Posted by
John Finnigan on Monday, June 11, 2007 11:47:59 AM
I watched Geraldo Rivera interview the drug dealing male prostitute who exposed the sexual immorality and drug use of a leading evangelical leader recently. The tension between evangelical people and the secular liberal world was etched all over the sex workers face. The hate and rage in the prostitutes face saddened me because I ‘m evangelical and don’t hate or despise homosexuals or prostitutes or drug dealers. Jesus came to save homosexuals, prostitutes, drug dealers and all sinners; including me.
The temptation to sin, to disobey God, is seductive and often pleasurable. The cost, however, is steep. I’ve never met an alcohol or drug abuser who was fully functioning in life and happy. I’ve never met a prostitute who felt truly good about their profession. All sin has a cost and like the promise of easy credit and payment terms, the cost of easy sin never works out for the best.
One of the roots of sin is our desire for more: More sex, different sex; more money; more luxury; more property; more power; more of what I want when I want it.
Truly, in God’s eyes, I am no better or worse then the drug dealing homosexual prostitute or evangelical leader who used the prostitute’s services. Without God’s Grave and Power to redeem my sin I could easily be one or the other involved in this debacle.
Oddly, God picks redeemed sinners like this homosexual prostitute and user of homosexual prostitutes to bring His message of Love to a dead and dieing world. Those who’ve been drug through the valley of the shadow of death know that it’s only God who keeps me from falling.
God holds up a finish sign in this world for everybody. It’s a marathon and I get the pleasure of shuffling along the road to Glory until God calls me home. Sin lurks in the shadows and calls out its song of easy credit and payment plans all along the way. When I take my eyes off the road, I can and will occasionally fall. Because I fall doesn’t mean the road is wrong or incorrect. It means I fell.
I thank God that I can go back to God and ask forgiveness of my failure. God even uses my failure to call out to other sinners and tell them it is possible to get back on the road of perfect Love again. That’s why Jesus came.
John