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Friday, October 26, 2007

A View from the Castle

I feel like such a wimp sometimes and other times I feel like an ogre. I feel like I ride the pendulum when it comes to our girls. I am trying to follow my brother's advice, that is Michael Pearl of "Train up a Child" and I know his advice is biblically sound and works it is just soooooo hard sometimes. You know I feel so guilty when I have to spank my little girls butt. She is just so smart and sometimes just blatantly defiant and she knows it and I know it and well, there you have it. She has to have the rod sometimes. We are working on the defiant attitude right now. Better get a grip on it now. God knows we saw enough of it in the 7 + years at the Children's Home.

Anyway, I just feel guilty and there is that little angel, or is it the devil, sitting on my shoulder saying. "Don't you remember all you went through to have that little girl? And now here you are spanking her. Shame on you! All she did was tell a little lie. She doesn't even know what she is doing". Now that I think about it, it must be the devil. Anyway, it is hard not to just give in to your emotions and just say. It's OK just don't do it again. Gosh, don't we all wish that just worked.

OK, so let's talk about the homosexuality and Christianity subject. I will be typing myself into oblivion if I try to fully explain myself on this but I am going to try my best. I have grown up with lots of gay people around me. It began with my sisters friend from church who was in love with my sister. Of course it wasn't reciprocated but it did add a dynamic to my young life that I was not fully aware existed until I realized I had a gay best friend. And he was a friend of mine from church too. Then I grew up and went to college and met more people, professing Christians with fruits of the spirit evident in there life. They turned out to be gay too. I could give you lots of details, family members, acquaintances, close friends etc. My heart was breaking to think that all these people, just because they preferred sex with their own sex would go to hell regardless.

SO, this is the conclusion I came to . First, I don't believe you are born gay. I believe you can have a predisposition to effeminate or manly characteristics that make you subjected to ridicule and make you yourself question your sexuality but I don't believe you are born that way. That would leave you no choice in the matter. I don't believe God does that. I may be wrong. Anyway, secondly, I believe you can be gay AND be a born again Believer in Jesus Christ. I believe that once you are saved you are SAVED. Period. Written in the Lambs book of life. No giant erasers in heaven. It's grace that we just can't fathom. SO, when the Bible talks about liars, and effeminate, adulterers etc not inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven, I believe it is saying the truth. HOWEVER, you must remember that once you are born again, your a sanctified, sealed and sainted. You may be trapped in your flesh until you are perfected when Jesus comes and takes us outta here.

Now hold on a minute you say. That means you can get saved and then do whatever the heck you want. And I say a big fat YES. That is why Jesus said go MAKE DISCIPLES not go get a bunch of people saved. Salvation is the easy part. Discipleship, learning to follow Christ, to become like him, to die to self daily, etc. Now that is the hard part. Our brother's and sisters who are living the homosexual lifestyle and still claim to be Christian can very much be just that. They are just deceived by the devil and are missing out on a closeness with Christ that some of us experience occasionally. I mean come on now. If you want to argue the point, why do we make such a big issue of homosexuality and not fornication or adultery? Is it more socially consciousness or judgemental ism or what?

Now I didn't just arrive at this overnight. I had a few friendships that I lost because of this issue. I never lost a friendship over the fact that someone was sleeping around or was a habitual liar or was doing things that were unholy. Just over the homosexual issue. I came to realize that could not be what Christ wants us to do. After all he is all about love. I know I know he said go and sin no more. What an idyllic mentality. He could have that and still love us in spite of ourselves. He has ALWAYS known what our abilities are and he chose to create us anyway. OK, so I have started a whole heap of controversy I am sure.

Bottom line is, I believe that once you are saved, God looks at you as he looks at His Son. You are a Saint. Period. You didn't get there by anything you did and you can't hold on to it or lose it because of something you do. Grace... wonderful, amazing, simple grace. If you choose to live deceived sometimes it is not of our own necessary choosing, after all remember what Paul said. Something like this. "What I want to do, I don't do and what I don't want to do, I do" so even Paul wrestled with the flesh. Doesn't mean he was lost does it?

OK so that's enough of that.
Until we meet again.
David

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey David! Long time no see! I'm loving your blog! I totally agree with you and will add this tidbit.

When Roy and I lived in Norway (for almost 2 years), I met people who were married and "seemed" to have a PERFECT marriage w/kids. LITTLE DID I KNOW where they came from and how they got there!!!!

One of the folks I befriended, a lady, use to be homosexual. You talk about a double take?! Some say she never was. I don't believe it. We got into a DEEP discussion about it. I mean, deep!

She came to Christ! God didn't like what she was doing, SHE PUT A STOP TO IT. About 5 years later, she met her husband and wala.... she and him now have 2 BEAUTIFUL kids!!!

They have a great marriage. She has a great life. I tell ya, after meeting a person like that? Don't tell me you are BORN that way! I know better! I've seen firsthand what the power of Christ has done!

Kristen

Lance Wallace said...

David,
I'd say Kristen's comment goes right along with my belief. Once to come to Christ, you CAN do whatever you want. BUT when you do come to Christ your WANTS WILL change. You will no longer want to do the "old things". I take that from 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." NKJV
That's my take on it and I, like you do not believe that someone is born that way either.
Now, for the kids deal, yes I can relate! I am the disciplinarian around these parts. Especially with the 2 'momma's boys' that we have! One just turned 9 and the other is 5. The eldest just needs a good talkin' too or restriction from time to time. Haven't really had to spank him in quite some time. Now, for my youngest......he is a horse of a different color! I believe that I could spank him until my arm falls off and it wouldn't do any good. Don't get me wrong, he still gets spankings, but he also gets time-outs, restrictions and such. I know to some that my sound harsh. However, we continue to get compliments on their behavior so something is working. Why just last night while we were out to eat, one of their teachers made a point to come by and say that they are well behaved in his class. Right there in front of my sons, I told him that they had better be! I hope that you don't see me as a harsh person, we do give them times to cut-up and act wild (OUTSIDE). As the Bible as states there is a time and season for everything.
By the way in case you can't tell I too, enjoy you blog. My wife (Hope) and your's have spoken via e-mail before I believe. We are adopting from China through AWAA, too! We hope to be traveling by the end of Nov. Anyway, keep it up and I'll be checkin' back in.
God Bless!
Lance

sarahb said...

Great discusion. I enjoyed reading your viewpoint and RIch and I enjoyed discussing it. We agreed on every point except whether you are born that way. We think that some people are born with that tendency (just like the tendency toward addictions or others... - whether they fall prey to them is another matter..)
We are in perfect agrement on the matter of grace and salvation. I like the giant eraser comment. And, Nope, I don't think our sins are on a rating scale. Someone elses perversion is always much more distasteful that my little ole' sin, after all.....
The scary part for me is how we reach out in christian love -that fine line between tolerance and judgment. What is that old adage; what we tolerate in this generation we embrace in the next. I used to scoff at that but we only need look at the media to see it holds true.

Anonymous said...

hey david, bryan here. i see you ramble just as much as i do.not that its a bad thing. good to hear you guys are doing good. talk to you soon.

Val said...

What? Ladybugs and rainbows weren't enough to go on about??? :D Heh...rainbows...guess maybe you did. LOL Glad to see you have taken the plunge into bloggerville. I'll be bookmarking you.

sarahb said...

Okay David, now that you have our curiousity going you are going to have to update more often. I have been waiting to see what you tackle next!

Laurie said...

Nice Job, David!

As a fellow adoptive parent with AWAA, I've been following your story for years- it's great to see a dad blogging- maybe you can inspire more men to get going with it. I'll keep checking in on you, and feel free to take a peek at our sweet baby on my blog also. We're in line (the LONG line) for #2! :)

Keep up the great blogging- I'm sure many people are enjoying it even if they don't leave comments. :)

Laurie