I think many do try to justify their behavior by suggesting that God made them that way. I think that’s where we, as the Church, need to educate them. Explain to them that perhaps they were “born” this way (i.e. born a sinner with this fleshly disposition). Help them see this as something rooted in their sin nature. Then explain to them that this is why they need the Lord so desperately. Then we move on to the regeneration of the spirit through the new birth, the regeneration of the mind through the preached Word, and finally the petition for God’s total healing in body. See, what we do is we correct the spirit through bringing them into the new birth. We then renew their minds through preaching….but we leave the body out. We don’t explain to them that this is in their flesh and that they will need a miraculous healing also. So when they continue to struggle in their flesh they begin to doubt that their spirit has been regenerated and they begin to doubt that their mind is being renewed by the Word. Suddenly they feel that God has either abandoned them or has accepted them as normal. We need to bring them into the third dimension of physical healing and renewal also. And be open with them…until God heals their bodies, they will struggle with this in their flesh. But give them all the assurance we can that they are saved and that God loves them. And if and when they fall…we pick them up and brush them off like we do anyone else who falls into sin.
Personally…I think the sin of homosexuality is of far less consequence than religious pride, hate, and arrogance.
None of us are sinless. If a homosexual is crying out to God for salvation and has simply said, “Lord, I can’t fight it anymore. Without a miracle, this is what I am.” They’re being more real with God than the Pharisaical legalist who denies their own sinfulness in their condemnation of others.
Our battle has always been between flesh and spirit. Why do we relegate this to "willpower" and brow beat those who are bound by an infirmity of the flesh?
Wow you got all that out of my post? So you are in effect calling me a sinner, a pharisee, a legalist, a judge. And so the homosexual that doesn't see the need for forgiveness or deliverance is saved but I am not, or my sin is greater than his? I did not condemn any man but I did condemn the sin.
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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 KJV
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 KJV
Consider the woman physically bowed over for 18 years whose recovery was deliverance of a demon spirit. Who would have thought a physical condition was caused by a devil? Of course this would not always be the case. But this goes to show us that some situations of the same condition as another are not corrected in the same way due to varying reasons for the condition.
Jesus told one man to wash his eyes, full of mud that the Lord put in them, in a pool, and be healed. He did not do that with other people.
Every situation may very well be unique as to the cause. That would mean each one requires a different form of ministry. Jesus even cast a devil out of a man that caused the man to be deaf and mute. But not everyone deaf and mute has a devil.
__________________ ...MY THOUGHTS, ANYWAY.
"Many Christians do not try to understand what was written in a verse in the Bible. Instead they approach the passage to prove what they already believe."
Ray Boltz, who sold about 4.5 million records before retiring from Christian music a few years ago, came out of the closet Friday to announce that he's gay.
In an interview with the gay magazine The Washington Blade, Boltz said he came out to his family and some close friends in December 2004, but only now decided to go public with the news.
“I’d denied it ever since I was a kid," Boltz, 55, told the magazine. "I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore … when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, ‘Just end this.’”
One reason Boltz decided to come out now might be because he's performing Sunday at Jesus Metropolitan Community Church in Indianapolis, and then next Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C. Both congregations are a part of a denomination that embraces the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community.
Boltz is perhaps best known for his song "Thank You," about a dream in which a Christian thanks the Sunday school teacher who led him to Jesus. It was the GMA song of the year in 1990. Other Boltz hits include "Watch the Lamb," "The Anchor Holds," and "I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb."
Boltz also told The Blade that he doesn’t want to get into debates about Scripture and has no plans to “go into First Baptist or an Assembly of God church and run in there and say, ‘I’m gay and you need to love me anyway.’”
For him, the decision to come out is much more personal.
“This is what it really comes down to,” he says. “If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he’ll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be … I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself.”
Earlier, Boltz had alluded to the issue on his official website, saying that if people “knew who I really was, I would never be accepted
I think the only reason that there is little response to this is because we already discussed it earlier. There is another thread on this. It really is sad news, indeed! Another one of God's warriors gives up on the good fight of faith.
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"Those who go after the "Sauls" among us often slay the Davids among us." Gene Edwards
I think the only reason that there is little response to this is because we already discussed it earlier. There is another thread on this. It really is sad news, indeed! Another one of God's warriors gives up on the good fight of faith.
ok...I am in the Bahamas, this morning I was live on the radio here and the announcer asked me what I thought about Ray Boltz coming out... I hadn't heard this and has so disappointed. thanks for the update.
ok...I am in the Bahamas, this morning I was live on the radio here and the announcer asked me what I thought about Ray Boltz coming out... I hadn't heard this and has so disappointed. thanks for the update.
Whoah, they really know how to put you on the spot. I guess that's the price you pay for incredible celebrity
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There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Chuck Norris lives in Houston.
Either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States. – W.E.B. DuBois
Hybrid Mode
