Introduction
This may be my last post as it could be that Google shuts down my blog. They tend to do this when you are not in agreement with the gay lifestyle. They call it hate speech.
I am however tasked by God to tell the truth. The subject is controversial, but I take my lead from Scripture. I do not condemn gay people at all. I have been involved with gay people in counselling. In fact I am aware how difficult it is to be in that lifestyle. When I was younger, I and an art friend had a David and Goliath type of friendship. I was amazing to see what expression they had on their faces thinking we were both gay. It is demeaning and uncomfortable. The judgement was on their faces.
Certain parents will disown their children and deny that it is their child. That is very hurting and not aligned with Scripture. Some people will make fun of them and talk behind their backs. Being gay is not the problem. That is effectively the same as struggling with other sins as addiction, pornography, alcoholism, sexual sin, lust, etc. We all struggle with sin but God has given us the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin and lead a holy lifestyle.
Unfortunately, the church has taken the stance not to make gay people feel welcome in the church. The church should be a place of nurturing, safety, loving and acceptance of differences, even if we do not agree with your lifestyle. It should be a place of caring and healing. The church has miserably failed in this task, not just towards gay people, but also other people whose lifestyle is not in agreement with the Word of God.
To start off, I believe that people have a wrong view of who God is and what His character is.
God is holy and expect us to have holy lives (totally dedicated to Him). What does it mean to have a holly lifestyle?
1. Pre-requisite. You need to be a child of God to be able to live a holy life.
2. It is a requirement for all children of God. You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" Leviticus 11:44 and Leviticus 19:2. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
3. You need the power of the Holy Spirit. Gal 5, 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”[a]
4. Not to conform to the world. Romans 12:2 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
5. It is a life-long process. 2 Corinthians 7:1 7 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. Hebrews 12: 1-3 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
6. Obedience. 1 Peter 1:14-15 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do
7. Dead to sin. Rom 6: 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 1 John 3: 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
8. Conform to the image of the Son. Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
9. It is a choice. God can only work in you when you make the choice to be holy. Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
10. Perfect holiness will only happen in heaven. One day, in heaven, we will be free from sin and all its effects. Until then, we “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” and keep running our race (Hebrews 12:2).
God’s personality has two distinct characteristics.
1. God is just. He hates sin end therefor has to punish sin. (Rom 6:23). We are born in sin and therefore not acceptable to God. If it were not for Christ, we all should die and be banished to hell.
2. God is love, loves us and does not want to punish us. (1 John 4:8) This characteristic made God send His Son, to come to earth and be crucified. (John 3:16) The perfect sacrifice according to the Bible should be:
a. Fully man
b. Fully God
c. Sinless
The only person that fits those criteria was Jesus Christ. His death and the spilling of His blood paid for your and my sins. If we accept Jesus Christ all our sins are forgiven and we receive Eternal Life as a gift from God. (Rom 5:23) With that we get the Holy Spirit to live in us and give us the power to overcome sin in our lives. He sets us free from the bondage of sin.
We as Christians have to remember that Christ died for us when we were still sinners. He has given us mercy and grace. We have to give mercy and grace to other people as well. If we don’t, we have no idea what mercy and grace is. There is a parable in the Bible that fundamentally tells us that if we do not give mercy and grace to others, God will not give us mercy and grace.
When we say as Christians we do not agree with your lifestyle, you accuse us of not loving you. Unfortunately you are incorrect. it is in fact an act of love. We do not want you, due to your action; end up not seeing the Kingdom of God when you die. That is our motivation. We want you to experience the same freedom we experience.
1. We love you as a person created in the image of God. We love our neighbors and our “enemies” as we make a clear distinction between the person and what he/she does. God gives us compassion to deal with people in a loving and humane way. I know it sounds weird, but that is what happens when the Holy Spirit dwells in you. I seem to have more compassion for people that have not experienced God’s mercy and grace.
2. Just like Jesus we hate sin (or we should). In fact the Lord in His Word puts a responsibility on us to warn people if we see that they are on a path of destruction and eternal death. In fact, if we do not warn people, the Bible tells us that the blood of their souls will be asked of us. Once we have warned, it is the responsibility of the person warned, to accept or reject the warning. If they reject the warning, they are guilty of their own eternal death. (Ezek. 17-19). Warning is therefore an act of godly love. Our deep concern drives us to tell the truth but also tell you about the saving grace of Jesus.
There is also the notion that all people are born gay and cannot help themselves. (I know that I will be criticized or hated for the following statement but I have to speak the truth.) This is not true. There are a number of reasons why people are gay. Some are listed below.
1. Wrong choices of parents. There are a number of children born with both male and female sexual organs. Parents make the decision at an early age which sex the child must be before the child is mature enough to decide what sex they should be. Parents tend to choose the sex of their choice instead of waiting until the child can choose for him/her self.
2. Sins of the fathers. The Bible states that the sins of the fathers will go down the generations (3rd or 4th). It is a bondage that is placed on you by your forefathers. It includes the relevance of divorce, addictions such as gambling, involvement in the occult, gayness, domestic abuse, affairs, etc. These bondages can and should be broken. God wants us to be free from bondage. When these are broken, it will not pass onto your children and grandchildren. In our Freedom in Christ ministry we deal with this issue at our camp. We deal with other issues as well. It is a 7 step process. It is amazing to see how children of God are set free.
3. Absent fathers. There is no father role model for the sons. They hurt and this sometimes drives them to seek acceptance from a male person. It is not wrong to have a male person as your mentor, but unfortunately this sometimes leads to an unhealthy situation which inclines the person becoming gay and becoming involved in the lifestyle.
4. Dominant mothers. Grow up in a female environment and they become feminized. This can have the effect of the person turning gay. They emulate the environment that they are exposed too.
5. Sexual abuse at a young age. Young people are invariably vulnerable at a young age. Wrong sexual experiences sometimes result in the person believing he/she is gay or prostitution.
6. Bad marriage experience (especially ladies). Again people are very vulnerable when they go through divorce. If you have a very loving person to get you through the difficult time, that sometimes creates the belief that the person will be better off with a same sex partner.
Unfortunately all of us are a product of our past. We can’t change the past. But we don’t have to be a prisoner of the past unless we allow it.
Freedom from sin and a holy life pleasing to God is available to all who live in a relationship with the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Reasons why we reject your lifestyle (not you).
1. Romans one is very clear that it is sin that creates a man (women) to leave his/her natural desires for unnatural desires. It says that the gay lifestyle is an abomination in the eyes of God. The sex act is driven by lust and not love. Real Agape love is not possible without a holy lifestyle.
2. Man and woman were made to perfectly match each other so that they can have intercourse in a natural way and procreate. A married man can have in the region of 3-5 000 sexual encounters in his wife, (if they only have sex inside their marriage) without any damage to their body (Mark 10:5, Gen 2:18, Gen 1:27) (1Pet 1:16) He created man and women. Eve was made to be the helper to Adam. Both are equal in value in eyes of God. They just have different roles to play. Our bodies were also made different to fit each other for procreation. Nowhere in the Bible does God condone an intimate relationship between two men and two women. Marriage is defined by the Bible as a union between a man and a woman.
3. The act of man on man (women on women) sex is not normal as God intended it to be. A man e.g. put his erect penis into the rectum of the male to have sex. The rectum is designed to rid your body from waste. The sex act is therefore not a very savory act and outside God’s will. In fact, many gay males lose their bowl functions because of gay sex and needs surgery to correct. If God condoned male on male sex, this would not be the outcome. (1 Cor. 6:9, Lev. 18:22). The same applies to women on women relationships. It is an artificial stimulation that is not the way God intended it to be.
4. In the Old Testament, if a man was caught in female clothing or had a gay lifestyle, the penalty was everlasting death. God has not changed. That is unfortunately going to happen if a gay person does not accept the saving grace of Jesus Christ. (Lev 20:13, Deut. 22:5). As hard as you don’t want to believe it, we will all be judged by the Lord on His second coming, and will be judged on what we did. Only those that have been forgiven by the blood of Christ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We tend to think that God’s wrath will be far less than in the Old Testament. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. This is not so. I have a belief that the wrath of God may be more severe because of rejecting His Son. Just think how you would feel if one of your children was chosen to die for others and the people rejected him and chose not to accept the mercy and grace.
5. The Bible also says that all sex out of marriage has consequences inside your body. (1 Cor. 6:18) That includes man/women and same sex sexual activity. It is the only sin that happens in your body. When a wife and husband have intercourse a good soul tie is formed as they are within the will of God. When you have sex outside marriage it forms a negative soul tie. We call it bondage. Unless the bondage is broken, through accepting Christ as your Savior, these bondages will pull you deeper into your sinful deeds. Lust takes over. That is why in certain gay relationships, it progresses to more perverse sex and orgies.
6. The Bible tells us that if you willfully sin you will never see the Kingdom of God. The gay community, as well as the promiscuous lifestyle of heterosexual people, has been warned many times by Christians and yet they keep on sinning. (Heb. 10:26). I have many testimonies of people that listened to the Lord and have either been fully healed or have a celibate holy lifestyle. God says in His Word, that He wants obedience. Without obedience we will not see the Kingdom of God.
7. Many pastors condone gay marriage. They are false prophets pandering to the ears of people not to upset them. They will have to give reckoning to God and will face eternal death. (Matt 25:9, 11, 2 Tim 4:3-4). We are not charged to be popular. The Lord was quite clear that we will go through troubled times and even persecution for what we believe in. Even with that in mind, we believe that we must tell the truth. The truth will set you free if you accept the Truth.
8. It is not a holy lifestyle as God requires. Without a holy lifestyle, we will not see the kingdom of God.
These are the words of God. Not a human’s.
A word to parents:
If you have a gay child, it is not wrong to have deep feelings of love for him/her. In fact, if you did not love your child, there is something wrong in your life. If you claim to be a Christian, I would say to you that your relationship with God, and therefore your child, is very suspect. We have to love everybody, even our enemies. Your child is not your enemy.
What I do believe is important, is that your child must know that you do not condone the lifestyle as it is not within the will of God, but that you do not judge them. They should know that you love them. If you do that, most children will appreciate your honesty and respect your view, although they may not agree with you. Your job is to pray for their salvation.
What is the solution?
1. Come to Christ and live a holy life.
2. Parents wait until your child is mature enough to choose the sex of their choice if they are born with multi sex organs. Give them the chance to decide. Don’t change them to suit your need for a son or daughter. Let them develop and choose their own sex.
3. Come to Christ and break the bondage if it is the sin of your fathers. It may just be the act that will set you free. In one of our ministries we deal with bondage. It is amazing how people have been set free from bondages that they carried with them for years. The process is simple. You can do it yourself if you are a child of God
a. Acknowledge the bondage.
b. Pray that God will break the bondage. It is through His power that you can break it.
c. Take hold of your freedom and live in freedom daily.
d. Live a holy lifestyle.
4. If you do not have same sex sexual relationship, make the right choice. Live a celibate life with God, and the Holy Spirit will give you power to overcome. This is an extremely difficult choice. This does not necessarily mean that you will be healed from same sex attraction, although we have heard many stories where previously gay people have been healed and are now happily married to the opposite sex. The Bible says we must allow God to renew our minds. It is in this process that a lot of healing has taken place. On the other hand, many gay people have not been healed from same sex attraction. However their choice to live a holy lifestyle makes it possible not to submit to their sinful desires.
5. Stop your lifestyle, come to Christ and you will have a joyful and fulfilled life. You will be free from sin. And who knows, you may be cured by God from your same sex addiction. If not, live a holy life that is pleasing to God. I know that to leave a partner is extremely difficult, but if Jesus is not the center of your life, in other words your gay relationship is more important than God, you will not see the Kingdom of God.
6. Ignore the warning but you will have to take responsibility for your actions. Eternal death will be your end. Harsh words, but true.
The real question in your mind needs to be:
Can I live a holy lifestyle if I am involved in the gay lifestyle?
That is what God calls you to do. Without a holy lifestyle we will not see the Kingdom of God. May you be encouraged to make the correct choice. I refer you to my blog on the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to read it. The Holy Spirit is the key to make the right choices and to live a holy life that is pleasing to God.
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