I was having an interesting conversation with Mary the other day who was telling me about the pain her gay friend suffers from Christians when I realized there is no place for gays in our churches. They aren’t accepted or made to feel welcome in our churches. Why are other sinners allowed yet they aren’t. Maybe I’m wrong but I haven’t come across many gays in my church.
How can we say we are Christian yet discard a whole group of people. We accept people who are shacking up (living together) but as long as they are not the same sex then that’s ok. We don’t like it but we’ll accept it. Take the same situation but change it to a same sex couple and… Whoa nelly! Don’t they realize they are going to hell?!
What’s the difference? In both situations there is evidence of sin. I love the definition of sin – to miss the mark. To miss the mark. Hmmm, does that mean there are not degrees of sin? Does that mean that sin is sin. If I lie then my sin is the same as the sin of the couple that is living together. Yes. I believe that’s what that means.
I believe all sin is sin and that we are all sinners. (Romans 3:23,24 – For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.) I also believe that Jesus died for everyone. (1 John 4:9-11 – God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.) If we don’t allow the gays in our church or make them feel welcome when they come to church then how are they to learn the true message of salvation.
What about love? What happened to loving others? I’ve quoted 1 John 4: 9-11 but what about the verses above that? Verses 7 and 8 say – ‘Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God — for God is love.’ So…if I understand this correctly if I’m not showing love to others then I don’t know God. Interesting concept.
Please understand that I may not agree with the gay lifestyle but I’m not going to hate them for it. I’m not going to tell them that they are going to hell because they are gay. I believe one goes to hell because they are a sinner and have not accepted the salvation offered by Jesus Christ who died for all of our sins. However, if I don’t show them love then I’m not really backing up my beliefs now am I? That would make me a hypocrite. I would be acting one way and doing another which isn’t very Christ-like behavior.
So my question is…if a gay couple were to come to your church how would you respond? How would others respond? Would the couple feel welcome or would they feel shunned? Oh and gay family members of someone who goes to church with you doesn’t count. Neither does the guy you grew up with in church that announced he was gay when he was older. I’m talking about a couple you don’t know or don’t know their family or friends.
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I agree. I think we do need to be more Christ-like. This is just another area for us to step up and say ,”I do practice whaI preach.” Does that mean it will always be easy? No. Anytime we have to step out of our comfort zone and embrace someone different than ourselves we are challenged. But people are people . Jesus died for us all! We really need to learn to see people as God sees them, and not as we think they ought to be seen!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahhh, The absolute beauty in truth…well said to both of you…Flip the coin for a moment…come over to the other side of reality for a minute,and come from the other side of the room, ya know from the SINNER part of the room,I guess you could say.
Look at church or religion from our perspective. Dirty,unwashed, unclean, not perfect… How can they explore a God who loves them when those that say He will… can’t look past their life as they see it…reality or not, how they,the unwashed, are seen… How can the unclean find true love when they must pretend that they never did this …or never did that… and the concept forced on them is that it is ok if they once did something shameful but…shhhhh. don’t shove it in the face of the rightous ,becouse then The rightous can’t whisper about the nastiness if you shove it out there for everyone to see…then it won’t be a secret like ,uh theirs. cuz I think Tab said the truth… we all miss the mark…we all sin..I am sinning right now… oh yeah, oh yeah,I am sinning…ug! right now!!!jk,jk,jk….lol…I am just kidding!
GREAT post! This is something that very few people talk about or even realise is a problem. Thank you so much for addressing this.
QUOTE : ” If we don’t allow the gays in our church or make them feel welcome when they come to church then how are they to learn the true message of salvation.”
Please read Mark 16:15 and then obey.
dale