Click here to read the full article at RENEW.org: https://renew.org/is-masturbation-a-sin/ 

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“Of all the moral issues which face the community of Christian believers, there are few issues that Christians feel more uncomfortable discussing than the issue of masturbation.”[1]

Masturbation is a subject on which there is a wide variety of opinion, not only in society at large, but also within the evangelical world. There is disagreement as to whether this practice is right or wrong. Some hold to the concept that it is always sinful. Others that it is never sinful. There are also those trying to find a middle ground who claim that it may be sinful under certain conditions, but is not sinful under other conditions.

Because there is no agreement on the subject in the Christian literature, this article will not attempt to take one position over the other, but simply attempt to summarize the historical viewpoints and the various reasons and arguments for each position. The reader is encouraged to make his/her own conclusions.

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How would you answer the question, “Why does something exist rather than nothing?”

Here’s the answer we’ll explore:

Now, let’s walk through this answer . . .

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Click here to read the full article at RENEW.org: https://renew.org/healthy-church-messy-church/ 

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Spend more than a few weeks in the heart of a church and you discover that church is messy.

I can see it in the face of first-timers, that look of, “Wow, this is what we’ve been looking for!” You know, that euphoric, honeymoon, shiny-new-car feeling. “We finally found a clean, tidied-up, everyone-loves-each-other, there-are-no-problems church.”

Then two months later, their faces look different. The shine has worn off. The realization came: “This is a messy church.”

But even Paul had to deal with messy churches. No church is perfect, and if it’s growing and the Spirit is working, it’s messy.

Here are three reasons why church gets messy, and why that’s a good thing.

As a matter of fact, the church is messy, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If I were to act like our church were not messy, I would be lying, because I am in it! I might be the messiest person in our church!

I resonate with the apostle Paul when he said:

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:15, NIV)

The messiness of the church has allowed me to fit right in.

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One of the many distinctives of churches in the RENEW.org Network is that our congregations are elder-guided (along with holding high views of Scripture, baptism, weekly communion, etc.). Being elder-guided follows the biblical model for the faithful organization and leadership of the local church.

Here are ten questions on elders that we hope you will find helpful in your quest to understand and follow what the Bible teaches.

In Scripture, elders serve as the primary spiritual leaders of the local church, tasked with shepherding God’s flock by feeding, guiding, protecting, and caring for the congregation (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2–3). Their responsibilities include overseeing the church’s affairs, guiding the people well, teaching and preaching sound doctrine, refuting false teachers, serving as godly examples to the flock, and praying for the sick (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:9; 1 Timothy 5:17; James 5:14). Ultimately, they exercise oversight under Christ, the Chief Shepherd of the church, as they equip and build up the body of Christ.

Acts 20:28 describes the role of elders succinctly:

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28, NIV)

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The word “deacon” (diakonos in Greek) is a broad word which means “servant” or “minister” or “administrator.” Deacons typically are appointed by the church to be in charge of programs and ministries.

In Acts 6:1-7, we seem to be given background for the type of ministry deacons provide. In this period, the early church in Jerusalem had a large number of widows who were being helped with the distribution of food through the church. The apostles in Jerusalem were trying to do this work, which, coupled with their other responsibilities, was too much. The Grecian widows, who were not originally from that area, were being neglected and many in the community were upset.

The apostles met with the church and asked the church to appoint seven men, “known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.” The apostles wanted this administrative help because they needed to focus upon “prayer” and the “ministry of the word,” rather than passing out food. So the church recommended seven men, who were then appointed to “serve” (using a verb form of the Greek word for “deacon,” although they are not specifically called “deacons”)— to take care of the distribution of food and make sure no widows were being overlooked. The apostles prayed for these men and appointed them through the laying on of hands. From that point on, these men took responsibility for this particular ministry, which seems to serve as the background for the deacon position described throughout the New Testament epistles.

There is an important summary statement in Acts following this story. After this effective delegation of responsibility and priorities, Acts 6:7 (NIV) shows how the church had significant impact on the community: “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests [Jewish] became obedient to the faith.”

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Why does “do not covet” make it into the Ten Commandments? To covet is to strongly desire what someone else has. What’s an internal compulsion to want someone else’s stuff doing in a lineup with murder, theft, and perjury?

Did God get to nine and need to bring in a lesser sin to get to an even ten?

Synonyms of coveting include jealousy and envy. What are such lightweight sins doing in a list with orgies and fits of rage?

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21, NIV)

You might go back and reread the last sentence of that quote. Paul literally says that unrepentant lifestyles of jealousy and envy will keep us outside of God’s kingdom. What are nice sins like jealousy and envy doing in such a seedy list?

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“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exilesdispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” (1 Peter 1:1–2, CSB)

There is something that happens at my house I wonder if you can relate to. When we get back from grocery shopping, we will unload the groceries where they need to go, and then my wife will point at something in the fridge (usually something like bacon, or some other meat product that goes well with breakfast) and say, “Please don’t use this; it is for one of the meals I have planned for this week.” This is a routine we have developed because when we first got married, we would put groceries away, and I would cheerily use items in the fridge that I didn’t know were already marked for a specific purpose.

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I have an engineer friend whose art teacher noticed something peculiar about him in elementary school. When asked to draw a picture of their house, every student drew the front of the house as if looking at it from the street. Except for him—he drew an aerial, blueprint view, mapping out each room as if looking at it from above with no roof.

Different, huh? But also kind of genius.

I wonder if we ought to consider a similar approach when multi-layered tragedies unfold before us on the news.

Take Minnesota’s Twin Cities in recent days. An influx of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) agents to carry out deportations in St. Paul and Minneapolis. A church service disrupted because of a pastor’s connections with ICE. A woman protestor and a man protestor shot and killed. A photo of agents detaining a five-year-old boy with a blue bunny hat.

If you’ve read this far, you might be wishing I’d said more in the last paragraph. The five-year-old’s dad had bolted; you’re suggesting they leave an abandoned kid? Or, You should clarify that the deportations are targeting good neighbors, not just violent criminals. Or, You ought to have mentioned that Renee Good and Alex Pretti would still be alive if local law enforcement wouldn’t let Antifa exacerbate the situation. Or, You should have noted that Pretti never pulled his weapon.

And yes, there’s even more to say. And facts 100% matter. But in our rush to guard the narrative from being coopted by the other political side, we often skip a crucial, Christian step. Skipping this step can mean leaving friendships behind in the social media mayhem. Skipping this step makes us screechy and tone deaf.

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I begin every semester of teaching my undergraduate apologetics class with a unit on “meta apologetics.” That’s a fancy-sounding phrase, but it simply refers to the study of the nature of apologetics. In other words, before launching into apologetic answers and arguments, time needs to be given to careful reflection on the nature of apologetics itself.

In this unit, we discuss topics like the biblical justification for apologetics, the history of apologetics, the relationship between apologetics and other disciplines like theology, and the underlying assumptions of apologetics. I also introduce students to various strategies and approaches to apologetics including evidential, presuppositional, and existential apologetics.

The point that I always make when discussing these different approaches is that strategy is always dependent on context.

Apologetics done well and effectively must be deeply contextual. It requires that we actively listen to the questions and concerns of the skeptic before offering a response. Further, it requires that we are sensitive to the cultural context in which the skeptic lives. The aspiring apologist who has read a handful of books or watched a few YouTube videos can produce some fine-sounding arguments, but if she hasn’t taken the time to understand the context in which the defense of the gospel is taking place, all her arguments will land with the effectiveness of dissonant gibberish.

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Many people associate the story of Jonah with a giant fish. If you look at most children’s Bibles, the fish fiasco seems to be the main point of the story. This is what Tim Mackie calls “The Veggie Tales Factor.”

While I’d love to dive into Jonah’s flight from God, his pseudo-heartfelt prayer in the belly, or his anger at God’s divine mercy, I want to look at one surprising word in the story.

“And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17, ESV)

I’ve been sitting with the story of Jonah for over two months now, as well as working my way through the Bible Project’s class on Jonah. A few times in the class, Tim Mackie has suggested spending an afternoon with a cup of tea and a concordance. So I took him up on the idea, but substituted the tea for coffee. For some reason, I got curious about one word. So I started tracing every use of the word swallow in Scripture.

Exploring the original Hebrew or Greek can uncover deeper nuances that enhance our understanding of the biblical text beyond what’s conveyed in English.

At first glance, this might not seem like one of those deeper words. But there’s more going on beneath the surface.

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