Ironworks Pike Community Church - Pastor's Blog

"I Was Born this Way."

8/31/2020

"I was born this way" -- worst excuse ever!

It's the go-to excuse for personal irresponsibility. We don't accept this excuse for social problems having to do with anger, thievery, or lying, so we shouldn't accept it for sex, either. Even if we inherit a strong natural inclination toward an emotion or a behavior, or if we learn it from our up-bringing, or if we are driven into a negative direction of life by abuse, we still have free wills, and we still owe it to God and other people to act right.

"I was born this way" -- what does that have to do with right or wrong?

Right is still right, and wrong is still wrong, regardless of our feelings. Right and wrong are objective and don't change, because there is a God who is real and who never changes. The idea that right and wrong is a Chinese buffet leads to violence and chaos, with every person doing whatever's right in their own eyes and victimizing others in the process.

"I was born this way" -- but God didn't do it. There is something radically wrong with every human soul, but that isn't how God made us. God created the human race good. God intended this world to be a good place. But Jesus Christ taught that there was a first, original man, and that man, by rebelling, spiritually cut us off from God's love. That first man poisoned human nature at the root. When we experience feelings of rage, immorality, deceit, or greed, that is not who we were meant to be. Those feelings are typical, but they are not normal.

You were born lacking an inner connection to God's love, which is the one sure cure for all selfish, evil feelings. God can re-connect with you, and He wants to. Rather than excusing ourselves with the phrase, "But I was born this way", we should ask God to re-connect with us through his son, Jesus Christ. What will happen is that you will be spiritually re-born, in a new way. You won't become perfect, but you will begin the journey of conquering yourself, through the power of God's love.

Truths From The Current Crisis.

8/25/2020

God has taught me so many things in the past seven months. That Christian men and women who keep on praying can struggle through difficult church decisions and arrive at compromises; but it takes faith, patience, and good will.

That compromise is not always sinful. Sometimes it can be, but sometimes it can be wise.

The reminder that not all Christian group decisions are moral binaries. In other words, we often need to make pragmatic decisions, and pragmatic decisions will change because they're based on circumstances.

That keeping track of the changing circumstances can be mentally exhausting, some people are better at doing that than others, and everyone together is better at doing that than just 1-2 people alone.

That God the Holy Spirit directly guides, in response to prayer, regarding pragmatic decisions. He is not an evangelist or Bible tutor only.

That doing what is love toward others is more important than my rights, which pleases God because Jesus did the same (Philippians 2:1-8).