spiritual stuff

Today’s post is simple.  The verses speak for themselves considering this.

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:13-14

Read more at MarlaTaviano.com

Latest Update:

OK, after the disclaimer I wrote below on the original, original post way below, I decided to take down the post, even with the disclaimer.  I felt like I was putting confusion out there and while I completely believe in asking questions and not knowing answers, it just didn’t feel right.  Mostly because the more I thought about it, the more I could not agree with Justin’s interpretation of Scriptures.  Specifically, it came down to the meaning of verses in Romans and Corinthians and more importantly, marriage and how that should look.  I went back and finally read the other side of the argument from Ron and I have to say that it was spot-on to the way I am feeling.  Yes, homosexuality is a reality but acting out is a sin and that marriage is a picture of Christ and the church and meant for a woman and man.  I beg you to read both sides.  I can not handle when people blindly accept a truth just because they don’t care to learn about the other side.  Given that, I simply could not find peace about Justin’s side and felt like it took a lot of flimsy arguments to let homosexual relationships be acceptable.  On the other hand, Ron looks at Biblical history and Christianity as a whole and honestly, a whole lot of common sense.  So, with lots of struggling, I am still back to my original stance that I can not support gay marriages (and of course any sort of sexual activity outside of marriage). 

To those that are not Christians, feel free to do whatever you want.  I don’t expect you to live by God’s law when you have no interest in following Christ.  I still love you and God does too, though.  For the record though, I think you’re missing out.  God rocks pretty hard.  For those that are Christians and struggle with this, I come to this conclusion with love and a hurting heart.  I rest my hope in the fact that God knows best and that He will not give us any temptations from which we can not find a way out.

Everything below is the post I took down which also had a disclaimer about the ORIGINAL post I wrote:

I feel the need to preface this and say I did not mean to publish this. Well I did and then I didn’t. I thought I had moved it to a draft stage but then it ignored that and published at it’s scheduled time. I still am not settled on this issue. The more I wrestle with it the more I can not feel peaceful that practicing is not a sin, particularly after rereading the Corinthians passage. Still, there are other valid points in here that are worth the read.

Here is the original post:

If you aren’t around the Christian and/or gay circles you probably haven’t seen this interview with a gay Christian. I’ve written about my viewpoint on same sex marriages before and I just have to say my viewpoint is changing. It’s been 7 years since I posted that. I’ve met people, mentored people and done a lot more reading.

And here’s the thing. I’m more convinced than ever that homosexual tendencies are not simply a choice. Justin and others who are Christians willed themselves to not have these tendencies and could not. Some of these I think could be caused by emotional and relational trauma but reality is reality. They are attracted to the same sex and even when willed they can not stop.

So the question is what to do with that?

Justin called this decision Side A and Side B. He believes in a monogamous, Christ-centered same-sex relationship. The other side believes the person should be celibate.

I have no idea what I believe anymore.

I err on the side of celibacy. I’ll be honest and say I have a super hard time believing that Christ-centered same-sex relationships exist but you know, that doesn’t mean much. Up until as recently as a week ago I would have said acting out on those desires was sinful. After reading the interview and further on his site, I can follow his logic. I’m just not sure if I follow that logic and can make the same conclusions from Scripture. The point of the matter is it’s all interpretation.

But I do know what I’m pretty sure my mind is turning about…whether government should restrict same-sex marriages. IF there are (and there are) people out there like Justin that have whole-heartedly searched God’s word and still do believe that homosexuality is ok then who am I to stop them from marrying? What if their interpretation is right and I’m wrong? I don’t know that I’ll ever push for it and be able to say that practicing homosexuality is ok but that is between them and God.

Sarah Mae published her thoughts on Justin’s interview and I love that she is wrestling with this too. And my comment to her was this: Christians need to figure out what we believe and in a much more loving way than we have to date. The face of homosexuality has changed a great deal in the last decade or two and it’s not something that is just behind doors now. I figure my views will change, maybe even as soon as I publish this, but one thing isn’t changing. These people need LOVED. Period. The hate has to stop. Even if homosexuality IS a sin, we don’t turn people away that are alcoholics or drug addicts or obese or cruel or whatever their struggling sin might be.

Hating them is only turning them away from the one thing you’re wanting them to follow.

Did you catch my James 3 commentary on controlling my tongue yesterday?  Yeah, so I opened my Reader this morning and Marla’s challenge was up:

And then the very next post entitled “Put a Lid on It” I opened was from Cindy Beall:

And then I went to Facebook and ran into this:

*sigh* 

God is weird sometimes.  Mysterious.  Weird.  Whatever you want to call it, God is THAT.    I’ve been scheduled to go to Women of Faith for nearly two months.  BookSneeze graciously offered me a set of tickets in exchange for a review post.  I’m a little bit of a conference junkie so I was psyched to go.  But then God started tugging on me to weeks ago that I shouldn’t go.  Which is WEIRD.  I mean, why wouldn’t God want me to spend two days learning more about Him and sharing that with others?  But still, the nagging wouldn’t go away.  I think I’ve mentioned God can be quite the nag.  I even went so far as to text Dani last week and tell her exactly that: it’s weird, but for some reason I’m feeling like I shouldn’t go, please pray.  Being the awesome friend she is, she said do whatever you feel God wants you to and who knows what the reason might be.  I didn’t tell anyone else about my reservations and still planned on going. Hence, the blog post yesterday.  My mom calls me out of the blue mid-day yesterday and basically tells me she had a catch in her spirit about me going.  I was little dumbfounded.  Well, uh….me too.  OK that is WEIRD.  Mysterious.  Whatever.  But I love when God confirms things like that.  None of us were clear though whether I should skip the whole thing or only a few sessions.  The girls would be at Scott’s mom’s for their usual biweekly sleepover and Scott was not going to be home either.  I really had no reason NOT to go Friday night and Saturday morning.  Except as I prayed over the past 24 hours, I could never, ever find peace unless my mind settled on the fact that I shouldn’t go AT ALL.  So I called Women of Faith, confirmed it was ok that I gave the tickets to someone that wanted and needed them (Heather!) and also confirmed with Dani it was ok.  And I found peace with my decision.

See, I have NO IDEA what God is up to.  I could be spared a car accident. I might need that last vacation day at work for something else (Relevant, I hope!). Heather just might need their messages more than me.  My kids might not need me gone that extra time.  Or maybe He’s trying to keep me home so I’ll finally organize my recipes.  Look, I have no clue.  But that’s the weird and mysterious thing about God.  He has a huge clue and He doesn’t have to let me in on it.  I just have to obey. 

In the end, it’s ironic that I’m having to be a Woman of Faith by not going to Women of Faith.   It’s weird.  And mysterious.  I know. But don’t ignore weird and mysterious. I hear God works that way sometimes.

If you can get to Charlotte, I do hope you’ll consider going (if He wants you to).  Enjoy the promo video below:

James 2:26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

I was reading an article this morning about an 85 year old man who got stuck in his car for days.  It was so hot and he had no food and only 8 ounces of water to survive.  He was so sure he was going to die he wrote a goodbye note on the car’s console explaining it was an accident.  He was finally rescued and you know what this 85 year old man planned to do?  Not vacation or eat an entire chocolate cake or go on a shopping spree or fishing trip.  “Porter said he was going to concentrate on giving more of his time and resources to charity, according to KENS.”  I read that and said, YES.  Even at 85 when most of us younger folk would say, it’s time for you to rest.  You’ve lived your life and you now deserve to be served.  This man, that had looked death in the face, did not want to squander his true last days on himself, but giving away more of himself.

But the part that’s gotten me all week is what are these good deeds??  Is it like the guy said, is it helping charities?  Is it simply forgiving an enemy?  Is it letting someone else go first?  Is it sending a card to someone?  Is it adopting a child?  What is required of me?? 

I guess it’s easy to throw this off and say does it really matter?  And to me, it does.  Because I don’t want to face death and realize I’ve missed a life full of good deeds.  Ephesians says: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  I know I have faith and I try to do good deeds, but ya’ll, I do not want to miss those things God has planned for me.  

What do you count as good deeds?  Do you believe we have specific ones to do TODAY?

Make sure to check out other James post over at MarlaTaviano.com

I asked a burning question today on Facebook and Twitter.

And this is what I love.  First, we needed clarification on the TYPE of favorite verse.

After I clarified that I was looking for those that speak to us personally, many had trouble finding just one verse!

And even those that picked just one had answers that were far and wide:

Just reading through those gets me so pumped!  God’s word is alive and is doing a work within each of us. 

“Do not be afraid.”  What if that smidgeon of Joshua 1:9 is all I had from His Word?  It would be enough to sustain me through so many trials. 

What if all I had was “Be still and know that I am God.”  It would be enough to get me through the most confusing moments. 

What if all I had was “now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness.”  It would be enough to make all the hard times worth it!

And this is what we need to get.  There is SO MUCH POWER in just ONE VERSE.  One PHRASE of ONE VERSE.  We have them ALL available to us.  We are so rich and yet. And yet!  There are 340 MILLION people that can not read one WORD of it, much less one verse. 

One-third of the world’s language groups speak a language which the Bible has not been translated into. 

There is no hope, no comfort, no encouragement, no reminder that He is God, that He is with us, that He is in control, that there is a reward, that He loves us, that we should love others.  Yes, God shows Himself in many ways but oh how He speaks through His word.  For those 340 million people, my heart is broken. 

But OneVerse gives me hope.

OneVerse works with local translators to get God’s word translated into their language.  A sponsorship amount of $26 provides enough resources to get one verse translated.  Only $26 would be enough to give an entire people group your favorite verse.  Look, I know that our money goes into a big bucket and funds an entire translation but it’s so important.  We DO have the solution to this problem.  By being a part of this, we give some of those 340 million people an opportunity to read the Bible and find their verse.  

If you can and feel led, please hop over to their site.  You get to pick the region and language of the translation you help sponsor.  It literally takes seconds to fill out the form.  Give a verse or a lot of verses. 

If you can’t give, do me a favor and go read His Word.  Pick out a verse or a lot of verses.  Memorize them.  Use them.  Find comfort in them.  But most of all, thank God for them.

*This post was written in part as a submission to a Relevant Ticket Contest. I was not compensated in any way for writing the post but as a result may be chosen to receive a free Relevant Conference ticket.  In any case, I love what OneVerse is doing and am glad to help spread the word!