Pope condemns same-sex unions

Pope Benedict XVI yesterday condemned same-sex unions as anarchic "pseudo-matrimony", and also reaffirmed the Church's opposition to abortion.

Associated Press reprots that Benedict repeatedly referred to marriage as a union between man and woman in an address to a conference of the Diocese of Rome on the role of the family held at St. John Lateran basilica.

He said matrimony is not just a "casual sociological construction" that changed in certain times in history but rather an institution that had its roots "in the most profound essence of the human being."

"The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man," he said.

Benedict spearheaded a Vatican campaign against same-sex unions in 2003, issuing guidelines for Catholic politicians to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The former cardinal also frequently voiced the church's opposition to abortion — a message he repeated Monday.

"From here it becomes all the more clear how contrary it is to human love, to the profound vocation of man and woman, to systematically close their union to the gift of life, and even worse to suppress or tamper with the life that is born," he said.

***Must a person be a slave to righteousness to be free? Is it 100% or 99% or just to try real hard?***

Paul said...

"So since God's grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!

Don't you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.

Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you. Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.

I speak this way, using the illustration of slaves and masters, because it is easy to understand. Before, you let yourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness. Now you must choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy.

In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren't concerned with doing what was right. And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.

But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

Thoughts?

***What things do you do that lead to holiness? ***

Honestly, I can do nothing of my own accord.

Doing the "things that lead to holiness" means letting the Holy Spirit have his way in my life. But it also means giving him the raw materials he needs to create holiness in me, namely, prayer and fellowship with the Lord, a willingness to obey no matter what the cost, study of the Scriptures, confessing sin, steering clear of temptation, etc.

By doing these things (though I often fail) I am able to give the Holy Spirit freedom to fill more of my life. It is his presence in my life which produces the real fruits of holiness.

To live clean and focused on Christ is how we give the Spirit the freedom to inject into our lives Faith - for things we didn't think we could believe God for, Hope - that fills us with joy and causes us to value eternity more that this present life, and Love - for people we wouldn't want to love or wouldn't even notice were we living under our own power.

What are your thoughts on this?

***It is the power of intention?***

In some mysterious way it's not our "power" at all.

Phil 2:12,13
"Dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him."

***Are you saying you giving God the power here, kind of releasing him out to work? ***

Not in any New Age sense.

In Eph. 4 Pauls says...

"And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption."

By choosing to live in ways that displease him, we greive him and as a result he limits his activity in our lives. If we give in to sin he will not empower us or use us - just a s a surgeon whould not use a dirty instrument.

Paul describes it this way in 2Tim 2...

"In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use.

If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work"

***Are you punished and also rewarded by the "One" when you have good/bad intentions? ***

God looks at intentions. "Man looks on the outward appearance, bu God looks on the heart." So yes, intentions are very important in your relatioship with God.

***What are your thought on this?***

May I say that, in all of this discussion, what I am describing is a new type of relationship with God - the "spiritual birth". This is not something that comes naturally to every person, but it is something that any person can enter into should they so desire.

The spiritual birth, or regeneration, comes when one puts their faith in Jesus as Savior and submits their life to him as Lord. At that point their sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit comes to live within their heart. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes the new relationship possible.

***giving you the desire to obey him ***
do you have this desire?

***just a s a surgeon whould not use a dirty instrument***
or a peron would not use a filthy drinking glass

***God looks at intentions. "Man looks on the outward appearance, bu God looks on the heart." So yes, intentions are very important in your relatioship with God***
So are your intentions good this very minute? Are you in the source of intentions or are you drawing near to the provider of intentions? Can you be spirtually reborn if you just change your intentions to what the "One" wants from us? Should I just make some utternace to change on a set of beads or perhaps maybe I will get it right on the next life? Who is correct?

\***do you have this desire? ***

Yes - and even more so when I do those things listed out in my last post.

***or a peron would not use a filthy drinking glass***

Exactly.

***So are your intentions good this very minute?***

I would say that our intentions are never entirely good. We are sinners and are often motivated by selfishness and pride - though we fail to see it. Jeremiah said: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

***Are you in the source of intentions or are you drawing near to the provider of intentions?***

This is not about God rewarding me for being good - it is about Him making me good.

***Can you be spirtually reborn if you just change your intentions to what the "One" wants from us?****

No, not entirely, but that is an important part. To "change your intentions to what the "One" wants from us" we must first know what He wants from us. That we discover by reading the Bible (primarily the New Testament to begin with).

To read what Jesus requires of us in the New Testament and to respond in our hearts with a "Yes" - and to follow that "Yes" up with a desire to obey is the first step.

But an honest person will have a hard time saying yes because they know themselves and know that they are incapable of truly following all that Christ taught. But that is where faith comes in.

Jesus in the New Testament is often asking people to do impossible things. He asked Peter to walk on the sea. He asked the disciples to feed a multitude with a few loaves, He asks lame people to rise and walk amd asks people to go and sin no more.

That is because Jesus has the power to enable us to do that which we can't possibly do without him. If we respond to his teachings (as set out in the New Testament) with a "Yes" and with the faith that, thought we know we can't live up to them, he can empower us to do so - he will do so. That "power" he gives in the Holy Spirit. He give the Holy Spirit to those who are willing to obey him from the heart.

Not only does he provide the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life pleasing to God, he also provides the means whereby we are forgiven for the times we fail and for forgiveness for the whole sinful life lived apart for God before we came to Christ. Jesus shed his blood that we might be forgiven for all the filthy, vile, selfish and prideful things we have done in out lives.

Guilt can destroy your life. It can rob you of the desire to know God or do what it right. Jesus death, when we accept it as his death in our behalf, destroys the power of the guilt we all have for the things we have done. We can know that our sins have been forgiven 100% because Jesus died to pay for them. This forgiveness is a free gift. Again, it is accepted by faith.

As Paul says in Rom 4:
"He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God."

***Should I just make some utternace to change on a set of beads or perhaps maybe I will get it right on the next life? ***

The best idea is to talk to God in private. Speak from your heart to Him and tell Him what you want Him to do for you and be to you. If there are sins that weigh heavily on your heart, confess them to Him and tell Him you accept the forgiveness He offers by virtue of Christ's death in you behalf.

He wants to be a Father to you. You may or may not have had a good father, but God wants the be to you like a dear and loving father. In the end, He has provided all this because He love you and wants you to have a close relationship with Him.

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