I recognize that the whole gay rights issue is very sensitive to many people. It is so easy to see the people. It is so easy to see the world and how things have evolved in it. it is so easy to go with the politically correct thing. And in Canada is it so easy to go with...oh.. as long as you aren't hurting anyone it's okay. :) We Canadians tend to be rather accepting of a whole lot of things. It's part of who we are eh?
As I read this blog post, a comment made caught my attention.
Sin affects people in a variety of ways.
Some people become murderers (hmm.. is that okay). Some people become worriers. Some people become alcoholics. Some people become sex addicts. And yet still others are affected by same sex desires.
and because Sin affects people in a variety of ways it doesn't change what our response should be.
Our response, as people who believe in God, is to follow GOD's word to the best of our ability. That is what God calls us to.
He calls us beyond our own natural tendencies. He calls beyond our own sin which enslaves us.
Me.. my sin... I stress. It's what I do.
I pull my hair, I get wired, I feel tense and tight inside, I tell myself stories to calm myself down, I've done other things that I' won't mention here but it was because I Stress.
God tells me in his word.. TRUST in the Lord with ALL your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in ALL your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. (Prov 3)
If I stress and choose to remain in that stress...and the longer I live the more aware I am of how that is a choice...even though at times it seems like it is NOT a choice because it's as natural to me as breathing and I've been like this ever since I was a baby.... then I am sinning. yes.. I sin.
It's not different than the person who struggles with alcoholism, same sex desires, drug addiction, lying, theft or whatever. We all know our own areas that we struggle with. So why is same sex desires somehow put on a different level? Why is it SO very special? it isn't. It's just another way for people to struggle with sin. That's all.
And it grieves my heart to see people being punished for holding to God's word.
It grieves my heart to see people who struggle with this besetting sin to be hurt instead of helped by the very people of God who should most understand this.
Living out a homosexual lifestyle is SIN... but being a person who struggles with this sin.. does not make YOU bad, or not worthy of being loved by the people of God and it most certainly does not make you a person that GOD himself cannot love. KNOW THIS please.
Those people of God who would shame you or belittle you for struggling with this sin.... are quite frankly failing to see the log in their own eye. (Matt 7)
Sin is a struggle.
The call by God to be holy as he is holy is a struggle. (1 Pet 1)
But if we call upon God, if we LEAN completely upon him.. he will make our path straight even as we struggle until He takes us home. I firmly and truly believe this.
it's not easy, oh my.. .. it is SO not easy. But It will be worth it in the end.