Next week will be a busy one for me: I will be going to Moore Theological College to talk about Liberty and will be travelling interstate to speak at a college campus about SSA.  In the last week or so, I have been doing a fair bit of blogging on my own personal site about the issues of emotion and affection and other issues about USSA, which you are welcome to read about, including:

  1. a reflection on how and why God brought upon Himself greater pain and a subjectively more complicated existence in making a sinful, rebellious world;
  2. The weariness that often comes with leading a healing ministry;
  3. Praying through the Psalms to get in touch with one’s own emotions; God’s emotions; and the emotional state of others;
  4. A story in Judges 17, where an Israelite, who is so desperately lacking in moral direction, reaches out and grasps the first man who comes along with fatherly, messianic promise.
I pray that what I have written- which is not of me, but God-given wisdom- give you food for thought.  For anyone praying for me and for Liberty Ministries, that second link is something to think and pray through, not just one-off but ongoing.
Aside from the aforementioned items on my agenda over the next week, I also will be doing more writing for this website.
The next Frequently Asked Question that I will tackle will be whether or not gay relationships can be ethically and morally justified by virtue of lasting more than a short-term period.  It’s a response to the oft-stated question: “I know (of) someone who’s been in a long-term committed gay relationship for the last 30 years and doesn’t live the typical ‘gay’ clubbing lifestyle.  So what’s the problem with allowing them?”
On top of this, I will also be tackling other issues connected with whether or not it is consistent for a Christian to argue in favour of gay marriage and family.  I am likely to not be able to do this in a week, but it is on the agenda.
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Before I sign off though, I wanted to share a couple of verses that I read during my quiet times in Scripture over the last week (ESV):
Exodus 6:9 - Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to him, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
Psalm 34:18 - Yahweh (God) is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
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Counter to the stereotype that the ‘Law’ books of the Bible (Genesis to Deuteronomy) are all about lists of ‘Dos and Don’ts’, it is revealing that actually it is about God’s rescue plan of seriously mucked up people.  When God rescued Israel from its incredible 400-year bondage, He knew that it wasn’t enough just to take them out of the land of slavery: He had to heal their aching, broken hearts.  Moses knew it, and God knew it, but neither of them walked away from the issues of deliverance.  In fact, as I see it, their broken spirits were what the salvation acts are all about.  Fastforward to the book of Isaiah, and it says in 1:5b of Israel, “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint”.  What God had to do was to send Jesus to give people a new heart, because it is the heart where all the issues of life proceed from (Proverbs 4:23).
Does brokenness put God off?  The answer in Scripture is emphatic ‘NO!’  In fact, brokenness draws God closer.  Yes, there are Christians who act as if they have it all together, but by doing so there is a big question mark over whether or not God is close to them.  Rather, He wraps His arm around the broken and gives them something new, something beyond their wildest dreams that also befits their greatest need.  Who else is like this God?!  So if ever you are down in the dumps, feeling the weight of guilt and doubting God’s love- and Satan loves nothing better than to accuse and entrap people in self-pity and blame- then go back to the goodness of God’s character.  The Father did it, and the Son perfectly manifested it, and it makes all the difference.
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Shalom,
Haydn (Liberty Pastoral Worker).