Good Works or God’s Word

My time at Bethany Christian Services was brief, but impactful. I worked there for just over a year and by and large it was an incredible experience. I loved Bethany’s missional approach to adoption. In fact, my primary role was to meet with potential adoptive parents and explain to them how Bethany was different from so many other adoption agencies. Bethany emphasized building relationships between adoptive parents and birth parents. Yes, adoption is a way to build your family, but it’s also a way to love women (and men) who have been marginalized. I was passionate about this. About loving the least of these; children and parents alike. Building your family through adoption is an opportunity to show birth parents the love of Jesus. It was a privilege to walk with adoptive parents and humbling to see the love and sacrifice of birth parents. It was beautiful to watch the relationships among the two sets of parents. It was messy. It was hard. It was good. It was worthwhile.

My reasons for leaving were mostly personal, however, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about the cultural winds that were blowing. I could see the writing on the wall. A day was coming when Bethany would be forced to choose between fidelity to God’s word and serving the least of these through adoption and foster care.

Sadly, last week Bethany Christian Services bowed down to the idol of inclusivity; sacrificing fidelity to God’s word on its altar. Of course, their intentions are good, truly, I believe they mean well; but we know what they say about the road to hell.

If we buy into the narrative that in order to care for the least of these we must capitulate to the whims of the government and the culture at large we will surely end up losing the Christ whose name we say we minister in. If we buy into that narrative we show a lack of trust in the God who is bigger than our current circumstances; having the appearance of godliness but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5) And if we buy into that narrative we may very well miss out on some unique opportunities to serve and glorify God. It is God, not the government or culture, who has prepared good works for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

In all likelihood it is going to become harder and harder to live as Christ calls us to in this world. We will stick out like sore thumbs, but God tells us that we will also shine like stars in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation as we hold fast to the word of life (Philippians 2:14-16).

As Christians get pushed further towards the edges of society we glorify God by loving the very ones that push us there as we endure suffering for the sake of our faithful Savior. Now is not the time to panic or succumb, now is the time to stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord (Exodus 14:13). Let’s be winsome, loving, courageous, ambassadors for Christ; remembering that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self control (2 Timothy 1:7).

A Woman Worth Celebrating

I heard on the radio that International Women’s Day is coming up. I find it ironic that we have a day celebrating women, especially as our current administration seems hell bent on pretending that biological sex is meaningless. Of course, I realize that only those women that embrace the ironically legalistic set of beliefs set forth by the powers that be are to be celebrated by the culture at large. So, I’d like to celebrate a woman that our current culture would like to pretend doesn’t exist because she doesn’t fit their bill. She is not swayed by the cultural winds that seek to blow us all over. She is in the world but not of it. She is my mom.

My mom stayed at home with my siblings and me until she had to go to work to help financially provide for our family. She never desired a career, but she always worked diligently and became quite the wiz at Excel. She’s worked as a gas station clerk, an administrative assistant, she’s done payroll, and is currently working in inventory at a power company. Growing up, she would work all day only to come home to work some more as she cooked dinner, cleaned, did all of the grocery shopping, made it to every single baseball/volleyball/basketball game and track meet humanly possibly and provided support to her three kids and her husband. I now know those days were surely exhausting and draining, but she loved us well through all of them.

Fast forward to today and she’s not only my dad’s loving wife and mom to my brother and sister and me, but also Umi to 8 grandkids. One by one she has captured their hearts, as she does with most people she comes in contact with, by her fun loving spirit and self sacrificial love. Not only that, but she’s facing one of her greatest challenges to date with her trademark grace as she’s endured months of chemo therapy; only missing work on treatment days.

My mom would be the first to tell you that she isn’t perfect and that it’s all by the grace of God. And it is. Her faith in Jesus is absolutely what has shaped her gracious heart in the face of adversity. And her faith in Jesus has shaped me too. 

Funny enough, it’s her faith in Jesus and fidelity to His word that often precludes her from being celebrated by this broken world.

Mom, the world may never celebrate you, but I rise up and call you blessed. 

Happy International Women’s Day–not that you care about that sort of thing.

Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth

I spent last summer doing a deep dive into God’s definition of justice. I devoured God’s Word, books, podcasts, and articles. During my quest for answers, I ran into Thaddeus Williams, author of the book I’ve pictured above: Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth. Williams begins his discussion of justice by asking, what is due to God? It has been incredibly refreshing to begin the discussion of justice with questions about what is owed to God and what happens to us when we fail to give God what is due Him. How can we possibly treat others justly if we deny justice to our Creator God? Williams walks us through Scripture and frames the discussion over social justice in an accessible and biblical way.

I wish this book had come out this time last year. But, it came out at the end of 2020. I’m still reading the book, but it’s already been convicting, encouraging, and incredibly clarifying. So, I thought I’d share.

“The problem is not with the quest for social justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that is not compatible with the Bible. Today many Christians accept conclusions that are generated from madness machines that are wired with very different presuppositions about reality than those we find in Scripture. We shirk God’s commands and hurt His image-bearers when we unwittingly allow unbiblical worldview assumptions to shape our approach to justice. Now is the time to show the watching world just how true, good, and beautiful justice becomes when we are driven by the Creator and His Word rather than cultural fads.” —Thaddeus Williams, Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth