Homosexuality

In another forum the issue of homosexuality came up. This was my answer and feel free to disagree with me.

My Father who lives in Heaven, My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit who live in me does not share the same blind hatered that many have of those who are different.

one person mentioned a couple of verses that have clearly been taken out of context. you mentioned Galatians 5:19-21 and Corinthians 6:9-10. In both examples paul is talking about the differents of the sinful nature vs the spiritual nature. He calls upon us to put to death all of the deeds of the body not just a select few. Now if homosexuals were first on his list of people not getting into heaven then why does it say

John 3:16-18 (NIV)

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[c] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.[d]

In these verses it clearly states that all who believe shall be saved not just the ones who were good enough or who some how managed to stay sexually pure.

In Galatians it lists sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. So in Gods eyes rage, envy drunkeness along with sexual immorality is just as bad as homosexuality.

In 1 Corinthians 6 it states :

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Again drunks, slanderers or swindler are listed along with homosexual offenders. And it also goes on to state that some of them were like that but that they were justified and sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see a pattern here as I surely do. God hates all sin, all of the deeds of the human nature the same.

To single out one sin and put it above the rest creates a situation where Gays and Lesbians feel singled out by us and creates a situation where they feel hatered from us and therefore are not going to listen to any one because of it.

Do you want their blood on your hands because of your blind hatered? I don't. You can't reach people who you hate and we are told to love all equally.

Concerning the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah Their sin was so much more than homosexuality as indicated in Romans 1:21-25 and Jeremiah 23:13-14. They neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, They prophesied by Baal and led Israel astray and they committed adultery and lived a lie and They strengthen the hands of evildoers,so that no one turns from his wickedness.

Would Jesus approve of all of your actions and hatered of these people? If Jesus was around us today who would He be having supper with? Read the verses below and reconsider the errors of your ways.

Job 38:2

"Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?

John 8 (NIV)

1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 t this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 "No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

and again

Mark 2 (NIV)

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Refrences to original verses:

Galatians 5:15-30 (NIV)

15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other

Life by the Spirit

16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
21 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.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

1 Corinthians 6 (NIV)

Lawsuits Among Believers

1 If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints?
2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church![a]
5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?
6 But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!
7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?
8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Sexual Immorality

12 "Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything.
13 "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."
17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Romans 1:10-26 (NIV)

God's Wrath Against Mankind

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

Jeremiah 23:13-15 (NIV)

13 "Among the prophets of Samaria I saw this repulsive thing:
They prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.
14 And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible:
They commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns from his wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to me;
the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."
15 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty says concerning the prophets:
"I will make them eat bitter food
and drink poisoned water,
because from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has spread throughout the land."

May God bless you and keep you always.

How I became a christain

I remember back when I first became a Christian. I was in a group home for abused and neglected children and it was run by a independent bible based church and the people that were in charge of it were born again Christians. I was angry and will full back then.

We had to go to church and at the time I hated it and resisted any attempt to turn me back to the Lord. One particular Sunday the pastors words seemed to bore into my soul. I did not want to listen so I put my hands over my hears. As hard as I tried the words he spoke seemed to become louder the harder I tried to shut them out. I left that church that day wondering about what he had said.

I had grown up in Lutheran churches and at my last church during confirmation I had asked the pastor there many questions about the bible and he could not answer them. Remembering that time I asked the house parents about Jesus Christ. I fired any type of question I could at him and he answered every single one. Finally I asked what I needed to do to be saved. He told me that I need to be sorry for all the things I had done wrong in my life and ask God to forgive me and then I needed to ask Jesus to come live into my life.

That night at bedtime I did just that. as soon as I had finished praying I felt as though a huge rock had been lifted off of my back. The next morning I went to tell them about what happened and the house father turned to me and said I already know you asked Jesus to come live with you. I said how do you know that? He said by my face I seemed to shine.

Tired

Well I am still struggling with this illness. It strikes me that just as I have to struggle with being sick and forcing myself to do what I need to do just to keep healthy (like cooking, washing dishes to eat on etc.) so do we have to keep on struggling with our sins, our doubts, our trials, the world and our enemy satan. So no matter what, we need to continue to run the race set before us.

1 Corinthians 9:23-25 (NIV)

23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever

Galatians 5:6-8 (NIV)

6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

7You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

Hebrews 12 (NIV)

God Disciplines His Sons
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The Trinity

I think that the sun, the moon and the stars and perfect examples of the triune nature of God. God the Father would be the sun, Jesus would be the moon, a perfect reflection of God the Father made flesh, where the Holy Spirit would be all the stars in the sky, each with the same basic nature of God but living in all of us.

Romans 1:19-21
New International Version

19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Blessed assurance

Every time I hear the words of doubt creep into my mind and I find myself panicking over whether or not I am indeed one of God's children a verse is brought to my attention which reasures me that Nothing can take me away from God.

BLESSED ASSURANCE
by Fanny J. Crosby, 1820-1915

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Saviour am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.


Amen.

John 10:25-39 (New International Version)


25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me,
26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all[a]; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.
30 I and the Father are one."
31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him,
32 but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from theFather. For which of these do you stone me?"
33 "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'[b]?
35 If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—
36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?
37 Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.
38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

sometimes God says wait

Well I am still struggling with being sick. It turns out that I have a sinus infection. I have gone to the doctor, asked for healing and prayers but still I am sick so I can only assume that I need to learn to wait on Gods answer.

Sometimes I do get impatient with my Heavenly Father and expect a instant answer and many times I do get a instant answer but sometimes He says no or wait. So this week I will learn to wait. After ""all things work to the good of those who love Him"".
sheryl

Well I had a strange experience at my doctors office. I am as some of you know disabled. I met a lady that I used to know a couple years back and she asked how I was doing and how she felt sorry for me etc. I told her not to because there are so many other people worse off than me. I realised that I had actually grown some from feeling sorry for myself to not really thinking about it.

Actually no matter how disabled you are there are people who are way worse than you if you are a born again christian because nonbelieves will spend a eternity suffering for their mistakes while we who believe will get off scott free from suffering from our mistakes thru The sacrife the God the Father had to do by making His only begotten son die for our sins on the cross. Jesus was willing to do this for His Father only if there was no other way out. He willingly gave up His life for us to take the punishment for our sins. The punishment phyical and spiritual death. His body died but for one brief moment He suffered spiritual Death when His Father turn away from his son. Spiritual death is seperation from God for eternity.

Since Jesus died for our sins and took our penality for our sins we do not have to suffer and be seperated from God if we accept the Holy spirit's small voice beckoning us to confess our sins, ask Jesus to be our saviour and ask Him to come live with us in our heart and then confess to someone that you believe.

Since it is a free gift you only have to ask for it. But beware those who ignore the Holy Spirits call all lifetime long and die without asking for the Free gift of life, will not be forgiven and will have to pay for their sins (crimes, misdeeds, wrongs, mistakes, defects of charater) in full all by themselves alone for eternity

still need some polishing

If nothing else this week has taught me that I definitly need some polishing done on my Godly shine. I feel that I have made so many mistakes lately. Thanks be to My Heavenly Father, My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit that I am not punished as I deserve as if I were then I would not be alive and nothing of me would remain not even a Ghost. I have done so many things this week wrong that I feel guilty about. I am so glad that God can forgive me even when sometimes it seems like I can't even forgive myself.

Paul said "who can set me free from this body of death?" Then He went on to thank God for saving him from his own faults and sins. In roman times a body of death referred to a method of punishment where the romans would chain a live person to a corpse full of maggots. It is a accurate but gross illustration of just how our sinful life is seen by God.

It makes me wonder why God would bother with a race of beings so disgusting to Him with their sinful ways that we appear as a rotting corpse. Would any of us care for such a thing if we were in our right mind?I think not.

Day by day with the proph: Wednesday February 8th

Day by day with the proph: Wednesday February 8th

still sick

Well here I am coughing my brains out still, but I am feeling stronger. Last week was bad I was so weak and feverish. And grouchy. I hate it when I get irritable with people just because I am sick or because I did not take my medication as I should have. I am learning patience with myself. My dropping things is getting worse and I get so angry with myself when it happens. Especially when it is the last of the juice or milk that I want to drink. But my Heavenly Father is letting it happen for a reason if for no other than to teach me more lessions in patience. It always seems that when I think that I have a paticular sin (some would call it charater defects, others would call it mistakes, err in judgement etc.) licked something happens that brings it roaring back into plain view. Perhaps a fall from pride? I do not know but struggling with sin is a never ending job that has to be done daily just like some people do the 12 steps of aa or alanon daily. All I can do is pray, read my devotions, read my bible, study it and gleen lessons from it and try to practise what I learn.

I really enjoy making things and I am thinking about starting a home based business based on it. It would be so nice to actually make some money instead of collecting disability checks. I am glad that I get it but it does not amount to very much. just enough to survive on and I would so love to be able to give back to society instead of taking from it.

Well that is it for today.