A Response to the Gay
Marriage Decision
Truly we are in complex
times. Think of it, the Lord has ordained us to be the ones on earth to
represent His Kingdom for such a time as this.
May we be found faithful!!
Every time I try to discern
in my spirit what is my “stand” on this issue, I find myself more
uncertain. Man cannot legislate morals
and truth, it’s why the letter of the law apart from the saving grace of Jesus only leads to death. Scripture is clear that homosexual behavior
is sin. So is hate, greed, malice, false
witness, other sexual sin, putting other Gods before the One true God, and on
and on. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. Does this mean we
should not pursue lives free from sin? Of
course we must. When God says don’t, He
is saying don’t hurt yourself. He saved
us and brought us into marvelous light, should we willingly keep walking in darkness?
I believe there is no black
and white “stand” to take, apart from love never fails and Jesus is the only way. Even scripture will take different sides,
depending on the situation… For example: Obey the laws of man can be found and at the same time, Jesus and his disciples clearly go against
the laws of man. ONLY Jesus in the form
of His Holy Spirit, our counselor and ever present friend can determine the
right course of action in any situation.
We must have our hearts and minds so tuned into the Spirit of the living
Christ that in the moment, we will know the right response. How do we do this? PRAY, Learn to PRAY, PRAY at all times and in
all sorts of ways, PRAY without ceasing. We need DIVINE strategies and DIVINE
intelligence to stand on truth in love.
I have been searching
scripture for parallels to what we are seeing play out. The one that rings true so far is the story
of John and Peter preaching in the Name of Jesus. They were called before the leaders and reprimanded and told not to preach in this Name. They replied, “should we do what you
say? Or what God says?” Here we have scriptural precedent to go
against the laws of man when God is telling us to do something else. (btw. Daniel praying, Mordecai and the 3 from the furnace refusing to bow to man are other examples.)
To me the Bible makes it clear that Christians cannot just
decide that homosexual behavior is not sin.
However, it is not clear to me that a Christian carpenter should refuse
to roof a house of a gay man. Do we ask customers if they are addicted to porn
or having an affair or full or greed or pride before we engage, become friends or do
business? No, we don’t. If we decided we can’t do business with
sinners, all business would have to halt. Where does the act of doing business
cross into celebrating sin or defying God? That is for
each person to work out with fear and trembling with God.
Now, back to the story of
Peter and John, after they took their stand against the authorities, they went to
a prayer gathering to call on the Lord for supernatural courage to continue. We
know there was an earthquake and not only Peter and John, but all that were
present were anointed to speak out in the Name. Fast forward to another public
teaching event… Again they were brought before the Sanhedrin. “didn’t we give
you strict orders not to preach in the Name of Jesus?” “We must obey God”, was the reply. Then they
were punished…. And Acts 5:41 says “the apostles left, rejoicing because they
had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” Hmmmmm, this sounds very different than
publicly fighting for legislation to protect our religious freedom. If we do take a stand because we feel the
Holy Spirit prompt us to go against the rulers’ edicts, and we get punished for
it, perhaps our reaction should be rejoicing? See what I mean? It’s complicated! The “right thing” to do in
any situation is not clear before the situation presents itself. We must lean hard into the chest of Christ
Jesus and listen for Him to guide the way and then trust Him with the consequences. We must hear the voice behind us saying, “this
is the way, walk in it”. We must
practice this “listening” on everyday interactions so that when the big test
comes, we are ready. You see a guy with
a sign begging for food, do you always give? Do you always judge? Or do you ask
Jesus, “what would you have me do and say, right now, Lord?” Your daughter
tells you a lie, what should you do?
Your neighbor is hateful about lawn care, what should you do? Only Jesus
knows the heart and His ways are NOT our ways, we have to ask Him! Only
Jesus can hold us accountable to absolute truth and at the same time love us unconditionally. We are called to be His representatives right now,
not by power or by might, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
