Posted on 09/29/2017 12:39:24 PM PDT by Gamecock
BLUF: That’s why this is not the story of my becoming straight, which has never truly happened and is beside the point. It is the story of my becoming whole, which is happening every day. __
...I met my first girlfriend in an AP European history class. She was a senior, beautiful and popular. Since I excelled in the class, she asked me to come over and help her study. When we met at her house, something was different. Conversation flowed easily, rapidly, unexpectedly. I was struck by her beauty. The attraction felt like what other girls described feeling for a boy.
Over the next week, I began wondering, “Is it okay to feel this way about a girl?”
I began compulsively wondering whether God could exist. Back in my room, I started Googling religious search terms like a middle-schooler searching for pornography. When my roommate entered, I would slam down the laptop lid and pretend I was doing French homework.
I couldn’t tell you what my search terms were. But in that wave of webpages, I started to encounter Jesus for the first time. It’s hard to describe the preconceived notions I would have been carrying; perhaps phrases like “ancient conservative” or “unthinking traditionalist” give something of the flavor. Yet the articles and Scriptures I found gave a decidedly different impression. Again and again, I saw how Jesus noticed, dignified, and served people I would have thrown aside. But I was troubled by a suspicion that my life was against his.
As I labored to convince myself that even then I was forgiven, he brought a man into my life. We had met the summer before on a Christian mission. We were friendly, but I was not attracted to him. He knew all about my past.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Very wise words there metmom!
I appreciate that post and pray that it helps a lot of people who are struggling in one area or another.
The Lord can help anybody overcome if they are willing.
Yes, that was very interesting.
One lie society has been sold recently, I believe, is that homosexuality is an “identity” just like being Japanese or having curly hair.
Many past societies simply viewed it as an adulterous act, like any other grave sin. If you are tempted by greed, you may become a thief. But you stop being a thief when you no longer steal, even though the urge for money may remain your whole life.
Homosexuality is the same.
I think I understand where she is coming from, Biblically speaking. Jesus commands us to be as perfect as God (Matt. 5:48), which is unattainable. In that sense, she should not desire women, and neither should I as a man desire any woman other than my wife, end of story. I sin when I look at a woman and feel lust, just as she does. In that sense, there is a Biblical command, not only to be heterosexual, but to be monogamous, to divorce only in cases of porneia or when an non-believing spouse wants out, and not only to not have sex outside of the marriage, but to not want to have sex, or anything approaching sex, outside of the marriage.
However, all of the references to homosexuality in the Bible are about the act, such as Leviticus 18 and I Cor. 6, with the possible exception of Romans 1, which is not a statement of command, but rather a description of a decadent society.
To put it another way, if you have to choose between a lesbian life and a married life with lesbian-lust struggles, the latter is much better than the former, just as when choosing between being Wilt Chamberlin and a married life with lust-for-women struggles, the latter is much better than the former. The goal is to put on Christ, and every step there is one step closer.
The word "heterosexual" does not appear in the Bible. But the Bible does condemn outright the sinful behavior of sodomites (male and female). See Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1 and Jude.
1 Corinthians 6:9,10 -- says that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I would seriously reconsider what it means to be saved. Verse :11 refers to former sodomites in the past tense ("such were some of you", not "such are some of you").
Personal accounts of success or failure do not determine whether something is true. Truth is not dependent, it just is.
Why do you say this? She still experiences same-sex attraction but she says, feels and knows that "married" is her orientation. "Married" --- to her husband.
If you're saying that a married person who experiences extramarital attractions is "not born again," then buddy, the "born again" could have their world-wide conventions in a telephone booth. (Remember those?)
God's grace is not something that annihilates all your former twisty-turns and weaknesses. St. Paul (who wrote that blessed about being "a new creature") confessed to still having plenty of weaknesses.
Grace gives you the transformation needed to say "No" to sins' allurements, even if the temptations used to be serious and habitual, even if they are still pervasive, persistent, and potentially persuasive.
With Christ, you overcome them.
Thus, behold, all things are become new.
A good read. She learned an important lesson
The verses just before the one you posted:
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
I believe the verse you posted to me should be read in the past-tense.
Romans 8:1-4 states that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Condemnation comes from sin, nothing else. If you are sinning, you are still in Chapter 7 of Romans where your actions (sin) are condemning you. It is impossible to live in both Romans chapter 7 and Romans chapter 8 simultaneously.
Add to that II Corinthians 5:17-21 where the Apostle Paul states that “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Of what gain did Christ, the Son of God, die on a cross if all he did was replace the Old Testament dispensation of continuous sacrifices of animals to gain forgiveness for our sins, where we continually sin, with a New Testament dispensation that still has us living in our sins and continually sinning and as a result having to go back to him for forgiveness continually?
Christ not only died to give us forgiveness of sins, but to Save us from our sins giving us Victory and power over that sin, that if we cling to Him, and his sacrifice, continuously, He keeps us free from that sin. If we turn our eyes away from Him, then we find ourselves back in sin.
(Matthew 19:12)
"...there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."
But in that wave of webpages, I started to encounter Jesus
Umm, what are you talking about?
Darn, did I forget to excerpt that to which I was referring?
Oh, wait. I didn’t forget.
On rereading, I see she said “like” someone searching for porn, not that she did. Never mind.
As opposed to homosexual, there most definitely is.
And the context of the “eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake”, remember that there can be no conflict with scriptures such as Deuteronomy 23:1: the Greek word “eunouchos” also has the meaning of an unmarried man, and by need of the church (not by divine command), some of the servants of God had to stay unmarried, e.g. Paul, who commanded other officers of the church to marry.
You need to read the article a bit more carefully, buddy.
I’m not your buddy, n00b.
One thing too, is that often the flesh is strong and does not want to be willing. And honestly, times are I don’t want to give up what I know is wrong, but I realize that is the flesh in me and not the new man of the Spirit.
Then I have to CHOOSE, by an act of my will, to pray out loud, please God, make me willing to be willing even though I may be gritting my teeth when I do it) Give me the desire for righteousness that is stronger than the desire of the flesh.
The flesh is strong......
From what she wrote, I assume she had a bad relationship with her mom and a good one with her dad. Don’t know if that had an effect leading her to homosexuality.
I was amazed this wasn’t pro-homosexuality, from the beginning except.
The Holy Spirit will give a person wisdom and strength to resist sodomy for the rest of their lives without fail. But the attraction, the (unbidden) temptation may still be there.
The Bible says Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, but without sinning.
BTW, I did not imply that an eunuch was the same as a homosexual. The Bible does demonstrate that a person may be saved and yet may not be "a practicing heterosexual." or even tempted by the opposite sex. After all, a literal eunuch doesn't even have genital sensation: he's not capable of genital appetite for a woman.
It's not always by "the need of the church," though it sometimes is. For clarity, I will supply the whole verse (Matt 19:12) in two different translations:
Webster's Bible Translation
For there are some eunuchs, who were so born from their mothers womb: and there are some eunuchs, who were made eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
Weymouth New Testament
There are men who from their birth have been disabled from marriage, others who have been so disabled by men, and others who have disabled themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of the Heavens. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."
Not everyone is called to be heterosexual.
Everyone --- no matter what their "orientation"--- is called to be chaste, which is to say, virtuous in their state in line. If single, abstinent. If married, having sexual relations only with your one-and-only, other-sex spouse.
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