Devotional 241008

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It was sad to hear on Radio that a group of Asian ministers in San Francisco publicly denounced the Proposition 8. They did not discuss the Biblical perspective on marriage but to argue on the basis of human rights. It is dangerous when we put our rights over the principles of God. Our Creator God knows better what our rights should be. Therefore His principles for us are the ways to abundant life. If we believe our basic human right is the right to do whatever we want, then we will face the consequence of self-destruction. Liberty outside the boundary of Truth is indulgence of our flesh and lust. And when everybody insists on his or her rights to indulge of their own lust, a community or nation will become chaos. When men “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things (like their own selves) rather than the Creator…God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (Rom 1:25-27). O Lord, Have mercy on us sinners who have tendency to ignore your words and justify our own lusts as the truth. As we exchange the truth of God for a lie (justify our own sins), our consequence will be eternal wrath and judgment; which is something You do not want to do, and the very reason that You send Your beloved Son to die on our behalf. Help us not to water down your righteousness to our desired level, but to always uphold your truth as our ABSOLUTE standard for our human rights and fair judgment for our community.
The viewpoint of a worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Make sure we maintain tirelessly God's point of view in our lives, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don't settle with anything less. No outside power (not even judges of our supreme court) can touch and change the viewpoint or standard of God.
The viewpoint to uphold is that we are here for one purpose only, and that is to be captives in the train of Christ's triumphs. “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him” (2 Cor 2:14). We are not just display in God's showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing - the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are comparing to this - I am standing alone battling for Jesus; I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him. Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians basically means - I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph. Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul's secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and had made him a captive, and now that was all he was here for. Paul's joy was to be a captive of the Lord; he had no other interest in heaven or in earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting a personal victory. The Victor ought to have got hold of us so completely that it is His victory all the time, and we are more than conquerors through Him (when we submit ourselves totally to His command). "For we are to God the aroma of Christ" (2 Cor 2:15a). We are bearers of the odor of Jesus, and wherever we go we are wonderful refreshment to God the Father.
Just as President Lincoln was once asked as to what side would he think that God stand in the civil war of America, his reply was (my paraphrase), “I don’t know which side would God stand (that means which side would win the war). But the most important thing to me is whether I will stand on His side.” We are called to stand firm on the Truth, and the Truth will eventually set us free. I pray that God will empower you to discern the Truth from the confusion of secularism and Christianity in America.
Love you in according to His word,
Lawrence