When there's real reason for shame (part 2)

Gay people aren't the only ones who feel shame, of course. But being Gay, in and of itself, isn't a real reason for shame.  

Being a crappy Christian is.

I talked in part 1 about one big way to be a crappy Christian: not making decisions like Jesus did. That means believing we're following Christ, when it's actually the devil's values, the devil's temptations, and the devil's way of doing things that are most evident in our religious and secular lives.

And to one extent or another, we're all guilty of this. It's one of those things that come from being part of a fallen race, one completely and utterly loved by God all the way down to the smallest, most insignificant individual - but one that just can't stop being just a little more impressed with what we can do than what God can do.

Think I'm exaggerating? Well, consider this one example.

Matthew tells us that after Jesus defeated the devil in the wilderness, he went out and started choosing His first disciples. All of the Gospel writers tell us that He choose leaders for His church from among the working poor (like Peter, the fisherman), social outcasts (like Matthew, the tax collector), and the alienated (like Simon, the zealot / revolutionary) of that time.

But that's not what we do, is it? Nope. When we choose who will lead our churches, or run our denominations, or speak in our assemblies, we choose people who:

• were able (financially and culturally) to attend college, 
• have degrees in psychology, theology, music, church administration, and the like, 
• are trained, professional, and entertaining speakers,
• have a natural impulse to take charge and lead/push others, 
• enjoy official titles, garb, positions, and manners, and
• are mainstream enough in their politics and such to have been accepted for ordination by an official religious group.

Indeed, our way of recognizing and accepting church leaders has absolutely nothing to do with the way that Jesus or the early church recognized and accepted church leaders. In fact, our way of choosing church leaders looks exactly like the world's (and therefore the devil's) way of choosing business and political leaders.

But that's ok, we tell ourselves, because the world is different now. We do it better now. We're more advanced / enlightened / intelligent than they were 2,000 years ago. We want to make sure we get it right.

Sorry - but that's a real big crock. Jesus chose people who fit God's plan. In Jesus' name we choose people who fit our plan, and then call it God's plan.

Not the same!

There was a reason for Jesus' plan. And as long as we are more impressed with our way of doing things than with God's way of doing things, then we will continue to get the half-baked, only-nice-on-the-surface results of our plan.

Even worse, people outside the church -- people desperately loved by God and needing to see His real work in who we are and what we do -- will continue to see us for the religious bozos that we truly are: saying we're one thing, while being completely something else; claiming to represent God while trashing His image.

And that is a real reason for shame.

So, how do we avoid this way of being a crappy Christian?

Well, for starters, we start taking Jesus and His way of doing things seriously. Not the fake "seriously" of mainstream churches (whether conservative, liberal, straight, Gay, pentecostal, evangelical, charismatic, fundamentalist, non-denominational, or something else), that are really just a Jesus-coated version of the devil's world. Because Jesus truly did mean it when He chose "down", instead of "up", on the human scale. He once said, for example:

"I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight."  [Matthew 11:25-26]

If we are taking Jesus seriously, that means taking passages like this seriously, and not just finding ways to discount or distort what He said. 

We also need to find out why Jesus choose "down", even though it makes more sense to us human beings to choose "up". We need to understand God's purpose in all this. Paul helps us out a bit with that:

"..the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" [1 Corinthians 1:25-31]

So, why does Jesus choose "down"? Because we human beings get too proud of ourselves and our way of doing things (even the first disciples made this mistake, until Jesus reminded them God's way is not the human way.)

And when we get too pleased with ourselves, we start taking the shortcuts the devil is always happy to help us with, as when we start imagining that we're "better" than the early Christians, far more knowledgeable about God's way of doing things than the people who learned firsthand from Jesus for three years -- and remaining this "humbly" arrogant even though those "backward" early Christians turned more and more people into Christians, while we continue to turn thousands upon thousands of people away from Christ.

The first step away from being a crappy Christian is to stop being proud of the gold we think we or our church is producing, while we can barely breathe in the stink of our own garbage (much less sell it to others).

It's to start taking Jesus as seriously as we claim to. 

The early Christians -- the ones that really loved God -- learned that.

We can too.

When there's real reason for shame (part 1)

I'm continuing in my read through Matthew, and I'm here at Matthew 4. What's going in Matthew 4? Well, first Jesus, newly baptized, goes into the wilderness and is tempted by the devil. And then, having passed the test, Jesus begins to call up His first disciples.

Here's what came to me in reading the first part of this chapter, this time.

Ancient people's often believed that the devil lived in the wilderness. We can certainly understand that while out there, Jesus - the man of flesh and blood - was far beyond anyone's help, far beyond the law, should someone set on Him. Scary enough, but when it was the devil himself (and not just some run of the mill robber) getting in His face, for this trial not even the angels came to help Him. No, Jesus was on His own.

And that fits, doesn't it? One of Jesus' tasks on this earth was to do -- sometimes literally, and sometimes symbolically -- what we human beings have proven through Old Testament, New Testament, and into the modern age that we can't do for ourselves. In this case, Jesus the man goes into the wilderness for forty days, just like the ancient Israelites were in the desert for forty years. He's tempted just like they were -- but He succeeds where they failed miserably. There is symbolism here, to be sure, but there's real world too: Jesus, the human being, takes on the devil - and wins.

As Christians, when we have Jesus' power behind us, we can also win against the devil. But we have to actually want to do that, for it to happen. Unfortunately, while continuing to believe ourselves going along with Jesus, Christians often follow along after the devil, and don't even realize it.

In Matthew 4, for example. Jesus was hungry. And the devil tempted Him to use God's power to take care of that hunger. Jesus refused. He chose to remain hungry and wait for God's power to accomplish God's will, and not the devil's will.

But what do we Christians often do? We also get hungry - for more money, for better cars, for better things, and more. And, we tell ourselves, it makes sense that God our Father would want to always take care of our comforts and concerns, right? So the devil whispers in our ear: "If you are a child of God, use the Power of Jesus to get you want you want!"

And too often we say "Amen!" -- and we often get that money, that car, that thing.

But, who do we think, then, is really fulfilling that prayer? 

Another example. The devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of religion, and tempted Him to prove God wouldn't let Him fall.Jesus refused. But to our minds, in a lot of ways what the devil proposed doesn't sound like such a bad thing. We want assurance that God cares for and protects us. So the devil whispers in our ear: "Rest assured in your solid position in the church and/or as a child of God! Go ahead and do what you will - God won't let you fall!"

And far too often, we cry "Amen!" -- and we are protected from being found out when we've lied, cheated, fornicated, committed adultery, gossiped, power-played, and so on.

But just who do we think is protecting us in that position? 

One more example. The devil took Jesus to the highest place in the world - and here the devil gave away his true evil design. Here the devil offered Jesus what belongs to the devil -- "..all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.." -- if only Jesus would bow down to and worship him.

We know that in the end everything belongs to God, but here the Bible tells us that for now the devil is allowed to own the world's power and place, and all the wonderful things that go with power and place. The Bible also tells us here that the devil is allowed to offer those things -- and he does so to those who bow to him, and who worship him. 

When the devil offered these worldly things to Jesus, Jesus refused. But the devil whispers in our ear: "Go ahead! God wouldn't have put you in a place of ease in the world if you didn't deserve it! And think of all the good things you can do with your power and position!" And too often we Christians praise Jesus with our lips as we kneel to the devil, taking on whatever power and position we can get our hands on. All, we claim, "for the glory of God", of course!

It isn't hard to understand that only a remnant of those who believe themselves to be God's people will actually be saved, because when we truly look in real repentance, ashamed of our greed and gluttony and self-service, we can't help but realize that it's we who choose to go with something besides God. Too often, we Christians want to have it both ways:

• We want to be saved by Jesus, and to claim Him as our own
• But we also want just a little bit more (sometimes a lot more) what the devil has in hand.

And that just can't be.

But that want is  part of our fallen human nature, isn't it? To keep hearing that whispering devil -- and keep falling for his garbage -- over and over again, until at last we tell him to truly take a hike - and we really mean it.

But what does that look like, when we Christians are truly following Jesus and no longer being part-time devil-worshippers?

It looks exactly like what Jesus says it does, in the Bible. It looks, for example, like turning the other cheek, instead of going off to war.It means things like doing good deeds in secret, instead of making sure everyone can see how righteous we are.

And it means taking Jesus - literally - at His word. Even when it hurts. Even when it costs. Even when it doesn't make sense (now).

It means really, truly, being a Christian.

Good for you, Anne Rice

Here's a comment I added to another blog regarding Anne Rice and her recent decision to abandon "church" and go with Jesus, instead:

I've also tried and failed on several occasions, in the conservative and liberal versions of both Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, to be a part of what's called "the Church" by human beings. I've walked away from church, and thought I had to walk away from Jesus.

 That's an error, if not an outright lie.

 Even the Bible itself warns that most of us are going to get it completely wrong -- unless we are willing to follow Jesus, and not each other, not ourselves. The Bible itself tells us that most people who say they are God's People will even go so far as doing God's work -- and still not have Jesus' heart.

It's still possible to be a Christian, and not be the anti's. It's still possible to get it right, and actually be a good thing in the world, and not just another spout for evil. But the trick is to stick with Jesus, just as Anne Rice and so many of us are now learning each day.
Good for you, Anne! You're on the narrow path. And that's a good thing!

Upside-down and backwards

My Bible reading has brought me once again to the start of the New Testament, and I sat down to read Matthew 1 and 2 again.

It amazes me how far off we human beings often are in recognizing and following God's real plan and His real work. And among the greatest and most unlearned truths of the Bible is that those who claim most loudly to know, trumpet, and guard God's Truth are most likely to not only be the furthest from it, but also actively at work against it. 

Matthew reminded me of that this morning while I read that "boring" list of Jesus' ancestors, and what happened to and around Mary and Joseph, before Jesus was born. And it came to me all over again:

• God really does have everything already planned out. He always has, and always will. If something is a surprise, it's only to us - not to Him.

• God really does do things His own way - even when it makes no sense to us at all, and even when it violates human laws or goes against human authority. 

• God's actions in the world often provoke evil reactions like angry confusion, vengeful hatred, repressive attempts at more control, and even mass murder among those - both religious and non-religious - who put themselves and their own will and understanding before God's. 

• God invites people that "Good Religious People" chase away or block from "His" churches and temples, because His real places and power human beings can't control.

• To keep doing God's will, and acting only within His parameters, sometimes we ourselves have to act outside of what's legal, comfortable, or smart according to human values and rules, just to keep from participating in evil ourselves.

What does Matthew's introduction to Jesus speak to you?

Two reasons you may still be hurting

Recovery from false-Christianity (even Gay false-Christianity) and its "loving" hatred of Gays and Lesbians, "loving" obsession with power and greed, and so on, is a long and hard process. I know – I went years through it myself, and I've watched and helped untold others struggling through it in the years since, as well.

We seem to have two problems that can prevent us from recovering from the false and moving on to the real.

For one thing, we may not yet realize we are in false-Christianity.

That's how it is for the vast majority of Christians – today, in the future, but also throughout history. Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others throughout the New Testament speak of falseness in what calls itself of Jesus Christ even in the first "churches". Yet most "churches" and their "pastors" and "apostles" and "teachers" and "prophets" manage to turn those warnings aside, and even pervert those warnings so they seem to warn against doing or believing anything these false leaders say, instead!

And when we grow up in that, for example, those lies and perversions of scripture seem as normal and invisible to us as air. And, being human beings, we will most often choose to kill and hurt others and ourselves, rather than change how we believe when we are convinced we have "The Truth".

Consider all the so-called "Bible-believing Christians" in the USA today, for example. Their modern "Bible" is full of outright fabrications in translation. Doesn't matter – King James or NASB or NIV and so on. Each and every one of them carries flagrant and soul-deluding mistranslations that are worshipped and defended as if they are Jesus Himself. And those so deluded have no issue with – for example – using their human-inspired "scripture" to promote the emotional and physical torture and killing of Lesbians and Gay men, or to support and turn a blind eye to those who do. In fact, their hearts blaze with the devil's glory to do so!

But Gay and Lesbian Christians do the same to themselves and each other. We also too often worship those same blasphemous mistranslations, and we torment and even kill ourselves and each other – our hearts, our bodies, and/or our faith. The devil's glory then burns in us, as well.

And that brings up the second issue the prevents us from recovering away from false-Christianity and healing in the real:

Even when the facts are made apparent to us, we will not let go of that devil-glory and reach out, instead, to the real Jesus.

I did this too, for many years. It's very common. I used to work with a lesbian, for example, that had developed a ferocious hatred for anything Christian because her mother was a "Christian" who, for more than twenty years, had delighted not only in publically humiliating her Lesbian daughter and her daughter's twenty-year spouse, but also in being just generally and gleefully hateful and greedy, all while boasting of her "assured salvation" in Jesus Christ. This mother is one of those "Christians" the Bible warns us will cause others to malign the real way of truth (see, for example, 2 Peter 2:2).

When I asked this lesbian daughter once why she continued to have any contact with this horrible, hurtful  person, much less continue to believe her opinion of her and her spouse and so on, she was astonished and replied, "Because she's my mother!"

But think about that (in the way that this lesbian daughter would not):

Even though it was killing her, driving her to self-hatred that was truly pushing her towards losing her mind, towards wanting to kill herself, and even towards choosing evil in her own life, this Lesbian daughter would not move to save herself by distancing herself from the evil monster. She LOVED the evil monster. Put and kept her identity focused on that evil monster. Refused to not believe that evil monster.

And worse, this Lesbian daughter had at different times in her life either ignored or told the real Jesus to stick it in His ear – because she was sticking with her evil monster, instead of Him.

At some level in her heart, this lesbian daughter had come to understand what an evil monster her mother was - she knew it. Talked about it, even. But still she would not let go of her.

Instead, she clung to death – and despised and turned away from Life.

And in doing so, she's ruined not only her life in this world, but also in the next. All because she won't let go of the false, and take on what's real.

How often do we, who cling to our family and church opinions of us, and refuse to let go of mistranslations of God's real Word, and so on, do the same thing?

I used to do it – a lot. Figuring out that the so-called "scriptures" that seemed to condemn Gay and Lesbian people were intentional mistranslations or self-serving misinterpretations was only the first required step on the way to the Real Saving Jesus.

That's what so many Gay and Lesbian Christians miss. That's why we continue to struggle in spiritual, emotional, and even physical agony for so long. That's why we continue to teach false-Christianity even in Gay churches. That's why we continue to be a force for evil in our own and others' lives, even once we've seen the facts of God's real Word about Gays and Lesbians.

You see, the second step – to let go of the false, to take on the new – is actually easier, but also a hundred times harder, than the first.

Let me explain.

It's easier because truly – all we have to do is let go. Go to your desk right now and pick up a pencil or pen or something. Hold it up in front of you – now let it go. That was easy to get rid of, right?

Now go to your kitchen, and get a paper towel. Put it under the faucet, and soak it through. Hold it up in front of you. Now drop the water out of it.

No, really. Let the water go.

Can't do it?

Or maybe you can get the water out, but you'll have to get some help.

Time, maybe. Like, time for the water to evaporate out – assuming the air around that towel isn't so humid it can't dry out! We can also use time to get rid of false-Christianity, IF we are staying away from things that will add or maintain the water (things like continued exposure to false-teachings, for example).

Or a tool. Like a light touch with a hair dryer, to get rid of the water. We can also use tools – like exposure to the real Gospel, and making the effort to find and study the real Jesus (which does NOT mean hanging out in Gay or straight false-Christian bible teachings or churches and continuing to absorb their values and teachings!).

We NEED to dry the water out of our towel. It's not supposed to be filled with common sink water. And as long as it IS filled with common sink water, it's never going to be able to absorb the Living Water that we're really needing.

And getting rid of that impure, common, human-fed and -led kitchen water you've absorbed and want to cling to, so that you can be filled instead with the real Holy Spirit is going to be the easiest – and the hardest – thing you've ever done.

But it is required.

It's required of every human being on the planet: to truly walk away from everything that isn't Jesus. To let go even of our most precious emotional attachments, if and when they put themselves between us and God.

See, Gay and straight Christians alike rightly elevate family and church relationships – we cling to them, love them, protect them, and thank God for them. We are supposed to do that, after all.

But we "conveniently" forget the rest of what Jesus told us: that even those relationships must be put by the wayside, if and when they stand between us and the real Jesus.

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it. [Matthew 10:34-39]

and,

 Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” [Luke 12:51-53]

and,

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. [Matthew 7:13-14]

False-Christianity is one of the devil's main lies, and has been for 2,000 years. In fact, false-Christianity is the false prophet he's going to use and promote more and more as the End Times approach and unfold. While some like to argue that Islam or New Age or something else will be that false prophet, the whole idea of "false" is that it must be something that pretends to be by and about Jesus, but isn't. Nothing else qualifies, then, except the same false version of Christianity we are warned about not only in Revelation but also throughout much of the New Testament.

That's why we have to be willing to let go even of our families and friends and churches when they fill us with false teachings.

False teachings deny the real Jesus Christ!

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. [1 Peter 2:1]

Take it upon yourself to pray, today, that the Holy Spirit will begin drying the deceitful devil-water out of your heart, and filling you instead with the Living Water of the real Jesus Christ.

Pray that He will grant you the emotional strength you need to turn away from the addictive power of false-Christianity and towards His healing.

And then make it part of your daily efforts to work with the Lord on this. To do your part:

• studying the real Scriptures (ALL of them, not just the corrected "clobber" passages), 
• sticking with the real Jesus and only the real Jesus even when if it costs you, and
• asking the Lord for wisdom in your daily life.

It's what's required of you.

It's what's required of all of us. 

Why? Because that's where the real treasure is! And that's where our only salvation is.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [Matthew 13:44-50]

...Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. [Matthew 6:21]

The ultimate con: believing "Christian" lies about God

A seeking brother, currently being led by the Holy Spirit out of the hell-trap of legalistic and bigoted "Christianity", wrote me last week about a Scripture being used in the "church" he's grown up in to "prove" God hates him.

On the surface, this "church" uses Scripture to "prove" God despises Gay and Lesbian people. But there's a far deeper message they are communicating to themselves, their families, and the world. And it has to do with God's very character.

God, they say, is a hater.

I can't even describe the level of anti-Christ blasphemy it is to re-make God as sharing and justifying the worst of one's own repulsive human nature, and then imprinting that evil lie about God into the minds of one's children, friends, neighbors, and more. It's a sinful lifestyle they've chosen, one that kills and destroys – and it's also a desperate one, wherein those caught in it rarely even recognize their sin, much less decide to repent of it (check out John 10:1-21, for example).

People living this sinful lifestyle happily make themselves enemies of anyone and everyone not like them, drawing false lines between what is "pure" and "impure" and what is "godly" and "ungodly" – and too many people (both Christian and not) go along with their assertions and definitions, rather than recognizing them for the frank delusions they actually are.

We might understand why non-Christians would believe their self-worshipping nonsense. But as Christians we have no excuse because the Bible itself describes people caught in and living out this sin as existing even in the early history of the church. Paul and others in the New Testament give us clear warnings about such people – but we've been taught by those with a reason to hide the truth that such Scriptures aren't about them or those they follow, but about "the world", or non-Christians, or someone (anyone) else they can shift blame onto.

Realizing the truth of those choosing to live this sinful lifestyle isn't just about recognizing that their self-created version of what God thinks about Gay people is wrong.

In fact, if our understanding only goes that far, we're still no more right with God than they are. In such a case, we're like Philip, to whom Jesus said, "“Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me?" [John 14:9]

No, realizing the truth about their sinful lifestyle means also recognizing the truth about God and His character – as described in the Bible, and as illuminated for us through the light of Jesus Christ [John 1:4-5]. It means knowing, just as the Bible tells us to know, that Jesus Christ is God, and God is Jesus Christ – and was Jesus ever a hater? No.

So is it even remotely possible that God is a hater?

No. And if we or anyone else believes He is, then we need to double- and triple-check our theology – because it's contradicting the Word of God while claiming to be only about God. And even the idea that we could have wandered (or been shoved) that far away from the real God should terrify us.

So, are you well enough acquainted with the Word of God? Do you fully understand the real Gospel?

Don't be so sure! There is a world of seminaries, denominations, churches, pastors, priests, and more that's worked overtime to make sure you THINK you have the real deal, when in fact you are not only living but also teaching a complete fake.

And the fake isn't going to get you into heaven, no matter how much you attend church, prophesy, sing praise, feed to hungry, tithe, memorize Scripture, and more [Matthew 7:21].

Love and respect Jesus enough, then, to renew your acquaintance with God's real truth of those Scriptures that not only describe and warn us about those who have chosen an anti-Christ "Christian" lifestyle, but also tell us what to do with and about them.

For example, here's what Paul wrote to Titus about these same kinds of folks and their sinful lifestyle. With whose eyes do you read this passage? God's? Or religious human beings'?

"For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.' This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed." [Titus 1:10-16]

The people Paul called "those of the circumcision" we call "legalists", today. They are people who adhere to and promote the letter of the law (often quite proudly!) to the exclusion of the intent of the law. They are also the people who have for centuries – and continue even today – to falsely remake and reinterpret Scripture to make it appear God says things about Gay people He does not.

So, reading this passage with God's eyes, tell me: what does God think about legalists? What does God want us to do with or about them?

If you need to, read it again – and again, and again – until you release the lies told to you perhaps all your life, and you instead open to the instruction of the Holy Spirit and come to understand that God says of legalists that they are not the wonderful children of God they claim to be, but are instead:

• Rebellious and disobedient to God (e.g., God says live humble other-love, but they live arrogant self-love)
• Blowhards, liars, and deceivers (e.g., they mistranslate God's Scriptures on a host of topics -- and just one of those topics is Gay people)
• Destroyers of families (they do so today in families with Gay people, but they destroy other families and their own for all sorts of reasons)
• False teachers (e.g., they preach and teach a different gospel than what Paul and other New Testament writers taught). 
• Only concerned with their own disgusting benefit (e.g., they build "Christian" organizations in order to make careers, have a place to religiously show off, and more)
• Evil (e.g., glorifying war, economic oppression, and domination of others as "Christian")
• Absorbed in people-inspired myths and commandments (e.g., almost everything you find in or about a modern "church" is completely human-made, and has no basis in the true Gospel)
• Defiled and impure (e.g., using God's reflected glory to make their sinful human cliches and organizations appear "godlike")
• Claiming to know God but by their deeds proving they actually deny Him (e.g., being self-serving hypocrites)
• and, being unable to do anything good (since in God's eyes, even "good" things don't count if done for selfish reasons - it's true: nothing they can do could ever truly be good!)

Too often as Gay Christians we allow people whose hearts and lives prove they haven't even begun to understand God, dictate to us how we will understand God, and how we will believe God understands us.

But that's a crock! And it's exactly opposite of what God tells us to do.

We each, then, need to say, "No more!"

• No more to being tricked by the lies the false gospel of legalism tells about God.

• No more to elevating any human beings to God's place, allowing them to define whether we are worthy of His unconditional love through Jesus Christ.

• No more to not understanding that people living the false gospel lifestyle need our prayers and compassion – and not our obedience and deference.

Here are some other Scriptures I invite you to also take a new look at, in your search for what God really thinks of the people who condemn you just for being Gay. These Scriptures also talk about how He wants you to understand and react to their sinful lifestyle (note these are just some of the New Testament verses – continue your new study by finding the others in both New and Old Testaments!:

• Romans 16:17-18
• Titus 3:9-11
• 2 Timothy 4:1-4
• Matthew 23
• 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, 19-20
• 1 Timothy 6:3-5
• The book of Galatians
• Revelations 3:7-13

Study and read, study and read, study and read! – always asking the Holy Spirit to help you release the false message you may have been taught or assumed in them, and to instead take in God's real message.

God has more in store for your Gay life than cowering under the oppressive weight of people who are spiritually hard of heart, fearing for your salvation because they tell you to!

Stop sacrificing yourself on the alter of their self-worship!

And may God not only continue to bless you on your continued journey toward and on His narrow path to life, but may He also inspire you to avoid, challenge, and pray for those anti-Christ "Christians" in your life as He directs you to!

In His love,

Lynne

Are you choosing to suffer?

During the last few months, I've watched and waited with my grandparents as they passed from this life into the next.

And I watched a lot of extra, and needless, suffering.

During this time most of the people around me - including my grandparents – believed all of their suffering to be natural and inevitable. Just part of getting old and being ill, they believed. At no time did my grandparents accuse or distance themselves from the people and medical belief system that caused them so much extra, unnecessary suffering. In fact, like their MDs, when they felt good they believed it was their "medicine" making them feel good, but when they felt bad they believed that meant they needed more "medicine". Like true-believers, they never broke their connection to the very human system that was actually killing their ability to be strong and healthy.

It brought an extra measure of sadness to me, to watch. I could speak up. I could add information about what true health and healing really look like, and how they are truly accomplished according to both scientific and historical proofs – with real science, in other words. But ultimately, it all still remained my grandparents' choice to believe in modern, junk-medical science, and the extra-painful end of their lives was simply the end result of their choice based in that belief.

I've walked that same path of believing-no-matter-what. I'm a lifelong science-geek, having begun my fascination with science when I was just five years old, starting with all kinds of biology and then quickly expanding into physics, geology, astronomy, and more. Even though I held on to my faith in God (in fact, I saw science as simply a way to illuminate God's design of the universe), I was also another kind of "true believer": modern, scientific thinking completely ordered how I saw and interacted with the world around me.

So, many years later when I became seriously ill and my life and health depended on my "thinking outside the box" scientifically, to even consider that science today is based on flawed logic and biased, unscientific presumptions was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do my whole life. This was true, even though the not seeing it, and later the seeing but not accepting it, caused me a great amount of needless suffering and further damage to my body, some of which I still work to recover from, even today.

I had to understand that modern science is based in the minds of human beings who are simply that: human beings. Therefore, science is subject to the sins of corruption of ideals, flawed assumptions, and rotten foundations of thought found in every other human philosophy; it's more tempted by the satisfactions of personal power and greed than in truly discovering what works and doesn't work in the world.

To find true science, then, I had to be willing to change. I had to be willing to examine even what was "known" to be beyond needing examination. I had to be willing to risk losing my connection to the decayed "majority", in order to find and keep to the whole and healthier "minority".

And until I did – until I began to let go of false-science – I had nothing but my own and others' self-serving fantasies, to cling to.

Most Christians today suffer under a similar human philosophy. We're too often spiritually sick and spiritually dying, and we also believe this suffering is natural and inevitable. For example, we're Gay, or one of our loved ones is Gay. False-Christianity tells us that being Gay is wrong, so we suffer in fear of punishment (of ourselves or our Gay loved one) or in feeling we are hurting God somehow. During all this, we just "know" that our suffering this way is right.

When still thinking only within the false-Christian box, we go further. Just like my grandparents with their false-science MDs, we don't distance ourselves from those who teach and project that extra, unnecessary suffering into our lives. Instead, if we're Gay we might believe when we feel bad it's because we're Gay and need more Gay-hating "help", and when we feel good it's because with Gay-hating "help" we're denying being Gay. Others can provide us counter-information to this false-Christian system until they're blue in the face, but unless and until we make the hard choice to begin even considering a way of understanding ourselves outside the false-Christian box, we'll simply continue our pointless suffering to the end.

As Gay Christians we have to understand that the religion of Christianity is based only within the minds of human beings who are just human beings. Human beings who are sinful, corrupt of ideal, and lacking in sure assumptions. Human beings who have built their church on spiritual sand, instead of on the Rock of Jesus.

To find true Christianity, then, we have to be willing to change.

• We have to be willing to examine everything we've been taught, to test it against the real Jesus. 
  

• We have to be willing to walk away from everything that claims to be about Jesus, but is not. 
  

• We have to be willing to risk losing our connections to the spiritually dead and comatose Christian majority, in order to find and keep to the whole and healthier minority.

And until we do let go of false-Christianity, we'll have nothing but fantasies to cling to. And we'll keep suffering.

So, how do we start to do that?

• How to we begin the long process of letting go of what only claims to be about Jesus, and start embracing Jesus? 

• How do we stop being the blind following the blind? How do we move from the wide path of destruction to the narrow path of life, at last? 
  

• And how, at last, do we stop choosing to needlessly suffer?

There is no set "formula" that I've found in my own path, or in others. But here are some things I've noted, along the way:

• Those who become satisfied, stop and sit. You may rest for a time, but don't ever put down spiritual roots in anything but Jesus. God won't be done scraping off all the anti-Jesus gunk off you until He comes again. Keep at it!

• Remember always that God wants you to succeed. And He wants you to be only about Jesus. If you don't give up, you cannot fail. If things don't seen to be moving right, look around you, test your assumptions, and try something else focused on Jesus.
  

• There is nothing to do, say, or pray that will make you "right" with God. Only truly trusting in God and God alone does that. Stop trying and start relying!

• Look for others who are also blessed with Holy-Spirit-induced dissatisfaction with the "Christian" way-things-are. God is calling out His remnant from a bazillion different peoples and places in the world. Be open to those who are seeking just-Jesus, and be open to how different they may be from you!

• Keep in mind that much of the just-Jesus path feels lonely, in the early part. God is still with us, of course, but not having a "God club" to go to each Sunday can feel bad, until we realize that going and sitting in temples of smiling false-Christianity feels even worse. Remember that just like an ex-smoker eventually loses their craving for nicotine, when you are further along God's real path you will also lose your craving for faked God-clubs. 

• Explore resources that tell the truth about church and false-Christianity. The sidebar on this blog contains a growing list of books and other resources that tell a closer truth about Jesus than what you find in the "mainstream". Use them to clear your spiritual mind and heart of nonsense you've been led to believe.

• Share your own faith journey and resources with others! Start your own blog, for example, or start talking to other Christians and non-Christians in your local life about a life about just-Jesus. Help those who aren't as far along the path as you.

And, as always, email me if you'd like to chat or share a resource to list here.

In His love,

Lynne