What Would You Do? (In Responding to LGBTQ)

 (Note: This is written in response to a question from a LGBTQ study regarding the benefits and harms of conversion therapy which asked the question, "What would you do if someone you knew came out to you as LGBTQ?")

To answer the question posed here, I will tell you what I have done with those I know who have announced their LGBT inclinations- Love my neighbour as myself and speak the Truth in Love to them. (Matthew 22:34-40 and Ephesians 4:15)

    I would first want to ask what exactly is meant when they identify with any of the terms encompassed in that acronym. (i.e. I want to hear their story first of all- truly listen and try to understand.)

     I would assure them that they are loved no matter what- every person is made in God's image and eternally loved by Him- and they are infinitely important and eternally valuable and worthy of love and respect. Because of my faith in Christ and the love and forgiveness I have experienced from Him, I also love all people and seek to extend His grace to them. 

     I would also want to understand what their spiritual beliefs are regarding Jesus. If the person is not a Christ follower, I would tell them about the love God has for all of us and the sin in our lives that have separated us from Him. Adam and Eve sinned in the beginning and brought the curse of sin upon the planet and people. The wages of sin is death- spiritual death eternally separated from The Lord in Hell. God doesn't desire any to perish but for all to come to repentance. He loves us all so much He sent His Son to take the punishment we deserve by dying on the cross in our place. Jesus then rose again to prove He's God. If we will turn to Him in faith and trust Him for forgiveness of all our sins and follow Him in repentance, He will save us from the penalty of Hell we deserve and receive us into eternal joy in His presence in Heaven instead.

      And if the person already is a Christian or if not, the message is still the same. The Gospel is our greatest need and that's what we need to focus on first. No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian or transgendered- all bow to Christ on the last day so let's make Him Lord while there's time. (Philippians 2:9-11) 

    Yes, we all have our struggles in this life and we all deal with temptations to sin. And I do believe the question is not about what orientation one feels drawn towards- it's about what one does with it.

I can empathize with friends who have unwanted same sex attractions who also strive to serve and obey The Lord Jesus with everything, including their sexuality. I can empathize as a heterosexual single man who is celibate just like them because I know sex outside of marriage is a sin and God has defined marriage as the union of one man to one woman for life. (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19, Hebrews 13:4)

    And I know the community of those who hold to faith in Christ and also identify as LGBTQ+ veer to different paths on this issue. I have friends who affirm faith in Jesus yet some choose to engage in homosexual relations and others choose to be celibate in keeping with their convictions. For the former, I have had to gently and respectfully explain why I cannot agree with them that God permits homosexual relationships or lust. This doesn't mean I don't love them or respect them. I am still happy to do anything I can to help them but I can't enable them in perpetuating sin. I would not want them to do that for me, so this is just what Matthew 7:12 commands me to do in the Golden Rule.

   For the latter, I commiserate with them and try to encourage them in their walk with Christ and commitment to celibacy. And I pray for those in both camps. 

     Above all, I want to remind them that Love doesn't rejoice with evil but it rejoices with the Truth. And the Truth is Jesus- He's the Way, Truth and Life. And Jesus is better than sin. Jesus is better than lust. Jesus is better than sex. Jesus is better than any human relationship. Jesus is better than anything else I desire.  

I want to want Him and want nothing else. I confess I am certainly not all I should be but by the grace of God, I am not who I once was either. I am a sinner saved by God's grace and because I have been set free by His forgiveness and love, I can do no less than to love others and extend the same grace I have received. 

    And regardless of one's choice about Jesus, the love remains and the respect remains and the prayers remain. 

   I look forward to the day when Jesus will return and set everything wrong right again and all our desires will be rightly oriented for Him and His kingdom. He is our ultimate Hope as we look forward to Heaven where everything sad will come untrue and all the light and momentary troubles we go through here will not even compare to the glory to be revealed.

(Note: Here are a few articles that offer Christian perspectives on these ideas.

https://www.equip.org/article/whats-the-problem-with-conversion-therapy/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-lgbt-movements-dangerous-hypocrisy-on-conversion-therapy/?amp

The Spiritual Friendship Web site is another great resource too. https://www.spiritualfriendship.org)

Physician, Heal Thyself (poem)

[Note: Here is a poem from the archives (March 20, 2008 to be exact) that felt appropriate, especially after an article I read today about the rich people who invest tons of money into scientific research for ways to defy death and live longer- all the while ignoring the eternal life that Jesus offers to us through faith in His death and Resurrection. Hallelujah- what a Savior!]

 I'd been reading through Jeremiah in my devotions at the time and this just kind of hit me one day- and I decided to go the poem route this time. So here you go. It kind of deals with the problem of evil in the world- and the claims of people who think that all people are basically good- but at the same time they also vilify God for not taking an active approach to evil in the world... One day God will eradicate all evil from the world- but on that day it’ll be too late for the skeptics- because that will be the day He comes back to set up His kingdom and eternally banish the devil and his followers to punishment in Hell. " Oh yes- He’s gonna stick an apple in the devil’s lying mouth and cook him in a sulfur stew- one that’ll never be through. Is it soup yet? NO!"( Not a direct quote- but it’s from "Dear John Letter (to the devil)" by Keith Green- I love his songs! ;-))
So anyway, here’s the poem I was talking about.  And that’s it for now.


"Physician, Heal Thyself"
................................
(by Nathan Ludwick; copyright 3/20/2008)
(see Jeremiah 17:9, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 6:23)

In this world that begins wth crying
(Assuming you make it that far without dying)
(Like a cancer that has to be killed-)
(Take a pill and drop the bomb- Nice choice, Mom!)
It seems too often we leave life the same way
Kicking, struggling and fighting to hold on to the pain
The pain that fills our in-betweens and lets us know we’re alive
With all the trials, sorrows and grief
We hardly have time for anything else in an existence all too brief
And whether yours are pink or white we all face the same strife
At least in this one commonality all humans can finally unite
But difference brings division as subtraction tempers suspicion
An addition of attrition makes for a multiplication of munitions
And all the arithmetics of politics still leave us base at the base
"Where is the love?" cries the woman of Ramah
Surely we can join together and rise above this
But once the gun is cocked, down comes the hammer
No, we didn’t start the fire but on this one Smokey’s a liar
We’ve been trying to fight it since the Garden
But the second degree burns only made our hearts harden
For a world where insolence begets violence in the extreme
And weak, tired and scared souls must protect their feelings at all costs
Because our egos won’t tolerate toleration for any cause
And we’ve taught ourselves how to gratify ourselves and make it all good
But when we can’t do that anymore we’re faced with a reality that shakes us to the core
Shakes us forward and shakes us free
Or shakes us to awake and fully engage our carnality entrenching mortality
And human life becomes nothing but prey when we’re nothing but hairless apes
When everyone does what’s right in his own eyes
It’s only a matter of time before someone loses a contact
And then concludes everyone’s impaired but her
And here is where we all live for now in the land of roaring lions
But only two because there is no non-secretarian of the jungle, only a King
Where one devours one while the other devours us that acquiese to coalesce
And he tells us we’re good of our own merit and lets us think we thought that ourselves
And those who know only the untame lion is truly good cling to the mane of salvation
It only begs the question for skeptics as each day’s paper brings evils unfurled
"How can a good people allow evil in the world?"
We keep telling ourselves we’re better than this and hope optimism will end the evils we’ve wrought,
There is a balm in Gilead but it flows only from Immanuel’s veins- the free gift of God.