I’m feeling mad today. I’m feeling angry at so many lies going around, that are being chewed up and swallowed by the wider community. Lies that keep people locked in chains, that take away freedom.
For a long time I’ve felt muzzled. I’ve felt like it’s not OK for me to say what I really think. Because what I have to say in the current cultural climate and ideology is…
- Embarrassing
- Unpopular
- Outdated
- Irrelevant
- Bigoted
- Hatred
Aaaaargh!!! I’ve been tipped over the edge and now I have to SPEAK!
God is TRUE! God is LOVE!
God loves gay people. God loves transgender people. God loves politicians. God loves adulterers. God loves kind old ladies. God loves everyone!
And he is not interested in chaining people up and making their lives miserable. He is in the business of bringing freedom. Not freedom to do what one feels in the moment. But true freedom. Inner peace, inner joy, liberty of spirit and soul. What we all really LONG for!
So I’m angry. Because God is misrepresented. He is not a bigot. And true followers of his are NOT bigots! They are the biggest love balloons that the world has ever seen. And if it pops on top of you, you get a love dose! You don’t get a rifle in your face, you get LOVE. And if you have met one who is a bigot, then understand they are on a love journey. None of us are perfect, just like you!
And this God I’m talking about – he wrote the Bible. It’s his book, written through inspiration from him. Him himself! And it’s good stuff.
And the stuff in there that you think is judgment and bigotry and hatred is NOT THAT AT ALL!
I used to hear people say that when you read the Old Testament books of the prophets, that God was such an angry and vindictive God. As a teenager I read these books. All of them at once, all in a row. And I braced myself. But what I saw was not an angry and vindictive God. I saw a God that desperately loved his people SO MUCH. He kept warning them again and again and again and again to turn from living life their own way, and to turn back to HIM. He warned them of consequences if they didn’t. When they listened, he forgave them. So freely, and with so much love and joy. He’s a loving father. And when they didn’t, after immense patience – far more than I would ever have – he brought judgment.
He must have hated seeing such unnecessary suffering after bringing judgment. But he understands the bigger picture. He sees the short-term and long-term impact of living life one’s own way. He sees the inner individual devastation and he sees the wider community devastation. And he puts a stop to it. And what he does is from LOVE because that is who he is. And with our puny minds we can’t understand some of the things he does, but he GETS it. Because he is the only one that sees the bigger picture!
God wants us to walk about in FREEDOM. He has let us know very bluntly in the Bible, the things that will take away our individual and community freedom. Things like lying, stealing, murder, coveting, adultery, etc, etc. He created us and he knows what works and what doesn’t work. He knows what breaks us as individuals and what destroys communites. We need to listen to him. We need to read his Word and take it seriously.
When he writes about homosexuality being an abomination, it’s not because he’s a bigot and he hates a segment of the community. It’s because he’s the loving Creator and he knows what we are made for. He knows what is good for us. He wants us to live the richest, most fulfilling lives in love with him, in trust with him and in unity with him. It means laying down our own agendas, our own wills and trusting him. And there we find our true selves and what we have been created to be.
When we are willing to trust him with our lives, and let him work in us he can do miracles! He can do the impossible. He can take long-term feelings, addictions, thought patterns, ways of thinking, beliefs and turn them around, dissolve them and bring true freedom. Sometimes it’s overnight. Sometimes it’s over a lifetime. But we have to trust him and submit to his shaping.
Jesus came to set the oppressed free. He came to bring liberty to the captives. He gave his life away to dismantle the power of sin and Satan so we could have true freedom and union with him.
Aargh! That’s another one… I’m tired of being scared to talk about Satan. Because science has scoffed at the notion of an evil supernatural being. So believing there is a devil has vibes of anti-intellectualism and being out of date. But we are spiritual beings. Most of the planet will acknowledge this, plus the truth – yes truth – that there is a God. If there is a good God, and there is, then it is not so absurd to believe that there is an evil supernatural being.
Satan is the one that we are at war with. Not gays with Christians. Not pro-lifers versus pro-choicers. Not whatever versus whatever. Satan is at war with gays. He wants to rob them of their true selves and keep them chained up. He wants to feed them with lies that this is who they are. God is not against gays. He wants to expose Satan’s lies and show them who they really are, sons and daughters made in the image of God. He wants to teach them his ways and lead them in his paths. He wants to deliver them from their sexual bondage and bring them into their true sexual identity, as he created them to be.
I’ve had enough of the stupid rhetoric. I’ve had enough of the accusations of hatred.
When Jesus was on earth, the religious leaders brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery and demanded she be stoned. They asked Jesus about it. He said, ‘let him who is without sin cast the first stone’. Talk about the grace genius! But that wasn’t all. After the woman’s accusers all left, Jesus told the woman that he didn’t condemn her and told her to go and sin no more. He did two things. He forgave her. And he told her to stop sinning.
Same with homosexuality. Same with any sin. Jesus forgives and says, ‘go and sin no more’.
What we feel like is not necessarily good for us or society. We need to stop idolising our feelings and start paying attention to what our Creator says. He’s the only one that knows the bigger picture. He’s the only one that knows what works and what doesn’t.
One of my favourite Bible verses is in Psalm 119:45: “I will walk about in freedom for I have sought your commands”.