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Homosexuality is a sin, sometimes described as unnatural lust.I am a man that has lust and same-sex attractions. I am starting to realize that I can't pray the gay away, like some people call it. I have to fill my mind with the truth of God's word. Not just the Bible, although that is the most important, but also with other sermons concerning my sin. I realize that I have to memorize scripture and live it out.
I do not understand why homosexuality is sin. But all I know is that if I do it, I will be thrown into hell. And yes, I recognize that lusting is adultery as well. I understand why it is sin to lust after people. It is disrespectful to the people you are lusting after. Think about it. If you had two teenage daughters, and you were given the ability to read people's mind, and you passed a man who had all kinds of dirty thoughts toward your daughters, anybody is going to want to hurt him, even though he may not ever touch your daughters. So, I understand why lust is wrong. It is just disrespectful. And if I am embarrassed to share my thoughts with somebody else, then I probably shouldn't be thinking about what I am thinking. God is always reading my thoughts, and that should be enough to trouble and fear.
Praying the gay away, I am realizing, is not the answer at all. I have to renew my mind by reading his word. But the thing about the Bible is that it doesn't tell us why some sin is sin. It doesn't tell me why two men can't love each other romantically. They can certainly have brotherly love, but romantically they can't because God hates it.
I have had some Christians try to tell why some sin is sin. But I don't care why it is sin. All I know that sin is sin. And if we continue to sin, God throws us into hell. I don't need to understand at all. And I have also have people talk to me about why I have my struggles and they have tried to get to the root my sin struggles. My attitude is now who cares. I don't need to know the root of my same-sex attraction.
Am I wrong for not caring why I choose to not care why God said some sin is sin? Am I wrong for not wanting to know what the root of my sin is?
I am a man that has lust and same-sex attractions. I am starting to realize that I can't pray the gay away, like some people call it. I have to fill my mind with the truth of God's word. Not just the Bible, although that is the most important, but also with other sermons concerning my sin. I realize that I have to memorize scripture and live it out.
I do not understand why homosexuality is sin. But all I know is that if I do it, I will be thrown into hell. And yes, I recognize that lusting is adultery as well. I understand why it is sin to lust after people. It is disrespectful to the people you are lusting after. Think about it. If you had two teenage daughters, and you were given the ability to read people's mind, and you passed a man who had all kinds of dirty thoughts toward your daughters, anybody is going to want to hurt him, even though he may not ever touch your daughters. So, I understand why lust is wrong. It is just disrespectful. And if I am embarrassed to share my thoughts with somebody else, then I probably shouldn't be thinking about what I am thinking. God is always reading my thoughts, and that should be enough to trouble and fear.
Praying the gay away, I am realizing, is not the answer at all. I have to renew my mind by reading his word. But the thing about the Bible is that it doesn't tell us why some sin is sin. It doesn't tell me why two men can't love each other romantically. They can certainly have brotherly love, but romantically they can't because God hates it.
I have had some Christians try to tell why some sin is sin. But I don't care why it is sin. All I know that sin is sin. And if we continue to sin, God throws us into hell. I don't need to understand at all. And I have also have people talk to me about why I have my struggles and they have tried to get to the root my sin struggles. My attitude is now who cares. I don't need to know the root of my same-sex attraction.
Am I wrong for not caring why I choose to not care why God said some sin is sin? Am I wrong for not wanting to know what the root of my sin is?
Your bottom line attitude is very pragmatic and admirable. I do however think you should know. The reason it is a sin is because it goes against the natural order that God has created. If someone is used for a purpose other than what it is intended for it can be termed as abuse.
Rom 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Rom 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
What would be great for you is to listen to the stories of those just like you who have walked the road you are now walking. There is a special ministry created to help people like you called "Coming Out Ministries". Here is a video interview with 2 of the members and there is a documentary you can watch where they share their stories and struggles.
Homosexuality is a sin, sometimes described as unnatural lust.
Celibacy is not a sin. Jesus and Paul were celibate. I would recommend celibacy as a way of repentance/improvement. Celibate people may do works of charity giving to the poor, if they are financially able, but can not have children. Someone who has little money may be able to do volunteer work.
I am thankful to be able to be used to bring you hope.
Your gay.... so what? You're loved. You're forgiven. You're accepted as well. May God bless and keep you in Christ Jesus's name.
What you struggle with is no differnt than an individual that has a daily struggle to not go get drunk. Everyone struggles with their own sin. Some aren't even aware they do sin, and think they are right with God, because they don't do actions that are as bad as someone else. That makes you blessed, because you are already convicted by the spirit and pray to God about it. You have not been abandoned. You are not on your own. God has sent his holy ghost to convict your heart, and teach you.
Do not give in. No matter how much you want to.... you do not have to give in. And you will be found blameless and in the right each and every time you follow God's lead to escape temptation.
I know you are searching, but have you check out casting out the demon of lust? I asked God to take the lust away and then it was easy to focus in on, not self, but others. I was blessed in the experience of selflessness.
You're welcome. I wrote a lot to you because our exchanges are few and the truths I share are in short supply these days.
Surrender could be called the "key to it all." Christ only increases in us as we decrease, as we submit, yield, humble ourselves and die to Self. But in surrender there is victory. In death, there is life abundant. These are God's ironclad promises to us.
I urge you to avoid thinking of yourself in terms of your struggle with a particular sin. You are, if you're God's child, a "new creature in Christ, old things are passed away and you've been made new." You aren't a homosexual trying to be a Christian; you are a born-again, joint-heir with Christ, the Bible says; you are redeemed from sin, made righteous before God through Jesus, sanctified in him, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit; you are "dead to sin and alive unto God through Christ". This is who you are. You may wrestle with sin but it ought never to define you. Always remember: "The me I see is the me I'll be."
Praying for you.
That is absolutely 100% and it’s not just Proverbs, but once you get reading with the Holy Spirit He will teach you much wisdom!
Happy to call you brother in Christ
Yes, there are different ways people understand this. So, I will offer what I have, and you are welcome to trust God to have you find out all that is really right. What is good will have you in God's peace, with more and more freedom from the troubles and torments and destruction and misery of sin.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." (1 John 4:18)
So, fear is anti-love and has "torment". We were not born choosing to fear and to suffer torment; but fear and its torment are part of the package deal of living in sin.
Therefore, God's word clearly says not to be "anxious" about anything > Philippians 4:6-7 >
"Be anxious for nothing" (in Philippians 4:6-7). So, if we do not obey this, we are sinning by not obeying how God's grace has us living and loving.
And there are other things we can have in us because of being born in sin; we did not choose to be born in sin, but we were born wrong, in sin; and so humans have started off wrong, with wrong ways and many different wrong preferences.
While humans in sin can have many different wrong ways and preferences, there is a basic > humans in sin have an automatic tendency to seek pleasure and to react very nastily and negatively and more or less violently if they do not get their own way.
And one very popular pleasure is sexual sensation. Because of being born in sin, humans have a tendency to seek the pleasure of sexual sensation, for their own use and purpose, instead of desiring and seeking to reproduce children of God (Malachi 2:14-15) who know how to love.
We see how many children have been brought up not knowing how to love. This can be partly because their parents did much arguing and complaining and controlling their lives for what they want, instead of being examples of how Jesus has us loving any and all people. And this has helped children to grow up confused, developing preferences for how they will seek pleasure, instead of growing up with the desire to reproduce children for God, who know how to love. This is a very selfish orientation which is sin, a problem of the heart and character, not only a genetic or culturally produced preference. But there is culture which can help to promote children to prefer pleasure and develop preferences for how they get it. But the child was born in sin, with one's own nature making him or her able to go along with this evil world's foolishness of being more interested in pleasure, than in seeking God for Himself.
And indeed we did not choose to be born in sin with its character making us able to have many sorts of selfish preferences, and then to deeply suffer about not getting pleasure the way we want it. But just because we did not choose this, this does not mean we are ok, and certainly we do not have to stay this way; because Jesus suffered and died for us so we can be forgiven and reconciled with God and not keep suffering now and after we die.
So > at a more practical level, in everyday life > why do people prefer pleasure? Why is it not obviously and automatically more desirable to seek God who is so good and kind and beautifully wonderful in love which has Heaven's own pleasant rest and caressing and intimacy in genuine love?????
By the way > God's love has better and nicer pleasure than all the physical sensations which humans can get their bodies to experience > it is written >
"At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." (in Psalm 16:11)
"Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
.My lips shall praise You." (Psalm 63:3)
So, why do humans stay so busy with seeking inferior pleasures. And why do people depend on what is not freely given? So often you have to pay for them, or you have to become a slave of some sort to the people you use for getting your pleasure which is inferior. But Jesus gives us "rest for your souls." (in Matthew 11:28-30)
Yet we see how people of preferences for sexual pleasure do not have rest for their souls. Why? Because they are not with God in His love with almighty power of peace to keep them deeply satisfied in God's love.
And - - because people are in their weakness of sin, they are weak enough to suffer in the destruction and misery of sin, and the horribleness of their emotional suffering makes them desperate to feel something nicer. So, they seek drugs, sexual sensation, the nice feeling of food, and other pleasures which are fairly easy to get. And they use people to get the pleasures they prefer. But in any case, their preference, really, has nothing to do with which food they prefer or which way they get sexual sensations or drug experiences; but the bottom line is they prefer pleasure instead of seeking God for Himself and personally submitting to Him in His peace.
We all in Jesus are "called in one body" to personally submit to how our Father rules us in His own peace >
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)
This is basic, for every child of God . . . to submit to how our Heavenly Father personally rules each of us in His own peace with His own almighty power to keep us from evil preferences, and keep us from selfishly using other people to get pleasure. Therefore, it is indeed wrong to have a wrong preference. Preferences are of the heart. God wants our hearts to have preference for Him and submitting to Him in His peace, and to love any and all people as ourselves.
So, if any drive or preference takes our attention away from this, it is sin. Because God's word clearly tells us to set and keep our minds on God >
"You will keep him in perfect peace,
.Whose mind is stayed on You,
.Because He trusts in you."
. . . . . . . . . . . (Isaiah 26:3)
You can see from this, how so many people and things are indeed working to keep your attention elsewhere. This is an evil world we are living in, then. And there are many different wrong preferences and ways of getting our attention to what selfish people prefer for getting their many different pleasures. So, if you become wise to how your own preferences have been sin, now you also need to make sure you are wise to however other pleasure preferences also are sin. And have mercy and hope for others who also have been wrong >
"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)
And as you become honest with God, in your character you will become capable of perceiving and sharing with others who are honest with God. Only in God's love can we be truly honest and see who the others are. So, we are not alone. But sin isolates us with our preferences which can even become our identity, and we can be isolated with the ones we want to use. We can tend to love the ones we use, and become addicted to their charm and personalities, and this makes our addiction even more complicated than just being an interest in getting physical pleasure. Personalities are very complicated; so becoming hooked on another human being is very difficult, if we do not know how to love with God; plus, Jesus says,
"if you love those who love you, what reward have you?" (in Matthew 5:46)
Because of the weakness of sin and its ways of selfish loving, many people can not handle living in a close relationship with someone else, without getting hurt and unforgiving and arguing and accusing and blaming, instead of tenderly caring and compassionately forgiving >
"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:31-32)
Because they are not strong in God's family way of loving, they can isolate themselves with pleasures and with pets, that they can control, and with only certain people who cooperate with them. But God's family love makes us strong and sensitive so we can share with many people, and not get hurt by ones who do not know how to love, but keep good example in their faces
So, you can see how preferences can be guided and driven by desperation to not feel misery of sin. And you can see how people are desperate > arguing, complaining, screaming, pushing, controlling, depending on their own selves instead of depending on God. And God's word says to depend on Him who cares for us >
"casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)
"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)
This is Bible basic for every person > to personally submit to God in order to be truly deeply corrected in our character, so we personally submit to how our God and Father rules each of us with His own peace in our hearts > Colossians 3:15 > and discover how this has us loving as His family in Jesus while we also care for and reach to any and all others who need Jesus.
And you have already experienced, I would say, Info, that shaming and guilt-tripping and the threat of hell have not changed you into a deeply submissive person in God's peace. But, also, just saying we are ok to stay the way we are does not have us personally sharing with God in His own love. We do not need to isolate ourselves with only certain people who say we are ok.
With Jesus, we have . . .
"rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-30) . . .
loving any and all people, with hope for any evil person, at all > love "hopes all things" (in 1 Corinthians 13:7) . . .
hope for others because of how God has proven Himself in us, so we know He can do this in any other person, too . . .
> God bless you with this, more and more
Well, we need to be with church people who know how to love and forgive. Trust God to make you able to tell who is a good example, not just a refined church actor.There is some fear of going to church. I actually do prefer to stay home. At home nobody could challenge me or hurt my feelings. But I know that this is not what God wants.
I just surrendered to God recently.
And not referring to my struggles as who I am is going to be a little bit of a challenge for me because everyone sees me as a gay man.
If I was to say that to my neighbors, they will not accept that. What I mean is if I was to say that I am no longer gay, they will not accept that. But I know that you are right in what you are saying.
Great! The thing is, surrender is an-going act of your will. By that I mean, you must surrender to God again and again, moment-by-moment, through each day. The surrender of five minutes ago lasts only until you in thought, word, and/or deed act in independence of God, contrary to His will and way. When you do, it's time to surrender anew and ask God to conform you to Himself once more.
Amazing, isn't it, how other sinners are so keen to keep you in the pigpen of sin with them? Appalling, really.
Well, you don't answer to your neighbors. You answer to God. It is His view of you that counts, right? Remember: the me I see, is the me I'll be.
Hebrews 12:2-3
Philippians 4:8
Psalms 1
Romans 6:1-18
Well, we need to be with church people who know how to love and forgive. Trust God to make you able to tell who is a good example, not just a refined church actor.
In a right church, any sermon can help you somehow. And people do not have to know your sin stuff, if they know how to minister to you. So, simply take in whatever is the sermon, and see what you can get out of it . . . possibly in general to help with all your sin issues, or maybe something specific. Also > take in what helps you become more like Jesus and how to please God and how to love < this, of course, helps to cure us of our sin problems
We get stronger in love, and love makes us stronger against our sin problems; this is a good by-product of loving.
Because our sin things basically have the same roots, and the same cure. And Jesus says, "Freely you have received, freely give." (in Matthew 10:8)
So, if/when any person treats you like an outsider or unacceptable or makes money a condition for getting help . . . we in Jesus do not do this. Be ready, like I said, to be forgiving and kind with such people. Show them the example they need, and God uses our example.
Of course, I mean you need to conduct yourself right. In case you really mess up somehow, yes this can be confronted. I have needed plenty of correction > it seems, though, that the abusive ones could take me on, first. Then I would pray and the really loving ones would feed me their example!!!
I don't think it's wrong to not be concerned with why something is sinful if you accept that it is in fact sinful. Some people are fascinated with the logic behind the moral law. Others are not.Am I wrong for not caring why I choose to not care why God said some sin is sin? Am I wrong for not wanting to know what the root of my sin is?
Any Biblical sermon and any scripture can help you, somehow; because all of God's word is for all of us. So, possibly we all need to read what you heard.I think I need to go there to listen to sermons.
I am a man that has lust and same-sex attractions. I am starting to realize that I can't pray the gay away, like some people call it. I have to fill my mind with the truth of God's word. Not just the Bible, although that is the most important, but also with other sermons concerning my sin. I realize that I have to memorize scripture and live it out.
I do not understand why homosexuality is sin. But all I know is that if I do it, I will be thrown into hell. And yes, I recognize that lusting is adultery as well. I understand why it is sin to lust after people. It is disrespectful to the people you are lusting after. Think about it. If you had two teenage daughters, and you were given the ability to read people's mind, and you passed a man who had all kinds of dirty thoughts toward your daughters, anybody is going to want to hurt him, even though he may not ever touch your daughters. So, I understand why lust is wrong. It is just disrespectful. And if I am embarrassed to share my thoughts with somebody else, then I probably shouldn't be thinking about what I am thinking. God is always reading my thoughts, and that should be enough to trouble and fear.
Praying the gay away, I am realizing, is not the answer at all. I have to renew my mind by reading his word. But the thing about the Bible is that it doesn't tell us why some sin is sin. It doesn't tell me why two men can't love each other romantically. They can certainly have brotherly love, but romantically they can't because God hates it.
I have had some Christians try to tell why some sin is sin. But I don't care why it is sin. All I know that sin is sin. And if we continue to sin, God throws us into hell. I don't need to understand at all. And I have also have people talk to me about why I have my struggles and they have tried to get to the root my sin struggles. My attitude is now who cares. I don't need to know the root of my same-sex attraction.
Am I wrong for not caring why I choose to not care why God said some sin is sin? Am I wrong for not wanting to know what the root of my sin is?
I am actually going to church tomorrow. I think I need to go there to listen to sermons.
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