Its one of those dreary, gray, rainy mornings. My wife is asleep, as is our baby girl. I am left to a quiet living room, the rain, and my thoughts.
Yesterday marked a monumental day in the history of the United States. June 26th, 2015 will be remembered as a step toward world peace and equality for millions of Americans. It will also be remembered as the day our government took another step towards validating sin and fell further from God for millions of others. So, this morning is the first morning that millions of LBGT American's can wake up being confident of their country's support and legal backing of their sexual choices.
There have been a lot of opinions going around social media in the last 24 hours. Outspoken Christian leaders have called the Church to stand for biblical marriage, and they should. People are upset, appalled, and humiliated that our country has strayed so far from the biblical values that had such an influential impact on its founding, and they should be.
However, in light of what has happened, I actually see this as a good thing for the Church in America. For 250 years, the Church in this nation has had religious freedom and a government that has been an advocate for its citizens to value Christian morals. Only in the last 50 years have the tides began to turn. We have had so much freedom for so long, with no external pressure to stand for what we believe in. Now we have a little pressure. And that's a good thing. Our faith was founded on the blood of martyrs, who had to stand for Christ in an immoral society that was so bad we shouldn't even compare our America to it. The Roman Empire wasn't even in the same league as our nation. Emperor Nero would burn Christians alive at the stake outside of his palace just to light up the royal grounds at night. How is that for immoral?
Yet I don't want to minimize the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday. It is now "wrong" to disagree with the homosexual or transgender lifestyle. Soon it will become a hate crime. So there lies many questions as to what this all means for churches and christian organizations. Will we lose our tax-exempt status? Will the government shut our doors if we refuse to marry LBGT couples? If we publicly disagree with the LBGT lifestyle do will we risk being fined or worse? We will find out many of these answers in the coming years, probably sooner. But whatever happens in the realm of legality for the Church, we still have a choice. Will we stand for Jesus when it is not popular to? Will we advocate for biblical marriage to our coworkers, neighbors, and friends when it isn't an accepted way of thinking anymore? To stand for biblical marriage is to stand for the gospel. Now we have such an opportunity to share why we value marriage between a man and woman. We value this institution because we love Jesus.
Now is the time to stand. Will we have social pressure to compromise our faith? Yes. Should we be surprised? No. 2 Timothy 3:12 tells us to expect persecution. Our governments full support of Christian values is now over. We disagree on a few critical biblical issues. History has showed us that when the Church is persecuted, in grows exponentially. Let that be our prayer as an American Church, that the Lord would use any persecution to grow us to love Him and be more obedient to the gospel than we have ever been before.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Philippians 2:27-30
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