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My wife drove into our driveway the other evening and came in asking, "Mark, did you put a bumper sticker on your truck?" Well of course I didn't, I wouldn't mess up the paint or chrome in that manner. So I went out to look.
Sure enough, someone had applied something to my tailgate. The phrasing consisted of white outline lettering only, not a bumper sticker at all, and so it merged well with the white of the truck. Very discrete. Who knows how long I had been sporting it. I had been tagged with, "honk if you love gay men".
I am reminded of one of Paul's teachings, of which many could apply here;
17 Therefore this I say, and I urge you in the Lord, that you are no longer to walk, just as the unbelievers walk in the emptiness of their mind, 18 having been darkened in their understanding, having been alienated to the life of God through ignorance which is in them, through the hardness of their heart; 19 everyone who, having become insensitive, greedily gave themselves over to indecency with regard to every kind of immoral practice. (Ephesians 4:17-19)
How easy it is to be deceived by the slogans of today, "I was born that way." Slogans are easy to remember, they slip quickly off the tongue, they mean what we deem them to mean, and they stay lodged in our psyche, polluting us. But we are encouraged otherwise;
20 But you did not learn Christ like this, 21 if indeed you heard and were taught in Him, that truth is in Jesus, 22 that regarding your former conduct, you are to throw off the old person, the one being destroyed through the lusts of deceitfulness, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new person, the one created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:20-24)
My minor bit of vandalism pales in the face of entire denominations being ripped asunder by this issue; the Anglican communion for some time and just recently the Lutheran Church. (I've provided some links below covering this latest tragedy) But it does highlight our social penchant for pursuing sin in the face of clear Biblical teaching. This is not to be unexpected.
3 For an age will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but with regard to their own lusts they will accumulate teachers to tickle their ears, 4 and indeed they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
We each have to ask ourselves, "Where do I fit in the picture? Am I part of the deluded, the ones with tickled ears? Or, will I stand up for clear teaching?" One hardly needs to wonder at the systematic destructuring of our mainline denominations, Scripture clearly prophesies it.
51 "Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? "No," I say to you, "but on the contrary division; 52 for it will be from now on, five in one household have been divided, three against two and two against three." " (Luke 12:51-52)
Given that division is a certainly, our task at hand is to choose the right side. There is no straddling the fence, it belongs to the enemy.
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