The Bible and Being Gay……There is a list of sins in the Bible. And being gay (that is, practicing homosexuality) is on the list. And if you are a person who is attracted to the same sex… well, what now?……Before I get to that, consider this – when most of us read a book, or a blog, or the newspaper, we take the words at face value, right? We assume the author is speaking plainly, and that he is trying to make his meaning clear to us. If the author says something we think is ignorant or untrue, we simply shut the book, click away from the page, or throw the paper in the can. ……But our approach to the Bible is totally different. When we find something in the Bible that we don’t like, we don’t just toss it aside. Instead, the temptation is to try to change it. Why? Because we know the Bible is holy. It’s from God and we can’t just ignore Him. So, we listen to Satan’s first lie all over again: did God really say?……Let me be perfectly clear. This is a painful subject, but it is not a confusing one. The Bible does actually say, in the plainest language, that it is sinful to practice homosexuality.

1 Corinthians 6:9Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality,

1 Timothy 1:10.The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching

If it was any other book, nobody would care. The book would go in the trash and that would be the end of it. But this is God’s Word. And God is saying “I don’t like homosexuality. Don’t do it.” ……So, what if you’re gay? What if, from as long as you can remember, you’ve been attracted to the same sex? What do you do? If you can’t throw the Bible out, and you can’t change it, what options do you have? Is hell unavoidable? Not at all. Rather, Christ’s invitation is the same to you as it is to any other person that are caught up in sin

Being Gay: Jesus Didn’t Come to Judge……Jesus says: “I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it.”John 12:47

Jesus does not judge you on the basis of your sins. I’ll say it again: if you don’t keep God’s commands (the law) Jesus doesn’t judge you. Instead, he came to save you. ……But we can’t stop there. In the very next verse, Jesus says:

John 12:48“But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken.”

After death, when they stand before God. What does this mean? It means that rejecting Jesus – not homosexuality or theft or adultery or any other sin – is ultimately what sends a person to hell. A person who comes before God’s throne without Jesus will be judged according to the truth “truth I(Jesus) have spoken.”.

In other words, they will have to answer to the law of God, and that’s a bad place to be because as it says in:

Galatians 2:16Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”

…Every one of us is a sinner. Take sex out of the equation entirely, and it’s still true. The day we first disobeyed our parents and stole a cookie from the jar, we were sinners. It is our nature. It is what we are. There is no difference between straight or gay, we have all fallen short of the glory of God

Romans 3:10As the Scriptures say,“No one is righteous—not even one.

The only way to Heaven, for any person struggling with any sin, is faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:28So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

…The Bible and Being Gay: Did God Really Say?……If you are gay, absolutely nothing is gained by putting your head in the sand and denying that God really meant what He said about homosexuality.

Is practicing homosexuality a sin? Yes. But so are lots of other things you do – lots of other things ALL people do. And Christ’s invitation is the same for you as it is for every person,

Mark 1:15“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

Romans 10:1-21 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

Salvation Is for Everyone

For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).”In fact, it says,

“The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach:If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?” So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message? Yes, they have:

“The message has gone throughout the earth, and the words to all the world.”

But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God said,

“I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation. I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles.” And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying,“I was found by people who were not looking for me.…I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.” But regarding Israel, God said,“All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”

When I came to the Lord, I had lots of sins and burdens. Some of them went away as soon as I got saved. But others didn’t. That’s the way it is. It keeps us dependent on His grace. Even the Apostle Paul still struggled against sin

Romans 7:7-25

God’s Law Reveals Our Sin

 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life,and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.

Struggling with Sin

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.I love God’s law with all my heart.But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

1 Timothy 1:15

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.

So, can I promise you that you will stop feeling attracted to the same sex if you accept Christ? No.

Chances are you’ll still struggle with your sin – like all Christians do. But I can promise you this: the peace of the Lord’s forgiveness and the hope of eternal heaven is more than worth a few decades of suffering.……“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” – Jim Elliott