Tuesday Thought

So this Westboro Baptist Church group which has extremist thinking and seems fixated on the sin of homosexuality and wants to blame every bad thing that happens on homosexuality is coming to Tuscaloosa to assert their misbelief that the tornadoes of April 27, 2011 were God's wrath for homosexuality? Well, this could be interesting!

They are a hate group. They make Christians, TRUE Christians, look bad. They give God a bad name. 

Their website address? www.godhatesfags.com. Ordinarily, I wouldn't be so bold about things like this, but seriously, I do feel that I must speak up on this. 

First of all, yes, I do believe in predestination because it is scriptural. Second, I do believe Jesus came to die for our sins to make a way for us to come to God. It's called grace. Third, I do believe that sexual immorality is a sin based on Scripture, but I don't believe God sent disasters just because of that. I looked up the flood they referenced on their site. No where in the first six chapters was there reference to sexual immorality (that I could make out literally). God was sad that people had become so violent so He destroyed them. There are, after all, many sins. 

I live in Alabama. Let me tell you what I remember. When that tornado came (which I literally called a monster), it tried to destroy a state, a region. Physically, it did destroy a lot. But let me tell you what else I saw in the hours, days, weeks and months that followed. I didn't see a God of hate and judgment. I saw a God of love, compassion, grace and mercy as people came from all the state and the country and even from around the globe to help Alabama residents recover. I saw outpourings of love from all over the world. Does that sound like the wrath of God? 

Alabama stands strong in the face of adversity. Alabama will always stand strong. 

What this WBC group does is wrong. They spread hate. Our response should be love and grace. I secretly pray that a minister will join any counter protest against them and share the TRUE Gospel with them. Because they clearly haven't heard it. 

And Wiki, as much as I am against it, has a good write up on them and their leader.  But what I would love to see and hear is what area pastors have to say about this group and its beliefs. 

In the end, we are not God and we don't know everything about God except for what He chose to reveal to us. In the end, God is the only one who can judge anyone. But in the meantime, we must fight against false teachers, which is what WBC is. They are a sick people, and much to my shock, the irony is that another hate group, the KKK, finds WBC to be too extreme even for them. 

Dear God, I pray over this stir that WBC is causing touting that natural disasters are because of Your wrath. I am sad that this group misinterprets Your Word and perverts in such a manner that it can literally cause people to turn away from You and from TRUE Christians who are not hateful. I know You are in control of all things even when I am less than certain, and You are even in control of this situation. I know You hate no person. You hate the sins they do and You feel sorrow for them, but You love them all the same. I pray that You awaken WBC to their wrongdoings and continue to work in those who encounter them in a positive manner. It's in Your hands. Thank You for loving me and for blessing me. Thank You for blessing Alabama and for loving its residents. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Who Is Your Neighbor in a Broken World?

I was going to write this on my general topic blog, but then decided that it would probably fit better on this blog because as a fairly new believer, I'm actually thinking that this particular topic is better suited over here because it addresses social issues that the churches might need to investigate further and act upon. Church,  stand up and fight!

You see, I'm confused.

President Obama recently announced his support of same-sex "marriages." Now the media has had a field day questioning if he is gay. Hmmm....

In local Alabama news, a girl who is gay claimed she was excluded from a senior class composite and yearbook for being gay.

Evidence that President Obama cannot be gay? For one thing, he IS married to a woman and has two daughters. For the entire time that he has been in office, he has been the subject of harsh criticism. Come on people, he got into office at the start of a recession that was actually beginning before President Clinton got out of office. President Bush the second got all the blame for it. President Bush the second got us engaged in a war that we really did not need to be involved with while also engaging in a war that we did need to be involved with. President Bush never proactively did anything about our failing healthcare system in which insurance companies profit from underinsured individuals and raise premiums because hospitals are not getting the money owed to them by individuals who are rich enough to pay for their own healthcare but manage to get out of it because they do not have insurance and also because of people living in America illegally living off of slave wages taking the jobs that American citizens need. Do you know who paid for that $40,000 appendectomy? An underinsured individual who not only paid for his/her own medical care, but also the care of the uninsured.

President Obama took a Republican concept for reforming health insurance and got it passed and signed into effect. He has received nothing but criticism for it. Republicans now claim it is illegal to mandate that individuals get insurance. Why? Isn't theft also illegal because as it stands now, all the uninsured people out there stole thousands of dollars from me and my health care and I am underinsured (meaning my insurance pays for the necessary things, but does not include dental or the speech and occupational therapies I need for my autism). And if it's illegal to mandate individual health insurance, then isn't also illegal to mandate individual drivers carry car insurance? Also, if you are reading this and you are a healthy uninsured individual, what are the reasons for you not having health insurance? Do you not value your health and your life? You don't buy car insurance AFTER having a car accident or house insurance AFTER having a tornado take your house, do you? You buy it BEFORE there's an incident. A car and a house can be replaced, but if you become sick with cancer, you may not be able to get health insurance to get the treatments you need to survive and you might end up dying. Not that cancer might not take your life anyway, but do you understand what's at stake?

President Obama gave in to societal pressure on the issue of same-sex marriage. Does this make him any less of a good presidential candidate? No. I plan to vote for him because he was proactive in the health care reform which now lets me go to my women's doctor for a yearly checkup at no charge because it's preventive care. Men had the ability to do that for their prostates long before women could and really there's no difference in what is being checked for: CANCER.

Do I support his stance? No. Because as I understand what I've been taught in my theology classes and at church, marriage is between one man and one woman and is supposed to be for life. It's a covenantal thing that was established at creation. Adam and Eve. Covenant. The two were created to be helpmates for each other. Not one inferior to the other, but equal partners. But men are supposed to be like Christ and take the lead when it comes to church attendance. And women are supposed to submit to their husbands as they would to Christ. Don't ask me to explain that one because I honestly still don't get it except that women were created smaller than men and physiological different.

The thing is that now there are even some churches that support same-sex unions as well. As much as I will refuse to condemn any church that does this or any individual that chooses this lifestyle, I also will not condone it. I will not condone it because God called it sin in black-and-white in the Bible. But I will not condemn it because God is the only one who can do that.

The facts that were presented in the local news about the girl being left out of the senior composite. From the school's stance they told her she was supposed to wear a "drape" like all the other girls. They told her again after she chose to wear a tuxedo instead. She chose not to. Basically, if that's what was stated, then that's the rule that was presented and because she broke the rule, she is dealing with the consequences. Her stance, they left her out because she's gay. Hmm.... Does that mean that gay people are exempt from rules? Because IF in fact what the school claims is true, forget her sexuality, she broke the rules. Rules are rules.

Rules are rules. Problem there. You have some individuals, even with high functioning, who are special needs and may not always get the rules. Are the rules explicitly worded so there is no room for any loopholes? Are the rules actually even realistic? And if you're saying that the person can do what EVERYONE ELSE does or that they can have the SAME ACCESS that EVERYONE ELSE has yet you are making rules that forbid that person from actually having that, then are you really being fair when what you are saying the person can do or have is not what is happening?

Special needs. Special needs are in your churches people! Open your eyes! You may not SEE it. But listen. Look and learn. Some disabilities are hidden. Do you have a person in your church who seems "defiant" or "impatient" or "impulsive?" They may seem that way, but they may have autism or ADHD. What are you, the church, doing to INCLUDE these people? Are you doing anything? Do you understand that EVERYONE has gifts that God gave them to use for Him in the church? God doesn't see a person with autism. He sees a person that He created in His image. Why are you not including him/her when God does?

Genesis 38 and Scandalous Grace and the Messiness of Life With Sin

I've heard it referred to as scandalous grace. Never really understood that until yesterday at church.

My head still reels from one word that I did not even know was in the Bible. I have a feeling there may be more of them. Let's just say as to what word, the Bible may be very instrumental in sex education and turning things around in that area.

I think if it hadn't been for the floor underneath all of us, our jaws would not have returned but alas, there were a lot of jaws that dropped.

Scandalous stuff in the Bible. No wonder they say that the Bible consists of every literary genre known to mankind.

Psychology, genealogy, sex education, how-to, self-help (sort of), poetry, history, science fiction (hmmm.....), mystery (What happened to Jonah after the book of Jonah finishes?), etc. I think perhaps the only genre that might not be covered is cooking, but honestly, I don't know that it isn't.

Like I said, my head still reels from that passage.

It was good though. Essentially because we live in a fallen world full of broken people with sin, we have to deal with the consequences of that sin. Sin is sloppy and messy. Sin is yucky. That wily devil hits us from every angle imaginable and just when you think you're strong enough to fend him off, here he comes again.

Sometimes it is the devil, but more often than not, it is the sin. Our personal sin, someone else's sin, sin sin sin (Brady Bunch "Marsha Marsha Marsh.").

But just when you think you're down for the count, you can recover (TobyMac "Get Back Up"). You may be down for a season, but as people come to grips with the sin that created the mess, here come the scrub brushes (counsel from others, lessons that you and other people needed to learn, time, etc.) to clean up the mess and set things right again.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't EXACTLY what was being taught in the messiest lesson I ever got from church, but it is what I got. Different people get different things out of the same lesson depending on where they are in life at the present when they hear the lesson and this is what I learned.

Now if only I can get past that one word in Genesis 38.... (Blushing.)