LOVE FIRST, THEN TRUTH

The old joke in Christian circles goes, "Sure, I love you. God told me I HAVE to!" Love doesn't come easy when we disagree with someone, especially about the beliefs and values that we hold most passionately. This is best exemplified in the continuing confrontations often seen between Christians and members of the "Gay Movement". We as Christians have a way of sometimes throwing fuel on the fire by making "you" kinds of statements, instead of calmly expressing what we think and feel. We are often accused, and rightly so, of not showing God's love in our tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions, at the very moment we are speaking about that love. Well, why SHOULD we get angry and defensive? Especially if we believe what we speak to be true? Good point. Love should be demonstrated, if by anyone, by Christians. Just remember, as a believer, I'm not perfect, just forgiven. (Which I realize, by the way, is NOT an excuse for unloving behavior.)

HOWEVER - and this is the part that I'm not happy about at the moment - the tenets of the "Gay Movement" do oppose and contradict the principles of Scripture, but often a "gay" person is offended by a believer saying so. Discussion of right or wrong concerning the "gay" lifestyle seems to be no longer an option. Since when is it "offensive" or "insulting" to disagree with someone by offering another point of view? (Well, in America, anyway) Let's not be hostile, and let's keep a dialogue going, not a monologue.

I don't know whether it was due to filters or someone in authority (?) from Blogspot.com (haven't been able to get an answer yet), or even someone hacking into my blog, but my original post on this topic was deleted sometime within 24 hours after I posted it. I welcome comments about this or any other post or topic which I address here. I promise, I will never go to a "gay" website and post anything hateful, nor will I try to suppress what you wish to express. Certainly you will be able to express yourself respectfully in reciprocation. Instead, I will receive feedback and consider it. However, I will continue to disagree with the basic foundations of the "gay movement," e.g., that a person who is "gay" is born that way, or that "gay marriage" or "gay" civil unions or adoptions (especially when the agency has a religious foundation or origin) are acceptable. Ephesians reads that we are to be "speaking the truth in love." As a believer of the Bible, for me that's the truth of the matter.

Just give me a chance; speaking truth in love is all I want to do. Not perfectly, mind you, but with God's grace I'm trying!

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SPRING ETERNAL

At last, actual spring weather! I can hardly contain myself indoors long enough to get anything accomplished. The baby lace leaves, that new yellow-green; the wispy clouds blowing by in a sky of the palest blue; rich thick clumps of Kentucky blue and monkey grass with their contrasting kelly and hunter greens; a beckoning breeze that lures me off the porch to feel it tousle my hair; cozy warm sunshine that doesn't overheat: all bid me drop everything else and walk and wander and dream.

Days like today confirm that I was made to feel this way: joyful, alive, beautiful! I was made to live forever, to be alive to all around me and a part of it, somehow. He is here, in all He created, not in some pantheistic way, but because He has put His mark on all of this created world, even on me. I want to shout, "He is alive! God has made all this! And Jesus is risen, with spring as the perfect symbolic backdrop!"

He says to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
and come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me." - Song of Songs 2:10-13

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of His hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world. - Psalm 19:1-4

The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior! - Psalm 18:46

Happy Birthday to the man who taught me to appreciate God's created beauty.

Today's entry is dedicated to him and to our little friend Hannah, smiling at us from Heaven.

GRIEVING AS ONE, REJOICING AS ONE

A couple I don't even know is grieving today. They have lost their little boy to an accident. I only know of them through a friend, but still I feel sadness for them. First, I think of my children and how lively and tender they were at that age; then I picture this couple's tragedy befalling one of them, befalling us, and it becomes very painful to imagine. Then I pray: they will need God's strength for every moment ahead of them, they will need His grace through the memorial service and the trip to the cemetary, and the return to his empty little room at their now-quiet house. They will need encouragement to stay focused on growing their marriage as they journey together to that distant place where the sting of death ebbs and washes in a hollow feeling of aching that comes when you miss someone so very much, even more than when he was first taken away. They will need the joy of the Lord to help them smile again someday, even when they remember, through tears, "This would have been his first day of school," or his 13th birthday, or his graduation day.

Then I enlist other believers to pray. They don't even know my friend, who knows the couple. But because we are bonded together by the belief that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, that He is our Peace, and by the Spirit Who dwells with in us, they, too, feel the pain and offer the prayers.

Our friends in Sunday School class grinned when we shared a recent answer to prayer. They too had been praying for our request, joined to us by the love that God gives those adopted as His children through faith in Jesus Christ. They rejoiced with us, because we are united, we are family, we are members of each other. Believers truly participate in the joys and sorrows of other believers, as well as empathizing with those who have yet to join us in the Family of God. May we allow Him to use every sorrow and every joy to make us truly One!