Disclaimer

Disclaimer: I am not a Biblical scholar. All my posts and comments are opinions and thoughts formulated through my current understanding of the Bible. I strive to speak of things that can be validated through Biblical Scriptures, and when I'm merely speculating, I make sure to note it. My views can be flawed, and I thus welcome any constructive perspectives and criticisms!

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Matthew 17

Notes for BSF

JESUS TRANSFIGURES IN FRONT OF HIS DISCIPLES (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36)

Peter misses the importance of Jesus as the Lamb of God

Matthew 17:4
Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

When witnessing the transfiguration of Jesus and His meeting with Moses and Elijah, Peter muttered the above and was silenced fairly quickly by God.

Peter may have suggested to erect tabernacles because he was sleepy and did not know what he was saying. Or, Peter may have made that suggestion because he thought that moment in time was perfect and therefore wanted to make that moment last. Again, we see Peter not thinking about God’s will as he spoke. God’s will was to provide salvation for mankind, not for us to be gathered with great men of God and dwell with just happy events in the past!

Zondervan NIV Footnote:

Luke 9:33
The three tabernacles were temporary structures to prolong the visit of the three important persons: lawgiver, prophet, and Messiah. The idea was not appropriate, however, because Jesus had a work to finish in his few remaining days on earth.

Mark 9:5
Peter may have desired to erect new tents of meeting where God could again communicate with his people (see Ex 29:42). Or he may have been thinking of the booths used at the Feast of Tabernacles (see Lev 23:42). In any case, he seemed eager to find fulfillment of the promised glory at that moment, prior to the sufferings that Jesus had announced as necessary.

God announces Jesus, the Son of God
Before Peter could continue down his erroneous earthly-based thought process, God spoke:

Matthew 17:5
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!

Peter wanted to preserve the moment, to make it last for a while. However, that was not God’s will. God’s will was to lead Jesus to provide salvation for mankind. The transfiguration revealed Jesus as the Son of God, and Jesus has a great mission to accomplish. Therefore, LISTEN to Him and HEAR Him -- not just with our minds but with our hearts!

Peter's faith is solidified by his eyewitness of Jesus' transfiguration

2 Peter 1:16-17
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

"Seeing is believing," goes the old adage. Here, we can understand why Peter's faith was strong, because he has witnessed Jesus in His glorified form. Although we might be tempted to pray for the same revelation, because we, too, want to see to believe, but consider the following:

1. Thomas remained doubtful until he saw -- He never allowed his faith to grow

John 20:29
Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed

2. Peter did not count his eyewitness as the most important reason for his faith -- Peter's faith is founded in the Word of God

2 Peter 1:19
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

Comparing his eyewitness of Jesus' transfiguration, he calls the Word of God to be "more fully confirmed"! The Word of God is, of course, the Bible. But most importantly, Jesus is the Word made flesh.

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We do not believe because we see it with our eyes. We believe because it is in our hearts to believe. There are plenty of people who choose to ignore what they see because they would rather hold on to the truths they have been comfortable with. Some people refuse to see the doctor because it's better for them to be blind than to hear the news that they are sick. Bottom line, for some, it is more comfortable to remain blind than having to deal with the truth. And so, the old adage is really more accurate when worded thus: "Seeing is what we want to believe."

We see what we want to see, but the Word of God remains faithful and true despite what we want to see/believe. This is why eyewitness is inferior to the actual Word of God. This is also why, when the Rich Man asked Abraham to send warnings to his brothers about eternal death, Abraham responded, "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" (Luke 19:31). 


JESUS MEETS WITH MOSES AND ELIJAH (Matthew 17:1-13)

According to Luke 9:31, Jesus met with Moses and Elijah about His death that was to occur at Jerusalem. It is interesting that numerous transliterations of this passage phrased Jesus' coming death as an event that Jesus would "accomplish" -- And indeed, Jesus' death on the Cross was a GREAT accomplishment! Without His blood, our sins would still bind us in eternal death, apart from God!

Many scholars also speculate Jesus met with Moses and Elijah to discuss the End of Days and therefore draw the link between this event and the Two Witnesses (Revelation 11). The Bible does not elaborate on this, so it's all speculation, and we should not over-dwelt on the subject. But in brief, the main reasons scholars believe Moses and Elijah could be the Two Witnesses because of the following:

1. Elijah never died. He was raptured (2 Kings 2:1). He also has the same "powers" as one of the Witnesses.
2. Moses died before he could enter the Promised Land (Exodus 32:48-52); Satan fought with Michael over Moses' body (Jude 1:9) (Now, why would Satan want Moses body if the body has no significance?); and he, too, has the same "powers" as the other Witness.

Elijah is coming first

Malachi 4:5
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Luke 1:17
And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

John came in the spirit of Elijah and prepared the hearts of the people for the coming Messiah. Everything that John preached and did pointed the people to Jesus. John thus partially fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi 4:5 -- in the spirit but not in the flesh. The full fulfillment will happen in the End of Days ("the great and dreadful Day of the LORD"), culminating in the preaching of the Two Witnesses (Revelation 11). Just as John pointed to Jesus, so too will the Two Witnesses point to Jesus.


UNBELIEF IS OUR GREAT OBSTACLE (Matthew 17:14-21)

Matthew 17:17-18
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

When the disciples wondered why they couldn't heal the demon-possessed boy, notice what Jesus told them. He didn't tell them it was because they didn't have the "power" but that they had unbelief -- the doubt that they could do the work of God. In previous passages, Jesus has stressed multiple times that we are healed by our faith. Here, we see the flip side of the same message: Unbelief -- the lack of faith -- prevents us from doing the Will of God! We may say we believe, but our words don't matter if our hearts doubt.

Mark 9:24
Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!

When we truly want to change but do not know how, pray for help! We live in a fallen world and are born of the flesh. We are flawed and are bathed in sin -- This is precisely the reason why we need Jesus to save us. We cannot do it alone; we cannot do it ourselves. All we need to live in the presence of God is to have the sincere heart to want it. The rest, God will guide us through the Holy Spirit. When we put our trust in Christ, when we have great faith, the Holy Spirit is then able to work completely through us. As long as there is pure faith in Jesus, to know that He is God and that He alone is mighty and powerful, that faith can start out small but grow magnificently, just like the mustard seed grows from a tiny seed to a great big tree. Great faith does not happen overnight. It is the accumulation of small faith, that when we walk step by step with small faith, we eventually will build our faith into great faith. And when we are in God's will, then nothing is impossible for us to achieve.  


THE DISCIPLES START TO UNDERSTAND JESUS AS THE LAMB OF GOD (Matthew 17:22-23)

Upon hearing Jesus again prophesy His own death, burial, and resurrection, instead of fighting against and just not really hearing what Jesus had to say, the disciples became extremely sad -- a sign that the disciples were beginning to not just listen to Jesus with their ears but with their hearts as well.


THE SONS GO FREE (Matthew 17:24-27; cf. Exodus 30:11-16; 38:25-26)

The temple tax was an offering to the Lord, to make atonement for the people. This offering is then used to fund temple-related events.

We learn a few things from Jesus' interaction with those who collected temple tax:

1. Jesus respected the law of the land, just as He has taught us (Romans 13:1-7)
We may not always agree with the people who are in the government, but we must still respect the law.

2. God always provides
Even though the disciples were poor and did not know where they would next live or eat, God provided for them, allowing them to pay the temple tax.

3. The sons go free
When we are in Christ, we are the children of God -- And just as the greatest inheritance is reserved for the children of kings, we are also promised great treasures/rewards in God's Kingdom.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Matthew 16

Notes for BSF

SEEK GOD, NOT MIRACULOUS SIGNS (Matthew 16:1-12; Mark 8:10-21)


The religious leaders wanted Jesus to prove Himself to be God
When asking Jesus to "show them a sign from the heavens," the religious leaders had no real interest in forming a relationship with Jesus or to get to know Him better. Instead, they asked the question only to put Jesus on the spot, to force His hand.

Jesus rebukes the religious leaders for their manipulative intentions
Instead of being trapped by the request of the religious leaders, Jesus saw right through their motive and rebuked them for their cunning thoughts. If their heart truly belonged to the Lord, then they should already be very familiar with the prophecies that would be fulfilled by the coming Messiah -- the prophecies that Jesus did fulfill.

Daniel studied the Scriptures and knew down to the day of when the 70 years of desolation prophesied by Jeremiah would come to an end (Daniel 9:2). Rather than pridefully approach the Lord and demanding that He prove Himself to us, we ought to be diligent students of God's Word, as exemplified by Daniel.

Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

God has revealed Himself through His creations. If we are lazy and haughty enough to ignore all that He has provided, to choose to remain blind, who are we to demand the Creator of the universe to answer to our every whim? For this very reason, Jesus rebuked the religious leaders.

Matthew 16:3-4
You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Jesus expects us to discern the signs of the times, just as we can tell autumn is coming by the changing colors of the leaves or that a storm is brewing by the building of ominous clouds. He expects us to discern the signs of the times because the Word of God teaches us how to discern the signs! 

The Sign of Jonah
Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, and he remained in the fish for 3 days before he was released. This is a foreshadow of the death and resurrection of the Messiah. Jesus was killed and remained in his tomb for 3 days. And on the 3rd day, he was resurrected from death by God the Father. Jesus is the only man in history who has fulfilled this prophecy.

The underlying theme of this passage is for us to seek God with our heart. We should not be relying on miracles and signs as proof of God's existence or work. Why? Satan can perform miracles, too. When Moses performed miracles through the God, the magicians of Egypt mimicked the miracles through the power of Satan (Exodus 7:14-25 is just one example). Therefore, if we only seek miracles and signs as proof of God, if we do not seek God with our heart, we can easily end up following false prophets and idols instead.

Jesus warns us against false prophets, the sins of their heart, and their false teaching

Matthew 16:6
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

When used in bread, leaven or yeast makes bread puff up. In the Bible, leaven is used to represent sin, sin of pride. What do we call prideful people? "Puffed up with pride." Here, Jesus relates the doctrine of the religious leaders, the sins of the religious leaders as leaven. The religious leaders claim to be the holiest of all peoples, yet the traditions they created were not created to devote themselves to God or to glorify God. Instead, the practices they follow aim to show people how much holier they are than the rest, to elevate themselves above others -- in essence, to glorify themselves. Jesus warns His disciples, including us, against prideful sin.

Jesus teaches us to think beyond lusts of the flesh and focus on our eternal destiny
As we learn from the disciples, maturing in Christ is not achieved instantaneously. At this moment in time, the disciples still had not yet grasped the concept of the eternal fate and thus continued to focus their thoughts on materialistic things, such as food. Jesus thus continued to teach and encourage them to shift their view of the world to His coming eternal kingdom, such as eternal life in God. The disciples didn't always get the point immediately, but under the patient guidance of Jesus, they eventually come to understanding.

Like the disciples, we often worry about how we will feed ourselves, where we will be living, how we will find jobs, etc. We are human. It is basic instincts to worry about these things. These are important concerns, but if we cannot see beyond these concerns, then we will miss the bigger lessons God may have for us, as illustrated by this passage here. For example, we can be tested to see if we can rely on our FAITH to survive through difficulties. However, if we see the problems ahead, and all we can think about is food and shelter, and how the problems are too big for us to handle, instead of how God could be guiding us to something greater, or how God can help us through the problem, then 1) we would never personally experience the greatness of God, and 2) we would never develop the greatness of our faith in God. When we allow lusts of the flesh to overwhelm us, when we do not reach out in faith to God and allow His hand to comfort and guide us, we lose out on our chance to strengthen our personal relationship with God. Think of these opportunities like bonding with our dads over football games or camping trips. But way awesomer ;)


JESUS WANTS TO KNOW, WHO DO YOU SAY THAT HE IS? (Matthew 16:13-20)

We can stand on the sidelines and follow the game...
At the time, there were plenty of rumors floating around, with people claiming Jesus to be John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the Old Testament prophets.

With ready access to the Internet these days, it is very easy to stumble across opinion pieces that could either be rumors or truth. It's increasingly becoming more and more difficult to discern between truths and lies because information -- falsified or not -- is disseminated at such a fast pace, people are less inclined to take the time to validate any source of information.

Our society has many labels for Jesus, just as the society back then. Yet, Jesus focus on the individual. He knows the labels each society has for Him -- But He wants each of us as an individual to give an answer:

Matthew 16:15
But who do you say that I am?

Or, we can get into the game and take a stand
Will we be like those who stay blended in the crowd, afraid to take a stance, or will we be like Peter, who embraced the truth based on knowledge that he had accumulated through personal interactions with Christ?

Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Jesus is the Christ, our messiah, the Son of the Living God. Knowing this has greatly changed my life. Knowing God is real, knowing Jesus is real, this has allowed me to put my trust in something that is all powerful. This has allowed me to know that my eternity is protected. Even more, I know what the future holds for me, and I certainly look forward to Jesus’ return to earth, where I can reign with Him as a king and priest.

Galatians 1:10
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ.

Jesus promises those in Him great rewards
Jesus builds His kingdom on those who stand strong in Him, as shown through Peter.

Matthew 16:18-19
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

In Greek, Peter’s name also means rock. Here, Jesus is using a pun. He is calling Peter a rock, on whom Jesus will also build His church. Indeed, when the church started, Peter was the church leader.

Today, the Church continues to build on shoulders of those who abide in Jesus, our foundation, our living Rock.

Satan and his demons may try to cripple us, but as long as we remain steadfast in Jesus, we can have the confidence that "the gates of Hades will not prevail."


JESUS TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES ABOUT HIS COMING SUFFERING (Matthew 16:21-28)

Peter did not fully comprehend Jesus' mission
After Peter’s great step of faith above, we see that he was admonished greatly by Jesus for speaking of things he did not understand.

Jesus had been teaching and showing His disciples who He was and what He had come to fulfill. The significance of His death is the salvation He had come to give to the world, for He had come as the sacrificial Lamb of God, and only one being had tried to prevent Him from achieving this: Satan, during Jesus' 40 days and nights in the wilderness (Matthew 4:-11). Hence, when Peter dared to rebuke Jesus for predicting His death, Jesus harshly admonished Peter and referred his rebuking spirit as that of Satan.

Matthew 16:23
But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

Peter may have spoken with innocence, as someone who simply does not want a loved one to die. However, if Peter, because of his selfish love, were to have successfully prevented Jesus from His prophesied death, he would have blocked the will of God -- a spirit true of Satan.

We need to be very careful the condition of our heart. When we love an object -- be that money, fame, power, or even family -- more than we love God, we have in fact idolized that object. That means, when it comes time to choose between God and that object, we will abandon God to pursue our idol. For this very reason, Peter needed to be immediately corrected and be reminded that when we pursue things of men, we lose sight of God and eternal life.

"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
Jesus teaches us that we must die in our sins so that we may receive eternal life.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Those who lose their lives to sin will find eternal life in Christ.

Romans 6:6-13
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin... Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

Note: 
Matthew 16:28 is a difficult passage to understand. This is an article by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church that discusses this passage at length:
http://aletheia-seekers.blogspot.com/2012/02/matthew-1628.html

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Seek facts, not sensationalism

Anyone who has been following popular media for the last couple of weeks would be familiar with the outrage secular media and non-Christians (even Christians!) have expressed against Phil Robertson's comments in a recent interview.

What has surprised me the most is how easily it was for the media to manipulate the public. When I took journalism courses in high school, I was taught that journalists should focus on facts because they are to report the facts as they allow the readers to form their own opinions; that is, they were not suppose to shape opinions by purposefully leading readers one way or another with their own opinions. That clearly is not how journalists operate anymore. There is so much hatred in the air, readers readily use anything they can get their hands on to augment their own personal feelings, giving little regard to check the facts. The media has caught on to this raw appetite and is eager to oblige, often reporting half-truths or quoting people out of context to expose more gore.

In especially the last few years, Christian views are being attacked more and more viciously. In the US, we are at least still civilized enough to "talk" about it, as opposed to resorting to physical violence. "Freedom of speech" and "tolerance" are chants people from both sides of the argument like to wave around, and while I don't think anything I write here will provide any lasting solution, I would like to propose a couple perspectives:

1. We are ALL free to express our opinions. 
It is illogical to yell at someone for expressing his opinions while supporting freedom of speech.

2. Tolerance is not agreeing with everything.
It is illogical to yell at label someone as "intolerant" just because he doesn't share the same opinion. (Example of true tolerance: While Phil Robertson's opinion is that homosexuality is sin, he still welcomes and loves homosexuals as friends.)

3. Love is love. 
It is illogical to curse and condemn someone for expressing his opinions while supporting love for all.

4. Truth is truth.
Bible-reading Christians know for a fact that God clearly defines homosexuality as a sin. To us, this is as much of a fact as the Earth is round.

I am sorry if this offends people, but please consider this: Before scientists were able to prove that Earth was round, those who championed that Earth was flat persecuted those who held a different "opinion." This has always been the case -- Any time someone proposes an idea that did not flow with the popular opinion, that person/group gets persecuted.

My point? Be grounded in facts rather than feelings. 

Rules, such as anti-gay marriage, is not something Christians invented. As God-fearing people, we are simply following His laws. Just as it is illogical to yell and scream at a friend who tells you that it is illegal to jay walk, it is just as illogical to yell and scream at a friend who tells you that homosexuality is a sin. If you want jay walk to be legalized, go to the authorities -- your friend can't do anything about it no matter how much you yell at him. If you have a problem with what defines sin, take it up with God -- yelling at Christians doesn't grant us the privilege to rewrite God's rules.

Ultimately, the real question is whether we have any respect for God. If we don't first try and understand who God is, how do we expect to understand sin? If we don't understand sin, then of course we would be offended by comments such as, "adultery is sin," "homosexuality is sin," etc., because wouldn't we all just like to do as we please without being criticized?

Moving forward, friends, be aware of the hype created by the media. Seek facts, not sensationalism. More importantly, if we are of love, then let us reach solutions with love. We may not agree with the opinions expressed by others, but if we treat them with hatred, how is that any better?

Despite being nailed to the cross by His enemies, Jesus cried to God the Father, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:34).

This is the agape love we ought to be showing, even amid extreme hostility.

Having said all that, I thank Koinonia House for providing a more balanced perspective of Phil Robertson below. Before we form an opinion, I would urge all of us to actually read the interview in its entirety, lest we, too, take things out of context and jump to erroneous conclusions.


WHEN PC PUNISHMENTS BACKFIRE

From the December 23, 2013 eNews issue
Visit Koinonia House for a FREE subscription

“We’re Bible-thumpers who just happened to end up on television,” Phil Robertson told GQ writer Drew Magary. “You put in your article that the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.”

The punishment of a high-profile individual for expressing negative views on homosexuality has again exploded in support of the offender. In 2012, it was Chick-fil-A’s president Dan Cathay. This month it’s Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson. Thousands of people went out to eat at Chickfil-A in solidarity with Cathay’s views on marriage, standing in long, visible lines to buy their chicken sandwiches. During the past week, a vast multitude of voices in the news and on social media have cried out in defense of Robertson’s right to call homosexuality a “sin” and freestyle quote 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 in the January 2014 issue of GQ magazine.

There is a reason the most recent controversy has continued to hit the headlines and people continue to tweet their views; it exposes the massive chasm between world-views in America.

Back in July 2012, the president of Chick-fil-A came under attack for expressing the view that marriage should be only between a man and a woman. “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’” Dan Cathay said on the Atlanta radio program The Ken Coleman Show.

Gay rights groups called for a boycott on Chick-fil-A to punish the chicken sandwich franchise for its “anti-gay” position. That effort massively backfired when droves of people came out to stand up for Cathay’s right to vocalize his Biblical view on marriage.

When concerned staff members at A&E complained about Robertson’s comments in the GQ article, the Duck Dynasty paterfamilias was promptly suspended from the show. Never mind that Duck Dynasty has a fan base of 14 million who love the Bible thumping, backwoods family, and if they’re watching, then they probably have no problem with the free-expression of the Robertson family’s faith.

In fact, millions of Americans find the open, down-to-earth Robertson family a fresh breath of air, one that GQ calls, “beloved for staking out a bit of holy ground within the mostly secular, often downright sinful, pop culture of America.”

And they’re not hateful people. They call each other “idiots” and they poke fun, but they’re warm and decent family folks. Few people watching rough looking, gentle spoken Phil Robertson talk could think he hates gays.

“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell,” Phil Robertson said in his explosive GQ interview. “That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?”

The Los Angeles Times was not pleased with Robertson’s associating homosexuals with drunks and terrorists. GLAAD expressed outrage at Robertson’s referring to homosexuality as “sin” and for some generally tactless comments about male versus female anatomy. A&E canned Robertson “indefinitely” and Cracker Barrel started to pull its Duck Dynasty merchandise from the shelves.

But, the attack on the Duck Dynasty star raised a loud cry of support from Robertson’s fans across the country. People who had never bothered watching the red-neck swamp show waged battle on his behalf as well, adamant that Robertson should not get picked on for voicing the Biblical view that homosexual behavior is sinful. The Robertson family made it clear they weren’t going to go on without Phil at the helm, and A&E faced the potential loss of all that Duck Dynasty revenue.

After the uproar, A&E responded by assuring the world that Phil Robertson would be included in the new episodes in January. Cracker Barrel even returned Duck Dynasty merchandise to the shelves, stating their purpose was not to offend their customers.

Mike Huckabee spoke out on the whole issue, summing up the reason for the backlash in Robertson’s favor. “I think it has come to a point in our culture where political correctness has made it so that if you want to take a point of view that is traditional, that holds to steadfast, old fashioned biblical Christian values, which are also, by the way, values of traditional Judaism, and even Islam, that somehow you’re supposed to just shut up and keep that to yourself. But if you want to advocate for same-sex marriage, we’re supposed to be very tolerant.”

The Family Guy and South Park and The Big Bang Theory and a multitude of shows freely make fun of religious people and sometimes God Himself. Movies and books and celebrities of all sorts can bash Christians, and the major media make little fuss about it. It’s not exactly balanced out there.

Yet, some of us who never watched Duck Dynasty are now pulling up episodes to watch on our computers. As they say, no publicity is bad publicity.

The Far Side
There’s another side to this whole issue, though, one that goes beyond Free Speech and standing up to the PC bullies and making them think twice about their next attack on Christian values. There’s more. There’s the homosexuals themselves.

This is a big issue. These are people God loves deeply, precious people for whom Christ died. A multitude of gays and lesbians have turned their backs on the Bible, on Christianity, on God Himself because they believe they were born that way and there’s no place for them in a body of good Christian believers. They don’t feel they fit there; they don’t belong. And they feel stuck; what are they going to do? Live a lie? Pretend their whole lives?

These are men and women who need to know and feel the love of God. They need solid, good friends who will come beside them and help them and let them know they are not alone, they are not rejected, and God wants them. He wants them so much He sent his Son to die for them.

All of us are in the same boat. We all—every one of us—have things that we struggle with, things that separate us from God. Every one of us has to come to a place where we say, “Lord, this thing is too big for me. I can’t bear it. Nothing in my life is as important as my relationship with You, so here I am, with all my warts. I give up anything that displeases You. Please help me. Rescue me from my sin.”
Christmas is about the fact that the Son of God Himself was born on this earth and grew to be a human man, with all the hormones and frustrations, loneliness and pain that every one of us deals with. He understands. And that is why we know we can come boldly to the throne of grace for help in time of need (Heb 4:16). He knows what it’s like. He knows the help we need.


Notes
Huckabee Weighs In On “Duck Dynasty” Controversy
— CBS News
Critic’s Notebook: ‘Duck Dynasty’ Controversy Comes Down To Freedom
— Los Angeles Times
What The Duck?
— GQ
Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day Brings Out Supporters, Protesters
— Fox News
Cracker Barrel Puts ‘Duck Dynasty’ Items Back On Shelves
— USA Today
Report: Phil Robertson To Appear In ‘Duck Dynasty’ In January
— UPI