Ministering to the Homosexual community

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They're not going to Hell because they are homosexual, they're going to Hell because they don't have Jesus.
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No, anyone who ends up in hell will be there because of his/her sin.

Look at it this way: imagine a tribesman from some remote jungle, who has never heard the Name of Jesus, much less understood the way of salvation, finds himself before the Judgement Seat. If God were to say to him, "I am going to send you to hell because you don't know Jesus," that would be terribly unfair and unjust, and the man would have every reason to question God's judgement. However, that man knows that he has done wrong things in his lifetime - things that have even gone against his own conscience. So if God says to him, "You have done wrong things (sinned) and the penalty for wrong things (sin) is hell, so I have to send you there," then God's judgement is just, and the man has no right to object. However, if someone has come to him with the Gospel, and he has repented and turned away from sin and accepted Christ, then he can say to God, "But my penalty has already been paid by the Lord Jesus Christ," and since God's justice will not demand the same penalty twice, he is welcomed into heaven.

Simply, outside of Christ, all are judged according to what we have done, and since "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," that means that outside of Christ EVERYONE is heading for hell. When we accept Christ, His sacrifice is applied to our account - but we cannot accept Him and choose to go on living in deliberate rebellion.

blessings,

Lynn
 
revlynn said:
No, anyone who ends up in hell will be there because of his/her sin.

Look at it this way: imagine a tribesman from some remote jungle, who has never heard the Name of Jesus, much less understood the way of salvation, finds himself before the Judgement Seat. If God were to say to him, "I am going to send you to hell because you don't know Jesus," that would be terribly unfair and unjust, and the man would have every reason to question God's judgement. However, that man knows that he has done wrong things in his lifetime - things that have even gone against his own conscience. So if God says to him, "You have done wrong things (sinned) and the penalty for wrong things (sin) is hell, so I have to send you there," then God's judgement is just, and the man has no right to object. However, if someone has come to him with the Gospel, and he has repented and turned away from sin and accepted Christ, then he can say to God, "But my penalty has already been paid by the Lord Jesus Christ," and since God's justice will not demand the same penalty twice, he is welcomed into heaven.

Simply, outside of Christ, all are judged according to what we have done, and since "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," that means that outside of Christ EVERYONE is heading for hell. When we accept Christ, His sacrifice is applied to our account - but we cannot accept Him and choose to go on living in deliberate rebellion.

blessings,

Lynn
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What I was saying was that the single issue of homosexual behavior is not what condemns them to Hell, it is merely one of many possible manifestations of man's sin nature. A heterosexual who hates his brother is no closer to the Kingdom of God because of his heterosexuality. A homosexual doesn't get saved by refraining from homosexual behavior, he gets saved by putting his sin nature, in all of its manifestations, under the blood of Jesus. Without Jesus, none of us, regardless of our sexual orientation, gets into the Kingdom of God. The point being simply that homosexual behavior is not some kind of special case. It will have to be dealt with the same as any other sin. I doubt that Hell will be any less comfortable for the unrepentant practicing homosexual than for the unrepentant practicing heterosexual adulterer. Your last paragraph above sums it up quite nicely.
 
JG27_chili said:
I am in the same boat as you but with a female coworker. i just talk about God when I'm around her. sometimes she will listen other times she will say ' I don't want to hear that right now. Eventually the seed might sprout if I keep giving her enough "living water".


chili out.
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pancakes~ wow im in the same boat my mom is like that, but i love her dearly and i guess i can do like you said. Preach little by little and w love and also pray. thanx that helped alot =)
 
My mother used to say things like, "Oh, I don't believe that" I older I've become the more concern I had over this. I began to talk with her, and each timw I cleared something up that she misunderstood in Scriptures, she responded with "What about..." Never, ever a "I didn't realize that" OR "it makes sense when you put it in context." Alway "what about" something else. Well the fact is no one has all the answers. Eventually she was bound to ask something I couldn't find an explanation for.

I remebered that I have no power to make someone believe. That is in God's hands. So, I stopped talking to her. I avoided talking about God and started praying. I prayed every day.

One day I slipped up and started talking about God and she responded with, "I'd like to know what the Bible really says." I asked if she'd like to do a Bible study with me and she said
"YES".

This just about floored me because in the past she always said she didn't need to because she already knew what the Bible says.

We studied three months and I was reading "ask and you shall receive" etc. And as usual, I paused and asked if she had any questions. She said, "I was just thinking, I don't know what to ask for."

This was the first time in my life my mother and I ever prayed together!!!!!!

Anyway, when she visited my brother in Texas later that year, he told me he noticed a change in mom.

The moral of thew story: We have power in prayer. :)
 
Gah! Ginger thats so inspiring i have to try and lead my mom and dad back to christ but my dad is skeptical and will say the same thing, what else like when i told him his pride was a sin he was in denial and claimed he hasnt sinned when we all fall short of the glory of God . Idk i guess i will pray.
 
I really thought I had weighed in earlier on this topic. Politics aside, we need to do better at ministering to homosexuals. Whether we believe that it is a sin or not is irrelevant and does not excuse us from our primary mission. Homosexuals need our prayers and they need Jesus just as much as every other person on this planet regardless of the lifestyle they live. I've never understood the philosophy of completely accept or completely reject them. Love them and minister to them, just as you would to your brother and sister. To do any less, is denying the love of God and the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice.
 
pancakes said:
pancakes~ wow im in the same boat my mom is like that, but i love her dearly and i guess i can do like you said. Preach little by little and w love and also pray. thanx that helped alot =)
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Your so very welcome sis. the power of Gos is minute to infinite. sometime it will only take 1 word to make a seed start growing.:)

Chili out.
 
Ginger said:
My mother used to say things like, "Oh, I don't believe that" I oldewr I've become the more concern I had over this. I began to talk with her, and each timw I cleared something up that she misunderstood in Scriptures, she responded with "What about..." Never, ever a I didn't realize that OR it makes sense when you put it in context. Always always what about something else. Well the fact is no one has all the answers. Eventually she was bound to ask something I couldn't find an explanation for.

I remebered that I have no power to make someone believe. That is in God's hands. So, I stopped talking to her. I avoided talking about God and started praying. I prayed every day.

One day I slipped up and started talking about God and she responded with, "I'd like to know what the Bible really says." I asked if she'd like to do a Bible study with me and she said
"YES".

This just about floored me because in the past she always said she didn't need to because she already knew what the Bible says.

We studied three months and I was reading "ask and you shall receive" etc. An d as usual, I paused and asked if she had any questions. She said, "I was just thinking, I don't know what to ask for."

This was the first time in my life my mother and I ever prayed together!!!!!!

Anyway, when she visited my brother in Texas later that year, he told me he noticed a change in mom.

The moral of thew story: We have power in prayer. :)
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What a beautiful story with you 2. Amen and Amen, Quit makin me cry dang it :):(:)

Chili out.
 
Banarenth said:
I really thought I had weighed in earlier on this topic. Politics aside, we need to do better at ministering to homosexuals. Whether we believe that it is a sin or not is irrelevant and does not excuse us from our primary mission. Homosexuals need our prayers and they need Jesus just as much as every other person on this planet regardless of the lifestyle they live. I've never understood the philosophy of completely accept or completely reject them. Love them and minister to them, just as you would to your brother and sister. To do any less, is denying the love of God and the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice.
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Bingo brother. You hit that right on the nail :)

Chili out.
 
blessed said:
Title says it really... any advice? Tips? Testimonies? Im female and these homosexual friends are male. Its the christlike love I feel I want to emphasise(not that im the most christlike person either...), Im really concious of saying the wrong things and driving them away by it. I dont look at their homosexuality as their identity, they are friends with homosexual struggles, we were friends before they said it.
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I would say forget everything you've been told about homosexuals and treat them each as an individual person.

You're right to be concerned about saying the wrong thing. I have several gay friends who have been completely turned off from the Gospel by some the things Christians say and do.

I've written a blog on the subject: http://www.friendburst.com/blog/3025/ministering-to-the-lgbt-community/
 
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Ingbert said:
I would say forget everything you've been told about homosexuals and treat them each as an individual person.

You're right to be concerned about saying the wrong thing. I have several gay friends who have been completely turned off from the Gospel by some the things Christians say and do.

I've written a blog on the subject: http://www.friendburst.com/blog/3025/ministering-to-the-lgbt-community/
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I really don't mean to offend you, but looking at your blog post I'm not sure if you're a Christian? The tips you've given are valid, but not quite unlike what's already been said in this post, which boils down to basic respect for the other party.
 
The points he makes come from an agenda driven purpose. His attitude appears to be "I know everything on this subject, and everyone who disagrees with me is ignorant"

There was a time when I believed homosexuals were
"born that way" and change was impossible.

Then one day several years ago a man knocked on my door. I had only met him once - briefly. For some reason that remains a mystery to me to this day, he felt compelled to tell me he was gay and he was going to change and he knew he could do it because God loves him and all things are possible with God.

I didn't know what to say, my mind was thinking , "you can't change your sexual orientation," but how could I say that when he just told me he knows he can change because God loves him? It would have been like saying, "yeah...God loves you, but not that much"

I just listened to him and agreed to help him and support him. But since I didn't know how, I began studying homosexuality. I even spoke with one of the original founders of Exodus International. Four of the original founders are still ex-gay, meaning they have not returned to the homosexuality. However, one did revert back. He's the one that gets all the press in an attempt to say change is impossible.

Back to my story....I did a lot of research, visiting gay chat rooms reading gay literature talking to homosexuals and lesbians, reading research papers. .... change is possible.

As for Ingberts comments....what struck me most is his insinuation that he know what the Bible really means and the rest of us can't do anything but misinterpret. I've heard the rainbow coalition and other groups misinterpret the Scriptures plenty. Some even going so far as to claim Jesus and all his disciples were homosexuals.

The fact is homosexuality is a very unhealthy lifestyle and I feel very sorry for those who are trapped in this condition - even for those who have hardened their hearts.

The push to normalize it and make it equal to hetertosexuality has been spilling over into the hetertosexual world which is very disturbing.

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Ginger said:
The points he makes come from an agenda driven purpose. His attitude appears to be "I know everything on this subject, and everyone who disagrees with me is ignorant"

There was a time when I believed homosexuals were
"born that way" and change was impossible.

Then one day several years ago a man knocked on my door. I had only met him once - briefly. For some reason that remains a mystery to me to this day, he felt compelled to tell me he was gay and he was going to change and he knew he could do it because God loves him and all things are possible with God.

I didn't know what to say, my mind was thinking , "you can't change your sexual orientation," but how could I say that when he just told me he knows he can change because God loves him? It would have been like saying, "yeah...God loves you, but not that much"

I just listened to him and agreed to help him and support him. But since I didn't know how, I began studying homosexuality. I even spoke with one of the original founders of Exodus International. Four of the original founders are still ex-gay, meaning they have not returned to the homosexuality. However, one did revert back. He's the one that gets all the press in an attempt to say change is impossible.

Back to my story....I did a lot of research, visiting gay chat rooms reading gay literature talking to homosexuals and lesbians, reading research papers. .... change is possible.

As for Ingberts comments....what struck me most is his insinuation that he know what the Bible really means and the rest of us can't do anything but misinterpret. I've heard the rainbow coalition and other groups misinterpret the Scriptures plenty. Some even going so far as to claim Jesus and all his disciples were homosexuals.

The fact is homosexuality is a very unhealthy lifestyle and I feel very sorry for those who are trapped in this condition - even for those who have hardened their hearts.

The push to normalize it and make it equal to hetertosexuality has been spilling over into the hetertosexual world which is very disturbing.

:(
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I have always thought this lifestyle was not something they chose (although, some have) and that they were born this way. But reading your story has made me think it over; especially this line: "God loves him and all things are possible with God."
I keep forgetting that very special and important fact. I get the feeling we (or maybe it's just me) analyze things too deeply, also trying to decipher things on our own without even knowing it. We (or again, maybe just me) end up interpreting it wrong.

Whether or not God has created people this way or not is (I think) not up to us, but to help them see a better way of life. Hoping that they will choose to be saved through His righteous guidance through us.
 
That is the message that everyone needs to hear, God loves you! Imperfections and all. God loves you.

I believe even "practicing" homosexuals can enter heaven. God knows the heart! Our salvation is solely dependent on Jesus Christ.

What breaks my heart is that so many choose to reject God because they feel condemned. Or they decide to create their own imaginary god who approves of everything they do, but an imaginary god cannot save anyone.

The first step is to accept Christ Jesus, confess and repent. God will take care of the rest in His own time.

I know this because God took His own sweet time changing me. :) I don't believe I was any less saved one minute or one day before giving my life to Him - even tho I did not change a thing! I couldn't change my life. I was powerless. God changed it for me!!!!!! God is great!

I wish there were words to express our Lord's love and compassion and my greatfulness for all He has done for me.
 
3nails+1cross=4GIVEN said:
I really don't mean to offend you, but looking at your blog post I'm not sure if you're a Christian? The tips you've given are valid, but not quite unlike what's already been said in this post, which boils down to basic respect for the other party.
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Fortunately, my salvation does not depend on your opinion.
 
Ginger said:
The points he makes come from an agenda driven purpose. His attitude appears to be "I know everything on this subject, and everyone who disagrees with me is ignorant"
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The points I make come from 26 years experience as a bi Christian.

If you read the blog, it isn't pushing an agenda. It shows how LGBT folk interpret the things Christians say and do. Some of the reactions to it here are pretty exemplary of why I wrote it.
 
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