Some believers have panned Prejean because of her participation in a beauty pageant that requires that she parade around before the world in revealing clothing. I understand there point, but am still proud of the stand she's taking against same-sex "marriage" in D.C. as reported in this article from the NY Daily News...The battle over the beauty queen is getting uglier. Miss California USA Carrie Prejean announced Thursday she will star in an anti-gay marriage ad sponsored by the controversial National Organization for Marriage. "I was attacked for giving my own opinion on stage at a Miss USA contest, and I'm going to do whatever it takes, Matt, to protect marriage," Prejean, 21, told NBC "Today" show host Matt Lauer. "The National Organization for Marriage basically just respects, um, you know, marriages and people who support it," she said. "That's what I'm here to do today, protect traditional marriage." Pageant officials called Prejean a disappointing opportunist. "In the entire history of the Miss USA, no reigning title holder has so readily committed her face and voice to a more divisive or polarizing issue," organizers said in a statement. "We are deeply saddened Carrie Prejean has forgotten her platform of the Special Olympics, her commitment to all Californians, and solidified her legacy as one that goes beyond the right to voice her beliefs and instead reveals her opportunistic agenda." Prejean became a YouTube sensation after she answered a question on gay marriage posed by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton at the April 19 Miss USA pageant. "I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman," she said. Hilton, who is openly gay, excoriated her on his popular blog, calling her a "dumb b----." Prejean later said she thought she had lost the contest because of her stance. The National Organization for Marriage was quick to defend Prejean. "The statement by the Miss California USA Pageant is another example of the disrespectful way the pageant has treated Carrie Prejean," Maggie Gallagher, president of NOM, said in a statement. "Carrie Prejean does not have an opportunistic agenda. She's a young woman of courage who chose truth over the Miss USA tiara. Many people are revealing their core character and convictions in a very public way in this incident," Gallagher said. "Carrie Prejean is one who comes out shining. I'm proud of her. Americans are proud of her. God bless her." BY Nancy DillonDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
So how do we escape from the complaint-trap of the devil? We need a strategy, a plan of godly action that, with God’s power, will lead to gripe-free living. If we don’t do something, sin will trip us up over and over and over again. This is true of all sin. It’s true of complaining. If we don’t actively pursue quitting, we will never stop complaining.
So here we go.
First things first: daily turn your complaining problem over to God. You can’t conquer complaining in our own power. You are powerless before this mighty foe. So turn it over to God first thing every morning. When you pray, God will hear you and he will help.
Next step: cry out to God whenever the temptation to blurt out a negative comment comes. Ask him for power over your tongue throughout each day. It will be his pleasure to give it. He loves producing self-control in his children. Every humble believer is given grace for the moment when the urge to sin is greatest.
After you’ve turned your struggle to overcome complaining over to God and you’re regularly crying out to him in times of testing, you can enlist further help. Do you have a friend you associate with on a regular basis with whom you could make a pact to hold each other accountable in the area of complaining? Could you give another believer permission to correct you when they hear you whining? There is strength in numbers when it comes to overcoming sin, so join a fellow complainer in seeking to become complaint-free. Find someone at church or at work or in your family who can ask the hard questions with grace when you fail and encourage you in the Lord when you succeed.
While we’re talking about our fellow human beings, let me encourage you as you’re beginning your fight against critical talk to avoid complainers. “Do not be misled,” Paul warns believers in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good character.” (NIV)
Hang around complainers and you’ll become a complainer. Complaining is contagious. You hear a complaint and soon you’re complaining. Another hears your complaint and they chime in. Soon the whole break room is abuzz with negativity. It happens.
So don’t hang around complainers. You’ll be tempted to join in. You’ll be defeated. You’ll sin. So avoid bad company. Do so especially in the early days of your struggle against this oh-so-present sin.
Finally, I want to suggest that you develop the twin habits of encouragement and thanksgiving.
We’re all in this together. We’re all in a fight against sin. We all win some battles. We all lose others. We need encouragement. So rather than complain about a person, speak well of them to others, talk about the good in them. Better yet, encourage the person you were planning to whine about. Thank them for the good they’ve done for you or others.
Let Ephesians 4:29 be your new life verse: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (NIV)
And concerning your difficult circumstances: thank God for the good he’s doing through them. Romans 8:28 is sometimes used as a “suck it up and be a man” rebuke, but it isn’t intended to be that. It’s intended to stir up thanksgiving to God in the midst of trying times. “And we know,” Paul writes, “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV)
God is at work in your life. He is bringing you through times of suffering and pain and difficulty so that your character will be refined. He is training you to be the helper to others that he knows he’ll need in the near future. Talk to God about your problems, your difficulties, your troubles without complaining. Then thank him. Thank him for his presence. Thank him for his provision. Thank him for his protection. Thank him for his goodness in the middle of the mess that tempts you to complain.
Ready to live complaint-free? I am. I’m going after God’s help on this one. I intend to be an encourager. I commit myself to thankfulness. What about you? Will you do whatever it takes to stop complaining? Will you be an encourager? Will you give thanks?
I’m encouraged when I think of what the church will be like when every believer is praising God rather than pouting.
Let’s pray to that end.To receive my once or twice weekly message via email, send a blank email to webmessage-subscribe@associate.com. Past messages are available at freegroups.net/groups/webmessage.
“Leave your life of complaining.”
That’s what we’re going to spend a bit of time exploring. How we can escape from this trap of the devil. Where we can go for strength to overcome this sin. Who we can turn to for victory over complaining.
The strength and victory parts of our exploration are fairly simple. We go to God for strength to overcome the sin of complaining just the same as any other sin. He gives us the victory. God, by his Holy Spirit within you, within me, makes it possible for us to live a complaint-free life.
Do you believe that? Before you answer that, let me ask you a few related questions. Is it possible, by God’s power within you, to live an adultery-free life? Can a believer, with God’s help, live a murder-free life? What about theft-free or idolatry-free?
Those things are possible once you’ve believed on Jesus and given your life to him, aren’t they? If you have been able to live free of any sin since you put your trust in Jesus, you are able to live free of complaining.
Let me put it another way. If God is able to deliver you and I from the grip of “major” sins, but unable to rescue from small evils, is he truly all powerful? No. So if God is all powerful – and he is – he must be able to give me victory over complaining. He must be able to help you stop whining. He must or he is not all powerful. Make sense?
Does this mean we all will live complaint-free? No. We won’t because, rather than submit ourselves to God, rather than ask for help, we’ll go it alone. We’ll try to quit griping, but we’ll fall back into the whiny trap. We’ll fail because, quite frankly, we’re too weak to stifle the strong, strong, strong inner compulsion to grumble. The spirit may be willing, but your flesh is weak.
I have no doubt that every one of you mean well. I truly believe that you don’t want to complain, that you don’t intend to be critical. You are good-hearted people, but you fall short of God’s standard and grouse about this and that and the other thing. I do too!
Every believer who tries in their own strength to quit mumbling about their circumstances or about the stupid idiots that surround them will fail.
The good you want to do – not complaining – will not be what you do. No! The evil you hate – complaining – you will do. Who will rescue you from this craziness? Who will set me free? Thanks be to God, we have victory in Jesus Christ our Lord. Praise be to the Father who gives his Holy Spirit who in turn gives us the power to say no to ungodly grumbling.
The Holy Spirit will produce his fruit in our lives. What is that fruit? In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (NIV)
These are the things that God produces in us when we live in him and for him. Can you see how these things can combat our tendency to voice our complaints? Would we be able to gripe about others if we truly loved them? Can we be patient with our friends and still complain about them? If we are full of God’s kindness, can we speak out of a critical spirit? No! If the Spirit of God lives in us and we are living in him, complaining cannot come from our lips.
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:11-14, NIV)
Are you eager to do what is good? I am! We are God’s people. He is purifying us. He has given us the power to say no to ungodly complaining. It’s only when we say “thanks, but no thanks” to God’s help that we are defeated. It’s only on our own that we can weep and wail and whine. Our victory is in Jesus Christ alone!To receive my once or twice weekly message via email, send a blank email to webmessage-subscribe@associate.com. Past messages are available at freegroups.net/groups/webmessage.
At the end of the graphic video that runs automatically when you log on to www.abortionno.org is this simple message: "Don't hate the messenger...hate the injustice." The site, the online home of The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, seeks to educate the public about abortion's true victims through video and photos of abortions in progress and the remains of dismembered aborted babies. Delicate little hands and feet and arms and legs and faces are shown clearly next to dimes which give size perspective. The CBR's hope is that the reality of these photos and video images will wake people up to the atrocities being systematically carried out against the unborn. This genocide is the worst in history. It's time to stop it!WARNING: The website linked to above displays graphic images of babies killed by abortion and of abortions in progress.
In the Old Testament, there’s a story about complaining that shows the seriousness of this offense against God. The tale is told in the first three verses of Numbers 11. It is a short story – not a lot of detail – but it packs a punch. You won’t believe the consequences the Lord metes out on the whiners in Israel’s wilderness camp. They’ll seem harsh – insanely severe. But who are you, who am I to question God? Our Maker knows the heart of every complainer and judges each one rightly. He is perfectly just. His punishments always fit the crime. They are never cruel or unusual. Never!
So here’s the story.
“Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died down. So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the LORD had burned among them.” (Numbers 11:1-3, NIV)
I told you the consequences were grave! Fire from the Lord consumed, burned up, toasted the complainers. Fire from the Lord! I thought that his fire was reserved for really bad people – people who do nasty stuff, stuff I would never do, stuff you wouldn’t do. But no! God’s fire isn’t just for the sexually immoral or murderers or false prophets. His wrath is poured out on complainers too.
Bummer. I cannot escape God’s judgment. I am a sinful complainer. I deserve death. My only hope – your only hope – is the grace of God.
Moses prayed to God and he had compassion on the people. The fire died down. The majority of the complainers was spared.
God is holy, but he is full of grace too. The name he proclaimed to Moses years before this gave testimony to that fact. Our God’s name is “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Immediately after proclaiming this name, God spoke these words concerning his actions: “Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…” (Exodus 34:6-7b, NIV)
Who God is has not changed? He is a gracious and loving God. He is slow to anger. He forgives. But he does not leave the guilty unpunished. Today, we must pray to God for mercy just as Moses did. Our God’s grace is sufficient. He will take away the guilt and condemnation of all our sin – even our awful griping – when we cry out to him. That’s good news!
“If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NIV)
When we admit our wrongheaded grumbling, it’s forgiven and Jesus says to us, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11b, NIV)To receive my once or twice weekly message via email, send a blank email to webmessage-subscribe@associate.com. Past messages are available at freegroups.net/groups/webmessage.
By the time a story like Miss California’s has been covered on blogs and in tweets for three days, it seems like old news. On Tuesday, the editors at Her.meneutics discussed how to cover 21-year-old Carrie Prejean’s answer to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton’s question about same-sex marriage in the Miss USA pageant Sunday. At first the story seemed to offer too much hype and not enough meat. But of course, the mere fact that Prejean’s answer — which more or less conveyed what many U.S. citizens still believe about marriage and family — got so much attention is the story.
When Hilton, who is gay, asked the politically charged question, “Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or not?” Prejean answered, “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite [marriage]. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.”
After Hilton went on a slandering blogging and Twitter rant, and Prejean told several media sources that her answer had cost her the crown, many Christian media lionized Prejean for standing up for biblical convictions in the face of public scrutiny. The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins released a statement Wednesday saying, “Put simply, Miss Prejean is right: Marriage can only occur between one man and one woman. Mr. Hilton absurdly wants to translate his opposition to this truth into a standard for beauty pageants.” Gary Bauer, president of American Values, apparently sent an e-mail blast Monday saying, “The backlash to Prejean's commonsense comments demonstrates the naked intolerance of the militant homosexual movement . . . And if it gets its way in Congress, comments like [hers] may someday be considered a ‘hate crime.’ ” Even State Rep. Jay Love, R-Montgomery, a Christian, has drafted a resolution supporting Prejean. It states, “Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the Legislature of Alabama that Carrie Prejean . . . is honored for affirming her faith and standing true to her beliefs . . .”What has surprised me about the Christian media's response is a seemingly inconsistent sexual ethic at play: Celebrating Prejean as the lone voice for biblical convictions in a public square where it’s now bigoted to oppose same-sex marriage, while never questioning if a Christian woman like Prejean should be participating in the Miss USA pageant in the first place. It doesn’t take much time on the official Miss USA website to see how much the competition is shaped by prurient interests. Unlike the rival Miss America competition, Miss USA doesn’t feature a talent category, where contestants play the piano, sing, or orate. No, the Donald Trump–owned Miss USA pageant only features evening gown, interview, and the ever-popular swimsuit category, in which contestants are judged on how “well-proportioned” their bodies are (i.e., bust and waist size) and how well they can strut in high heels on national television. Maybe some Christian women feel like the ministry opportunities that could come from winning far outweigh the troubling sexual implications of the swimsuit category. Maybe I’m naïve — maybe some Christians don’t see anything particularly troubling about a swimsuit competition. But I’m hard pressed to reconcile a swimsuit competition with Scripture’s wisdom about real self-worth and female beauty (Prov. 31:10–31, 1 Sam. 16:7, 1 Pet. 3:3, to name a few).Therein lies the troubling inconsistency: Conservative Christians are willing to speak up about biblical sexual ethics in the public square when the issue is same-sex marriage, but are neglectfully silent when the issue is objectifying women’s bodies to spike TV ratings. Would Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer really have no problem with their daughter or granddaughter competing in the Miss USA pageant?In an interview with the SBC-affiliated San Diego Christian College, where she attends, Prejean talks about the wonderful things she is already doing for Christ: serving women in the adult entertainment industry, volunteering at the local International Ministry Center to help refugees learn English, and working with a mentoring program to foster-care children. She says, “I especially have a heart for helping young girls with low self-esteem.” At this point, I would encourage Prejean to skip the beauty pageants, which set up the very standards of beauty that lead many young girls to devalue themselves, and focus on the far more lasting work she is already doing in the kingdom.From Her-menutics, the Christianity blog for women
Some believers have panned Prejean because of her participation in a beauty pageant that requires that she parade around before the world in revealing clothing. I understand there point, but am still proud of the stand she's taking against same-sex "marriage" in D.C. as reported in this article from the NY Daily News...
