Friday, April 25, 2008

ON THIS NATIONAL DAY OF SILENCE


To honor our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sisters and brothers, this is the 2008 National Day of Silence. In that vein, I want to make this a short post by stating that God values only one thing in a person: Faith! The only way we appropriate God's grace to us, and please God, is by trusting Him over and above seen circumstances!

The best way we can show our faith in God is by being authentic! We do God absolutely no favors if we seek to be anything other than what He made us to be, or if we in any way feel guilty for who God made us to be!

Indeed, we show a decided lack of faith if we behave in ways that are inauthentic for us in our uniqueness. For example, if one is Gay, he or she is committing a grievous sin if he or she seeks to be anything other than that!

To seek to deny one's uniqueness as made in the image of God, made as God wanted to make each of His children in our uniqueness, is to not only throw God's grace back in His face, but to throw His very creation and sovereign choices back in His face, and to inhibit or prevent our living out God's purpose for each of our lives.

We do ourselves no favors by living inauthentic lives! Indeed, we defame God by living inauthentic lives!

So, to seek to be anything other than who God made us to be is to show a profound distrust, or lack of faith, in God.

Moreover, to seek to change another person to be in conformity with what one thinks that God wants for that person, is to be extraordinarily prideful and arrogant, in that those who seek to do so are placing themselves in the place of God.

Those who seek to change another to meet what he/she thinks is "Godly," "moral," "biblical," and "right," are denying the sovereignty of God Who can't possibly be contained within the contents of any book or within the minds of mere fallible human beings!

God doesn't make predators, and it's predators who seek to change others from the image, the very person, that God made of them! They are substituting their own judgments, prejudices, biblical interpretations, and mind-sets for the sovereign choices of God, thereby usurping God's position in a person's life, in the world, and God's position as our Creator.

Indeed, these predators, professing Christians or not, are making idols of themselves and their prejudices, judgments, and mind-sets! They are really worshiping themselves and their own values and traditions, and that worship is a direct offense against God and against their fellow human beings.

On this National Day of Silence, let's be mindful of the fact that God doesn't make any mistakes! God created each of us in our uniqueness according to His sovereign will!

And for anyone else to tell us who we are to be, or how we are to behave, or what values we are to hold, or who condemn us for not conforming to the expectations of mere fallible human beings, be they clergy or not, be they family or not, be they acquaintances or not, be they professing Christians or not, are putting themselves in the place of God, and there is no greater sin than that!

Please be content with the person God created you to be! Please recognize that you are a person of inestimable worth, and that God has had His hands on you from the time you were in your mother's womb!

Even if the whole world disagrees with you, and even if the whole world condemns you, then the whole world is fighting against God's sovereign will, and the whole world would be wrong! And I'm absolutely convinced that God's will for all whom He chose from the foundation of the world who lead authentic lives before Him and before the world, will prevail!

Let this National Day of Silence be a time where we all take heart and internalize this message, and realize that the best days are ahead of us!
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4 comments:

jadedjabber said...

Amen!!!

Jerry Maneker said...

Thanks Jadedjabber. I added your excellent blog to my links. We keep on fighting until they shove six feet of dirt in our faces! Best wishes, Jerry.

SavvyD said...

So HORRIBLE! Why does anyone think hate is the answer? I always end up loving the gay kids--way back in high school my best friends were always gay boys.

Jerry Maneker said...

Hi savvyd: Hate can only be "the answer" for those who are not Godly! Anyone with even a cursory understanding of the Gospel understands that Christians are called upon to love and not judge others. Anyone who hates and/or seeks to exclude others from full and equal civil and sacramental rights is not a Christian, despite his/her protestations to the contrary.