BOS to ILM During Pride Month

Church Family: This past Tuesday, it was my duty and delight to accompany my Dad to Boston general Hospital. We were to fly out of Wilmington early, arrive Boston, take a cab to his appointment with the oncologist, take a cab back to the airport, get back on the plane and fly home to arrive just before midnight. Oh yea, add one very short layover in LaGuardia, NYC each way. We made it to the appointment on time and then while waiting to be seen I get a text from Delta that all of our flights home were cancelled. To make a very long story short, there were no flights to return for several days so we rented a car and drove home. On the way home we drove through major cities like Boston, NYC, Newark, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Richmond. We drove through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, DC, Virginia and North Carolina. While driving through all of these cities and states there is one dominant message. Do you know what is is? The message is lit up on the tallest buildings in the world. It is on billboards, in rest areas, it is worn on pins and scarves by employees of gas stations, airlines, coffee shops and hospitals. What is the message that the world is declaring? “Enjoy Your Pride.” And then our US DHHS leader, Admiral, Dr. Rachel Levine, declares this week that Pride Month is not enough, she says, “let’s declare it a Summer of Pride, Happy Summer of Pride.”
 
Church, we cannot hide from the fact that we are the moral minority. So, what are we to do? Are we to stay silent or run and hide while being hardened by the corruption of the culture? Church, we cannot let the hardening of the culture towards all-things Christian discourage us from a boldness in communicating biblical truth that the world is rejecting. We must push back in a “love your neighbor” kind of way. We must commit ourselves to seek what is best for our communities. Let us stand firm on the truth that marriage is the union of a man and a woman and that sex is God’s gift within that marriage. Let us be committed to the biblical authority over sexuality and gender.
 
I have been looking for a succinct understanding of the mindset we are to have as followers of Christ during these days. I came across some simple yet strong convictions from Al Mohler in his book, We Cannot Be Silent:
1- We must not retreat into silence while we still have a platform and a voice, and an opportunity.
2- We must look in the mirror and recognize that when we speak to others, we are speaking as sinners saved by grace.
3- We must say that we know on the basis of all that Scripture reveals and trust that only God can make that message convincing and compelling to our audience.
4- We must worship faithfully in our churches and glorify God for the goodness of His creation.
5- We must remain faithful to our own marital commitments and demonstrate marital love and fidelity.
6- We must raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and ground the rising generation in the truths of God’s Word, the power of the gospel and the glory of Christian faithfulness.
7- We must look each other in the eye and remind one another of what is now required of us – to speak the truth, to love the truth and to bear witness to the truth whether we are invited to the White House or treated as exiles.

It is all in God’s hands.

See you Sunday, enjoying Romans 10, Steve