“But LOVE. Love is eternal. Love never ends. The love we offer and receive in this world we’ll carry with us into the next. The greatest of these is love. When in doubt, I choose love above any particular ideas offered to me about faith.
And that means that I love my gay friends, without agenda. And I love my friends who believe that homosexuality is a sin, without agenda. And I love my friends who are terrified for my soul when I write this way, without agenda.”
– Glennon Melton, Momestary
This quote couldn’t be truer for me.
I used to be filled with agenda. I still battle my agenda creeping in and rearing its ugly head from time to time. I’ve allowed other people’s agenda to navigate my thoughts and actions. It has taken work to deprogram. I have had to trust in God and pray for faith and confidence to just go ahead and stand for what I believe, even when people think I’m crazy. It’s funny, when people get self righteous about their agenda, that’s when we see the ugliness start to ooze. I know I have been guilty of it, and I have friends in both camps of this issue who I’m sure have had similar experiences.
It boils down to this: I wouldn’t know how I’d feel if someone or groups of someone’s told me it was wrong or disgusting for me to be in love with my hubs. He is my very best friend, my partner, my love. I believe he is a gift from God in my life. His love makes me better. His love shows me God’s love and grace in a tangible way. Who would I be to make judgements on anyone else’s LOVE? Who am I to say I understand anything? Who am I besides someone who believes that God has called me to love…love Him, His people and myself?
I’m just gonna have to go ahead and believe that Gods love is big enough and mighty enough and supernatural enough to cover ALL sorts of loves. I’ll have to gulp down the furrowed brows of disappointment from some, but what is that compared to the harassment that so many gay people have endured in the “name of Jesus”?
On her blog, Glennon also writes,
“I don’t know much. But I know that each time I see something heartbreaking on the news, each time I encounter a problem outside, the answer to the problem is inside. The problem is AWAYS me and the solution is ALWAYS me. If I want my world to be less vicious, then I must become more gentle. If I want my children to embrace other children for who they are, to treat other children with the dignity and respect every child of God deserves, then I had better treat other adults the same way. And I better make sure that my children know beyond a shadow of a doubt that in God’s and their father’s and my eyes, they are okay. They are fine. They are loved as they are. Without a single unless. Because the kids who bully are those who are afraid that a secret part of themselves is not okay.”
It’s like she crawled into my head and perfectly scripted my heart.
Read the original post here:
Jes Houk
lovely,
mandimon
Thanks Jes!
lbria
Yes God is big enough to love us and that is why He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins and rise again from the dead that we might have eternal life. But to know God through His Son Jesus Christ we have to repent and place our faith in Him, believe in Him as He is revealed in the Bible and not trust in a god of our own imaging. This is one of the most difficult things for us as humans but God’s grace is sufficient to meet even this desperate need.
http://holdingforthhisword.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/sound-doctrine/
mandimon
Thanks for stopping by!
mandimon
That being said, I appreciate your passion. I’m just not interested in deciding who is doctrinally “right” because then is fall into the trap of thinking of myself as religiously elite…who seemed to be the biggest trouble makers when you read through the gospels.
mandimon
*I fall into
lbria
The religious elite were those who substituted man’s vain opinion for God’s true Word. Matthew 15:3-9 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God” ‘then he need not honor his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ Matthew 16:11-12 “How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?-but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees
and Sadducees.
http://holdingforthhisword.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/gods-compassion/
brittpinkie
Thank you for being open-minded lover of Christ, Mandi. There’s not enough people like you <3
mandimon
Awwww <3
naptimethoughts
You’re right.
Beloved, this is what love is, love comes from God. And all who know and call upon his name are children of The Lord.
It’s a psalm, I don’t remember which one, but I don’t hear any specifications in there, even for those whom I consider to be the greatest sinners of us all– those who claim to know Gods will.
mandimon
Yesssssssssssssssssssss.
naptimethoughts
By the way, whenever anyone starts breathing down your neck to look at the Bible in a way that you might not be comfortable with, take a look at the verses they quote, as I’m sure they will be plentiful. When they all come from the old testament, move on. Fire and brimstone are okay on a side note , but I’m a Christian.
mandimon
🙂