Jul 3 2015

Homosexuality and Repentance

A growing movement within the global church is identifying themselves as Christian LGBTQ, or more commonly called gay Christians. One of them is Matthew Vines, a young homosexual who has become a bayonet for this movement due to his book, tour of lectures, and YouTube videos. He is attempting to make the case that one can practice homosexuality and be a biblical, gospel believing Christian at the same time.

And Vines is failing miserably at making such an argument.

Some of the lines in their rhetoric are “I was born this way…” “My orientation is natural to me…” “God made me this way…” “It is not possible for me to switch orientations…”

Delight in Truth would like to point out that human depravity is innate to ALL of us.  A two-year-old is capable of displaying selfish behavior that would land an adult in jail. No one has to teach a two-year-old to lie or deceive, because he does it by nature.

When the Holy Spirit converts us to saving faith, we experience a renewal of our mode of thinking and our behavior. The thief no long steals, because he hates what he used to do.  The compulsive liar is renewed and he is now repulsed by his prior actions.  The former adulterer now detests that he used to cheat on his family.

But the question today is, can this renewal apply to something as fundamental as sexual orientation? Can the homosexual repent of his lifestyle and adopt a heterosexual orientation structured within the confines of biblical marriage?

Matthew Vines and the gay Christian movement say no.

Lets see what the Bible says on the issue in 1 Corinthians 6.

9Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And 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.

Paul just produced one of his famous lists of sinners and follows up with a powerful statement: “And such WERE some of you.” These sinners which include the sexually immoral (and homosexuals) were washed, sanctified and justified. They were changed fundamentally in the name of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who accomplished this task.

According to the bible, the gay Christian movement is wrong in claiming that homosexuals cannot repent of their orientation.

There is no depraved condition that the Holy Spirit cannot renew if one repents. This truth must be preached in love, and the Holy Spirit will do the rest in convicting those who will repent.

Jul 2 2015

Gay Marriage Does not Reflect Christ and the Church

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I was shocked to see that in the wake of the SCOTUS 5-4 decision affirming gay marriage as the law of the land, many of my Christian friends pasted the gay flag on their social media profile pictures. People who were once in my church hashtagged #lovewins in their posts. It was sad to see such a gross departure from Scripture and from saving faith.

I have a question for my liberal and progressive Christian friends who not only tolerate gay marriage in their midst, but also celebrate it.

How does a male-male marriage or a female-female marriage reflect the complementary marriage between Christ and the Church?

Which party of the male-male union represents Christ and which one represents the Church?

Which one submits to the other like the Church submits to Christ, and which one sacrificially loves the other like Christ loves the Church?

How can a husband be the head of his husband like Christ is the head of the Church?

Here is how apostle Paul defines marriage roles in Ephesians 5:

22Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Marriage roles are clearly defined here, and a same-sex marriage cannot fulfill such complementary roles.  Not to mention procreation. Not to mention the unnatural state of such a union. Not to mention the hideousness of the homosexual act.

How can gay marriage have a place in the Christian church when you consider the immorality of the LGBTQ culture? According to research published by CARM.org 28% of homosexual men have had 1,000 or more partners and 43% of homosexual men estimated they had 500 or more partners! How sick is that?

What a gross departure from the committed relationship between Christ and the Church. Christ will never cheat or divorce his beloved Church, and now the so-called Christian LBGTQ movement wants us to adopt this unnatural and immoral same-sex relationship as a representation of Lamb and the Bride?

No way!

I challenge those Christians who support gay marriage to think about this issue. I challenge my friends who posted #lovewins to change it to #lustwins. I challenge all of us to adopt biblical principles in our churches.

PS. How is it that SCOTUS can make a law in the land? I thought they only interpreted existing laws…

Jun 9 2015

Ancient Canaan on HBO’s Game of Thrones

Here is more reason for Christians to not have HBO.  I came across a news article announcing that in their penultimate Game of Thrones show of the season, HBO is depicting a human sacrifice to some god.

Repeated scenes of violent rape, graphic incest, infanticide and the like were not enough on Game of Thrones. Now die-hard, addicted fans get to experience what the Bible describes as perhaps the most gruesome ancient Canaanite abomination: human sacrifice by fire.

The Old Testament tells us that the Moabites sacrificed their children to Chemosh, the Ammonites to Moloch, and other Canaanites to Baal. The Bible is a DESCRIPTIVE book, meaning it gives examples of such violent acts (see the Moabites doing this in 2 Kings 3).  It also details God’s judgement against these incredibly violent nations when He tells Moses and Joshua to exterminate them from the face of the earth: men, women and children. All these are DESCRIPTIVE narrations, and not PRESCRIPTIVE, meaning they do not prescribe (in this case violence) to its readers.

But in a quest to whet the appetite of the depraved human mind, HBO knows no boundaries of decency when it comes to language, sexuality and now occult and horrific practices.

And now, news sites everywhere are asking if HBO went too far.

But wait.

Suppose I tell you that Moloch et al are not the only gods who required child sacrifice. Suppose I tell you that there is a god by the name of Self receiving 55 million+ child sacrifices since 1973 in the US alone.

One (fake) human sacrifice on HBO is raising eyebrows in mainstream media?

How about millions of abortions, some of which happened in the third trimester with the baby fighting for her life as the forceps and suction cannula are tearing her body?

Not much outrage on CNN or Fox News about that.

We will see new boundaries crossed, new levels of immorality, novel ways of perverting marriage, and more indifference to sin in the coming years.

But for now, HBO is the setting of the new ancient Canaan, and Canaanite history repeats itself on the TV screen and in real life.

Jun 2 2015

Does Bruce Jenner Still Exist?


Does the former Olympian still exist?

Are the long bones and athletic frame still there?

Does the father and grandfather of the Jenner children and grandchildren still exist?

Is the person who conceived his children with the contribution of a Y chromosome still alive?

Is the dysfunctional person portrayed on cable reality shows for the past 10 years still with us?

Does Bruce Jenner still exist?

The answer is overwhelmingly YES. He is still there despite all the surgery, makeup and pretending.

Claiming a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, Bruce Jenner went under the knife trying to become something he can never be: a woman. But don’t try to tell that to the progressives who are so fixated on fresh ways to pervert sexuality, that they will feed Bruce Jenner and the rest of society the colossal lie that he is now a woman.

But that’s ok, if Jenner will change his mind again about his gender and wants to switch back to being a man, the same progressives have another diagnosis for him: gender fluid – a person whose gender identification shifts continuously.

Oh wait, lets use another “diagnosis” just in case the above is not comprehensive enough: pangender – a person whose gender identity is comprised of all or many gender expressions.  How ridiculous and sad is this gender reassignment business?

What will they tell Jenner’s grandchildren? That they do not have a grandfather? That the person they knew as their grandfather no longer exists?

Delight in Truth will now point to Jesus Christ’s position on gender:

Matthew 19:4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

If any Christians who hold to the Bible as the Word of God have doubts about the biblical stance on gender transition or the issue of marriage, then the above two verses should settle it. From the beginning of creation God created us as two sexes with appropriate gender assignment.  From each of our beginnings, God gave us a gender based on our genetic makeup and we have no license to change it. The fact that genetic disorders exist is no license for anyone to change their gender based on their disordered sexuality.

Jenner will not find happiness in his new gender because he does not belong there. Delight in Truth predicts that trashy reality shows with the new Jenner as the star will show a disorganized, disordered, unhappy, unfulfilled, in-need-of-help Jenner.

Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can release someone from the prison of their own mind. Please pray for Jenner.

Credit: John G. Zimmerman/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
Jan 3 2015

Does Abortion Make Sense?


Evangelist and Christian apologist Ray Comfort was asked the following question*:

“I think abortion is wrong, and terribly sad (for lack of better terms) and I would never have one. I also think that it’s not my place to tell other women what they can and can’t do with their babies and their bodies… I just think with abortion, it’s nobody’s business except the woman who will be having the procedure. Yes, it’s sad and there are usually other options. No, I would never have one. BUT, we’re talking about other women here. Does this make sense??” Emily Wells

Ray Comfort answered:

“I was pleased to see that you concluded with “Does this make sense?”

To answer your question:

“I think the killing of Jews is wrong and terribly sad (for lack of a better term), and I would never kill one myself. But I think it’s not my place to tell people what they can and can’t do with Jewish families. I just think with Jew-killing, it’s nobody’s business except the person who will be doing the killing. Yes, it’s sad and there are usually other options. No, I would never kill one. BUT, we’re talking about other people here. Does that make sense?””

Progressive type will quickly jump to say that personhood rights do not apply to unborn babies like they apply to a Jewish person. They will say that the unborn is not a person.

Really? Why then do unborn babies display life at its fullest and qualities of personhood?

Did you know that the unborn baby…

  • has a beating heart at week 6?
  • starts spontaneous movements at weeks 7-9?

Did you know that later in pregnancy the unborn babies…

  • like to stretch
  • yawn
  • suck their thumb
  • play with their hands and feet
  • play with the umbilical cord, even wrap it around themselves (not fun for the delivery team)
  • exercise their breathing
  • go to sleep, wake up, listen to their mom’s voice and other voices and music in the environment
  • drink amniotic fluid

Did you also know that during an abortion procedure the baby…

  • attempts to withdraw from the suction cannula and the forceps of the abortionist
  • opens her mouth and screams a silent scream as her limbs are torn from her body

Did you know that abortion is the taking of life?

Does THAT make sense?

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*source

Dec 26 2014

Should Pentatonix be Promoted by Christians?

My social media feeds have been inundated this past month with videos of Christian carols by the band Pentatonix. The first time I saw the Pentatonix video of the carol song “Mary, Did You Know” I was impressed by the vocal talent in the production, but something didn’t seem right. They did not strike me as portraying the image of the average evangelical Christian artist.  It is almost unheard for a Christian artist to be promoted on the world’s stage like this.

Well, thank God for the common grace of Google.

While at least one member of the band publicly claims to be a Christian, two other members are openly gay.  Furthermore the band is active in promoting the LGBTQ agenda.  All this at the same time as taking advantage of the evangelical Christian market which may be their top target in selling albums.

But, hey, it’s a free country and anyone can do what they want as long as they do not break the law and/or hurt others, as the old progressive principle holds. Delight in Truth does not have a problem with Pentatonix and their rebellion against the moral code of Scripture, as much as with the Evangelical crowd which claims to be under the authority of Scripture and who loves Pentatonix.

Dear Christians, if you find the Word of God as inspired and authoritative, please stop buying, promoting, liking, posting, and applauding these Pentatonix videos. Would you listen daily to an openly gay pastor who promotes the LGBTQ lifestyle and preaches “really good?” If no, then why promote Pentatonix?

The false gospel of acceptance has made its way into the church via music and artistic expression, and now we are reaping the consequences. Scripture is being challenged and disregarded on the issue of sexual morality, and especially homosexuality.  Large churches like the Presbyterian Church USA and Evangelical Lutheran Church have blown up over the issue, and the Anglican Church (80 million members) is next.

As time goes by, more and more churches will concede and accept into membership and even ordain those who identify with and practice the LGBTQ lifestyle in open rebellion to Scripture.  On the other hand it has to be this way. As we get closer to the Second Coming of Christ the warning given by apostle Peter stands true: “that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.”

We must stand true to Scripture. We must stand with those who hold it as authoritative, and not with those who rebel against.

photo by Jiro Schneider
Oct 14 2014

The Vase

Reblogged from Rock of My Refuge by Paul Tanca

Most recently, it has begun to feel as though peace has been dissipating from my heart regarding certain issues. What is more disturbing is the fact that doubt has tried to occupy the freshly vacated seat of peace. Ironically, the more personal effort I invest into trying to strong-arm control of my circumstances, the more I seem to fail.

I am reminded of the story of a young boy who caught his hand inside of a very expensive vase. His parents, concerned primarily for the safety of the boy, tried everything to free his hand. They rubbed his wrist with oil, butter, and Vaseline. All to no avail. They carefully twisted his wrist to the right, then to the left without success. They tried positioning the vase in the most peculiar of ways hoping to find an angle that would yield success. Finally, when all else failed, the parents resolved to breaking the vase. As the mother held the boy close, shielding his eyes from the impending shower of flying pottery shards, the father lifted the hammer… continue reading at Rock of My Refuge
Jun 21 2014

Game of Thrones or Game of Lust?

What is the most popular show on TV/Cable these days?

It is a show called Game of Thrones on HBO.  I do not have HBO so I was not aware that for 4 years this show has been rising in popularity to its current pinnacle.  We are talking about the kind of popularity that trumps everything else on TV. I even hear people at work talking about Game of Thrones parties, where they get together to celebrate by watching the episodes together.

Why is Delight in Truth writing about this?

Because I looked into what the fuss is all about, and I must share with you the disturbing results of my research.

The show is a medieval type fantasy laced with graphic violence and graphic sexual deviancy. Pastor and theologian John Piper was asked about whether a Christian has any business watching something like this. His answer was a bit shocking, but I agree with it. He said that the Christian who indulges in watching this level of violence and nudity and actually enjoys it, needs to ask whether he/she is re-crucifying Christ again!

But the producers push this show beyond nudity and violence. How about repeated rape scenes mixed with murder? How about graphic incest?

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) describes it this way: “The sexual content on this show is very consistent and graphic.”

And our society loves it! Look at the ratings! I had no idea that in a difficult economy people had the money to spend on premium cable channels…

I said this in a prior sermon at some point… If a person is a Christian by name, but delights in the nudity, foul language, violence and sexual deviancy of today’s movies and shows, that person might not be a born-again Christian. It is not consistent with a holy character given by the new birth to LIKE or LOVE depravity. On the contrary, the child of God is repulsed by such depiction of depravity.

Here are some powerful Scripture references to set our priorities right:

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. Matt 5:29

image credit

May 7 2014

Final Desperation

Have you ever experienced desperation in the true sense of the word?

Most people despair when their well-being or the well-being of their loved ones is compromised. I had the privilege to help someone in despair recently. It was woman with history of chronic pain who just woke up from surgery and who was in severe pain.

Patients who become tolerant to narcotics can be very challenging to manage in the peri-operative setting because pain medications do not work on them like they do in a narcotic-naive person.

Despite large amount of medications already administered during the surgery and immediately afterwards, she was in tremendous pain. I looked in her eyes and I saw desperation. She told me something no patient ever told me:

“I will pay whatever it takes, just take this pain away”

Since large doses of intra-venous narcotics were not helping, I resorted to an old, rarely used drug that is classified as a muscle relaxant.  The result was that it relieved the muscle spasm around the surgical site and the patient felt much better.

It was a striking experience because we rarely observe sheer desperation in everyday life.  When was the last time you someone utterly desperate? The thing that comes to mind is a parent whose child has been hurt or someone whose life is in imminent danger.

As powerful and scary as desperation can be, it cannot be compared to the feeling that many people will have one day when they realize they will spend eternity apart from God in the place called hell. In the parable of the ten virgins, the five unwise ones desperately went out to buy oil for their lamps, only to return too late. The bridegroom had returned and the wedding feast had begun. Jesus had returned and taken his Church, and the unwise virgins (the compromised “Christians”) received the shock of their life:

‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Matt 25:11

Imagine the despair. The regret. The anger. To be enlightened, to know the truth, to share to some extent in the experience of the wise virgins, but ultimately to be left outside…

There can be no greater failure.

The honest desperation I saw on my patient’s face will be nothing compared to what the fallen Christian will experience when he will be left behind.

I would like to use this example in order to exhort Delight in Truth followers to a life of holiness worthy of our salvation. We must raise our awareness for this spiritual truth, that salvation belongs to the Lord but we are active participants in the process!

Avoid regret and desperation on that final day and instead be ready for your glorification!

image source

Apr 24 2014

Jars of Clay: Another One Bites the Dust

No, the band did not break up if that’s what you were thinking after reading my title.

However, the lead singer of the band caved on the most pressing issue of our day: homosexuality. For the past few days, Dan Haseltine has been on a twitter rant supporting gay love and gay marriage. Among dozens of posts the following:

“So many gay couples display more loving characteristics and healthy relationship practices than most traditional married couples….”

“I don’t think scripture “clearly” states much of anything regarding morality.”

Delight in Truth has followed Jars of Clay since they first came on the scene in 1995. I even went to their first tour when they opened for Michael W. Smith. Along the years they even produced hymn albums, but besides that, there was a constant move toward a crossover message in their music.

There was an underlying spiritual tone in the message, but looking back in retrospect I would not call it the gospel message. It was more of a fuzzy love message typeset on creative lyrics with an occasional scripture reference.

And now this. Haseltine has called into question the authority of Scripture on the issue of marriage.

This will disappoint lots of evangelicals who have been buying their music.  Jars of Clay is already feeling it. The lead singer may have realized that this is public relations nightmare… he is asking on Twitter why Christian radio stations have pulled his songs.

As sad as this is, the Word of God stands true in predicting this exact development:

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” 2 Tim 4:3-5

The church is becoming compromised by sin and these are the fruits of this compromise.

The Bible is being questioned as outdated, unfair, and unsound.

At this rate of degeneration we need to seriously consider the words of Jesus: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:8