Navigating Pathways of the Heart: Shame

This past Sunday, in our second installment of the "Four Dark Riders of the Heart" series, we looked at how the Gospel of God's Grace deals with our shame.  Like the previous week, I referred to material from The Gospel App by Bill Senyard that I am happy to pass along as a resource.   Click Here for a link to the book.

What Is Shame?

Shame is a powerful negative self-assessment that something is innately wrong with you.  You are broken, a loser, a failure, dirty, unloveable, a joke and intrinsically not-right.  The core fear of a shamed Christian is that no matter what you do, you will never ever be worthy of God’s love and favor again.
The Gospel App – p. 39

Because you feel “wrong” you may .  .  .  .

Navigating Pathways of the Heart: Guilt

In response to the requests after Sunday’s sermon on The Gospel Deals With Guilt, I am happy to post a section that I referenced from Bill Senyard’s workbook The Gospel App.  Click Here for an Amazon link to that book.

Guilt is what you normally feel when you do something wrong.  You did not do right and so feel guilt.  Guilt is a power that ignites largely unconscious reactions to fix it.

To feel right again you might .  .  .  .

Marching Orders From Jesus For The War With Islamic Terrorism

There are a number of things to like about Liberty University (Go to the end of this post for specifics.) but I HAVE BEEN MORTIFIED to follow the statements and follow up by their President Jerry Falwell, Jr recently:  “If more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in.”

I’m glad that he has clarified that by “those Muslims” he was referring to the two killers in the San Bernardino tragedy.  Sort of.

But he went on to say: “I just wanted to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permit.  We offer a free course.  Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here.”

Encouragement and a free course to fill a dormitory of 19 year old males with concealed weapons?   I can’t picture the Marine Corps doing that, even with all their weapons training!  But I digress.

War Room: A Movie Worth Seeing

Full Disclosure: I am generally not favorably inclined to “Christian” movies like War Room for a number of reasons.  (Scroll down to the end of this blog if you want to know why.)  That said, I came away from this movie encouraged and impressed by three specific things:

Marriage: A Contract To Aid In One Another’s Sanctification

This past Sunday I quoted Dr Richard Lovelace regarding the idea that for Christ-followers, marriage served as an important "school for sanctification."  Here is the longer quotation from his book, Renewal as a Way of Life

Growth in sanctification should be a lifelong series of alterations in our lives through such crises of conviction.  One of the functions of God’s law (biblical moral principles which declare God’s will for our behavior) is to measure our lives and locate places where they need changing.  “The Law” come to us again and again, not only in the pages of Scripture, but also in the warnings or protests of people close to us who can see our failing, however much they may be in the dark about their own.  Parents, teachers, the police and other authorities are all personalized forms of the law.

A husband or wife also functions in this same way, serving God as an agent of our sanctification.  He or she can see the patterns of sin which are hidden from our own vision by spiritual darkness, and from the world because it sees only the surface of our lives.  Most divorces among Christians probably occur because the parties have not realized that marriage is a contract to aid in one another’s sanctification.  Without this realization, we become experts at what is wrong with one another, without recognizing that the information our spouse is giving us about ourselves is an essential aid to our spiritual growth.

Putting On The Brakes: Why Johns Hopkins Hospital No Longer Does Transgender Surgery

Like the voice of one crying in the wilderness, I would like to share some information.  I realize it is dangerous to step in front of a freight train and shout “Slow down!!” and that is what this feel like, but here goes.  With cover stories on Vanity Fair and the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star on transgender people, I want to say that there is more to the story that needs to be considered as well.

First of all, what a challenging situation to love and care for someone struggling with what is commonly called “gender identity issues,” especially when the person with the struggle is our child.  I certainly would not want to “pile on” any parents struggling with that, but especially for anyone in that situation right now, I want to offer some information for consideration that is getting lost.  I know I would want to know it if I were a parent in this situation.

Sorting Through the Duggar Rubble

The sexual abuse of children is a topic that most would prefer to not talk about, but one that we must be prepared to face.  There are victims among us, and we want to care for them in appropriate and helpful ways.  Avoidance cripples our ability to do that.

The recent revelation of the sexual abuse perpetrated years ago by Josh Duggar – part of the reality TV family at the center of “19 Kids and Counting – puts the issue in our faces, so let me suggest  some things to consider, as well as references that I found helpful for digging deeper.