Arms, Legs, Pinky Toes, and Armpits: We Are the Body of Christ

Recently I learned a difficult but necessary lesson regarding service to others, both inside and outside the church. God used a particular situation in my life to open my eyes to the massive structure that makes up the body of Christ - each member performing and accomplishing different tasks with one sole purpose in mind: to bring glory to our sovereign and holy God. 

I want to preface my story by saying that my family is blessed to be part of a local church that is made up of some of the most giving, caring, servant-minded people you will ever meet. All the members serve the body in some way, shape, or form - some more than others, depending on each person's season of life. But everyone willingly and gladly serves. Having said that, I'm going to explain the situation that God used to teach me this very important lesson. 

For several years I was in charge of updating the weekly prayer sheet at our church. There came a point, however, when I needed to transition out of that job so that I could start serving in another capacity - updating the church calendar. My first mistake during this transitional phase was assuming there would be several people eager to take over as the "prayer sheet updater." I expected that I would simply make an announcement regarding the need for this change and that the position would be filled quickly and seamlessly. That was not the case. While searching for someone who was willing and able to take over this job, I became very disheartened, and one day I brought up the subject to a much wiser woman than myself. She told me, "One thing I have learned - among many things - is that most likely no one will share the same burdens and love for a particular task than you do." And she is absolutely right, which leads me to point out my second mistake: I thought that my task, my particular ministry to the church, should have been just as important to everyone else as it was to me. Never mind that everyone else was already serving the church in another way, in the way God has gifted them. Why weren't they all jumping on this opportunity to serve in a way I thought was important? Yikes. I had a major case of tunnel vision. Talk about unfair expectations. 

This situation reminds me of the fact that each believer makes up a different part of the body of Christ (Romans 12:4-5). There are arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, pinky toes, and armpits.

Each and every person is important. Every single believer should serve the church, but each person is not called to serve in the same way. Not everyone is gifted to teach or preach, serve as a deacon, play the piano, or update the prayer sheet. This idea extends even beyond the immediate needs within the worship services themselves. What about ministering outside the walls of the church building - street counseling outside the abortion clinic, or adopting or fostering a child, or doing home/building repairs for those affected by a recent storm? Are all these things good? Yes. Should we pray for all these wonderful ministries that take place both inside and outside of our churches? Without fail. Are all these things the right things for everyone to be doing? No. If everyone is an arm, who would be the leg? Or if everyone is a hand, who would be the foot (1 Corinthians 12:15-26)? We cannot expect everyone to be as passionate about a particular ministry as we are, nor can we assume that people will jump at what we believe is a wonderful opportunity. We all need to serve in the way in which God has equipped us. Praise God that He has made us all unique; therefore we can all uniquely serve the church!

And if you're wondering about the ending to my story - a gentleman did eventually step up to take on the role of updating the weekly prayer sheet, and, if I'm honest, he's much better at it than I ever was.

Love,

Kristen

Hosea: Sin, Judgment, and Prevailing Love

My friend and I recently finished a bible study on the book of Hosea. We have studied several books of the bible together and are usually able to finish any given book within a few months. This one, however, took a year! We didn’t intend on the study taking so long, but once we started digging into the book, we discovered that it was much more complex than we ever could have imagined.


The book of Hosea drips with figurative language, which sometimes can be interpreted in several different ways. Throughout our study, we sought help from numerous trusted commentaries and did our best to choose the most accurate understanding of each verse. (Side note: Boy, am I glad I don’t have my husband’s job! Unpacking the scriptures verse by verse, though of utmost importance, is extremely hard work. See more on expository preaching here.)


I now have a large stack of pages that make up my notes from the study, and I wish I could share all of it with you, but since that would make for an extremely lengthy blog post, I at least wanted to give you a little taste of what I gleaned from the study.

• At the beginning of the book, the Lord tells Hosea to take “a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). Hosea takes a wife named Gomer, and their marriage offers the metaphor that explains the overarching topics of the book: sin, judgment, and ultimately, forgiving love. Throughout the book, Hosea’s marriage relationship to Gomer is likened to God’s covenant relationship to Israel. (I want to add that some commentators believe the marriage was not literal but only figurative. Either way, the main focus is not Hosea/Gomer but God/Israel.)

• The theme, according to John MacArthur’s Study Bible, is “God’s loyal love for his covenant people in spite of their idolatry.” The mercy God shows to Israel throughout the book can only be described as completely undeserved, just like a Christian’s salvation through Christ. It would be a scary day if God no longer had mercy upon mankind. I imagine we would be immediately consumed by fire, which is without doubt what we each deserve because of our sin. We are just like Israel in the days of Hosea – constantly straying from and rebelling against a holy God. Knowing that fact makes me so thankful for the never-ending grace of God toward those whose hope rests in Christ alone! If we aren’t trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ and his work upon the cross for our salvation, we are doomed to eternal punishment.

• Hosea 7:11-12 reads, “Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.” God is portrayed here as a bird catcher throwing His net over Israel and pulling the people down for correction. My friend and I compared this scenario to a parent grounding their child. When a parent grounds a child to his or her room, the child has to stay inside the confines of that room. Does a parent discipline their child to be mean? Absolutely not. But is discipline necessary for the good of the child? Without question. And so it was with the discipline of Israel – necessary for their own good. “For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” Proverbs 3:12

• While God does bring judgment upon the Israelites at the hand of the Assyrians, He never quit loving them. Hosea 14:4 says, “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.” This verse shows that God is not withholding His anger; He’s removing it completely! Israel has by no means earned God’s love – it is by God’s grace that He will love them freely. The Israelites, in their sinful state, could not turn back to God without a saving act from God Himself. God is the One who healed their apostasy (rebellion and faithlessness). Praise the Lord!

• The very last verse in the book of Hosea reads, “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them." The main idea here isn’t that wise people inevitably will understand the book of Hosea, but that one must be wise in order to understand it. We should all pray for wisdom and discernment when reading this book because these sayings are difficult to comprehend. In addition, we can’t just assume that Israelite readers in the eighth century BC would have comprehended Hosea without struggle. A person must be “wise” in order to “understand” it and “discerning” in order to “know” it. Thus, the key to understanding is not intelligence but submission. “The righteous find life in these difficult words. To those who do not submit, they are rocks that give offense. Hosea’s final message is as if to say, ‘How do you read the words of this book? Do they enlighten or confuse? Are they life or death? Your response describes not so much the state of my book as the state of your soul.’” (Garrett, D.A. [1997], The New American Commentary)

Love,
Kristen

The Transgender Debate: Are Bathrooms Really the Issue?

As most of you know, on Friday May 13, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, sent out a guidance letter regarding Transgender Students to schools across the country that receive Federal funds. The letter stated, “As a condition of receiving Federal funds, a school agrees that it will not exclude, separate, deny benefits to, or otherwise treat differently on the basis of sex any person in its educational programs or activities unless expressly authorized to do so under Title IX or its implementing regulations.” But the truly controversial issue comes in the next two sentences as the letter defines sex: “The Departments treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for purposes of Title IX and its implementing regulations. This means that a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.” 

Simply put, the US government is declaring that one’s gender is determined based upon how that person thinks or feels. Regardless of your anatomy, if you think you are male, then you are male. And likewise, if you think you are female, then you are female.

Now, if you ponder this idea more closely it is actually easy from a worldly standpoint to follow this logic. On the one hand you have the body, and then on the other hand you have the mind. If the two are separated then it is possible for the body and the mind to disagree. Specifically, in the case of the current transgender movement, the body can be wrong while the mind is right. The body might look male, but the mind identifies as female. Therefore, the logical conclusion is to accept whatever the mind conveys and to live as the gender with which the mind identifies. For some, this includes using the facilities (bathroom, locker room, etc.) that are consistent with the mind. For others, this includes dressing in a manner that is consistent with the gender with which one identifies. And for a very small percentage of people, this even means hormone replacement therapy or gender reassignment surgery. 

But doesn’t this action violate our cultural mantra that says one is simply “born this way”? Many in our day will say something along the lines of, “I’m born this way, so accept me for who I am.” So my question is this: Which is it? Are you "born this way" in regards to your body or in regards to your mind? I realize this is not a simple issue, but I don’t think any route that involves mutilation of the body is ever the correct path. Taking hormonal drugs or undergoing medical procedures does not change us at the core. We are who we are because God has created us in a specific way. Every single one of us is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27); therefore, as image-bearers of God Almighty, every person is worthy of dignity and respect. This implies that we must honor one another, even those struggling with issues that we know very little about, such as gender identity. This also indicates that we should treat our own selves, our own bodies, with dignity and respect. 

In addition, why are Christians so disgusted and angry with those who believe their gender identity differs from the one they were given at birth? Why are we acting out of fear rather than out of love, power, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7)? I know and understand that we must live wisely and we must protect the helpless, but is that our real concern and motivation in this situation? For some Christians, our only argument is centered around a man having access to a women’s bathroom in order to rape and molest our daughters. Is that not an argument created by fear? 

I will acknowledge that there is reason for concern, but when we think this argument is a no-brainer and that it should solve the issue, we fail to recognize the greater reality. The greater reality is that there are real men, women, boys, and girls who are struggling with gender dysphoria, and all the while, we are blinded by this idea of a pervert in the restroom; this “straw man” that we have created in our minds. 

Why are our hearts not breaking when we see others struggling with gender and sexuality? Yes, we disagree, but why do we think that we are so much better than “them”? Why have Christians created an “us” versus “them” mentality over issues where we disagree? We tend to be extremely short-sighted (I know I am). We tend to focus upon “them” and "their" sin and to miss the 2x4 that is sticking out of our own eye – the great sin from which God saved us! Ephesians 2:1-5 reads, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved…” If not for the grace of God, our wretched souls would still be dead in our own sin and filth! We have no reason to have even an ounce of self-righteousness.

So why aren’t we, as recipients of the marvelous grace of God, fighting for those who are hurting and confused? Why aren’t we defending and protecting the oppressed (Psalm 82:3)? Could it be that we aren’t defending those who are oppressed and persecuted because we’re too busy being the oppressors and persecutors?   

Instead of crying out in disgust, let us look at the greater reality here: When God created man, He created us male and female (Genesis 1:26-27). God did not make a mistake when He created us, so let us help one another embrace the gifts of life and gender that God has bestowed upon us. Let us not define gender with our unfair, too tightly boxed-in stereotypes. Let us define gender as God has given it to us. He has created us male and female for our good and for His glory. 

If you're interested in further study regarding gender, check out Designed for Joy, edited by Jonathan Parnell and Owen Strachan.

~Corey

                  

Filthy Organization

I have been thinking a lot lately about organization – the purpose of it, the good that it does, and even the bad that it can bring. Let me start by saying that chaos and disorder drive me absolutely nuts. I am a list-making, note-writing, calendar-keeping kind of gal. My husband and I share a Google calendar so we can keep up with each other’s schedules; I have a hand-written daily schedule, which I make every weekend that includes details of the upcoming week; I meal-plan and prepare my grocery list according to the meals for the week; and I have specific days for doing specific household chores. Although I’m by no means perfect at it, and certainly never will be, I LOVE order and organization! And it is clear in God's Word that God himself desires organization too. We see in the Creation account in Genesis that God took what had no form and brought orderliness to it to make it function in a particular way. Additionally, in 1 Corinthians 14:40, Paul is speaking about worship gatherings and writes, "But all things should be done decently and in order." Orderliness and organization are admirable things!

The good side of organization is pretty obvious: It helps with time-management, finances, and the cleanliness of our home. Organization makes sure that I get where I'm supposed to be when I'm supposed to be there and that, in general, our home is run like a well-oiled machine. But what is the point of organization if I'm not also using it to do good for my church body, neighbors, other family members, or friends? Organization could mean having a meal in the freezer, ready to take to someone in need or to pop in the oven when unexpected guests drop by. It could also mean having your spare bedroom ready and available for an individual or family who may need a place to stay. As Philippians 2:3 says, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." No matter our method of organization or even if organization is not our strong suit, as Christians, we should be ready and willing to serve when the opportunity arises. We know that there are many positive attributes to organization, but what about the negative ones?

What happens when something good becomes something bad? I'm talking about idolatry. Yes, our human hearts tend to turn what God intended for good into something that dishonors and displeases Him. Organization most definitely can fit that description. I have been guilty of wanting my home and family-life to appear to be well-organized in order to impress other people. Rather than being organized to help me be more efficient to the glory of God, I was organized for the sake of being neat and tidy for my own selfish desires. As Tim Challies says in his book, Do More Better, “Your good works are like a light, and when that light shines, it illuminates God. When people see that light, they aren't meant to look at you and say, 'He’s incredible' or 'She’s amazing.' They are meant to look at God and say, 'He is awesome.'”

In addition, I've also been one (and still sometimes am) who sacrifices family time or fellowship for the sake of keeping up with my to-do list. Now, don't get me wrong, life can't always be a party, and there are times when we must sacrifice going to have coffee with a friend because right now is the only time we'll be able to clean our house during a busy week! On the other hand, however, it most definitely could be that having coffee with a friend who's going through a tough time should be your priority at that particular moment. But we must use wisdom when making these decisions, and we must think about which action (in this case, cleaning or fellowship) would be most pleasing to God at that time, keeping in mind our responsibility to our husbands and children. Whoever said life is a balancing act was absolutely right! No matter what we decide in situations such as those, let us always strive to make the choice that would bring the most glory to God.

"So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him." 
2 Corinthians 5:9

Love,

Kristen

Closing the Great Divide: The Cake Debate

Over the past year we have seen bakeries in both Oregon and Colorado thrown on to the national stage, as they were sued for refusing to make a cake in honor of a same-sex wedding.  The courts determined that both companies illegally discriminated against the same-sex couples to whom service was denied.  In fact, the Oregon baker was ordered to pay the same-sex couple $135,000 for emotional and mental damage that resulted from denial of service.  

                  While there is much to say about this, my intention is not to focus upon the government’s infringement of religious liberty, because much has already been said regarding this issue.  My intention, however, is to look at this situation from a different angle and to consider the question: Can a Christian in good conscience bake a cake for a same-sex wedding?  I’m not proposing that these bakeries are wrong by any means, as I am a proponent of religious liberty.  A reasonable person should not be forced to violate his/her conscience.  As Martin Luther said during his trial in April 1521, “To go against conscience is neither right nor safe.”  

                  With that said, I believe that the owners of these bakeries had every right to deny service, because to do the opposite would violate conscience, which as we see in Scripture is not safe.  Romans 14:23 teaches us that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.  Simply put, to act against conscience is sin; however, is baking a cake for a same-sex wedding always sin?  Is this a black and white issue, or is there liberty here?  If baking a cake gives affirmation and approval to sin, then there is no liberty here in Christ.  The only reasonable response would be to deny service for a same-sex wedding; but is this the case?  If a Christian bakes a cake for a same-sex wedding does this undertaking always give approval to the uniting of two men or of two women?  

One year ago, my response to that question would have been a resounding yes, but now I’m not so convinced that this is a black and white issue.  Recently, I read The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield, and my thoughts on homosexuality are being flipped upside down.  My convictions regarding same-sex marriage have not changed in the least, but my lenses have been adjusted to see the great divide that we as Christians have created between “us” and “them.”  I use this language to further demonstrate the great divide.  For some reason we have created and widened this gap rather than rubbing shoulders with those we disagree with.  Too often we are the unloving ones, as we view anyone in a same-sex relationship with disdain and hatred.  Too often we end the conversation before it ever begins, and that is why I bring up the issue of baking cakes.  The cakes here are the hypothetical issue (at least in my case, because I do not own a bakery or intend to own a bakery) that represents a bigger problem.  When we turn down service are we burning a bridge before it’s even built, or are we truly acting out of conviction?  When we refuse someone service is it because we are disgusted, or is it because we truly love him or her?  When we refuse service are we treating this individual as a second-class citizen or are we still affirming that this individual is created in the image and likeness of God?  

                  So it all comes down to this.  Does providing a service affirm that of which we disapprove?  If yes, then we must say no.  But does it really?  Can we bake that cake in affirmation that these are two image-bearers of God, yet at the same time reject the lifestyle and hold it up as sin against a Holy God?

I can’t help but wonder whether or not we are too quick to burn bridges and never actually have meaningful discourse about God’s great love toward sinners.  Aren’t you glad that someone loved you enough to proclaim the love of God, which has been poured out to sinners through Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death upon a cross?  Aren’t you glad that someone called you to trust in Jesus Christ in the midst of your sin and rebellion?  Why do you think that one sin is beyond redemption, when God saved you from a whole host of sins?  

Whether we would bake the cake or not, let us attempt to repair this strained, if not non-existent, relationship.  By no means am I advocating an affirmation of sin, but I am advocating an affirmation of human beings who have been created in the image and likeness of God.  Let us love one another and do everything possible to be at peace with one another (Romans 12:18).  If hostility and rejection do come, let us continue to pray and continue to trust in Christ and appeal to Him, for He promised us that in this world we will have trouble but take heart for He has overcome the world (John 16:33).  

~Corey