Of Course This Post Is Gonna Be About Gay Marriage

Where to begin?  I am so overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings because of all the news and Facebook drama on gay marriage that I can't even put together a complete thought.

I guess I"ll start with some of the comments that I saw that really struck a nerve with me and continues to send a chill up my spine (as my mom would say) the more I see them.

"Who am I to judge someone else?"
"I don't want you telling me what I do or believe is wrong."
"The Bible says for us to love one another."
"The gay population is here to stay." - Yep that one is a doozy!
"We were all made equal."

First issue - "Who am I to judge someone else?"  Well, first of all, if you mean that you are in no place to judge someone then I applaud you for somewhat subtly admitting your sinful nature and that you fall short of taking on the title of Judger.  However, if you are saying that in regards to not holding one another accountable then I take back my applaud.  Accountability couldn't be more biblical.  I struggle with which verses not to share on this because there are so many!  Here's a few NIVs...

Proverbs 24:24-25
Whoever says to the guilty, "You are innocent," will be cursed by peoples and denounced by nations.  But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come on them. God is not going to honor your "I won't judge anyone" attitude while you sit back and let others self destruct.

Ezekiel 3:18-19
When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.  But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.  Don't like the word "accountable" that was chosen to be used in the NIV version?  Ok, well the King James version says "but his blood I require at thine hand".  Hmmm...

Oh yeah, here's a cute little proverb...

Proverbs 12:15
The way of the fool seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.  Interesting.  Who is giving the advice if we aren't to be holding one another accountable???  And to whom is the wise listening??

Kind of reminds me of one of my most favorite verses...

James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  Confessing sin?  To one another?  Sounds to me that we are to not only hold others accountable but we are to be held accountable by others. Why else would we be confessing our sins to one another and praying for each other?  And just as a side note, nowhere in that verse is there harsh judgment, finger pointing, picking on someone, or treating someone unfairly.

Galatians 6:1
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

Second issue - "I don't want you telling me what I do or believe is wrong."  Ok, well that's just prideful.  Now would I want just anyone coming up to me telling me how horrible of a person I am for my beliefs or the way I live my life?  No.  Who would?  Which is part of the problem for those of us who attack and condescend and do it unloving.  But to make a statement that you don't want others telling you what you do is wrong is being selfish and prideful.  Guess what?  You really may be in the wrong.

Third issue - "The Bible says for us to love one another."  Yes.  Yes it does.  However, I personally feel that this is one of THE MOST ABUSED AND TWISTED verses of the Bible!  I assume most of you that throw this verse out there are referring to the John 13 verse that says, "A new command I give you:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another."  Loving one another is not letting each other do whatever we want, especially when it's a clear indicator of rebellion.  It's not letting each other live in continual sin and deception.  It's not "staying out of their business" when it is eternal life and death on the line.  Please don't twist that verse or any other verse remotely like that to fit to your agenda or as a pass for twisted anti-legalism.

Fourth issue - "The gay population is here to stay."  Seriously?  Am I watching Grease right now?  Is Rock N Roll Is Here To Stay playing right now?  Now it's playing in my head...

Rock N Roll is here to stay it will never die
It was meant to be that way though I don't know why
I don't care what people say
Rock N Roll is here to stay

Ok, the gay population is here to stay and it will never die and we don't know why and we don't care what people say soooo..... everybody just jump on board?  Well murders, adulterers, and thieves have always been around also.  Do we just need to jump on board with them and just let them go about doing what they think isn't wrong?  Or do we just need to love them too without holding them accountable?  I know every time I turn around people are screaming they want justice and how people should be held accountable for their actions.  Being homosexual isn't a crime in the United States so I'm not intending to compare the consequences for a homosexual verses a murderer but to make a comment like the above mentioned is absurd.

Fifth issue - "We were all made equal."  Where have I been because I'm still having trouble finding a biblical basis to back up that comment?  I'm not aware of anything in the bible that says we were all created equal.  I guess if you mean that we were all created in the image of God, then I can see where you are coming from but that doesn't make us equal....and I'm pretty sure it doesn't make us equal in the way you are using the term.  God loves us equally but we were not made or born equally.  And quite honestly, God does show favor on some.  Although if you just need a verse to cling to on equality, I would recommend Galatians 3:28 that says There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.   So if you really want to be have harmony and equality for all and us all be the same, be in Christ because God sees ALL who is in Christ to be blameless and pure and clothed in righteousness.

The fact of the matter is that there will always be disagreements and differences of opinions, lifestyles, and beliefs.  That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't love each other.  Heck, the bible says to love and pray for our enemies so I'm not disputing that point.  I am disputing the point that judgment and accountability are equal or the same.  They aren't.  And they are both biblical.  What bothers and concerns me is hating that my children are growing up in this Babylonian society in which we live.  We, as a general consensus, continually turn our backs on God and live life how we want.  We think we are owed something and want others to pay for it or turn it over to us for nothing.  We want nothing to do with God until we need something.  We don't want to live by His "rules" because that would actually be us submitting to a higher power and we all know we are too good for that, right?  We all deserve to be happy rather than holy.  

I'm often reminded that the Bible isn't a 1000 piece puzzle set that we put together to make the picture that we want.  We don't get to pick the pieces that we like and throw away the pieces we don't want.  We don't get to substitute or change the pieces.  There is only one picture!  We can choose to put the pieces together THAT WE WERE GIVEN to reflect the picture that God made. Just because a piece  doesn't sit well with us doesn't mean it can be discarded.  Maybe if it doesn't sit well with us, then we are the wrong piece and we need to be reshaped by the Creator of the puzzle.  I hate to say it but if that puzzle you call the Bible doesn't fit your agenda, then maybe you don't believe in the Bible.  There are a lot of things in the Bible that hit me like a ton of bricks sometimes but that's only because I am living a life away from the desire of God in that area.  It doesn't mean I can just say "Well, I don't like that so I don't believe that part.  I'm going to stick with the good stuff like don't judge and love all.  Oh and don't forget about the GRACE part where I can do whatever I want but it's ok because I have grace.  Jesus said so."  

James 2:10 says For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  

James 2 is one of the many reminders that we will always be guilty of sin, no matter the size of the sin.  I personally believe homosexuality is a sin.  However,  let's not put homosexuals on some sort of pedestal where their sin deserves more attention or a lack of.  I 100% believe that the enemy loves devouring the covenant of marriage and the perspective that is given to marriage.  It is to be a reflection of Christ and the Church.  It is to be with the Bride and Bridegroom, not Bride and Bride, not Bridegroom and Bridegroom.  

So what, now being born gay is the issue at hand.  We are born liars too so does make it ok for us to lie all of the time?  Some of us are born with physical handicaps.  Does that mean that someone who is born deaf has to stay deaf or are we not always promoting for that person to receive some sort of healing or even a hearing aid so that person can hear?  Are babies that are born addicted to drugs because their mother was strung out still justified in living a life of a drug addict?  I don't recall any of those issues being the fault of the one born.  May not make sense, however, it still happened and God allowed it for whatever reason.  The good news is that submitting our lives to Christ, overpowers all of that sin - regardless of what it is.

Joel 2:16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast.  Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

Honestly all of this discord going on with gay marriage isn't the issue at hand.  The issue is that too many of us care less about God or His Word.  He is revered as a God of convenience who we can get mad at when we want and love when we want.  He is not at the center of our desires and we are not a God fearing society who is after God's own heart.  Funny....we could learn a lot from King David, who we would probably consider an immoral barbaric brute! He would be obliterated in our society but he always went back to desiring God and His heart.  He cried out to God!  Yet amongst all of David's shortcomings, I'd say God still had favor upon him.  Wonder why???....

I'll sum up this post with the following...

Romans 1:18-32

New International Version (NIV)

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, 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 people 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 a mortal human being 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 about 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 sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² 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 those who practice them.

Who Is She Talking To???

As a sweet friend of mine, Jenni, often says, "I am giddy with giddiness", and that's exactly how I feel today so I am stealing her unspoken patent for the day :)  This may very likely be one of those posts that only I connect to and one of those "you had to be there moments" but I still just had to share my giddiness today for God!

I have been blank and empty on my thoughts the past few weeks as far as jotting down my feelings here on this thing I call a blog.  I've struggled with even feeling led to write anything and the few times I did think about writing were going to turn into venting sessions and vainly temporarily release some negative junk I had going on in my head.  Not good and certainly wouldn't have been glorifying the Lord in any way.  Thankfully, the Lord reminded me not to post such issues and move on with a different attitude...one that was focused on Him.  Throughout these past few weeks, I have struggled with that.  Not intentionally so much to make things about myself but it happened nonetheless.  These past couple of months have required much prayer, focus, intention, and devotion on my part.  I have failed miserably but was determined to stay on the path and not choose another.  At times, I became disconnected, weary, frustrated with myself, and doubtful in whether God was hearing me or if He was going to reveal Himself to me.  At times I even wondered why I was in the middle of all of this and why God chose to put me in a situation I was clearly not capable of handling.  I knew the answers but allowed the enemy to creep in on some of that - affecting my mindset and my heart.

I have been holding on to certain verses throughout these past 2 months but I never held on to one in particular... that just so happens to be taped to my computer monitor.  As I am sitting here, God showed it to me again, this time with conviction in my righteousness...

The NIV version of 2 Chronicles 16:9 says For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.  You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.

The King James version of 2 Chronicles 16:9 says For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

That verse mentions nothing about just being committed, sometimes committed, or partially committed.  It says fully committed.  Should you choose to read the other version it speaks of a perfect heart toward Him.  Not good, not sweet, not even great.  Perfect.  I faltered many times these past few weeks, as I do everyday of my life, and did not remain fully committed to God.  If I continue reading that verse then I have to know that I have been foolish in doing so and with that comes war and heartache.  Apart from my total and complete reliance on God I have nothing.  Choosing to face in any direction other than in the face of God will always leave me vulnerable and at war - without God on my side.  I know I will never be able to have a perfect heart toward God...and He knows that too.  Aren't you thankful that we don't live in Old Testament times?  Words and thoughts can't even express how thankful I am for Jesus.  My dependence on His death clothes my imperfect heart.  My dependency on His Word fills my imperfect heart.  My dependency on His Lordship completes my imperfect heart.  When I admit that I am helpless and useless without Him, I am turning over myself and my ways to Him.

I sometimes mention that I often just look around at my surroundings and just stare at God's majesty.  Whether I'm driving or sitting outside or looking out a window, I look at His creation of the skies, trees, flowers, animals, the stars, the sun, the moon and clearly see His hand in all of it.  I honestly am in awe when reflecting on all of it.  His presence seems so obvious to me and I wonder how others could even doubt Him.  What could be better than blatantly looking at something so intricate and majestic that God made from nothing and allows us to live amongst it all??  What could be better than seeing all of the provisions around me that allow me to sustain life? He provides my food, air, water, shelter, and clothing literally in front of my eyes.  Nothing goes unforgotten.  

What could melt my heart more than that?.... When God speaks to me, that's what.  When He actually reveals something to me that is only for me in that moment.  When He answers a specific prayer that only I have prayed and He then tells me about it.  Not that anything God created on this earth is vague, but it's when the spirit of God speaks to my heart intimately that is better than all of that other stuff.  When I know God heard me.  When I know God didn't forget my plea.  When I know that God is showing me exactly how He had it all orchestrated the entire time and then chooses to let me in on it.  That is what is better!  It's when all the pieces of the puzzle that seem random, yet there, start to fit together.  The pieces that you thought you were putting together for His glory all of a sudden don't hold a candle to the puzzle that God just showed you!  It's those moments like I had in the car on the way home this morning where you literally say out loud, "Oh my God!  That's it!  That is it!"  No one in the car with you.  Just you. You are talking and laughing out loud because God has just shown you something or given you that one piece of the puzzle that makes it all fit together.  Yes, that was me this morning :)  

If you can't say that you have had those intimacies with God, then I pray that you surrender your life to His Lordship so you can experience those moments even with your imperfect heart! You can't possibly imagine the magnitude of what that feels like to hear God whisper something in your ear or put something in front of your eyes that is only for you in that moment.  It's those precious moments where you are just left sitting or standing there, barely able to compile an organized thought, and the only thing that even makes sense is to proclaim to the unfathomable God, "You are I AM".... and He replies "You Are Mine."