The Struggle: Let God in

[DesignerNate]

I grew up in a Christian home, I knew a pretty good amount about God at a young age and was raised in a family that deeply cared for my wellbeing. I grew up and I was an obedient, good kid. I did what I was told tried my best to stay on my parents good side, a pretty conservative lifestyle to say the least.

In 7th grade I started to question things. I got tired of always being obedient, to me it felt like the "good, obedient" life was turning dry and really stale, i was getting tired of it and I was really curious with how the world outside worked. I rebelled against my parents and made some bad choices, and this all couldn't have been during a more confusing time during my life. I didn't have too many good influences in my life so I had believed the lie that I was alone in all this.

In Middle School i began to start noticing that all my guy friends were starting to feel attracted to girls and I just didn't feel the same. At first i assumed that i could just be a late bloomer, that it would come eventually. However as time went on I began noticing an attraction that i had about certain features that men had, at first i thought this might just be a friendly attraction however as i got deeper into it, it began to get more and more sexual and i began to start believing that I was Gay.

Now I still considered myself a Christian but I was on a beaten path, and didn't really embrace what God had for me at this point. See I was tired of living my life in obedience, I wanted to experience something adventurous in my life, something DANGEROUS. To me the stereo-type i had believed about Christianity was that It was only about obedience, and to me, that sounded like a pretty boring life.

How wrong that could have been, because as I started to listen more and more to what God was continually whispering in my ear he would begin to transform my heart and upturn my life into what has been one of the most meaningful relationships that I could ever be a part of. What God really started telling me at first was I needed to tell someone, i needed to talk about this.

See I was really dealing with this alone, it was a private matter that I was ashamed to share. But God would just continue to say to me: Share it, tell someone about this. It was a scary prospect, I was really ashamed about what I felt, because I knew the verses that pointed it out as being wrong, yet thats not what i felt in my heart! I felt this sense like there was this yearning for love in my life and I wanted to passionately pursue and understand my relationships with other men.

But God kept telling me...Share it. So i eventually found the courage to talk about it with a group of guys that had a bible study going on in my Church youth group. For the first time in my life, I felt like, HEY i don't have to deal with this alone! I can talk about this, I can express my frustrations with this. Then when i realized what God was doing It opened my eyes to the life that Jesus set out for me. It opened my eyes to just how much God cares about me.

It began my authentic walk with Christ, because even though I had been raised "Christian" for most of my life, but I didn't really understand the truth behind the religion of Christianity. Through my struggle God has opened my eyes to his purpose, and not my own. So God continues to keep telling me that not only am I not alone in my struggle, but that through my own Weakness, God would transform my heart and Make it my strength.

As if it was never about me living a boring perfect life, but for me to begin to rely on this awesome living God, who cares so deeply for each of us. I want you to know this because I want you to take in that no matter what people struggle with, be it homosexuality or something else, at the end of the day we are all not so different. I want to encourage you to start to understand that although God doesn't approve of homosexuality, its not just about realizing that some choices we make are sinful but realizing that we need to start fully engaging with God in not only our choices but our hearts.

Something that I still struggle with but something that I can't deny rings SO TRUE.

God Bless you all

 

[Ohioprof]

I grew up in a Christian home, I knew a pretty good amount about God at a young age and was raised in a family that deeply cared for my wellbeing. I grew up and I was an obedient, good kid. I did what I was told tried my best to stay on my parents good side, a pretty conservative lifestyle to say the least.

In 7th grade I started to question things. I got tired of always being obedient, to me it felt like the "good, obedient" life was turning dry and really stale, i was getting tired of it and I was really curious with how the world outside worked. I rebelled against my parents and made some bad choices, and this all couldn't have been during a more confusing time during my life. I didn't have too many good influences in my life so I had believed the lie that I was alone in all this.

In Middle School i began to start noticing that all my guy friends were starting to feel attracted to girls and I just didn't feel the same. At first i assumed that i could just be a late bloomer, that it would come eventually. However as time went on I began noticing an attraction that i had about certain features that men had, at first i thought this might just be a friendly attraction however as i got deeper into it, it began to get more and more sexual and i began to start believing that I was Gay.

Now I still considered myself a Christian but I was on a beaten path, and didn't really embrace what God had for me at this point. See I was tired of living my life in obedience, I wanted to experience something adventurous in my life, something DANGEROUS. To me the stereo-type i had believed about Christianity was that It was only about obedience, and to me, that sounded like a pretty boring life.

How wrong that could have been, because as I started to listen more and more to what God was continually whispering in my ear he would begin to transform my heart and upturn my life into what has been one of the most meaningful relationships that I could ever be a part of. What God really started telling me at first was I needed to tell someone, i needed to talk about this.

See I was really dealing with this alone, it was a private matter that I was ashamed to share. But God would just continue to say to me: Share it, tell someone about this. It was a scary prospect, I was really ashamed about what I felt, because I knew the verses that pointed it out as being wrong, yet thats not what i felt in my heart! I felt this sense like there was this yearning for love in my life and I wanted to passionately pursue and understand my relationships with other men.

But God kept telling me...Share it. So i eventually found the courage to talk about it with a group of guys that had a bible study going on in my Church youth group. For the first time in my life, I felt like, HEY i don't have to deal with this alone! I can talk about this, I can express my frustrations with this. Then when i realized what God was doing It opened my eyes to the life that Jesus set out for me. It opened my eyes to just how much God cares about me.

It began my authentic walk with Christ, because even though I had been raised "Christian" for most of my life, but I didn't really understand the truth behind the religion of Christianity. Through my struggle God has opened my eyes to his purpose, and not my own. So God continues to keep telling me that not only am I not alone in my struggle, but that through my own Weakness, God would transform my heart and Make it my strength.

As if it was never about me living a boring perfect life, but for me to begin to rely on this awesome living God, who cares so deeply for each of us. I want you to know this because I want you to take in that no matter what people struggle with, be it homosexuality or something else, at the end of the day we are all not so different. I want to encourage you to start to understand that although God doesn't approve of homosexuality, its not just about realizing that some choices we make are sinful but realizing that we need to start fully engaging with God in not only our choices but our hearts.

Something that I still struggle with but something that I can't deny rings SO TRUE.

God Bless you all

But maybe God does approve of "homosexuality." Maybe God loves you just the way you are.

Think about that. You can be who you are and still be a good Christian. You don't have to be celibate or try to be heterosexual. You can just be yourself.

There are plenty of happy gay Christians who live fulfilled lives in intimate love relationships. You don't have to deny yourself that.

Think about it.

 

[HaloHope]

I grew up in a Christian home, I knew a pretty good amount about God at a young age and was raised in a family that deeply cared for my wellbeing. I grew up and I was an obedient, good kid. I did what I was told tried my best to stay on my parents good side, a pretty conservative lifestyle to say the least.

In 7th grade I started to question things. I got tired of always being obedient, to me it felt like the "good, obedient" life was turning dry and really stale, i was getting tired of it and I was really curious with how the world outside worked. I rebelled against my parents and made some bad choices, and this all couldn't have been during a more confusing time during my life. I didn't have too many good influences in my life so I had believed the lie that I was alone in all this.

In Middle School i began to start noticing that all my guy friends were starting to feel attracted to girls and I just didn't feel the same. At first i assumed that i could just be a late bloomer, that it would come eventually. However as time went on I began noticing an attraction that i had about certain features that men had, at first i thought this might just be a friendly attraction however as i got deeper into it, it began to get more and more sexual and i began to start believing that I was Gay.

Now I still considered myself a Christian but I was on a beaten path, and didn't really embrace what God had for me at this point. See I was tired of living my life in obedience, I wanted to experience something adventurous in my life, something DANGEROUS. To me the stereo-type i had believed about Christianity was that It was only about obedience, and to me, that sounded like a pretty boring life.

How wrong that could have been, because as I started to listen more and more to what God was continually whispering in my ear he would begin to transform my heart and upturn my life into what has been one of the most meaningful relationships that I could ever be a part of. What God really started telling me at first was I needed to tell someone, i needed to talk about this.

See I was really dealing with this alone, it was a private matter that I was ashamed to share. But God would just continue to say to me: Share it, tell someone about this. It was a scary prospect, I was really ashamed about what I felt, because I knew the verses that pointed it out as being wrong, yet thats not what i felt in my heart! I felt this sense like there was this yearning for love in my life and I wanted to passionately pursue and understand my relationships with other men.

But God kept telling me...Share it. So i eventually found the courage to talk about it with a group of guys that had a bible study going on in my Church youth group. For the first time in my life, I felt like, HEY i don't have to deal with this alone! I can talk about this, I can express my frustrations with this. Then when i realized what God was doing It opened my eyes to the life that Jesus set out for me. It opened my eyes to just how much God cares about me.

It began my authentic walk with Christ, because even though I had been raised "Christian" for most of my life, but I didn't really understand the truth behind the religion of Christianity. Through my struggle God has opened my eyes to his purpose, and not my own. So God continues to keep telling me that not only am I not alone in my struggle, but that through my own Weakness, God would transform my heart and Make it my strength.

As if it was never about me living a boring perfect life, but for me to begin to rely on this awesome living God, who cares so deeply for each of us. I want you to know this because I want you to take in that no matter what people struggle with, be it homosexuality or something else, at the end of the day we are all not so different. I want to encourage you to start to understand that although God doesn't approve of homosexuality, its not just about realizing that some choices we make are sinful but realizing that we need to start fully engaging with God in not only our choices but our hearts.

Something that I still struggle with but something that I can't deny rings SO TRUE.

God Bless you all

Ive been thinking about how to reply to this all day.

Thank you for your honest testimony for a start, and I pray for the continued happiness in who you are that you claim to have.

However, as a Christian woman who is attracted to the same gender and has indeed been in a relationship with another Christian woman for 2 years and is engaged to that other Christian woman I just don't agree.

I came to Christ through my relationship (my girlfreind brought me to church) after many years of being apart from him. I pray with my girlfreind, spend hours talking about God with my girlfreind and occasionally go to Church with my girlfreind. My relationship is fantastic, and I feel Gods presence around us all the time convincing me that it's ok for me to be in a romantic relationship with another woman.

It is ridiculous to assume based off some badly translated Bible verses that homosexual people should starve themselves of an intimate relationship. Jesus's love is of course wonderful and fulfilling but if it was to be a replacement for the romantic love we humans crave, we wouldnt crave romantic love in the first place.

Its great if your happy in the choice of life youve been given, but for me Im happy in my God given relationship to a wonderful woman who I love with all my heart.

 

[Ohioprof]

Ive been thinking about how to reply to this all day.

Thank you for your honest testimony for a start, and I pray for the continued happiness in who you are that you claim to have.

However, as a Christian woman who is attracted to the same gender and has indeed been in a relationship with another Christian woman for 2 years and is engaged to that other Christian woman I just don't agree.

I came to Christ through my relationship (my girlfreind brought me to church) after many years of being apart from him. I pray with my girlfreind, spend hours talking about God with my girlfreind and occasionally go to Church with my girlfreind. My relationship is fantastic, and I feel Gods presence around us all the time convincing me that it's ok for me to be in a romantic relationship with another woman.

It is ridiculous to assume based off some badly translated Bible verses that homosexual people should starve themselves of an intimate relationship. Jesus's love is of course wonderful and fulfilling but if it was to be a replacement for the romantic love we humans crave, we wouldnt crave romantic love in the first place.

Its great if your happy in the choice of life youve been given, but for me Im happy in my God given relationship to a wonderful woman who I love with all my heart.

This is a fine, thoughtful post. I agree with you that if loving Jesus were enough, then people would not pursue intimate romantic love at all with a spouse.

I don't think God made most people to be alone. To tell gay people that we must be alone because of how some people interpret the Bible is, frankly, cruel.

 

[dayhiker]

Hi Nate,
What's the greatest revelation of God one can have. So thinks for sharing that you found God and the joy that has brought to your life and its not about obeying laws.
Great testimony.
dayhiker

 

[davedjy]

I want to encourage you to start to understand that although God doesn't approve of homosexuality, its not just about realizing that some choices we make are sinful but realizing that we need to start fully engaging with God in not only our choices but our hearts.

Homosexuality is not a struggle, it is an ORIENTATION. If you try to "struggle" with it, you will lose or stay miserable trying to defeat it, and this will only come from your own mental gymnastics. Realize that if you are gay, you will ALWAYS be gay, and this will NEVER change! Do not ever believe the lie that you can change your sexual orientation. All credible mental health foundations are strongly against any type of reparative or ex-gay "therapy", and say not only does it not work, you are much more likely to become suicidal upon exiting those programs.

I would read these 2 sites before coming to a complete conclusion that "God doesn't approve". Usually I find it is the difference between those who don't want to accept their own sexuality, over those who just needed to know that there is a different theology on those so-called clobber passages.

http://www.opendoorcenter.com/myths_&_facts.htm

http://gaychurch.org/Gay_and_Christian_YES/gay_and_christian_yes.htm

 

[DesignerNate]

Let me reaffirm that I don't, by any means want to make this seem like its an easy thing. In fact I have struggled countless hours and years trying to figure out if in fact God approves of me and if my choices that i were making were right with God. Its a really tough understanding to have, because although there are Bible verses that don't look very well on Homosexuality, again, my heart felt like it was OK. Heres I think the danger though in trying to make Homosexuality okay in your mind and what happen when i tried to make it okay in my mind. (again this is my experience you may have handled it differently). I spent a lot of hours researching how the bible verses on homosexuality could be misinterpreted but at the end of the day, I realized that I was doing this not because I honestly wanted to live for God, but because I wanted my life to be the way I wanted. I wanted to condone my feelings, so i didn't have to try and overcome them. Now by no means do i have a straight anwer. In fact I'm still actively pursueing that answer, however I just feel like my heart was in the wrong place when i tried to convince myself that being gay was 100% okay and 100% unchangable.

 

[DesignerNate]

Ive been thinking about how to reply to this all day.

Thank you for your honest testimony for a start, and I pray for the continued happiness in who you are that you claim to have.

However, as a Christian woman who is attracted to the same gender and has indeed been in a relationship with another Christian woman for 2 years and is engaged to that other Christian woman I just don't agree.

I came to Christ through my relationship (my girlfreind brought me to church) after many years of being apart from him. I pray with my girlfreind, spend hours talking about God with my girlfreind and occasionally go to Church with my girlfreind. My relationship is fantastic, and I feel Gods presence around us all the time convincing me that it's ok for me to be in a romantic relationship with another woman.

It is ridiculous to assume based off some badly translated Bible verses that homosexual people should starve themselves of an intimate relationship. Jesus's love is of course wonderful and fulfilling but if it was to be a replacement for the romantic love we humans crave, we wouldn't crave romantic love in the first place.

Its great if your happy in the choice of life you've been given, but for me Im happy in my God given relationship to a wonderful woman who I love with all my heart.

Thank you for your honesty. Let me tell you that I don't think I'm fully convinced of everything in my life and I have a lot of understanding still to do. Ultimately I don't have all the answers so I'm still searching and finding out more about God every day. I would like to challenge your thought on romantic love though. And please correct me if I misinterpreted this but, I believe you can have a real sense of romantic love with Jesus. Why are there verses in which it refers to him as the bride groom? And for that matter what truly is romantic love? If you mean its just the physical affections and exchanges between to people then yeah, i guess you can't get that from God. But if you mean the soft and intimate whispers, the late nights venting out your day, the gentle kisses on the back of your neck I am pretty affirmed in believe that Jesus interacts with us in a very intimate way and while we can physically experience it he is experience in our hearts, which is where romance happens anyway.

Now don't get me wrong, I believe God put other people on this earth too (And thankfully so...) for a reason, he didn't intend for us to be alone. And thats where I can't deny the reality that is TRUE love. Because God doesn't set boundary's with who we are allowed to love. I can't even say what you have with your partner is really that bad at its heart. I mean at the end of the day is a genuine homosexual relationship REALLY that different from a genuine heterosexual one? Well no, I mean granted their isn't much support for homosexuals in America (doesn't justify it though) and it disregard the debate with weather or not its a sin. Love is love, you can love a man just the same as you can love a woman. I don't deny that at all but where i would start to worry is what is going on in my heart that would want me to go to the sexual experience with them?

Now everyone's reason is probably a bit different but i found that the majority of the time i was desiring a sexual experience with another man, because I myself felt inadequate as a man. I looked at the men and they were so attractive on the outside, I wanted to to feel attractive too I wanted to experience their attractiveness. However this was such a wrong place to be, and it lead to addictive things such as pornography and masturbation. Now I have experienced some really genuine relationships with men and one of my friends i am SUPER close with, i want to tell him everything and I want to experience love with him. But would this involve me pursuing a sexual romantic relationship? Well it has graced my mind I won't lie, but what would be my motive for it? Well i would initially say that it is too fully and deeply love him to the greatest extent that i can, sex being such a vulnerable and intimate connection would appear to provide that kind of connection, well in reflection i have to really consider, not all sex is good, you can have pretty unconnected intimateness sex, so obviously its not about the sexual act itself, which is where i really had to question the motive, what is going on behind the curtains for me to desire sex with men? I would again return to the same conclusion that i was trying to some how fulfill my inadequacies as a man and get them from another.

Maybe I'm just naive when it comes to sex, but i think a great deal of me is just afraid of pursuing women. Men are the easier of the two because i can feel like I'm comfortable relating to them, women can be hard because in a relationship like that I really have to show up as a man in my fullest, and because i just have so much self-doubt and fear I often just get scared of pursuing such a thing. Its a tough question to answer and not one that I'm fully finished with, I'm still learning so try and understand where I'm coming from. Thanks for hearing me out.

 

[DesignerNate]

Homosexuality is not a struggle, it is an ORIENTATION. If you try to "struggle" with it, you will lose or stay miserable trying to defeat it, and this will only come from your own mental gymnastics. Realize that if you are gay, you will ALWAYS be gay, and this will NEVER change! Do not ever believe the lie that you can change your sexual orientation. All credible mental health foundations are strongly against any type of reparative or ex-gay "therapy", and say not only does it not work, you are much more likely to become suicidal upon exiting those programs.

I would read these 2 sites before coming to a complete conclusion that "God doesn't approve". Usually I find it is the difference between those who don't want to accept their own sexuality, over those who just needed to know that there is a different theology on those so-called clobber passages.

I have spent a great deal looking up pro-gay churches and really questioning the truth about the bible or if it has been misinterpreted. However one mindset i felt was wrong for me to have is that I was always trying to prove homosexuality right. See I was coming in under the intention of making living a gay lifestyle ok in God's eye's. I wasn't trying to discern the truth but rather make my own truth. I didn't need God for this, because I already was making my own truth I twisted what the bible was telling me and bended it to what made me happy or comfortable. None of this was good for my walk with God.

Also I would question what you mean by orientation. I understand that if you naturally feel attracted to the same sex this is your current orientation, but no where does it imply that any of this is set in stone. Its debatable whether or not Homosexuality is a inborn trait or a learned trait. And who is to say that one doesn't struggle with their lot in life. Are you to suggest that I simply bend over backwards and accept everything that comes my way, no ultimately everyone needs to discern what is good for life their and what is bad. Now I understand some of what Pro-gay churches are getting and and some of what they have to say is actually pretty good. I mean I really dislike how much hate their is towards homosexuality. IT TRULY upsets me. I really believe that God loves everyone of any disposition and He offers his salvation to anyone as well. But this is really only concerning how i choose to live my life on this earth and I want to honor God with as much of my heart as I can give so I do have to question the mindset to just accept homosexuality as being ok. Again I'm not finished in my search but this is what I have been convicted of so far.

 

[HaloHope]

Thnaks for your response , Will do my best to reply to you (and thank you for addressing everything respectfully, far too few people on this forum are willing to actually discuss and listen).

Thank you for your honesty. Let me tell you that I don't think I'm fully convinced of everything in my life and I have a lot of understanding still to do. Ultimately I don't have all the answers so I'm still searching and finding out more about God every day. I would like to challenge your thought on romantic love though. And please correct me if I misinterpreted this but, I believe you can have a real sense of romantic love with Jesus. Why are there verses in which it refers to him as the bride groom? And for that matter what truly is romantic love? If you mean its just the physical affections and exchanges between to people then yeah, i guess you can't get that from God. But if you mean the soft and intimate whispers, the late nights venting out your day, the gentle kisses on the back of your neck I am pretty affirmed in believe that Jesus interacts with us in a very intimate way and while we can physically experience it he is experience in our hearts, which is where romance happens anyway.

When I refer to romantic love, I am most certainly not referring to just the physical side of things. I was indeed talking about the moments like you described, curling up on the sofa and venting your frustrations after a long day at work, someone to connect with emotionally as-well as physically. While I agree that Jesus can be a comfort to people. I dont believe we would be made for the longing for intimacy we have if we were meant to starve ourselves of it. Some people of course don't feel that urge at all, are called to celibacy etc.. which is fine! However, I know for a fact that starving myself fully of romance was not healthy for me both physically and emotionally, and I am far happier and more complete person now I have both Jesus and my partner.

Now don't get me wrong, I believe God put other people on this earth too (And thankfully so...) for a reason, he didn't intend for us to be alone. And thats where I can't deny the reality that is TRUE love. Because God doesn't set boundary's with who we are allowed to love. I can't even say what you have with your partner is really that bad at its heart. I mean at the end of the day is a genuine homosexual relationship REALLY that different from a genuine heterosexual one? Well no, I mean granted their isn't much support for homosexuals in America (doesn't justify it though) and it disregard the debate with weather or not its a sin. Love is love, you can love a man just the same as you can love a woman. I don't deny that at all but where i would start to worry is what is going on in my heart that would want me to go to the sexual experience with them?

I'm glad you agree that same-sex relationships are comparable to heteosexuals ones in terms of the emotions involved. I have never really had any moral hang ups on my sexuality, my reasons for wanting to abstain were not out of guilt for who I was but purely as (for various other personal reasons I dont really want to divulge here) I felt it the best direction for me. I suppose thats because I see no sane, logical reason why same-sex intimacy is immoral. I just can't see any rational reason and no matter how many out of context Bible verses people hurl at me on this forum I can't see that changing. Why? Because there IS no rational reason to say why homosexuality is immoral. Im not saying homosexuality is pearly white and pure mind, just like hetrosexuality in certain situations it is immoral. Im a firm believer in monogamy.

Now everyone's reason is probably a bit different but i found that the majority of the time i was desiring a sexual experience with another man, because I myself felt inadequate as a man. I looked at the men and they were so attractive on the outside, I wanted to to feel attractive too I wanted to experience their attractiveness. However this was such a wrong place to be, and it lead to addictive things such as pornography and masturbation. Now I have experienced some really genuine relationships with men and one of my friends i am SUPER close with, i want to tell him everything and I want to experience love with him. But would this involve me pursuing a sexual romantic relationship? Well it has graced my mind I won't lie, but what would be my motive for it? Well i would initially say that it is too fully and deeply love him to the greatest extent that i can, sex being such a vulnerable and intimate connection would appear to provide that kind of connection, well in reflection i have to really consider, not all sex is good, you can have pretty unconnected intimateness sex, so obviously its not about the sexual act itself, which is where i really had to question the motive, what is going on behind the curtains for me to desire sex with men? I would again return to the same conclusion that i was trying to some how fulfill my inadequacies as a man and get them from another.

I don't know you, and while I do have an education in psychology I'm far from qualified from telling you your own motives for wanting to have sex with someone. My only motive for ever wanting to be with someone is because I love them. Ive only ever been with one person in my life and I only ever been with one person in my life and it took us a few months to even start getting remotely intimate. To me, sexual acts (even down to passionate kissing) are a way of expressing just how strong you feel romantic love for another. If you meet those criteria, and intend to always be with that person then I feel the love is good and pure, fine with God and sealed as a long term commitment in his eyes.

Maybe I'm just naive when it comes to sex, but i think a great deal of me is just afraid of pursuing women. Men are the easier of the two because i can feel like I'm comfortable relating to them, women can be hard because in a relationship like that I really have to show up as a man in my fullest, and because i just have so much self-doubt and fear I often just get scared of pursuing such a thing. Its a tough question to answer and not one that I'm fully finished with, I'm still learning so try and understand where I'm coming from. Thanks for hearing me out.

Why dont I pursue men? As I have zero attraction to them, always have, always will. Ive met some nice guys over the years but never felt even a twinge of romance for any of them. Women on the other hand I find attractive, Im still pretty picky but I do find them attractive. Im fortunate enough to have met a wonderful woman who fits together with me emotionally, physically, spiritually. Its amazing.

 

[Jet_A_Jockey]

I agree with you that if loving Jesus were enough, then people would not pursue intimate romantic love at all with a spouse.

You are mixing fleshly desires with spiritual ones, and furthermore implying that Jesus is incapable of something. Which leads me now to the one thing He is incapable of...............

 

[HaloHope]

You are mixing fleshly desires with spiritual ones, and furthermore implying that Jesus is incapable of something. Which leads me now to the one thing He is incapable of...............

I dont believe she is mixing fleshy desires with spiritual ones at all. Intimate romantic relationships are about a hell of a lot more than sex.

If Jesus was supposed to provide us romantic fulfillment we would all be born without any attraction and/or reproduce a-sexually.

 

[Jet_A_Jockey]

It just really depends on who you are living for. If you are living for God then you should be able to trust that He'll provide all of your needs, it just seems weird that in that statement those 2 needs were separated and not both coming from God (or even by his work).

 

[HaloHope]

It just really depends on who you are living for. If you are living for God then you should be able to trust that He'll provide all of your needs, it just seems weird that in that statement those 2 needs were separated and not both coming from God (or even by his work).

God does of course provide for our needs. But I believe he provides for our romantic needs by providing us with a sexual attraction and the potential to find a partner. Not to live a life alone.

 

[Ohioprof]

You are mixing fleshly desires with spiritual ones, and furthermore implying that Jesus is incapable of something. Which leads me now to the one thing He is incapable of...............

Intimate romantic love is not a "fleshly desire." It's a human desire. And if you are going to affirm heterosexual intimate romantic love, then you need to affirm homosexual intimate romantic love. They are no different.

 

[Ohioprof]

I dont believe she is mixing fleshy desires with spiritual ones at all. Intimate romantic relationships are about a hell of a lot more than sex.

If Jesus was supposed to provide us romantic fulfillment we would all be born without any attraction and/or reproduce a-sexually.

There's a song I remember with a line that goes, "But the love I have for Jesus ain't the love I need tonight."

Jesus doesn't fill every need, despite what some people insist.

 

[Jet_A_Jockey]

There's a song I remember with a line that goes, "But the love I have for Jesus ain't the love I need tonight."

Jesus doesn't fill every need, despite what some people insist.

Creator of existence and everything in it does indeed fill every need, well except one. I'll leave it at that .

 

[UnitedInChrist]

I agree with the poster earlier that says it is not a "struggle". Some people would like to think it is a struggle for us, but no..it is not. Others want you to struggle, but acceping whom God made you to be will cease any struggle you may be having. Otherwise, all the bad things surrounding being gay are they hype that the ultra conservatives teach. the burning in hell, a life possessed by demons, sex addict, celibacy, etc.. Human contact is as primal as is eating...you can not deny your sexuality. Again, the fanatics will preach "sins of the flesh" and make you think the body that God gave you is filthy..but that's just the extreme radicals which is very small in number. Just be who you are, have Christ in your life, get yourself in a open/accepting church, and your life will be rich. Peace

 

[DesignerNate]

I agree with the poster earlier that says it is not a "struggle". Some people would like to think it is a struggle for us, but no..it is not. Others want you to struggle, but acceping whom God made you to be will cease any struggle you may be having. Otherwise, all the bad things surrounding being gay are they hype that the ultra conservatives teach. the burning in hell, a life possessed by demons, sex addict, celibacy, etc.. Human contact is as primal as is eating...you can not deny your sexuality. Again, the fanatics will preach "sins of the flesh" and make you think the body that God gave you is filthy..but that's just the extreme radicals which is very small in number. Just be who you are, have Christ in your life, get yourself in a open/accepting church, and your life will be rich. Peace

I see the train of thought in resisting that its a "struggle". I don't mean that you can't sleep at night knowing that you feel attracted to the same sex, I think when i mean struggle i mean it was always a hard thing to go through, not really knowing if people would accept you or reject you for it, having to deal with all the hate surrounding it. I would say that its a tough thing to deal with on some respects because its just something that goes against what the majority of people accept. Now I'm sure everyone has a unique case and to what degree you struggle with it is really up to you, but at one point you did struggle with it and that all i mean when i call it a struggle. You may have found safety sooner than I did so you may not have regarded it as a struggle, but similar to the way a son struggles to tell his father that he failed a test (just an example), i think to some degree homosexuality can be regarded as a struggle, it doesn't mean that i struggle with it day and night but it means that it has been a battle in my life in some degree or another.

 

[HaloHope]

I see the train of thought in resisting that its a "struggle". I don't mean that you can't sleep at night knowing that you feel attracted to the same sex, I think when i mean struggle i mean it was always a hard thing to go through, not really knowing if people would accept you or reject you for it, having to deal with all the hate surrounding it. I would say that its a tough thing to deal with on some respects because its just something that goes against what the majority of people accept. Now I'm sure everyone has a unique case and to what degree you struggle with it is really up to you, but at one point you did struggle with it and that all i mean when i call it a struggle. You may have found safety sooner than I did so you may not have regarded it as a struggle, but similar to the way a son struggles to tell his father that he failed a test (just an example), i think to some degree homosexuality can be regarded as a struggle, it doesn't mean that i struggle with it day and night but it means that it has been a battle in my life in some degree or another.

In all honesty. I hate to say this, but my sexuality was really always a non-issue for me. When I did finally realize I was gay I was pretty much "Oh right... im gay". Didnt really even cross my mind on any other level.