First things first: I have a new video up! Yall sent in some really POWERFUL questions — especially about dealing with triggering people in recovery! It’s definitely worth a watch! (If I do say so myself!)
OK ONTO TONIGHT’S POST!
Well, in case you’re locked in a bunker somewhere and don’t know…it’s Pride Month.
I’m sitting here writing this from my Greenwich Village apartment in Manhattan, and I’m looking out my window at – I kid you not – probably 25 different rainbow flags flying from the various brownstone buildings and businesses.
The entire country is gearing up for the Pride Parade. Companies like Coca Cola, Chipotle, Nike, Disney, Dr. Martens, Bud Light and just about every other media/consumer conglomerate have adopted rainbow logos, LGBTQ+ positive slogans and campaigns. It’s as though there’s a competition to see who is the most “woke.”
And as someone who lives a hop, skip and a jump from the Stonewall Inn in NYC, believe me when I say I fully respect and understand the importance of June 28, 1969.
I’m going to be really honest: every Pride Month, I’m faced with this internal battle of: do I dare address the topic on my blog? Or do I just let it go? And every year, I cower back, afraid to touch this topic with a 12-foot pole.
But not this year.
Because this year, more than ever, it is so apparent:
We are worshipping at the altar of our own sexuality.
And believe me – this, coming from a heterosexual virgin…the irony is not lost on me.
This year, more than ever, it seems that there’s been this explosion of identity: people are, not so nonchalantly, making known their individual sexuality. “LGBTQ” is no longer adequate nomenclature. In 2019, it has expanded to: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, 2/Two-Spirit, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Ally, Pansexual, Agender, Gender Queer, Graysexual, Demisexual, Polysexual, Cisgender, Bigender, Gender Variant, Gender Non Conforming, Demiboy, Demigirl, Genderfluid, Onmigender, Non-binary, Nonmonosexual, and Pangender. Among others.
We have made idols out of our labels. We’re so hungry for identity, and to set ourselves apart, that we have literally created a new language and social ideology to do just that.
And before I get into why I believe that is, I think it’s important to just pause for a moment here to address something vitally important.
I think it’s really easy to look at that list of identities and, since most are – let’s be honest – probably a foreign concept to a lot of people – it’s easy to think in terms of “us” and “them.” But it’s important, as we continue this conversation, to remember that there are people — someone’s son, daughter, friend, cousin — who identify as such. And even though we, ourselves, may not fall into that camp, or have any personal experience whatsoever with that – it’s important to have this conversation with compassion and with love — recognizing the personhood, dignity and value of each individual. And to remember that there is no “us” and “them” in this conversation — there is only a “we.” A human race, children of God, who are all together on this journey towards Heaven.
But back to the why.
Why are we so hungry for that identity? Why are we so desperately trying to distinguish ourselves that we’ve created a culture that worships our sexuality?
It’s because we have strayed so far from our true identity in Christ.
We, as a society, have wandered so far into the desert of godless culture, that we’re believing the mirages we see pop up in the sand.
Now, I’m not saying that these unique sexual attractions that people feel aren’t real to that individual. Not at all.
Having same sex attraction is a very real thing. And people — no matter who they are attracted to — are all children of God. They are all worthy of love, and acceptance, and compassion.
That’s not what’s coming into question here:
It’s the sharp left turn from, “I am a person with same sex attraction,” to elevating our sexuality to deity-status. And glorifying and worshipping the labels that we’ve created to express that attraction.
And that’s where the danger lies.
Our culture has chosen to drift far, far, away from the truths spoken into us by the Father. Truths that we are unique creations of God, and loved beyond our wildest dreams. Truths that we are made for more than this world, with a plan set before us by Him. Truths that we are heirs to the Kingdom of God. Truths that we have intrinsic value, and that our lives were purchased through Jesus’ incredible mercy and grace on the Cross.
We’ve abandoned those truths that *truly* identify who we are at our innermost core.
And so as a result, we’re turning to our own carnal nature, and trying to write our own biography. And surprise, surprise — it’s distorted. Why? Because we are products of The Fall.
And because we have a distorted sense of love.
Love is no longer a self-giving expression of marriage, that mirrors Christ giving His body to the Church on The Cross.
It’s distorted. It’s a self-serving act of pleasure. Look at the multi-billion dollar porn industry. Look at the sex-robots that are now a reality. Look at the dating app, “swipe right” hookup culture that is now the norm.
We don’t love people, we use people. Use them for pleasure, for security, for fulfillment of a physical/emotional/relational/social/financial need, to alleviate loneliness. Hell, for rent money! It’s become a commodity exchange. And our grasping for some sense of sexual identity is a reflection of that.
So where does that leave us? Where do we go from here?
Because spoiler alert: the answer is not locking the shutters and throwing a poo-poo party on the parade goers, celebrating sexual identity.
It’s to be beacons of truth. Take every opportunity to remind people of their true identity in Christ — through the love, dignity, compassion, and respect you show them.
Real truth is hard to find these days anymore. But when you do discover it…it changes you.
Be that truth. Be that person that reflects one’s true identity back to themselves.
Because that is the definition of true love: pointing the other back to God.
It’s wanting the best for your partner, and ultimately, that means journeying together, towards the Father.
Be that to everyone you meet. Today, tomorrow, and for every Pride Month to come.
“This is what the Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” Ez 37:5
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379 responses to “Are We Worshiping Our Sexuality? #PrideMonth”
Wow! I appreciate your courage and loving heart conveyed here. You entered into turbulent waters with this post …
and did a fine job!
Keep shining that light 🙂
Thank you Beckie – yeah I was terrified to push publish on this one. But it was put on my heart, so I had to do it! I appreciate your kind reception! 🙂 have a great night! Hugs and love xox
Great post!
thank you so much for your support! hope you have a great night. hugs xo
You’re welcome! You write posts on difficult and sensitive topics and I think it takes guts to do it. You go girl!
🙂 xoxoxoxo
I really appreciate this post. Last week, I was in Chicago and pride month and rainbow flags were all over the city. I was really struggling with how to put into words all that I was thinking, especially when I saw churches and government buildings covered the same as other places. I really appreciate your honesty and just pointing out that this all boils down to needing to find our identities in Christ. Keep on being bold and posting as God leads you. I know I love keeping up with ya!
Thank you so much Andy for sharing your heart on this issue. Yes – our identities in Christ. Yeah, I can definitely understand how you felt. And thanks, I was pretty nervous to publish this, so thanks for the positive reception. hugs xo
Powerful article, Caralyn! It made think of an explanation of Christianity that I heard years ago: Christianity is hungry people telling other hungry people where the food is.
This spoke very deeply to me. It pointed out that we are ALL hungry (searching for identity, truth). We all need the only real food there has ever been – God’s Word.
Sometimes, as we go out to spread the Word, we lose sight of where the food is ourselves. We get hateful, judgmental, us-vs.-them-ish. We need help from our fellow human beings to find the food again ourselves!
I always enjoy your even-handed ability to address hard topics! Really enjoyed the Patreon Q & A video earlier today as well.
Were you able to book your flight OK? Any issues?
Hi Jeff! THanks so much for the positive reception. Hungry people telling other hungry people where the food is OH MY GOSH I LOVE THAT SO MUCH!!!! Becuase gosh, isn’t that the truth!? I’m so glad this resonated with you Jeff. And I agree – His word is where that fulfillment is. Amen to that – thnks for your support! Finalizing and booking tonight!! I’ll keep you posted! hugs to you and Julie!
Wish I could say it was mine. A pastor friend used it in a sermon, but he couldn’t remember who said it. I grew up learning to hate gay people. It was the culture. I’ve since learned that we all have our desires that are contrary to God’s will. As you pointed out, we’re all on the same side – sinful but forgiven. Yeah, let me know so I can send whatever it is. Again, nicely done!
God bless the messenger!! 🙂 And amen – all on the same side for sure! xox
I have seen more anti-pride/lgbt social media than i ever had this month. And possibly more than actual pride posts.
But i repsect your opinion as you are not the enemy. And i am adult enough to engage with those with a different opinion. And it is important that we can unpack the identity politics.
I guess my only questions is what is the difference of someone expresses thier identity as LGBT and you identifying as a virgin? It is infact celebrating the sexuality or in your case the lack there of.
When we express these identities we are explaining in short both a part of who we are, our history, our belief and our struggles. And create community of understanding which is important.
Pride is more about creating visibility for those that struggle in a particular identity and creating a safe space. The path ro God and the one understanding ourselves in this world can intersect be it by choice or spiritual crisis.
Celebrating ones identity is not what really seems to be the problem here. Because we have black history month, womens history month, ect. But more so that it is LGBT which is more than often demonized. Whether people want to admit it out right or not.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It was def something to unpack.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your heart on this! I definitely am all on board for creating a safe space for people to be themselves. THat’s something that’s really important – for sure! I’m glad that we were able to find common ground and have a dialogue. I think it’s really important to have that respectful conversation – becuase this is a huge issue, and an emotional one at that. Thank you for taking the time to read, it really means a lot. big hugs to you xox
You as a straight virgin, white woman totally missed the point. Not surprising. As a straight person you don’t get to tell LGBTQ people how we celebrate. You don’t address that Pride is reclaiming who we are in a country that is literally legislating us out of existence. In the last four years over 100 trans women of color have been murdered on these American streets, that’s a struggle you will never know. 1 in 12 trans women will be targeted for murder. A queer black woman was lynched in Seattle yesterday. We are not worshiping our identity. We are saying to people like you that try to silence us with a work of literature we are here and we will stand. If you knew anything about Stonewall take this dross to them and let them read you.
Hi Shoshanna, thank you for expressing your heart. I can definitely feel your passion through your words. I think it is just horrible that trans WOC are targeted and subjected to violence. Every person has the right to feel safe and it breaks my heart to read those statistics. I think perhaps my message was lost in translation. I am not trying to silence any celebration of identity. I’m merely *also* pointing to our identity that comes from being made in the image of God. I really appreciate your comment and the dialogue. There are a lot of perspectives, that you’re correct — as a straight woman, I will not understand. And I am eager to listen to eager to learn. Hugs to you xox
Shoshanna it was actually 365 transwomen of color killed in last year alone. They just caught the serial killerin texas that murdered 3 this past month.
For reference.
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/beheaded-gunned-down-and-stoned-to-death-368-trans-people-killed-this-year/
I think you’re onto something. I’m demisexual, but usually I just think of myself as a straight female who never falls in love with someone until I’m attracted to his personality. I agree it’s just a part of who you are, and we certainly don’t need to get carried away with worshipping the identity. There does seem to be an odd desire to feel special because you’re a certain way, but we’re all special. A straight cisgender female is special, and a gay man is special, and we should see our specialness as the good we do in the world, not where we fall with our sexuality.
Hi Meg, thank you so much for sharing your heart and sharing your story. Amen – it’s part, but not all! And AMEN! We’re ALL special and unique, because we were literally created by God and have His fingerprints all over us. I so agree — that’s what I want to celebrate!! So appreciate your response and for joining the conversation! big big hugs to you xox
God Will Bless you for speaking out his truth. I know we are to pray for them and I do, but this Is one subject that zI will not
Thank you so much 🙂
☺
💛
“We don’t love people, we use people.”
Dingdingding!!!
Thanks friend. I wish it weren’t the case! We need to get back to true, Christ-like love!!! hugs xo
Sorry. I hit enter accidentally. This is something i definitely will not be silent on. It is a abomination to the Lord . What does the Bible say about homosexuality? Leviticus 18:22 says, “[Men] shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” Leviticus 20:13 says, “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act.” God’s Word says the homosexual act is detestable; it is an abomination. Amen to you girl❤🙏
Not to worry! Yeah, this is definitely a dificult issue. Because at the end of the day, we all have those areas in our lives. And we need to love everyone. But you’re right – tough issue to touch with a 12 foot pole for sure. I appreciate oyu stopping by and sharing your heart. big hugs xo
Very well articulated. Not demeaning but compassionate. To be honest, in response to divinelove777, all descriptive can fall into the same category, I suppose. I personally, disagree with any occasion that isolates a particular group, because it isolates and segregates one person from another. It implies that one is better than another. I feel we instead should treat everyone in love as Christ loved us and as you so aptly stated,
“Take every opportunity to remind people of their true identity in Christ — through the love, dignity, compassion, and respect you show them.”
Hi Jolie! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this article. I so agree — “Love one another as I have loved you.” That’s what we’re called to do! For every single person, no matter what. Thanks so much for stopping by! big big hugs to you xox
To be honest you dont understand ones struggle over your own. While we can sugar coat everything with what is suppose to be the love of God. But that is not usually the case. There are people actually dying because we choose to turn a blind eye or the other cheek to people suffering or experience. Its not about being better….. its about survival. Its about healing in a group of people who understands you.
No different than someone going to an NA meeting or a womans bible study or black economics coalition. We create groups where we feel comfortable and to feel empowered through our struggles and create resource for those to be safe in whatever way. This creates language and therefore allows people to articulate their experience in this world.
It is important to not silence people. This is there testimony in this world and i pray their healing through the grace of God.
I can understand that. No one should feel that their feelings are invalid.
I agree with you. At first I wasn’t sure I’d like this post one bit ,because I’m so against homosexuality, but you make a lot of really good points so I can share it.
Thank you so much Larry, I’m so glad it resonated with you. Yeah, it’s a tough issue with a real emotional component for sure. I appreciate you taking the plunge and reading the article! hugs xo
In case it helps you to know, and you haven’t noticed so far, I’m @queensnepa on Instagram~
oh nice!! thanks 🙂
[…] via Are We Worshiping Our Sexuality? #PrideMonth — BeautyBeyondBones […]
Thank you so much for the link up! big hugs xox
I dont believe in pride month, these guys come up with all these different kinds of sexuality.
And I’m over here concerned whether or not I have found my soulmate. Problem is right now is that I feel like I already have but neither of us are ready.
I have had a few gay guys try to hook up with me along with a tomboy girl who I had virtually no attraction spiritually with. Then you got those people who dont believe in soulmates. But really a soulmate is someone who you were meant to be with that God put there for you.
As a 39 year old guy who has never been on a single (real) date it it can be frustrating to connect with someone but when I do feel a connection it’s like we’re meant to be… but at the same time I tend to have been wrong.
Anyway I dont have a pride month for being too timid around women I like or whatever lol.
And Caralyn, I know you’ve been trying to find a man lol but well its hard to be patient especially when your looking for that special someone or you are struggling with connecting with your special someone.
But if I’m wrong about my current attraction which feels like the world just stopped, I’m not sure why someone sexually different from heterosexuals could really be feeling something real. And I very well could have been gay, but automatically besides tne fact i haven’t found my soulmate, I just dont look at men as something sexually appealing.
But why am I attracted to women? Because I think it’s the way God intended it. Maybe some people who are gay are thinking that they found the one but they didn’t realize it until they hung around their same sex crush.
Sorry for the long comment lol anyway if it’s not easy for me to talk to women I like (if it makes me uncomfortable) it doesn’t mean I’ll be attracted to men. But it makes me wonder what really turns a guy gay.
Hi friend, thank you for sharing your heart and your thoughts on this tough issue. In regards to a soulmate, call me old fashioned, — or perhaps out of touch — but I do believe that there is a person out there that God is preparing for each one of us. That’s why, yes I get nervous about being single and finding my husband, but then I just remember that there’s literally no way I’m going to miss him, because God already has it planned out, and it’s in His hands. That’s just my thoughts though 🙂 hehe probably romanticized it a bit too much. hang in there. keep looking! she’s out there! hugs xox
Yeah I definitely agree, hence the soulmate. In my case with my current attraction to this girl is more like a twin flame than a soulmate. I just feel a much stronger attraction to her than any other regular crush (actually so intense that I have been getting headaches but that could be a different cause all together).
However after giving up on ever considering a relationship I’m seeking one with her but it’s pretty much at a standstill considering I’m still struggling with me being timid and considering the fact I already tried asking if she wanted to do a lunch, but later bailed. I dont know why other than I must not have talked to her a whole lot yet but it has me worried about progressing from the ‘hi’ stage when we run into one another.
Soulmates are far and few between. Its exceptionally harder when I see most women as friends and don’t think it could progress any further and tend to not try because they think otherwise. It’s very complicated for me lol.
oh gosh – a heachache is a sure sign that you’ve got to pursue it! 🙂 I think you’re right – a soulmate is special for sure. hang in there!
Well then it’s a good sign! Thanks for the tip. I had thought because I’m receiving signals in my brain that basically hasn’t really been used much lol. The hardest part is figuring out how to pursue this.
Anyways thanks for the support on this. 😃. And I hope you find your soulmate soon!
🙌🏼 thanks!
I find this true every month, and it has nothing to do with sexual orientation or God/Christ. I’m a heterosexual atheist. And I’m old, divorced, a mom. (Decades in recovery from my teenage AN and love your blog/journey/spirit.)
Everything lately is so increasingly selfish and consumer oriented imo, including sexuality. People and relationships are just another commodity. We look at each other coldly, like products… what are his features? Can I get a better one? Let’s see if I can trade up to a newer model. Click click click. Maybe it’s more obvious with all the rainbows, but I tried to date after my divorce and found the same thing in straight culture.
Just sad.
Hi Paula, thank you so much for sharing your heart on this issue. Consumer oriented — i think there’s A LOT of truth in that. I mean, gosh — that’s the online dating movement in a nutshell!! Hang in there. I hope that someone comes along and surprises you 🙂 sending big hugs xox
Hey Paula I see we have something in common here because we’re both fans of Beauty~
This post is interesting because you seem to be upset that a parade is being held for lgbtq. Would you attend one for holy virgins. Because in the bible that is told to us all the time. Make no mistake I believe in GOD. I love HIM. I also know that the Virgin Mary is important in the bible. It is something that is paraded in everyone’s face all the time. Even none believers. Not everyone believes in the bible and we should respect. Just like everyone else was not blessed to know whom nor who they where attracted to. They are just trying to find their place in life. And maybe find someone like them so that they will know that they are not in this world alone.
a parade for holy virgins hahaha that actually made me laugh out loud. Hey friend – thank you for this comment. I’m actually not upset at all about the parade. In fact, I’ll probably be attending it, because I have a lot of gay friends. But I just am weary of the idolization of the labels we give ourselves and the worshiping of our sexulaity. That’s all. And I definitely respect that people have their various beliefs – for sure. And to that end, I don’t think that I’m parading my virginity. Quite the opposite — I know it’s common knowledge on my blog, but in “offline life” it’s actually something I never talk about, and am in fact, rather embarrassed about. Only 2 of my friends know. That’s neither here nor there, but anyway — long and short of it — I’m not upset at the parade. I think community and support are important. But the deitization of our sexual orientation — no matter what it is — I’m weary of. Hope that clears it up. thank you so much for taking the time to read and respond. I really enjoyed our dialogue. big hugs xo
Never be embarrassed by what you have not done because you think everyone else may have done it. You will know when you are ready. Don’t be embarrassed though. You’d be surprised how you are probably not alone. Someone else could be just as embarrassed as you.
Thanks for saying that 🙂 I really appreciate it.
Your courage is admirable in today’s world. I’m glad you posted on this subject. Truth is too many people, straight or otherwise, consider their “sexual satisfaction” the most important thing in their life. For Christians this is especially shameful. Jesus told us we must “die to ourselves” and that means relegating our sexual preferences to the bottom of our list of needs.
oh my gosh rollie, you’re so kind to say that. I was super nervous, so thank you for the support! I think you’re right – we are to be in the world but not of the world — and that can be translated to A LOT of things, sexuality included. hugs xo
Yes. Human kind worships Human kind!
thanks 🙂 I appreciate you taking the time to read! big hugs xo
So tired of people declaring their sexual preference and practices are their identity. Are we supposed to think of how people have sex when we meet them, work with them and just relate? I don’t think a heterosexual could declare themselves to be a particular position they prefer. That would be inappropriate.
But I get it. Gays and all non-cis (did I get that right? I hope not) have been discriminated against, beaten, murdered. I’ve personally never seen any bashing whatsoever. And I’ve had dear gay friends my entire life. That’s probably just me and where we’ve all worked.
The abuse is why the identity and therefore we have backlash, “pride” and rainbow flags (though rainbows mean something quite different to God).
You’re right, of course, identity in Christ is the only real deal. As a former misogynist and womanizer I am and will continue to be a child of God in Christ who loves women as sisters, with pure love and support. Only Jesus does that kind of transformation and he wants to do it in us all. That’s true identity, redeemed and free.
that’s a really great point. Thanks so much for sharing your heart on this issue. Amen to that — true identity is redeemed and free in Christ. That’s what we need our actions to comminucate to everyone we meet. so glad you stopped by. big hugs xo
Wow, so well said! And it’s said with love too. Thank you for this reminder to pray for those around me who are flagrantly celebrating this month– they are so desperately in need of a heart that KNOWS its maker.
Thank you so much!! i’m so glad you thought so. Big prayers for sure. Because that’s what He longs for too. hugs xox
Beautifully written! I can feel the love in every word. In a world filled with so much hate and people just looking to be offended, it’s hard to speak up about tough topics like these but I think you did an amazing job.
Hi Rebecca!! thank you so much — I’m so glad — because it was truly writtten with a heart full of love. You’re so absolutely right about that. I really appreciate your encouragement and the kind reception of this emotionally charged topic. Big big hugs to you xox
Your post was very well written and thought out. Difficult topic to write about to say the least. With love all things are possible. Jesus showed us that on the cross.
Hi Russ thank you so much for your support. Yeah I was super nervous on publishing this. But it was out on my heart so I had to do it. Amen – He showed us that!! Hugs and love xox
Very well written, and gave a good glimpse into feeling uncomfortable with it being recognised as someone’s identity but at the same time looking at it with love and recognising that we are all children of God and the underlying and often forgotten issue is trying to identify oneself outside of Christ.
Thank you so much 🙂 Yeah I was really hoping it would read with the love I had in my heart, writing it. amen – Children of God! so glad you stopped by! big hugs xox
To say it so bluntly, that we worship our sexual identity to the neglect of The Living God, says it all.
there’s a lot of truth there! thanks so much David for stopping by and taking the time to read it. big hugs xo
No problem. I have nothing so profound to say. Coming to terms with our sexuality has been the challenge to Western culture since the days of Freud, maybe earlier. Somehow rejecting Church teaching and embracing our own unique moralities doesn’t work all that well. The good news is that God forgives, if we seek it.
Amen! Yes He does! Hugs and love xox
Caralyn, you hit the nail on the head! Worshipping and making one’s sexuality an idol. Thank you for your courageously writing about this topic. XO
thank you so much for your support! amen – We’ve got to keep God in that #1 spot!!! so glad you stopped by. big hugs xox
You are welcome!
✨💛✨🥰
Following Jesus
American
Conservative
Straight
White
Male
European ancestry
Overcomer
Builder
And I know God loves me. Pride month can belong to God rather than to the sexual alphabet community; what are y’all proud of?
I love that so much. Belong to God. Amen! Thanks Steve for sharing that. Hugs and love xox
Heavy topic! Heavy topic! Did I say Heavy topic? I don’t believe that this is about worshiping sexuality, it’s merely people being more demonstrative of one’s sexual preferences. Back in the day, people weren’t as bold and transparent in making public declarations of their choices, but today there’s no holding back, and this IS NOT solely limited to same sex relationships, but for ALL sexual immorality. (including fornication, and the like)
OUR TRUE IDENTITY is found in Genesis!
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [g]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth…..Genesis 1:26-28
I UNDERSTAND that after this the fall occurred, sin entered into the hearts and minds of mankind, and we drifted and do drift away from His word and original intent, but Jesus came, lived, and died so that we wouldn’t have to remain in this fallen state….
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life…John 3:16
ALL WE HAVE TO DO is turn our hearts to the Lord and accept Him as Lord and Savior….
“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation…Romans 10:8-10
WHEN WE DO this, everything changes in our lives, including an identity realignment….
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…2 Corinthians 5:17-18
Our true identity is found in Genesis! Amen to that!! And you’re right about that – turning it all over to Him. We are all new creations – May we never forget that. Thanks so much for this powerful response. Hugs and love xox
Lord, help us to fully surrender our lives to You and help us to embrace the truth of Your word. I pray that Your word truly delivers and sets us free! In Jesus name, Amen!!
amen amen amen to that!!!
Great post….I think you have hit the nail on the head!!
thank you so much! I appreciate it 🙂 hugs xo
Irony is dead
Bishop Thomas Tobin
@ThomasJTobin1
A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ “Pride Month” events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for childrepn.
Yes, there has been horrible abuse that has occurred in the Catholic Church, but the gross actions of a few bad priests does not reflect on the entirety of the priesthood, or the Catholic Church as a whole.
♡ PsychoSexuality is too Simple a Word for such Complexity EveryOne; some don’t have a CHOICE!!! some just KNOW!!!
…♡♡♡…
thanks for sharing that, Yernasia. hugs x
♡ No problem SupaSoulSis BeautyBeyondBones; it’s Crystal Clear Clarity that PsychoSexuality is Psychopathic or Psychologically Synchronous EveryOne, n’est ce pas tout le mond 🤔 ? The French ARE Famous (Notorious 🤔 ?) for Liberty from Sexual (and Religious) Oppression; who Determines Our Sexuality (Gay, Hetero, Asexual, Bi et al) if NOT!!! OurSelves 🤔 ?
…♡♡♡…
A great post. Although the media makes it as if they are a majority, they are not. There are many factors that do lead people to be this way. As more people devalue life, more will be becoming or supporting these lifestyles. years ago people saw it as no problem, but when you have transgender men demanding to play women’s sports, they now see the problem. Thank you BBB for being that shining light. May YOU continue to shining that light of truth.
Thank you so much JB – I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this emotional issue. hugs xo
You are very welcome. Hugs to you.
xooxoxo 🙂 xoxoxo
xooxoxo 🙂 xoxoxoxooxoxo 🙂 xooxoxo 🙂 xoxoxo
Thank you so much for sharing your heart! This is so encouraging to me in this month of June. Thank you for speaking the truth in love.
Thank you so much for your support and kind reception. This was a tough post to publish. Big hugs to you xox
Grayson Fritts pastor All Scripture Baptist Churc, Knoxville, Tenn.
“I’m sick of sodomy getting crammed down our throats,” Fritts said during his sermon.
Thanks Steven for sharing that — isn’t that the truth.
Well you do wade into deep waters don’t you? LOL. The bottom line is God is the judge and He’s a fair one at that. In paraphrase of a Bible thought “God takes into account where a person is born,” their shaping environment etc when coming to a conclusion on whether they are in or out of the kingdom. We are responsible for the light we have and choices we make within that light, and that’s a good reason to study how we will act if fortunate to make it into heaven. The Bible is a good text book on heaven etiquette and we need to study that as best we are able to understand. Let’s stay by our convictions and not let go and leave others to God to judge their lifestyle and motives.
Haha – the deepest of waters. You’re so right – God is fair, and full of mercy. And it is His role to do the judging, not ours. Ours is to love. This is such a power response. Thank you for sharing your heart, Ian. Means a lot.
Omgoodness! This is so powerful! Just beautifully composed, poignant, and razor sharp, cutting to the heart of the matter. I’m wowed!
Hi Laura, oh gosh, thank you so much for your support and kind words. Seriously, it means so much. I was really nervous to post this, so thank you for the kind reception! have a beautiful weekend! hugs xo
Nothing is really any different than it’s ever been. I don’t think anyone out there is worshipping their sexuality, but finally live in a time where they can have equality in the law and openly celebrate who they are without getting dragged behind a pickup truck or shamed for being diverse people. God (if you believe in such a thing) created them that way. The churches have finally lost control over fertility and sexuality, and that’s a good thing. I remember growing up and being shamed and suicidal over the churches policies while in their own lives the skeletons were buried deep behind smiles and pretending. Even you live your life in extremes. I’m am happy for the marches. They used to hide and fear their lives. Things are better than ever before!
Hi Jim, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this emotional issue. I agree, I am grateful that there is no longer the dangerous repercussions for being who you are. I know there’s still a ways to go against hate crimes, but the progress is something to celebrate. hugs xo
I love the LGBTQ community but I don’t understand all the other things that have been added. At the end of the day there’s only Male and Female. No matter what other labels you try to put on it. People make such a big deal out of pride month because of the discrimination that community gets on a daily basis. The hate crimes, murders, assaults, bullying, etc that happen to them. Organizations get behind them in support for unity so the things I just named can stop. They want there to be one love! People waving gay pride flags is no different than you sharing you’re a virgin and recovering from an eating disorder. You want to share your story and inspire people. With all the things that’s going on in this world people being proud to be gay is one of the good things.
Thanks Lane for this thoughtful and heartfelt response. You make some really great points. I agree – the hate crimes and discrimination is something that needs to be rooted out at the core. and showing support is an act of love. 🙂 hugs xo
I guess I am guilty of paying little attention to pride month. I am too busy. I am trying to celebrate the life God has given me and to be thankful for that. You’ve taken on a big topic here. I am wondering who will try to shout you down, if he or she sees your post at all. Cue the censors. I think you nailed it. I am paraphrasing here, but didn’t the Bible say, “Thou shalt take no other gods before Me”? I have looked at porn addition as just that, elevating porn to the level of a minor god who controls one’s life. Ditto for sexuality. Frankly, I am bored to death by constantly hearing about one’s sexuality, one’s identity. Haven’t people got work to do? Can’t people think about someone other than themselves? Our culture drips with narcissism. How about if everyone took a month and used it to spread God’s love and do his work? Great blog!
Hi Sandman, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this. Yes – we all should be too busy celebrating God’s gift of life to us all!! And you’re right – there’s a lot A LOT that we as a society have elevated to God status. Amen to that. hugs xo
Thank you so much!
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Thank you for being willing to write about the hard stuff (I mean, I guess that’s what this blog is all about, lol). I really love reading your thoughts on these sorts of topics. There is a lot of encouragement in your words.
Thank you so much Sami. I am so touched by your encouraging words. Haha – yeah, I guess I am drawn to the tough stuff! hah hugs xo
Wow! I’m an openly gay man, and a Christian, but for the first time ever after reading your blog for two years, I find it offensive. As a friend said to me once, “After everything you’ve been through, it’s a miracle you’re still standing.” I know you’ve been through a lot, too, and I admire your great courage and knowledge, but until you have walked in our shoes …
Hi friend, I would like to deeply apologize that my words offended you. You’re right, I have not walked in your shoes. This piece was written from a heart of love and compassion — never once did I — or do I — condemn or pass judgement. I am merely trying to start a dialogue of losing labels and — in all forms — remember who we are in Christ, first — with all other labels secondary. I love and support all people — no matter who they love. And I want to encourage us all to focus on the unifying factor of being brothers and sisters in Christ, as how we identify first. That was the intent of my piece. And again, my deepest apologies if my writing failed to communicate that to you. Thank you for speaking up and sharing your heart. Big hugs to you xox
Thanks for the reminder of who we are. God is good, all the time.
God is good ALL the time. Thank you Greg. Big hugs xo
Great post Caralyn! I too, as a Catholic, am struggling with this month. People, including some of my best friends are quick to throw down the “You and your church are bigots!” card, but it’s really difficult for me to even acknowledge “pride” because that means I’d be condoning the action of “active” individuals. Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends who identify as LGBTQ-etc as much as my other friends, but I can’t condone mortal sin. So, it’s either find the strength to defend Christ or keep quiet and not attend any sporting events, or activities that are actively promoting it as a pride centered thing. The struggle is real. 😕
Hi David, thank you for sharing your heart. Yeah, being Catholic this month is definitely a struggle in the court of public opinion. You have a beautiful heart for Christ – and this response really encouraged me. Thank you. hugs xo
The human condition is an exercise in existence and all the complexities thereof. We are all our little Christs, as Neitszche would put it.
Where to really begin? You’re just posting your truth, of course. No one can gainsay your opinion, so perhaps I can offer comfort for Catholics who cannot reconcile their faith with the existence of their non-conforming friends.
Mortal sin does not exist for anyone but those who believe in it. That’s not a lie, it’s not a distortion, it is a bitter truth your religion must accept. The only people subject to the theology, the doctrine, and the judgement of your god, are you. I exist outside your concept of sin.
I am therefore not a sinner. There is no Glory of God for me to fall short of, because I do not recognize any such glory.
So, don’t let yourself be troubled by condoning mortal sin. It is not yours to condone or condemn. You can participate in Pride, cheer your friends on, be nice, pray for them if you want, proselytize to them if you want, and be the good people you want to be without thinking your friends are sinning.
Because, they’re not. For them sin doesn’t exist. The concept of sin is as alien to them as is the concept of homosexuality to you. Recognize this, and be at ease.
Hi friend, thank you so much for your honest and heartfelt response. That is a really interesting perspective. And one that I will definitely be mulling over here today for sure. At the end of the day, all we can do is love and respect everyone in our path. And that is what I’m going to try to do to the best of my ability 🙂 big hugs xox
Interesting, but you are either confused or don’t believe what you wrote. You begin by proclaiming that BBB is only posting ‘her truth,’ and then declare you know it is true that there is no mortal sin, and you are not a sinner etc. Don’t you mean that this is only ‘your truth’? When you make these statements, you are claiming that ‘your truth,’ is correct and saying what you call ‘her truth’, is incorrect and thus not true! My question to you then is ‘How do you know this?’ If it is just a subjective statement of opinion, it is only valid in your mind. If it is not subjective then the burden is upon you to show how so. Truth is not ‘mine’ or ‘yours’. Truth is not some commodity that can be adjusted for personal taste or feelings. If I think it is true that I can ‘leap tall buildings in a single bound,’ my claim to ‘my truth’ would end as soon as I took the ‘leap,’ and the truth of gravity would be validated when my body crashed to the ground.
I know this because her god does not exist, and I know that because I can test her proposed god against the universe as we observe it, and I can do this without making the mistake of assuming no god exists at all.
There could be a god. Just not hers, not yours, not mine. It’s actually very simple, and since her god does not exist the doctrine upon which she has built her faith is no longer useful.
Her faith itself, however, belongs to her. She may believe in anything she wants, as may you.
That’s how I know.
Recently I have been contemplating the area of this argument, you mention. I’m well aware ‘your response will be it is my opinion’ but I shall state it anway.
“I exist outside your concept of sin.” ~ is rubbish fool’s Gold. You, whatever, or whomever you are, did not enter this world in other way than we did. You were created.. You are not the CREATOR.
Or shall you argue that? Good luck. There is some truth to your argument, as before I even read your argument or opinion, I had already been led to this area or subject. God is the only thing that is good. Everything outside of that is not.
You know who else believes that Fool’s Gold necklace you wear? The enemies that believe they exist somewhere they don’t. On some plateau ,that the flood water does not reach, wrong.
All men have fallen short of the glory of God. You and I are not the exception. If you claim to be an angel, you too have fallen short. The only thing good in this World is ALMIGHTY GOD. He is the only pure H20, anything outside of that, outside of Him is murky water- that is contaminated with pollutants which make it murky,
Now, to speak on what you are speaking about, which is not mine, but shared with me, for i am not WISDOM, I am a messenger, a baby, with only fragments of TRUTH, before Adam and Eve sinned they did not know they were naked. They didnt’ know what is good or bad or sin. As a consequence of what transpired, now , we humans falsely believe we can point our fingers as ascribe things as ‘good’, ‘bad’, or ‘evil’, but its always murky, and only a fragment of truth.. what we see as evil, may be good… many times it is, because why? because all we can see are the actions involved between points A, us, and points B,C,D, we do NOT see, and do NOT have the capacity to see ALL the points on the other side, that belongs to ALMIGHTY GOD.
That is why we must depend on Him, and His Holy Spirit, to speak TRUTH, And WISDOM, to our spirits.
And as for your fools gold statement, we all have learning to do, its time you wake up and remove that gold plated necklace your wearing around your neck. ”
Every man has sinned, and those who say they have not are liars.” 1 john 1:18
Glory be to God, for putting all of us, in check, when it is needed.
You flatter yourself greatly.
No, I’m not the “creator,” because there is no such thing as the creator you believe in. It simply does not exist and does not stand up to any scrutiny. To disprove the existence of your creator all I need to do is assume there is such a creator and test its identity.
Your god fails this test. There could be a creator out there, but it isn’t yours, and since it isn’t yours the entire scriptural doctrine you’ve built you argument upon falters.
There is no such thing as sin, no such thing as salvation. I mentioned you flatter yourself, and your self-flattery is this:
You think yourself the focus of an almighty being that created an entire universe. If any thing is arrogant, if anything is “rubbish” it is that thought. An entire universe with you at the center?
No.
I made a promise to The Creator, to tell others , that which i wrote to you, is not mine, some of it is, again, its only a fragment. That you and I will one day realize, regardless of all our words put together, as we stand before The WORD of Truth.
The only thing failed here is the limit of your intelligence, and the logic you use to support it. The center is not I nor you, nor anyone else. Wisdom is born, where the intelligence of man and all else in existence ends. Good day Sir/Mam.
“The center is not I nor you, nor anyone else.”
Not according to your scripture. According to your scripture God created the heavens and the Earth especially for our species, and among our species chose one tiny group to talk to.
Don’t you see how absurd that is? Do you actually try to reconcile your faith with the universe as you observe it? Or do you write everything you observe off as some grand deception?
There is nothing new about your old. Your mind seeks not truth. It seeks to be heard.
Oh, I seek the truth. Let me show you how I seek the truth.
Step 1: There’s a god out there, somewhere. I have no idea who or what it is, but let’s begin there with that statement. God exists.
Step 2: This god created the universe and everything in it. We know based on our observations that this god spent 13.7 billion years to create the universe as we observe it today. We know this because this same god established something we understand as the relativity constant: c, the speed of light, which gives us a rate of expansion which we may plug into observed stellar phenomenon of the cosmic microwave background and the uniform red shift of light from very distant galaxies.
3: This god spent the last 4.5 billion of those years creating the planet we live on today. We know this because we can calculate the age of the sun based on its mass and luminosity which gives us a precise moment in time when fusion began, and the rate at which fusion converts the sun’s hydrogen fuel into helium. For the sake of simplicity we begin the Earth Creation Clock at that moment, even though we know it began before that.
Step 4: For the 4.5 billion years the Earth has been around in one state or another, life as we know it began as simple single celled organisms replicating the same chains of DNA over and over and over. Eventually life figured out to exchange DNA between one organism and another in order to fix the naturally occurring errors in the process. This is called sex, and when that happened life exploded. Humans–modern humans–wouldn’t walk the Earth for another 514 million years. We know this from the fossil record.
Step 5: Now that we have established these observable *facts* (not myths) of our planet and the universe, let’s compare what we *know* the *real* god did that we assume to exist, versus what your religion claims your God did.
The Earth wasn’t created in 6 days. Strike one. That’s actually a major strike, because this figure is off by many, many orders of magnitude. I’ve heard numerous explanations for why this is the case and all of them amount to excuse making. The bottom line is that the *people* who invented this scripture wanted an auspicious number. Six was great, seven was even better, so they took both. The Earth was created in six days and God rested on the seventh. They were very creative indeed.
But let’s not stop there! There’s the speed of light that’s never ever mentioned in the Bible, which is probably why they screwed up the creation timeline. Strike two.
Your religion claims its God created all life at the same time. Well, we know that’s not true because the real god didn’t do that. The real god spent a good long time creating life through evolution. That’s strike three.
And that’s how test your God. We compare your religion’s creation story as written without exceptions to what we have observed, and we come up with drastic differences.
Now, you can writhe, and wriggle, and spit your insults, and insist I’m not a very smart man, but at least I’m smart enough to recognize fiction when I see it.
Sir, Religion is Dead. I am not religious. I am spiritual. You continue using phrases such as ‘your religion’ Almighty God is not found in religion. He is found within each of us.
You say your God, as if you have a different One.
You are smart, and intelligent, we can all see that from your writing. But again, were your intelligence ends, Wisdom begins. Wisdom is SIMPLE. All that stuff you wrote belongs to man and their intelligence, not to Almighty God. Once He impressed on me the following when I said ‘i know’ … ” what do you know? Everything you know, you had to learn it… I ALONE am WISDOM. “
One more thing, such simplicity found in Wisdom, is not found nor understood by intelligent men. For they do not trust the CREATOR. They rather trust themselves and their remarkable capacity to think, to design, to formulate, to hypothesize, … forgetting all the while, where they gain their capacity to begin with. AMEN!! GLORRRYYYY be to THE CREATOR.
“You say your God, as if you have a different One.”
Yes. There is no such thing as one god as worshipped by our species. As I’ve said before there could be a god or gods out there in the universe, but our species worships more than one. We worship many. My concession about the possibility of a god existing is just that: a concession and admission of my ignorance and lack of evidence despite my incapacity to believe in the supernatural.
You are correct in saying that wisdom is simple, and so here is the simplest piece of wisdom I can offer:
Our gods aren’t real.
What could possibly be simpler than that?
And please do not try to portray yourself as “spiritual” when making such obvious Christian overtures with phrases like “Almighty God.”
And then there is this statement:
“One more thing, such simplicity found in Wisdom, is not found nor understood by intelligent men.”
This is why your religion/faith/spirituality (pick your noun) must be resisted, confronted, and challenged openly at every turn. That kind of Orwellian double think is utterly toxic, to say that intelligence and wisdom are two different things and that intelligent people can’t be wise.
Wisdom is merely intelligence coupled with experience. It only seems simple because when we are confronted with wisdom we have absolutely no idea—yet—of all the complex thought and critical thinking that went into it, or how many times that wise person has failed. It’s like drinking great vodka and having no idea how much energy it takes to distill that alcohol from all the waste.
And the rest of what you posted is nothing more than virtue posturing. Don’t worry, everyone reading this knows you’re not an atheist like me.
Please check out ‘Learning To Trust God’… Its like five posts down. The shift from Atheist has already begun within you, not based on my Word.
I don’t believe in the supernatural. Sorry. It’s really nothing personal.
Very nicely put. Honestly, I do not understand the comments criticizing you here or your point of view. Civility is critical to any conversation, and you certainly showed that, as well as respect.
I had a brother who was gay and died of AIDS in 1994.
Hi Kirk, gosh, I am so sorry for your loss. I know it was time ago, but those wounds are real, and I just want to hug you and offer my condolences. I appreciate you sharing that. And thank you so much for your support. Yeah – I definitely wrote this from a heart of love and compassion and respect. And i really hope that came across. I think this is just such a hotly emotional issue, that touches off a lot of knee-jerk responses from some. Thank you again for sharing your heart. I agree – honest, open and respectful conversation is important, especially with these difficult issues. Big hugs to you xox
Once again, BEAUTIFUL, Caralyn. ♥️
Thank you Terese, I appreciate your support. This was a scary post to push publish on. So I am grateful for the kind reception. hugs xo
My dear friend
We have identified ourselves with our body so much that we have forgotten that we are not the body – we are spirit, we are soul that is living in this body – indeed, love may start in the body, but it does not end there – if it ends there then it is just lust, identification of the ego…that invents more and more to get satisfied, an emblem that is kept high in our society, but really misunderstood when it comes to the differentiation of love and sex. In trying to find ourselves we develop bad habits and think that they belong to us, habits that attach us more and more in the swamp of our mind – we can only find ourselves when we understand that we are not the body… We are in this world, but not from this world…
Thanks for sharing, my dear friend.
Hugs and love
Didi
so in other words this problem actually goes deeper than Christianity, every human being has ‘concepts’ in their mind, and people should stop simply considering Christianity as someone else’s religion same for any system created by our wise ancestors from Islam to Hinduism etc, we are all one people and beyond these religious systems is the truth of the universal law of love, these religious systems are created so that the human being can maintain a clear/ pure level of mind and intellect that isn’t distorted by delusion by creating right concepts becuz many simply aren’t/weren’t capable of it by themselves. So everyone universally has a habit of gathering concepts in their mind that now your mind is locked into a certain way of thinking by their concepts, and or beliefs. So we should not be having party’s to celebrate labels or idolize concepts that lead to identification and separation based on sexuality, sexuality is constantly in delusion that is the nature of sexuality, the mind creates whatever fantasy it can to slip you into the delusion, so actually now people are idolizing their fantasy, this is the cold hard truth, we are not these things its just the mind has become conditioned to believe it, becuz maby in 5-10 years they will have some new idea of how they identify with sex in their mind or maby next week. The problem is impermanence, all ancient wise religious systems direct us to worshiping the ‘absolute’ or connecting with that diviner power at a deeper level. Now… we are celebrating surface level conditioning that it is being embedded(as identification) and celebrated? Is this good? Mby some won’t like this but what we want is a pure mind so that we can create pure things in a harmonious world, where people aren’t in opposition but co-creating this. Now forget sex, because the problem is delusion without clarity we cannot all come to the realization we need to stop worshiping at the altar of consumption food/sex/(gaming) anyway lets just say hedonism, becuz if everyone just keeps consuming this planet will not support us in 100 years. the only reason our resources are being wasted on feeding this consumerist attitude is because peoples minds are being fulled with wrong concepts that lead to hedonism
Dear Samnessofself,
Thank you very much for joining this subject with your detailed expressions 🙂 As long as we do not have a pure mind, a mind that is no longer controlling us (our soul), we will indeed develop different concepts and wishes according to our life and background. Sant Kirpal Singh said: “No need to dig new wells (religions), people can stay in their surrounded religion (where we are born), but important is that a Christian becomes a really good person, a human person, a Muslim a good person, a Hindu, a Sikh and so on – a good person and that means that we have to start to control our mind. As everything has a reaction within the Law of Cause and Effect, even our thoughts belong to it, besides words and deeds – our mind often handles it without thinking, without being conscious of what we think, speak and do – we just do it, often as a reaction of being angry, of being happy, of being dependent of the whole spectrum of our feelings and emotions. If we want to become pure in our mind we first have to start with our thoughts: are they of good nature, are they in harmony with myself and others, with God in me? Or are they hurting, are they violent, are they selfish, egoistic, do they have motives behind to appear good, do they want to make a show? – Only with consequent honesty towards ourselves and others, we can bring this change in us. Competent Masters said (not so-called false prophets): “Mind is a bad master, but a good servant…” – and as Gandhi has put it: “If you want to see the change in the world, be the change…” Means, each of us human beings has to put his/her own house in order. When we really want to help others then we have to extinguish the fire of our own house first – we have to live a life in fact as all holy messengers God has sent in different religions, places, and times. We humans usually try to see and find mistakes in others, but when we start to clean up our own house, then we have no time anymore to see the mistakes of others. What did Christ say, when there was the woman caught in the very act of adultery when people wanted to stone her: “Who is without sin throw the stone first…” When we understand this up to the depth of our being then we will learn from it and will no longer blame others, but we will be endeavoured to weed out our own shortcomings and live in harmony with others, share and help as well. So the change has to come from within, to develop us in the right way. This is indeed a practical way, not just theory. It is the polishing of our mind but requires discipline, strict honesty, and the goodwill to become a real human being.
Thank you very much, my friend.
All the best to you
Didi
Amen – we are Souls! I love that so much. Thank you so much for sharing your heart on this, Didi. And so true – we are to be in the world, but not of the world. We were made for Heaven. I appreciate you stopping by. big hugs xox
Welcome, dear friend 🙂
From heart to heart
Didi
xoxo 🙂 xoxoox
Yes! So proud of you. As always, I love you. Hugs! XO 😄 ❤
Thank you so much Tonya, you are just so kind. Thank you for your support. Love you dear friend!!! xoxo
😄❤
xooxx 🙂 xoxox
[…] https://beautybeyondbones.com/2019/06/13/are-we-worshiping-our-sexuality-pridemonth/ […]
and thank you for the link up!! xox
Cute 🌹🌹
thanks 🙂 x
Wow, love this post. Conservative thought in NYC is rare, keep it up! LBGTQ groups want people to identify with their sexuality and split people into us vs them, when really we are just children of God. Let’s never forget who we really are 🙂
Hi friend! Thank you so much – hahah yes, a conservative NYer is definitely a unicorn around here! haha Amen!! we are all children of God — a WE!! 🙂 love that so much. big hugs xox
I think the beauty of your writing is that you can always feel the “heart” and it takes such skill to deal with issues in such a balanced way.
But I think we all search for identity and meaning…but I think you for starting the thought process because only open dialogue will help things move forward.
Excellent post!
oh gosh, thank you so much Tyrone, I really appreciate you sharing that. This is such an emotionally charged issue, and I really was trying to communicate from a place of love, respect and compassion. So I really appreciate your support. Amen — we are all on that journey of finding our Identity and meaning in life. How beautiful when we can journey together and support one another along the way. So glad you stopped by. big hugs xo
Dear Caralyn
That must have been a very difficult post to write, and your conclusion that we are all, regardless of sexuality, children of God, is very welcome.
Unfortunately Pride celebrations are still very necessary. You should remember that the impetus towards Pride came because society labelled homosexuals, and condemned them. Much of this came from the churches. Much of the current stigmatisation comes from the churches. Homosexuals refer to themselves as ‘Gay’ – but the words that society used were much nastier – queer, and faggot, and worse.
Thankfully, God is a great deal more merciful than His church, and accepts all of us with love. I shall continue to march in Pride parades to bear witness to that love.
With best wishes
Penny
Hi Penny, thank you so much for sharing your heart on this emotional topic. You’re right – I was very nervous to publish this piece, because I wanted to make sure my words communicated the love and respect I have in my heart. That is a really great point. The prejudice and discrimination faced by homosexuals is not right, and yes – we should celebrate the end of that. And the freedom to be who we are. Amen to that — God is great in mercy. I pray that we all can try to emulate His perfect example. So glad you stopped by! big hugs to you Penny xox
Caralyn,
Does “Sex Rule” our lives making us false idol worshipers?
To a large extent absolutely! You’ve heard the expression SEX SELLS, and that is how many entities in corporate America have been alluring and selling product to consumers since before I was around and over the years I’ve seen that manipulation increase exponentially via printed, visual and pop culture mediums to an actual sickening level when you come right down to it! People are being bombarded and titillated with very powerful psychological messages that grab them where it counts in their basic instinctual motivating animal sensory behaviors that are part of our basic human drives to procreate and continue as a species of temporal physical beings; which leads them the mass manipulators to the ultimate prize “of reaching into our pockets,” and getting our money! But that is only a part of us and not the part that we should be allowing to dominate our outward or inward behavior toward one another.
Someone like the former Hugh Hefner built up a cottage industry over the years whipping into shape an “empire” worth billions all revolving on “exploitation of female sexuality and sensuality” that got many a man sucked in as a continuous paying customer to be mesmerized by the physical allures of a woman’s body. This rapidly expanded the pornographic industry to a shocking and really unbelievable level as the modes of delivery went from primarily the printed page in magazines decades ago, which then rapidly grew to the present digital age technology where anything one might imagine is at the fingertips on demand making it far too easy for anyone to be tempted and actually become poisoned by the powerful intoxication of desire and pleasure effects that are coaxed within the minds pleasure center by a myriad of lust adventures played out in the current available imagery. In a sense it’s getting nearly impossible to escape this tool of exploitation being deployed upon a “sheeple” public which has grown even way more permissive and secular over the last several decades! What I’m saying here is the “cat is out of the bag” or the modern “Pandora’s Box” has been opened; making for a huge problem or even mess in our culture and civilization as a whole, feeding right into all manner of depravity and actual criminal intent or behavior of the very twisted and sick minded that will even be more encouraged to be violent. Priorities have been allowed to disintegrate making this a multifaceted problem of great consequence in our modern era! Because of this selling tool human sexuality is now being used and abused daily! Those without discipline or who are too weak to resist become slaves to this monster or machine of manipulation!
All of this that I speak of has led to this explosion of twisted thinking and even radical departure from what was always considered to be proper appropriate behavior with regard to human sexuality; not just based on religious or philosophical thinking but even purely from a common sense standpoint! Now the time of anything goes has arrived and is it any wonder while people have been turned into slaves being led by their noses to do this or that with the narrative being as long as you feel good that is all that matters type of mantra being deployed these days! A very sick world is what we see! People thinking they are fine doing what they do now with even gender bending and they most certainly are not fine at all. The decline of humanity and civilization looks like THIS!
So then, YES Sex Sells, and many people will even sell their own souls!
Lawrence Morra
Hi Lawrence, thank you so much for sharing your heart on this emotional issue. I think you hit the nail on the head — no matter which way you slice it, *all* sexuality has become exploited and distorted. The porn industry is a perfect example. We use people, not love them. Love has been equated with sex. Sex is a part of love, but in society, it has all but replaced it. And commoditized it. Lots of powerful food for thought here. thank you. hugs xo
Hi Caralyn, oh don’t thank me I thank you for bringing up such a hot button issue and having such a clear perspective of it. You got me thinking and this subject has been on my mind many a time but I think like most people we all throw up our hands and say “whatever “or “what can I do about all of this mass confusion!” But the longest journey does begin with the first step and the American Revolution started with the first shot that was heard around the world as the saying goes. These hard left movements or agendas all started small and took root on the fringe until eventually with such a secular society brewing all the components were in place to allow what was once abnormal and outlandish behavior to be assimilated into the mainstream media and pop culture to the point where now public schools are teaching young impressionable children to accept all these radical ideas and or behaviors as good everyday living and encourage these young people to not have a negative reaction to them but embrace them and who knows you may find yourself wanting to be gay too!
I always end up back to the Scriptures, and in this case how it speaks to the time when people will witness “what was right will be wrong and what was wrong will be right!” Timothy 2 3 states, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
Let me tell you, if I’m wrong and that isn’t our current state of affairs then I’m ready to eat crow for breakfast, lunch and dinner! God help us we are in big trouble, we who live in the digital age! The information highway has facilitated a direct link with hell and Satan! All manner of evil is upon us and I can attest to that by my own personal experience that I never expected would get this bad in my lifetime but it has! I see and I’m sure you do too how fast the world has gotten and how exponentially radical change or destructive forces are infiltrating all areas of civilization!
The pieces of the puzzle are coming into alignment very rapidly and the terrible Iran deal tipped me off to this even more so, now I see how the most evil of nations and peoples are usurping the forces of hell to bring calamity upon the earth and humans!
Thank you again for triggering this thinking and call to action as well; we all need to be mindful but also proactive in prayer and duty to the Lord our God!
In His Holy Name Jesus Christ! Amen
thank you again. Amen — proactive in prayer!
You’re very welcome and I’m with you on the prayers for sure! Amen
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Caralyn, the biggest stumbling block before the human race and there are many as I see it; and just confining this discussion to the good old USA for now, is that too many people in all walks of life think they can go it alone; leaving God completely out of the equation or trying to fake it with the Almighty in some half heartened faith in Him alone to lead us to any resolve and ultimately to Heaven; because after all these lives of ours are very short as I’ve had to learn to appreciate this fact for myself regardless of how many times I had been warned of that by loved ones and of course the Holy Scriptures! It became far too easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment or, just thinking as long as I’m maintaining the status-quo I was doing a good enough job according to any Divine plan for my life! I was sadly mistaken and know even now after some horrible trials in life over the last dozen years that I’m a hopeless mess without putting my best effort into loving and worshiping the Lord! I’m still not right and most likely will never be as long as I’m an imperfect flesh being here on earth, because after all how could I ever think to rise above my own shortcomings when indeed God Himself showed us His unfathomable endless love for us that, “He had to come here Himself,” to salvage our flawed and totally inept, corrupted souls burdened with weakness and sin that left to our own devices would surely sink to the lowest pits of hell. I did many good things and kind deeds throughout my life as I know I was and still am a good natured big heart of a person; but even with that I have failed miserably and dropped the ball so many times not doing better or even close to my best; which even if I did still falls short! The Scriptures point it out so clearly, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23; “there is no one righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:10.
Jesus Christ took upon Himself the judgment that “we” deserve. God in His grace offers us the gift of eternal life. But like any gift, it becomes ours only when we take it. I’ve read and witnessed how we must repent from sin but repentance is not so simple because it carries with it first genuine confession and sorrow for our transgressions or doing what we know to be wrong but nonetheless often still do! To make the commitment and real pronouncement of our truly turning away from sinful acts or behavior; this will then allow our changing or transformation to occur being made anew. We shouldn’t be asking forgiveness over and over again but yet returning to those sins and still expecting God to forgive us. We humans or children of God made in His image must turn from our practice of sin, making our best effort possible, and by faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior we can and will be redeemed or found worthy. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
God has promised, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12,
I see now as I look back that I may have at times thought I was on the proper path and doing a pretty good job of following God’s will for me; but, in spite of all the many good acts and gestures I still fell short badly because in order to attain discipleship there is the cost of renouncing self; self-will, self-plans, self-motivations which I never really did in spades and I’m now painfully aware of this fact while at the same time happy I still have this opportunity to awaken more fully to His plan for me and pick my cross back up and follow Him to my salvation that He so lovingly is holding in His shed blood and body on His cross which He gave to all freely who will believe in Him as their only hope of salvation from all iniquity; He is our Lord, Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ!
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23,
Jesus doesn’t say to us seek a life of selfish comfort and ease but He instead calls us to a battle, to face all adversities of this life and material world that is so heavily influenced by the Devil.
He says clearly to us to give up our own plans and to follow Him without reserve or any discount; even to death.
Apostle Paul reminded us, “whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.” Philippians 3:7-8
Salvation by faith means commitment and trust and saying I commit my life to Jesus Christ and trust Him alone as my Savior and Lord.
I’m bringing all of this up now because your comment triggered a flood of thoughts and feelings I’ve been pondering and praying on for some time; so I decided right here and right now I would bring this out to you and whoever else will heed these words for their own good! This all adds poignantly to this Blog as I see it in a most compelling way, as I asked the Lord to inspire my words for His sake and Glory!
God Bless You and Yours! Amen
Lawrence Morra
Renouncing self is definitely something that I have to work on. I think it is the root of all things that lead us astray. thanks for sharing Lawrence. hugs xo
Caralyn, now you said it there in spades! I too had to take many years of being a good guy but still not seeing the forest for the trees like I should have! But, God through my real faith in Jesus Christ was merciful to me and gave me many chances to wake up and face the music! I wasn’t an arrogant self-centered egotist but I was still serving self, and my image even; actually very sinful and most of us do it or have because it is far too easy to be concerned with the here and now and what we are feeling in the moment as a person and even an actor! Shakespeare said quite keenly,
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”
One must pay attention not to serve one’s own ego, which can be so easy to do. I say much vanity is induced by our seeking too much favor of mankind, as we know from the lives and work of the saints that they were too “selfless and humble in our eyes,” we who take pride in our full measure of self-worth according to the man-made world!
Simply we can see by the example of Jesus Christ what we should strive for in being true to our purpose; and I love this Scripture which applies here! “So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work” (Philippians 2:12-13).
“This statement stands in stark contrast to a popular misunderstanding of salvation as a single complete act—a sort of bolt of divine lightning that changes us instantly and forever. It also militates against a widespread contemporary tendency to view the issue of salvation in completely rosy terms, minus all those things that are inconsistent with a modern therapeutic mentality—things like hell and fear.”
“In an important way, Paul’s words also affirm a vital plank of traditional Christian doctrine on salvation—that good works belong to the economy of salvation, that some effort, some element of cooperation on our part is necessary. Listen closely to his words. Paul is surprisingly explicit: “work out your salvation.” The translation here is an accurate one of the Greek katergazomai, whose root ergon means work and is the source of our words energy and ergonomic.”
“Of course, the next verse makes an extremely important clarification: “For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.”
“We work, but it is really God who works through us. Here we have an extraordinary affirmation of the traditional teaching on the relationship between God’s grace and our free will. Here is St. Thomas Aquinas’ brief synopsis in the Summa Theologica: Free-will is the cause of its own movement, because by his free-will man moves himself to act. But it does not of necessity belong to liberty that what is free should be the first cause of itself, as neither for one thing to be cause of another need it be the first cause. God, therefore, is the first cause, Who moves causes both natural and voluntary. And just as by moving natural causes He does not prevent their acts being natural, so by moving voluntary causes He does not deprive their actions of being voluntary: but rather is He the cause of this very thing in them; for He operates in each thing according to its own nature (Question 83, Article 1, Reply to Objection 3).”
“The last line is the key to the whole. “He operates in each thing according to its own nature.” In other words, God moves inanimate things lacking free will according to their nature. The rock falls due to the immutable laws of gravity: it has no choice in the matter. His operation on the rock does not change its nature. Likewise, He operates within us without changing our nature, which includes free will.”
“This is exactly what Paul seems to be saying (as Aquinas himself points out). He states not just that God works through us, but that he works through us in a way that we too work. And not only that but also his working through us causes us to desire His goodness. That word, desire, is also sometimes translated as will, which is a valid translation of the Greek thelein. (This word may be familiar to some readers in the term Monothelitism, a seventh-century heresy which held that Christ had only one will, thereby denying the fullness of His humanity in what was essentially a throwback to the older Monophysite controversy.)”
(catholicexchange.com)
I see that true humility is what I had lacked at times perhaps not being strong enough in a given moment or too deluded and mesmerized by the trappings and allures of the world and flesh! I was wrong to not try harder, and I only hope and pray that my Lord Jesus Christ will forgive me and allow me enough time to get my act together, as I even cry now in sadness, thinking of His unfathomable love for me but yet I didn’t try hard enough for Him my Savior and only Salvation from the world and myself; but I’m still a work in progress begging as I rightly should for his mercy once again!
God bless you and all who read these words to be in God’s good graces and that you will always seek His Divine Truth!
Lawrence Morra
We are all works in progress
Indeed we are but to me we are more like the flickering flame of a candle that surrounded by a massive world of conflicting energies that flame has no chance of overwhelming anything as it could be flickering away and in a millisecond be no more; making it obvious that as any of us move into the future toward our individual journey’s end, one should be concerned with one paramount question of will the work be completed in time. I’ve seen many an individual racing toward something but before it appeared they completed anything or had a chance to adjust course it was over.
That is why to me it becomes more imperative to address worthiness daily because as I said; I thought I was doing fair to midland in how I lived my life looking back, and now see how I was so lucky and blessed to have not been taken back then or have my flame extinguished, because I had no clue about what I see wrong in myself now; and how much better or more I could have done. I guess what I’m saying is that staying in the good graces of God is not as simple and as clear as one might think. When is my good, good enough; or is my best really my best! Being here, in the here and now I can definitely do much better than before, which is a great blessing and opportunity!
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Beautifully said. It is sad that a Catholic must go to an eating disorder blog to get what should be coming from our Bishops.
Sexuality really is the new religion, isn’t it. One who does not at least pay lip service to it is ostracized at least as much as the athiest was in the old days.
Hi JP, thank you so much for your heartfelt response. Gosh, I am humbled by your generous words. And wow — what a true and powerful statement — sexuality is the new religion. *isn’t that the truth.* Wow, I will be thinking about that for the rest of the day. Thank you so much for stopping by and for your support. big hugs to you xo
Caralyn,
I noticed just now one of your commenters said God is very merciful and accepts us all with love, which is bending the truth of what He has taught humanity and is very misleading in that; God has stated clearly in His word to us that in the end time there will be all manner of perversion and that is what this Pride nonsense is, all a selfish twisting of the gifts God gave humanity, using them to please one’s self and do his or her own thing! Abusing what God intended only for loving couples to share in procreation and making a family or more “children of God” has now become I can love who or what I want and get all the pleasure doing it that I want! Me, me, me is all this is, and these people have lost their way but by intentionally choosing these twisted worshiping behaviors over truly loving God and His plan for Humanity! They in essence say we know better than God!
Deception abounds and in no way will God accept that type of thinking or behavior nor the manner of perversion that is being propagated; as it is clearly what Satan did in his challenge of God’s absolute authority in all things! This is all work of the Devil. Yes God loves us but demands that if we Love Him back it will be reflected in our abiding in His teachings and not the worlds or Satan’s! Nowhere in Scripture or even in sensible logic does it say that two men or two women can do as they please using their sexuality to pleasure one another and that will be just beautiful to God and fit right into His plans for we His children!
Rebellious children are in trouble and homosexuality or gender bending are learned behaviors; and there is nothing natural or befitting in them when it comes down to how humans should behave and live!
Remember End Times, the signs will be quite evident! “The Blind Leading the Blind!”
on that day, when we have to face our Maker, I just pray for every single one of us. I don’t want to have to account for the things I’ve done in this life. And I just pray, Lord, have mercy on my soul!
Caralyn,
I noticed just now one of your commenters said God is very merciful and accepts us all with love, which is bending the truth of what He has taught humanity and is very misleading in that; God has stated clearly in His word to us that in the end time there will be all manner of perversion and that is what this Pride nonsense is, all a selfish twisting of the gifts God gave humanity, using them to please one’s self and do his or her own thing! Abusing what God intended only for loving couples to share in procreation and making a family or more “children of God” has now become I can love who or what I want and get all the pleasure doing it that I want! Me, me, me is all this is, and these people have lost their way but by intentionally choosing these twisted worshiping behaviors over truly loving God and His plan for Humanity! They in essence say we know better than God!
Deception abounds and in no way will God accept that type of thinking or behavior nor the manner of perversion that is being propagated; as it is clearly what Satan did in his challenge of God’s absolute authority in all things! This is all work of the Devil. Yes God loves us but demands that if we Love Him back it will be reflected in our abiding in His teachings and not the worlds or Satan’s! Nowhere in Scripture or even in sensible logic does it say that two men or two women can do as they please using their sexuality to pleasure one another and that will be just beautiful to God and fit right into His plans for we His children! Sin and corrupting of what God intended is not part of the plan.
Rebellious children are in trouble and homosexuality or gender bending are learned behaviors; and there is nothing natural or befitting in them when it comes down to how humans should behave and live!
Remember End Times, the signs will be quite evident! “The Blind Leading the Blind!”
Lawrence Morra
Right on, we are all one in God! God is love! Sex is NOT love nor is it sin; original sin was not sex, it was disobedience to God. Why do you think Christ taught us to pray “Thy will be done”? I wish the LGBTQ would just stop shoving their sexuality in my face.
Amen to that – all one in God! That is something to celebrate each and every day! Thanks so much for sharing your heart on this emotional issue! big hugs xox
Amen sister! Thank you for lovingly and courageously addressing this. Such good reminders!
Thank you so much Kimmy! I really appreciate your support. Yeah, I was terrified to push publish on this post, and I really appreciate your warm reception. Big hugs xox
This post was a really great read.
Thank you so much Tori 🙂 I’m so glad it resonated with you. big hugs xox
Beautifully put! It’s very popular to worship ourselves and our own sexuality, but as we’ve seen from history, is a deceptive choice. That path is wide and smooth, but ultimately leads to misery and destruction. Is that what we really want?
Thank you so much Natashya! You’re right about that — I always try to remember that God gave us the commandments not to “squelch our fun” or oppress us, but because He loves us and wants us to live in Freedom. He was protecting us from ourselves. And when we put other idols before Him and make ourselves a god in our minds, it’s a recipe for disaster. Thanks so much for taking the time to read! big hugs xox
Such a thought provoking blog from an angle most shy away from. Thank you for this x
Thank you so much! Yeah, I was pretty nervous to publish this post. I appreciate your warm reception. big hugs xo
Wonderful post and perfectly put. Yes, sexuality has become an idol.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support. You’re right about that. A dangerous thing indeed. Big hugs to you xox
Your post is well-balanced and objective. No matter where any of us might be in life’s incredible journey, God still loves us. He expects us to love one another as Jesus taught us.
It causes me to pause and wonder . . . why can’t more people identify with Christ and His salvation.
Thank you so much for your support. You’re right — God still loves us. His mercy is great, and THANK GOODNESS for that!! So true — we are called to love one another. Period. Makes me wonder too. Thanks for stopping by. big hugs xox
Life is really simple, Caralyn. As you know, there are two basic paths in life. One leads to God; the other leads away from God. We either walk the path to God, and worship Him along the way, or we walk the path away from God, and worship ourselves along the way. Been there, done that with the Israelites wandering the desert for 40 years. We are those modern-day Israelites. Have a GREAT day/weekend and stay on the right path! Ted
THank you so much for sharing your heart on this. You’re so so right about that — there are 2 choices. And I’ve never thought about it that way but it’s so true – we are the modern day Israelites! What a profound thought, Ted! thank you!! hugs xox
What a kind and open way to speak about such a huge challenge in society. Great job!
Thank you so much Cheryllee, I really appreciate your support. Yeah, a tough issue for sure, but there’s an opportunity for healing conversation, I pray! 🙂 so glad you stopped by. big hugs xo
I have to admit I was hesitant to read this one. I always assumed pride activities were a celebration of “hey we are here, too. We are also part of the human race. We belong” I never thought of it as a declaration of “other” but more just “accept me as I am.” It was so beautiful to see your point of view here about being a “we” all belonging to god.
Thank you so much for your honest and heartfelt response. Amen – we are a WE, — a family made by God — and that is what I want to celebrate 🙂 so glad you stopped by 🙂 big hugs xo
I’ve gotta say, that was a very, brave Post. I was just looking at my Trump t-shirt yesterday and thinking how sad it is that I am unable to wear it in public.
thank you so much, yeah i was super nervous to publish this. i feel you there, friend. hugs xox
This. Yes.
On a related topic, I think that some of the arguments I’ve heard in favor of abortion also show that we (as a culture) are worshiping sexuality. Abortion is essential health care. I did not consent to be a parent or do gestational work. Being pregnant harms my mental health. All of those are based on an assumption that having sex with no consequences is an essential and necessary part of life, and that the right to do that is more important than anything else, which it is not.
That is such a powerful point. Thank you for sharing that perspective. I agree. hugs xo
I feel that there is nothing unique about being Gay. I do really feel bad that being an old Straight guy is about as unique as it gets. And they do not have parades for every year. I do not know why they have parades because the LGBTQWTF community parades around all year long. Just my opinion. Love you.
thanks for sharing your thoughts xo
You are welcome.
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Sister, I wanted to make an important distinction here to something you said. You wrote ” And to remember that there is no “us” and “them” in this conversation — there is only a “we.” A human race, children of God, who are all together on this journey towards Heaven.” I agree we are all the human race, but the Bible is clear we are not all children of God.
We are all made in His image, but remember in the garden, we lost that image because of sin? Something died. Adam and Eve did not curl over and die, but the image of God and image of LOVE they bore did. So we are not all born children of God. We are born children of Adam. And we must be “born again.” (John 3).
John 1:12 ESV-“But to ALL who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
1 Peter 1:23 NIV- “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”
I value your message but wanted to share this because it is truth that sets us free. And Jesus made it very clear that unless we know Him, the Truth, and come to believe in Him, we are not children of God on our way to Heaven.
Bless you and all you do sincerely
Jesus and Nicodemus
John 3:1-8
1. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
2. this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3. Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4. Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
5. Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8. “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
So to be born again, it means this, but what your talking bout as good a way to think about it as the following :
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26
FAITH
So if you have faith it is good to believe you are a child of god if you follow Jesus words. If you aren’t believing this your gonna struggle to be born again as your faith is lacking, so do everything to uplift yourself in Jesus name so that you do believe it, have faith dear
sry misunderstood what you meant exactly your not talking about believers
thank you so much for this information. amen – He is the Way, Truth and LIfe. hugs xo
Absolutely xoxo!
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And to what you said about sexuality, and identity as becoming idolatry increasingly, couldn’t agree more!!!
thanks again 🙂 i appreciate you taking the time to read and respond!
You’re more than welcome!
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I just cannot love this enough. Once again, my thoughts exactly. We’ll never be complete or experience joy unless we identify with Him. Peace!
Hi Adrienne, thank you so much. I’m so glad this resonated with you. amen – identity in Christ! hugs xox
Well said, Caralyn. I’m not against the LBGTQ people either, what I don’t like is identity politics. Being dismissed with a label (“…phobe”), being shouted down and not being able to have an meaningful conversation with people who have different perspectives or just wanting clarification. It’s relationally dysfunctional.
IMO, we are an overly-sexed culture in general. A lot of this is marketing but all forms of sexuality are being pushed in our face constantly. In that regard, our culture has created the idolatry.
Sorry, I meant LGBTQ. Don’t mean to offend. A little dyslexic there. 🙂
not to worry!
Thank you so much Mel! I agree — labels do nothing but divide and alienate. And very true – there’s a lot that we as a society has idolized – and sex definitely tops the list. hugs xo
Wow! Really well-put. I love your take on this
thank you so much, i appreciate your support. i was super nervous to publish this so I’m grateful for your warm reception. hugs xo
I really enjoy reading your posts. Keep up the hard work. 🙂
Thank you so much Amanda! I’m so glad this resonated with you 🙂 I appreciate you stopping by! Big hugs xox
How do you write so theologically sound and yet express it in an elegant and relatable way? I am a 35 year old cradle Catholic but am nowhere near your level of understanding and writing! Yours is hands down my favorite Catholic blog and in all sincerity, you have a gift, a grace, a calling, a vocation as a Catholic writer and please always use your platform to preach the Word! 🙂
Oh my gosh, Teresalee, what a kind thing to say. Thank you friend. I am truly humbled by your generous words. Gosh. thank you from the bottom of my heart. Sending you so much love and hugs xox
so in other words this problem actually goes deeper than Christianity, every human being has ‘concepts’ in their mind, and people should stop simply considering Christianity as someone else’s religion same for any system created by our wise ancestors from Islam to Hinduism etc, we are all one people and beyond these religious systems is the truth of the universal law of love, these religious systems are created so that the human being can maintain a clear/ pure level of mind and intellect that isn’t distorted by delusion by creating right concepts becuz many simply aren’t/weren’t capable of it by themselves. So everyone universally has a habit of gathering concepts in their mind that now your mind is locked into a certain way of thinking by their concepts, and or beliefs. So we should not be having celebrations of labels or idolize concepts that lead to identification and separation based on sexuality, sexuality is constantly in delusion that is the nature of sexuality, the mind creates whatever fantasy it can to slip you into the delusion, so actually now people are idolizing their fantasy, this is the cold hard truth, we are not these things its just the mind has become conditioned to believe it, becuz maby in 5-10 years they will have some new idea of how they identify with sex in their mind or maby next week. The problem is impermanence, all ancient wise religious systems direct us to worshiping the ‘absolute’ or connecting with that diviner power at a deeper level. Now… we are celebrating surface level conditioning that it is being embedded(as identification) and celebrated? Is this good? Mby some won’t like this but what we want is a pure mind so that we can create pure things in a harmonious world, where people aren’t in opposition but co-creating this. Now forget sex, because the problem is delusion – without clarity we cannot all come to the realization that we need to stop worshiping at the altar of consumption food/sex/(gaming) anyway lets just say hedonism, becuz if everyone just keeps consuming this planet will not support us in 100 years. the only reason our resources are being wasted on feeding this consumerist attitude is because peoples minds are being fulled with wrong concepts that lead to hedonism.
Hey Caralyn!
Excellent post. Very well said. As a pastor, I love your willingness to address this…and your loving delivery makes all the difference.
Appreciate your unwavering compassionate voice.
Keep up the great work!
~Chuck
thank you so much Chuck for your support! it really means a lot — i was really nervous about posting this, so i am incredibly grateful for your warm reception. big hugs xo
what an article to post!
(i read some of the comments above…)
i appreciated your closing reflections, be that person that reflects… and journeying together…
Thanks David, I appreciate that
I love your posts. Thank you so much for finally speaking on this topic. 💛
Thank you so much Laura, I appreciate your support! Yeah nervous to post this, it it was put on my heart so i had to do it! Big hugs to you xox
Yes, I always support you girl. Love your blog so much. Sending hugs and love back to you.
✨💛✨
I would like to read this post again in ten or twenty years. My feeling is that it won’t age well. I disagree with the statement that “we don’t love people, we use people.” Has that been your experience? I’m sorry if has been, and hope that you see the world differently one day. Heed the words of the platitude just below the Patreon ad on your page: “Be an encourager, the world has plenty critics already.”
Thanks a Megan for sharing your thoughts. That statement comes from experience both personal and witnessing the world around me. And I do try to heed those words – I think my words in this post – and in my catalogue of posts – have been written with the sole intent to encourage and offer hope. Because you’re right – the world needs bright spots. I’m sorry if you don’t feel they live up to that intention. I appreciate you stopping by. Hugs and love xox
The title of your post was SPOT ON 🙂
Thank you so much Jeanne!! I’m so glad this resonated with you. Hugs and love xox
We LOVE reading your posts!! This is so good. Thank you!!
Hi Michael and Joys! Oh thank you so much! I’m so glad this resonated with you guys! I really appreciate your support. Hugs and love xox
Truth and brilliance! From one Catholic writer to another, thank you.
Thank you so much John, I really appreciate your support! This was a scary post to publish so i am grateful for your kind reception. Big hugs to you xox
You said this all very eloquently and I completely agree. Identity is so much more and ‘clearer’ when we seek God. That is why there is so much offense wrapped up in this matter, because any difference in opinion is taken as a personal attack against what they hold as the core of their identity. And as followers of Christ we know they are more than that, so much more, that He died for them, for all of us. Each broken people, searching and discovering who they really are and hungry for love. God bless!
Thank you so much Riley, I’m so glad this resonated with you. Amen – I think we’re all hungry for love! Hugs and love xox
Well said Karalyn, you are truly a voice of Providence for your generation
Thank you so much Dan – wow I am humbled by such generous words. Hugs and love xox
I appreciate you taking the chance to not put down those in the LGBTQ* community through your words and instead focus toward inclusivity and love which, through my heterosexual eyes, has always been the goal of not only Pride Month, but also Christ’s ministry. I have always held strong to the belief that we have so much more in common than we do that separates us.
Thank you so much Jordan. Yes! Common ground is a much better bridge to build than divisive thinking!! We’re on this earth to love our neighbors!! 🙂 Hugs and love xox
Is what you write about in this post not mirrored in Biblical times when other nations setup idols, temples and altars and as stated in the Bible, had all kinds of sexual immorality take place? I will never separate those identities listed in your article from those with porn addiction, or those that commit adultery. Sexual sin is sexual sin. I do not say any of this with a thread of hate in my thoughts or words, but I do say them as you said them, we live in a fallen world. I never thought I would say that I agreed with Madonna about anything, but I read this week how she hates social media and the addiction it causes because she is now dealing with that very thing with her daughter. It distorts our vision and makes us blind to “truth”.
Oh wow – Madonna is onto something! So true – social media is supposed to be a social thing and yet it actual can isolate a person. And lead to unhealthy comparisons and distortion of truth. Hugs and love xox
As always, very thoughtful and lots of wisdom.
thank you so much Barbara, I’m so glad it resonated with you 🙂 big hugs xox
Oops! Once again I got caught in my cave dwelling not knowing it is pride month. I really depend on you to tell me what is going on in the world. You are the only one to capture my attention with your wonderful, enlightening, and so very interesting, and entertaining posts. You are a treasure. Ha ha ha the “This coming from a heterosexual virgin” part is hilarious. I absolutely adore your openness and self-belittling which is the cool and endearing opposite to PRIDE excuse my pun. Since I am a many year practicing celibate male, I can relate. Thank you for your boldness for taking on this subject. You continue to be my champion, my knight in shining armor, taking on the tough issues we are faced with today. It brings back memories when I was working as a security guard in Santa Fe New Mexico when our company got the city contracts for security including the Gay Pride celebration, putting me right in the middle of it all. A truly wonderful article. Thank you again.
thank you for sharing your heart on this, and for your incredibly generous words. I am humbled by your kindness. Wow that sounds like quite the experience in New Mexico! hugs xo
When my gay brother died. I was, a part of the autopsy. He had, everything. Lots of money. A house. Friends. I had nothing, just a wannabe cop. He was jealous, that I could be myself. That, his dad loved me. I was given up early by my mother. It’s, complicated. I think, that’s why I have few attachments in life. Myself. Anyways, I always kind of thought my daughter might be gay. I certainly didn’t force school dances and dresses on her. She wanted to be Spiderman. Learn Capoeira. Boxing. Volunteer. She never liked me much but she wanted to be like me. 😂🤔 She was baptized at a mega church and later she tried to take her life. Coming out was hard for her. A lot had to do with social rules overtaking her own autonomy. She. Like, my brother thought that they had no choice against the safety net of suburban life. Of, the framework of their separate churches. If, I had to give up church forever to save either one. I would have to because it’s what dad’s do. Go to hell for their children. My daughter has found a way to live and has worked to heal that part of her soul. She even goes to church. Her church, did everything right. It was, a hard thing. We interpret, a division that might separate kids we’ve known forever. Not, just the church but our collective consciousness.
Hi Kenzie, thank you so much for sharing your experience. You are an incredible father, you know it? I’m so glad your daughter is doing well. Praise God for that. So much powerful food for thought here. hugs xo
I’m okay. I’m sure, your dad. Would have done the same.
fathers are such gems
You’re gonna be a good mom, someday.
Thank you 🙂 God willing x
Maybe meet a man bun, bearded, vegan, Bikram, firefighter, fashion designer, stock broker overachievers? 😂
Haha
I used to think, someday, someone. I feel, like I’ve tried that enough. Looking for someone, is like a part time job. Maybe that’s, gems. Waiting in the dust and rocks and passed over until someone says, “This one.”
Hang in there. They’re out there!! All in His time!
He built the world in a day. I’ve been single a decade. 😂 He, has not much to do with how we judge each other. Sorry, I said anything.