I feel the need to go a different direction with my blog
this morning. Those of you who know me well would agree with the statement that
I am about to make – I think. I am a lover, not a fighter. Please don’t take
that in the wrong way. I just mean that I love people, and I hate conflict. One
of my biggest problems is that I avoid confrontation too much. Perhaps that is
because I believe that God wants Christians to be peacemakers – that’s why
Jesus blessed peacemakers. The apostle Paul wrote these words in Romans
12:18 (NKJV): “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably
with all men.” I endeavor to do this with all my heart, but I must say that
Paul hit it on the head: if it is possible. Sometimes it just isn’t. Sometimes
you have to stand for what is right regardless of what others think or say or
do. And sometimes you end up in a confrontation that you don’t want to be in
but in which you have no choice. I have found myself in this position quite a
bit lately, and for a peacemaking man of love, that makes like difficult.
So again, let me be clear: I love people. I love people of
all colors, shapes, and sizes. I love people who are Christians and those who
are not. I love people who fit into all different categories. I even love
homosexuals. I do! From the bottom of my heart, I love homosexuals. If I didn’t,
then I would not be in this confrontation because I would just keep my mouth
shut. You see, love demands that you warn someone who is heading for disaster.
For instance, if you see a car unknowingly racing toward a cliff and certain
death, you would naturally do everything in your power to warn them. You might
even jump right into the path of the oncoming car trying to stop them. Love
demands that you do everything.
So here it is: according to the Bible that I believe with
all of my heart, homosexuality is a sin. It is not an unforgivable sin, but it
is a sin just like adultery, lying, murder, stealing, etc. The good news is
that God doesn’t grade sin on a curve. What I mean by that is that one sin is
not worse than another. The bad news is that God doesn’t grade sin on a curve.
In other words, one sin is not better than another. The truth is that the Bible
tells us that sin is sin, that all of us sin, and that because of sin, we are
spiritually dead. Spiritual death means that we are separated from God, and unless
we are brought to life spiritually, our eternal destiny is hell. Folks, I’m not
making this up – it’s in the Bible. So do you get the picture? It doesn’t
matter what your sin is, without taking God’s remedy for death, you will spend
eternity in hell.
With that in mind, understand what I said earlier. If I didn’t
love homosexuals, I would just keep my mouth shut and I would let them die in
their sin and go to hell. But I can’t do that. Yes, that earns me the title of
being a homophobic ignorant intolerant bigot according to some (and that’s the
nice way of putting it), but so be it. I would much rather take the rants of
some angry people than to disobey my Heavenly Father who tells me to love
people knowing that they will hate me.
And by the way, let me tell you about God’s remedy. It’s
Easter. That’s right. It is Easter. It is the celebration of the fact that
Jesus died on Calvary’s cross for all of our sins but then was raised from
death. He paid the price so that we could be forgiven and made alive to spend
eternity in heaven. Yes, that means that our lives must change, but the good
news is that He is the one who does the changing. He changes us. He makes us
alive. And all you have to do is to accept His gift of life. It’s that simple.
So to those of you who are Christians, don’t give up like these
governors are doing. Keep fighting the fight to love all people. And to those
of you who think I’m an idiot, just know this: I love you too much not to pass
on God’s warning to you.
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