Everybody's Got a...

What a loving and and powerful God we serve! He is the One who can transform our hearts, give us victory over sin, and express His life through us. Ephesians 2 says:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Jesus is the One who can satisfy the craving of a hungry heart.  He promises us that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled.  That's a promise on which we can rely.  But, in order to experience His fullness, it's imperative that we empty ourselves of our own selfish ambition and relinquish control of our lives, surrendering to the hand of and the will of a mighty God.  We were created to reflect the glory of God, and He wants our days to be full and meaningful, truly "glory days" in His presence, that we can look back on and rejoice.

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God is the One who is able to complete us, through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We were crafted
in His image, but born into sin - but God has provided the antidote. Colossians 2 says:
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

The song goes like this:

Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

This is just one example of the cynicism that we find in the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen.  Witness "My Hometown," which laments the decline of an industrial city.  Or, the lyric, "Everybody's got a hungry heart."

I think that's part of the appeal of "The Boss" - not only has his music captivated fans, but there is a gritty reality that appears in some of his songs.  Springsteen proclaims that "tramps like us, Baby, we were born to run."  Well, run is what Bruce has done - running away from a commitment he made to perform a concert in Greensboro, North Carolina.  And, as Dr. Michael Brown reminded him in a recent "open letter":

When you booked the concert in Greensboro, the laws in North Carolina were just as they are today: In public facilities, people had to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that corresponded to their biological sex.

Why, then, did you agree to come in the first place? Why cancel the concert when things today are just what they were six months ago?

He said, "I appreciate your sincerity, but I question your judgment."

Why is this an issue?  Well, it all started in Charlotte, where overzealous members of the city council passed a bill showing favoritism toward transgender people, to the extent of allowing people to use the bathroom of the opposite gender to their biological one.  The legislature of the state was swift to act, passing HB2, which CNSNews.com states: "overrides all city ordinances relative to the bathroom and locker room issue and states that people must use the bathroom designated to their sexual identity on their birth certificates: men use men's facilities, women use women's facilities."

One of North Carolina's more well-known residents, whose father has a highway named after him in Charlotte, spoke out against The Boss and his refusal to meet his obligations to concert goers in Greensboro.   The CNSNews story referenced Franklin Graham's Facebook post of April 9, which says:

Bruce Springsteen, a long-time gay rights activist, has cancelled his North Carolina concert. He says the NC law ‪#‎HB2‬ to prevent men from being able to use women's restrooms and locker rooms is going "backwards instead of forwards." Well, to be honest, we need to go back! Back to God. Back to respecting and honoring His commands. Back to common sense. Mr. Springsteen, a nation embracing sin and bowing at the feet of godless secularism and political correctness is not progress.

I’m thankful North Carolina has a governor, Pat McCrory, and a lieutenant governor, Dan Forest, and legislators who put the safety of our women and children first! HB2 protects the safety and privacy of women and children and preserves the human rights of millions of faith-based citizens of this state.

Franklin Graham has also had harsh words for PayPal, which he says "gets the hypocrite of the year award! This company says they’re not coming to North Carolina because the legislators and Gov. Pat McCrory have passed a law to protect women and children against sexual predators by not allowing men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms." He goes on:

Congressman Robert Pittenger made a great point yesterday: “PayPal does business in 25 countries where homosexual behavior is illegal, including 5 countries where the penalty is death, yet they object to the North Carolina legislature overturning a misguided ordinance about letting men in to the women’s bathroom? Perhaps PayPal would like to try and clarify this seemingly very hypocritical position.”

As The Boss says, "Lay down your money and you play your part / Everybody's got a hungry heart." And, unfortunately, the money trail these days in America runs on the side that is opposite of God's design, but on the international front, the promise of greater economic benefit seems to override human rights concerns.

There is music by Bruce Springsteen contains a sense of restlessness that we find within the culture. And, there is sense of unease is expressed in some of the drastic, even non-sensical actions that are taken by those, who are under a delusion of greater enlightenment and believe that the rejection of God's design and His principles somehow contributes to a more effective society.  Clearly, that is not the case.

Franklin Graham speaks of going back to God.  "Back to respecting and honoring His commands," he said.  And, the joy and satisfaction of following Christ is far superior to, as The Boss says, "boring stories of glory days."   We need to experience our own "glory days" - days where people seek to glorify God, when lives had meaning and purpose, when people upheld God's standards and abided by a morality that was consistent with the Scriptures, rather than the moral fluidity that we encounter today.

And, gender fluidity is a symptom of the moral relativism that is so prevalent.  Yesterday, I mentioned the concept of "cisgender," as that "privilege" poster indicated at the University of San Francisco. The definition of that term is: "a person whose gender identity, gender expression and biological sex all align."  That would be the Biblical model.  And, each of us can accept ourselves for the way God has wired us.  We know that we were created by God, fearfully and wonderfully made, but we also were born into sin, in need of a Savior.  Christ's presence can complete us and show us who we are and who He has meant for us to be.

***- song lyrics from Google Play