Posted on 11/02/2016 7:18:48 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
If this were 1999—the year that I was converted and walked away from the woman and lesbian community I loved—instead of 2016, Jen Hatmaker’s words about the holiness of LGBT relationships would have flooded into my world like a balm of Gilead. How amazing it would have been to have someone as radiant, knowledgeable, humble, kind, and funny as Jen saying out loud what my heart was shouting: Yes, I can have Jesus and my girlfriend. Yes, I can flourish both in my tenured academic discipline (queer theory and English literature and culture) and in my church. My emotional vertigo could find normal once again.
Maybe I wouldn’t need to lose everything to have Jesus. Maybe the gospel wouldn’t ruin me while I waited, waited, waited for the Lord to build me back up after he convicted me of my sin, and I suffered the consequences. Maybe it would go differently for me than it did for Paul, Daniel, David, and Jeremiah. Maybe Jesus could save me without afflicting me. Maybe the Lord would give to me respectable crosses (Matt. 16:24). Manageable thorns (2 Cor. 12:7).
Today, I hear Jen’s words—words meant to encourage, not discourage, to build up, not tear down, to defend the marginalized, not broker unearned power—and a thin trickle of sweat creeps down my back. If I were still in the thick of the battle over the indwelling sin of lesbian desire, Jen’s words would have put a millstone around my neck.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegospelcoalition.org ...
This article is a RESPONSE to these people--Rosaria Butterfield came out of the homosexual community and is speaking about the truth of Scripture.
We need to look objectively, through the whole bible, at what is being talked about, and we have to be clear what is being talked about, or we are going to be talking past one another until we get to the pearly gates.
Can a ladies’ equivalent of a David-Jonathan friendship exist? Can those who have once indulged sexual sin live godly in such friendships? Do they need sworn partnerships or civil unions? (The answer to the former two may be yes; the answer to the last ought to be a resounding NO.)
Like the secular song goes
“Baby, baby, don’t get hooked on me... or I’ll just use you and ‘set you free’... baby, baby don’t get hooked on me.”
There’s a difference between godly collaboration and getting hooked in something that still has an evil basis. One of the hallmarks of “LGBT” is a bullying, authoritarian mien. It dumbs down; it does not afford freedom before the Lord.
Bttt.
Bkmk
Even Rosaria Butterfield, in her miraculously transformed life, still utters things that aren't quite doctrinally orthodox. Still don't know why she aligns with the wicked United Methodist Church, for one thing.
Yes, accept them as a true believer, but exercise extreme caution in their teachings.
My mistake, she aligns with the Presbyterian Church.
“she aligns with the wicked United Methodist Church”
Wow. That’s cold. And rude. And wrong.
I was wrong to associate her with the UMC. But look into what the UMC now espouses, and I’ll be here waiting for your apology.
Why did not one person tell this dear image bearer that she could not have illicit love and gospel peace at the same time?
In describing the situation of a woman in a lesbian relationship as "illicit love," I believe the author is misusing the word "love." I think it would be more accurate to say, "Illicit (or immoral) sex," if that's what's going on, or perhaps to reference the person's choice (it seems) to bear children with the intention of bringing them up fatherless.
Love is never illicit. The Bible tells us that love is the fulfillment of the law, that love does no harm to a neighbor. If we're going to discuss these issues, I think we've got to make it clear that the relationship between sexual desire and sexual use, on the one hand, and love on the other hand is very, very tenuous. At best.
OTOH, she was a speaker last year at the quite reformed Ligonier national conference.
I understand what you’re saying. We’re all on a journey, though, and RB has come a long, long way. I don’t think she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing however.
Oh, I don't think she has any ulterior motive. I'm just a little cautious of a myopic lens that she continues to see through, through no fault of her own.
She has a wonderful testimony, and I hope many more unbelievers and skeptics get to hear her.
Gotcha.
First, it's hard to believe that in 50 years, which extends well into a period much less accommodating to these perverted lifestyles, no one "told" her that there were consequences to her behavior. Maybe not verbally, but she had ample ability to know the stance of virtually ALL of Christianity 50 years ago. I just suspect that she stopped her ears, not wanting to hear it. In other words, she's shifting blame, as is typical.
Clarify, she is not part of the lefty PCUSA:
"...she tells about her transformation from a postmodern lesbian professor to the wife of a Reformed Presbyterian Church pastor and homeschooling mother."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosaria_Butterfield
I stand corrected. But what does the Reformed Presbyterians believe? Do they ordain women as ministers?
No:
"Its beliefs place it in the conservative wing of the Reformed family of Protestant churches. Below the Bible—which is held as divinely inspired and without error—the church is committed to several "subordinate standards," together considered with its constitution: the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms, along with its Testimony, Directory for Church Government, Book of Discipline, and Directory for Worship. All communicant members "believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule for faith and life," according to the first of several vows required for such membership.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Presbyterian_Church_of_North_America
Reformed Presbyterians - the RPCNA is one such denom - are a very conservative, Bible believing denomination with a stellar history of biblical orthodoxy.
She is RPCNA.
I am a member of the OPC, a sister denomination. Nothing leftist about the RPCNA.
It’s all a development process at best. The old won’t be completely killed until arrival at the pearly gates, though it will be pushed back more and more successfully and the life ultimately lived will be one solely of true love leaned on the Lord
Confessing, like Paul, that she loved sin is being honest. She’s also confessed that it is sin. This is where the targeted mercy of the Lord is so paramount.
The “nugget” should be taken to Jesus to dissolve, untwist, and cleanse until the elements whose purpose was perverted to form it are set free to do what Jesus wants — we die, but then we are raised back to life and we don’t see that latter happening, what we have entered into is NOT salvation. It should not be taken to human critics who will lash it with their prides and can do no more.
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