Desperate Joy

  Abortion has been in the news lately as the Supreme Court readies to hear arguments around the abortion ban the state of Mississippi recently enacted. It is an important case during an important time. I pray for God to give the justices wisdom as they make their decisions. Abortion is certainly a thorny issue, but as I have argued in this blog, the Bible teaches that God is a God of life, he cultivates and cherishes life, and faithful Christians should always come down on the side of life. Abortion has been a central pillar of the sexual revolution and has opened the door to more and more uncleanness. But there is an issue that has preceded abortion in history that has had its share in the loosening of sexual morals, and that issue is birth control. This is the third post in a series on the topic. My sister is a physician's assistant, day in and day out, she is working with people to try and improve their health. She often laments that her patients refuse to make even simple chan...

  Recently Marvel released their newest superhero epic, "Eternals". Of particular interest to many is the fact that this is the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to have a sex scene. Marvel movies have been well known for their chastity and lack of intimacy. Many voices cry out, "About time!" My goal here is not to condemn "Eternals" or sex scenes in movies in general, though I usually find that they are not helpful and only serve to titillate and stir up our fleshly lusts. What is of interest to me is the over-emphasis of our culture at large on sexuality. As if something glaring has been missing from the MCU all this time. This is evidence of the attitude so many have in our society who believe that sexual gratification is of upmost if not primary importance. As if we cannot live a happy and fulfilled life without having all of our sexual desires, no matter how bizarre and deviant, expressed and satisfied. Much of this thinking has its roo...

  A few years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Mall in Washington D.C. and taking in the majestic statues honoring men like Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Standing at the feet of that massive statue of Lincoln, I felt awed and humbled.  Lincoln, along with all the others enshrined on the Mall, were great men who helped form our nation and make it into the flourishing country it is today.  As a society, we have erected these statues to honor these men and to remind ourselves of their sacrifice, courage, and dignity.  Looking at these images of great men, we can clearly see the desire to honor them, to capture some of their glory and display the dignity, wisdom, and honor with which they lived their lives and led our country. If someone spray-painted crude and offensive language across that statue of Lincoln we would not just say that he was being creative and expressing himself, we would not just say he had committed vand...

  We saw in a previous post that pursuing pleasure at any cost can lead us into destruction, both physically and spiritually.  Pleasure is a dangerous thing.  But it is also a glorious thing.  God has placed the desire for pleasure in our hearts and He wants us to find it.  He is a good Father and delights when we are living a flourishing, soul-satisfying life.  He has tuned our hearts to seek pleasure. The American Founding Fathers tapped into this truth when they crafted the Declaration of Independence, they wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The Founders recognized that seeking fulfillment and satisfaction is a perfectly natural and even a good thing.   Every person who has ever lived has sought after happiness, even those who live lifestyles of extreme self-denial...