Missionary Dating—Looking Back into the Present (Part 1)

Most teenagers, it seems, struggle with dating an unbeliever, at some point or another in either high school or college. We are told from a young age that are we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, but this does not eliminate the emotions that go through our bodies when our hands touch or our eyes lock. Who can resist those feelings? We were designed by God with those feelings and often those emotional impulses quickly persuade us that maybe God’s word is not as clear or even important in this area than we were taught.

In the paragraphs that follow I hope to outline the biblical command not to be unequally yoked. Then seek to help teenagers and young adults see that in order to truly find the marriage and love they really desire they must establish patterns in dating lives now. In a sense, they must have their eyes unswervingly fixed on the future and through that lens, look back into the present.

Let's deal with the biblical command to not be unequally yoked found in 2 Corinthians 6:14. 2 Corinthians is a joyful letter to the church at Corinth for their repentance from sin and the strong rebuke of Paul in 1 Corinthians. However, Paul also appeals to the people of Corinth not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Why, do we suppose Paul, in such a joyful letter throws in such a statement as this?

By reading 1 Corinthians we can see where the people of Corinth have come from. Corinth was a wicked city in which at one time had more than 1000 cult prostitutes where men would come to worship idols and even God by sleeping with a prostitute. The sin that was so prevalent and open in the city was great and for the church of Corinth to continue to align themselves with unbelievers would certainly lead the people back into grave sin and idolatry.

So Paul urges the people not to connect themselves with the unbelievers around them in hopes that the people would continue to serve the Lord and stay clear of sin. The Old Testament book of Judges clearly shows us the result of binding ourselves with unbelievers. When the Israelite people started to intermarry the people of the surrounding lands their hearts and lives were quickly drawn away from the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt and into the promise land. Instead, the Israelites started to adopt the gods of the other nations as their own which would eventually lead to their downfall.

Teenagers and young adults, ask yourself the questions that Paul asks in 2 Corinthians 3:14-16, “…what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness…or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever…” The answers you will find are very clear, we as believers and the unbelieving world around us have two very different and competing goals. The goal of a Christian is to glorify God and find our joy in exalting Christ, the goal of an unbeliever is to glorify themselves and find joy in exalting themselves.

These two goals are competing and waging war against each other in the world around us. One seeks to exalt Christ, the other seeks to exalt man, and in a dating and marriage relationship the war that rages on between these two competing worldviews intensifies greatly. Paul is pleading with the people, and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, giving us a command from God to avoid trying to mesh these two worldviews together, because they don’t fit together. One seeks to eliminate Christ and the other longs for the enhancing and exaltation of Christ to the nations. One seeks to glorify the greatness of mankind while the other seeks to be humbled by our sin so as to see our need for Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, His burial and His Resurrection. One seeks eternal life without God and the other seeks eternal life worshipping Christ high and exalted forever and ever.

Young people and singles of all ages, let’s strive to see the importance of such a command in scripture, as not being unequally yoked. The war between the believing world and the unbelieving world rages on and we must be diligent not to get caught in the middle ignoring the clear teachings of scripture to justify our own desires. This is very dangerous ground to be treading on, ground that tends to be uneasy and slippery. For just as the Israelites, in the book of Judges, were influenced by their unbelieving spouses in ways that led them to idolatry, we too will be influenced by the unbelievers we are in a relationship with. This worldly and sinful influence will lead us into great sin, and the exaltation of ourselves and our needs and I fear ultimately the rejection of Almighty God.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this article!

The Downward Spiral of Sin and the Hope of the Cross - An Introduction to the Book of Judges

If we have not heard it, we have at least said it to ourselves: “It’s just a little sin, it’s not hurting anybody." This is the mindset of a scary number of Christians today. We somehow believe that we can make a distinction between great sins and little white sin. Yes, I will agree that the consequences for some sin are greater than others. However, let’s not forget that great acts of sin are the result of little sin that have been allowed to stick around in our lives and fester until they give way into devastating moral collapses. In the weeks ahead, I will do my best to work through this dark book with the light and glory of Jesus Christ guiding our every step.

The people of Israel have just come into the promise land. After 40 years of wandering in the desert eating manna and quail, the Lord has filled His promise and brought the people into a land flowing with milk and honey. They are now to carry out the command that the Lord has given to them in the law.

One of the first commands that they are to carry out is to completely destroy the people of the land (Deuteronomy 7:2). They are to destroy them because these nations have rejected the Lord and serve other gods. However, Judges shows us that the people of Israel fail to complete this command (Judges 1:27-36). This sin quickly moves into the forsaking of the second command not to intermarry with other nations (Deuteronomy 7:3). Because the people of Israel did not destroy the people in the land, they give into marrying the people of these nations (Judges 3:6), who served other gods. These marriages eventually lead Israel to do exactly what the law said they would do, forsake the Lord and worship other gods (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). So Israel collapsed into great moral failure and worshiped the gods of the nations whom they did not destroy (Judges 2:11-13).

This is exactly how sin works in our day and age. We give sin a small, and what seems like a harmless, foothold, and it leads us down a path to destruction. We become so convinced, by Satan and the spiritual warfare going on around us, that our little sin will not effect anyone. Eventually that little sin leads to greater sin and ultimately moral collapses in our lives. Look at plague of pornography on our culture, for example. What we do in our personal homes behind closed doors in the dark, seeps out into how we think and what we think about the opposite sex. This leads us to believe we are missing something in our marriages or by waiting for marriage and leads us to look for sexual fulfillment outside the bonds of marriage. What started in private, now has the ability to rip lives and homes apart and is doing so in our culture.

So what do we need to do? We need to constantly be reminded and think of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins, His burial and His resurrection from the dead. If we look at Judges 2:10 we see that a generation had grown up who did not know the work the Lord had done for Israel. Their mind or eyes were not fixed on the Lord and therefore sin continued to reign in their lives leading them further and further from the Lord. Therefore, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and see the work He has done on the cross for our sins. The saving power of Jesus by His sacrificial death, burial and resurrection has the power to help us overcome sin and lead us to repentance and holiness.

A person truly marked with salvation, by grace alone through faith in Christ alone, will not be content in giving sin a foothold in their lives. They will despise the sin that seeks to reign in their lives and push them to idolatry. They will look to Christ for forgiveness and seek to repent of and turn away from any and all sin in their lives no matter how insignificant that sin may seem to be. And they will be marked with the holiness of Jesus Christ and will find hope, peace and eternal life.

So I leave us to ponder these questions:

Do I have sin in my life that I must repent of and turn away from?

Have I truly experienced the mercy and grace of God in salvation, by looking to the death of Christ for my sins, His burial and resurrection and given my life completely and totally to him in all areas?

A Call for Man-Fishing by Pastor Charles Blake

The following is an article written by Pastor Charles Blake for our church newsletter.

Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19*).

In the goodness and mercy of God, we have been called to the glorious task of evangelism. Of course these days there is a lot of confusion about evangelism. In an effort to clarify the issues, let me ask and answer a number of questions.

What is evangelism? The root of the word is evangel – which is a Greek word brought into English. The evangel is the good news. Specifically it is the good news about Jesus Christ.

We engage in evangelism whenever we tell others about Jesus and call them to faith and repentance. Evangelism may be done by individual Christians. Or, it may be done in a corporate setting like the church’s worship or other special gatherings set up specifically to tell others the good news.

Why should we evangelize? Jesus commands us “to go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Paul declares we are ambassadors of Christ. Therefore, it is “as though God were making an appeal through us” and so we beg people “on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). We tell people about Jesus because we must. As Paul said, “I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).

What is the goal of evangelism? We could answer this question from two different perspectives, which are not mutually exclusive. In one sense, there is a God-ward goal. That is, we seek to tell others about Jesus because that story brings glory to God. Telling people what God has done in Christ is one way of exalting Jesus. In another sense, there is the man-ward goal. Here, the goal is the salvation of the man or woman to whom we speak. Our longing is to see sinful men and women repent of their sins and profess faith in Jesus.

Why is evangelism necessary? It is necessary because people are lost and headed to hell. Mankind is born “dead in [their] sins and trespasses” (Ephesians 2:1). By nature, we are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). The natural man is facing an eternity in hell under the wrath of God. That is bad enough. But there is more. For the Bible teaches unless a person hears the good news of Jesus, he/she will never heed the good news. Paul writes, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14).

How do we evangelize? First, we are living witnesses. Our presence in the earth is a testimony to God. In other words, there is a truth to lifestyle evangelism. In the ancient world, markers were left in a land to claim that land for a distant king. In a real sense, we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and left in this land to bear a testimony to God; we are His markers. That testimony is borne in all aspects of our lives. This is part of why Paul instructs us saying, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). The way you eat, the way you drive, the way you wait in line, the way you do your work, the way you dress – all of these things are saying something about God.

More technically, we evangelize verbally. Our faith is a word-based faith. There is a spoken message. This message is shared when we tell others about the horror of sin and its consequences and the good news of the incarnation of the God-man, Jesus Christ – of His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.

There is also a corporate side to evangelism as well. When we set aside one day in seven to remember what God has done for us in Christ Jesus we are giving a testimony to the world around us. When we gather for worship each Lord’s Day – rain or shine, holiday or any day – we are giving a testimony to the world around us. And when we sing about Jesus together, we are engaging in a verbal declaration of the evangel. When we give attention to the Word of God being preached in our hearing we are interacting with the evangel.

Where shall we evangelize? Everywhere. We should evangelize in the pulpit. Thus, each week, I seek clearly to set forth the bad news and the good news and to call men, women, and children to faith and repentance. We should evangelize in the home – our children and our spouses and our grandchildren and our friends whom we invite in need to hear about Jesus. We should evangelize at work and at school. We should evangelize on the street and in our neighborhoods. We should evangelize all around the world.

Who should we evangelize? Everyone. Every man, woman, and child needs to hear about Jesus and be called to faith and repentance. On the authority of the Word of God, we must say, if you will call upon the name of the Lord you will be saved (see Romans 10:13). But alas, periodically I hear people say, if you believe certain doctrines – like the sovereignty of God in salvation, then you must not believe in evangelism. I do not see how these two glorious truths exclude one another. Does God know who will be saved? Yes. Do I? No. What am I to do? I am to tell everyone who will listen that if they will look to Jesus in faith, they will be saved.

When should we evangelize? Today. For the Bible says, “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Today is the day to tell others about Jesus and to call them to faith in Him and repentance towards God.

*All Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible.