A Great Resource
Help with balancing grace and truth
Last week I wrote about the testimony of a colleague. Garry Ingraham’s amazing journey in finding God’s grace for his same-sex attraction is a needed tonic for the church. And below you will find the link of another riveting story which illustrates the power of God and the balance of grace and truth.
First, let me point you toward another great resource from my good colleague Debra Baty. Resources 4 Redemption is must reading for help with balancing grace and truth. There you will find truth in the way she guides us through cultural debates and trends of the day. But grace is very much threaded throughout in the way she writes. Her own experience informs the resources she highlights and the testimonies she posts. It’s good stuff.
One such testimony she provides is an amazing illustration of how the Holy Spirit of God can intervene with both grace and truth. God broke through in undeniable fashion, leading Patti Height and her partner into the loving embrace of Jesus and his Bride. There are plenty of testimonies like this online, but the supernatural intervention in her story is remarkable.
Oddly enough, when I wrote about Garry’s testimony last week, five people unsubscribed. Shucks!
Of course, there are many reasons why someone might unsubscribe. The blog may simply not have been what they expected. But these stories of the work of God in the lives of people like Garry and Patti are simply meant to encourage Tsunami Surfers as we pray and seek to help people who are awash in the flood of sexual distortions so pervasive in our culture.
Caleb Kaltenbach, in his book Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others without Sacrificing Conviction states the following, which for me absolutely targets the need of today’s church.
“Love is the tension of grace and truth.”
Walking the balance beam of grace and truth is the greatest challenge of today for any church which truly wants to bring the gospel to the LGBTQ community. It gets messy, of course. But love enables us to deal with that great tension. Going to one extreme or the other is so much easier. However, all grace and little truth falls short. And all truth and little grace alienates. Love for those struggling helps to bridge the gap.
May God fill your hearts with love and grant you much grace as you minister in the midst of the mess.
The testimony by Patti Height is beautiful and compelling. I added her site https://outofegyptministries.org/ to my collection. Her story is also different than the stories of others I have met,, heard or read.
A common pattern in many stories is that first they encounter Jesus and are welcomed into a body of Christ, where they learn more about who Jesus really is and what the Bible says. Then weeks or months later the Hply Spirit convicts them of their need to address their sexuality.