On the Ray Boltz tragedy...

Doug Eaton writing at the Christian Theology blog has some pertinent thoughts about Christian musician Ray Boltz's bombshell that he is a homosexual. I will link to his whole blog, and here's some of what Eaton wrote:

So what should we think about the “coming out” of such a notable Christian figure, especially since he is now claiming to be happy? Besides the obvious sorrow we should feel for the destruction caused to Mr. Boltz’s family by divorcing his wife and the grief of his four children, and sorrow for Mr. Boltz himself as he is now living outside the revealed will of God, this should cause us to think for a minute about the deceptive nature of our enemy.

Eaton also hits a nerve as he talks about a disturbing trend which has crept into American Christianity: the primacy of self-happiness, self-actualization, or veiled hedonism:

All we have to do is listen to Christian music, Christian conferences, and even the preaching in many churches to see this is this trend. The true gospel has been substituted. Instead of preaching law and gospel where we are told the truth that we need to come to Christ because we are sinners deserving of wrath, and that the wages of sin is death, what is preached in its place is sorrow and self-esteem.

When God reaches through the daily grind...

...to meet you where you are. Have you ever been there, out in the course of your week like a thirsty person wandering through the desert trying to find their way through when God reaches through past your "to-do" list, your meeting schedule, your emails, the phone calls you have to return, the people you have to please...and finds you?

It's not as though you're backsliding but you're out there living like your success or failure is completely up to you...then God shows you another path. With our human ingenuity, we plot courses and plan moves. Yet God has another way many times and it's always the much better way in every respect. Proverbs 16:33 says "the lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD."

If anything, I'm guilty of knowing about the abundant life Jesus promises. Knowing about it and living it are two different things. I may know a lot about the Great Wall of China; experiencing it is another thing altogether since I've never been there. So it is with God and His promises; you can hear all about them- from the pulpit on Sunday and from the stories of your Christian friends- yet if you don't choose to fully follow Christ, you'll never experience it. By "experience" I'm not referring to some signs and wonders thing. Rather, I'm talking about knowing something is so because you've put it to the test in the rough-and-tumble workaday world in which we live and seen Him come through.

Then, as you scurry from one fire to the next, you know what it's like when God finds you, reaches down, and touches you reviving your spent soul and weary mind. This is the life He has for us...if we chose it for ourselves.