THE TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT YOU

Three events have provoked me to consider one of the greatest privileges that God has given each of us. The first was the movie, Wonder Woman 1984, the second was The Tasmanian Law Reform Institute’s ‘Conversion Practices : Law Reform Options for Tasmania’, and the third, the rescue of Nigel Fox. 

So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.
Genesis 13:11

 

1. WONDER WOMAN 1984

Each Boxing Day it is a family tradition for us to go to the movies. The choice of movie is by a democratic vote. Our Boxing Day 2020 movie choice (by a very narrow margin) was Wonder Woman 1984. As a credit to each of our family members whose choice didn’t win the movie-election they willingly accepted defeat and the will of the people and gladly came along to enjoy this movie anyway. And after watching it, each was pleasantly surprised at just how clear the Christian ethic was declared in this movie. As you might have guessed from the title of the movie, this is a prequel set in 1984 (which I can’t help was symbolically intentional as this was when George Orwell’s futuristic novel was set in which ‘Big Brother’ has taken over the world by convincing mankind that its lies are true). The movie opens with young Diana (Wonder Woman, played by Jewish actress Gal Gadot) in a race that her mother forbids her from completing because “she didn’t run by the truth”. Her mother tells her that truth is most powerful force in the world and when you do not live by truth you lose! “Amen” I said aloud in the cinema.

In the first Wonder Woman movie, Diana never aged after she left the protectorate of Amazonia in 1917. Thus, by 1984, she is still a thirty-something year-old woman who now works in an antiquities museum. After a bungled robbery, the museum is called upon by Police to evaluate certain stolen items taken from the captured thieves. As it turns out, one of these ancient artefacts, an unusual stone – the dreamstone, has a very powerful mystical force which grants its holder one wish. But there’s a catch. The stone takes something treasured from the wisher. As the movie unfolds the world quickly goes into chaos as millions of people have their selfish, self-centred, wishes granted. All over the world, people are hurt, people die, and bitterness and envy leads to the unthinkable happening where formally civilised people are rioting in the streets and showing no respect for those in authority. The Christian movie goer at this point could not help but see the obvious message of the script-writer that when people do not live by the truth, people get hurt. It reminds us of those times in human history when this is how people actually did live in accordance with their sinful desires, and the result was carnage and bedlam.  

¶ In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 21:25

But the allure of the Dreamstone was also too much even for Diana Prince when she realised what it was. It was just a brief, unspoken sigh. Sin’s temptation often starts like that. Sin most frequently comes innocently, innocuously, gently; temptation does its evil work in less than a second, not in a deed, but in a thought that latches to the mind. Ever since the death of closest friend, Steve Trevor (Christopher Pine), she has been desperately lonely. She wishes that she could still be with him. Her wish is granted. She is unbelievable reunited with her beloved Steve who curiously describes dying and going to a waiting place (another Christian echo) and then waking up alive, in another man’s body.

Washington DC in chaos as everyone began to live by what they wished without regard for the truth.

What she didn’t realise in the process though, was that her powers to rescue others and do good (something she treasured) was now diminishing. Ultimately, she comes to accept that what her mother had told her as a little girl was indeed true. If you do not live by the truth, you lose. As the world was collapsing in on itself in its mire of sin, wickedness and evil, she realises the truth: sinful desires based on a lie must be renounced. Even though this means giving up the one thing she desired most, Steve, she must stop living by lies and recommit to living by the truth. Once she, and everyone else renounces that which was “born in lies” the world begins to be put right again. Even though people felt they could not renounce their desires — the very desires that were enslaving them — they could, and they did. This is one of the central claims of the Christian gospel – you have the God-given power to choose. 

 

2. THE TASMANIAN LAW REFORM INSTITUTE’S BREATH-TAKING CLAIMS

It’s not uncommon for the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute to make outrageous claims. In 2004 they asserted that children do not fair best when raised by their biological married parents. They even claimed that there was no research which supported the outdated notion that children fair best when raised by their mother and father. I wrote a small book in response to their claims and demonstrated that there was an enormous amount of research and evidence which did prove that children fair best when raised by their father and mother. This time around, they are targeting Christian groups who believe that people “are broken” and “need healing”. They claim that such ideas are dangerous and lead to trauma for those who are homosexual or transgendered. They also claim that the practice of “conversion” does not work. Essentially what they are promoting is that sexual desire is a person’s core identity and is immutable (can never be changed). Despite their appeal to science to back up their claims, science is not on their side. A person’s biological sex is not ‘assigned’ at birth. And there is a vast amount of social science that has shown that there is indeed frequently a link between childhood trauma and gender dysphoria. The New Testament boldly declares that change is possible for those who are broken sexually.

¶ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
First Corinthians 6:9-11

 

2. THE RESCUE OF NIGEL FOX

Nigel Fox is an experienced yachtsman. He was out off the Northern Territory coastline in the Arafura Sea near Nhulunbuy sailing in his 10 metre yacht with his cat, Stinky, when during some rough seas he was knocked overboard by a freak wave. Over the eight hours he was in the water he drifted 23 kilometres from his yacht. He told one journalist that it is quite common for sailors to experience a despair syndrome in such circumstances in which they believe they are doomed and will die. He went on to tell the journalist that this requires adopting a positive attitude and refusing to let your mind enter into the syndrome of despair. “You have to choose to believe that you are going to survive!” he said. Mr. Fox employed one of the most powerful gifts that God has given every person – the power to choose.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
Deuteronomy 30:19

 

THE MYTH OF HUMAN IMMUTABILITY

It is a lie of Satan that a person is born immutable (that they cannot change). When William Carey went as a missionary to India he encountered a culture where people had been brought up to believe they were born into a caste that determined their position in life in a way that could never be changed. This caste system confined some people to the belief that they were the lowest of low of people and could only ever be given jobs that restricted them to cleaning toilets and sewers. After seven years of ministry in India, Carey had failed to make even one convert. He was however determined to give the Indian people the message of the gospel in their language. He hired a Hindi translator and set to work translating the New Testament into the Hindi language. As his translator encountered Jesus transforming lives and breaking the bondage of caste and class by treating all people as equals and inviting whosoever to come and follow Him, Carey gained his first convert.  As the Indians read in their own language of the power of Christ to transform and redeem broken lives, more and more Indians came to Christ. Today it is estimated that some 300 million Indian Christians owe William Carey a debt of gratitude for bringing Christ to them. 

Time prevents me from telling of the tens of thousands of others whose lives have been transformed and redeemed by Christ from lives bondage and brokenness. But a couple of examples include Sam Allberry and Christopher Yuan who lived on opposite sides of the world but share a very similar journey. Both men, for different traumatic reasons, began to be same-sex attracted. Both men came to meet Christ and had their lives transformed. Today, Now, years later, Sam Allberry is an Anglican minister, and Dr. Christopher Yuan is a lecturer in theology at Moody Bible Institute.

Peter Daniels describes himself as a third generation social welfare recipient who was illiterate up until the age of 26. He says, “My forebears were frequent guests of his majesty.” But then, in 1959, he was invited to come and hear Billy Graham. What he heard that day transformed his life forever. The words of Dr. Graham, “Today, you can become a child of the King!” Fancy that! An illiterate bricky’s labourer! A child of the King! He surrendered his life Christ and chose to follow the Saviour! He went to become an extremely successful real estate agent and spent the latter part of his life speaking to business people around the world about ‘true riches’ that can only be found in Christ. 

Nabeel Qureshi (1983-2017) was a Muslim apologist who went to Old Dominion University in Virginia where he met David Wood. He had made it his habit to meet and convert Christians into Islam up until the time he met David. Every claim that Nabeel made about Islam was met by a question from David Wood. “How do you know that?” Pretty soon, despite having been brought up in a devout Muslim home, Nabeel came to realise that he didn’t have good reasons to believe what he had been taught about Islam. Every question he challenged David with to destroy Christianity was met with an answer grounded in evidence and historical reliability. As Nabeel’s world was being rocked by what David was sharing with him, he began to cry out to God for guidance. He then began to have a series of very clear and direct dreams showing him that the Christianity which David Wood was sharing with him was indeed the truth — which meant that Islam was false. From that moment it took Nabeel about year and a half accept the truth and tell his parents. He went on to become an internationally travelled Christian apologist until his death from stomach cancer in 2017 at the age of 34. Before he died though, he wrote his story in the best-selling book, Seeking Allah Finding Jesus.  

 

THE TRUTH IS ONLY GOD IS IMMUTABLE AND THE LIE IS THAT YOU ARE TOO!

In Genesis 3 where we read of Satan tempting Eve with the alluring lie, “You will become like God!” the irony is that he was claiming that they could become like the immutable God by appealing to their greatest privilege — the power to choose and change! Today, it seems that many people are living by lies believing that they cannot choose or change. But the truth is that one of the greatest privileges that God Your Creator has given you is the power to choose and change! Just like Wonder Woman’s appeal to the people of the world trapped in bondage to the dreamstone of deceit, Christ appeals to us to renounce our self-seeking desires and choose to turn to Him and be healed and reconciled to God. For those of us who have done just that, Christ now appeals through us to choose His gift of new life. Only by doing this we can by truth.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Second Corinthians 5:17-20

Amen.

Your pastor,

Andrew

HOW CHRIST MAKES THE BROKEN WHOLE

HOW CHRIST MAKES THE BROKEN WHOLE

For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
Matthew 9:21

Hurt people hurt people. We’ve all probably encountered a hurting person who hurt us. Perhaps we’ve even been the one doing the hurting. Being hurt hurts. Even the process to becoming healed of this hurt can hurt. And, because it is an unfamiliar hurt, even this longed for healing can create anxiety in some. This can result in the hurt person blame-shifting, withdrawing, and becoming highly critical. Because they then tend to repel others, this makes helping them really difficult. But it can be done. As Jesus demonstrated time and time again. 

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Mark 5:25-26

Some people have only ever known hurt and pain. From the youngest age they were the victim. They felt that all they ever deserved was rejection, betrayal, and mocking from those who should have most shown them acceptance, loyalty and affirmation. For these people, wholeness doesn’t exist and is not possible—until they witness it in someone else. Then they see what it can look like. This is what happen to the woman who had been haemorrhaging for twelve years. She had lost all hope. But then she began to hear the almost unbelievable stories of Jesus had done for others, and hope was rekindled. The first step toward wholeness for a broken person is a vision of what the pathway to wholeness looks like. For this broken woman it was getting close to Christ and then reaching out to Him. What she didn’t know was that Christ came near to her and invited her to be made whole.

She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even His garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
Mark 5:27-29

All hurt people travel with a map. From this map they derive the directions for navigating through their life. They come to certain ‘forks’ in the road they are travelling on which would look like constructive criticism or even a helpful challenge to most people, but their map indicates that  these ‘forks in the roads’ are attacks, or rejection, or pain. Their map suggests taking (what they wrongly consider to be) the easy road which can be traversed with offence, anger, and slander. And thus, their hurt grows and becomes a life template for how they respond to people who actually try and help them. The day that Jesus came near was the day this pattern changed for this broken lady. Instead of taking the easy road, she took what she had always considered to be the hard road and went into the crowd (her greatest fear) and encountered Christ there. But Christ made this hard road easy for her. She had always thought that in a crowd she was unseen and unknown. The day she encountered Jesus was the day she realised she was wrong. He had seen all along. He had seen the original abuse that had happened to her as a little girl which had caused the terrible injuries and had led to the humiliating and painful bleeding for twelve years of her life. He had seen the doctors trying but failing with their quackery to heal her brokenness and in the process taking everything she had.

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Mark 5:25-26

From the moment that Christ made this woman whole, much more than just her bleeding stopped. Wholeness may begin with a physical healing, but most often it doesn’t — because it starts in a person’s soul where their mind and heart are. This woman would have left from her encounter with Jesus with whole new road map of life. Those things that once caused her to be afraid, no longer did. Those things that she had always interpreted as threats, now looked like open doors. When Jesus asked the question that He already knew the answer to (as He often did), the spotlight was about to shift onto this formally broken woman — which had always invoked this woman’s greatest fears. But now Christ showed her that this moment was an open door for her to testify and to walk into her wholeness for the first time.

And Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone out from Him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”
Mark 5:30

WHAT WHOLENESS LOOKS LIKE

Whole people travel the same life journey but with a different map. They reach the same fork in the road but instead of their map marking these moments as attacks, rejection, pain, their map indicates growth, opportunity, and love. Their map suggests taking the low road (which always looks like the harder road). This road is traversed by humility, listening, and understanding. 

and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives Me, and whoever receives me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
Luke 9:48

Many whole people were once hurt people. But they were blessed to have a glimpse of what wholeness looked like. When they saw it, it exposed their unforgiveness, malice, withdrawal and pride. It somehow revealed to them that each of those things were crippling them. This vision of wholeness encouraged them to use a different life-map. The next fork in the road was the hardest road-fork they had ever faced because they were so used to their fight or flight map that when they read their new map that Christ gave them, its directions included: listening, blessing, teachableness, and even generosity! As a hurt person they had previously become defensive, spiteful and self-justifying, but now their choice to be whole removed these responses from their new map.

¶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you,
First Peter 5:6

A whole person still feels pain – although they respond quite differently to a hurt person. A whole person still faces disappointment, disrespect, and disloyalty, yet they take the low road of blessing those who spitefully mistreat them. They hold their tongue – not because they really want to yell at the one standing in their way – but because they have chosen to listen first. Rather than become defensive, they become inquisitive. Although the criticism from another person stings, they treat it as a gift that might help them improve – rather than to let that sting fester into a serious hurt. At other times when someone expresses their displeasure with them they can reasonably assess whether this person’s opinion is what they use to define their identity or worth. In many cases, it will not be and in these instances they may find themselves quietly, but resolutely, disagreeing with their protagonist. And this introduces my final thought on achieving wholeness as a hurt person.

Whole people are neither dependent or independent people. Hurt people need other people. We all hurt from time to time and in those times we need the help of others. But some hurt people react by withdrawing from others and become independent. “I’ll never let anyone close to me again!” they silently vow to themselves. Of course, connecting two hurt people together often results in co-dependency. Hurt people in a co-dependent relationship feel that they both need the other person, and that the other person needs them. A whole person doesn’t allow someone else to become unreasonably dependent upon them. Even a parent knows that their infant child’s dependency upon them is reasonable for a season. A whole child will replicate their parent’s wholeness and grow to  become a reliable, dependable, interdependent adult. 

The Apostle Paul once lived as a hurt man. He then encountered Christ and became a whole man. He wrote to a people who were once hurt, the Colossians, and described to them the behaviour of hurt people.

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:8-10

He then goes on to describe how whole people live-

¶ Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.Colossians 3:12-14

And that’s one of the clearest visions a hurt person can have for what wholeness looks like. The only truly whole Person is the only Person who can truly help a hurt person to become a whole person. Sometimes, because a hurt person is so down and low, all they can do is to reach up to just touch the hem of His presence (Matt. 9:21) which why Christ still heals brokenness in the midst of those already following and adoring Him. Wholeness begins with the simple act of praying to Christ. This then leads to the beginning of their journey to wholeness—a journey that Christ does not leave you to walk alone. This Sunday as we gather to follow and adore Christ, let’s pray that more broken people will experience the wholeness that only Jesus can give.

Pastor Andrew 

It Starts This Sunday

IT STARTS THIS SUNDAY

This Sunday, there will be someone coming to church who is looking for something. If someone really knew them, they might describe them as hurt and lonely. But they would never openly admit to that. They’re not quite sure what they’re looking for but they know they haven’t yet found it. They at least know that they crave for someone – anyone – simply to listen to them – to understand them. If someone could just see them, noticethem…care. They pray to God asking Him to help. Perhaps this is why they are giving church a go this Sunday.

remember that you were at that time separated from Christ … having no hope and without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:12

They will come to church this Sunday. They will wonder how God might answer their prayer for someone, anyone, who will give them time – listen to them – care.  The Devil knows he is at risk of losing one of his own if they go into his Enemy’s domain. He also knows he can’t injure the Spirit-filled, Spirit-sensitive, Spirit-led follower of Christ. It frustrates him that these Blood-Bought ones daily arm themselves in prayers of surrender to the One who shed His blood for them, and, that they sharpen their spiritual swords by filling their hearts and minds with the Word of the Lamb. But he can sometimes deceive them. 

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Second Corinthians 10:4

If Satan hasn’t been able to deceive the Christ-follower with an excuse to not go to church, then he loves to use another old favourite trick that is nearly as effective: busyness. 

But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”  ¶ But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!
Luke 10:40-41

This Sunday, someone is coming to church. They’re empty. They’re lonely. They ache and don’t really know why. They are open to God, but don’t know Him. They will watch closely those who do claim to know God. Will they notice them? Will they reach out to them? Will they listen to them. Will they care?

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2

Will you notice them? Will you reach out to them? Will you listen to them? Will you care? If your prayer is indeed a prayer of surrender to the One who notices everyone, who reaches out to everyone, who listens to everyone, and who cares for everyone, then your prayer will be answered. In fact, someone will be coming to church this Sunday because someone who daily prayerfully surrenders their heart to Christ in private worship has already reached out publicly to them with an invitation to come to the place where Jesus meets with the hurting-hearted. Someone’s life is going to be saved and renewed and it starts this Sunday. 

Ps. Andrew

When It Comes To Same-Sex Marriage, We Are Not Your Enemy

We Are Not Your Enemy

Christians Want For You What You Want

by Dr. Andrew Corbett

We all need acceptance, love and respect. We all have a right to be treated with equality. This is why I totally get why so many people are in favour of same-sex marriage. It’s why so many people who identify themselves as part of the same-sex attracted communities are fighting so passionately for the laws in Australia to be changed to provide for same-sex marriage. As a Christian, I want for these people what they want - because I think everybody needs acceptance, love and respect, and equality. But I don’t think that same-sex marriage is the way to get it and it seems that 90% of the LGBTQ communities agree.

The Brooklyn psychologist, Professor Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970), wrote the book Motivation And Personality (1954) in which he argues that all psychologically healthy human beings have a ‘hierarchy of needs’.  

Maslow made an astute observation that people generally need to feel - physically well, safe, accepted (“Love/belonging”), valued (“Esteem”), and dignity (“Self-actualization”). This is why I understand why people feel so strongly about the need to introduce same-sex marriage into Australia. As several Irish respondents told the media after Ireland changed its laws in May 2015 to introduce same-sex marriage, “Now we will be accepted for who we are!” Acceptance is a critical human need. 

Yet despite the vigorous appeals by the LGBTQ communities for same-sex marriage - built on the very persuasive arguments that the introduction of same-sex marriage will alleviate the alarming suicide rates of young men who identify as homosexual compared with similar aged men in the general population, the abnormally high rates of depression among the members of the LGBTQ communities, and the generally poorer physical health conditions of this sector of society - the largely untold (unnoticed?) fact is that where same-sex marriage has been introduced 90% of those who identify as being in a same-sex relationship show no interest in same-sex marriage. 

This is the case in both New Zealand and Ireland - two of the most recent examples of where these arguments were used and the laws consequently changed to provide for it. In fact, one of the first states in the USA to introduce same-sex marriage was Massachusetts - which did so largely on the basis of these arguments (high rates of very poor mental health, abnormally high rates of suicide). Yet, after introducing same-sex marriage there, which had an initially higher than average take-up by same-sex couples, there was no alleviation of these factors - and according to some analysts, may have actually worsened. And this seems to be repeated elsewhere also. Despite the appeals and claims to the contrary, same-sex marriage is not a boon for the LGBTQ communities and may even be a disappointing bane.

Christians are not the enemy of the LGBTQ communities. Most Christians want what the most vocal representatives of these communities are calling for: acceptance, tolerance, and respect. But the facts seem to speak for themselves: that same-sex marriage does not deliver this, and may indeed make achieving this utterly allusive. Despite the vitriolic claims that Christian are ‘bigots’ for opposing same-sex marriage, it could actually be an act of great compassion on the part of the Christian community toward the LGBTQ communities to explain why changing the Marriage Act will not, and indeed, cannot deliver what they expect. And based on the numbers of same-sex couples in Canada, USA, New Zealand, Europe and Ireland who have not taken up same-sex marriage, it seems that around 90% of the LGBTQ communities agree: same-sex marriage is not the answer they are looking for.

When Premises Are Wrong

One of the reasons why same-sex marriage has failed so completely to address the deeply concerning issues of abnormally high depression and suicide rates among their communities, is that the premise of same-sex marriage is enormously mistaken. (A premise is the foundational notion upon which a conclusion is arrived.) In this instance the premise is that a person’s worth and value is measured and determined by the relationship they have with another person. But this is entirely false and even quite a cruel way to regard human worth. 

Marriage does not add worth or intrinsic value to a man or a woman when they marry each other. Marriage does not even mean that a person has now become acceptable. And marriage certainly does not make someone equal with any other human being. Worth, value, acceptance and equality are all grounded in the inherent and God-given uniqueness of all human beings which the American founding fathers stated when they wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Christians sometimes refer to this truth as the imago dei (“the image of God”).

Christians don’t just ground their understanding of human worth and value in the imago dei to oppose same-sex marriage - or even homosexuality per se - it is also the basis for saying to a young teenage girl that your worth and value is not found in having a boyfriend. It’s found in whose image you bear. It is on this premise that we understand that love can be given, received, felt, without ever having to sexualise it. A young person should not be hoodwinked into thinking that it is another human being who determines whether they are acceptable, lovable, of any worth or even equal. The Christian boldly declares, often to their own hurt, that a human being is uniquely created in the image of God and is therefore infinitely valuable and supremely loved. Acceptance by God is one of the deepest cravings of every human heart and is found not in marriage, but in our relationship to our Maker.

What Jesus Taught

It is well known that Jesus Christ was one of the greatest men to have walked the earth. His greatness is seen most beautifully in the way He loved others. He is also the greatest example of the truth that love does not mean anything goes. On the contrary, the way Jesus loved was the supreme mix of compassion with care-filled truth. In John 8 Jesus is presented with the woman caught in the act of adultery (one of the six forms of sexual immorality forbidden in the Bible, Leviticus 18:20). In a remarkable display of the highest compassion for the woman who had been dragged out into the dusty streetscape by the religious authorities, Jesus shows that true love does not tolerate anything when He offers forgiveness to the woman and then with great tenderness tells her-

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”  

John 8:10-11

“Go and sin no more” Jesus told her. He didn’t trivialise or tolerate the sin in which this woman was caught. And in marked contrast to those in our day who consider that sexualising a relationship with another person has no moral implications, Jesus Christ reinforced what He had inspired the Biblical authors to write: that sexuality and morality are intrinsically linked. In fact, He emphatically stated that if sexuality was trivialised into acts of immorality it would put a person’s soul in eternal peril (Matthew 15:19-20). But He went further and reinforced what the Scriptures had already declared about the sanctity of marriage - its candidates, its purpose, and its requirements, when He said-

He answered, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:4-6

This is the only definition of marriage that Jesus gave - not merely for His followers, but for all people whom He created. When Christians endorse Christ’s statement about marriage and sexuality, we are not being the enemy, we are showing fidelity to Christ and compassion for all people - all people. As I have spoken with my non-Christian friends who have disagreed with me about same-sex marriage, we have soon found ourselves looking at Christ’s view on sexuality and marriage which has surprised them because they had been led to believe that Jesus was all about unconditional acceptance (commonly confused as being ‘love’) and that He actually said nothing about marriage. When they discover that neither is the case they also find that the motive of most Christians is not intolerance, bigotry, or phobia, but genuine care.

Pain And Brokenness

When a person has experienced the opposite of what Professor Maslow described as the basic needs of every human - wellness, safety, acceptance, and love - they experience deep pain and brokenness. Some wounds are obvious but some of the most painful are not. Many of these wounds result in brokenness, particularly sexual brokenness. This leads to the very misguided notion that safety, wellness, acceptance and love can only, or even ultimately, result through sexualisation. This is broken thinking. Some of the most hurt and lonely people in the world are those who have sexualised their pursuit of these basic human needs rather than discovering how to truly have these needs met.

I have been somewhat careful to state that no other human being can directly or ultimately satisfy our basic human needs. This is because we are all designed and created for these needs to be met in our relationship with God. Yet our first forebears skewed our capacity for our needs to be met in this relationship with our Creator when their rebellion embedded into our ‘spiritual DNA’ the seeds of human brokenness that necessitated the Creator becoming our Law Giver to protect us against ourselves. This is why God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the world as The Atonement for all human beings who turn to Him and receive His Lordship and forgiveness. 

Many sexually broken people (those who have pursued the practice of sexualising their relationships in the hope of having their needs met) have come to the end of themselves, and from the darkness of their sadness, loneliness, and rejection, have turned to Jesus and begun to find the wellness, security, acceptance and love that they had always craved. For most of these people the consequences of their brokenness has meant that they will then struggle for the rest of their lives with inappropriate sexual desires (this is not restricted simply to those with same-sex attraction of course). Acclaimed Christians, like Henri Nouwen (1932-1996, pictured right), lived with this struggle for all of their lives. It is an extremely important distinction to make that attraction and action are not the same and do not have to follow.

Struggle is often the fight we fight to do what’s right. When it comes to matters like these, not struggling in the guise of being who I really am has simply not worked for many broken people. Despite the aspirations that many advocates have held for same-sex marriage legislation alleviating the pain of those who are several hundred percent more likely to suffer from depression and its consequences, the data is pretty overwhelming: it hasn’t. 

To those in the LGBTQ communities, we, the Church, are not your enemies. We want for you what you want to the core of your soul - to be well body/mind/soul, to experience acceptance, to know love, and to discover true meaning for your life. We are not being bigots when we also say that same-sex marriage will not deliver you these needs. It has not. It can not. But there is Someone who can.

Pastor Andrew Corbett, 4th March 2016

Pastor of Legana Christian Church, Tasmania