We're in an Identity Crisis

There is no doubt about it, as a society we are in an absolute identity crisis.  What is identity?  According to dictionary.com, identity is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

We can easily see how our identity is the most important thing we have.  Everything and everyone in our lives will be affected by who we believe that we are.

Please read this statement one more time- we need this truth crystal clear in our hearts and minds- everything and everyone in our lives will be affected by who we believe that we are.

I don’t follow the news.  I grew up watching the news almost every day because my dad had it on the TV in the evenings.  I feel like I actually can’t sit and watch it nowadays- I feel like my heart will literally break into a million pieces and I won’t survive taking in all of the trauma that people are experiencing.

With that being said, I do expose myself to relevant stories through podcasts and other forms of Christian media so that firstly, I can pray about what’s happening.  And secondly, so that I am not so Heavenly minded that I’m no earthly good.

I recently heard about a very large Christian organization, Cru, who has an in-house training for their staff about gender and sexuality, namely LGBTQ+.  In this internal- but now leaked into the public- document is that within the curriculum they are teaching staff about this topic from the perspective of identity.  

Again, identity is who we are.  Our identity is the core of who we are as human beings.  So, we can see why this is very serious when a large Christian organization is pushing a lying narrative about issues of our heart, body, and soul.

Preston Sprinkle, who is “an international speaker and a New York Times bestselling author, who’s written a dozen books including People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is not just an Issue. Preston currently serves as the president of The Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender, an organization that equips Christians to engage questions about faith, sexually & gender with theological faithfulness and courageous love. Preston also hosts the popular podcast “Theology in the Raw” and posts regularly on his YouTube channel “Preston Sprinkle.”” (https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/conference-speakers-page) has stated that he believes in Biblical sexuality where sexual relations are between one man and one woman in the context of marriage but also, “support profressing Christians using LGBTQ labels as long as they remain celibate”.

Friend, this is a big problem.  

I won’t say any more about Cru or Sprinkle, research can be done to find out more about what they are teaching and believing, but what I want to discuss here is the huge issue of Christians continuing to identify as gay, lesbian, or anything other than who the Bible says we are.

The issue isn’t about shaming someone with same-sex attraction or those who live a homosexual lifestyle.  However, the issue lies with teaching people that it’s totally fine to have these feelings and continue to live this way as a Christian.

The perspective these leaders are holding and teaching is that it’s really okay to identify this way as long as you aren’t acting it out in real time.

The truth is it’s not okay.  The truth is that what they’re teaching is not good news, therefore, it isn’t the gospel.  The gospel by definition is good news.

What sort of good news says that you can be saved by grace but you can’t get out of your sin- whether that’s a thought of sin in your mind or a sin you’re carrying out.

To me, that’s horrible news.  If I trust that Jesus can save me by His grace alone, then I can trust that He can free me of all sin.

Let’s go to the Word- the Word of God is our standard- we do not rely on our own ideology or opinions.  Salvation is found in Romans 10:9-10, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

Salvation is simple.  Sanctification takes time but will happen by the power of the Holy Spirit to make us totally free from the enslavement of sin and thoughts of sin.

The ideas that Cru is teaching and sadly, many other evangelicals, really comes down to this, that our desires are not innately sinful.  If that’s true, then it bumps scripture.  

In Romans 1, Paul is writing about how people knew God well but they didn’t treat Him like God.  An excerpt of what Paul says in verses 18-23 is this, “So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat Him like God, refusing to worship Him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in His hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.”  

We are reading the very thoughts of the people in these verses and those thoughts were sinful.  Other translations of the Bible say, “dishonorable passions”, which means the passion in and of itself is dishonorable to God.

In verses 26-27 Paul goes on to explain what happened when they acted on those sinful thoughts, “Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.”

When we identify ourselves with our sinful thoughts, what we’re really saying is that Jesus didn’t do enough on the cross to totally save us from all of that junk.  What a horrible thing to say, right?  But that is really what we’re doing.

Total transparency as an example to show you what I mean… I am a happily married woman.  I love the man I’m married to and I am in love with him.  I do have eyes that see and I am capable of recognizing attractiveness in another man.  The initial thought of their attractiveness can (and has) spiraled into thoughts of lust.

I came to terms with the real, Biblical truth of those thoughts which is, just because I didn’t commit adultery in action doesn't mean I didn’t commit it in my heart.  Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:27-28 say, “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those ogling looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.”

I had to repent of those thoughts because according to Jesus, they were sinful.  

Does this now mean that I identify as Cara Gibson, a Christian and an adultress-of-the-heart?  Absolutely not.  I no more identify as an adultress than a Christian who finds themselves attracted to the same sex should identify as gay or lesbian.

All we need to do here is recognize that it’s sin and confess it to the Lord.  We need to stop trying to find ways to get around what Jesus so clearly and simply stated in the Bible.

This is something we have to do on a daily basis, my friend.  This is why the Bible is so clear about renewing our minds with His Word.  Romans 12:1-2 says, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

We absolutely do not have to stay stuck in sin, and most definitely do not have to identify ourselves in alignment with the thoughts the Enemy brings to us.

This is the good news of the gospel!  We can live purely and holy before God and men as we continue to pursue Jesus and allow His truth to work in every single part of us, body, soul, and spirit.

Here is a scripture to stand on to know who you really are as you find your identity in none other than Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:4-6, “How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”