Re: When in doubt, choose to love others

I don't believe we should title ourselves by what our sin is. "gay christian" or "angry christian" or "p 0 r no christian" or whatever. Why would anyone do that? Our identity as chrisitans is in Christ, and his righteousness covers our sins no matter what they are.

So in my opinion, there is no such thing as a "gay christian". Is there such thing as a christian that struggles with gay desires, etc. or even succumbs to those desires? Sure! Christians struggle with all kinds of sin.

But this is where I believe the dividing line is. Does the person that has sinful desires, whether it be gay sinful desires, heterosexual sinful desires, or all other kinds of sinful desires, do they hate those desires or celebrate them and excuse them?

My dad and I were talking the other night and he said he heard a radio program where a woman called in and said "I don't understand it. I am a woman that has been married five times in my life and in my church I am loved and embraced and accepted and no one condemns me. But if someone is a homosexual, that is often not the case for them". But when my dad was telling me this, my thought was this: what if that woman bragged about being married five times and celebrated it and talked about how good it was? I have a feeling she would not get the same responses at her church. I imagine she is not proud of her five marriages, and is not celebrating the fact that she's been married five times, but that she believes in the grace of God and so do the people she is going to church with.

But what we are seeing today, and actually for a long time now, is people wanting to get rid of any idea that homosexuality is a sin, and for it to be celebrated and embraced. And many go into the churches, not struggling with homosexuality and looking for support and love in the fight against it, but wanting to change everyone's mind there to see that it is not a sin. And if you don't agree to embrace it, you are a "hater" and have no love for the person.

Why can't we continue to call sin sin? Yes, christians sin in all kinds of ways. And we should be confessing our sins, repenting of our sins, etc. no matter what it is. Because we call homosexuality a sin doesn't mean we are saying we don't sin too or we are any better. If someone is saying that, then they have the wrong message.

I had a best friend years ago that called me one day and said she was struggling with homosexuality. And honestly, I wasn't all that worried for her, not anymore than I would be no matter what sin she was confessing that she was struggling with. But my concern for her changed the day she called me and said, "homosexuality is not a sin, and I'm going to embrace it and God has no issue with it". That's what we have to be fighting in the churches and with our neighbors, etc. It's not about condemning someone because they are struggling with homosexuality. It's about standing by the word of God and calling sin sin, because that's what the bible calls it. And we need to do that as loving as possible, but we can't give in and agree that it's not sin. And we are going to be persecuted for taking a stand in that way.

Christianity, or being a christian, has nothing to do with perfection in ourselves. But it has everything to do with the perfection of the one we are looking to save us, Jesus Christ. And if we are true believers, we believe what Jesus says, and he says homosexuality is a sin, as well as a whole huge list of other things that we all are guilty of. If we are true believers, we are honest about what sin is and we admit we are sinners that need mercy and grace. And we repent and ask God for help to turn from whatever sins we may be struggling with. It's not about puffing ourselves up and proclaiming we are better than someone else, or our sin is less than someone else's. There are those that do that and it's very wrong. But there is nothing wrong with telling someone the truth in love, that we are all sinners in much need of the grace of God and the righteousness of Christ to take the place of our unrighteousness, and that homosexuality is a sin amongst countless other sins.