A new GLBT resort in our county
A couple of people have sent me an email concerning a new GLBT resort in the works for our area. (GLBT = Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgender). The information looks credible. You can see a web site promoting it here. NOTE that it contains some images that may offend, though none that are explicit. The email says that the chosen site is somewhere on the other side of the bridge from Ladd Landing, so that puts it near our youth minister John Pryor. 
Interestingly, the Employment link on the web site states that the owners have “a belief in God” and that worship services will be part of the program, and even hints that prospective employees should be like-minded on this.
The email calls this resort “a threat” and urges everyone to sign a petition (and pass it around at church too) and attend meetings of the Planning Commission and County Commission to try to get this stopped.
I realize that the Bible calls homosexual behavior sinful. But to tell you the truth, I’d be very disappointed in the people of Morrison Hill if we can’t do better than pass around petitions and march on government meetings to assert rights that we supposedly surrendered for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can we love our enemies or our neighbors or the people sitting next to us at church (any of whom may be tempted by homosexuality) by telling them to stay the heck out of our county?
Even though I speak like this, dear friends, I am confident of better things in your case. I have confidence that the Christians I know can come up with ten better responses to this situation, responses that lift up Christ in all the fullness of his grace and truth.
So, how about it? Tell us your best ideas (or whatever you think) in the comments.
UPDATE: Here’s a story in the Roane County News about the resort.
UPDATE 2: I received an email from the developer of the planned resort last night (addressed to “Dear Pastor”) in which he says that “Rosebud is not going to be a gay, nudist, resort of any kind, but that any mature adult 18 and over, no matter what their race, religion, color, sex, or life style, will be welcome there.” I visited the web site again, and now it contains none of the pictures that I previously warned you about, nor any reference to clothing being optional, nor alternate lifestyles. Sounds like a quick marketing switch to me!
UPDATE 3: The Knoxville News Sentinel now has a story on this, along with a string of interesting comments .
Weak run, strong thought
I struggled through my morning run today and wasn’t pleased with how it turned out. But while I struggled, I was also listening to Rob Bell on my Shuffle (the Shuffle is an iPod AND a description of my running stride).
Rob is preaching like a real theologian these days, digging deep into a few verses of Philippians each week. Today he honed in on v. 4 of chapter 2: “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” His message was called Others and Rob talked about the others in our lives - the strange co-worker, the irritating neighbor, the parent who seems to like to be difficult. We all have them, and we all wish (sometimes) we didn’t.
But then, this thought: Treating these people well, looking to their interests, is the surest way for me to experience (to a tiny extent) what God is willing to go through for me.
Sermon: Good Foundations
SERIES: All I Really Need to Know…is in the Sermon on the Mount
12. Good Foundations - Matthew 7:24-23
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MP3 (right-click to download)
Dispelling thermostat ignorance
Here’s a bit of ignorance I often see displayed even here at MHCC, where our people are smarter(?) than average…
I walk into a hot room (almost certainly in the Teen Center) and find that the thermostat for the air conditioner is set at 65 degrees. Or 60. Or 50.
The reasoning? (Should I say “reasoning”?) “If I turn the thermostat down, the heat pump will super-cool the air, and it will get cooler FASTER!”
Well actually…the thermostat merely tells the heat pump when to stop (and start too). THAT’S ALL IT DOES!!! You can’t make the unit work harder or put out colder air. I’m sorry, but this is just the way it is.
Of course, if you set it at 50 and then leave the building, it may actually cool the building to 50 overnight…at great expense to us!
So…how about setting it to the temperature you’d like to end up with?
The importance of the truth
I met a woman last month who is in her 50s. When she was 18, she attended a very strict Christian college where she got engaged to a guy who was studying for the ministry. Trouble was, this college forbade any student to be engaged.
The couple kept it a secret for awhile, but eventually word got back to the administration. So, this young woman was called before the college disciplinary board.
“We hear you got engaged,” they asked her. “Is this true?”
She thought about her answer. She knew that she would probably be expelled if she told the truth. But she finally answered, “Yes”.
Then the board dismissed her and called her young man in, and asked him the same question: “Are you engaged?” He answered, “No”.
She got suspended for the semester. He got expelled entirely. More importantly, she decided that if he couldn’t tell the truth about her, he probably couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth to her either. So, she dumped him.
It ain’t exactly Ananias and Sapphira, but there is a pretty good warning/lesson here. If this had been a movie, I’m sure that the romantic thing would have been for him to lie to protect her. Maybe that’s what he thought he was doing. But in this REAL world, she saw a deep character problem revealed in his willingness to disown her before men. So she waited until she found someone who would tell her the truth…and expect it from her.
Sermon: Beliefs Matter
SERIES: All I Really Need to Know…is in the Sermon on the Mount
11. Beliefs Matter - Matthew 7:13-23
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MP3 (right-click to download)
Lance and Kristin Armstrong in bizarro world
I was anxious to watch this short (2:07) video of Lance Armstrong’s thoughts on the Boston Marathon. But it’s the bizarro nature of it that caught me - the interviewer is his ex-wife, Kristin.
(From RunnersWorld.com)
Sermon: Ask
SERIES: All I Really Need to Know…is in the Sermon on the Mount
10. Ask - Matthew 7:7-12
Listen (stream)
MP3 (right-click to download)
Recommended: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
No doubt you’ve heard of Randy Pausch and seen at least part of his “last lecture“. Pausch is a 47 year old computer science professor, husband, and father of three small children. In August, 2007, Pausch found out he was dying of pancreatic cancer. In September, he delivered a lecture called Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, a moving and winsome chronicle of his life and career, along with lessons he wants his children to learn one day.
Pausch has been on Oprah and the nightly news, and you can see his talk online for free (at the link above), but I just bought and downloaded his new book in audio format. It’s the contents of the lecture plus some background on his life and other general purpose life wisdom. I’m finding it extremely valuable and enjoyable to listen to.
A difficult grace
One of the hardest-to-take passages in all the Bible is the one that describes Moses’ momentary outburst of anger - and the consequences - in Numbers 20:10-12. After listening to the Israelites gripe for the hundredth time, Moses lost it (but only a little). “Listen, you rebels”, he said to them, “must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
Then comes this in v. 12 - But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
It seems so unfair - the death penalty for getting jelly on the tablecloth, as Fred Craddock once put it. But L. L. Barkat, in her new book Stone Crossings, suggests that God’s discipline hides a severe mercy, a difficult grace. She says that the way Moses speaks to the people here shows that maybe he’s handled the things of God for so long that he is beginning to confuse himself with God (a common temptation in ministry). So God shuts him out of Canaan.
But this isn’t the end for Moses. At the end of Deuteronomy, God takes him to a high mountain and shows him the Promised Land. GOD does this, as a man might do for his best friend. And then Moses dies there on that mountain, and God buries him..as a man might do for his BEST friend. Getting shut out of the Promised Land wasn’t the same as getting shut out of God’s presence. Quite the opposite.
I read this in Stone Crossings today just after I read about the pitiful prophets of Matthew 7 to whom Jesus says “I never knew you”. “But Lord, Lord,” they say, “didn’t we do mighty miracles in your name?”
Maybe that’s where Moses was heading when God saved him from himself.
P. S. Did Moses ever enter the Promised Land? Sure he did. See Matthew 17:3 
