Modern airliners are guided by onboard computers. Pilots are told where they are and where to go by those computers. But airports still have runway lights. Pilots check the accuracy of the computer by visually watching those lights.
Christians are to act similarly. We receive Christ into our lives. A renewal process begins by the working together of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to enable us to discern and live-out God’s will. We need God’s Word as runway lights while the Holy Spirit is renewing our minds. In this life, the process is ongoing but not yet complete. We must meet Christ’s commands both to love and obey. So we have the onboard computer of the Holy Spirit and the runway lights of biblical commands.
Many today define God’s love as condoning almost any and all sexual behavior. This ignores the runway lights of God’s Word. The United Methodist Churches have landed completely off the runway of historical, biblical Christianity. That is why almost 8,000 congregations have left the UMC.
Rather than redefining human sexuality with several letters of the alphabet and creating new words in the English language to describe the many diversions from God’s plan, listen to how Jesus said it very simply: “‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? (Matthew 19:5-6 CSB).
Notice Jesus’ declaration. Male and females are distinct in God’s creation. A man is to marry a woman. Historical, biblical Christianity for 2,000 years has lived by an enduring standard for marriage and sexual expression: one man married to one woman for life and anything outside of this is not God’s will.
Isn’t amazing that thousands of churches have suddenly discovered in the past 20 years what the millions of churches of the past 2,000 years were wrong? In short, the new morality is heresy. If you only live by commands, we end up artificial and unfinished. But if you exclude commands entirely, we end up selfish and inconsistent.
Come worship in-person this Sunday at 8:45am (Traditional) or 11:00am (Contemporary). Go online at Balboa.Live to watch livestream or recorded. www.BalboaBaptist.Church