If Church must be love, then the arguments churches have over beliefs are getting in the way of love. Take the issue of homosexuality.
My Bible says we are to hate the sin and love the sinner. My Bible also says that homosexuality is a sin. So are gluttony, lying, and gossiping.
I know that the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality in the 1970's from a disorder to an acceptable life style. Saying it doesn't make it so.
My life in the theatre and just the world at large has brought me into relationship with many homosexuals of both genders. Absent or distant fathers, aggressive mothers, sexual abuse, sexual predators and ignorant child rearing all contribute to the "decision" some people make to be homosexuals.
I just want the truth and fairness.
If I am fat, call me fat.
If I am a gossip, call me a gossip.
If I lie, confront me.
If I do heinous things, punish me in love. Don't let me continue to do those things.
If I do things that God clearly says I should not do, like have sex with someone of my sex, remind me that I am not in God's will. Love me but don't cross over to my side and pretend that I am OK when I am not.
I happen to love sinners. If I didn't, I would have to live alone and not even talk to myself.
If we embrace love as a decision, our hearts follow.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Why are things so Different today?
This is from Father Joseph Girzone's Blog: www.joshuamountainblog.org
September 23, 2011
Father Girzone wrote the international best seller Joshua
Jesus,
why do we not have peace and why we have so many problems?
“The
answer is very simple. Because you choose
to live in fear, and to hate and lie about one another. Your hate and your lies
destroy any hope for the future, and adding to that is your refusal to forgive
one another. Lack of money is not your problem, it is fear inspired by a mean
and twisted spirit. You are sick people
and it’s your own fault that everything around you is crumbling. You ask for
healing. How can I heal when you hate?
You are merely reaping the harvest of your hatred. As long as you continue destroying one another
and think it virtue, you spread evil every time you open your mouth, so don’t
pray to me for peace and healing while you choose to hate. And you call yourselves patriots and my
disciples. I don’t even know you. When you learn to practice what I taught you,
come to me and ask for forgiveness, and if you are sincere I will try to believe
you. But, nothing that you do inspires me
to trust you.”
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Fight or Love - It's Your Choice
This is a sermon for the week: "Fight or Love, It's your Choice".
Some people look at everything that happens to them as a fight to be won or lost:
How do you live your life, fighting or loving? One way to tell is to check your blood pressure, no joke. If you have high blood pressure, you are not only eating the wrong foods, but you are fighting your way through your life. If you have low blood pressure, you may be loving your way through your life, which is healthier and ultimately wins the day.
It's ironic and one of the paradoxes of how God works, that when you lay down your arms, you win the war. When you choose to practice love and forgiveness, you win.
How is it with you today? If you want to switch sides, just choose to lay down your weapons and begin to practice love, even if you don't feel like it.
Act like a loving, forgiving person and you will become one. You can take that one to the bank.
Some people look at everything that happens to them as a fight to be won or lost:
- a job
- a mate
- shopping
- raising kids
- driving
- eating
- dieting
- socializing
- government
- community groups
- churches
- condo associations
- families
How do you live your life, fighting or loving? One way to tell is to check your blood pressure, no joke. If you have high blood pressure, you are not only eating the wrong foods, but you are fighting your way through your life. If you have low blood pressure, you may be loving your way through your life, which is healthier and ultimately wins the day.
It's ironic and one of the paradoxes of how God works, that when you lay down your arms, you win the war. When you choose to practice love and forgiveness, you win.
How is it with you today? If you want to switch sides, just choose to lay down your weapons and begin to practice love, even if you don't feel like it.
Act like a loving, forgiving person and you will become one. You can take that one to the bank.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Who Me?
My Bible study this morning about Gideon highlights what all of us have said at one time or another, "Who me?" or "Why me?"
Gideon, when asked by God to lead the charge and kill some enemies, asked those questions. He was so mistrustful that he put out a "fleece", tested God twice. He said, "If you do this, then I'll do that."
A bargaining sort Gideon was not initially ready to drop it all to help out God. Sound familiar?
What do you think God wants you to do that seems odd, or different, or scary, or something you have never done before, or bold? Do you test God, do you bargain, quibble, and negotiate with the "If then" scenario?
Today is your day. Today is the day you can stop that and start to lead the charge.
What is it?
- Saying grace at a meal when others are around,
- reading God's love story every day, even if no one else you live with does it,
- eating the way God tells you to eat, even in public settings
- dressing modestly in a world of fashion lasciviousness
- using language to bless and not to curse
- exercising when no one else does
- picking up trash that others mindlessly throw around, even in public restrooms
- saying "no" when you used to say "yes"
- saying "yes" when you used to say "no"
Who me? Who you?
You know deep inside when you are being "called" to step out and do something. Please conquer your objections and begin. Today is the day.
Gideon, when asked by God to lead the charge and kill some enemies, asked those questions. He was so mistrustful that he put out a "fleece", tested God twice. He said, "If you do this, then I'll do that."
A bargaining sort Gideon was not initially ready to drop it all to help out God. Sound familiar?
What do you think God wants you to do that seems odd, or different, or scary, or something you have never done before, or bold? Do you test God, do you bargain, quibble, and negotiate with the "If then" scenario?
Today is your day. Today is the day you can stop that and start to lead the charge.
What is it?
- Saying grace at a meal when others are around,
- reading God's love story every day, even if no one else you live with does it,
- eating the way God tells you to eat, even in public settings
- dressing modestly in a world of fashion lasciviousness
- using language to bless and not to curse
- exercising when no one else does
- picking up trash that others mindlessly throw around, even in public restrooms
- saying "no" when you used to say "yes"
- saying "yes" when you used to say "no"
Who me? Who you?
You know deep inside when you are being "called" to step out and do something. Please conquer your objections and begin. Today is the day.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
A Prayer For You
I am praying this prayer for you, anyone who reads this blog, anyone who I know, and anyone who wants to know more about God. I wish that were the whole world.
"In my prayers I keep asking the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus), the glorious father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you will have full knowledge of Him. I pray that He will give light to the eyes of your hearts, so that you will understand the hope to which he has called you, what rich glories there are in the inheritance he has promised his people, and how surpassingly great is His power working in us who trust Him."
Ephesians 1:16-19
"In my prayers I keep asking the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus), the glorious father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you will have full knowledge of Him. I pray that He will give light to the eyes of your hearts, so that you will understand the hope to which he has called you, what rich glories there are in the inheritance he has promised his people, and how surpassingly great is His power working in us who trust Him."
Ephesians 1:16-19
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Hope
"For what (I) am proclaiming is not( myself), but the Messiah Yeshua as Lord..."
4 Cor:5
"We have all kinds of troubles, but we are not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair; persecuted, yet not abandoned; knocked down, yet not destroyed."
4 Cor 8-9
"I trust and therefore I speak."
"This is why (I) don't lose courage. Though (my) outer self (like yours) is heading for decay, (my) inner self is being renewed daily." 4 Cor 13, 16
So if anyone wants to know why I speak out, have 6 blogs, am working, writing a book, learning about eating and preparing food in a new way, this is why. Not because I have to, but because I get to. I must.
Please pray that I finish the task.
4 Cor:5
"We have all kinds of troubles, but we are not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair; persecuted, yet not abandoned; knocked down, yet not destroyed."
4 Cor 8-9
"I trust and therefore I speak."
"This is why (I) don't lose courage. Though (my) outer self (like yours) is heading for decay, (my) inner self is being renewed daily." 4 Cor 13, 16
So if anyone wants to know why I speak out, have 6 blogs, am working, writing a book, learning about eating and preparing food in a new way, this is why. Not because I have to, but because I get to. I must.
Please pray that I finish the task.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
I Seek Beauty All My Days
One of my favorite novelists, Catherine Cookson, has an autobiography called Our Kate. In it she wrote,
"I will seek beauty all my days.
Within the dark chaos of a troubled world I will
seek and find some Beauteous Thing.
From eyes grown dim with weeping will shine a Light
to guide me, and in Sorrow's Hour
I shall behold a great High Courage.
I shall find the wonder of an infinite Patience,
and a quiet Faith in coming Joy and Peace.
And Love will I seek in the midst of Discord and
find swift eager hands out and stretched in welcome.
I will seek Beauty all my days, and in my quiet
I shall not be dismayed.
I shall find God."
This reminds me of the old rag picker in The Mad Woman of Chaillot by Jean Giradoux whose famous line is, "I hate ugliness. I love beauty."
What about you? Will you seek the ugliness everywhere or will you, like me try to find beauty and what is worthy all the days of your life?
Did you know that you could choose which one you will seek?
"I will seek beauty all my days.
Within the dark chaos of a troubled world I will
seek and find some Beauteous Thing.
From eyes grown dim with weeping will shine a Light
to guide me, and in Sorrow's Hour
I shall behold a great High Courage.
I shall find the wonder of an infinite Patience,
and a quiet Faith in coming Joy and Peace.
And Love will I seek in the midst of Discord and
find swift eager hands out and stretched in welcome.
I will seek Beauty all my days, and in my quiet
I shall not be dismayed.
I shall find God."
This reminds me of the old rag picker in The Mad Woman of Chaillot by Jean Giradoux whose famous line is, "I hate ugliness. I love beauty."
What about you? Will you seek the ugliness everywhere or will you, like me try to find beauty and what is worthy all the days of your life?
Did you know that you could choose which one you will seek?
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