Friday Findings: Gays in Heaven, Hottie Girls, and The True Gospel

Frieday Findings on Modern RejectSo much has happened this week, I almost feel overwhelmed. Except that much of what has happened has been the moving of the Spirit and God doing big things (more to come on all of that).

Not to mention, there was so much awesome stuff in the ol’ blogoshpere this week–stuff I couldn’t wait to share with all of you.

So let’s get to it:

Will There Be Gays in Heaven? Craig Gross of XXX Church is the real deal. He seems to me to be one of the few really well-known, highly respected Christian figures who just gets it. What is “it?” Jesus. The article he wrote for CNN is a perfect example. Truth and grace, all over the place.

Little Girls and Hotties. Do you have daughters? If so, then you need to read this post from Karen Yates about modesty and our little girls. She asks us what the boundaries of modesty should be for our daughters and gives tons of practical examples. Good stuff.

Stop Trying to Imitate Christ. I introduced Jamal Jivanjee to you a while back. He has quickly become a powerful and edifying resource for me. This post from him is a prime example, filled with the richness and truth of Jesus and His Word. If you’ve ever struggled with trying to “act like Jesus” and failed, please read this.

The Circle Unbroken. Cathleen Falsani is one of my favorite Christian bloggers, although it’s rather unfair to call her a “blogger” because she is much much more. She is an author and writer first and foremost and this post from her tells you why. It is all of the beauty, simplicity, and loveliness of Jesus’ church and how it can look so different and yet still reflect Him.

The True Gospel. Not a single post this week got me as pumped and excited as this one. A taste: “Religious jargon will become fossils and equally nutritious. A new sweeping movement of the gospel couched in the terms of our culture and swept through communities by the Holy Spirit is coming.” Um, yes and yes!

An Inside Peek into my Church. If you desire to see and read what my church life is like, my friend Donald, has posted a letter essentially chronicling our church activity over the last month or so. Healing? Check. The Holy Spirit in abundance? Check. Prophesy? Check. God’s people being ignited? Check. Go on, I know you’re curious. (While you’re there, check out the rest of Donald’s blog. He speaks truth like no one I know and I love it!)

So there you have it. It’s quite a list this week, don’t you think. I have so much to chew on and pray through from these writings alone.

Now, it’s your turn. What events, experiences, or words  encouraged you, challenged you, or edified you this week? Or what angered you, convicted you, or compelled you to seek God?

P.S. Did you see the Modern Reject giveaway for the chance to win a Bible study series from the teaching power-house Kasey Van Norman? Don’t forget to enter to win and get the hook-up!

15 thoughts on “Friday Findings: Gays in Heaven, Hottie Girls, and The True Gospel”

  1. the link to the ‘little girls and hotties’ is the wrong one, it goes to the CNN gays in heaven page as well!

  2. Nicole,

    If it were possible for me to blush (But it isn’t since prophets don’t blush. Or eat quiche.) I would be doing so. You have shown me great honor and respect by linking one of the posts from my blog on yours.

    If you were a genus, you would be ‘chickus kickus buttus’. Just sayin’. :)

  3. Thanks for sharing these! I particularly loved reading the “Will there be gays in heaven?” piece. Thanks so much for bringing it to my attention!

  4. Loved the ‘will there be gays in heaven’ piece, but it was the ‘True Gospel’ piece that resonated with me the most. Recently I’ve been realising that though in theory I get grace, in reality I really don’t, and that I have been living my Christian life in quite a legalistic way, then feeling that God is always angry and disappointed in me for sinning. Which has totally sucked!

  5. I found this a few weeks ago actually but its the best book I have ever read on marriage: This Momentary Marriage by John Piper. Read it! You will not regret it :)

    1. Joshua,
      Thanks for stopping by and commenting, but I would ask you–Did you read the article on gays in heaven? Because based on your comment, I’m guessing maybe you didn’t. All that to say, it isn’t perhaps what you assume and you should check it out.

  6. Craig Gross unfortunately is skilled in applying the corrosive tool of moral equivalency. Gross conflates homosexuality with overeating (and makes the mistake of associating overeating with being fat).

    In so doing, the theological damage that Gross does is devastating.

    A visit to “Free in Christ” will reveal that there will be no homosexuals in heaven, but neither will there be “male or female” (Gal. 3:28), fat or skinny. The only objects allowed are “new creations” (Gal. 6:15).

    While Gross is correct in that any sin necessary excludes one from Christ (he probably doesn’t say it quite that way), it is not true that all sin are equally offensive. In Romans 1 homosexuality — and not overeating — is depicted as the quintessential act of rebellion toward God.

    1. Pieder,
      I appreciate your comment in regards to Craig Gross. I would disagree with you that, if you are willing to acknowledge (although it is merely implied, as you state) that while Gross believes any sin separates us from God, he does not suggest that all sin is equal.

      Granted, he doesn’t come out and say that, however I think the parallel he draws between overeating and homosexuality is not to state that they are equal in God’s eyes, but rather that they are both sin–which we as believers often overlook. We are so quick to call that which we personally find morally objectionable (homosexuality, in this case) and yet turn a blind eye to other “less taboo” sins like a lack of self-control, in this case over-eating.

      It’s not a perfect analogy. Heck, Craig gross isn’t perfect, but no one is talking about freedom from sexual sin and addiction like Gross–at least not on his scale. For that, I am ever grateful for his reach and hopeful for his message.

      1. So Gross is good because he gets Jesus?

        But how do you know that Gross gets Jesus? Because Gross makes the mistake of mitigating homosexual acts by a subtle moral equivalency with overeating?

        Gross accuses Christians of “ignoring passages about things that people in the church really struggle with, like food and other addictions.” So what passages does Gross have in mind? Can you locate passages that carry the explicit caution to avoid overeating?

        Biblically, to eat to the glory of God (e.g., 1 Cor. 10:31) seems more to recognize the one’s freedom to eat various foods (e.g. Rom. 14:6 and “meat” or “wine” in Rom. 14:21) than to avoid overeating.

        Whereas Gross presents a gospel of moral scruples involving eating, Paul says that the kingdom of God is not about such moral scruples (Rom. 14:17).

        Yet Paul does not convey this levity when the subject explicitly concerns sexual immoralities (e.g. 1 Cor. 6:16) and esp. homosexual acts (Rom. 1:24-27).

        Is AIDS evidence of “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them….. and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (Rom. 1:24-27)?

        If so, should Gross change his tune about the incompatibility of homosexuality with being a Christian?

        But what is really so heretical about Gross’s message is the humanistic madness, “The goal shouldn’t be to change anyone’s sexuality.” With this statement, Gross arrogantly corrects God. In contrast to the Jesus of the New Testament, Gross’s Jesus did not do away with the Christian’s former “body of sin” (Rom. 6:6). In Gross’s theology, Christians are just “sinners” who need Christ. Rather indistinguishable from non-Christians.

        And then you say, “no one is talking about freedom from sexual sin and addiction like Gross”?! I don’t find the freedom to which you refer. Rather I see Gross promoting bondage to a phony Jesus, a Jesus which did not make Christians “new Creations.”

        Jesus made Christians new. Christian’s have morally superior bodies to those of non-Christians. The CHRISTIAN’s body is “for the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:13) and is “NOT in the flesh” (Rom. 8:9, cf. 7:5) whereas the non-Christian’s body remains “of flesh” (Rom. 7:14).

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