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Archive for November, 2012

In Prison… or Imprisoned?

Posted in Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, tagged , , , , , on November 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »

For some time, I’ve been corresponding with a young man who is serving time in a federal penitentiary.  He is serving time in prison, but the weight of his guilt has been lifted by the Lord of his life.  He is physically under lock and key, yet no longer captive to the sins of his past.  He is in prison, but not imprisoned by his circumstances.

This has not been so with a dear friend of mine who, for all practical purposes, lives a free life but is captive to the circumstances of her abortion.  Jane knows the forgiveness of Christ.  She lives a life of prayer and supplication.  But, contrary to what abortion advocates claim, my friend’s choice was neither her right nor for her benefit.  No one is more painfully aware of this than Jane who has a hard time forgiving herself.  The guilt that she carries has affected the relationship she treasures most on this earth.  That relationship is with her living daughter.

I don’t believe it is mandatory for a woman to confess the sin of abortion to anyone but God.  But, experience with Jane and so many other women has proven to me that the silent grief of this particular sin creates an environment of conditional love between a mother and her living child.  Do those who favor abortion rights acknowledge this?  No.  Abortion advocates claim that if a woman suffers at all following an abortion, it is because of the guilt placed on her by the pro-life community.  Jane and other women in my life who’ve made an abortion choice prove differently.  On countless occasions, Jane has reminded me that she could move on in her life as well as she did, in part, because of our friendship.  It has taken years for Jane to tell me her whole story but, in revealing each painful part, she learned she could trust that I would walk with her away from despair to the Cross.

My young friend in prison shows me that a man can be set free from the captivity of lies and deception even within the four walls of a locked cell.  Soon, I want to tell more about this young man.

My dear friend Jane shows me that while a woman may appear to enjoy the rights and benefits of abortion, this deception ultimately imprisons the soul and affects the ones we love most.  Soon, I want to tell more about my friend.  About the way that God is working to heal the relationship with her beloved daughter.  A relationship that has, for so many years, been unnaturally shaped by the lie of “my right, my choice.”

Be patient with me while I gather my thoughts and find the words to tell these stories of amazing grace.

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Baptism, Sexuality and the Election

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Sexy or holy?, Vocation, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2012| 2 Comments »

We are baptized, not in the water of sexuality, but in the water of pure Word and Holy Spirit.  We are called, not to ways of weak flesh, but to holy and noble purpose.  We are encouraged, not to glorify self, but to glorify Jesus Christ who makes us children of God.

Baptism “is an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).  Baptism cleanses and raises us to new life.   Our Baptism sets us apart from the world and our own fickle desires.

So here is why I’m so deeply disappointed following the election.  Far too many of my fellow Christian sisters let their sensuality have its way.  They voted in favor of “my body, my choice” rather than in remembrance of their baptism.  They feared they might be denied something, something that should rightfully be theirs.

Back to the Garden we go.  God appealed to Eve’s whole being, her true identity as His wondrous creation.  But, Satan appealed to her pride and desires, taunting with the apple of “my rights” and “my control.”  Today – right here and right now, God appeals to the whole being and true identity of His daughters in Christ.  But, Satan (until he’s banished to hell) lingers around, tantalizing our desires.  Whispering sweet nothings in our ears.

Admittedly, I can’t say how many baptized women were influenced by the childish ad of the Obama campaign.  You know the one I’m talking about.   Actress Lena Dunham appears on a video making an appeal to young women to imagine their first time voting for Obama as being akin to losing their virginity.  References in the ad were explicit and low standard.

The sexual innuendo of the ad was unmistakable: “Your first time shouldn’t be with just anybody.  You want to do it with a great guy,” says actress Dunham.  “It should be with a guy . . . who really cares about and understands women.”  Then, on behalf of the sitting president of the United States, Dunham makes her political appeal.  She says, you want to do it with “a guy who cares whether you get birth control.  The consequences are huge.  You want to do it with the guy who brought the troops out of Iraq . . ..”

Actress Dunham quickly references “gay marriage,” then says, “It’s also super-uncool to be out and about and someone says, ‘did you vote?’ and [you] reply, ‘No, I didn’t feel – I wasn’t ready.’”  The ad wraps up when Dunham describes her first time voting as “amazing.”  It was like crossing that “line in the sand” to vote for Barack Obama.  “Before I was a girl; now I was a woman.”

This campaign ad was endorsed by the President of the United States.  The father of two daughters.  The man who, true to his vocation, should protect and defend the virtue of every American woman.

But, how many baptized American women – more or less youthful – voted for the man who appealed to their pride?  Sexual rights?  Desire for control?  Did any of us think about the irony of it all?  Modern feminists abhor Biblical patriarchy, yet here are women asking “Big Daddy” – a patriarchal government – to provide their birth control pills, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization procedures at no cost.  Why?

Is it because they are deceived by a wrong identity?  Or because they have forgotten their baptism in the Word of holiness and purity?  Or because they are captive to pride and sensuality?  Or, because they live in fear?

Trusting our baptism, we need not fear the known or the unknown.  Baptism in the waters of new life encourages us to virtue.  Self-restraint.  Trust in our Creator and Redeemer instead of our own weak flesh.

Baptism gives us new identity in Christ.  We are not sensual beings, but holy beings.  We are not captive to sin, but redeemed from sin.  We are not left in the despair of wrong choices, but set free to start new.  To see our life from God’s perspective.  All this… because we have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Do we believe it?

Amen.  God said it.  It is so.

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After the Vote: Stay Calm and Carry On

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Vocation, tagged , , , , , on November 10, 2012| 1 Comment »

Before the election, I suggested that we “Vote: Then Stay Calm and Carry On.”

Well, the people have voted.  We cannot blame the president for what will or will not happen.  His ideology and hope for America were made clear through his unapologetic support of abortion, partnership with Planned Parenthood, promotion of sodomy, new definition of marriage, and health care mandate that forces Christians to choose God or Caesar.   The people, whether church-goers or not, determined the kind of leadership this country will have for another four years.

For the believer, nothing has really changed.  The day before the election is the same as the day after.  In all circumstances, we are to stay calm and carry on.

But, how can we do this?  How can we carry on the work of Christ in a nation that puts its trust not in God but in government?  In a culture that lifts the “right” to uninhibited sexuality and abortion above the right of conscience and faith?  In congregations that compromise God’s Word for the sake of church growth?

We stay calm and carry on.

There is a passage from Scripture that many of us like to offer as encouragement to friends or family.  It reads: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).  Left to itself, this passage assures us that all will be well.  All will turn out for good.  But, Steve Elliott of Grassfire.com and my own Pastor Beisel remind me how crucial it is to read all of God’s Word in the context of when and why it was written.

The “future and a hope” passage is from a letter that Jeremiah wrote to the surviving elders, priests, prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.  Please take note that the Lord God “sent” His people into exile.  It didn’t happen by accident.  It wasn’t because Nebuchadnezzar outwitted God or was more progressive.

What were exiled and captive people of God to do?  They were to be faithful.  They were to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:5-7).

They were also to heed God’s warning.  “Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in My name;  I did not send them, declares the Lord” (vv. 8-9).

Then the Lord continued, “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill my promise and bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (vv. 10-11).

It is for this reason that I started Titus 2 for Life years ago.  After hearing the cries of so many Christian women deceived by the world’s focus on sexuality and “my right;” after hearing their cries after choices of promiscuity and abortion, I was motivated to encourage believers using God’s Word of Genesis together with the mentoring model of Titus 2.  Young pastor Titus was concerned for his congregation.  They were pressed on all sides by a culture that craved new ways and personal fulfillment.  What could Titus do for the few believers so that they would be equipped to raise up Christian families and, at the same time, push back against evil?  St. Paul offered Titus a model for mentoring that has always proved effective for any generation – in or out of exile.

So, on a quiet evening, please read Jeremiah 27-33.  Read the whole story.  Then, read Titus 2:2-15.

But, don’t stop there.  It has become very important for me to remember what happened when God’s people came out of exile.  In the Book of Ezra, we learn that only a few of the Jewish exiles wanted to return to Jerusalem and their homeland.  Most were unwilling to give up their Babylonian property or lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.  They didn’t want to return to “old ways.”  So, with only a few faithful ones returning to rebuild Jerusalem, the work was hard.  Some people in the area offered their help.  Those people didn’t worship Yahweh but held to a blend of mixed religious beliefs.  Suffice it to say that they had their own motives for wanting to help.  God told His people to refuse the help of unbelieving neighbors in the land.  Why?  Because accepting help from non-believers would obligate God’s people to pagan ways.  The potential for corruption in worship was too great if God’s people became aligned with non-believers (Ezra 4:3).

I pray for courage and opportunity to use the model given me for mentoring.  Even if it means being strange or unpopular, I pray for help in persevering for God’s glory rather than my own.  At Titus 2 Retreats, I often tell women that I feel exiled in my own country even though never forced from my home.  Perhaps, that’s how it will be for the rest of my life on this earth.  After all, I am but a stranger here on a journey to my heavenly home.  I’m not sure I ever felt “different” in my youth, but I do now.

Identity is everything.  God doesn’t call me to fit in with the world or grow comfortable with my desires.  He calls me to be holy as He is holy.  And when I am not, He reminds me of all He did for me in Christ Jesus.  In exile or not, I am His.  Redeemed to holiness, I can fear less.  Serve more.

In exile or not, I can trust my identity.  Resist deception.  Mentor away from evil.  Seek what is good.  Plant the seed and till the soil.  Raise the standard.  Be fed with Word and Sacrament.  Not be ashamed.  Run my race.  Encourage family.  Stay calm.  Carry on.

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Please Check Out Ezerwoman’s New Page

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Vocation, tagged , , , , on November 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Please check out Ezerwoman’s new page entitled “Titus 2 Talk.”  I’ve been encouraged to record portions of the Titus 2 Retreat and certain Ezerwoman blogs.  Sometimes, I was reminded, it can be helpful to hear a personal voice, a “plea,” or a word of instruction and hope.

This is a new experience.  Please pray that it honors the Lord of Life.

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Vote… Then Stay Calm and Carry On

Posted in Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Vocation, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 1, 2012| 3 Comments »

In the last four years, human life has been placed more at risk.  The “right to life” that America promises to guard and protect has diminished.  The life of the unborn – and, therefore, also the born – has been declared of value only if that life is convenient and wanted.

In the last four years and under a government that seems to have another allegiance, a cruel blow has been dealt to the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage and the guardianship of children.  Generations will pay dearly.

Here’s what I see.  The king sets himself and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:2-3).

In the past four years, this government has passed over the Creator of life in the scramble to feed the ravenous coffers of Planned Parenthood (PP).  “Opportunity Centers,” PP’s friendly neighborhood sterilization chambers, are set up in strategic locations to reach America’s daughters so they don’t have to worry about pregnancy.  Is there a reason why abortion clinics are strategically set in the middle of African American neighborhoods?  Strange, isn’t it, that one of their own would allow this to happen.   Under no other American presidency has there been such a tight bond between the one who is to defend life and the institution which makes a profit from destroying life.

In the last four years, Americans have been put at risk by an economic burden that threatens to suck the very life out of us.  What kind of leadership pits the young against the old, the “haves” against the “have nots,” and, in general, one citizen against another?

In the last four years, the vibrancy of life that grows out of time-honored marriage and family has been slowly drained away at the altar of progressivism.  But, two men and two women are not a “good fit” (Genesis 2:18).  Faith and science walk hand in hand to prove that social experiments – those trendy ideas that go against the very structure and design of civilization – have terrible consequences.

In the past four years, pedophilia, sex trafficking and all forms of sexual deviancy have risen to dangerous levels.  The hope of desensitizing society and changing the penal code system so that all manner of sexual lust and imagination can be practiced has, indeed, been realized.

In the past four years, the government has determined to take over the health care system. But, human lives will fall between the cracks of a cold and monolithic structure.  The government, after all, is not a person with heart and hands to care.  As to efficiency, well, take a good look at the U.S. Post Office or federally (as opposed to locally) run schools.

In the past four years, people of faith have been told they must deny their faith in order to pay for deeds and services that go against God and conscience.  Under government health care, church-supported schools, social services, and hospitals must cover the sterilization, abortion producing drugs, and birth control of employees.  To refuse places church or private Christian business under penalty of heavy fine.  Will it be God… or Caesar?

In the past four years, the life of every American citizen is more at risk because this government would rather build relationships with America’s enemies than strengthen our defense.  When “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was gutted and in-the-field-experienced soldiers sequestered, our president bowed to those who seek jihad against American men, women and children.

The Lord of creation does not stand far off.  He has not forgotten those who call upon Him.  He defends the fatherless and oppressed.  He has shown us what is good.  What does He ask of us?  “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

So, please.  Vote.  Vote as if your life depends on it.

Then, in the words of Winston Churchill (the man whose bust was removed from the White House four years ago): “Stay calm.  Carry on.”

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