UPDATE: I have ended up with 40 incredible quotes from this 1970 book on emerging church. 40 seems to be the going number these days for journeys so I invite you to 40 days of Posterity for the Emerging Church at Our Daily Blog. Here is today’s meme:
“The emerging Church will not choose up sides in such a fashion. Rather, it will affirm what is valuable in each emphasis, bringing together the most helpful of the old and the best of the new, blending the dynamic of a personal Gospel with the compassion of social concern.”
Osborne, Larson, The Emerging Church (1970), p10
ORIGINAL: I have simplified Our Daily Blog for 2006. Instead of a chunk of reading, there will just be a single phrase or thought. Just perfect for an RSS Reader or your phone. We have so much information coming to us, I don’t want to clog up anyone’s life with too much information.
I am using the classic book “The Emerging Church” (1970) by Bruce Larson and Ralph Osborne to kick off this years Our Daily Blog. Later on I will lead you out of the 1970’s and into some current literature. Each day a new thought or sentence will be offered and you will be welcome to give your thoughts. It might be a great way for some of you to give some thought to what God is doing among the emerging church
One thought or meme or sentence every day for one year. Sent to your RRS Reader or phone. Start today.
And please send me what you think is a great phrase or meme that captures what God is doing.
Technorati Tags: 40 days, church, Emergent, emerging church, our daily blog, religion
Happy New Year! Your blog has been a great sources of inspiration for me over the past year. I’d love to see you over at Voyageurs.
Peace,
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
http://www.emergentvoyageurs.blog.com
Happy New Year! Your blog has been a great sources of inspiration for me over the past year. I’d love to see you over at Voyageurs.
Peace,
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
http://www.emergentvoyageurs.blog.com
The real struggle of homosexuals
In more than twenty years of ministry, I have counseled a number of people who struggle with homosexual orientation. In most cases, these people feel trapped in a lifestyle they wish they could accept. On the surface they appear to be kind, fun loving and easygoing, yet inwardly they vacillate between guilt, anger, rage and even suicidal thoughts. They come for help because they desperately want freedom from their struggle. Many of them have been to counselors who have tried to convince them to accept their lifestyle as normal. Some counselors have even told them that God approves their way of life. Yet they find it impossible to believe that they were meant to live a homosexual lifestyle.
We must not be fooled by the voices of radical homosexual activists. Their efforts are merely a cover up for their frustration, resentment and despair. Changes in legislation or public opinion will not remove the agony felt by those who struggle. The homosexual lifestyle robs people of both dignity and freedom. And neither popular nor legislative changes will grant the dignity or freedom they desire.
The really liberating truth is that homosexuality is a lifestyle– not a necessary part of one’s identity. Equating homosexual behavior with personhood perpetuates the offensive notion that a person is homosexual in the same way that he or she is of a particular race or gender. Such reasoning might support the efforts of those who want this to be a civil rights battle, but in actuality it only deepens the despair of those who long for freedom.
There is no hope for change unless one admits that a person is homosexual only in so far as he engages in homosexual behavior. Any other view injures human dignity. On this understanding, homosexuality is not a matter of civil rights comparable to issues of race or gender. Wrongful discrimination injures someone for what she is by nature not for a type of behavior she chooses. It may be true that certain people have biological inclinations toward homosexual orientation. Yet this does not justify defining personhood on the basis of behavioral inclination.
An understanding that some who struggle with homosexuality are susceptible due to biological inclination (or past abuse as children), should sensitize us to the very real pain that they endure. Yet these biological and circumstantial factors should not be used to legitimize the behavior. This does not offer the path of hope desperately sought by homosexuals.
Instead, scripture provides a painful word of hope when it refuses to avoid the truth about homosexual behavior. The New Testament defines such behavior as an “…exchange of natural relations for unnatural ones” (Romans 1:26). Those who engage in this behavior know intuitively that this is true. To avoid it, they must sear their consciences. Scripture is very direct when it states, “…the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (Romans 1:27). This hard biblical truth is the only path to freedom because the same word that exposes our sin offers us the forgiveness and freedom we all need.
Steven W. Cornell
Senior pastor,
Millersville Bible Church
58 West Frederick Street
Millersville, Pa. 17551
Office: 717-872-4260
s.cornell@millersvillebiblechurch.org
[andrew] ahhhh . . steve – did you post this comment to the right blog? i wont delete it since you are a first timer, but next time please stay on topic and if you have a lot to say, post it on your own blog or web site first like your site here and leave a link.