Homosexuals Ruined My Marriage

That's the fear that some people have – right? Some Christians say, "It won't ruin my marriage, exactly, but marriage in general, and the family specifically will be torn apart if homosexuals are allowed marital rights."

Truth is, the fact that we've arrived at a place where homosexual marriage is even being talked about in the way that it is means that marriage, as it was meant to be, is already ruined. It was ruined way back when common-law relationships were considered equal to marriage as instituted by our Creator. In fact by the time they're 39 years old, 60% of women will have lived in a common-law relationship. That's something when you think that prior to 1960, almost no one, only those on the criminal / addiction fringes lived common-law.

What we have before us today is a generation of children who know nothing of the kind of love that makes life-long commitment to a relationship possible.

All mammals, including humans, learn relationship by what they see while growing up. Deny those essential observations and you've emotionally and relationally handicapped that offspring for life.

Because we've turned our backs on Jesus  ("The one who loves Me is the one who will obey Me."), we've ordained temporary arrangements that are built on “Can you make me happy,” the standard by which we determine “love.”

We've sown the wind and we will indeed reap a whirlwind. 

Homosexual Marriage Is Not Our Problem

Our Creator went to dramatic lengths to establish the Jewish nation as His people.

In that process, as described in the Old Testament, Israel was to be absolutely unique among the surrounding nations. As I stated in the post   http://thesauros-store.blogspot.ca/2012/06/why-do-you-ignore-gods-law.html  the ceremonial laws in totality and the judicial and moral laws in large part were to clearly separate and distinguish God's people in thought, word and deed from the behaviours of their surrounding neighbours.

Jesus the Christ went to dramatic lengths to establish we who are saved, as His people.

Unlike Old Testament Israel, we who are His people are to no longer avoid mingling with our pagan neighbours. We are instead to work diligently for the good of our secular world without becoming like the secular world. Rather than an individual nation being set apart for God, it is now our individual lives that have been consecrated and set apart for Christ. So what's this got to do with homosexuals marrying each other?

I read about a Pastor a few weeks back suggesting that the government of the United States “should be killing homosexuals, but it won't.” The implication being that if the government was obeying God it would force the inhabitants of the U.S.A. to obey Old Testament law – a law that was set forth specifically for God's chosen people. The question is, how could that Pastor make that kind of statement? Does he think that we're still living in Old Testament Israel? Jesus' Law Code (as pointed out in the post I referred you to above) is different from the Abraham and Mosaic Law Codes in very significant ways. It's understandable for atheists to not get that, but how can we who study God's Word miss that?

As Christians, the earth is not our home. As people who are part of God's family, we're strangers here. We're foreigners in a foreign land. So how did we ever come to a point where we actually believe that it is up to us, God's people, to tell other people, gentiles really, pagans and functional atheists in practice, how to live in their own country?

This world belongs to satan and his people, not to us. This world is their home, not ours.

So how did we come to believe that forcing pagans and atheists to obey Jesus' commands will make them right with Jesus? How did trying to make other people behave like followers of Jesus become our top priority? As I've said many times, if you are not in a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus, then how you live is the least of your problems.

The Israelites were to remain utterly separate from the surrounding nations, both physically and behaviourally. We, as followers of Jesus are to be physically present in our surrounding culture, yet remain utterly separate in our obedience to our Lord and Saviour. In regard to this topic, Jesus has set forth very clear guidelines, for His people, for sexual intimacy; it is to be within the safety and protection of a male / female faithful and monogamous marriage. Period. Regardless of what our surrounding culture celebrates as wonderful, we who claim to be followers of Jesus, need to follow Him – Period.

Personally, I think that we get the kind of world we deserve. I think that any degree of sin makes our world a worse place in which to live and a high level of sin makes it worst of all. However, if those who live upon the earth want to engage in homosexual marriage or polyamorous relationships, or take us to the brink (or over) of world-wide financial collapse with their greed and corruption, what is that to me? My job is to live as a citizen of heaven. My job is to show by example that there is a different way to do life, a better way to do life. As to what the world calls “sexual freedom” or “diversity”? Been there. Done that. What they consider new and exciting is as old as humanity, and I judge it to be third rate at best compared to what I have now. If those apart from God don't want to enjoy the kind of marriage relationship that I have, it's their loss. If they don't want to experience the “fruit of the Spirit,” I can't help it. If they don't want the salvation that Jesus offers, it's not my job to coerce change in that area. It IS my job, however, to not make it more difficult for those who live upon the earth to hear their Creator when He calls them to salvation.

Actually, as is shown by the areas in the world where Christianity is experiencing its greatest growth, the darker the culture, the brighter the light of Jesus shines. Perhaps we need to slide back into spiritual darkness for a time.

Regardless:

. When I try to force non Christians, whether by law, or guilt or coercion, to live as a Christian is supposed to live, do I really think they'll say, “Sir what must I do to be saved?”

. When I try to copy or mimic the behaviours of my pagan neighbours in some convoluted attempt to make Jesus more appealing to them, do I really think they'll say, “Sir what must I do to be saved?”

So how did we come to a place where we think that it is our job to tell those in the secular world (those who live in another nation so to speak) how to think and act? Sure there was a time when those who live on the earth tried to emulate “Christian” morals. Fine. Good for them. Good for society. Good for the world. Sure there was a time when the lives of Christians was attractive to those stuck in slavery to sin. Who could blame them for wanting out? But we're well beyond that time and I think it is time for us to return to our roots.

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those in Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the place in which you live. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:4-7 (rod's paraphrase)

We Christians are today living in a virtual Babylon. Followers of Jesus do not need a Christian culture for us to live in peace or to find joy. And for what its worth, a lack of joy or peace is not what keeps people from heaven, so that is not the “bait” that we need to be offering people. It's un forgiven sin, not a lack of joy or peace, that keeps people from heaven. 

By trying to force secular people to obey God (in the hopes of accomplishing what - exactly?), we have wound up making it impossible for those people to hear their Creator's call.

It's when we live as Jesus commanded us to live, not to earn salvation but out of gratitude for the salvation granted to us, that we become an irresistible flavour, drawing people to Jesus. It's when we live in obedience to Jesus in the midst of a pagan world, that He is able to use us to show the lost how to reach a safe harbour for their souls. It's hearing the Gospel of Jesus, not being forced to live out “Christian” rules of behaviour, that brings people to salvation.

Homosexual marriage, or living comon-law, or any other behaviour that contravenes God's will for our lives is not the problem. Those things are merely symptoms of the problem.

I say let the people of the world live as they want, while we enjoy the freedom that comes with salvation.

Homosexuality and the United States

 I've been seeing on American News Channels lately, where Pastors from protestant congregations in the United States are going hard against homosexuality and marriage unions between same sex couples.

For over thirty years I've attended Christian, evangelical, fundamentalist congregations (I think we're in our fifth community) and not once have I ever heard a sermon speaking against homosexuality. Certainly not any sermon denouncing homosexuality nor encouraging people to kill or imprison homosexuals.

On the other hand, I've heard many, many sermons on the importance of maintaining Christ-like love within a God ordained marriage, while preserving sexual purity (both in thought and deed) outside of marriage. The emphasis has always been on what we should be doing versus what we should not be doing. It's simply understood that if you are a Christian, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus the Christ, then the expectation for expressing ourselves sexually is within the safety of a loving male / female monogamous marriage. Anything outside of that is against the plan of God - according to Jesus. That paradigm is not something that needs to be upheld by attacking those who wish to live otherwise.

It's also understood that if you are secular, pagan or atheist, then you are free to go and do what you want. It is not our job as Christians to tell those who oppose God or who simply wish to ignore God how they should be living. It's understood that if you are not in a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus, then what you do, think, or say, sexually or otherwise, is the least of your problems.

What’s Driving You?

Most have heard the phrase, “He’s so heavenly minded, he’s of no earthly good.” So rare is someone like that, that I’ve not met one. Not in my whole life. In fact, it’s been my experience that the more heavenly minded a person has been, the more crucial they’ve found the needs of earth. Let me give you an example.

On the weekend Wendy and I attended a workshop on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. That’s a long term to describe the brain damage that occurs to the pre born child when the woman drinks alcohol while pregnant. Six of our seven adopted children have been affected by this tragedy. Hundreds of parents and grandparents were at this conference. Most were, like us, people who had adopted children with FASD. Some were mothers who too late realised that they had damaged their children by drinking while pregnant. Virtually all were people who loved the Lord; we were a huge room filled with heavenly minded people. All who spoke at some point during the weekend gave God’s love for them as the reason for sharing their love with disabled children. There were three characteristics of these heavenly minded people that stood out at this conference:
Love;
Joy;
Peace.

This post has to do with Love:
Living immersed in God’s grace cannot help but lead to experiencing and absorbing a sense of love. The kind of love that I’m talking about here is the willed, volitional, desire to do good to someone else regardless of whether or not that love is returned. This is the love of God for us. See 1st Corinthians 13 for a fuller definition of love as understood from a Biblical perspective.

Now of course, the secular world, the pagan world is forever writing about and singing about and producing movies about their vision of love. Love for the pagan is very closely related to desire. If you’re experiencing a constant craving, longing and desire for someone, that is love to the secular world. Other telltale signs of love for the secular person are possessive controlling behaviours which are closely related to the greed / need / lust combination. Love as demonstrated by our secular leaders is jealous and focused on ‘can you make me feel good’. It is exactly this mind-set that causes homosexuals of both genders to think that a “love” relationship with each other is more important than an obedient relationship with their Creator. Of course love in the pagan world is equated with sex where men use “love” to get sex and women use sex to get what feels to them like love. Most of all, true love to the pagan is based on impulse and preferably ignores self-control.

Not so from the Biblical perspective. Love, from a Biblical perspective is not self-seeking.

Desire is self-seeking.
Lust is self-seeking.
Pride is self-seeking.
Personal offense is self-seeking

Not so, love.
God is love.
For God so loved the world that He gave . . .”

Like God, real love is not part of our natural world. What is natural to our world is “the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]--these do not come from the Father but are from the world itself.” 1st John 2:16

“All ya need is love,” was correctly sung by a rock band several decades ago. While they got that part right, they could not pull it off because love is not a natural part of who we are. Oh sure, we can love those who love us but what good is that? Our world needs a populace who can “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you.”

Without that, not even babies in their mother’s wombs are safe from violence. Without love, FASD occurs. Without love, fetal alcohol afflicted children, literally unable to learn from mistakes, remain rejects who rotate through the criminal justice system until the day they die.

Thank God for the heavenly minded. Thank God for love, for love comes from God. Only His love for us allows us to truly love others. We can give a love to those who, due to brain damage are seldom able to even appreciate, let alone reciprocate that love.

The workshop that we attended had become a community of people who were able to love in the fullest sense of the word. This, not of our own ability or will, but love as a gift of Creator God.

I Can’t Help It

“I can’t help it God. It’s just who I am. In fact, it’s just who YOU made me!”

That’s what a lot of people are planning to tell God on judgment day when asked to explain their ignoring His commands re: moral behaviour.

It’s an old argument really. As old as Adam and Eve.
Adam: “It’s your fault God! The woman You gave me . . .”
Eve: “It’s your fault God! The serpent You created . . .”

I would encourage you to read this blog entry.

http://www.flyingoskar.com/2010/11/02/miss-mom-christianity-and-bigotry/comment-page-1/#comment-411

The author of the post wouldn’t allow me to reply, so I’ve posted it here. I don’t know if the blogger - Sylvie - considers herself to be a follower of Jesus or not. It’s getting increasingly difficult to tell these days. We no longer have christians who just “do” those things that Jesus said to not do. Now we have christians who actively TEACH things in total contradiction to what Jesus taught, and these people still call themselves followers of Jesus.

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of and encourage those who practice them.” Romans 1:32

Anyhow, in response to her post I asked the following:

When you say that we should accept homosexuality as “normal and healthy” because homosexuals “have always been that way,” are you also suggesting that sexual relations of ANY type are acceptable and welcomed by God? Yes? No?

Are you saying that the Biblical idea that sexual relationships are to remain within the safety bounds of marriage (heterosexual marriage no less) is no longer applicable to those calling themselves Christians? Yes? No?

Are you saying that people who are enjoying sexual relations with both men and women (bisexuals) or groups of men and women are and should be celebrated by those who follow Jesus? Yes? No?

Are you saying that Jesus Himself would celebrate such relationships? And He would do so because “that’s the way they’ve always been? Would Jesus accept them because they’ve always enjoyed sex with lots of different people and never known or wanted anything different but to have sex with lots of different people?” Yes? No?

I ask because as a retired counsellor I’ve worked with a number of paedophiles and low and behold, that is exactly what these men say, “I’ve always been sexually attracted to children and only children. I’ve never known anything else. I was born this way.”

These are not bad people Sylvie. You can’t imagine the inner pain and turmoil they experience because society rejects, and rejects in a vile and hateful manner, who these men ARE - not who they've chosen to be, but who they ARE - worse - who they have always been. Some would say that it’s who God made them. You cannot imagine the agony they experience when all of society tells them that they must change what they cannot change. Some of them even commit suicide because society tells them that who they are at a fundamental level is wrong!

If being born a certain way - (eg. with the propensity to obesity, violence, addictions) is the ground rule or base-line for acceptance, do you not see any problems here? I understand that we are called to love ALL people. That of course is right and good. In fact, loving ALL people is what God commands. But that isn’t what you’re advocating - is it? What you are advocating is not just loving the person but proving that love by accepting their predilections as something to celebrate. Yes? No?

Are you suggesting, along with Spong that when Jesus and the rest of the New Testament writers lay down, and lay down clearly, a heterosexual married standard for sexual relationships that we can ignore Jesus’ comments at will with no repercussions because - well - because that is what society dictates that followers of Jesus must do? Yes? No?

Yes they do / No they don’t

You know how, when someone says that violence or gratuitous sexuality in movies promotes or leads to violence or unhealthy sex in real life, there comes outrage and mockery at those who could voice something so foolish?

“Movies are just entertainment.”

“Just because someone watches a murder doesn’t mean people are going to go out and kill other people.”

“You think because someone watches casual sex they won’t respect marriage? Don’t be ridiculous.”


And then comes, “Electric cars are gay.”

'scuze me while the switch is flipped.
“Homosexuals pay a price for the attitudes portrayed in the movies.”

“How can you not know that movies shape our attitudes?”

“We take our cues about how to treat others by what we watch in the movies.”

“Real life follows what we see in the movies.”

Such is the schizoid secular pattern of lying.

“Impure and Immoral”

Some head priest in the Mormon Church, Boyd K. Packer, gave a speech in which he said that homosexuals should not be allow to be married.

The uproar that ensued included this statement, “He is telling a group of young people that who they are is impure and immoral.”

Taken at face value this does sound like an awful thing. And it sounds awful right up until one realises that all of us, ALL of us ARE impure and immoral. That IS who we are. Sexual impurity is just one of the many ways our sin nature manifests itself. That is why Jesus came to earth - to save us from our impossibly impure and immoral selves.

It isn't just homosexuals but all of us. I mean, have you never paid attention to your thoughts? Have you never allowed yourself to contemplate your motives? Who we are at a fundamental level is wrong - PERIOD! Like C. S. Lewis said, "No one knows how bad they are until they've tried really hard to be good. A good person knows something of the evil still left in him while a thoroughly bad person thinks that he is good."

Those who were dissing Packer said that God would never create us with something that was wrong. Where did you get THAT idea? Each and every person born has a host of characteristics, fundamental characteristics that need to be denied, repudiated and replaced. The whole process of becoming a Christian is becoming a new creation precisely because the way we are born is not acceptable to our Creator.

Jesus asked a group of people who thought they were pretty good people, “Which of you is without sin?” And beginning with the oldest, the most mature, the most experienced, the most self-aware they, one by one, slipped away.

If what Jesus taught is in fact reality, why would you want to tell anyone, including homosexuals that who they are is ok; that who they are is fundamentally alright? “If we say we are not sinful, we make God out to be a liar.”

Homosexual Marriage Wrecks Marriage?

I saw a blog yesterday where the writer was lamenting Christian Churches that create out-groups (in this case homosexuals) in order to make the in-group more cohesive. It was to me, a heartbreaking post.

“there was absolutely nothing in the Bible that condemns same-sex love and, in fact, the Bible actually affirms same-sex love.”

“Nowhere is same-sex love condemned in the Bible! In fact, it is affirmed, most notably in the case of King David (called “a man after God’s own heart”) and Jonathan. Even a cursory reading of their relationship in 1Samuel shows David to have been either bisexual or a gay man!”

These are just two of the many quotes from that post that demonstrate the contortions that humans are willing to subject themselves to in order to resist sexual purity as is called for by our Creator. As far as creating out-groups goes, I understand that there are some congregations that do this. On the other hand, I’ve attended conservative evangelical congregations (5) for all of my thirty years as a Christian and not once have I heard a sermon regarding homosexuality. The focus has always been on encouraging the desire in Christians to obey God.

I’ve always been taught that Christians should be a group of people who long to follow Jesus, who hunger and thirst for righteousness even when what Jesus asks us to do seems completely counter intuitive:

“love your enemy,”

“find yourself through denying self,”

“finding life by dying to self,”

“win through losing,”

“the first will be last”

Whether the topic is divorce and remarriage, or adultery, or coveting, or greed, or addictions, or dishonesty, or rage and bitterness,

Christians should not be people, like the author of this post, who look for ways to exclude themselves from what Jesus says to do or not do.

Christians should not be people, like the author of this post, who want to see their lives as exceptions to obeying Jesus' guidelines.

“The one who loves Me is the one who obeys Me.”

I’ve tried to stay away from the whole homosexual issue on this blog. I don’t want to hurt and it’s and issue that so easily hurts. However, the idea that allowing homosexuals to get married will ruin marriage / family / society is in my mind ludicrous.

It's a society that has already devalued marriage and life itself that condones homosexuality and abortion and multiple sexual partners, and divorce and remarriage. It’s a society that is already supremely dysfunctional that thinks who ever happens to be living in your house at the time constitutes a family, or a home for that matter.

I don’t know what it’s like in the States but in Canada, several decades ago already, those people who are living common-law were given the same legal rights (income tax, property rights etc.) as those who are legally married. The laws changed with hardly a ripple of dissent. In my mind THAT is when society gave up on marriage and the family. For people to say nothing about common-law relationships but kick up a stink over homosexuals becoming legally attached really is bigotry in its truest form.

. Is homosexuality morally wrong? Well, from our Creator’s perspective, absolutely. The depth of this relational disorder is seen in the quote above regarding the friendship between David and Jonathan. So sexually disoriented are those who praise and promote homosexuality that they cannot conceive of a deep same sex friendship without it having become sexualised. And that’s what makes homosexuality so perverted (in the clinical sense). Emotional needs have become sexualised. That is terribly unhealthy and THAT is why God says that it is wrong.

. Should homosexuals care that God says it’s wrong? Only those who want to follow Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

. Should homosexuals be discriminated against because of it? Absolutely not. If we were to discriminate against people based on our desire to justify our sins, none of us would be allowed to go anywhere or do anything.

. We are all natural born sinners; we are all called to rein in and take control of, not celebrate, our natural born tendency to rebel against God’s teaching.

. Will homosexuals getting married wreck the institution of marriage? It won’t wreck my marriage nor that of anyone else who is married in the Christian sense.

. Will homosexuals getting married wreck society and the family unit upon which a healthy society is built? Naw. That happened a long time ago.

When the majority of people push for homosexuals or common-law partners, or polygamists or any other similar relationship to be recognised as equal to marriage as instituted by God between a man and a woman, that is not the cause of the collapse of marriage or the family or society.

Rather, these things are a symptom of a society that is already deeply and perhaps mortally wounded.

Jesus Affirms Paedophiles!

So said a blog a couple days ago.

In the account of Jesus healing the Centurion’s servant the author of the blog says:

“The Greek word used in Matthew’s account to refer to the servant of the centurion is pais. In the language of the time, pais had three possible meanings depending upon the context in which it was used. It could mean “son or boy;” it could mean “servant,” or it could mean a particular type of servant — one who was “his master’s male lover.” Often these lovers were younger than their masters, even teenagers.”

Well, there you go. This was obviously a homosexual relationship between a man and a boy. Someone in a position of power owned a youth who was used for sex. That it was a homosexual relationship is clear to anyone who - well - you know who it’s clear to. Three possible interpretations are available to us and the sexually perverted one is the obvious choice to the author of this blog.

But let’s assume for a moment that this author is correct; that the Centurion’s “servant” was actually his sexual toy. Jesus healed the servant. According to the author, this means that Jesus affirms homosexual, bi sexual and paedophile relationships. After all, if it was accepted as normal in Roman civilization, why should we discriminate now?

Is that what Jesus’ healing means?
Did Jesus only heal those whose lifestyles He approved?

How about demon possession?
Prostitutes
Murderers
Alcoholics
Adulterers
Career criminals
Thieves and traitors
Religious hypocrites
Are we to assume that lepers led otherwise sinless lives?
How about the sick man at Bethesda
The Official’s son at Capernaum
The crippled woman
The blind men
The Canaanite woman’s daughter

We have over thirty documented healings that Jesus brought about and the Gospels state further that Jesus healed “everyone who came to him.” The author of this blog insinuates that by doing so, Jesus is affirming the lifestyle of those He healed.

Preposterous.

Sad.

Dangerous

It’s the kind of immature theology that says, If good things are happening in our lives, then it’s a sign that God must approve of what we're doing.

The Bible is clear that Jesus’ love for us is not determined by our lifestyle. Jesus’ offer to forgive us is NOT dependent on His approval or affirmation of how we’re living. On several occasions, Jesus is recorded as healing someone and then saying to the person just healed, “Now stop your life of sin,” and in one case He added, “Or something even worse will happen to you.”

Jesus’ love is given in spite of how we’re living, in spite of our wretchedness and sinfulness. "While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us."

So why would this author put such a spin on this account of Jesus’ healing?

Titus 1:15 - To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

Matthew 12:34 - “How can you who are evil say anything good. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The evil man brings evil out of the evil that is stored up in him. But I tell you that you will have to give account on the day of Judgement for every careless word you have spoken. Words can be your salvation, or words can also be your damnation.”

Priest Abuse = Homosexual Abuse?

On a post that started out talking about human sacrifice in Uganda

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-needs-christianity.html

a guy named Travis had this to say,

“No, I'm simply appealing to the obvious. For instance, the Catholic Church's molester priest scandal that everyone got so worked up about was actually the gay molester priest scandal. Yet hardly anybody brought that fact up. It was just silently understood that there couldn't be any connection, despite appearances, and that you weren't supposed to talk about it. In a complete failure to recognize irony, the people shrieking the loudest about the abuse were largely the same liberals who condemn the church for not allowing openly gay priests to be ordained.”

I’ve purposely tried to stay clear of this subject on my blog but, what do you think?