![]() It is why Jesus declared, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23, my emphasis). This is why Paul described himself as being “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) and called us to present our lives to God as a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). to surrender a self-will inflamed and swollen with years of usurpation is a kind of death.” Lewis in The Problem of Pain: “We are not merely imperfect creatures who must be improved we are, as Newman said, rebels who must lay down our arms.” Lewis admits that this is hard for us: “To render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, wherever and however it is done, a grievous pain. ![]() Or we can yield our lives completely to the will and power of the Holy Spirit, trusting him to make of us what we could never make of ourselves. We can strive in our own strength to stand publicly for Christ against the rising tide of secular animosity and to defeat the private temptations brought against us by Satan. However, you and I have a choice to make. In that moment, the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us when we trust in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16) begins working to transform us into people God can “love without impediment.” “Rebels who must lay down our arms” We exchange the sinful nature we inherited from the “first Adam” (Romans 5:12–14) for the spiritual nature we receive from the “second Adam,” our Savior and Lord (1 Corinthians 15:45 Romans 8:29). In the moment of our salvation, we are spiritually “born again” (John 3:3). Lewis adds: “What we would here and now call our ‘happiness’ is not the end God chiefly has in view, but when we are such as he can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy.” Lewis notes in The Problem of Pain: “We were not made primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest ‘well pleased.’” However, “to ask that God’s love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because he is what he is, his love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because he already loves us he must labor to make us lovable.” Today, let’s take our status as God’s children a step further. ![]() As a result, we are free to love and serve others whether they love and serve us or not, secure in the fact that we are loved absolutely and unconditionally by the God of the universe. Yesterday we celebrated the fact that when we place our faith in the Son of God, he makes us the children of God (cf. When our faith is tested, whether by public opposition or by private temptation, how do we pass the test? Your church may cost you your job, but your job may demand your soul.” “He must labor to make us lovable” He concludes: “This is how the issue in our world is now shaping up, and it will be a huge test of Christian faithfulness. But if we do, we will find ourselves in direct contradiction to the word of God. Albert Mohler is right: “This story tells us a very great deal about the velocity of social and moral change and the challenges that will face Christians, if not immediately, then very quickly.” If we want job security, he suggests that we join a church that celebrates LGBTQ ideology and all other progressive agendas. I was being required to compromise beyond a level that my conscience allowed.”ĭr. Thorburn resigned his position as a result, stating, “Today it became clear to me that my personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many. It is just wrong.” Essendon President Dave Barham quickly issued a statement: “We acted immediately to clarify the publicly espoused views on the organization’s official website, which are in direct contradiction to our values as a club.” I don’t support those views, that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred, bigotry. Daniel Andrews, premier of the Australian state of Victoria, told reporters, “Those views are absolutely appalling.
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