The Cruelty of Compromise
"Would you be unkind enough to give an alcoholic a pint of beer to hold for an evening just because he has promised you never to take a sip? Such is the stupidity of the latest edict from the Church of England.
You can share a home, a bank account, and even a bed, states the “powers that be,” provided you do not express your love and commitment to one another in an act that is considered to be of a sexual nature. They should try living according to those rules in their own heterosexual marriages.
Leaning against the Fence
A person can wander in her garden for as long as she likes smelling the delicious aroma of a barbeque and listening to the joyful conversation of her neighbour’s friends all the while knowing that her hunger and loneliness will never be placated while there is a six foot fence dividing the two properties. The lady has a choice; she can remain in the garden and spend the next few hours endorsing her feelings of hunger and sense of isolation or she can choose to engage in some activity that will be pleasing not only to
herself but also, perhaps, a blessing to others.
However, the Church of England’s latest statement on relationships between Bishop’s engaged in a civil partnership defies belief! They encourage the poor man and his partner to spend their life leaning against the fence of sexual expression but to never cross over and enjoy its delights.
God would never be so cruel.
Fleeing from the Garden
It is my belief that God has certainly erected a fence and decreed that any person, irrespective of age or gender or social standing, is forbidden from engaging in sexual activity outside the realms of monogamous heterosexual marriage. He does not, however, encourage the unmarried believer to hang around this fence waiting for the moment they are given permission to cross
over.
God knows us far better than we know ourselves! He knows that we will be tempted to push the fence in order to find out the angle it can actually lean without technically falling over. Unlike the C of E compromise, God instructs us to flee from all that would entice us to sin and while the apostle Paul tells the believer to flee from all sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18), Jesus is rather more blunt in His directive:
Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. (Matthew 5:19, The Message)
In a bid to retain not only both eyes but also both hands, I think it best not only to leave the garden but to move house and buy an apartment!
The Wisdom of the Age
The Church of England is on a fruitless journey in seeking to combine the standards of this world with God’s standard. If they truly believed what they read then they would know the futility of their endeavour:
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:6-9)
I find the Church of England stance towards the subject of homosexuality increasingly unhelpful for believers and unbelievers alike. As a non-believing woman engaged in a lesbian relationship, I would have scorned every word that has been written or uttered in the past few days. These purple-shirted men would have merely underlined my deep held belief that they and their God were totally irrelevant to me and my life.
Now, thirty years later, and as a believer who is prone to same-sex attraction and would, if left to my own devices, eventually wander back towards a life of active homosexuality, I find the church’s desire to ingratiate itself with today’s society at odds with the general biblical teaching; that Christians are to be in but not of the world. Jesus Himself prayed:
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:16,17)
As long as the church insists on fraying the edges of God’s “bottom line” the lost will not be saved and the saved will not be encouraged to walk in the freedom that comes through faith." [Submitted by Jeanette on Sat, 05/01/2013 - 13:46]
www.understandingandovercominghomosexuality.com
Be blessed and be a blessing
click like click share
"Would you be unkind enough to give an alcoholic a pint of beer to hold for an evening just because he has promised you never to take a sip? Such is the stupidity of the latest edict from the Church of England.
You can share a home, a bank account, and even a bed, states the “powers that be,” provided you do not express your love and commitment to one another in an act that is considered to be of a sexual nature. They should try living according to those rules in their own heterosexual marriages.
Leaning against the Fence
A person can wander in her garden for as long as she likes smelling the delicious aroma of a barbeque and listening to the joyful conversation of her neighbour’s friends all the while knowing that her hunger and loneliness will never be placated while there is a six foot fence dividing the two properties. The lady has a choice; she can remain in the garden and spend the next few hours endorsing her feelings of hunger and sense of isolation or she can choose to engage in some activity that will be pleasing not only to
herself but also, perhaps, a blessing to others.
However, the Church of England’s latest statement on relationships between Bishop’s engaged in a civil partnership defies belief! They encourage the poor man and his partner to spend their life leaning against the fence of sexual expression but to never cross over and enjoy its delights.
God would never be so cruel.
Fleeing from the Garden
It is my belief that God has certainly erected a fence and decreed that any person, irrespective of age or gender or social standing, is forbidden from engaging in sexual activity outside the realms of monogamous heterosexual marriage. He does not, however, encourage the unmarried believer to hang around this fence waiting for the moment they are given permission to cross
over.
God knows us far better than we know ourselves! He knows that we will be tempted to push the fence in order to find out the angle it can actually lean without technically falling over. Unlike the C of E compromise, God instructs us to flee from all that would entice us to sin and while the apostle Paul tells the believer to flee from all sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18), Jesus is rather more blunt in His directive:
Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. (Matthew 5:19, The Message)
In a bid to retain not only both eyes but also both hands, I think it best not only to leave the garden but to move house and buy an apartment!
The Wisdom of the Age
The Church of England is on a fruitless journey in seeking to combine the standards of this world with God’s standard. If they truly believed what they read then they would know the futility of their endeavour:
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:6-9)
I find the Church of England stance towards the subject of homosexuality increasingly unhelpful for believers and unbelievers alike. As a non-believing woman engaged in a lesbian relationship, I would have scorned every word that has been written or uttered in the past few days. These purple-shirted men would have merely underlined my deep held belief that they and their God were totally irrelevant to me and my life.
Now, thirty years later, and as a believer who is prone to same-sex attraction and would, if left to my own devices, eventually wander back towards a life of active homosexuality, I find the church’s desire to ingratiate itself with today’s society at odds with the general biblical teaching; that Christians are to be in but not of the world. Jesus Himself prayed:
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:16,17)
As long as the church insists on fraying the edges of God’s “bottom line” the lost will not be saved and the saved will not be encouraged to walk in the freedom that comes through faith." [Submitted by Jeanette on Sat, 05/01/2013 - 13:46]
www.understandingandovercominghomosexuality.com
Be blessed and be a blessing
click like click share
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