Friday, June 12, 2015

Being More Like Jesus - How The Church Must Change When Dealing With Homosexuality

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglica...
I have been aware of the radical homosexual lobby for a long time, but it wasn't till this year that I now understand some things about them that I never knew before. Trolling through some of their facebook pages this morning, reading some of their comments, left me with such an empty feeling in my heart as the voice of God spoke to me very clearly saying, "see how sad, how hardened, and how deceived these people are".

As I pondered it over some more it became apparent to me that these people are under the control of the Demonic Realm, that Satan has blinded their eye's and their hearts so they cannot hear or understand the truth of the Gospel.  Their twisted view of Jesus, and what love is has been so often repeated that they have memorized the Devil's Mantra well.

How can the Church in America which has spent countless years shunning, and shaming them for their behavior now turn around and win them to Christ?  Their view of Christianity is not a positive one at all, in fact, there are many of them in the LGBT community that are all out bitter against anything to we with Jesus Christ, Church, or Christianity.

One of them told me online that their members are so sick of being shamed and made to feel like second-rate citizens by those who are supposed to be all about love, that there is a great distrust of people. They view the liberal religious people in the more orthodox Churches to be real Christians because these people accept them as they are and accept their homosexual behavior too.

Of course, we know that true followers of Jesus can never accept homosexual behavior as being normal, or good, but we must stand with the Word of God and call in what God calls it, sin.  They are right when they say that Jesus would not condemn them, and would show them love, but Jesus would also tell them to repent and come follow him.

We see two good examples to women in the Bible who were both adulteresses, and both has an encounter with Jesus. One was caught in the sexual act of adultery and dragged before Jesus by the Pharisees, the other ran into Jesus at the well as she was preparing to draw up water.  Jesus told the first woman that her sins were forgiven her, go and sin no more, and the other woman Jesus told her to drink the water he would give her (living water), and she would never thirst again.

Jesus in both cases forgave them their sins and they both went away astounded I am sure but grateful that Jesus has compassion on them, when he could have opened up the ground beneath them and swallowed them alive. Jesus showed sinners incredible mercy, and at the same time never excused their sin, but told them to stop sinning.  Jesus still shows the sinner mercy and invites them to stop sinning, and change their ways.

It's unfortunate that the modern day Church has not followed Jesus example but struck out in anger against those who cause them to feel threatened. Christian view the radical homosexuals as being predators, looking to destroy everything in their path, and while there is a some truth to that, the Christian Church in America has largely failed to reach this segment of the population. We have spent more time pushing them away when Jesus would enfold them with grace, and show them love while telling them they need to change.

The Church has also hemorrhaged a ton of young people over the years and failed to reach the younger generations for Christ, or to reclaim them for Christ. This is because the Christians in the Churches are stuck in their religious traditions and won't change to meet the needs to the younger generations. I remember my teen years in youth group with a youth pastor that hated the new Christian music we were all into. He called it questionable music and spent more time alienating us, than teaching us anything substantial.

My Pastor has stated that "the Churches need to change their methodology, but not the message".  When it comes to reaching the homosexuals with the Gospel, we really need to change our ways.  Are we just going to stand by and let countless thousands go into a Christless eternity?  Or are we going to do what is necessary to welcome the people into our Churches so they can hear the Gospel and change?  I never said compromises the message, or accept their behavior as normal, I said let them come into the Church so they can have a chance to change.

We must speak and warn sinners about impending judgment, but we must do it in a loving manner that does not chase them away. oftentimes using the Moral Law of God, the Ten Commandments works, because we have to get them lost before we can get them found. Sinners will respond to a gentle word spoken in a loving manner versus Hell Fire and Brimstone.

I also believe that Christians must fervently pray for the people in the gay community, that their spiritual eyes and ears might be opened by the Holy Spirit that they might understand the truth, and be saved.

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