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December 13 - December 13, 2023
believed then and I believe now that where everybody thinks the same nobody thinks very much.
the lesbian community was accepting and welcoming while the Christian community appeared (and too often is) exclusive, judgmental, scornful, and afraid of
diversity.
that without the proper response to failure, we don’t grow, we only age.
Christians truly become ugly when we become jealous of the successful persuasive rhetoric of others.
Since all major U.S. universities had Christian roots, too many Christians thought that they could rest in Christian tradition, not Christian relevance.
the church does not know how to interface with university culture because it comes to the table only ready to moralize and not dialogue.
There is a core difference between sharing the gospel with the lost and imposing a specific moral...
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spiritual pride and club Christianity.
encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you believe in God?
But how do we develop spiritual eyes unless Christians engage the culture with those questions and paradigms of mindfulness out of which spiritual logic flows?
Even though obviously these Christians and I were very different, they seemed to know that I wasn’t just a blank slate, that I had values and opinions too, and they talked with me in a way that didn’t make me feel erased.
Ken and Floy invited the stranger in—not
Ken and Floy didn’t identify with me. They listened to me and identified with Christ.
So, Ken was willing to bring the church to me. This gave me the room and the safety that I needed to match Ken and Floy’s vulnerability and transparency.
Ken responded to my question by making me take stock of myself before God.
you never know the terrain someone else has walked to come worship the Lord.
I’ve discovered that the Lord doesn’t change my feelings until I obey him.
learned that we must obey in faith before we feel better or different. At this time, though, obeying in faith, to me, felt like throwing myself off a cliff. Faith that endures is heroic, not sentimental.
My Christian friends had to learn that Christians have a lot to learn from gay and lesbian folks about mercy work.
we have to learn to bear in his strength the weight. And it hurts. And it’s good. And the Lord equips.
had to lean and lean hard on the full weight of Scripture, on the fullness of the word of God, and I’m grateful that when I heard the Lord’s call on my life, and I wanted to hedge my bets, keep my girlfriend, and add a little God to my life, I had a pastor and friends in the Lord who asked nothing less of me than that I die to myself.
being a lesbian was a case of mistaken identity.
“Rosaria, if people in my church really believed that gay people could be transformed by Christ, they wouldn’t talk about us or pray about us in the hateful way that they do.”
Sodom was indicted for materialism and neglect of the poor and needy—and, that homosexuality was a symptom and an extension of these other sins.
First, we find pride
Second, we find wealth
and an entertainment-driven worldview
Third, we find lack of mercy
Fourth, we find lack of discretion and modesty
God’s warning: If you indulge the sins of pride, wealth, entertainment-lust, lack of mercy, and lack of discretion, you will find yourself deep in sin—and the type of sin may surprise you.
These passages also convicted me that homosexuality—like all sin—is symptomatic and not causal—that is, it tells us where our heart has been, not who we inherently are or what we are destined to become.
learned that sin roots not in outward behaviors, but in patterns of thinking.
When you die to yourself, you have nothing from your past to use as clay out of which to shape your future.
Sin is not a mistake. A mistake is taking the wrong exit on the highway. A sin is treason against a Holy God. A mistake is a logical misstep.
“Sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Gen. 4:6).
Conversion is a heart-affair.
counsel about church membership: Nobody goes into battle alone.
Sanctification—growing in Christ—is always both personal and communal.
evangelism: The integrity of our relationships matters more than the boldness of our words.
about how easy it is for the church to unintentionally manipulate people.
“People will betray you, but Jesus never will.”
God gives and God takes away and he does it for our good.
Never again will I think of knowing God’s will as anything but the most humbling of acts. And never again will I confuse other people’s hopes and dreams for me as proof of God’s will.
“Rosaria, never doubt in the darkness what God has promised in the light.”
John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” This verse gives me greater clarity into how to read the one that comes before it. It tells me that if Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, then neither should Christians.
had learned in a rich and organic way that the Bible webs into all conversations and cultures, like active verbs in sentences or oxygen in the atmosphere.
spent time with me—and not just spare time. He spent pricey time—real time. He didn’t hide behind bumper stickers or slogans. He never let pride masquerade for principle.
experienced peaceful trust.
“Unbelief puts circumstances between itself and Christ, so as not to see Him.…Faith puts Christ between itself and circumstances, so that it cannot see them” (p. 17).
