The judgment of Lindsay Lohan?

I just read an article about Lindsay Lohan and her father that really troubled me. Her dad has publicly denounced her with comments such as:

"No wonder why God is taking her entire career away from her, because she's forsaken everything He's given her and she's done nothing but misuse all the gifts she's given."

The writer reporting on this responds with appropriate sarcasm about the intentions and hypocrisy of her father when they write, "Following this logic, could another of God's punishments be giving Lindsay a father who is making a career out of trying to destroy his troubled daughter in the press?"

I'm reminded of a passage from Ephesians 6 where Paul is exhorting the followers of Jesus to Godly living between parents and children. He writes:

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother'—which is the first commandment with a promise— 'that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.' Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

The training begins with the parents, of course. They raise their children and are encouraged to do so with grace and mercy; just as Jesus taught us, His own children. A child does not need to be taught how to sin, after all, but must be trained in righteousness and truth.

In 1 Corinthians 6 followers of Christ are told not to bring judgment on their own outside of the church. We read, "If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?"

What a wicked man to make a name for himself by heaping condemnation upon the daughter whom God gave him stewardship to raise! No wonder Lindsay Lohan is the way she is with a father who publishes their private conversations and shows by his very actions that he hates her! Why would she serve her father's god when it is apparent that his god is merciless and unholy? Who is deserving of the greater punishment? But you children of the Most High, remember even while you were still enemies of God and in active rebellion against His goodness that He came in the flesh to offer His forgiveness and love. It belongs to those who will simply come to Him for a relationship that will never fail because He loves us perfectly for who we are.

Isn't that love the sort that changes our hearts? For instance, imagine a disrespectful and hateful child on his deathbed for lack of a needed organ donor. The child, though spiteful, is terrified of dying. Yet, at just the right time, a person, seeing the need and not judging the child's nature, finds that he is a match and willingly gives the necessary organ to save the child's life. Can you imagine that child waking up from surgery and spitting in the face of his savior? Does it not seem that the child would be incredibly grateful instead and work to be pleasing to the one who saved him?

If Lindsay Lohan knew of the True God who loves sinners and transforms them because of His love would she not respond as one grateful for having a new life? But instead, she has responded to the cruel and unforgiving God that her dad represents and has run away from that terror! May she and her father come to know the grace and peace of God that transcends the rivalries of the flesh and brings reconciliation to those who are far off and lost.


Romans 5:6-11

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."