The elliptical machine is my therapy lately. It can become a place of deep reflection and insight. Especially if you are watching Oprah.
Don't get me wrong - I don't usually watch Oprah or any daytime TV. But I happened to be at the gym and Oprah happened to be on one of the big screens. I still probably wouldn't have paid much attention, but her guest was going to be Ted Haggard.
Ted Haggard is known mostly for his sex and drug scandal thing that happened two years ago, but before that he had grown to be one of the top evangelical leaders of our nation. His mega-church topped 15,000 people in attendance. So he went on Oprah to clear the whole thing up.
As you can imagine, the conversation had heated moments. I was waiting with bated breath to see if this once world-renown evangelical pastor would take his once in a lifetime opportunity to proclaim the truth - and not as an observer and scholar of the truth now, but as a participant in the truth. Of all the words you would stand before God for saying, it seems that these would be them.
Oprah would ask "How can you deny who you are?" in reference to his struggle with homosexuality. After agreeing with her intermittently, he said "I'm not that man, because I believe that Jesus Christ has made me a new man." Haggard, 1. Oprah... on the rebound. 
"Are you saying that Jesus Christ doesn't accept homosexuals?"
Hesitation. "I believe Jesus accepts all people."
Now, that's simply not true if you believe that the Bible is God's inerrant and infallible word. He created all people, He loves all people, but He cannot and does not accept any of us just how we are. The churched kid that pathologically lies, the high-school FCA leader that gossips, and the homosexual pastor are all literally unacceptable to God. The only thing that can make them acceptable is placing their faith in Jesus to forgive them of their sins and trusting and allowing the Holy Spirit to regenerate them from the inside out - changing desires, attitudes, and ideas. So as someone who apparently spent most of his life studying these things, I have to admit I was expecting the smack-down of the Gospel.
I can't say that I blame the man, but you could tell he was pushed into a corner by insecurities. Something in me wondered... What if he had grabbed ahold of that question as his moment to proclaim the absolute truth in love? The gospel will offend people no matter how humbly it is preached, but if you never preach the whole gospel you offend God himself. "I believe Jesus accepts all people... who repent and allow themselves to be changed by the Holy Spirit according to the Bible? Who turn away from sin and towards faith in Christ alone for salvation? Who...? I don't know exactly what I would have said if it was me. But that's okay. When and if my "moment" comes, no matter the journey I've been on, I wish for the true and regenerating gospel of Jesus Christ to be spoken simply and sweetly from my mouth.
"And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." - Luke 12:8-12.
7 years ago
3 comments:
Excellent post, it reminded me of a quote from Martin Luther, I thought I would share it with you. "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved." I think you hit the nail on the head.
Thanks for the comment and quote! Martin Luther seems to always be a little more succinct than I am :).
That's what happens when you're not in the light. Bad things grow in the dark, but the light allows for that wretched exposure that helps change and healing come. If we'd all shut the hell up and not treat each other like crap over the most ridiculous things, we could talk about these issues, ie bring them to light MUCH easier and they wouldn't get to that level. I feel for the man. He needed someone to talk to, or the humility to do it.
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