Smh...

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. John 12:47

While doing my daily morning routine of driving my oldest to work, I had a small ephipany... of course it occurred because someone had come from the other side of me, swerved in front of me (nearly making me hit them) to get into the left lane and turn. I, in return, laid on my horn, probably a few more seconds than required and then began shaking my head... smh. As I did this, a question was posed to me. Why do you shake your head at people? Well as quickly as it was posed, I reasoned the answer. I need them to know the dissatisfaction I have with them, the frustration they bring my way when I am merely driving! And then it struck me, when we shake our heads, we are still judging. Think about it! When our kids do something dissatisfying OR a better way to say it, not pleasing to what WE feel should be done or said, we shake our heads. When someone walks by and has on something WE would not be buried in and don't think anyone else should wear either, we shake our heads. When something is not to our approval, we shake our heads. Whether it is furiously done to make sure the person sees it or in our minds or even slightly to hide the disgust, we shake our heads and we are judging.

To judge someone in the dictionary means to form an opinion or conclusion about the subject. It's a verb. It's something that we DO. Even those who are saying, right now, "I would never do that, I never judge", you just did. It's our nature when things aren't as we think they ought to be! We give a "side eye", shake our heads, make a grunting or breathy noise, or say/ do something to make it known that we are not pleased. But if we are genuinely seeking to be as Christ, we aren't supposed to. His words were (and still are) "... I do not judge them..." How powerful this word is! How halting it would be if we followed Him totally and surrendered! Think of those who come into His hospital that we call church wounded, scared, wondering who will judge them or hoping someone can so they can be justified in their sin... yet they would come in to love, acceptance of WHOSEVER they are, not who they claim to me or what they look like. Oh what a day of restoration and redemption and celebration that would be!

I recently saw a post on my Facebook timeline that got me to thinking... It read along the lines of "where is there a church in (city name) that accepts gays and lesbians..."  My flesh met me first with, "They don't need a church like that! Think of all the sin and backsliding that would happen!" And then God reminded me of how I was in a similar boat, needing a church that accepted couples who were living together adulterously. Ouch! How crushing to my ego was that! I had been one so filthy I with my sin that I joined everything I could just to get accepted and loved. But what I really wanted was for my church family to accept my sinful ways and not speak on it. Sadly... they did and I remained in that sin until I surrendered my life to Christ. 

But what if the church this person, myself and others are describing was the church they stepped into. Our churches... Ourselves. Each of us. Being the Church that JESUS spoke of and bringing that into the buildings/ homes we worship in every week. What if we took off our Daddy's robe and became the mediator, the ambassador that brings folks to CHRIST so that when God judges them, He will say the same thing He has said on your behalf... "Not guilty." What if...

Now with this, I want to make sure I am clear. I do not agree with the agenda or lifestyle of homosexuality, and that is my right as a free person. BUT I do love every single one of them and choose not to judge them. I also expect that the choice my to judge is to be returned by any who support the agenda. Why? Because the "do not judge" is not just a weapon aimed one way or to be altered to suit one group. It is and remains for ALL because He loves ALL! 

I pray you will all read, get offended, read again, find reasons that I'm wrong, read again and see that HE is right. 

Just a Transparent Thought

Here recently there has been a big stir, a funk if you will, surrounding our president’s latest decision regarding same sex marriage. This post, which has nothing to do with the content, is just my transparent thoughts on paper…. Well blog. I may have a few standing with me and few more that will attack me. I am now okay with that.

The very first time I heard the word “homosexual” was with the actor, Rock Hudson, dying from AIDs, this new disease to which a frenzy was created. I can remember parents running to schools and snatching their kids out because of children who contracted this scary disease by way of blood transfusion. It seemed that even the smallest baby had done something to catch this “gay disease.”  People became instant doctors and judges when it came to who had and why they had AIDs. It was a sad time for this country.

What I also saw was an enormous amount picketing, screaming, judgmental, holier than thou Bible beaters that hid behind the name Christians. Funny that I always said to myself, “Self, remind me to never be one of them.” I had tolerance for those who were sick; those who America had assumed had started this epidemic, the homosexual community. I wasn’t that old (nice try) but I knew I did not want to be part of a people who only had hatred dripping from their lips. It was “homo this” and “gay that.” Let’s not mention the multitude of abortion clinics blown up or at least the women who were pushed into having abortions because they would rather be in the clinic than with the poison spewing folks outside the doors calling them baby killers and announcing that they and the clinic workers inside were ALL going to Hell. I began to think that maybe people with money and high positions in the church could change not only your departure time from this earth but also your destination, thank God they can’t!

I said all that to say, here is my standing ground on this subject. I DO believe that most are born “that way”, but not the “way” they are thinking. I believe there is a spirit that is assigned to some of us to make us completely miserable with life and relationships until we come to the conclusion that we are a certain way, accept it and then live what I call the death style. It’s not enough to accept that you are attracted to the same sex as you, it’s not enough speak it out loud; this spirit is not doing its job unless we are walking this out. I call this a death style for one reason, God is against it. If my Father is against the lifestyle, then so am I.

Please notice that I did not say I am against the people who live this style of life, and neither is He. He loves them regardless. He is not pleased, He does not like what they have chosen, and because of that He has given them over to their sin, much like a parent does a wayward child, BUT GOD does NOT hate the person!! There is a saying that goes, Hate the SIN, love the SINNER. So many in the Church, including my pre-saved and newly saved self, have gotten the two mixed up and even put their own spin on things. They have begun to hate other SINNERS while loving their own SIN.

This is what I feel the Church needs to begin to cry out for forgiveness. We have turned a generation of people against us, not because of the things we do like Jesus, which He has said would get us persecuted, but because we have poured more hate on these lost souls more than the world has. And now the world has begun to embrace them in an effort to keep them bound! What are we doing about it? Sitting on the sidelines drawing in the sand, when we have no idea what it was Jesus was even drawing, and it’s in the wrong context! We need begin loving each other first, because if we can’t love each other, how will we love anyone else? Once we get that, we need to be reaching out into the very places we have frowned upon and judged to snatch our brother and sisters out of there. And for those that decide to stay or run back, we need to show them love as well.

Listen, I have friends and family members who are homosexual. There is NO way I will turn my back on them! I support them to the fullest! What I do NOT support is their way of life, for no other reason than when they die, that’s it! I will never see them again! I can’t stand to think of that. I do not support what God does not support, but the people living that way or doing that thing, I will continue to love based on the fact that while I was yet a sinner, in the deep thick blackness of my sin, Christ died for me. Not because he was told to, not because he knew he had to, not because it was the only way to save me, but because he loved me!

Know this; my love will not stop flowing with those living this style of life on my page and in my life. I will not turn my back on them and there is NO way I will abandon them! That does NOT make me tolerant or accepting, it makes me obedient to His command for us all. To love my neighbors. Will you do the same?

Now here is a couple of housekeeping items, as they are often called. I do not accept profanity from anyone. If you disagree with this post, message me. Know that I operate with discernment and Proverbs 26:4-5 guides when it comes to answering or not. Also know if you are living this lifestyle and choose to copy and paste this blog to spew out poison against me, I, like my Lord and Savior, will NOT be moved! And I STILL love you! This is not to force or scare you into a relationship with Christ, it’s not to condemn you or to point fingers. It is merely to say I love you as Christ loves you and I am so sorry for what the imposter pew dwellers and surface Christians have done and said! Jesus is NOT like that! He loves you just as you are; He also loves you enough to want more for you!!