What the Bible says..LGBT

My my my how I struggle against people who claim to be christians, but whore the name in the act of hate against brothers and sisters who are different from them - specifically against the LGBT-(TQQSIUU) population.  The ones that claim that it is a sin to be gay, and that if you are you are surely going to hell. They say "The Law condemns it" - then they tell you "it's all in the Bible! Turn from your evil ways and be SAVED!"

UGH. This boils m blood.

Lord have MERCY.  

Brothers and sisters, I want to begin by stating that we, as Christians, are not called to live by the Law, but are called to live by the Spirit, given to us by the grace of God. (1 Corinthians, Romans, Hebrews). There is nothing you can do to deserve this grace, or to lose this grace, you can only accept it. Whether black, white, gay, transexual, inter-sex, married, unmarried, man or woman, or anything else for that matter. If you were created by God (which you are), then you're welcome to this grace. You cant earn it and you can't do anything to deserve it. There is simply nothing you can do. Nothing. Except accept it.  

If you are so freely welcome to it, indeed your brother and sister next to you - no matter how uncomfortable it makes you - is also freely welcome to it. 

So stop judging them, stop telling them they need to be saved. Stop telling them they are lost or some how inferior to you and denied your grace. Remember, you did not earn it, and neither can they.

No. Our God freely gives this grace, this spirit, this unconditional un-dying love - to anyone, anyone who chooses to accept it. 

Whether you like it or not.  

In this light, the law is irrelevant. Jesus made the law- which leads to death- irrelevant. To follow the law is to lead yourself to death. Be free. Leave the Law behind. The law that condemns you will condemn you to hell. You will never escape it or please it. (read 1 Corinthians (especially the last few chapters) or 1 Colossians (Ch. 12 and 13) or Romans (romans 8 is particularly good) or Hebrews (chapters 8-12 or so)or just about any part of the New Testament really, if you don't believe me). It's there. 

That, brothers and sisters, is what the Bible says.

There is good news- there is Gospel!

 You can be free of the law. Christ has come and He has risen! He has put the law to death and given us the spirit to live by - living through and by the spirit leads to life. And this spirit sees everyone as loved by God. As a perfectly imperfect impression of God and His love, and this spirit loves unconditionally - just as God does. It knows not how to hate or judge or condemn, but only to love.

That, brothers and sisters, is what the Bible says. 

The true mark of this Spirit within you is unconditional love for all. No matter what. No matter if this person is loving another, or torturing you. You are called to love them, to welcome them with open arms, to validate them as Gods child. 

So my challenge and question to Christians is this - 

Christ says from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

What comes out of your mouth?

Check yo self.

Judges Ch. 9

Reading judges now. Wow the Isrealites really have a hard time following God's law (who can blame them). Joshua is dead, Moses is long dead - and now the isrealites are left to follow God on their own. But, they stray and worship other gods and so things fall apart. They cry out to God who sends a judge to tell them what to do, and to rescue them - delivering them. God almost gives up on the Isrealites a few times. Still very hard. But, I really like this passage:

Judges 9:8-15

New International Version (NIV)

⁸ One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’
⁹ “But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’
¹⁰ “Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’
¹¹ “But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’
¹² “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and be our king.’
¹³ “But the vine answerevingd, ‘Should I give up my wine,^(A) which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’
¹⁴ “Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and be our king.’
¹⁵ “The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade;^(B) but if not, then let fire come out^(C) of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’<sup>(D)


Thank you to http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+9%3A8-15&version=NIV for having typed this out in advance for me.</sup>

Joshua

I read through the book of Joshua pretty quickly because it's very eventful. Basically, the Isrialites come into the promise land and kill a lot of people to inhabit the land.

I praise God that he doesn't work like this anymore.

Deuteronomy

Well, I've made it through Deuteronomy - a book I really liked actually. Like I mentioned in my last post, I feel like I finally started seeing the heart of God as revealed in the New Testament through Jesus. God promises to be God, and the Israelites promise to be His people. But wow- thank you Lord for sending jesus to fulfill this promise because we were in such bondage to the law, which seems so simple yet is so impossible to follow.

I couldn't help but feel like I could never measure up to all of the laws and rules, and I kept thinking wow, am I a failure? Do Christians still need to follow these laws?

And after reading some New Testament passages, like those found in  1 Colossians and 1 Corinthians, I am glad to learn that to follow the law is to lead yourself to death (precisely because it's soi mpossible to follow), but tht we have been set free from the condemnation of the law if we accept Jesus' sacrifice. That instead, we are to be led and to follow the Spirit through Jesus Christ. That to follow the spirit means to not need law. That all of our failures to follow the Law have been forgiven, completely forgiven. Now we are called to be liberated and to follow through the Holy Spirit. How amazing? God has not only forgiven us for our failure, but has given us new life, a new way to worship him- from our heart rather than out of duty.

Praise God.

In my own skin- Inspired by (quirky) women

Recently, I have re-kindled an old friendship from way back when, and my friend and I have been talking about a lot og great things. I've decided these things are great enough to share here too. 


One topic we were talking about was our tendency to want to be liked by everyone. Can you relate? I struggle pretty much every day with trying to 'say the right thing' and trying to be liked by everyone around me. It gets under my skin so much when someone 'doesn't like me' or 'disapproves'. But lately, I have found some peace with this, and so I thought I'd share why and how I've started to worry less if I'm liked or approved.


Always seeking approval and wanting to be pleasant to, and liked by, everyone you meet and are surrounded by is something I think humans were made to feel. We are social beings, and we want to be of service and bring joy to others around us. Not only that, but we want a community where we fit and belong, a family we can build for ourselves where we can be ourselves.

As I've grown over the past few short years. I have been blessed by being surrounded with a lot of women in my life. Not just women my age, women of all ages and stages, and this has profoundly impacted me. From these (mostly older) women that I've met and had the privilege of spending my time with, I have gotten to witness something beautiful that comes with aging- finding yourself. From these women, I have learned that we are not all perfect, that at times we will rub people the wrong way, or not agree, or think each other 'weird' or eccentric- but that these are not things to hide by conforming. Instead, these are things to be celebrated.

OK, yes, I've heard this all before but it's finally sinking in.

There is something really beautiful about someone who can gracefully be themselves, something inspiring and moving. You know that your experience with that person is going to be authentic, even if it is weird or uncomfortable at times. As I have learned to love the imperfections in these women, and then learned to see the woman who is being 'imperfect' as greater than her awkward or quirky comments, I have begun to see how everyone brings something unique and beautiful wherever they go. To not be fully 'you', deprives the moment of what only you have to offer it.


Some people are funny. Some people are smart. Some people are up-front. Some people are hippies, some people are sporty..etc.etc. I have started not only to learn to embrace the quicks in others, but to love them for their quirks. From this I have learned to embrace more the defining sides of myself, the serious side,the spiritual side, the nerdy side, the hippy sider, the oblivious side, the 5-years old side, the grandma side... the list goes on. Before, these were things I would try to suppress, while trying to highlight others, or 'tone down a little". 


But now,  I have embraced them more instead of judging them as things I need to fix. I haven't stopped comparing myself to others all together, but through seeing how great it is to have such eclectic and different people around me that get along so well and each bring something different to the table, I have begun to see that I too can bring something wholly unique. I have come to accept that I'm not always interested in things that other people are interested in, that I'm not always as clever or outgoing or personable as other people, but that isn't wrong or bad. Other people aren't as quiet or gentile in conversation as me, aren't as nerdy or whatever I am, as me. And as I accept that, I realize that it's OK to be different. And if it's OK to be different, then it's OK to be myself and not try to conform to what I think other people want.

People don't always want to see reflections of themselves in the people they hang out with. People want to see something new, learn new perspectives, share different experiences and stories. People will be drawn to you no matter what. The question is, are they drawn to your authentic self (with all of it's imperfections) or are they drawn to something you're trying to hold up? It's so much more work to hold something up than to just say OK, well here I am and maybe I'm not always x-y-z but at least you know who I am, and I am authentic. 


This doesn't mean you cant still strive to be things you aren't today, it just means that you can let go of working to be someone you're not. It has helped me stop worrying about if someone likes me, if what I said was taken the right way, if I reacted the 'right' way to a situation.... it's relieved a lot of the anxiety. And I feel like I've made a lot less mistakes because of it.

Thank you to all of you quirky women out there for showing me how beautiful you are.

Deuteronomy 15

In Deuteronomy, chapter 15, Moses lays out the new law concerning the Sabbatical Year for the Jews just before they enter the promised land. The sabbatical year comes around every 7th year, and in this year all are liberated from their outstanding debts to one another, including service in the form of slavery. Like I said in my previous post on Deuteronomy, I am excited to be reading this book because it is out of this book that Jesus uses passages commanded to turn down the devil. It is in these passages here in Ch. 15 that I can really see the heart of Jesus, and the law God was trying to mend in the hearts of his people.  A few passages that especially stood out to me were:

Deuteronomy 15:4-5
There will, however, no one in need among you, because the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.

Deuteronomy 15:7-9
..do not be hard hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.

Deuteronomy 15:10-11
Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land."

Deuteronomy 15:13-15
Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press thus giving him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you.

Deuteronomy 15:18
Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers; and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

Romans 14:13-23

Paul talks about eating here, but if it serves you replace food with anything else that might cause others to stumble, food, sex, clothing, smoking, etc..

Emphasis added, verses bolded especially stood out to me.

Romans 14:13-23

(NRSV)

 Let us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

(NIV)

Romans 14:13-23

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.  Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. 
  Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. 
 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.  But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.