Bible Pay

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - ProCarpenter

Pages: [1]
1
Very interesting thread... and one close to my own heart, having dealt with a mess of mixed up sexuality topics in my own life growing up.

On the overall discussion I personally believe there is a difference between sex and gender - the former being a characteristic of this physical realm, and the latter being characteristics that make up a whole spiritual person.  Within each of us exist both male and female characteristics - qualities that we have associated with specific physical sexes.  But these characteristics are part of the Spiritual realm not the physical realm.

 Confusion on this topic has resulted in the ability of the enemy to lead people into wrong thinking and thereafter wrong practices.

This leads me to the reason for responding to the last comment.  When bringing up my children one bit of advice I received was to ensure that during correction, I speak to the action and not confuse identity with it. So by example I chose NOT to say "bad boy" or "bad girl", but instead spoke to the actions themselves as being bad.  Part of the correction involved consequences for the actions, followed by re-affirming who they were (identity), that they were loved and encouragement for them to choose for themself to behave in more beneficial ways.

So the following may seem nitpicky to point out but the bible never said that it is an abomination to BE gay.  The bible actually speaks about the actions being the abomination.  We live in corrupt bodies because of the fall.  {Our Spirits are redeemed... our souls are being redeemed and our physical bodies WILL be redeemed.  Until then we must practice living from the Spirit realm, which means commanding our bodies... and our soul... to operate under obedience to the Christ. } Consequently we will always have to battle not just the devil, but also the corruption inside our own bodies.  These are like whims that we MUST control.  We have learned (or should have learned) that our frustration with others does NOT give us the right to physically assault them or worse, to kill them.  That is a whim we may feel, but know easily that is not a thought to dwell on or entertain because it's wrong.  The same type of process needs to be applied to all our thoughts.  Do they line up with God's way of living as we read in His word?  If yes then good... if no, then we need to utterly reject that thought and spend no more time thinking on it.  Rejection of these thoughts and control of them is a sign of maturity.  We may have these thoughts because we are still in these unredeemed bodies, but as redeemed children of God we are not to allow them to remain, much less to practice them as that would be where we start seeing the portion that God calls an abomination.  But the presence of the thoughts themselves is not sinful... it is a consequence of this physical realm, and an opportunity for us to demonstrate God's character in us by rejecting them.  You cannot reject something that never comes into your thoughts.

For me that looks like rejecting any thoughts that would be contrary to God's design of me and embracing what He says about my identity.
He made my body male.  That ends my own thoughts of what sex I am.  But it doesn't exempt me from operating in feminine characteristics when I need to.  There are times when I need to nurture, or be sensitive and compassionate... qualities typically linked to female.  For me to not operate in those qualities when God wants me to, would be rebellion and opens the door to sin.  But my physical design brings some inherent strengths that I also need to operate in to fulfill God's intention for me; things like willingness to take risk, to initiate, to protect and fight for Justice and Righteousness and to Love unto death for the betterment of those I've been given.

I cannot deny either of the gender qualities in me and have any hope to be whole.  But I am a male and need to be settled in that without question in order to move forward with what God has intended for my life.

So is God both male and female?  Yes I believe He is both - Jesus was definitely male on the earth in this physical realm, but in the Spirit realm we will need to be open to letting God show us what that level of wholeness looks like with regard to being both male and female.

Pages: [1]