitchen because I'd made my life an abomination, so I certainly could condemn anyone else.   There actually was one group of frequent visitors: the hookers.   

The worst hooker was a woman I always call "Lilly".   Lilly had AIDS, but she kept selling sex.  At first I hoped God might have sent me to be in the right place to catch Lilly in the act of selling sex to someone, so I could turn her in and then act as witness against her in a court of law.   Lilly just needed to be thrown in jail to save lives.   

Instead Lilly became the key to unlocking how God can free a man who'd made himself an abomination.   Lilly was the hardest human I'd ever met.  There was nothing of human spark in her.   When she looked at me there was never any recognition in them.   She show me she hated me, and she didn't try to sell me her wares.   There was nothing in the eyes looking at me.  She was seeing through me.   She deserved whatever punish came her way, including Hell.    The evidence of her life condemned her.   Lilly never spoke to me once in the 4.5 years I ministered the gospel at that little soup kitchen.  I did have the chance to hear parts of the stories other hookers talked about among themselves.    Some of those hookers were very bold saying right to you face.  "I do this (prostitution) cause I love sex and I love money."   Funny thing was I'd over hear them talking about how they hated men and that all men are pigs and dogs.   For people who loved money and sex they hated the men who supplied them with both. 

One of the greatest things God taught me through hookers is:   Hooker might love sex and money but they hate men using their bodies.   Money changes nothing, no one wants to be made into an object for other people to use, abuse, and throw away.   Actor Charlie Sheen said it the best: "I don't pay prostitutes for sex I pay them to leave."  

as I overheard pieces and parts of the hooker's life stories I was able to piece together their early lives.   The men and women who should have loved and cherished them raped, beat, prostituted them for money or drugs.  To survive these women took control of their own lives and did the only thing they knew how to do.   The most important people in their lives treated them like so much garbage.  For some of these women if they'd stayed where they came from they'd have ended up dead and literally thrown their dead bodies into dumpsters or shallow graves.   I started seeing the hooker's lives in a very different light.   One day when Lilly came in God powered more light on situation.   This thought welled up from inside me,  "I want Lilly to be my daughter.  I never intended men to use, abuse, disease, and then throw her life in a dumpster, like so much trash."    God loved Lilly!  God wanted Lilly to become his beloved child.   The people who should have loved and treasured Lilly treated her body like it was a trash can.   All Lilly did was embrace the message her abusers given her, "You are a trashcan."  Lilly went out and continued the use and abuse of herself living up to the identity her abusers had given her; TRASHCAN.   Not only did Lilly trash herself, but she trashed every man she could get her hands on.   They used Lilly as a trash can, she trashed the men who used her, and the men who used her, likewise, trashed themselves with her.   

Another great lesson God taught me through hookers:  The person who objectifies, uses, and abuses other people makes himself into an object.   It is impossible to make a fellow human being into an object, for lust and use without being made a similar object by lusting and using.   

This understanding was the key to God teaching me about Leviticus 18:22
This thought welled up from inside me,  "Lonnie you are not an abomination.   

"I have saved you and you are no longer a "thing to be used."  I have created in you a new human life.  You are the object of my love and fatherly pride.   You are not a "thing" you are my child in and through Jesus, my Son.   I have taken away all that you were, and that includes the abomination.   I have taken all you are and placed it upon my Son hanging on a cross.   I have taken all the worth, beauty, holiness, righteousness, and perfection of my Son; my very heart and all of my wealth, and placed it on you.   You are no longer a thing for I have made you alive, free, and clean."  

THAT IS LEVITICUS 18:22, not as it was given through Moses, but rather through the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.   I love Leviticus 18:22, for in Christ the law which killed me has become the life giving law of the Spirit of Life.   I'm not a thing to be killed by the law, I am a child of God made brand new so that instead of being an object of destruction I am made new for eternal  life and eternal relationship with God and his other former
 abominations.   "God gives beauty for ashes..."

Keep giving this man God.  Your friend is called to relationship with the beauty of God (grace).   Your friend has lots of ashes, but the beauty of God you give through acceptance, understanding, and God's world overcoming love will utter consume all his ashes.

This is an excerpt from the book I am writing:  EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT GOD'S LOVE HE TAUGHT ME THROUGH HOOKERS
    

  

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EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK

EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK

FROM CHAPTER 5

“This leads to another realization God taught me through hookers:  Whether conservative or liberal, Christians don’t want to deal with the brokenness in sexually broken people.  Condemning and merely swallowing sins are different sides of the same coin.  The truth is we don’t want to deal with “those” people.

Condemnation and acceptance are the way we get past, around, or avoid people Jesus came to serve and save.  The Religious Right removes Jesus Christ from his cross so the sinner may be crucified in his place.  The Religious Left removes Jesus from the cross, because where there is no sin there is no need of a suffering savior.  Jesus says in Matthew 23:13, “You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.  You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”  And again in Matthew 23:24 , Jesus says, “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”  Sexually broken people deserve the opportunity and invitation to know, “…Jesus and him crucified.”  Condemnation and acceptance add up to the same thing:  People  are refused Christ.  When we deflect broken people through condemnation or acceptance of sin then we, without thinking, have shut the door of heaven in the faces.  We are tying up heavy burdens for these people because we demand they free themselves, or by demanding that they merely accept their sin because of the specious argument that “nature” made them that way.  Their sin is to heavy for the to carry, but Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  We can’t say to the hooker “Lilly”, or the LGBT person at work or school, “You made the choice, so make a different choice,”  and we also can’t simply say, “Well God just made you this way, so you need to just accept that.”   Jesus says the opposite of what Both the Religious Right and Religious Left say.   Jesus came to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven and to take away the heavy burden. “

Can you help a brother out?   Does it make sense?   Are you getting the gist of what’s written here?    Do you agree or disagree, and why do you agree or disagree?    Do you think  the verses from Matthew 23 fit the context or can rightly be fitted to the context of the excerpt?

I’d honestly appreciate your input!!

Forgive the formatting error, I don’t know how I did it and I don’t know how to fix it.

THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE I WANT TO KILL...

There are some Christians...I really want to kill...No, not kill...That's not what Jesus really taught, is it?  So what did Jesus teach?

²¹ From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

 ²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

 ²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

Matthew 16:21-27 (NIV)

Okay, but what does that have to do with wanting to kill certain people?  Well, it should be obvious, as a Christian, there are no people I want to literally kill.   I bare no people group or individual a wish or plan for their death.  What I'd like is for my fellow Christians to die, of free choice, the way Jesus teaches we must die.  Now some well meaning Christian will say something like, "Yes, Jesus is telling us to come and die with him on his cross."
  
In Matthew 16:21-27 Jesus ISN'T teaching about his cross.  If Jesus had been speaking about his cross he would never have said, "...take up your cross, and follow..."  No one, except Jesus, could carry or die on the cross of Jesus Christ.  ONLY ONE HUMAN IN ALL OF HISTORY...past, present, and future could die on the cross of Jesus Christ...JESUS CHRIST.  Now it is true, we are taught in Scripture, that we have been crucified with Christ, but again, Matthew 16:21-27, IS NOT where Jesus is teaching that we die with him on his cross.  DO NOT MAKE THE TERRIBLE MISTAKE OF ASSUMING... Remember what ASSUME means... (you make an "ass" out of "u" and someone named "MMM")

Now what exactly; precisely; specifically is Jesus talking about when he tells us, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me..." Vs. 24??!!   The answer to this is very easy...What comes right before Jesus' commands to "deny", "take up," and "follow" in Matthew 16:24?? 

 ²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

 ²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Someone explain to me, please, how Jesus is talking about dying on his cross, when clearly; without any doubt; it's obvious Jesus is addressing Simon Peter's rebuke, and Simon Peter's opposition to Father God's purpose, plan, and perfect will for Jesus??!!   Jesus isn't pulling this lesson out of thin air.  Jesus is directly addressing Peter's self-centered, self-serving, and utterly human (satanic!!) way of thinking!   Someone is going to say to me, "NOW HOLD ON ONE MINUTE!!!  JESUS IS SIMPLY REBUKING PETER..."   That is absolutely and utterly unsupportable by what the text says!!  If Jesus is only rebuking Peter why then does he turn and address all of his disciples???  Jesus isn't merely rebuking Peter, he is also telling us exactly what the root of the human problem is: MERELY HUMAN THINKING.  What's more Jesus tells us what, or rather "WHO" the wellspring of "merely human thinking" is:  SATAN!
 
For me Matthew 16:21-27 begs a very important question: 

"Which of us doesn't think like a "mere" human being?  I think the way other humans; or "mere" human beings think.  I can't help but think like a mere human, because I am MERELY human!!"

Jesus isn't merely addressing Peter's shortsightedness, he is addressing what is at the heart of humanity's problem:  SINCE THE FALL, DUE TO SIN, ALL OF HUMAN KIND IS BORN, SPIRITUALLY, IN THE LIKENESS AND IMAGE OF SATAN.   God created us in the likeness and image of God, and we still all bear the appearance of, BUT!...  BUT!! When the first of our species sinned our spiritual nature has been cast in the image and likeness of the one who lead us into sin, and keeps us enslaved to sin.  We are, all of us, with the exception of Jesus of Nazareth, born with the same spiritual defect:  We are like our father; "the ruler of this world"; Satan.  We, all of us, just like Satan, oppose God!   Jesus isn't merely rebuking Peter, he is taking the opportunity to reveal what is in Peter's "merely" human heart, but also what is in the hearts of every "mere" human being.
 
Do not make the error, of believing that Jesus is speaking of "his cross," in Matthew 16.  Jesus is speaking exclusively of "your" cross; "my" cross; "our" crosses as "mere humans".   When Jesus says "your" cross he is telling us something about ourselves; he is telling us, in no uncertain terms, what our "merely" human way if thinking, being, and doing creates for us:  A CROSS.   Jesus is telling us that the way we live is the most horrible, shameful, slowly torturous, agonizing ways to die.  When Jesus says, "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me..."  Jesus is saying...

STOP TRYING TO FIX YOURSELVES!  STOP MANIPULATING, USING AND ABUSING OTHERS!  STOP, "I DID IT MY WAY!!"  YOUR WAY IS JUST A HELLISH DEATH ON A CROSS YOU ARE MAKING FOR YOURSELVES!!!  JUST PICK UP THAT WORTHLESS, F***ED UP WAY OF LIFE, OF YOURS, AND FOLLOW ME WITH IT!!"

(Just so you know that is the "Lonnie" paraphrase of Matthew 16:24.  If you want to flower it up, and turn it into King James speak, feel free, but I like my way of understanding it, because it's absolutely true of how I was and how I lived my life, before Jesus Christ).

If you follow where I'm going with this is, does this mean that Jesus is saying, "come with me so I can put you to death on your cross?"   Jesus isn't saying anything about dying on "your" cross or me dying on "my" cross.  How do we know Jesus isn't telling us, in Matthew 16:24, "...to come follow and die on "your" cross?? Jesus has already told us in Matthew 11:28:

  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  

When Jesus says, "Take up your cross, and follow...," He is telling us to follow him to the place of freedom, eternal life, peace and joy unspeakable, in the presence of God!!!  The road to life is first, to stop thinking, being, and doing the way the world around us thinks, lives, and behaves.  The Holy Spirit through St. Paul explains this further in Ephesians 4:17-24:

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

²⁰ That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹ when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;"

CHRISTIANS,  CUT THE CRAP!!!!

AND DIE TO YOUR "MERELY HUMAN" WAY OF THINKING, BEING, AND DOING!!! 

PUT ON CHRIST!!

(Lonnie's Paraphrase of Ephesians 4:17-24) 

 

SUPREME COURT: 1 EXODUS INTERNATIONAL : 0...

The Church's Score: -10

LGBT ACTIVISTS:

Supreme Court gives a boost to Gay Rights

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/26/supreme-court-gay-lesbian-marriage-california/2364015/

 

This may sound really odd coming from me, but I'm having a good laugh right now.  I saw all of this coming years ago.  I have a love/hate relationship with being right.  I'm human so I love being proved right, I've been telling Christians for years and years now, "God isn't in what you've been doing in the  past.  You're going to have to change."   The truth is the Church doesn't have to change at all, and that is the part about being right that I hate.  I knew Christian's attitudes and behaviors were all wrong, but I also knew that the more firmly entrenched Christians became in their positions, the harder it would be to dig out.  The Right condemns sin and sinner alike.  The Left turns a blind eye to sin, and simply swallows it whole.  And today we have the fence sitting Christian who has no strong opinion either way.  No one can find the way through.  No one can find the way, because no one wants to do things God's way.
 
Somewhere along the way Christianity became grounded in the world.  Instead of God calling the shots directly someone decided if we hated something, and God loved us, then God must hate what we hate.   Then came the next leap in logic:
 

"If I can make an argument for God hating something, but that God loves me, then I can make the argument that God will bless whatever I do against what we both hate." 

 

The Bible, of course, goes completely against any argument that if God loves me, and we both hate sin, that God will bless whatever I want to do against sin.  The message of the Bible is that Jesus is God's answer to all sin problems, and Jesus also presents to us the way Father desires to deal with a sinful world and it's sin.  Thus we have many approaches to a sin problem, but the Church is failing miserably because the Church will not obey God.  In the process of attempting to use the same means a very sinful world uses the Church has changed nothing, but, ironically, Herself.   The Church hasn't allowed God to overcome the world's sin and brokenness, but they have become as impotent as the world at dealing with beliefs and behaviors which deal death and damnation to themselves.  Instead of leading a broken humanity lost to sin, to a new hope, peace, and eternal life, the Church is in the throws of her own identity crisis.  And since the Church has sold out so much to a worldly way of doing, they've lost how to work with God toward his eternal goals.
 
Am I now giving over to complete and total pessimism?  No.  If the Church will repent, and Christians will deny themselves their ways of being and doing, as Christ commands, then everything will change for the Church.  Not much will change in the society around us, the hope for a positive impact on the culture's conscience is a train which left the station long long ago.  The road for the Church is going to be a much harder one, than we'd have had if we'd repented and turned back to obeying and following God's ways.

So Christians you have choice to make.  Were I a betting man, and I'm not, I'd bet against Christians doing the right thing.  Once you start doing the wrong thing doing the right thing gets harder and harder.  The Church has been doing the wrong thing for a long time, but that isn't the problem.  The problem is Christians have found it easier to settle for a great deal less than God's best, and keep hobbling along without change.  It's sin of settling for less that's the real problem.  

Part 2 of: EXODUS INTERNATIONAL IS HISTORY!

Doomed From The Start

In the Summer of 1969, NYC police had been carrying out a series of raids on gay bars.  Gay men enraged by the harassment started a riot.  With the Stonewall Riots the modern gay rights movement began.  In 44 years gay activists, in America, have achieved more civil rights gains than any other minority people group ever has.   I came of age during the greatest backlash against the gay rights movement; The Reagan Era.  Beginning in the mid 70's and continuing through the 80's, conservative Christians started speaking out, loud and clear, against what they saw as a great Christian nation about to morally crash and burn.  Leaders like Anita Bryant, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and D. James Kennedy started taking steps they thought would straighten out Christian America.  Jerry Falwell, perhaps more than any other conservative Christian leader gave voice to what he and others of his ilk believed:

"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."

~ Jerry Falwell

Conservative Christians had found their voice.  And with Jerry Falwell they also got a grassroots religious Political Action Committee (PAC); "The Moral Majority".   The Moral Majority grew in membership and power nearly as fast as the gay rights movement, a decade before them.  The Moral Majority received the most credit for Ronald Reagan winning two terms in the White House.   Coming of age as a gay man, in the Reagan 80's was a frightening experience.  The Reagan era and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic sometimes seemed like the end of all hope for gay people.  The 70's and 80's, far from bringing down gay rights activism served as a refining crucible, and in the 90's the LGBT movement gained ground even faster than before.  The political activism of the Religious Right started to stall.  Religious activism fragmented, The Moral Majority closed up shop, and the heir apparent, "The Christian Coalition" was lost almost before it started.

  

When conservative Christians were confronted with gay activism at the end of the 60's and then by legalized abortion, they were deeply offended.  I can't think of two other issues which could have made Christians as mad as a kicked hornet's nest.  When God finally brought me to salvation through Christ Jesus one of the first questions I had for God was, "Why?"  I not only didn't understand why I was gay, but I didn't understand the Church which was supposed to belong to Christ.  God went to incredible lengths to come and find me.  God worked through the only person who could have brought me to saving faith in him.  I've talked about my own abusers/users, but have said little about the "brother monster" I was to my little sister.  I knew my sister could never forgive me.  I could never forgive the things dad and uncle monster had done to me, so I knew her forgiving me was impossible.  One night out of the blue my sister called me, told me she'd received Jesus Christ, and that she forgave me.   I was in terrible trouble.  I knew it was impossible for my sister to forgive me.  I knew the only way for her to forgive was for a higher power to give her that forgiveness for me.  I was an atheist, but now I had absolutely no doubt God existed.  God, despite the very best efforts of Christians to keep me away from salvation, got me anyway.

 

I've had a very unconventional Christian experience from the very beginning.  About 6 months after coming to Christ I thought I'd better find an Exodus chapter and join up.  I'm very thankful the only chapter close to me was 50 miles away, and I couldn't afford the gas for the 100 mile round trip each week.  But that wouldn't have made any difference anyway.  I never had a moments peace with the idea of approaching Exodus.  I kept clear, but did find a ministry outreach to men struggling with Same-Sex Attraction supported by a local church which was not Exodus affiliated.  I'd been truly free for about 5 years at the time, and hanging out with those "strugglers" was an incredible eye opener.  There was very little struggling, and a whole lot of sex and porn for these guys.  After the weekly meeting we'd go hang out a nearby restaurants for "fellowship".  During the meeting they all talked about their struggles, but at the restaurant it became more about their escapades.  When I talked about the freedom Christ had given me, they laughed and sneered at me.  It didn't hurt my feelings.  I'd never cared about what gay guys had said to me.  They weren't struggling, they weren't even trying, and they made no bones about it.  To this day I don't understand why these men bothered with this group.  They'd have been a great deal more honest if they'd skipped the restaurant and went to a hotel for an orgy. 

 

As the old saying goes, "You can't get blood out of a turnip."   These gay guys weren't ever going to change, because none of them knew how to be anything but gay.  Get a big group of Christians who want to leave homosexuality, put them in a room together, and you've got a dating service for religious gays, but not change.  When Exodus started the intent was to come along side church leaders to advise and guide them when dealing with same-sex attracted people.  The problem, of course, was that churches didn't want to be advised they wanted a place to dump LGBT people.  Exodus, instead of sticking its guns, caved, and Exodus hobbled along for far too long.   If Christians want to see change in the lives of Christians dealing with SSA then their going to have to get into the lives of these men and women.  The straight guys and gals, who've walked with Christ, and seen real change in their own lives are going to have to reach out and begin modeling, teaching, and leading SSA struggling Christians into healthy, God centered, God serving lives.

  

Like I said, I've had a very unconventional Christian walk.  While my fellow Christians were out picketing, politicking, and attacking LGBT people, "...for the glory of God," no less, I was busy asking a question..."WHY"?  Why had God removed his protective hand from America?  Why had God allowed America to legalize the mass murder of innocent unborn children?!  Why had God allowed gay activists to gain so much ground so fast.  I mean as a gay man, looking at gay activism from the inside, I was always amazed at what gay activists could accomplish.   And as a gay man gay activists and their power scared me to death.  I've never known such ruthless and mercenary people, gay activists.  "WHY!" nagged me all the time, and still does today.  There's another old saying, "Ignorance is bliss."  After God started giving me the answers to my questions, I learned the true meaning of "Ignorance is bliss."  I've actually prayed for God to put me back into ignorance, but God doesn't work that way.
 
I have known for years that the Church needs LGBT people more than LGBT people need the Church.  The Church wouldn't go into the gay enclaves and the back alleys where abortions took place, with the love, mercy and world overcoming grace of God.  So God let homosexuals and abortionists come out after the Christians.   You see homosexuality and abortion are mirrors God is holding up to the Church.  Our relationship with God has increasingly become a reflection of the kind of breakdown which come with abortion and homosexuality.  There is the loss of identity; loss of world overcoming faith and love, even for the worst of sinners; a loss of purpose and dynamic; a loss obedience to Christ's teaching; a loss of dedication to doing things God's way; a loss of understanding that we are aliens in a foreign world, and that no kingdom of the world is or could be Christs kingdom; and we've become blind, deaf, and hardhearted to the brokenness of sexually immoral people because instead of compassion and faith in the cross of Jesus Christ we are overcome with offense.  The Church will find her way back to God when she takes up the plight of least and allow God to love and overcome through them.  When confronted with what seems impossible, but God's love overcomes the impossible the result is incredibly life transforming. The world needs the love, mercy, grace, and eternal salvation of Jesus Christ, and the Church needs to, once again, take her place where God has called us to be.  "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Jesus has called to join him in his yoke; become his coworker with him. 

What can I tell you, Christian?  Either become available for God's purposes, and dedicate yourself to working God's way, or be tossed onto the ash heap of history?   Of course, many, perhaps most of you, will disagree with what I say here, and/or excuse yourself from responsibility.  The only way to discover the truth of what I'm saying here is, ultimately, to do what I'm saying.
  
The end of Exodus International is an exciting opportunity for the Church of Jesus Christ.  Exodus could never bring about the change God can bring through his Church.  As the Church learns again that God's love is a power, which cannot fail, to free people from the slave master, sin.   The change Exodus sought, but so rarely realized is achievable through Christ in his Church. 
 
If you want to become a billionaire you have to learn from people who already know how to amass wealth.  If you want to know freedom from homosexuality then you can't hang out with gay people, even religious gay people.  Freedom only comes from the heart of the One we are told is love; God.  With his Son, God established how he would work in the world, and how he would love the world to salvation through that Son, in his Church.  People cannot be segregated, because we don't like their sin, or because we, "don't know what to do."  Not knowing what to do is not an acceptable excuse to God.  God's love will either set us all free, or we'll all go down together.  It is a terrible sin to attempt to shift responsibility for loving broken people into a new kind of closet; Exodus.  Nice try, but Jesus will judge us for our unloving disobedience of his command, "Go!"  Jesus also told us, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."  Not only does God send Jesus to save the world, but also to establish how God will work in and through us.  Just as Jesus always did what Father wanted, precisely the way Father wanted it done, but so it must be for the Church of Jesus Christ.  We must follow the example of Jesus.  Not only do we answer the call to "Go", but we pursue that call by carrying it out the way Christ carried out Fathers call.  Like Jesus, "We can do nothing by ourselves, and we too will do only what we see the Father doing." 

EXODUS INTERNATIONAL IS HISTORY!!

I'm Coming Out of the Closet!

Now that Exodus International is no longer the bastion of "ex-gayness", I can now stop being "ex-gay"!!   Now I can be just, well...yeah, coming right up with that...any minute now.   Its a hard call, or used to be.   When you don't belong to anyone you are never sure who or what you are.  Oh, I had a family I belonged to, but that family was headed by a husband and father who didn't love the family he created.  The cherry on this yummy familial confection was a an uncle who moved in with us, when I was about three years old.  If you've read my blog, you know I call this uncle, "Uncle Monster", he's a psychopath who finished the incredible works of unlove dear old dad had begun.  I'm not sure when I figured out, the two men who had complete control of my young life, not only didn't love me, but also convinced me no one ever could or would love me.  Was it when uncle monster made me cry out in fear and pain, but dad shouted at me to shut up?  Was it when uncle monster plunked my 4 or 5 year old butt on the roof of our house?  I don't need any pity for what happened in the past.  I'm establishing that there are very good reasons why I always felt different and ultimately cut off from relationship and my own identity as a male.  What about mom?  What about my siblings?  Their circumstances were the same as mine.  The two most powerful dictators in their lives were the same two men.  I do not have the permission to tell their stories, but I can say all of us suffered.  I was cut adrift before the of 5.

 

I did have Ben.  Ben was my imaginary friend when I was 6.  Ben was actually a lot like me, but he was loved, popular at his school, a good athlete, and incredibly nice.  I was none of those things, so I was lucky to have Ben.  Ben and I would hang out in my yard, in the field behind one of the house's in the neighborhood, or on the cool jungle gym and rope swing in the Cowyn's back yard.  Ben and I had a bit of a rocky start.  I'd want to talk and push each other on the rope swing, but Ben would simply stand silently looking at me.  He never said a word, or played, he'd just stare at me, in total science, and without moving.  The only time Ben ever moved was when I had to go home for supper.  He'd turn and walk briskly away from me, until the next time I wanted to hang out. Needless to say I ended the friendship.   I'm the only person I know whose imaginary friend didn't like him.

Actually fantasy would save my life.  The only people I had were the ones I imagined. After Ben I got better at creating fantasy friends. I was the creator of my own world, because I needed it.  My real world was incredibly toxic.  I didn't know my imaginary world was also toxic.   I didn't know that other people might like me...maybe even love me one day if given a chance.  I had my own little emotional prison in the real world, and my own little imaginary prison to escape the real one.

 

Do you remember Elizabeth Smart?  The young teenaged girl, kidnapped from her own bed, in her families home in Salt Lake City, by a handyman and self-proclaimed Mormon prophet?   For months the little girl and her captors eluded discovery, even though they were often right under the nose of the people searching for her.   Do you remember when she was found?  The police stopped three homeless vagabonds in the middle of the street.  The officers separated a heavily disguised Elizabeth Smart from the older couple with her.  If you'll remember the officer who questioned Elizabeth pulled her out of her kidnapper's hearing, and even placed himself between her direct line of sight and her attacker.  Still, when questioned; asked point blank, "Are you Elizabeth Smart?"  Smart denied she was Elizabeth.  Over and over again the officer had to ask Elizabeth, "Are you Elizabeth Smart?"  When Smart finally admitted who she was it was in a barely audible whisper.

 

Trauma takes prisoners.  Abusers take prisoners; molester's take prisoners; manipulating control freaks take prisoners; drug addicts and adulterers take prisoners; illness and deprivation takes prisoners too.  Sometimes the trauma in life comes from the illness or death of either a child or a caregiver.  And guess what?   How people respond to trauma also takes prisoners.   My dad/uncle trauma took me prisoner, but I built my own walls in an attempt to escape.  When I escaped every day I pushed myself further and further away from others, because I was honestly convinced that if my dad and uncle would or could not love me, no one else could either.

Why did the cop in Salt Lake City have to ask Elizabeth Smart over and over again, "Are you Elizabeth...?"  Elizabeth had developed a "slave" mentality.  Her abuser/users had convinced of their threats, power, and authority.  She accepted, against her will, that she was powerless to do anything else.  Why is it so hard for Christians to overcome sin, even in the face of God's incredible promises?   We've been sinning all our lives, and we're enslaved.  Smart's kidnapper had renamed her, and when the cop asked, the first time she gave the false name given her by her jailer.  Elizabeth was completely out of the power of her abusers/users, but she held to the lie.  Could Elizabeth have escaped that day without the intervention of a police officer?   No, Elizabeth would have remained in her master's hands.   The same is true of people who are sexually broken.  So long have we lived in the cages thrown down deep dark holes, that even in the light, power, and promises of God in Christ Jesus, we'll stay in those cages.  We'll allow people to label, and keep sticking them back on us, even after Christ has stripped them all away.  Even Exodus International wanted to stick label's on people, "ex-gay".   I needed someone to intervene on my behalf.  I needed someone to keep telling me the truth, to keep walking with me, away from sin's prison.  I need someone to keep reading my rights, "If the Son shall make you free you will be free indeed."   "There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  For through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death."   THOSE ARE MY RIGHTS!!   "If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation; the old has passed away.  Behold everything has been made new."   The law of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, set me free.  The laws of sin and death have been handcuffed.   Should Elizabeth Smart be forced to add the name, her kidnappers gave her, to the name her parents gave her?   No, of course not!  But to be honest about who she is, and what happened in the past she really should add the false name she was given, because it did happen, Smart's kidnappers had the power to make her go by the false name they forced upon her.  Those are among the facts of the case.  For the sake of honesty, she should add her false name as well.  Smart is just in denial and someone really should help her be who she really is.  I mean she could say, "I'm Elizabeth Smart "ex- (state your false name here)..."  That would be honest.

 

Elizabeth Smart doesn't have to accept the labels her kidnapper forced on her.  So why is it I have to live with the labels forced on me by those who abused, misused, and neglected me?  Why do I even have to accept past labels I stuck on myself?  Oh, yeah, those feelings of attraction for other guys.  Those feelings don't just evaporate, and there is simply no, "praying the gay away."  And God doesn't simply take feelings away.   Feelings begin to change when we change our behaviors.  But before our behaviors change, the direction of our thoughts must change.  Change thinking, change behaving, and feelings will change.  It can be quite a battle, but that is life.  Life doesn't work the way fantasies work.  If life is worth living then living it truthfully; not hiding, not escaping the hard stuff; not avoiding the deeper feelings, or childishly demanding that God just make it all go away.  In the name of protecting the truth, i.e. "I am unloved and unlovable."  I never had the chance to find out if anyone could honestly love me, and who cared anyway, I'd been settling for sex so long it was a part of me.  I'm a college educated guy who, though not a biology or psychology major, have always followed both sciences very carefully.   I knew that choices which lead to behaviors change the brain's chemistry; habitual behaviors literally create a neural pathways, kinda like a shortcut.  Just like a foot path which is often walked becomes a recognizable path the more it is used, so behaviors make firmly entrenched and well worn paths in our brains.  The fact is once a shortcut is made that path never completely goes away.  That does not mean that behaviors cannot be changed permanently.  New pathways can be made, and old paths will deteriorate with the passage of time and disuse.

 

There is another factor when it comes to Christians and changing.  The message of Jesus of Nazareth and his apostles is of spiritual new birth.  The Bible teaches a literal new birth, through a new act of creation within the human being.  This new spirit is linked directly to Jesus Christ, through something many of us imagine as a spiritual umbilical cord.  Through this new spirit created from the stuff of God's own Spirit, the Christian is remade from the inside out.  So Christians are not merely changing brain chemistry, but change is powered by a spirit empowered to live eternally in the presence of their eternal God.  The change comes from a new spirit, not an old brain with well worn sin paths cut into the brain.  It is the Holy Spirit who does the real hard work of change, but part of God's work includes making us part and parcel of that work.  Christians aren't simply to sit around and "pray the sin away."  Real change in thought and deed begun, guaranteed, and completed by God in and through us means we have to agree with and move with God toward the freedom he has worked and continues to work in us.  I am no longer the sum total of the harm of abusers and users.  I am now the sum total of God's promises, and the final result is that God will utterly conform me into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.  Neither I nor any other person can conform a mere human being into the image and likeness of God the Son.  Only God can conform a human into the image and likeness of his Son.  It is not I who overcome my sin and the scars those sins have made on my brain.  I am in the hands of the almighty who is molding and making into a new creation in every faculty and part of me.  When God is done nothing I was made of will exist.  None of the brokenness will remain, none of the damage done by other to me, and none of the damage from my sin will exist.

In Christ there are no "gay Christians", no "ex-gay Christians", no "murdering Christians", no "racist Christians," and etc.  What the world needs from the Church is not a condemning judge, not acceptance of sin, and most certainly not Christians who have no opinion.  When God clearly says, "You shall not..."  then that is the judgment of God, and every true believer holds to the judgment of God.  It is God's standard and he will enforce that standard.

 

It is fitting that Exodus International go the way of the DoDo.  No Christian should label another Christian with "ex-" anything.  No Christian should label or wear the label, "gay Christian".  No believer in Jesus Christ needs or deserves any other kind of label besides, "New creation."   No one should be segregated and labeled because of their past.  If you are a brother or sister in Christ then regardless of your past I'm deputized by living God to walk with you away from your sin and slavery.  I'm authorized to read you the rights you have in Jesus Christ. 

Exodus was a good idea, it just wasn't God's idea.  God's idea is and always will be the Church, and if the Church will do what he tells us to do, and do it his way, the chains fall off, the prisoner walks free, and all the past labels fall off, including "prisoner". 

XANGA IS DYING

I started blogging on Xanga in November, 2005.  It has always been my favorite place to post blogs.  Now, sadly, it is dying.  I do not like Facebook, I do not like Tumbler.  I am playing around with a WordPress blog, but I don't find it very user friendly.  I suppose I shall miss how completely user friendly Xanga has always been.  Xanga had a plethora of problems, and they were a pain in the neck at times, but they were also sort of endearing at the same time.  If Xanga takes the big dirt nap, I'm going to be very sad.  I certainly criticized Xanga on many occasions, but it doesn't mean I didn't love the old girl.  

I'm prepared to move on, but it will be a trail of tears leading me back to this site, and maybe to others.  Nothing will ever be the same if Xanga dies, but that is how life works isn't it?

MISSING THE POINT:

The State of Christianity Today

 

Early in my Christian walk I tried to express to my fellow Christians what it was like to deal with Christians when I self-identified as gay.  I came up with a little parable to better explain my experiences.

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Imagine a beautiful lake surrounded by gently rolling green hills and edged all about with forest.  About 50 yards from shore there appears to be a man drowning.  Fortunately there is a little rowboat manned by two men, just to the left and just out of reach of the drowning man.  One is at the boat's oars and the other is truly an odd sight to behold.  The second man is attempting to stand at the front of the little boat, but what's really odd is the manner of the man's dress.  The man attempting to stand in the boat is dressed from head to foot in high church garb, and he's carrying a rather ornate, but impractical looking, shepherd's crook.  This "bishopy" looking fellow is wearing the high cone hat with tails, the long bejeweled outer robes, and there is a wide bejeweled church sash looking thing hanging about his neck and running half way down the front of his high church vestments.  He's wearing little white gloves and in one hand he has what appears to be a small anchor.  The high church, "bishopy" looking man is speaking to the drowning man.  He says, warmly and with feeling, "Dear brother! We want you to know that we, our church, desire to stand with you in complete solidarity."  The "bishopy" looking chap is struggling to maintain emotional composure, and even takes a moment to wipe away a small tear from his eye.  He clears his tight throat a little, and says with a husky voice, "So that you may always know we support you completely, we have made this sculpture of an anchor for you."   The high churchy man says, ceremoniously, "We give you this anchor to remind you, always, to stay anchored in who you think you are, and that we are with you in this your choice to drown yourself."  The bishopy man and his oarsman smile, then offer small applause.  Finally, with a wave of the "bishopy" chap's gloved hand, the fellow at the oars begins to pull at those oars and away they glide toward shore.
 
Off to the right of our little scene is a pier which juts from the land out onto the lake.  Still the drowning man is about 50 yards from this pier to his right.  At the end of this pier is another rather odd sight to behold.  At the end of the pier is a man wearing a navy blue suit, sporting a well oiled crew cut, and in one of his hands is a coffee table Bible.  (I mean the Bible is the size of a coffee table...King James Version, of course!).  The man starts shouting out to the drowning man, "HEY!!!  HEY YOU, DROWNING MAN!!!  STOP THAT DROWNING!!!  DON'T YOU KNOW THAT IF YOU DROWN YOU'LL BURN IN HELL?!?!?  Immediately after shouting at the drowning man, the Bible toating man then hurls a rock at the man in the water.  After throwing the rock the man yells, even louder, at the drowning man, "HEY!!!  WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER HERE AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT JESUS?!?!?"  The second shout is followed by another stone sent rocketing toward the head of the drowning man.   Then shouting a third time, "HEY, DUDE!!!   I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!!!  "IF YOU WOULD JUST STOP DROWNING LONG ENOUGH JESUS CAN SET YOU FREE AND THEN YOU CAN BE LIKE ME!!!  Our religious zealot throws a new volley of rocks at the head of our drowning man, but soon decides to leave, grumbling about how the drowning man treated him.  "Jesus said people would hate and persecute me, because I am a Christian."
 
Further from the shore of the lake is a man sitting with his wife on the fence which runs around the lake.  The man says to his wife, "Say, do you think that guy is swimming, or do you think he might be drowning?"   His wife squints up her eyes, uses her hand as a visor to block the glare of the sun and says, "I don't know, he's too far away for me to really tell what he's doing."   The husband hunches into a Rodin's "The Thinker" kind of pose and considers the matter.  Finally he says "Maybe we should call 911 for the guy."  The wife quickly responds, "Honey, you're a good man, but we're to far away to really know what is going on over there.  I'm afraid we might embarrass the man if he isn't really drowning."  Then the wife continued sagely, "Judge not, lest you be judged..."  And finally the wife said, "We don't know enough to make a real decision, so let's just enjoy our day out, and let that person in the water enjoy their day out at the lake."

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What do you suppose happened to the man drowning in the lake?  He drowned, of course.  The man was accepted and loved right where he was.  The man was condemned for where he was, and the man was ignored where he was, because "Who are we to say the guy is drowning, maybe he's doing some new kind of water exercise; it's best not to judge."

What I needed from Christians was for one of them to dive into my situation.  What I needed was someone to believe God rather than what their feelings, or the feelings of others told them.  I was drowning and everyone judged my situation.  No one judged my situation from a place of understanding or experience, everyone judged my situation from their own person feelings about where and what I was.  Granted there were lots of drowning people around me who kept telling everyone we were fine, we were just born to drown, as it were, and,  "Leave us alone or you're judgmental and hateful!"  God clearly sees the world drowning in sin, and he expects those who call themselves Christians/Christ followers to ask him for eyes to see the way he sees.  God looks on the inside, and knows drowning when he sees it.  It isn't a bad thing not to jump to judgment, but walk closer  to the situation and judge from up close.  It isn't a bad thing to hold to God's righteous standard, but move closer and learn that though the lost may have done a swan dive into the deep end, of their own free will, they now need saving.  All the right knowledge in the world about lifesaving are pointless and useless, if no one dives into to actually save the drowning person.  It is good to accept people where they are, but God has something much better for them.  Don't offer a person help to keep drowning.  God loves us where we are, but he saves us from drowning in our own sins.
 
Jesus came to a world which hated, reviled, and ultimately murdered him.  Jesus didn't come to condemn or confirm sinners in their sins.  Jesus came to find and save what was lost.   What Jesus did is overcome the world, and anyone truly born again; born of God's own Spirit; given a new born spirit called the "divine seed" which literally means "sperm of God", will be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.  Jesus came to find and save, and that is the same thing Christ followers will do.  It's isn't optional it is hardwired into our new spiritual DNA.  Jesus dove into a drowning world, and started pulling drowning people to eternal life, freedom, and safety.  That is the Christian's birthright and the Christian's call.  You can't belong to Christ and love people til they drown.  You can't belong to Christ and condemn them from drowning.  And you can't belong to Christ sitting on a fence with no opinion on sin when God tells us exactly what he thinks of sin.

No one dove into the water to save the dying man.  Everyone did what was right in his own mind, but Jesus dove in to rescue.  We are warned again and again by Christ and the apostles he appointed and empowered to do and speak for him.

^"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32

Believing means doing.  Belief in Jesus Christ is always a 3 part matter.  1) Do what Jesus says. 2) This makes us true disciples, and as we do more and more what Jesus teaches the more we become his true disciples.  3) As we practice Jesus' teaching, becoming more and more his disciples, then the truth sets us free.  Being and doing go hand in hand. 

 ^"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:10

Obeying God is simply what believers in Jesus Christ do, it is what we are new born to do.  God has already gone before and prepared our way for us.  We can dive in with absolute confidence that God is with us, and though we do not know what to do, God does.  When we need the knowledge he gives us the knowledge we need.  

Think about Moses parting the Red Sea.  We like to see things the way Cecil B. Demille saw Moses.  We imagine Moses standing on a rock ledge jutting out over the sea, and Moses grandly gesturing for the sea to part.  The truth is God commanded Moses to start walking toward the sea.  Moses grand gesture was to walk straight into the sea.  Many have said the sea probably parted about the time the water was licking at Moses' bottom lip. 

That's it!  That's what I'm talkin' bout!!

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

James 1:22

There is no way around it.  We will either go with our own thinking about things, or we will obey God, and do what Jesus teaches.  We will either find reasons not to dive into a drowning world, or we will be like Jesus Christ, and dive, without knowing anything more than he has called us to obedience.  We may call ourselves by which ever religious sounding term we choose, but the Bible is utterly clear about what a Christian is to do.  To merely listen to right teaching without right action is self-deception.

 

 “If you love me, keep my commands."

John 14:15

No one says it better than Jesus!  Stop doing what you think is right, and then stamping God's name on it.  If the sinner drowns, but you've excused yourself and didn't dive in, then expect the righteous judgment of God condemning you for not being like Christ.  You're going to have to be like Moses and get wet.  4 times Moses gave God good reasons why he, Moses, was the wrong guy to send to Pharaoh demanding the freedom of the Hebrew Slaves.  God didn't become angry with Moses, but carefully explained to him that he would be there to get Moses out of trouble.  The fifth time Moses came clean and asked God to send some other savior to Egypt.  When Moses asked God to find someone else to send to Egypt, we are told, "God's anger burned against Moses."   Seriously, honestly, do you, Christian/Christ follower believe God will withhold his anger if you make excuses, and then refuse to obey his commands?  So, okay, be self-serving if you must.  If you're not motivated by empathy and compassion for the drowning man, then dive in to save your own skin.  Dive in to reach a drowning world because you fear God, and his condemnation for your disobedience. 

The point has never been the sin of the world, the point has always been that Jesus overcomes the sin of the world.  If you have the cure, then the point is to offer the cure.  If the world rejects the cure then you're off the hook.  But if you offer everything including acceptance of sin, condemnation, or nothing at all, that is NOT offering Jesus' overcoming the world.  God has the answer simply give that answer.  But you're going to have to dive in to give that answer up close and personal, just the way Jesus did.  From God's point of view we shouldn't worried about our "rights" in this world, we should be focused on our responsibilities to serve God and his kingdom, just exactly the way Jesus did.

"Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

John 5:19

GET THE POINT?? Now go ye, and do likewise!