If you know me, you are probably surprised at how long it has taken me to get controversial in my blogs. Not because I love to be controvesial but because my conversations seem to center on sorting out Christian controversies rather than ignoring them completely. Either that or you already think I have gotten controversial and you stopped reading my blogs, in which case you won’t be offended by this blog or its title because you will not be reading it. However, for those of you few brave souls that have hung in here with me this far, I pray that you would take a moment right now, before you read any further, and ask the Lord to lead your heart and understanding as you read this blog. Also I pray that you read it in its entirety and feel convicted, not by me or according to what I write or say here, but by the Holy Spirit and his standard of right.
Readers take your mark!
Get Set!
Go!
If you were crazy enough to read my last blog, then you know I ran a half marathon recently. You also know that before that race Elohim had been teaching me to be present in each of his divinely appointed moments–a teaching that reached its culmination (So far, but there is always more to learn) while I was running the race itself. But now let me tell you about the lunch me and my family had after the race, and the lesson I learned there.
What an amazing God to constantly be teaching me new things. He has so much patience with me and my hard head. He must really love me to bless me so much.
Nice.
Either way, let me ask you, what message is the Church sending to gay people? I’ll tell you, and I will take it from what my gay friends have told me. The Church sends a clear message to gay people saying, in not so many words, You are detestable; You are disgusting; You are what we hate.
Regardless of how many times we say sweet things like, “Love the sinner, hate the sin”, it means nothing unless we act it out–unless we actually hate sin and not sinners. Too often to people use that phrase to justify their ill treatment of gays. That is unfair and wrong. Yes, I will say that God hates sin. Sin is what put Jesus on the cross. Sin is the reason God had to pour out all his wrath on His perfect and beautiful beloved Son. Sin is a slap to God’s face and spit in His eye. Every time we sin, we choose something else over God. We choose that sin over the creator of all things. So, in short, God hates sin. And, according to the scriptures, we are to love what God loves and hate what he hates. But don’t use that as a crappy way to justify your sin. Because though the bible says to hate what God hates (and he hates sin–which is what homosexuality is), that very same bible says to love what God loves. And God loves people. And that is what gays are. They are gay people–emphasis on the people. Lets stop calling them by their sin. Stop calling them “gays”, “homosexuals” or, God forbid, “Sodomites”. Refer to them as people.
Because here is the deal: Your lust problem, porn addiction, divorce, adultery, pre-marital sex? All that stuff? It is all sin. What if people claiming to follow Jesus of Nazareth walked around talking about how you were disgusting because of your sexual sin? How would you feel if they defined you by it? What if they used tricky fancy wording to say that hated you? Would it matter if they claimed to love you and hate your sin if they didn’t demonstrate that? I don’t think so. I think you would hear that you were hated, you are disgusting, and that they don’t like or approve of you…personally. Regardless of the truthfulness in that, it would be your perception, and therefore your reality.
And guess what? The bible refers to sexual sin and sexual immorality as “porneia” in the Greek (Strongs Concordance #4202, look it up).
Porneia is defined as the selling off or surrendering of sexual purity and/or promiscuity of any and every kind.
Sorry kids, but it looks like we are all guilty when it comes to porneia. In fact, it would seem that homosexuality is in the very same grab bag of goodies as lust, pornography addiction, marital unfaithfulness, pre-marital relations of any and all kinds, and even immodesty. Now lets play a game where everyone who isn’t guilty throws stones…No takers? …Hmmm…okay, i guess.
Here is the really bad part: I haven’t even gotten to the story. I just began the story, ranted, and now I am back…
So we’re at this restaurant, and the five of us get seated at a four-person table. So I got seated on the end. Everyone else at my table had a direct view of another family member’s face, but the only thing in my line of vision was an empty table… But not for long. About halfway through our meal, two men were sat at the table in my line of sight. It didn’t take me much time on the observation deck to realize these two men were an interracial gay couple. And as my last blog so poignantly stated, there will be all races in heaven. I want to go ahead and really wreck your world: there will be gay people in heaven. (Don’t get confused, there will be no sin in heaven, so there will be no homosexuality in heaven. There will also be no lust in heaven, but there will be lusters).
I spent the rest of my meal and a considerable amount of time afterwards (the Qualls family like to talk) with these two men in my direct line of vision. And my family was making a sort of tunnel, so this other table was the only place I could look…other than directly at the ceiling or something really ridiculous like that… So I practically stared at these two guys. And while I stared, I prayed. Because God had/has been teaching me to appreciate each moment as a divine appointment and seize it for all it is worth. So I appreciated that moment as an opportunity to pray. I prayed that Christians would not spew hate towards these two men, who are dearly loved by God, but that we would all choose to love what God loves–people (even if we hate what he hates—which is not people, its sin…and we all got it.) I spent about 45 minutes to an hour mixing family chit chat with prayer (because the Qualls family likes to talk). After that time. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me something… He said, quit praying that Christians show them love, and love them. (originally I put “and freaking love them”, but I knew somebody would call that blasphemy or something so I changed it. You’re welcome)
I wish I could tell you I went over and sat at their table, introduced myself, instantly became their best friends, shared Jesus with them and they repented of their sins, died to self and came alive in Christ by denying themselves, taking up their cross and following him…But that isn’t what happened.
What happened was a lot less gung ho. What happened was (or, “Wha Had Happen wUz) that when our waitress came over, I handed her my card and bought their meal. I asked her not to tell them about it, but when they asked for the check, tell them it had been paid for, and Jesus loves them. That happened and then I left. Not much to tell really.
Sharing this story with you, I fully expect to be ridiculed, rebuked, repudiated and other R words I may or may not know the meaning of, but that isn’t the point. Nor is the point to tell you what a great person/Christian I am. I am not trying to do any of that. My point is just to tell you the lesson I learned, so here it is:
What we are called to do is love.
LOVE.
Because Jesus loved us so much that he chose to pick up the cost of our ticket–he paid our tab in full…
