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Originally Posted by SerenityLives
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Thanks for sharing. In my estimation, the article takes a lot of unjustified liberalities in its thinking and does not make a very good case at all for its claim. One statement is made early on that sets up much of what follows, " God would not ask or expect Christians to ever choose between their heart and their faith." This is fundamentally wrong.
The Bible has much to say about man's heart, and it's not too good, right? It says "“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9) A lot else along these lines is stated in scripture, and it urges us to "not lean on your own understanding." It's popular now to say, "Oh just follow your on heart!" It's all over pop culture and the media and New Age thinking. So follow our heart? NO! NO! NO! The message in the Bible is
don't follow your heart, because you can be horribly deceived by its flighty feelings - instead follow Him and what He says in His word!
And the article talks a lot about "clobber verses" that Christians use to condemn gays and their activities. First, anyone using verses to clobber another person is, in my book, is a prognosticator of legalism. It does little accept alienate and condemn, and makes others defensive. I agree that it's usually not done in love.
However, my intention is not to use such verses to "clobber" gays no more than I would want to use verses about being drunk to clobber an alcoholic. We all know firsthand how the letter kills. But the Bible does call fleshly things out as being off the mark, and that is all there is to it. If I get drunk, or if I say hateful things in anger, that's sin. Period. My heart might not like that the scriptures call out my behavior, but it does. So what do I do? Agree with Him that my behavior has been off the mark and claim the blood of Christ, as my only standing before Him. And ask Him that He would live through me to cause me not to practice such destructive things.
As people with these fleshly "earthsuits," we do still sin. He knows that and has made a Wonderful Provision in Christ for our sin to be handled, so we can come boldly to Him. If we fall 7 times (or 70 x 7), we get back up looking to Him. And by His life, we will not practice sin (though we might fall from time to time).
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Originally Posted by SerenityLives
Are you not doing the same thing to justify why homosexuality is a sin? It seems like based on the experiences of all the bisexual women on here, God has personally told them that it’s God’s Truth that they are living this way. These are human lives we’re talking about.
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Not me, sister. I'm just pointing out what I see in scripture. Again, the Bible tells us the heart is deceitfully wicked and we shouldn't trust our own understanding! One needs to question what they think God has told them, if it doesn't line up well with scripture. It would be like an adulterer saying God told them it was OK to be that way (yet scripture doesn't agree - an inconvenient truth for this one, but there it is)!
I made the example before, but here it is again with some more detail. I like to drink liquor and get buzzed. I do my best to just have fun and not to hurt anyone by this, but sometimes I indulge too much. I then read Ephesians 5:18 which says being drunk is a dissipation of spirit (i.e., leads to reckless indiscretion). I don't like that it exposes my behavior on this, and I can either choose to dismiss it or recognize that it's true. If I dismiss it in some way, this is not agreeing with the Lord and His word, and it will tend to lead me away from Him and away from fresh, open fellowship. What should I do then? I should confess/agree that His word is true and not try to build some case that says being drunk is fine as long as it doesn't cause whatever . . . In other words, I shouldn't justify why I am righteous in my own eyes and agree that I have been off the mark.
This is a humble heart and a contrite spirit before Him. He can and will work with such a heart. But the proud He strongly resists (those that think they know better than He).
The Bible condemns sin, as it should, because sin kills us and those around us. My firm belief is homosexuality is in that category, like many other things of the flesh. A loving God will, and does, point out things that are death to us.
If a child is having fun playing with poisonous vipers, should their father withhold his concern even though the child protests being told, "Don't do that!"? Of course not. The child may think there's no harm and get mighty upset, but . . .
I hope that makes sense, sister.