How many pastors who have fallen due to sexual immorality have
repented are are back in the ministry? Their lives were broken and they
had to process the sin and move on to repentance. They still sense that call
of God. Their ministry may not be as great as before, but they are
serving God. Should they continue serving in the capacity of a pastor? Does it take a broken person to better grasp grace and
mercy? I can point to three times in my life when sin broke my life. As
I turned from it, the concept of grace became clearer to me and I could
better extend mercy to others. I am a judging person by personality so
perhaps I need to be broken from time to time to be able to extend grace
to others. And I hope three times is enough, I do not look forward to
another one or plan for another broken experience from my sin.
Back to our scripture on inheriting the kingdom of God. "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God". I would like to zero in on the three sexual descriptions. Sexually immoral is separated from adultery and the Greek word is where we get the term porno. Men who have sex with men is mentioned and not the wider circle of women and transgender. Now we know from the statistics that the population of lesbians, gays, and transgenders is still very small. yet they receive far more attention in the media than in proportion to their numbers in society. The focus is on the rights of each individual to live as he or she wants. Yet the consequences are so high, that people just tune out the threat risk. And to confront them, one has to deal with a lower level of argument - name calling. If a person does not accept their choice, they use terms such as "bigot" and "narrow minded". All of us underestimate both the concept of grace and the impending judgment.
It would not be appropriate for me to disciple a lesbian, at least not without my wife. But what if God brought a homosexual or transgender (who is really a male) into my life? Jesus was known for spending time with the sinners of the day- tax collectors and prostitutes. (I might add that prostitution was considered illegal according to Jewish law and Jesus had a tax collector on his team). Or what if I came across someone who claims to be gay or transgender? One quarter I had a student who was a man. The next quarter the student came in a dress and purse and put a different name on the name card. It took some adjusting, but I engaged the student just like any other one. Mentoring a homosexual or transgender to follow Christ would be an interesting challenge.
Back to our scripture on inheriting the kingdom of God. "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God". I would like to zero in on the three sexual descriptions. Sexually immoral is separated from adultery and the Greek word is where we get the term porno. Men who have sex with men is mentioned and not the wider circle of women and transgender. Now we know from the statistics that the population of lesbians, gays, and transgenders is still very small. yet they receive far more attention in the media than in proportion to their numbers in society. The focus is on the rights of each individual to live as he or she wants. Yet the consequences are so high, that people just tune out the threat risk. And to confront them, one has to deal with a lower level of argument - name calling. If a person does not accept their choice, they use terms such as "bigot" and "narrow minded". All of us underestimate both the concept of grace and the impending judgment.
It would not be appropriate for me to disciple a lesbian, at least not without my wife. But what if God brought a homosexual or transgender (who is really a male) into my life? Jesus was known for spending time with the sinners of the day- tax collectors and prostitutes. (I might add that prostitution was considered illegal according to Jewish law and Jesus had a tax collector on his team). Or what if I came across someone who claims to be gay or transgender? One quarter I had a student who was a man. The next quarter the student came in a dress and purse and put a different name on the name card. It took some adjusting, but I engaged the student just like any other one. Mentoring a homosexual or transgender to follow Christ would be an interesting challenge.
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