QUESTIONS

OK so it has been a busy summer and I have not blogged for a long time. I'll try to remedy that.
You may know that I am a songwriter and spent my early years in Nashville. I had a song called "Saving Grace" that was recorded by Ray Boltz and actually topped the charts in the Fall of 1993. In our youth ministry we frequently use another of Ray's songs, "Jesus Out Loud" as a wake up call for sleeping students. This week I learned that Ray has come out of the closet and acknowledged his struggle with homosexuality. He also announced a brief return from retirement for some limited concert dates at some lesbian/gay churches that he says have helped him with his struggle. While I have not talked to Ray for years and have only had brief conversations at best, I would be assured that we differ on our views on this topic and probably many others. Initial responses, made in jest, had me renouncing my claim to fame and looking for a new "wake up" song. But it has made think about some things.

Should I write off all the great songs and ministry Ray has had in his career as not sincere or glorifying to God? Is his sin worse than my gossip or gluttony? Want the truth!? I wrote songs during that period of my life to honor God, but I am pretty sure some of my behavior at the time disappointed Him. (As it does today.) Sin separates us from God, but it does not diminish our value or worth in God's eyes. My God has never once written me off! For only one Jesus would have suffered and given up his life. Can you argue with that. That is from one of Ray's songs. I'm not condoning or condemning. That is not for me to do. And how about this, what about the thought that some are born gay? If we are born into sin, is that a possibility, or is it the fact that because we arrive into a fallen world, circumstance and environment bring us to places of struggle? I mean, we all have our struggles because our flesh wants nothing to do with the discipline and correction that holiness requires. So we all have a genetic bent to sin. It is our human condition not an excuse. The cross is to be freeing for us. We are to be new creations with the power of Christ in us to defeat sin. We are not supposed to determine what is sin and what is not, that is reserved for a Holy God and no one else.

Situations like this leave me more questions than answers. They also leave me thankful for a loving God whose wisdom is far beyond mine. They leave me feeling sorry for the deception that is in our world. I wonder what the future holds, because the last 50 years have brought us to a broken place where our moral fiber has disappeared like an 8 track tape. Not everything is gray matter and I am convinced that truth is not relative. It is absolute and the Bible is Truth. I believe God disapproves of many things (including this issue), but the love poured out at the Cross can cover it all. And if we are children of that grace then we are to hate the sin but live the sinner. This isn't some tolerance crap, or let's hold hands and get along. It is simply an acknowledgement that I sin, need a Saviour and my Saviour, Jesus only asks me to be responsible and accountable for my behavior, He'll deal with everyone else.