Happy Easter!

I consider Easter, not Christmas, to be the most important holiday in my calendar. My old youth pastor who inspired this shift in thinking had told me, “Yes, Christ’s birth is to be celebrated…but Christianity in its entirety not have existed without His resurrection!”

Today I would like to share with you one of my favorite Cross-themed songs: “The Power of the Cross” — written by Keith Getty and performed by Stuart Townend. I have also included the lyrics below the embedded video.

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

This, the power of the cross:
Christ became sin for us.
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Every bitter thought,
Every evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees,
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the victory cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death,
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

This, the power of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Happy Easter once again! Rejoice, for Jesus has defeated sin!

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy!

“Tolerance” — being one of today’s most popular buzzwords — is used in some of the most deeply and passionately defended beliefs in the political, religious, sociological, and philosophical arena. In our culture and society, being “tolerant” is revered as a ; it is something for which we all should strive, and those who are deemed “intolerant” are quickly shunned and ridiculed, sometimes even ostracized by the population.

Last month, I read about a book titled The Intolerance of Tolerance by Professor of New Testament and renowned Christian author D.A. Carson. And the central premise of the book is this:

In a society obsessed with tolerance, we are actually not tolerant at all.

Because in order to claim tolerance, we have had to re-define the word, and doing so has put us on a thin patch of ice.

According to Carson, the old meaning of tolerance presupposed disagreement. One person expresses a belief and another disagrees with him while still holding fast to his own. In other words, he accepts that other beliefs exist outside of his own.

Contrary to the old tolerance, today’s version of tolerance actually accepts all differing views. That is to say, we have gone from accepting the existence of other views to believing that we need to accept all differing views. And if you think about it, there is no way that we can do this without rejecting the notion of absolute truth!

To go on even further, not only does this concept open the door as widely to pedophiles as it does to philanthropists, it subtly closes the door to all of those whom it professes to be tolerating: it rejects all those who believe that there is a truth.

So what does this mean for Christians like us who believe in an absolute truth? Because the new tolerance concludes that there can be no tolerance for people who do not agree with the contemporary usage of the term, we are called intolerant. Even if we hold steadfast to the old definition of tolerance and say, “I will tolerate you even though I believe that you are wrong, sinful even,” we are in danger of being labeled intolerant and bigoted. Hence, this new tolerance is inherently intolerant.

The Intolerance of Tolerance is not a light read, to be sure. But it raises some very good points, questions, and challenges for Christians living in a secular world. Carson spends much of the book building a logical case against the new tolerance, that it is inconsistent, incoherent, and, ironically, intolerant. He also looks at tolerance from a historical standpoint and goes on to suggesting ways Christians can adopt if we wish to combat the new tolerance in a biblical manner.

In short, the Christ follower must adhere to the objective truth found in the scriptures despite living in a climate where religious relativism is the accepted norm.

On a more personal note, I used to have a friend who liked to say, “I believe myself to be a very tolerant person. But I am intolerant of intolerance.” I remember thinking to myself whenever he said that, ‘No, you’re just intolerant of anyone who disagrees with you!’ I would love to send him a copy of this book if I could track him down.

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy!

This is too good not to share: an infographic representing the books of the Bible, in the style of the periodic table of elements!

And if you want print it out, here it is with a white background, in PDF format (right/control-click to download):

This infographic comes courtesy of Challies.com, one of my favorite Christian blogs. They have recently started a series called  ”Visual Theology” which presents biblical and Christian-themed data in visual format — and this periodic table of the books of the Bible was its third installment in the series.

Be sure to check out the blog for more great articles, especially its “A La Carte” posts, which highlight headlines — both secular and religious — from around the world.

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, an article in RELEVANT Magazine titled “The Secret Sexual Revolution” ignited much talk among the Christian blogs and online magazines I read. The premise of the article is that more and more unmarried Christians are having sex — with the latest numbers citing about 80% of Christians who identify themselves as “evangelical” having had premarital sex.

Of those 80 percent of Christians in the 18-29 age range who have had sex before marriage, 64 percent have done so within the last year and 42 percent are in a current sexual relationship.

So why are the numbers so high? Why is there little to no difference in how Christ followers and non-Christ followers handle themselves when it comes to sex before marriage? Is this some sort of new sexual revolution or are we just more open about it in today’s culture?

The article goes on to theorize (emphases are my own):

The mediaʼs marketing of sex, the cultural endorsement of the “do what feels good” mentality, the prevalence of pornography and the widespread misunderstanding of sex that prompts people to chase after love and acceptance in unhealthy physical relationships are all factors that make it difficult to practice chastity. The reality is chastity is not the norm. And such a discipline is certainly not easy.

Godʼs picture of sex and marriage is certainly a beautiful one, but itʼs also … old. Biblical times were a lot different than current times. Is such a picture still relevant?

Scot McKnight, author of One.Life and professor in religious studies at North Park University in Chicago, is aware of the difficulties facing unmarried Christians and the shifts in the “reality” of living chastely.

“Sociologically speaking, the one big difference—and itʼs monstrous— between the biblical teaching and our culture is the arranged marriages of very young people. If you get married when youʼre 13, you donʼt have 15 years of temptation.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age for first marriages for both men and women has been increasing for the last 45 years. In 1965, the average man first married at age 22.8; the average woman, 20.6. In 2010, the average age was 28.1 for men and 26.1 for women.

Abstinence messages have often been geared toward teenagers, but as the average marrying age creeps closer to 30, the time period when Christians are called to be chaste can easily extend a decade beyond their high school graduation—or much longer. So what does abstinence look like as Christians “grow up” and enter the real world but are still single?

“Itʼs absolutely not realistic,” McKnight continues. “But itʼs also not realistic not to do a lot of things, and that doesnʼt mean the Bible doesnʼt tell us the ideal and design of God is to not have premarital sex.”

As young Christians mature into their 20s, itʼs natural for them to reevaluate their beliefs as they strive to figure out how faith fits into their expanding worldview. If they determine they can drink responsibly and watch movies and listen to music with a discerning spirit, is it possible the “donʼt do it because itʼs wrong” message gets tossed aside along with all those other “legalistic” messages of youth? That they start to believe they can also have sex “with discernment”?

“We have to recognize that people are not married during the years when their hormones are hardest to control,” McKnight says. “So weʼre dealing with a very serious issue that needs to be treated from a variety of angles and not simply the moral angle that itʼs wrong outside of marriage.”

McKnight also wonders if part of the problem is a devaluing of marriage. If young Christians no longer deem marriage a worthwhile endeavor—or see it as a temporary thing (proven to them by the brevity of their parentsʼ marriages and the prevalence of divorce in Western culture), then sex within marriage certainly loses some of its profundity—and sacredness.

Obviously, preaching abstinence, conducting chastity vows, and handing out promise rings among the Christian youth is simply not working.

Our first kiss as husband and wife

I do not want to be a hypocrite. Because the truth is that I have had premarital sex — I am among the 80%; I am in the majority.

But I wouldn’t be lying it I were to say that it is one of the biggest regrets of my life.

What are people like me to teach our children about premarital sex and God’s design for sex and marriage? Do I want my daughters to remain virgins until they are married? Of course I do! But looking at our culture and society, looking at the statistics above, and speaking as someone who has fallen into temptation myself, I know that realistically speaking, they will have sex before they get married. Heck, I also know that if current trends continue, they will most likely be having sex by the time they are in their early to mid-teens.

As a former youth group teacher, I have been asked this question on more than one occasion. And my answer has always been to discuss God’s design for marriage, to exalt married sex (because honestly, it really can’t seem to get any better but always does), and talk about the potential dangers of premarital sex…but at the same time, also acknowledge that it is very difficult to abstain, and that if you do decide to have sex before marriage, to please be wise about who, when, and how (and by this, I mean protection).

And if I could go back in time, I would also add that abstinence should be not taught just for the sake of it, but that it is an act of obedience — and a form of worship. I would also encourage “renewed abstinence,” that even if you have lost your virginity physically, you can still start afresh spiritually.

What are your thoughts on the high rates of premarital sex among Christians? What would you, as a Christian, tell our future generations about premarital sex?

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy!

I love my children. I am amazed whenever I gaze upon their faces. I take delight in their happiness. And as I have said in the past, becoming a mother is helping me be a better person — and bringing me closer to God.

But, as long-time readers of this blog may know, motherhood has not been easy for me. And never has the doctrine of inherent sin been more clear to me until I had babies and witnessed their little bodies and spirits already be tainted by sin.

But wait — doesn’t Jesus tell us that ”whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Luke 18:17)? Yes, and this is certainly one of the most-quoted verses of the Bible, and for good reason: we must all embrace Christ with a childlike faith. (See “Like a Child” for a succinct list of qualities of a childlike faith.) But this does not mean that all children are innocent!

We do not teach our children to throw tantrums. We do not teach our children to be selfish. We do not teach our children to hit others, throw objects, or lie (studies show that infants begin to lie as early as 6 months of age!). Yet they do these things without incitement, as if they were ingrained in them from the start.

Non-believers may call these survival instincts, or even just human nature. We call them the by-products of original sin — inherent sin. Because we ALL (even tiny babies!) are sinners and fall short the glory of God.

This may seem a bit harsh, and even discouraging. But I do not see it as so. Instead, I look at my girls — at their imperfections, their sins…and I realize the sheer amount of love that I, as a sinner, have for them and become simply OVERCOME. Because the amount of love that this sinner has for these sinners, knowing that it is IMPERFECT love, makes me grasp just how much more and how perfect God’s love must be for us.

Every day I remind myself what our pastor taught us at Claire’s baptism class: our #1 job as Christian parents should be to make sure that our children will never know a day when they did not feel loved by God. And I like to add my own reminder to this reminder, that I should strive my best to love our children the way that God loves us, and I pray that God will help me do so.