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To Love Is to Tell the Truth in Love

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Anyone who sets himself up as ‘religious’ by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world” (James 1:26-27, The Message).

I’ve been watching videos on Youtube from a guy named Becket Cook. He’s a former homosexual who is now a kind of apologist for orthodox biblical Christianity. One of his tenets is that it is not truly loving to affirm anyone in their sin, whether it be in the LGBTQ camp or pre-marital cohabitation or any other sinful lifestyle. He say that the most loving thing you can do is to tell someone the truth in love.

If I believe that the Bible is true, then I must live by it and I must also be willing to abide by what it teaches when it comes to alternate lifestyles and behaviors. I must come from the place where I view my sin just as seriously as I do anybody else’s. Homosexuality or adultery is no more sinful than my pride or my judgmentalism. It’s all sin to God and we are all called to repent.

To love is to be compassionate as Jesus was. He reached out to those who were marginalized and excluded from society. He never turned away anyone who sought Him out in faith. But He also always told them the truth. He never compromised for the sake of acceptance and peace. In fact, many people quite following Him because He spoke the truths that made them uncomfortable and convicted.

We need both. Compassion and conviction aren’t mutually exclusive. We need to hold to our convictions in the midst of compassion toward those in need but we also need to be compassionate when we’re sharing our convictions about what we believe and why.

The point is not to change an aspect of the person. It’s not to get a liberal to vote conservative or to get a gay person into a straight marriage. It’s about redeeming the whole person with the whole gospel. That means that every part of the person needs to be transformed and renewed. The gospel isn’t about making bad people good or making good people better but about making dead people alive.

We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard. We all need to repent and to be forgiven. We all need a Savior who will pay the debt for those sins that we could never hope to pay. We all need a righteousness that we can’t produce on our own but has to come from somewhere else. We need Jesus.

More 90s CCM Goodness

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I’ve been listening to a podcast series by Andy Chrisman lately. Or more accurately, I’ve been watching Youtube videos of a podcast series by Andy Christman. They’re all centered around the Christian music industry and a lot of the stories revolve around 90s CCM.

To me, the 90s were the best decade for Christian music. There was such a diversity of talent and sounds that invaded radio stations all over the country. And that was back when radio stations had actual playlists of more than 15 songs.

For me to hear any Christian song from the 90s will take me back to the moment when I first heard it. Most likely, I can tell you the artist, the song and even the album title. I’d probably be really good at trivia centered around 80s and 90s Christian music.

But hearing the stories behind the songs from artists like 4Him and Russ Taff just makes their message more meaningful. To hear the struggles and hardships that the artists went through makes me appreciate them all the more. It also makes me want to pump up the volume on some 90s CCM at some point in the very near future.

I’m thankful that Christian music still exists. In some ways, it’s bigger than it’s ever been with a wider reach and more people buying albums and going to concerts. But compared to the rich variety of the 90s, there’s a bit of a sameness to a lot of what I hear currently. And I’m sure you could ask any Christian artist around today, and they’d probably say their inspiration came from something out of the 90s. And those from the 90s would probably point to artists in the 70s for inspiration (but that’s a discussion for another day).

I am thankful that I had all that great music to be a part of the formation and shaping of who I am today and what I believe. I’m thankful for the solid lyrics that will still come to mind to this day whenever I think of a particular artist. I’m thankful that so much of 90s CCM is part of the soundtrack to my life.