April 12, 2013 - The Geneva School

living in and I affirm your adultery” . . . or “love and compassiontrump the wrongness of your adultery.” Rather Jesusconfronted her sin, forgave her, and implored her to “go nowand leave your life of sin.” 1Another writer, Kevin DeYoung, summarizes that our culturehas been won over on this issue bythe concepts of progress, love, rights,equality, and tolerance. What Christiancan be against these wonderfulqualities? 2In light of all this I encourage you (andof course our students) to remembertwo things. First, the Good News of JesusChrist assumes the fundamentallybad news that we (especially Americans)tend to forget: we are all—everyhuman being—much more profoundlybroken people than we care to admit.We are all in need of the savinggrace of Christ. We seek not to live like Pharisees bound byrules and law that lack graciousness and tolerance. But neithershould we fall into the mentality of our day that approvesof things that God clearly condemns. We should, in accordwith historic faith, boldly declare that we are sinners saved bygrace and seek to live humbly, not self-righteously, in accordwith all that God has said. And we are well reminded that thelist of sins condemned by the New Testament includes (in thesame lists) not only homosexual behavior but also greed, envy,gossip, lying, drunkenness, and more (see for example, Gal.5:19–21; 1 Cor. 6: 9–10; and 1 Tim. 1: 8–11).And second, we need to encourage each other and our students,by the grace of God, according to Paul’s prayer for the Philippianbelievers: “it is my prayer that your love may abound moreand more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that youmay approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless forthe day of Christ” (Phil. 1:9). Excellence, purity, and blamelessnesssound a lot like “goodness, truth, and beauty.”We are all in need of the savinggrace of Christ. We seek notto live like Pharisees boundby rules and law that lackgraciousness and tolerance.But neither should we fall intothe mentality of our day thatapproves of things that Godclearly condemns.Only genuine love for God will spare us from the loves ofthe world (1 John 2:15–17). As parents, we are called bothto shield our children from and also to train them to resistthe world’s strongest fallen urges and passions, those whichour culture too often calls us to tolerate, accept, endorse, andeven practice. We must seek to bringour students into being bright youngpeople who love good, true, and beautifulthings, so that they might “shineas lights in the world” (Phil 2:15). Ihave counseled some of our recentgraduates, who are pressured daily ontheir college campuses to accept andendorse the current drift toward samesextolerance to reply respectfully likethis: “I understand that there has beena strong cultural shift in the last 40–50years toward normalizing and acceptingsame-sex relationships. With alldue respect and humility, I choose toabide with the truth that has guided the Judeo-Christian traditionfor the last three thousand years.” I have been castigatedby young people in Facebook conversations for such a stance.Dismissively, some have said, “You are old, and your old ideas,like slavery, will die with you.” But I gently respond that truthwill still be true whether I live or die.This is THE issue our young people will face in their generation.May God give us the grace to understand this task andto stand against the strong currents which seek to sweep ourchildren away into cultural confusion.1. Mueller’s recent blog post on this issue is worth readingat: http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/2013/03/rob-bellhomosexual-marriageand-our.html.2. DeYoung’s article, also worth reading, answers this well:http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2013/03/27/why-the-arguments-for-gay-marriage-are-persuasive/.On March 14, Geneva’s National Honor Society sponsored aJeans Day. They were able to raise over $1,500 in donationswhile student’s enjoyed a comfortable no-uniform day wearingtheir jeans. Of the money raised, $500 will be used to coverNHS expenses (including member fees and the annual inductionceremony) and $1,000 was donated to a local coalition that supportshomeless families in the Orlando area. The Coalition for theHomeless provides meals, shelter, day care, and transitional resourcesto local homeless families as they move toward employment.Geneva’s NHS was honored to provide a significant donation to thiswonderful organization and wants to thank the Geneva communityfor their overwhelming generosity.Page 27