Topic(s): Bible Study, Moral Issues, Sin

Dear Abby wrote that we can “know for certain God made gays just as surely as He made straights. All His children are entitled to live and love in dignity, without shame or guilt.” A Christian wrote back and pointed out that the only way we can know for certain what God thinks is to read the Bible. He then quoted some appropriate verses.

She wrote back: “Dear Mr. Patton: Thank you for writing... what a pity there is still so much ignorance about homosexuality in this day and age. If we are to take its work [the Bible] literally, we would agree that the proper punishment for adultery is DEATH! Surely you don’t believe that?

I place all injunctions against homosexuality in the same unenlightened category. The people of Biblical times simply did not understand the nature of homosexuality. Good luck and God bless... Sincerely, ABBY.”

Too bad that God is so unenlightened that it took our generation to inform Him of the true nature of homosexuality!

For shame.

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet“ - Romans 1:26,27

Things Are Not Always as They Seem

Topic(s): Love, Pain and Suffering

A soldier was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco. “Mom and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me.” “Sure,” they replied, “we’d love to meet him.” “There’s something you should know,” the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.” “I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.”

“No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us.” “Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden to us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come on home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.”

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn’t know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are not unlike many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don’t like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren’t as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. Those are the very people Jesus sought out to help (cf. Luke 15:11-32).

“But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” - Matthew 9:12

An Answer From a Dead Man

Topic(s): Gospel, Salvation

This week I read an unusual notice sent out from the Department of Social Services in Greenville County, South Carolina. The letter read as follows:

Your food stamps will be stopped, effective immediately because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.

It seems unlikely that a dead person would read the notice or that there would be enough change in his circumstances to allow for new food stamps. Obviously someone had written the letter without thinking through what the letter said.

In the Bible, however, dead folks can respond. Paul talks about the old life before one puts his faith in the saving power of Jesus as death, being dead in sin. That person can be made alive in Jesus. We also know that physical death is not the end. Following the language of Jesus in John 11 when he talks about Lazarus, Christians have come to call death “sleep.” That’s appropriate because death for the believer is not final. The message of the Gospel is about as mind-boggling as the letter above; it will not make sense to the man of the world, but the death-conquering resurrection of Jesus announces this victory over death. - Moss

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” - Ephesians 2:1