What the bible says about homosexuality

Ok, I'm just going to say something. A friend and I got in a debate about homosexuality. Here's my stance which coincides with the Bible. It's a sin. I don't judge the people, I'm even friends with some. But I'm not going to call what God calls an abomination, good. Now some people may bring up that in the Old testament, God says eating shrimp is a sin. Well, unfortunately for those who would use that argument, I'm not just basing this solely off of the old testament. Mark 7:19: since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
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The NT clearly indicates that the food laws are null and void. However, the NT also CONFIRMS that homosexuality is a sin, in Romans and in 1 Corinthians.
Also Mark 10:6-9: But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Notice it says "male and female" not man and man or female and female.

How we should treat our friends, our enemies, and our family

There's a disease. It's spreading worldwide. Newborn babies get it and it lasts until the cure is found, which for some might be never, some might be soon, and some may be awhile. This disease will cause death. This disease is talked about in the bible. This disease is called sin. The cure, is Jesus Christ.

Let's start with our friends:

Luke 6:31:  And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

If you expect someone to treat you fairly, make sure you treat them fairly.

Ephesians 4:29-32: Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

 Talk with respect to your friends, build each other up. Forgive one another and be friends.

There is importance to friends...

Proverbs 11:14: Where there is no guidance, a people falls,
    but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

We need friends, accountability partners to keep us going strong. If you walk alone, you WILL fall, but if you walk with an accountability partner, you may fall, but you WILL have someone to help pick you up and someone to let you lean on.


Now let's talk about our enemies:

 Proverbs 24:17: Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
    and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

Love your enemies. Don't rejoice they fall, help them up.

Romans 12:20-21: To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Again, love your enemies. We tend not to care what happens to our enemies, but that's not only wrong, it's destructive to our walk in Christ.

Alright, time for our family:

There's a bad trend happening more and more, husbands/wives leaving their spouses, parents abandoning their children, children rebelling against their parents, siblings going against siblings, etc etc.

Now, let's talk about divorce and leaving your spouse.
Now, before I say anything, let me be clear, I'm not married, and probably won't be for at least another 5 to 6 years... AT LEAST. But I do understand what the bible says about divorcing your spouse.

Matthew 5: 31-32: “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

You are not meant to divorce your spouse. Marriage is a vow between your spouse and to God.

Now, let's see. The bible calls for the wife to submit to the husband:

Ephesians 5: 22-24:  Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Wives, respect and submit to your husbands,  but that doesn't leave the husband out of responsibility to their wives. In the next couple of verses:

Ephesians 5: 25-33: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

 I know this one case, where the husband left his wife, and saying she needs to be a better wife, and calling out her faults and saying she's not a good wife. Ironically, he failed to continue reading the above passage, I'm sure he read 22-24, and just skipped 25-33, that or he thought it didn't apply to him. Now, this is not the only case, there's cases like this happening all the time, that was just the first example I could think of. You see, by doing this and publicly shaming her, he failed to be a good husband according to what the Scriptures say a Husband should be like! Wives, love your husband, Husbands, love your wife.

Children, stop rebelling against your parents.

Exodus 20: 12: Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Pretty simple.

Why is fellowship so important?

Genesis 2:18: Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

From the very beginning God said it isn't good for man to be alone. While He made a wife for Adam, which is very important, He also created someone for Adam to have fellowship with. 

Hebrews 10:25: not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

We should be meeting together. We learn best in fellowship than we do by ourselves.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Two is a lot better than one, and three is better than two.  Having a friend with you, you can lean on your friend for help. It is a lot easier to deal with something hard with a friend by your side.

Proverbs 27:17: Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

 We need one another to build us up, and to make us stronger.

Galations 6:2: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

 We are supposed to bear with one anothers burdens, because we are supposed to love people, and when we love someone we want to help with their burdens.

John 15:12: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

If you love people as you are commanded to, you will want  to spend time with them, so, fellowship is important to build each other up.

There IS Hope

(This is part 4 of 4 of my series, this wraps it up)

John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

 God gave His Son to save us. He doesn't want us to go to hell, but He can't allow sinful beings into Heaven and still be a just God. So we needed a sacrifice, something had to die for our sins. In the old testament, they used goats and bulls etc etc, but that wasn't enough. God knew this. So, He sent His Son to be the ultimate sacrifice. A sacrifice that wasn't contaminated with sin. And to fulfill scriptures, He had to be a descendant from David, so He was born from the virgin, Mary. So He was fully God, and fully man. He was tempted, like we are, but since He is God, He withstand it, hard to do something you absolutely hate, and God hates sin. We call on the strength of God, through Jesus Christ, to help us through, and sometimes we fall... But, here's the kicker; It doesn't matter if we fall, it's going to happen... The only thing that matters is how we recover from that. Jesus death covered past, present, and future sin, so we are forgiven, so when we fall, we need to repent, allow God to pick us up, and continue walking in His love and in His strength.  All we have to do, is ask Jesus into our hearts, and we will be saved. 

Romans 3:21-31:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

We all have sinned so we all fall short of the glory of God, but we are justified because of His gift that He sent down to be nailed to a cross, Jesus Christ. This way, we who have faith in Jesus, have been justified and God can now justly let us into Heaven. 

Romans 10:9: because, 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.

This is what you must do to be saved. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.

Acts 2:38: And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 We have to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

You have to go through Jesus, you have to believe in Him to go into Heaven, there's no other ways.

1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 He makes us righteous before His eyes. He forgives and calls us His sons and daughters. I mean, this is the biggest blessing He has ever given us, we are adopted into His family, how great is that?!

Galatians 3:26: for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

John 1:12: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Got a little ahead of myself didn't I? Seriously though, we are sons of God in Christ Jesus through faith... How cool is that?

Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Sin = Death, Free gift of God = eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord..... Seems like simple math to me.

1 Peter 1:3-8: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

We are born again! The old has died and we are a new creation in Him. We are no longer bound by sin, but we are alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:8: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is how much God loves us, he sent His Son to die for us.

I could go on and on about a ton of verses that speak on this, but if I did that, what would there be for you to discover :).  That, and this post would be extremely long.  So I shall end it here. Any questions on the topic or thoughts or if you would like to talk to me, feel free to use the "Contact form" on the right of the page.

Notice about last post

Blogger seems to be glitchy, so if the last post doesn't look quite right, that is why

Adultery

(this is part three of my series,  next part will finish this up) (Special thanks to my friend, Andrew, for his help with this)

Genesis 2: 24:  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

 "One flesh"... not two, not three, but one flesh. That means that you two become one flesh, one body, so when you commit adultery, not only do you sin to your spouse, not only do you sin to God, but you also sin to yourself.

Exodus 20: 14: “You shall not commit adultery".

 This is a commandment to not commit adultery.

1 Corinthians 6: 12-20:   “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

 I'm not saying this to make anyone feel bad, I'm just saying it's wrong, and why. To non-believers, this is not only directed at you, but to believers as well, for we all struggle with it. 
1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."  
This is a call out to everyone, this is a sin, and a pretty common one in this present day & age. Look at verse 18 of the verses above: "but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." This states, as I was saying earlier, you don't also sin to your spouse, or to God, but yourself as well.

Matthew 5: 27-28:  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

This says that if you even look at a woman with lust, it's the same as adultery. 1) Pornography is looking at a woman with lust. Some people say it's a victimless affair... It's not.  One, it's still cheating on your spouse (or future spouse if your not married yet), two, it's still sin, and three, there's a good chance those "girls" you see in those videos are not doing it by will, but probably being forced to by slave owners. There's about 30 million slaves in the world, that's more than any other time in History. A lot of those slaves, are used for videos like that. So when you are watching a video like that, there's a good chance she is not doing it of her own free will... Think about that next time you open a video like that.
2) Even looking at a female in passing with lust in your heart is adultery. If you see a female and you think she is attractive, nothing wrong with that... It becomes a problem if you let it go beyond that to wanting... that becomes lust.

Murder

(I forgot to mention this earlier, I'm making a series out of this with Homosexuality being the first one, it'll mention some of the most common sins today, and at the end of this series, will be where it shows there will be hope.)

Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.

Numbers 35:16: “But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death.

Matthew 5:21-22: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Romans 13:9: For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Murder is bad, there's no "ifs" "ands" or "buts" about it.  But, what happens, when you may not even know you're committing murder?  Some people consider abortion to be ok, not murder because of it's not independent of an outside source. Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  
 That means God knew the person He put inside the womb, He formed him/her, He had a plan for him/her. And you killed him/her.  

Exodus 23:7:  Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.

Psalm 127:3: Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. 

 Unborn babies are innocent, they are a heritage from the Lord, don't murder them!  

Homosexuality

Leviticus 18:22:  You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

 Leviticus 20:13: If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Romans 1:18-32:
¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

 1 Timothy 1:8-10:
⁸ Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, ⁹ understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,



Homosexuality is not only wrong, but sinful. It's a perverted form of what God intended to be between a male and a female, a married couple.  Now don't get me mistaken, I don't hate gays, I hate the sin. God loves the people, He despises the sin. 
There are many more references in the bible against this, here's another:

1 Corinthians 6:9: 
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

 There wouldn't be this many references in the bible if it wasn't a sin. And I know people will say Leviticus doesn't count because it's old testament but;
Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

That means, that God didn't change His mind about it just because its old testament, he still hates the sin. So, no matter what, homosexuality is wrong. I hate it when people say they are a "gay christian".... no such thing.... If you're a "gay christian", than you don't believe the bible, and if you don't believe the bible, how are you a christian? Just sayin', it's hard to be a Christ-follower, and not believe His word.... In fact, it's impossible.

He loves us

Note: You will have to come to the site to see the full meaning of this post. To do so you can just click the title on the email.


You know? We seem to jump the gun and judge bad people even though, instead of hating them, we should love them. Because if we broke one commandment, we broke them all. Romans talks about that all the commandments is summed up in these words: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  This is true, if you love your neighbor as yourself, your not going to steal from him/her, or your not going to murder him/her.  Watch this video:

We broke the law. We are no better than him. Let me put this in more modern terms. Let's say Barabbas is Osama Bin Laden. I'm saying, that you, me, or anyone else isn't any better than Bin Laden. But there is one thing that separates us from him. We've been saved and forgiven by the one true King. Because of Jesus, we are forgiven. But you see, people look at Bin Laden and said there was no hope for him. That was wrong. There was always a hope for him. You see, God loved Bin Laden, He wanted him to be saved. Yes, He knew he probably wouldn't accept His free gift, but He loved him anyway, and He wanted him to come into His family. God loves us, no matter our mistakes.

And because of this amazing, off the charts love, we are saved. Because God cared enough to say, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And there we go, first post for 2014! Tell me what you think in the comments below! Oh, and feel free to share this on Facebook or with your friends.

Christmas, a time to.... What exactly?!

Christmas time, a time to be with family & friends, to open presents and leave cookies and milk for Santa Clause...... Wait, what? Santa Clause? Really?! Oh that's right, it's a time to remember St. Nicolas. Wait, that can't be right.  So, what is Christmas really about? Well, lets break up the word.
Christ-mas. Let's look at that first part. Christ. Christmas is all about remembering Christ's birth. It's a time for joyful praise, a time to be with family and to be cheerful cause on that night, our Savior was born.
Mas, it comes from the Roman catholic church, it means to get together to serve Christ. So Christmas means to get together to remember Christ. So, in answer to the title: Christmas, a time to be with family and friends to remember Christ and to be thankful.