Hi Again!

When I prayed about what I should write in this posting and heard the Lord say, “Sexuality,” I said, “Ooh…no, thank you, Lord. I don’t want to write about that.” One reason is that sex is a subject too many people have too complicated of a relationship with. And another big reason is that I’m not a psychologist, a sexologist, or a Dr. Phil, so what do I really know?

But since my book, Hanging Out with the Most High God, Books One and Two, along with this blog, is geared toward anyone in the LGBTQ community who is curious about and open to having a relationship with Christ that leads us straight to God, then speaking about sexuality is a necessity. Society at large and gay people themselves define gays through the lens of sexuality, though gay people see the whole picture. It’s not all just about sex.  You know, like heterosexuals. As for myself, I am thankful I feel at peace before God with my spiritual self and my sexual self, and so, knowing this,  I answered the still, small voice that speaks peace to my soul and said, “Okay, Lord, what shall I write?”

What I heard next rang even deeper – “Just be sure to tell them I love them.”

Later, I thought that’s just like the Lord: He tells you something and invites you to come to Him to seek out more of its truth.

And He loves us all the same, too, and gives us only one effective way to His love—through the power of Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

It’s through Jesus that we learn about and experience God’s gigantic love, and to benefit from God’s love, we have to love Him back.

We love God back by first accepting Christ and trying earnestly to be honest in our thoughts and deeds according to His simple teaching of the ten commandments – Love God with all thy heart, love thyself and thy neighbor, and on these hang all the rest. This is how we get to stand before God’s throne and ask him questions. He doesn’t always answer in the ways we’d want or expect. But by spending time with God, even just a few minutes a day, a week, even a month (though going a whole month is not as effective or as fun), we understand Him more and more, bit by bit, and we end up desiring to put Him first in our lives.

Putting God first is the key to walking freely under the umbrella of His love and grace in an ofttimes rainy world. It’s the key to wanting and learning to understand Him instead of trying to figure him out, telling Him what He can and cannot do and whom He can and cannot love. Through studying the Bible and other great books about God and reaching for understanding, we learn in our everyday lives that His love is the most effective love on the face of the earth. That is, if you like living in a restful and peaceful state with many days of unspeakable joy. And if you get the hang of living for God, this is how you’ll spend your days; this will become your life.

Since God’s love is no respecter of the person (Acts 10:34), I’ve asked why some people think it’s their right to take His love away from those who aren’t like them and why some think it’s their sole purpose to take His love from anyone who’s gay, with many of those who deny God’s love to gays not truly believing in God or obeying Him themselves.  However, they still think they have the right to strip God away from gay folks, doing this with nothing but their Grandmom’s religion as their proof of righteousness. They live the hatred and fear they’ve been taught from their Grandmom’s church or their Grandmom, and no one can tell them that hate and fear should never, under any circumstance, be taught alongside the word of God.

The way I see it, homosexuality gets a double dose of hatred from these people because of the scriptures that talk against same-sex relations. I refer to Leviticus and Romans and the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis.  And the way I have seen it, you can’t just give these scriptures a superficial reading and the first time you come across the words “shall not,” decide that no more understanding of the subject is needed. What’s understandable, though, is that since these scriptures do not apply to heterosexuals, why should further study, digging a little deeper, be necessary?

It’s necessary because the so-called anti-homosexual passages cannot be read superficially. They must be read as a product of study. In them, you find God’s warning against idol worship, a favorite pastime for many ancient folks, before God came on the scene and warned the Hebrews in the desert to have no other God before Him. But people don’t see idol worshippers and abuses of power when they read the anti-gay scriptures. They see God as being vehemently against same-sex love and ready to strike them blind. I recommend reading Judges 19 and comparing it to Genesis 18 & 19.  After reading these chapters, tell yourself if you see any gay people you know or if you see men full of fiendishly lewd and, to use an appropriate word here, sinful behavior.  Anyone engaging in fiendish and lewd sin as a way of life will have God to answer to, no matter what their orientation.

But because scriptures on same-sex behavior aren’t looked at from a product of study that is rightly divided, believers and non-believers think they have the right to discriminate, to foster fear and hate, and even take the opportunity to try and feel better than someone else, a preferred state of existence that too many who should know better enjoy being about. The anti-homosexual scriptures are used to chase gay people away from God, and God does not want people being chased away from Him. But how do you bring people in?

I read somewhere recently that even though the Pope accepts that gays are going to be gays but says that God loves them – which is true – he doesn’t trust that they cannot act on their sexual needs, so he doesn’t want them signing up for the priesthood. Just a note to the Pope: Celibacy is a choice. Gays are capable of making that choice, too. It’s good for them to come into the priesthood knowing who they are when making that choice, as opposed to making the “celibacy choice” because of trying to cure themselves and learning that they can’t. People entering the priesthood because of wanting to be cured, like some men used to do with heterosexual marriages, are those who should be weeded out and not desired into the priesthood. If someone makes a contract with celibacy, they are required to give up their sexuality. One is not required to give up their sexuality to be loved by God. We bring gay people in by expecting them to love and serve God the way it is expected of everyone without worrying about whom and how they love.

And who, please tell me, will want to give up their sexuality, especially among the young, to practice religion with hatemongers or hypocrites who think God made a mistake in giving sexual desire to anyone other than those who wish to procreate while teaching that sexuality is evil, meant to be ignored and misunderstood. Many attitudes and behaviors in this life are unhealthy, and some are just plain wrong.  As I’ve said before, I am not a psychologist or a sexologist, but I do know that ignoring our sexuality for any reason – when this can many times interrupt mental and physical well-being – is wrong. Ask Dr. Phil.

Being a sexual creation does not mean we have to exclude loving God if loving God is what we are inclined to do.  We should just take Jesus’ yoke upon us and learn of Him. Let Him give His peace unto our souls, and from there, ask God questions. People who enjoy their sexuality can have a relationship with God. He doesn’t, however, want his believers to have sexual orgies in His name. We have to leave that to the devil and his worshippers. It was Satan who brought deep, dark lust into the world and has cornered the market on many souls because of it. But people are free to make choices on who and what they want to serve. Just don’t let the lust of the flesh take us away from our Creator. Ask Him for help of any kind. Ask as often as you feel you must.

The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen (II Tim 4:18).

God said, “Tell them that I love them.” Let’s build on that.