An Ongoing Debate!

Hello Guys and Gals!

I'm going to post some things I have commented on in the past couple weeks that has been an ongoing debate covering the issues of being gay, judging, what the word of God truly is and how much of it we follow and other things.

First of all, if you're going to quote the verses of the bible, you have to take into the context of the quote the following: Who was the author? Who was his audience? What was happening at that time to prompt the message? and lastly, What is the whole point of the message?

You cannot take just one verse here or there and apply your own interpretation to it. If you do such a thing, then you are not using a logical argument and therefore your whole argument is illogical and false!

I believe that we can talk about tough subjects such as this without resorting to hateful behavior such as 'removing' people from friend lists just because they do not believe as you do. Anyone who does remove others from friend lists for a differing belief is simply showing to the world what a small minded person they are for not being able to accept the fact that theirs is not the only opinion or belief on any given subject.

I believe that if we talk about these hard topics more often that they will become less difficult to talk about and that the truth about all aspects of these hard subjects will become known and people will be able to converse about them without resorting to anger, violence and belittling behavior. Be open minded, not saying you have to accept the other's beliefs, but more that you should listen to them just as they also listen to yours.

How can we know what He views sin to be? By the Word of God! 2 Timothy 3:16-17 states, 'All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.' He has already given to us the definition of what sin is in Leviticus. The original poster does not want to discuss Leviticus because she believes it does not apply today. But the purpose of the Law was to convict the sinner of sin by giving them the knowledge of what sin is. It gives us the knowledge that we have sinned against God and through the Law we know that we need someone to save us from the wrath of God. Galatians 3:22-24 reads, 'But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.' So the purpose of Leviticus is to give us knowledge that we have sinned and to lead us to Christ!

Many people say that we are not to even speak to her about Leviticus or Deuteronomy or any of the texts in the Old Testament which speak about the homosexual lifestyle. But they still do apply whether she wants to believe it or not. She also commented that she did not fully trust the Apostle Paul's letters to be the Word of God! Let me ask you this, if God is almighty, which He is, do you think that He would have let Paul's letters be a part of His Word for so long if they were not inspired by God? The actual translation from the Greek in 2 Timothy 3:16 is more to the effect of 'God breathed'! That means that Scripture, all of it, every last word of it, is breathed directly from the mouth of God the Father, Himself! These people are therefore discounting the very Word of God in her statement. As for their translational efforts of the Greek language in respect to homosexual behavior in the New Testament, it is very clear that they have never studied Greek in any of the ancient dialects and that their understanding of Greek comes from a person who does not have a clear understanding of how the Greek language is to be read or even translated.

What about judging people? I do agree we are not to judge. But we are to discern. There is a difference. Please remember that the 'judging' that the bible refers to as being a sin is one in which a person 'judges' another as being sinful and goes about trying to separate themselves from that sinful person! These are the types of 'judging' that the bibles says for us not to do for that is the sin.

But we ARE supposed to discern! We are to use our judgement to discern the truth which the bible has already defined to see whether another person is sinful or not sinful. So what if we DO discern that they are sinful? Then we go and HELP them free themselves from that sin in love!

Too many people who ARE living in sin use the 'don't judge me' statement as a weapon to try and defend themselves in their own attempt to justify their sin, and yes it is sin, to themselves and the rest of the world.

If a person is truly happy being 'gay', what difference does it make if someone else says their behavior is sin or not sin? The difference is that they KNOW it is a sin and are seeking to justify their living in that sin to themselves and the rest of the world.

But make no mistake, we ARE called to the truth! The truth is that homosexual behavior, meaning the physical act of men lying with men or women lying with women, is a sin! Just like sex outside of marriage, defined as one man and one woman joined in a union under God, is also a sin! Sin is sin and truth is truth! We are to discern the difference and stand up in love against those who would try and subvert the truth from being told. Jesus said, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.' John 14:6! If Jesus is the truth, not a truth, but the truth, then those things that are not the truth are not of Jesus and those things that are the truth are of Jesus! So stand up for Jesus! Stand up for truth! And do not let those who would subvert the truth sway your thinking into thinking that a sin is something acceptable in God's eyes!

But what about what we are called to do as Christians? As for what we are called to be as Christians, we are called to stand for the truth! Jesus said, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.' John 14:6. Therefore with this statement, we know that Jesus is 'the truth', not 'a truth' among many truths, but 'the truth'! Satan is know as the Father of Lies. Therefore we are called to stand for the truth, in love, and help those whom we have discerned to be in sin, out of their sin by showing them the way to Jesus Christ. But this does not mean that we cannot discern the truth! So stand up for Jesus. Stand up for truth. Stand up for the fact that practicing homosexuals are living in sin, the same as those who are having sex outside of marriage, or those who are doing drugs! Yes, drugs is spoken about as sin in the bible, only the translations translate it to the word Sorcery. I was living in sin for the longest time in my own life because I had sex outside of marriage and I did drugs and I told lies and spoke not the truth! That time is over for me and I speak the truth that is the Word of God, Jesus Christ! Matthew 5:17-19 states, 'Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls (or changes) one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.' Jesus Himself spoke about how we are not to attempt to change or teach a changed scripture. I certainly do not want to have to face Him and try to justify why I changed His Word to justify my lifestyle. Do you?

Please do not look at this post as a statement against any of you who might still have sin in your life. We all still have sin in our lives! This is why we need Jesus, who has called us all to His righteousness.

Let me be very clear, I will stand with anyone against any bullying of anyone. But standing against bullying just because it is the GLBT crowd, I will not do! If the GLBT crowd is a part of the victim crowd of bullying I will stand, but not if they're wanting me to stand with them to somehow give them justification that the life they are living is right or honorable in God's eyes!

May God bless you all this day!

Open Honest Discussion About Worldviews!

Hello Guys and Gals!

What is your worldview? Do you know? What do you think about what you believe? Do you know the reasons you believe the way you do?

One of the great things I've ever done in my life was research the reasons as to why I believe what I believe. I did this a little bit before college. But while in college was when I truly committed myself to learning and discovering what I truly believed and why I believed it.

Have you done this? If not, why not?

Not only that, but why can we not have an open and honest discussion about what we believe and fully explore the reasons for believing what we believe? Let's talk about politics, religion, gay rights, homosexuality, marriage, diversity, God, creation, evolution, the big bang theory, and anything else that may come to mind as to why you believe the way you believe and what exactly are the reasons you believe that!

My question is why are all these topics off limits in today's society? Why can we not discuss them? Are we so filled with rage that we cannot have an open and honest discussion about these topics without someone getting angry or resorting to violence? I believe that we can. And the more we talk about these topics openly and honestly, the easier it will become to do so.

So speak freely about what you believe. Ask questions if there are areas where you're not sure about what you believe. Do some study to figure out the different arguments for every side of every topic that you can think of. Figure out which topics are the most important to you and study them first. Because even the order of priority of your beliefs contributes to your worldview!

Let's discuss it and be open and honest about it and not get mad and delete someone from your FB friend list just because they express an argument or disagrees with what you say. We're smarter and better than that! We don't have to be small minded in order to discuss our beliefs. We can do this! Just start and see what you find out about yourself and your friends.

May God bless you all this day!

Taking The Name Of The LORD In Vain!

Hello Guys and Gals!

I would like to once again apologize to you for not being able to write as much as I'd like to in my blog. I have been suffering from a sinus infection that has been very debilitating to my thinking process and when I am feeling foggy headed, I do not want to write in my blog for fear that I may say something that isn't clearly stated for you to understand. I am on a new course of antibiotics that seem to be working very well and as such I have a clear head this morning to be able to write this.

Sunday, my Sunday school class were going through the Ten Commandments. The teacher, Dwayne Moensche, went off on a word study on the Hebrew word which translates to 'vain' in the Old Testament where God gives Moses the commandment to not take the Lord's name in vain. I learned something then that sort of shocked me a bit in my understanding. The word in the Hebrew, and I did not write it down but I will try to find it, meant not simply just using God's name in an inappropriate use, but meant specifically to attribute to God something which God did not do. So taking the Lord's name in vain is more precisely defined as attributing to God works that are not of God! That is all it means. It does not mean any slang that people use involving the 'D' word at all.

Now this got me to thinking. Have you ever heard of the unforgivable sin? The unforgivable sin is attributing to Satan the works of the Holy Spirit. Refer to Matthew 12:31. It has also been translated as blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Now think about these two things. Taking the name of the Lord in vain and blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Both of them are attributing to one, either the Lord or Satan, the works of the other. This is very important I believe.

God says it is a sin saying that works not of His hand are being attributed to Him!

Jesus says that it is an unpardonable sin to attribute the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan!

Do you see how the two are related? I am beginning to see the relation but I am also aware that there are things here that I am not fully aware of. I do not claim any special wisdom on this subject. But I do say that there is a relation here between the two that is very similar. I believe that both God and Jesus, yes they are one in the same but I am referring to Them separately so that clear understanding of who said which is more accurately stated, gave these two instructions to us so that we are aware of yet another aspect of Their Godly Nature.

For the longest time, I used to think that taking the Lord's name in vain was simply speaking His name in any capacity that did not promote the advancement of His will. I was so wrong! How many of us think that what I used to believe is the true meaning of what God meant when He told us not to take His name in vain? But now that I have learned the truth about taking His name in vain, and right away saw the correlation to what Jesus said about attributing to Satan the works of the Holy Spirit, I immediately see how this is the correct and true meaning of taking the Lord's name in vain. It is so simple and yet our translation, being inadequate as it always seems to be, has hindered our understanding of the truth.

So all those times when you think that you have taken the Lord's name in vain and have concluded that you have sinned because of it, may not have actually been sinful. I thank God for granting to me the full understanding of little tidbits of information about His word that fill me with His wisdom and understanding. It is an amazing thing to be loved by God who is constantly showing me something new about His nature! Thank you Jesus for the little tidbits!

May God bless you all this day!

Because Of Him!

Today I remember a man. I remember this man for a very particular reason. I was judged and found guilty. This man told the Judge that He did not want me to be punished and said to the Judge that He would take the punishment for my evil acts. The Judge accepted this and gave the man the harshest punishment and poured out His wrath upon this man for my sins. This man died on the cross of my shame but the grave could not hold Him for such was His Spirit that even death had no hold upon Him. He rose from the grave and I am alive forever more with Him, one Jesus Christ, my personal Lord and Savior!

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, all you have to do as talk to Him as you would your best friend. Tell Him that you acknowledge Him as the Son of God and that you are a sinner. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and also ask Him to come into your life and transform you from a sinner to a saint. He died on the cross by the wrath of God poured out onto Him for our sins so that you may have life, redemption and a personal relationship with Him! All you have to do is reach out to Him. It does not matter where you are in life, all you have to do is turn around and He is right there waiting for you to call His name, for there is no other name under Heaven by which man can be saved and His name is Jesus Christ!

God bless you all this day!

What Have We Lost?

Hello Guys and Gals!

I want to ask you a question today. The question is, what have we lost? I want you to think back to what you know about the founding of our nation and try and place yourself into that culture and then look at today's culture and ask yourself what we have lost.

Back then, we didn't have bars or coffee houses, we had public houses. In those public houses, the two main topics of any conversation were politics and religion. It was through these very public houses and the conversations and debates our forefathers had back then that lead us to the very principles upon which we founded this great nation.

Today, it is a common thing to say don't discuss religion and politics. People say this because they don't like to talk about subjects that are intensely personal to them and they think that these things should be kept to oneself. Why? If it is so intensely personal to you, wouldn't you want to share your beliefs with someone else? Wouldn't you want to discuss their beliefs as well?

Now I'm not advocating going out and beating someone into submission with your beliefs. I am advocating the free discussion of those beliefs in an open exchange with all comers to the discussion. This means that not only will you be able to discuss your beliefs openly with others who will listen to what you say, but others will also be able to discuss their beliefs openly with you as you listen to what they say. You have to be willing to listen to someone who's opinion opposes your own in order to be able to defend your own opinion regarding their opinion will full confidence.

It was through discussions of politics and religion that people were able to understand other religions and political machines that existed in order to discern and develop how we wanted to shape our country. People listened to the beliefs and practices of other people with an open mind and discussed all the possibilities and ramifications of the whole spectrum of beliefs in those conversations. In other words, if we do not know what others are thinking, how then will we be able to say that their thinking is right or wrong? How will they be able to say your thinking is right or wrong if you don't share your thinking with them as well?

So I ask you to remember what you know of the days of the founding of the United States of America. I ask you to look at what they did back then. I ask you to look at what we're doing now. I ask you to ask yourself if we have lost something valuable by not discussing politics and religion.

I think we have!

God bless each and every one of you this day!