Tonight, I got to handle one of the hot potatoes in our culture - divorce. One of the funny things you realize after you study the Scriptures for a while (and the societies the Scriptures came from) is that people haven't really invented new ways to sin. They just repeat the old ones.
I'm very sensitive to the effects of divorce, and to the heartache it causes.
And I'm committed to preaching the whole book.
So when I turned the page in the Bible from Mark 9 to enter 10, there it was.
It's funny, for most of my career I was a topical preacher, and would really search to see what God wanted me to preach on each week. I'd then try to present accurately what I found about that topic from the Scriptures. Now, I preach through books. What that means is that I'm able to do a great deal more of work on the background and context of each Scripture portion, so that when I do come to passages like tonight's, I can see much more clearly (I believe), what the Scriptures are saying both to the original recipients and to us.
The beginning of the change? When a man whose not even a member came to me and told me if I'd preach more Bible and less David, that he believed God would honor that. That might sound like he was taking a swing at me, but I've known him for almost 7 years now, and I know he meant it for my good, and had no other motive in saying it.
So I took his counsel, and prayed for guidance, and here's where I wound up.
Telling people divorce is wrong, that it's a sin, that God hates it.
Telling people that sex outside marriage is wrong, that marriage is one man and one woman forever.
Telling people that there is room at the cross for those who have sinned and fallen short.
This keeps up, I might be jumping over pews next. :)
Grace!
David
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