It's never too late...

Well...for some it is

NOW that's what I'm TALKIN' BOUT!

Don't get punked!!

How Sad...Oh, how the pathetic have fallen!!

Could be...you're doing it wrong...something to think about, maybe?

24 years ago I left homosexuality.  Yeah, I know, "It's impossible to stop being gay, you're born that way."  That's a crock of crap, but I've heard some people believe if they close their eyes, click the heals of their little red flats together, and wish real hard, they'll magically appear in Kansas.  Being born that way is just a lyric from a lady gaga song.  I've got stacks and stacks of facts, but that isn't what people want these days.  Tell a big lie loud and proud and long enough, and eventually people will start to believe it.  I've done that story though, and I'm over it. 

I'm not bothered by sex in the least, meaning I'm not at all prudish or fearful.  I'm not saying I believe all sexual expression is good or right, or life afirming.   I'm not bothered by fetishes, straight sex, gay sex, and we'll just keep it to those areas.  I don't believe sex bothers God in the least.  Priests bother little boys with sex, and that kind of sex REALLY bothers me!!  What 2 consenting people, with adult bodies, want to do with each other doesn't bother me.  I get it, and I used to do it.  I've had it with both guys and gals.  So what is all the fuss about sex?  and does God really hate gay people, porn actor people, boys who want to be girl people, shacking up people, husbands cheating on wife people???   God doesn't hate people... Some people who claim to be God's people are hateful people, but God doesn't hate.  God told us, "For God so loved the world he gave the world his One and Only Son..."  I've been trying so hard to find a way to explain God's problem with sex.  God's problem with sex is that people keep doing it all the wrong the way.  And when I say God's problem with sex is people doing it the wrong way I don't mean that the only way God wants us to have sex is in a bed, in the dark, fully dressed, and only in the missionary position.  

I've been watching a lot of English television shows on Netflix.  I love the newest, edgy Sherlock Holmes, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes.  REALLY GOOD STUFF.  I find British television to be incredibly quirky and fun.  During my Anglophile Telly Fest, I've sampled from the best and the worst.  Cumberbatch as Holmes, is the BEST!  And  then there was this teen drama thing.  I won't say the name of the show, because I'm a bit embarrassed to say I watched some of it.  I wasn't bothered by the content.  I'm always troubled when I see youth doing many of the stupid things I did when I was a teen, but making that crap into a TV show is moronic.   I'm embarrassed to say I wasted time watching such an awful show, but then when I was teenager I had a mullet.  There you go... I have a history of moments of moderate bad taste, but I always recover and get over it.  Anyway, there was this little fellow who was playing the token gay boy.  I didn't think he was at all believable, in the role of a gay lad.  In one scene the most popular boy in the world, his world anyway, starts kissing him and pulling off his clothes.  When the most popular boy in the world goes down on him what do you suppose his response is??   "YIPEEE SKIPPY!! RAINBOWS DO SHOOT OUT SKITTLES!!"   No, he told the most popular boy; certainly the source of every hope and sexual fantasy of every little gay boy..."If only the most popular and gorgeous boy would suck my fun stick the world would be kind and fair."   But our little limey poofta tells the subject, (of all his best and most fervent wank sessions), basically, that he sucks at "sucking carrot".  You'll have to believe me when I say this, "It doesn't matter if perfect pretty boy accidentally hit tooth once or twice."  Every little gay boy I've ever known had a vision of the perfect fantasy f***, and the few who actually had their perfect fantasy never dissed the expertise of that fantasy lover.  Did the perfect fantasy actually SUCK (in a bad way)???  It's an exceptional probability that it did suck badly.  Let's face it... That perfect fantasy guy was so drunk he couldn't remember it, and if he could that little gay boy would never have survived to tell.  (Course here's the really funny thing... Some of you guys who got invited to all the best parties in high school and college, but can't remember some or many of those parties, should REALLY be glad your tonsils or colons couldn't get knocked up!!... Some of you ubber straight frat boys, who could hear a gorgeous little chick merely think, "O GOD!! I am so drunk right now!", ten miles away, became fair game after you also got so drunk you also blacked out.  I've seen the pictures boys!  And you might not have been good at it, but in the pictures you sure looked like you knew what you were doing!). 

Anyway... I wasn't buying the little gay Brit chit.  But then the most astounding thing happened in the very next episode.  There was this big ugly break up between the most popular perfect gorgeous guy and the most popular perfect gorgeous girl, and therefore there was a breakdown in the whole group.  And what do you suppose our little gay lad did?  The little gay guy, who couldn't, believably, reject the most popular straight guy, said, "IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"  The most popular and gorgeous straight boy was a total duchebag, and was the real cause of the breakdown of their little group.  Just when I didn't think this obvious, badly written, ridiculous British teen drama had a single believable character, they go and redeem themselves.   When the gay boy says, "I'm to blame, it's all my fault!" THAT gave the actor credibility.  "I'm to blame," in one way or another is the crack which appears in the "I'm loud and I'm proud," lie.  Every sexually immoral person or in more popular vernacular, "slut" or "ho bag", has an Achilles heel.  Somewhere and somehow the slut or ho bag is always to blame for everything everywhere going wrong.  Mom and dad divorced, "It's all my fault."   The guy next door pulled my clothes off and started doing weird awful things, "IT'S ALL MY FAULT."   The high school football hero tore off my dress..."IT'S ALL MY FAULT."  This rings true.  It's the crack in the lie, "I'm just born this way."  

God's not against sex, and God doesn't hate people for having sex.  What God hates is the lie that leads to having sex the wrong way, for all the wrong reason.  More and more, people hurt and neglect little people who have little or no recourse.  As those little people grow toward becoming big people they believe, "I'm to blame," and they want to spend the rest of their lives victimizing themselves the way they were victimized when they were little.  "I'm to blame," so I don't deserve real love."  "I'm to blame," so what if this guy uses me just like the last guy, and the guy before him, and the guy..."  "I'm to blame," so F*** IT! I'LL SHOW ALL OF THEM I DON'T FEEL ANYTHING!!  SURE I'LL F*** THIS GUY, AND SHOW THEM I'M TOUGH AND DON'T GIVE A S***!" 

Doesn't matter how or why it's said, it always begins the same way, "I'm to blame..." 

God doesn't hate you, and he doesn't hate sex.  God simply wants to take away all the hurt, neglect, and unspeakable things that twisted your mind when you were too young to be able to understand you couldn't POSSIBLY be to blame.  God wants to take all the blame, and then he wants to give you a clean slate.  And maybe just maybe... you can start having relationships, because you're not "damaged goods," or "dirty," or "unlovable."   God wants to free you so you can have great sex in a great relationship with a person who doesn't blame you.  God doesn't hate sex, he hates the sex which comes from that horrible lie, "I'm to blame..."

I'm Not Gay Anymore, But I Still Find One Kinda Guy HOTT!!

As I said at the beginning of my last post I left homosexuality 24 years ago.  A few years before that, when confronted with the truth of a good friend's HIV positive status, and his fast approaching death from full blown AIDS I was changed.  I can honestly say I'd slept with a lot of guys, but I never loved one of them.  When confronted with my friend's dismal medical prognosis was when I started dealing with many of my feelings for him.  We'd had sex once or twice, but I certainly didn't love him.  When I got to know this guy, long after the sex, was when I saw him for more than the parts of him I wanted to poke with my dick.  Sorry I really don't believe there is a nice way to put it.  That's how I lived my life back then and that is all there is to it.  If it makes you feel better I didn't like myself and my behaviors back then either. 

I didn't want my friend to die, and the fact that he'd f***ed himself, literally, to death made everything all the worse.  At the same time I learned my friend was dying I also learned a group called "ACT UP" that had started protests, in of all the places, Wall Street.  They would yell out, "You are killing us!!!"  Funny  I don't remember anyone holding a gun to my head to make me take my clothes off.  If I saw a guy's dick the clothes flew off.  The sight of another guy's carrot was the cause of a lot of lost underwear.  My mother, to this day, still doesn't know why she had to keep a steady of supply of tighty whiteys coming my way.   "Don't ask ma, and keep the shorts coming!"  We were the ones killing ourselves, and that was the fact.  We didn't have to go on killing ourselves, but the rush to our own demise almost seemed to escalate for a while.  We were like lemmings running gleefully for the cliffs and the fall, headlong, into the abyss.  And then those SOB's from ACT UP started throwing blame in every direction but our own.  I was absolutely disgusted and demoralized.  The way the guys in the gay community acted back then was worse than a bunch of pigs.  Through my careless attitude, and poor lifestyle choices I contributed to the death of a dear friend.  Of course when I stood up and said something about it I was shunned by the rest of our friends.  I did go to my friends funeral, the only one I'd ever attend, though most of my group was hit very hard by AIDS.   I chose to change, and part of that change was not taking part with a group of people who kept f***ing themselves to death.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, "I bear no guilt for anyone's death from AIDS; I have no blood on my hands."  I am HIV negative, because I chose to change.  And for any of you new folks who don't know.  I did not leave homosexuality due to any religious convictions.  I was an atheist when  I left homosexuality.  I did leave homosexuality for mostly ideological reasons, but none of that reasoning was religious in nature.  I decided to take responsibility for myself and change my behavior.  I had no idea if I could completely change my gay feelings, but if I failed I could always get my hands on a gun and settle the problem that way.  If I was going to die it damned sure wasn't going to be AIDS.  If I had to die then it would be my way, by my own hand.  That doesn't sound very life affirming, but I still contend it was a better choice than having my name end up on that damned AIDS Quilt. 

It took a long time, and my relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the greatest factor in the change of my feelings.  I have a vastly different view of my sexuality and of my attraction to men.  I am still very attracted to men, just so we're clear.  When I see a dad with his son or daughter, and the evidence of a close loving relationship is fairly glaring at me from the way he's behaving, I get a big ole fat one!!  When I see a man who is clearly demonstrating love to his wife and mother of his children I darned near bust a nut in my jeans.  I love men when they are loving their families...THERE IS NOTHING HOTTER THAN A MAN WHO LOVES HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN.  I don't want to have sex with guys anymore, but the best porn in the world is watching a man who loves his family, and seeing the result of that in how his family respond to him.  When a man is a loving giving man to his family, when they are out together they never stray far from the man.  Watch a family sometime at a mall.  If the man is a loving and giving man he is like a candle flame to moths.  Everyone in his family, without understanding what they are doing, will hover around him.  It doesn't matter how young or old the children are, if he is a loving and involved husband/dad he is the center of his families attention.  Even older teenaged sons will stick to dad almost like glue.  And it isn't just being a good dad.  Dad has to be a good and involved husband as well.  There is no force in the world greater, or sexier, than a man who is loving of and devoted to his family.  If you want to understand God's way, of loving and how he expresses his authority then you need look no farther than a husband and father completely devoted to and loving his family.  

You can keep the big dicks and the male models, but give me the devoted loving husband and dad!!  I'm wood central for that kind of guy! 

Who Did Jesus Leave In Charge?

I've thought of many approaches to this post, and I could write a post from any of those perspectives.  Leadership in the Church what does it look like, and what does God want it to look like?   I believe there is a vast difference between what God desires for the Church and the leadership we have.  First let's just get it out of the way:  Jesus is head of the Church; Jesus really is the boss.  

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."

Matthew 28:18

All authority has been given to resurrected Jesus.  But of course this begs a question:  Jesus says "All authority has been given...," who gave all authority to Jesus?  We know Father God gave Jesus all authority.  So Jesus is under authority, the authority of the Father, and what about the Holy Spirit?  I read an article several years ago that put forth the idea that God the Father, God the Son, and God The Holy Spirit submit to, promote the others, and point us to each other.  Jesus said, "I always do what I see the Father doing."  So...Jesus promotes submission to authority.  Jesus also appoints authority.

"But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says:

That Soon You'd Be Serving Notice To Your Employer ?

 I was working like a dog last Monday.  I was also horribly sick; two infections going at me at the same time.  I have a sinus infection and an infected sebaceous cyst on my neck.  Before too long I became frustrated with being weakened by illness, and having too much work to accomplish.  Soon I was angry, and then I complained.  "Why am I doing this," I spat out?!  "This is completely insane; killing myself, and for what?!"  This complaint was taking me back to familiar territory.  In 2005 I'd lived and worked in this same South Carolina town, and for the same boss I'd worked for before, but now for a completely different furniture company.  I used to make the same kinds of complaints about my job in furniture, I was, just now, beginning to make.  I knew this line of complaining was the wrong thing for me to be doing, but I'd had it.  I continued complaining until I finally arrived at the very complaint I used to end up at, so many years before, "I'm killing myself to do what," I bitterly complained?!   True to form I went for the last line of the  old grumbling, "I'm killing myself to sell people sticks and rags!"   "I am beating my infection weakened and weary body into the ground so we can sell people more sticks and rags they don't even need!!"  I went straight for the coup de grace!!   "THIS IS UTTERLY POINTLESS AND WORTHLESS WORK!!"  I expected God's stinging rebuke, but instead it was as if I stepped over a threshold through a thick curtain.   Instead of God's rebuke, on the other side of this curtained threshold was a realization from God, "This truly is utterly pointless and worthless work, which does not serve God's call on, or his purpose for your life, at all."   I've had God drop insights into my spirit before, but I'd never experienced God's insights quite this way.  I'd expected a rebuke but instead found God agreeing, completely, with my judgment.  I was shocked!! 

Now don't get me wrong here.  God is not against hard work, even if that work is in the secular arena.  Good, hard, honest, diligent work is always the right and godly thing to do.  Obviously, there are some kinds of work God doesn't honor.   God would not honor work in the sex trade.  God would not honor the work of criminals.  God would never honor the work of lawyers or politicians...OKAY... That last one is a joke...mostly.   There are many Christians who believe the only noble, or the most noble work to God is evangelism, missions, or other form of full time ministry.  Any work which is honest and productive work is honorable, worthy and noble in God's estimation.  Not everyone is called to full time ministry work.   I do believe, and more importantly the Bible teaches that every born again person is created in Christ to do good work, God prepared for us to do, (Ephesians 2:10).   So even the doctors, lawyers, cowboys and such have good works prepared by God.  There is nothing that says all good work must be specifically ministry.  For my boss the furniture business may not be "utterly pointless and worthless work."  For my boss the furniture business is not pointlessly selling "sticks and rags."   God wasn't judging secular business, God was judging my particular work situation, from the perspective of his call and purpose for my life's work. 

YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME AGAIN

God gave me the job I have.  God brought me back to the work and church I'd had 6.5 years ago.  Nothing has been working out for me, almost from the beginning.  There is, decidedly, a lack of "grace" to do the job.  I rely on God for his grace and wisdom to carry me through the work day, but I've been noticing grace has been lacking.  What's more I honestly cannot care.  It  isn't a matter of not wanting to care, it is the realization I should not care.  I am still working hard, and seek to honor God, but it is becoming harder and harder to honor work God has told me he doesn't honor.  I always tended to complain when I felt work was overwhelming me, so many years ago instead of complaining I would say, "I love my job!" and then I'd say a quick prayer of thanks for God's providence in having a job.  My attitude and work performance improved over time as I grew more and more grateful and I did really start loving my job.  On Wednesday, as I was working, I said, "I love my job!"  When I complain about my job, God doesn't rebuke me.  When I say, "I love my job," NOW God rebuked me!   The conviction of the Holy Spirit came to me like a stinging slap across the face...or butt, if you prefer that kind of picture for how God disciplines.   For years and years, I'd always asked God for one favor.  I asked God, that the last job I got, right before he moved me into the ministry work he called me to do, if I could do a job I'd love.   I honestly thought this was the job I'd love, but I don't love it.  I don't hate my job, but I certainly don't love it.   And when I felt the sting of God's conviction this is what the Spirit said, "I cannot give you work you will love more than the work I call you to do!"   This past week has been one life changing insight after the other!!  Never in my life has God dealt with me in this way.  You certainly "CAN'T EVER GO HOME AGAIN!"   Okay, you can't ever go home again if we're talking about me.  I don't know...maybe you can go home again, but now  I know it will never work out for me.  God doesn't back peddle.  With God it is, "FULL STEAM AHEAD, AND DAMN THE TORPEDOES!!!!"  

I can't say when I will actually serve my employer with notice of my intent to terminate employment, but it can't be too far away.  I haven't had time to worry.  I've been to flippin' busy to think about much of anything. 

So, if you have a little time on your hands, maybe you could let me know what you think?  I mean, let me know what you think about this odd "work" thing I'm experiencing.   Do you have any experiences like this?  Has God ever notified you of something he was going to do, or something he wanted you to do?

Whose The Boss?

THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES

I've spent a great deal of time carefully looking at authority and leadership in the Church.  Notice please I've capitalized the "C" in Church so I'm talking about the Universal Church; the communion of all believers.  AND NO, I don't mean the Roman Catholic Church.  I do recognize the Roman Catholic Church as a part of the Universal Church, but not as the beginning and/or center of Christendom.   Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and many others were right to stand up to the Roman Catholic Church and demand reform.  When the Roman Catholic Church refused to reform, a split was inevitable, and absolutely necessary.  Having said all of that, I now say, only a fool would throw the Church at Rome completely out the window.  I say the same thing about Luther and Calvin.  I certainly do not agree with all Luther or Calvin had to say, but I would not dare throw their enormously important works out the door, because I do not agree with everything they've written.   There are many voices in the Church I love, and I have disagreements with all of them.  None of us has a perfect understanding of God.  If we understood God then we'd be God.  Even the Bible tells us none of us has it all right.  The Apostle Paul recognized that his knowledge was only partial.  

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

I would greatly appreciate if more theologians today would pay attention to what the Bible says.  Clearly having all the answers wasn't required, even by the massive intellect of the New Testament's most prolific and gifted theologian and writer, St. Paul.  Many theologians have created systematic theologies which appear to tie up every loose end, dot every T and cross every I, but the Scriptures have been telling us for over 2000 years that, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly..." and "Now I know in part..."   We do not know everything and we will not until we stand face to face with HIM who is everything.  

I am concerned when I hear Church leaders teach what is contrary to what the Scriptures clearly state.  They do not fear God and from what I can see they pay mere lip service to the Scriptures and say that every word in the Bible is absolutely true without any taint of human failing.  These same men claim that God only speaks to us, today, through the Bible.  Again there seems to be no fear of God for they contradict what Jesus teaches. 

"But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

Matthew 4:4

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

John 10:27

"But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit."

Mark 13:11

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

John 14:26

Jesus clearly teaches that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have spoken, are speaking, and will continue to speak.  The problem with the Bible isn't  the Bible.  There is no problem with the author or the contents of the Bible.  The problem with the Bible is us human beings pretending we understand the Bible, or that we can even understand the Bible with a merely human intellect.  

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Bible is the basis of all belief, is authoritative in the matters the Bible covers, and is the final say so for any who call themselves believers in Christ Jesus.  The Bible is the standard for the Universal Church.  If there is a question, the Bible settles the question.   But this last statement begs an important question:  If the Bible settles all questions for the Church then why is the Church so splintered and divided?   This takes us back to the author of the Bible.  If the Holy Spirit were trusted to truly teach us the story would have been very different.  Churches do get out of step with God, very badly at times.  I started this post saying the Roman Catholic Church needed reform, but the leaders would not reform, so there was a necessary split.  Now we have so many voices from within Christendom that too many, from within and without are confused.   So what is the answer, which group of believers has the answer?   The answer should be glaringly obvious, but oddly we can't see it, again, the truth has been in the Bible for thousands of years.  

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

John 17:20-23

Because mere men have decided to take the Bible into their own hands, God's purposes, plans and commands have been set aside.  Worldly concerns have taken hold of us, and we stamp God's approval upon our worldly concerns.   The Church of Jesus Christ is a unified Church.  This doesn't mean there won't be differences among us.  Unity doesn't mean we don't have differences.  Unity means we focus on God, his purposes, plans, and call.  I will certainly never bow my knee to Reformed Soteriology, and I certainly will not send prayers to Mary the mother of Jesus, but these are not central issues.  We've placed greater importance on lesser matters, because we broken humans have taken into our hands the Holy Scriptures.  We should have entrusted ourselves into the hands of the author of those Holy Scriptures instead.   I will gladly bow my knee to the Holy Spirit; he who breathed the Scriptures.  I don't have to agree with everything the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Roman Catholics, or the Baptists claim to believe.  I have learned that if I trust the Holy Spirit he can find a way where no man can find a way.  I've worked side by side with Roman Catholics, Reformed, Methodist, and Baptist.  It is the Spirit of Truth who brings all truth, and it is the Spirit of Truth who can bring Christians into true unity.  

Jesus promised those who believed him if we would live his teachings that this obedience would make us his true disciples.  Jesus also taught that as lived his teaching and became more and more his disciples that we would through this know the truth and the truth would set us free.  The key isn't our grasp of the Bible's knowledge.  The key is to invite the Holy Spirit to take us into his grasp.  If I take ownership of true righteousness, that righteousness becomes self-righteousness.  If I put my filthy fingers on God's holiness I do not become holy, I become holier than thou.  God's righteousness and holiness are not mine to have.  God's righteousness and holiness must take ownership of me.  This same truth is no less true of God's holy Scriptures.  I am not the definer of Holy writ.  I am to allow the Holy Spirit to define and refine me into the likeness and image of Christ Jesus, whose message is the holy Scriptures.  

The way to approach the Scriptures is with complete humility:

"Now, Holy Spirit, here I am, a mere human, and I know nothing of God, and I am nothing.  I pray Holy Spirit that you would give me eyes, with which to see your truth; I pray for ears, that I might hear your voice; I pray for a heart to receive and understand the truth of this, your holy Scriptures.  Please Holy Spirit, I do not ask to grasp things to great for me, but through the holy word of God, you might lay hold of me, and conform me to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.   I thank you, Holy Spirit, for teaching me your word, and through it changing me, and empowering me to obey it, and by it carrying me into eternal relationship with you."

She's Also A $600/hour Las Vegas Escort!

Olympic runner and prostitute:  Suzy Favor Hamilton

"I realize I have made highly irrational choices and I take full responsibility for them. I am not a victim here and knew what I was doing. I was drawn to escorting in large part because it provided many coping mechanisms for me when I was going through a very challenging time with my marriage and my life. It provided an escape from a life that I was struggling in. It was a double life.

I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression. As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody. I have been seeking the help of a psychologist for the past few weeks and will continue to do so after I have put things together. I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am to anyone I have hurt as a result of my actions and greatly appreciate the support from family and those closest to me. I fully intend to make amends and get back to being a good mother, wife, daughter, and friend."   ~ Suzy Favor Hamilton

Do you really believe what Favor-Hamilton says here?   I know it is hard to believe.  At one point, early in my walk with Christ, my left eyebrow would have shot for the sky, while my right eyebrow would dive, judgmentally, over a bulging right eye.  I can hear myself now, "Yeah, right!  You simply don't want to suffer the righteous indignation over your utterly reprehensible and inexcusable behavior."  Then of course I met and ministered to actual street walking hookers.  It took a several years, but God got through my hard heart, and freed me to see hookers as human beings, and then human beings just exactly like me.   Finally God overcame every negative feeling and thought I had about the hookers, and filled me with the understanding that God can overcome everything.  I was filled with the overwhelming desire to see the hookers; MY women in need of a loving Father God.  God can overcome any sin, but I learned God had to first overcome me and my judgment.  

Today I am facing a much worse thing than an Olympian prostitute.  I have a whole bunch of narrow, closed minded, judgmental Christians.  Suzy Favor Hamilton is a piece of cake, when compared to Christians.  Give me all the street walking hookers and all the high priced Olympic running hookers you can, but spare me from the Christians!   That, unfortunately begs a big question: 

"So Lonnie, you can love street walking and Olympic running hookers, but you can't abide the religious hookers?  Is that right, old boy?"

So, do I need to tell you where those thoughts came from, or can ya figure it out on your own?   I know God can overcome the worst sin.  I've seen God do it...God overcame me, so a hooker of any kind is a piece of cake.   

I've got a Christmas wish for my fellow Xanga Christians this year.   Could you embrace the hooker in yourself this year?  Could you look in the mirror and say, "You are the worst sinner I know, and if God can overcome you (AND HE CAN!!) then there is nothing God CAN'T overcome!!"  And after you've done that, could you do one additional thing this Christmas:  Find someone you're currently judging, and start praying for them.  Don't pray the "God get'em and make 'em miserable, til they repent!" kind of prayer, but pray for God's mercy, grace, love and goodness.   Pray a God overcoming sort of prayer.  That is a great Christmas gift you can give someone who needs Christ!  And you'll find it is a great Christmas gift you can give yourself.  Of course you'll have to pray a "God overcoming" prayer before you learn what a great gift it will be to you.  With God it is always, "You'll believe Me, before you see Me."   That is just how God does things.

Blessings,

the actual post this time!!

LIFE GIVING RELATIONSHIP

The sexually broken before Christ and life giving/affirming relationships.

The life God offers, in place of our sexual brokenness...

AND...

It isn't easy, but, for me at least, it beats the AIDS that got so many of my friends...

Secondly, I am Chinese. My father wanted a boy at birth, so I was raised as a boy my whole life. Growing up, most of my friends were boys so I always felt like I was one of them. And because we immigrated to Canada, both my parents were very busy with their jobs. Then they gave birth to my younger brother, so they didn't really attend to me that often. My mother never gave me any "feminine advice" growing up, so when puberty came I was scared and confused, but I always felt very dominant because I felt like I had to protect my mother and could feel only her love so I tried finding it in girls.  @Eternal_hop3@xanga.com

The entire post is here:  "Struggling With Homosexuality".

Your story is heartbreaking to read.  What is equally heartbreaking to me are the numbers of Christian people who tie up heavy burdens, but are not willing to lift a finger to help you.  "Give up the girl friend, and struggle against your sin."...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!  Forget them, they are blind guides.  There is no power in the statements of these Christians; their empty words will give you nothing but heart ache.  Turn from these Christians, who offer you only words.   Jesus Christ speaks promises to all of us who are sexually broken:  "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV).  I've never found any rest or freedom from those who told me, "Stop sinning."  I only found freedom in Christ who takes my yoke; my burden of desire and sin.  How did Jesus take my burden of desire and sin?  First Christ made me born again; a completely new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).  What did Jesus do for me then, do you suppose?  After Jesus made me born again, he scared me to death.  Jesus didn't scare the hell out of me.  Jesus called me into relationship with him, and relationship with certain of his Christian children.  The rest of the Church just wanted to preach at me.  Jesus called me to relationship.  I didn't know how to have relationships, and I was afraid for years.  But through real, loving, merciful, and grace giving people of God.  None of them were perfect, and we failed each other, many times, but it is through them that Christ loved me and worked his greatest freedom into my life. 

That isn't the only way God showed me his amazing love, grace, and mercy.  I started working in a soup kitchen.  I didn't have problems with accepting the homeless, drunks, drug addicts, or even gay and lesbian people who came into that soup kitchen.  The people I had serious problems with were the hookers.  But it was through those hookers, and especially one particular hooker I always call "Lilly", that God taught the greatest lesson about his love and my own sexual brokenness.  I did learn some things about myself from the counselors, Christian and otherwise, who had the courage to stand up against those who attack and malign counselors who offer therapy to help folks leave homosexuality.  It was through "Lilly" that God taught me about the root of my own sexual brokenness.

"LILLY": GOD'S GREATEST LOVE LESSON"

"Lilly", isn't her real name.  She was actually the prettiest street walking hooker I ever met.  In the course of doing her "work" she'd contracted AIDS.  "A John had freely given her AIDS, and Lilly freely tried to infect every guy she could."  I HAD A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH LILLY.  At first I hoped God had called me there to catch her turning a turning a trick.  I thought the greatest service I could do for God was to catch her trying to infect another person.  Lives could be saved if someone put Lilly in a jail cell.  I was so completely wrong.  

All the hookers said the same things, "I do what I do because I love sex and I love money."   Over the years there I would catch, in passing, other things the hookers would say.  They often talked of how terrible men are.  Funny for people who loved sex and money so much they sure hated the guys who gave them a lot of both!   But Lilly, she wasn't like the rest of the hookers.  Lilly was the hardest person I've ever met.  She had no emotions.  When I was in front of her she looked right through me.  I'd heard people say things like that, but Lilly made me understand the meaning of "she could look right through you, as if you weren't there at all."  I saw Lilly smile, but it was a crack in an emotionless mask.  I saw her laugh, but it was like dry leaves blown about by aimless wind; there was no warmth, joy, or life.  I don't know when it started, but something about Lilly started breaking me.  I started to feel very sad for Lilly.  I started to feel empathy for Lilly.  Week after week of Lilly's coldness, didn't make me cold hearted.  Somehow God showed me that Lilly was really a mirror of my own soul, before God showed his mercy and grace to me, saved me, and made me born again; born of his own Spirit.   Lilly's sexual brokenness and immorality were exactly like mine, but her experience was mine but on super steroids.  I started to become desperate.  I didn't become desperate to get Lilly off the street to save lives.  I became desperate for God to save her life and free her from sexual brokenness and immorality.  Men had used Lilly, and these men had nearly used her to death.  I wanted Lilly to know that God only wanted her for his daughter.  I only wanted Lilly to know that God never wanted her to be used, abused, and infected with disease by men.  I wanted Lilly to know her heavenly Father loved her, and all he'd ever wanted for her was love and loving relationships with all he brought into her life.   On my last day at that soup kitchen I was so desperate to reach Lilly.   Lilly wouldn't acknowledge me.  It was the same as it had been for several years.  I would go on toward God and Lilly would go on toward her death.  I stepped up to Lilly and said, "Lilly, I've been wanting to tell you that God loves you, and that he wants you as his daughter.  I want you to know that God never wanted you to be used and abused by men..."   "Lilly..." I gasped, I was almost in tears and I was losing control fast.  "Lilly...would you...just let me pray for God to show you his great love?!"   Lilly looked directly into my eyes.  Lilly was looking at me, and not through me.  It wasn't a look of trust.  She kind of looked like she was going to laugh at me, but her face broke into a broad grin.  It was real smile, on the face of a real girl.  "That would be real nice," she said as she sat at a table across from me.  I started praying, pleading with God to show Lilly how much he loved her, and that he wanted so much more for her than she could ever imagine.  Lilly broke into the prayer, "...and how men have used me..."  I added "And Father, you never meant for her to be used and abused by men... Now please Father show Lilly that you have always wanted her to be your special little girl, never to be used, and never to be abused."   I don't remember anymore of the prayer, and it didn't last much longer, in any case.  Lilly smiled at me again, cocked her head to one side, and said, "That was so nice, thank you!" 

I never saw Lilly again.  Several years later I heard, from another worker at that soup kitchen, that Lilly did come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.  

Not long after I prayed for Lilly, maybe a week or two, an odd thought entered my thoughts, "Have you ever used someone the way men use Lilly?"  It had to be God who inserted that thought.  I would never have had such a thought as that.  I was a little embarrassed and actually said out loud, "Well...um...everyone I was with was consenting, and none of them were paying me for sex."   But another thought entered my stream of thoughts, "No, not like that..."   Suddenly I realized I had been using people all my life.  I had been using people to fill my fantasies.  Sure many of my fantasies would eventually become sexual, but as a very young boy I didn't have sexual fantasies.   I would go to Sunday school or Monday thru Friday school and there I would be with all these boys and girls.  I didn't really play all that much with other boys and girls.  I did most of my playing with my classmates, and "friends" when I got home.  I would take my classmates home with me every day.  I didn't take them physically home with me.  I would take them home in my mind, and we would play together in my fantasies.  In real life I didn't think any would like me.  In real life I didn't believe anyone could like or love me.  I didn't think I was harming anyone by taking them home and using them to have relationship with in my fantasies.  If I thought I was hurting people I would never have taken them home in my mind to play with them.  In my fantasies I could make them like me.  In my daydreams I could be the most loved person in the universe.  No one could be hurt by what I did in my own little mind.   I don't think for most people that daydreams or fantasies are harmful.   But for me the only relationship I could have were with fantasy people.  When I tried to have real relationships with people it was a disaster!  Instead of looking good or likable I made a complete fool of myself.  Reality only served to prove I wasn't worth liking or loving.   People weren't harmed in my fantasies, but there was more than one occasion people got hurt in real life, because of something stupid I tried to do to impress people so they'd like me.   Using people wasn't hurting anyone...

THE LESSON OF MY ABUSERS

My dad wanted to use and control people.  He never wanted to have real relationship with anyone.  He was never a happy person, and he never had any close friends.  The people who spent time around my dad were rarely the people he wanted to spend time with.   I think about it now, and it's humorous.  My dad, for all his desires and attempts never once got what he wanted most: control over people.  He had control over us, but he showed how little his family was worth to him, almost on a daily basis.   When I was 3 years old my mom's mom (my maternal grandmother) died.  My grandmother left some furniture, but little else of value to my mom and her two sisters.  The biggest thing my grandmother left her other children was her young 13 or 14 year old son.   

My uncle had been passed to the oldest sister first.   My uncle had a wonderful talent.  My uncle made grown men nearly lose their minds with rage.  My uncle would torment his nieces and nephews cruelly.  He would also torture dogs and cats, but at least he was merciful enough to kill the dogs and cats.  His human victims were forced to go on living.  It didn't take long for my uncle to get passed from one aunt to the other.  There were only 3 sisters, so my mom and dad were the last on the victim list.  Uncle monster had 4 new people to victimize.  Uncle monster had mom, my two older brothers and the youngest, at the time, me.  Uncle monster was close to his 6 foot 3 inch height by the time he came to us.  In addition to being 6'3" he weighed about 300 lbs.   One of uncle monster's favorite things to do was find me in a room and sit in the same chair I was sitting on.  He didn't throw me out of the chair I was sitting on.  No, uncle monster would sit on me.  I was 3 years old, and he put all of his 300 lbs. right down on me!  I was deathly afraid of heights.  Well, actually I may not have been afraid of heights at all, but after uncle monster grabbed me, used a cinder block as a step, and plopped me down on the roof of my house.   Again let me remind you this started when I was 3 years old!!  I was afraid of the dark, well sort of afraid of the dark.  When uncle monster shoved me in a dark closet and sat in front of the door, I wasn't afraid of the dark.   I actually have no fear whatsoever of being in a close dark place.  When I was in the dark closet I was briefly free from uncle monster.  Uncle monster wasn't a stupid monster.  He figured out I wasn't afraid in a dark closet.  Once when he left me in the closet, and forgot me, he later found me fast asleep.  No more closets for me, ever after that.  Uncle monster started opening the basement door and placing me on a step which didn't give me time to run to the door before he could slam it and block it.  Our basement was completely unfinished.  The only lights were bare light bulbs turned on by pull strings.  I was too little to reach the pull strings.  The only natural light came from a door to the outside at the back of the house.  It was still dark, no matter the door's window.   Uncle monster would tell me stories as I stood, frozen with terror on the same step he plopped me on.  All I could do was weep and shake, as uncle monster told me stories of the butcher who lived in our basement.   The butcher in my basement didn't cut up chickens, cows, or pigs.  The butcher in my basement cut up little children.  I can still remember the details of how the butcher would hang me up by my feet and first slit me from crotch to chin.  I remember more than that, but it's too disgusting to tell such stories to anyone of any age.  I could fill books with the things my uncle monster did to me. 

But like I said my uncle wasn't a stupid monster.  Most nights I was left in peace.  Uncle monster didn't take the chance of bringing attention to his monstrosities once my dad got home.  Uncle monster had made all his other brother-in-laws hate and want to kill him with their bare hands.  Uncle monster had been tossed around from sister to sister, because getting tossed to another sister was the only way he could go on living.  None of my aunts wanted to raise their children alone, while there husbands rotted in prison for murdering their little brother.   Uncle monster's life was saved, but no one saved us from uncle monster.   For some reason uncle monster got careless.  He was tormenting me after dad got home from work, and I screamed out from his abuse.   Suddenly, my father's voice tore through the air, "LONNIE!!" My father yelled.   I thought I was saved.  I really thought my torment would be over, and now that dad knew what uncle monster was doing he'd make uncle monster leave me alone.  But then dad finished what he started out bellowing.  After shouting my first name angrily, and just a microsecond during which I dreamed I was saved, he bellowed, "WILL YOU SHUT UP!"   The whole sentence, my father angrily shouted was, "LONNIE!!!... WILL YOU SHUT UP!"   My dad didn't save me from the monster.  My dad might just as well have handed me over to my tormentor.  After that time uncle monster struck out against me any time he liked.  I had to control my emotions so  I didn't make too much noise, or I face a spanking on top of uncle monster's torment. 

So dear lady, I am most heartbroken that you, like me, suffered the injustice of being used and controlled by a father who should have loved you, protected you, and helped you realize the wonder and beauty of being the valuable, wonderful, beloved creation of God you are.  You should have had a daddy who treated you like his princess, instead of being made to conform to what he wanted, while suffering his displeasure and disappointment that you were born a female.  And like me, you have continued being the dutiful child and you continue to carry on the mental torment and abuse your father first gave you, and now has taught you.  Now you, like me, have kept yourself locked in a prison your manipulative, cruel, and unloving father put you in.   Instead of love and true life giving relationships you allow yourself only the moldy crumbs of relationship.  And now there are lots of people who help you stay in the prison your controlling, using, abusing father threw you in.   People tell you that you can't change, that you have to be "gay", and that the abuse you've suffered is nothing, and you simply have to live with the broken soul which leaves you "feeling" gay.  

My dear, I hope you will not listen to the silly "Christians" with their silly powerless religious words, which don't help you.  I hope you will not listen to the silly and foolish people who tell you that being gay was something you were born with, rather than a prison you're birth father, mostly, forced you into.  Sure we made wrong choices just like "Lilly" made wrong choices.  But just because Lilly made wrong choices, you and I made wrong choices, doesn't mean we have to go on suffering because of those wrong choices.   God wants Lilly, you, and me to come to him, and to learn to love him, and to learn to love people in real and lasting relationships which go way beyond the brief pleasures of sex...even the great pleasures of really awesome sex!   You can listen to the idiots, or you can choose relationship with God and pursue relationships with people who love God and believe God can and WILL destroy even the sexual brokenness and immoral behavior of worthless people like Lilly, and like me, and like you.  We don't have to settle for the worthlessness our dad's forced on us.  God offers ALL of the value of Jesus to us.  Father God takes all of our sins, all of our worthlessness, all of our immorality, and Father puts all that we are on Jesus, and then hangs Jesus on the cross.  All that is left for us is ALL the love Father has for his Jesus!!  All Father leaves for us is ALL the worth of Jesus!!!  All Father leaves for us is ALL the love in relationship Father has with Jesus.  

I hope, you my dear child, will run toward Father God as fast as you can.  I hope you leave behind you the abuse, use, and bent insanity of your parents behind you.  I hope you will close your ears to the people who do not love you.  They only want you put in their "gay" box, or they only want you put in their "you terrible sinner" box. 

In Christ there is life, freedom, joy, and RELATIONSHIPS...ETERNAL RELATIONSHIPS!!  In Christ no one owns you!  There is only the freedom to love and be loved.  I hope you will take the chance, and run toward Christ, and away from the nonsense of all those silly and foolish people who tell you what they want you to be, but care nothing about your freedom from the slavery your cruel father forced you to accept and live.

Blessings!!

Only Love Can Discover God

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

If I'm being really honest I am greatly troubled by Christians and Christianity in America.   I was a gay atheist guy for several years, before leaving homosexuality, and then some time later God brought into relationship with him.  I don't remember how long it took me to figure out something was wrong, or to even be able to figure out what was wrong.  Simply put:  My fellow Christians were ridiculous and shallow people.  I remember the shallow and ridiculous gay activists.  I truly hated them.  They pushed everyone around.  When I first started exploring the gay community I found some wonderful people among the activist idiots.   I met people who let you be whoever you were.  If you were full on queer, all very well.  If you liked to wear clothing belonging to the opposite sex, all very well.  If you were a person who didn't know where you fit in, that too was all very well.  That lasted a couple of years, and then everything started changing.  Gay activists started the practice of "outing" closeted gays and lesbians.  One of my own friends was forced to move away, because the local gay Gestapo decided it needed to force people to serve them, whether those people wanted to serve the gay cause or not.  The days of "whatever you decided for yourself is all very well," were over.  Gay people would toe the line and that was all there was to that.  I decided gay activists were all nasty jerks, and avoided them like the plague.  I would not serve the gay cause, for any reason, ever. 

Can you imagine what it was like when I started going to church and found another group of activist types?  It was heart breaking.  I heard the same things about the gay movement I'd heard said about Christians from gay activists.  No one listens, everyone is accusing their enemy of outrageous crimes against them and their friends.   On and on and on it went.  The gay activists I could tell to get lost, but the Church is family, at least in Christ's eyes its family.   I'll tell you what I don't like most about activists.  Activists won't listen and they have to frame; create; lay out the field of play so they are assured victory.  Then the activists force their enemy into the frame they've created.   Both sides do it.  Sometimes gay people set the stage for their win, and other times the Christians managed to set things up for their win.    The only people are served are the activists.  The people they claim to serve aren't even served.  The activists game is to win power.   Activists want to gain control of their enemies, they want control of the hearts and minds of innocent bystanders, and they want controlling power over their own group; the very ones they claim to love and defend.  Christian activists do the same things.  But the thing about Christian activists is that they are all very bad at activism.   God has never called us to the kind of activism the world does so successfully.  Look through the gospels and find what Jesus did when his enemies attempted to frame him; to force him upon their "kill Jesus," playing field. 

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. ¹⁶ And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. ¹⁷ Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show Me the tax money.”

So they brought Him a denarius.

²⁰ And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

²¹ They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²² When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

Matthew 22:15-22

The only way to play upon the field with an activist is to remain focused on God's ways and purposes, and not get framed at all.   If you are a Christian do not allow the activists to frame and hang you.  But even if you do allow them to frame you, do not drag God into that frame with you!!   I've known many atheists, and some of those I consider friends.  These atheists know I am a Christian.  At first they all try to frame and hang me.  They're stupid, of course, because I won't be framed.   I am a Christian and God's ways and purposes must frame me and my interactions.  God's purposes are salvation, freedom, and eternal relationship with and always in the presence of God.   God cannot be framed by fools, and only fools attempt to drag him where he will not go.   When Christians allow themselves to framed by LGBT activists, feminist activists, activist atheists, and all the rest, you go into the frame utterly alone.   God does not go with you.  You are not God.  Only God decides where he will go.   God also claims the right to command Christians to go where he likes.   

So what do you think?  Do you think God excuses those who call themselves his, but drag themselves and HIM to be framed and hung by science?   Do you honestly think God will forget or excuse dragging the Bible, and specifically, Genesis, onto the "kill God" field of battle.  Genesis is the oral history of the Hebrew people, put down in writing by Moses.   The first book of the Bible was never meant to be dragged into arguments over creationism and evolution.   Genesis is not a science textbook.  Genesis is God's message to his people that he built for himself a garden for his pleasure.  So loving and magnanimous is God, that he created a people to share his garden, or "king's paradise", as such gardens would become known among human kings.   Did God create his paradise in 6 actual days or 6 epochs?   Well the actual creation story tells us there were 7 segments of time.  The last segment was the segment of God's rest.   The number 7 signifies completion, and that is at least one of the important things God wished to  convey to his people, about the day creation.  But were these segments of time 7 actual days, or 7 epochs?   I don't know.  None of us were around when God created his paradise.   God hasn't given us the answer to how he did what he did.   God never intended to be framed with or by science.  God holds the final answer as to how, and I do not believe in this life we will ever learn all of the answers.  Scientific processes and observations tell us much.  We do know that the majority of creation is adaptable.  Evolution; adaptability; change is clearly built into the world and universe we observe.  Is adaptability part of God's initial creation?   I haven't the slightest idea, and neither does anyone else.   

And you know such responses never satisfy atheists determined to frame and hang me.   They love to tell me they are moral without the encumbrance or hindrance of a god.  I say, "Really you are just as moral without God as I claim to be with God?"   Well then, let us see this wonderful godless virtue of yours.   Come with me, and let's go serve at the soup kitchen.   Come let's go volunteer at the nursing home.  Come let's go volunteer at adult day care for mentally challenged people."   What do you suppose happens when I offer these moral atheists the opportunity to show the superiority of their godless morality?   Do you suppose any of them come with me to serve those people, the atheist considers a waste of time?    Who do you think these virtuous atheists would call if one of them fell sick, or injured, or homeless?   Do you think the atheist who becomes disadvantaged him/herself will be calling on a fellow atheist, or do you think they will call me first???  

There is nothing wrong with saying, "I don't know."   I don't know why telling people the truth is so difficult.  "I don't know," is the truth.  I have no doubt morality serves the atheist well, but God's morality is superior.  Only God sends us into the world to care for what the world deems of little or no value at all.   I do acknowledge the contributions of science, but I will not allow anyone to frame and hang me with it.  People won't come to God, even if he stood directly in front of them.   When Moses lead the Hebrews out of slavery to Egypt, God went with them.   And God did it in the way we'd expect a God would appear to a group of slaves without benefit of science and technology.   God appeared as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.  God was in their midst the entire time.   When God called Moses up on a mountain to give him the Ten Commandments, the people started to rebel.  And what do you think God's own people did?  They made statue of a golden cow.   See the real problem with humans isn't the need to see God.   The problem with humans is they want a god that will allow them to tie a rope around its neck so humans can lead it around.   In Revelation 16:9, we're told what will befall the rebellious human race:

^"And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory."

See they know God is punishing them, but even though they are now convinced of God's existence they refuse to repent and worship him.  The rebellious humans will rather curse him than believe the God, there can now be know question exists.  A God who has absolute power over the world.   People won't serve God, because they don't want there to be a God, and even in the day where God give incontrovertible, empirical proof, rebellious humans will choose to reject God.  

I like science, and it is wonderful tool to help us better understand God's creation.  Science cannot lead to an understanding of the Creator.   God is not limited by time, space, materialism, or anything else we can observe or test.  God is the creator and may choose to become a part of his creation, as in Jesus of Nazareth, or God may stand completely outside his creation.  I've always thought that when God does choose to reveal himself, thus removing all doubt of his existence, that he might do it through science.   What a lark it would be if the astronomer, looking through his/her telescope, found God's eye staring right back at them.  And at the same time every scientist looking into a microscope, likewise, finds God staring back. 

I want to fit into God's frame.  In God's frame there is room for the whole world of humanity.   To that end I will focus my efforts on inviting people to come and be framed by God.  To have one's life framed by God is to be made free to have relationship with God, and from that relationship will grow other relationships with other of God's children.   I will not be forced, by anyone, into their frame, and then to be hung and displayed as the fool I would surely be.   I'd be fool hanging alone, because I had abandoned obedience to God.   Obedience to Christ's teachings is the only way to find God.  Jesus says as much in John 8:31-32.  The only way God allows us to discover the reality of his existence and power is through obedience to his only Son.   God's way is simple:

"Believe and obey God, then, and only then, will you see God. Believing God is seeing.  Seeking to see, before believing, is blindness." 

LIFE GIVING RELATIONSHIP

The sexually broken before Christ and life giving/affirming relationships.

The life God offers, in place of our sexual brokenness...

AND...

It isn't easy, but, for me at least, it beats the AIDS that got so many of my friends...

NEW POST COMING SOON