Vulnerable

Each day, we have the choice - are we going to live in a manner consistent with the crucified Christ in us or are we going to give in to the desires of the flesh? Paul gives specific instructions in Romans 6:
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

The nature of sin is to reign, to captivate, to overpower, and to hold you in bondage.  The enemy of your soul is intent on activating the power of sin in order to destroy you.  But, we have a powerful advocate who lives in our hearts - the Lord Jesus - who meets us in our weakness and vulnerability and offers us His strength.  We have been born again and given a new nature; sin and death have been defeated (past tense), but each day we have to decide whether or not to give in to the schemes of the enemy and the lure of the flesh or to give over our choices and desires to the One who desires to make us whole.

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In James 1, we read about the progression of sin - it begins with our own human, fleshly desires - our
areas of vulnerability:
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

At some point, you look at the furor about gender and say, "something's gotta give."  That's the contention of Dr. Michael Brown, a former Meeting House guest and regular contributor to The Stream website.

In a recent piece, he referred to an interview with Kim Kardashian, conducted by Ellen DeGeneres. That probably says all you really need to know - gay activist talk-show host meets reality-show star who has a stepfather who now thinks he's a woman and has attempted to conform to that.  What a crazy mixed-up world we live in.

And, Kim's not OK with her stepfather's change.  Dr. Brown points out that Kim told Ellen: “I’ll always love her. That was my stepdad for so many years. She taught me about character growing up, and I just feel like I don’t respect the character she’s showing now.”

Welcome to the twilight zone. And Brown points to a report on the Pink News website: “Kim Kardashian hits out at ‘untruthful’ stepmother Caitlyn Jenner on Ellen.”

As Brown writes:

Well, here’s a breaking news alert. Bruce (or, Caitlyn) Jenner was not Kim Kardashian’s stepmother. Not ever. You can believe that Bruce Jenner is now a transwoman. You can decide to refer to him as “her.” You can even say that “Kim Kardashian’s former stepfather is now a transwoman named Caitlyn Jenner.” But don’t recreate the past and say that Bruce Jenner is Kim’s “former stepmother.”

And, Bruce does have two biological children. Brown writes: "If Bruce Jenner fathers two girls named Kendall and Kylie, then has 'sex-change' surgery and becomes a transwoman, he does not become Kendall and Kylie’s mother. They already have a mother, named Kris, and Bruce is their father, not their mother."

It's a mad, mad world, isn't it?

The Jenner girls have a father. Even a compromised father who attempts to change his gender is still the father! Brown writes in conclusion:

No amount of activist pressure or semantic doublespeak or deconstruction of reality will alter this simple fact.

This is another reason why I still believe that LGBT activism will ultimately defeat itself. The cultural madness can only go so far before something snaps.

Isn't it interesting?  The LGBT activists say you can't change sexual orientation, although you hear stories of people who have done it, many through the help of the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. But the same people are OK with someone attempting to change his or her gender.  You can't have it both ways.  Biblically, you are born with a gender and you could make the case that with that gender comes an orientation, an expectation for behavior consistent with that gender.  Even though there may be sinful propensities that manifest themselves, the standards are there.

There are two areas I want to address very briefly:

One is that a departure from God's ways can lead to all sorts of confusion and negative emotions. We need clarity in our lives, and a relationship with Christ can establish clarity in our hearts and minds. When you depart from His path and yield to temptation, you enter into the world of willful sin, which is consistent with death, not abundant life.   The path that so many are on today in trying to subvert God's standards in the area of sexuality is a path to destruction.

Also, let's talk about our own propensity to sin.  Those who embrace homosexuality, or who struggle with same-sex attraction, or who don't think their biological gender is the right one, are dealing with serious issues.  But, sin is an equal opportunity entity.  Your vulnerability may not exist in these areas, but I would say that we all have areas in which we are weak - prone to sin, prone to yield to temptation.  We all need the redemptive power of Christ to transform our hearts and enable us to renew our minds to think in a manner consistent with our nature in Him.  We have to be aware of our weaknesses, so that we can release the strength of the Lord.