I am so excited!  Over winter break I get to spend a couple of weeks in California at the Winter Training.  I have never been before.  I will be staying with a friend of mine Vina Ku.  The semester is winding down isn't it and it has been soooooo busy, not really hard just busy.

70% spend more time in a mall, huh?  The brother who commented below you pointed out that maybe that was their house of worship and all of the 'stuff' was their idols.

What are you going to be doing?

that's a good article.. i'm really going to need to pray about that. i'm gonna send that article to my pastor and see what he thinks O_O

ooh could you get the contact of that teacher or some of the kids that go to that so we can hook them up with student leaders from other schooLs? :D i think it's really encouraging for them to know how God is using others their age :D

now this is a CooL Article ;D

not that the other article wasn't cooL i'm just still processing it O_O

wii is just advertising for the new game system i think.. i'm not sure :p weird that they're advertising on my site and not yours too :p

Well, I've always thought that if a person follows a written scripture despite the age period in reference, it's still something that religious/faithful people do as a fundamental basis of his or her founding. In other words, it isn't religion or faith that drives the societies as a whole to go through the centuries of mercantile and trade progression, that causes a string of other similar and non-similar events to take place. If technology was always watched and limited, and certain trades forbaded, then the Old Testaments would continue to hold true, considering they are supposedly the original commandments of god and his followers.

In this case, homosexuality along with the dozens of other 'capital' crimes such as rape, incest, the practice of magic and divination (astrology, tarot, fortune telling), and so on and so forth, is no exception. The fact that there are two testaments to god, meaning in many faithful and indifferent people's mentalities, that there are two versions of 'his' words, considers a great cause in debate whether homosexuality along with all the other old testament laws should be re-examined. Of course, the debate of religion versus faith is always an undertaking that many non-agnostic, non-athiest, and non-pagan battle on inside of themselves.

Personally, I wouldn't say that the views of textbook religion condemning homosexuals are wrong. A religion based on written text by man through the words of god is just that, a massive volume of moral and ethical issues that people follow either mythically, or by philosophy. When a person of faith deter from the old testament and the strict guidance of the new testament, it simply shows that the person has a greater will of his or her own. Thus ending in a higher quest for knowledge and self-empowerment.

With that said, god is one thing, but self-acknowledgement of what the world is really about is really another. Like our parents, they tell us to put our shoes away, eat all the veggies, don't hate our neighbors because they're a different culture, and put a limit on how much time we spend on games - they're trying to guide us in their image and feelings. Fortunately, we all have ourselves to congratulate, whether we want to follow their beliefs, or take them into consideration and go on with life on our own.

If god is really out there, in our hearts, then he, she, it will always be there. A religion is just that - a few words translate and written by man, through the ego and pride of men. If god is almighty, the epitomy of refinement, and the representation of an infinite source of wisdom, then we need not men to tell us what is right and what is wrong. We simply need ourselves for whatever denomination of god we follow - he, she, it will always be in our hearts, whether we accept them or not.

Homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, and transexuals - to me, we're all the same. Time to stop reading books on religion, and start accepting whatever spiritual voice is inside all of us. I'm sure god would be quite disappointed to know that not all humans are accepted into our living world.

I respectfully disagree with that article. Here's what I think. http://www.gotquestions.org/homosexuality-Bible.html

hey i'm back on 13th! do u want to meet up?

How are you???

Check your xanga messages.  Gotta run, more latter.

this is what my pastor emailed me back

Interesting,

Arguing from Leviticus from the point of view that it is no longer valid because it is archaic laws and TOO MANY to consider, well I think we should consider the purpose of Leviticus, and it true intent. Which was, yeah, WE FALL WAY SHORT OF GOD’S INTENTIONS, AND BEST FOR US, WHICH IS really the definition of SIN.. in greek, meaning HARMARTIA, missing the mark as in a target . No matter how close you get to the bullseye, its not the bullseye, and therefore misses the mark. Kind of harsh, but yet speaks to GOD’S PERFECTION and HIS INFINITE CHARACTER OF HOLINESS. So yeah homosexual activity is in there, and that means it misses the mark …it is a sin. Leviticus shows us that WE CANNOT REACH GOD’S PERFECTION , and to follow all those rules is IMPOSSIBLE. Which leads the way to JESUS who becomes the sacrifice for us, so that WE DON’T HAVE TO LIVE IN LEVITICAL TIMES…



But it doesn’t negate GOD’S HOLINESS, and as apostle puts it, we no longer try to live by the “law”, which means trying to obey all the levitical laws EXTERNALLY, BUT now as we believe in the LORD, HE SENDS THE HOLY SPIRIT to lead and guide us, after salvation, which we call sanctification, and that’s a process as HE PARTNERS WITH US to change us into HIS LIKENESS.



SO HOMOSEXUALLY DEFINITELY MISSES GOD’S INTENTION FOR US.


GENESIS, yes it says “it was good” but that is a statement of creation as GOD LOOKS ON CREATION IN GENESIS ONE. GENESIS 2 AND 3, there is a more specific picture of GOD’S CREATION as told in the story of adam and eve. SO genesis one, a general picture of creation, main purpose, GOD CREATED THE WORLD AND IT WAS GOOD AND ALL THAT WAS IN IT. Genesis 2, obviously GOD wanted to be clear AND EXPOUND FURTHER on HIS CREATION OF MAN.. THE CENTERPIECE OF HIS CREATION. , man in GENESIS one in Hebrew is “ADAMAH” referring to humanity, so GOD was happy with his creation of humans.. AND GENESIS 2 , HE GOES into detail about it…. Humanity is two part, MAN AND WOMAN, and more specifically, MAN’S MOST APPROPRIATE AND SATISFYING PARTNERSHIP IS WITH A WOMAN….. EVE….



THEREFORE…. Its obvious what GOD’S intention is…. Man and woman together in intimacy.. ONE FLESH denoting “sexual intimacy” by most Scholars..


As for his mention of Paul’s mention of homosexual relations in ROMANS… many people excuse that as pertaining to man child relations.. but put it in the broader context and scope of the bible … yeah its bad to have sexual relations with a child, but also equally sinful to be relationship with another man bc it misses the mark… according to GENESIS and the whole of the bible….

Sodom and Gomorrah for example is considered sinful bc of the unnatural relations, and how LOT’S guests even wanted sexual relations with visiting angels from Heaven.

Definitely, the theology for this area is not murky. It seems pretty clear, unlike GALILEO’S debacle and the CRUSADES, our theology is not POPE DEPENDENT… and we are no longer bound by the exgesis of scripture by ONE MAN like in the catholic church. We have debate, critical thinking, we can assess the best arguments.


I feel for this time, the best arguments for the perspective, GOD CREATED people that way and therefore GOOD is weak. And probably based on people’s desire not to discriminate.

My point is this, there are many people born a certain way, predisposed to it anyway, i.e. alcoholism, but we don’t leave them alcoholics, we try to rehabilitate them. There are people born deformed but we try to comfort them and help them adjust as we pray for miracles.

PART OF THE PROBLEM IS THAT PEOPLE DON’T GRASP THE CONCEPT OF “COLLECTIVE SIN” AND ITS EFFECTS.

Sin… polluting effect, disintegrating this earth, poverty, oppression of children….. wars…… envioronmental havoc

Deformities….(CERTAINTLY THAT’S NOT WHAT GOD INTENDS …. Down syndrome babies??, autism…etc….)


So we are all effected….. from birth on….

GENESIS is about >…
Sin causing a polluting effect in the world…. And if you read up to genesis 11, you will see the polluting effects… the increase Of sinfulness and intensity culminating in THE TOWER OF BABEL.



AND HOW GOD COMES TO RESCUE US IN THE PERSON OF ABRAHAM AND EVENTUALLY JESUS THROUGH THAT LINE…. IN OUR SINFULNESS…

SO YOU HAVE EVERYONE…….. AS ROMANS MENTIONS,,, … EVERYONE EFFECTED FROM BIRTH FROM THIS POLLUTED EFFECT

WE ARE ALL SINNERS AT HEART….

THERE IS NO ONE RIGHTEOUS….

THE REAL ISSUE IS THAT…… whether you are gay or straight, the problem is that people think that they are GOOD, not sinful, and that GOD IS just some guy up there…. Telling us that HE’S JUST SO HAPPY WITH US, BC HE MADE US, AND WE DON’T HAVE ANYTHING WRONG WITH US

In reality, that’s the farthest from the truth, and we are ALL in need of a savior..

WE ARE ALL SINNERS AND NEED A SAVIOR…… WE ALL MISS THE MARK, IN SOME WAY…

SO DISCRIMINATION AND JUDGEMENT IS not something we do…. We encourage, challenge, and humbly walk with our GOD as witnesses to His amazing grace

YEAH, the Christian church messed up in the application of this truth,, should be more compassionate… way more so….. less judgemental… more accepting as we would accept other sinners into our church.

But yet… we don’t compromise truth.. truth is Truth no matter how much we don’t want to accept it…

If a person is gay, and comes to our church, I hope we would accept him as we would anyone else, bc everyone is a sinner and everyone sins in their own way. But church is not just about toleration, its about TRANSFORMATION so we would with GOD’S grace hopefully be a transforming agent in their lives. And we would stand with them as they struggle in their area of weakness, as we would to everyone else who struggles with areas (i.e. pornography, materialism, etc…)

But if they are unwilling and unrepentant and brash about their theology (i.e. nothing wrong with homosexuality) then we would apply PAUL’S Advice for the purity of the church… apply church discipline….And apply it again with other board members And if still unrelenting…just to acknowledge that its wrong…

Then we would probably ask him to leave….. for the purity of the church….. so that everyone knows exactly where we stand.

This issue applies to all areas… BUT I have not come into contact with anyone yet who has brashly said, “I don’t think pornography is wrong” “divorce is Okay”, “sleeping together before marriage is a good test run before marriage and GOD says its okay”…... “ I don’t have to watch my tongue , this is who I am , and I’m going to gossip bc that’s what I do, GOD made me that way”

Most people recognize their weaknesses and are in the process of working on it

Sorry for the long email… I’ve actually been thinking about this for quite a while now… and I know that pastor who wrote that article is not “bad”, he’s just doing what he thinks is best…. But I have to strongly disagree based on my arguments prior and his use of the bible …. In such a sparse way is dangerous….

I think the Christian church has three camps

GAYS ARE GOD’S CREATION AND GOOD

GAYS ARE AN ABOMINATION TO GOD’S SIGHT and the homosexuals have a ‘evil” agenda to brainwash our culture and children

My position


BEING GAY IS THE RESULT OF A SINFUL, FALLEN WORLD

AND

YET… STILL MISSES GOD’S INTENTION



XIANS SHOULD BE THERE TO RESTORE, HELP, CARE, LOVE

VERSUS JUDGE, CONDEMN, OSTRACIZE AND ISOLATE….



I hope that helps….

p.steve

Steve, your comments are fantastic, but seriously, you have to stop using so many capitals and try to use proper grammar and paragraphing. It was more difficult to read and try to understand with such broken text.

Anyway, my personal belief on homosexuality has nothing to do with religion/faith. Rather, it's a personal interpretion of what is here and now versus what is restrictively ideal within written doctrine. People who follow religious doctrine is all fine and dandy, that is until everyone forms their own interpretation of what religious doctrine is trying to tell them.

You have given all of us three denominations of what the Christian/Catholic church may be comprised of:

1. Gays are God's creation and good - near or total acceptance
2. Gays are an abomination to God's sight and all gay's have an evil agenda - near or total rejection
3. Being Gay is the result of a sinful fallen world - compassion

An individual's interpretation of what God may say in religious doctrine can be translated into many varying degrees of what its core subject matter might actually be. Since you have listed three possible interpretations of the Christian doctrine, you have basically summed up how disorganized and how non-unified religious doctrine can be.

With that said, it's good you recognize as a person, as an individual that for the good of an unified humanity, people should choose to care and love rather than condemn and abandon. However, depending on your concept of God, wouldn't you say that if God's creations are sinful, fallen, and we all miss the mark on being the perfect human beings in God's eyes, then God itself is also sinful, fallen, and also misses the mark in creating the perfect human beings?

Rather than create a race of humans that contain gender of male and female, shouldn't God create a race of human beings that contain one unified gender - eg: Asexual. If God is one entity that incorporates all, then isn't God really just an asexual omnipotent 'being'? If that is the case, for creating a race that comprises of both male and female, and all the defects of humanity, didn't he simply allowed the imperfections of the human mind judge, condemn, ostracize, and isolate other people just because they are through interpretation, not the 'perfect' human being? Thus making God not the 'perfect' God - redirecting their sub-conscious anger towards those who are not 'perfect' because their God is not 'perfect'?

hey laura, the link doesn't work anymore, do you know if i can still read the article somewhere? :)

oh, and btw, HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D

I am reading Richard Dawkins book. " The God Delusion" for an interesting perspective....I will let yu know when I get to the chapter of Religion and Homosexuality...