Comments on: Jennifer Knapp & Larry King: Why We Always Lose this Debate

By: A. Raj Rao

A. Raj Rao — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:39:43 +0000

Jeremiah had a painfully rough life. And amidst all that roughness, God told Jeremiah:

“You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.” ~Jer. 16v.2

Now – at this point…

~ It did not matter whether Jeremiah was a homosexual or heterosexual.
~ It did not matter whether God has given him some special gift of celibacy or not.
~ It did not matter how many struggles with loneliness he had.
~ It did not matter if every cell in the flesh of his body burned for someone or someones.
~ It did not matter what sorts of aches and longings haunted the hollows of his soul.

All of this and a lot more did not matter, because …

God was his sufficiency.

It is only the One who has created us in our inmost being, who has knit us together in our mother’s wombs, who can truly satisfy us – Jesus Christ.

Because …

If it is not God, it is a band-aid. If it is not God, it is an idol. If it is not God, it is a drug… And each successive fix leaves one, ever the more spiritually emaciated and gaunt. The hunger never goes away. It only grows.

Only God is truly sufficient. And it all starts with obedience. An obedience that is difficult in the beginning and but ends with a joy – indomitable.

Christ in us, the hope of glory!!! Happy New Year!

By: jm

jm — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 13:17:42 +0000

The point regarding homosexuality: There’s a better way. As Christians, who ourselves voluntarily subdue our innate patterns every day, we would be remiss and ethically wrong not to point people to the path that is life.

By: Tina Hoffman

Tina Hoffman — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:17:49 +0000

I agree that “Kansas” is one of the best Christian albums of all time…her lyrics are refreshingly honest and real.

By: Barb

Barb — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:56:29 +0000

another thought. The fact that soem people seem absolutely obsessed with homosexuality – either for or against but generally against – and this is certainly shown by the massive number of comments on this post – indicates something. People can hide behind uncontextualized Scripture or anything else but really, there is a natural curiousity about sex. There is a natural need to have sex obviously. And it seems there is a deep seeded disgust when it comes to sex that seems “icky.” Men having sex with other men is deeply repellent to some men. It seems to go so deep that they may not even be aware of it. This can result in beating the heck out of gay men (or killing them), anti-gay comments and oddly and seemingly counter-intuitively, an absolute obsession with how wrong it is. This wouldn’t be as horrific as it is if it didn’t result in suicides in the gay community and discrimination against them in everything from work to church. Shame on the church for so alienating so many people. Instead of continually (and obsessively) recycling anti-gay arguments on the internet and everywhere else, the church (and I speak of course of mainly the Catholic church and evangelical churches) would do well to try to erase years and years of damage they have caused to the gay community. When you heap shame upon people – whether “lovingly” or not – it destroys them. Thank goodness some have been strong enough to rise up and speak. You do not have the right to push them down again.
I am a straight, middle-aged woman and I obviously feel very strongly about this. My god look at the log in your own eye.

By: Barb

Barb — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:09:57 +0000

I recently read Gail Haggard’s book, “Why I stayed”. The one sentence that boiled it all down, that really stood out, was when she wrote that if she believed her husband were truly a homosexual, then her life up to that point would be of no value. I paraphrase but the no value is exactly what she said. I believe she is so so terrified of just that, that she uses any rationalization she can so that she can believe that Ted is heterosexual but with issues. I hate to say it but I have no doubt that at some point, Mr. Haggard will be back having homosexual flings, if he is not already.

By: tonga pakofe

tonga pakofe — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:03:47 +0000

Hello to you all, it’s a great priviledge to join with you in this web by sharing our experiences and understandings on such kinds of issues like homosexuality, feminism, racism,etc. i am a tongan and happy to jump in with who i am as a xtian.

most scholars and xtians are debating on the issue of homosexuality with a focusing on heavily caliming and identifying such group as sinners. it is so similar to what was appeared on the conversation larry king hosted. my concern is not upon labelling who as so sinful or sinless or even a sinner, but i am totally concern on how big is it to twist the natural order of sex that we humanity created for as male and female to fulfill the creator’s purpose and will (be fruitful etc.). i would like to simply point out my view on this issue:

my concern is not sinner (less or big), absolutely not identifying someone but wary about their “practices”. Male with a male marriage is clearly not only about how they deeply sensed inside their mind and heart but inclusively and inseparably tied with the physical relationships. Creator’s created humanity in His image as Physical and Spiritual. Approaching the human marriage with separating of physical life and its already connected with sipritual life of a male or female would mislead and produce some inappropriate outcome that against the Creator’s handi-work.

Question to ask: Is it possible to help those people who love to act like this (homosexual) to accept and back to whom he or she has planned and made by Creator for, with regardless of his or her feeling that misled him or her to end up with such strangeful way of sex and wedding?

Above all, God love evrybody till the END OF TIME. However, we will be judged according to the way we practice or act.

God Bless,
tonga

By: Paul Russell

Paul Russell — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:37:37 +0000

Excellent post! I’m going to share it with my friends and colleagues.

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 05:51:40 +0000

Excellent point Chris! God’s ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9) We cannot always know why we go through what we go through, but we can know that God has a purpose for all that he allows us to go through. Paul prayed several times for God to remove the thorn in his flesh, but Jesus answered him, my grace is sufficient. God will use the trials and struggles, the suffering and the pain to be a refining fire, purifying us and transforming us into the image of Christ. You must allow God to work in your life though, because if you fight what God is doing, it will eventually break you.

Jen, I struggle with thoughts about women allot. I used to be addicted to pornography, partaking every day, and when I surrendered my life over to Christ just over a year ago, I cut that off. I no longer watched pornography and I went completely celibate. It was a struggle going from sexual immorality every day to a completely celibate life, and I struggle almost every single day, I see a pretty girl who is scantily clad and up pops a thought. I stuggle with sexual thoughts and memories from past experiences almost every day, but God’s grace is enough, and I take it one day at a time, one situation at a time. Jesus is working on me, and I know it. “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) You don’t have the power or the ability to transform your life Jen. I don’t know you, but I think maybe the reason you haven’t been able to overcome and change is because you are relying on your own power to change, instead of surrendering to Christ and allowing him to change you. Let God’s grace be enough, and he will transform you in His image! I hope this helps, and I pray that you will surrender to his will for your life and let Christ reign.

God Bless,
Derek J. Brent

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:04:33 +0000

Jen, God does not hate you because your attempt to change is more difficult than others.

He loved you and died for you before you changed, and he loves you still. We cannot compare ourselves to others and make assumptions because we do not always know why God is doing (or seems not to be doing) things a certain way.

The believers prayed for James in the book of Acts, and he was martyred. They prayed for Peter and he was miraculously rescued. Jesus healed a blind man who saw instantly. At another time he healed a blind man who did not see clearly instantly, but unclearly so that people looked like trees at first.

Job’s friends thought that God was punishing him for something he did wrong, when in fact, Job went through the struggles that he did because of the things he was not doing wrong.

Over the years I have found that I should not wait until I have overcome everything to feel acceptable to Jesus. I belong to him already and the key to the Christian life is not giving up–not matter what.

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:50:23 +0000

My only question is why do we need to continue?

Jesus told his followers that when they entered a city and the people rejected the things they were teaching to kick the dust off their sandals and move on.

If the “homosexual city” is rejecting the things you teach, why is there a continued committment to preach at these people. (I’m thinking more of the protesting outside of concerts and events, not individual programs that people choose to enter).

I am a homosexual of faith and that is all I will say regarding me. I have no problem with people that desire to supress their feelings. I have gone through various attempts of change myself, it’s not easy and it doesn’t always work. Yes, sometimes it is down right impossible and the best you can hope for is celebacy (not easy either). I became depressed thinking that I would never be good enough.

If God loves no matter what, then why would a transformative process be so difficult? If a muslim converts to Christianity, he/she may lose their family and be subjected to threats depending upon the traditions of their family. I can understand this fear. For me, it was the support of my family that made it the hardest. For some reason, the prayer, the memorization, the faux dates with men, didn’t help at all.

The final conclusion I drew was that God does indeed hate me and not want me with Him because He will not let me change.