*NOTE! Sexual terms used ahead! *

I started writing this post a few months ago. My Google calendar says June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month so I’m posting this in honor of June, sharing the Albany and Ottawa Tulip Festivals in honor of May.

Have you noticed the growing list of choices on the list when asked your gender on a form? Male, female, bisexual, transgender, homosexual…I wonder if they will add more? As a matter of fact, the 2022 Albany Tulip Festival Queen is the first non-binary queen for the festival. I notice the last form I saw said to choose the gender that’s on your birth certificate. What does God’s Word say about gender?

²⁶ 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 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.

Genesis 1:26-27

From the metaphors God uses to describe Himself

in the Bible, male and female qualities are both clear. As I study the Bible, it’s becoming evident that God is neither male nor female, but at the same time, male and female. He took parts of Himself to create male and female humans who become one complete unit during the act of marriage (sexual intercourse). God wastes nothing in creation, so He created all our parts to complement each other. Science has discovered the male and female reproductive systems are an inversion of each other, which is how they fit together.

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.”

Genisis 1:28

God blessed male and female as partners, created to reproduce their own kind just as He made all the animals to reproduce their own kind. So, all living things on earth reproduce their own kind and we have various breeds of dogs, cats, etc. but not mixtures like dog-cats or raccoon-skunks. Apple trees are grafted to create several types of apples from the same tree, but they haven’t crossed them with grapes. We have crossed plumbs and apricots to make pluots, but not apricots and black berries.

In the same way, humans having sex with an animal will not produce a half-man like mythology would like us to believe. Same-sex relationships cannot produce a baby unless a female partner is impregnated by another method, or they adopt. Our sex is determined in our DNA. Even if you take enough hormones to change some bodily features, your DNA is still XX or XY. A penis does not turn into a vagina, or vise-versa, without the skills of a plastic surgeon.

John 10:10 The thief [devil] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Jesus did not come to condemn people, but to make a way for us to be freed from the power and damage of sin and death. The devil and human depravity seek to steal, kill, lie and destroy. God has a plan; a destiny, for each baby before they are conceived in a mother’s womb. Each baby killed by abortion, each same sex couple not having children, each person’s life marred by sexual exploitation that’s afraid to have children; these are just a few ways the enemy of our souls keep God’s purposes from being fulfilled.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

God has a purpose for each and every child that is conceived. Who are we to end a life? Are you glad your parents chose life for you? I realize life is not perfect. I know every one of us has had damage from others who did not love us properly. But…

Jesus came to reconcile all things the devil and evil, loveless, human hearts have destroyed. He forgave us sinners so we can forgive others. The true, sacrificial love of God in Christ Jesus covers a multitude of sins. Which brings me to a little book I just read.

This weekend I read Recipe For Life Feasting On God’s Grace by Tim Wesemann. This book is full of Scriptures to help you feed on the grace of God in Christ and covers setting the table, saying grace, appetizers, soup or salad (making choices), the entree (main thing), side dishes, desserts [sweet blessings], and after-dinner music and a mint. Each chapter has a few recipes at the end and T. Wesemann teaches you how to feast on the Word. This book has some of my favorite scriptures all gathered in one book, small enough to easily carry around. Published in 2006, you can find a copy for less than a dollar on Amazon and it would make a great gift [there’s a to-from page at the beginning]. I actually picked this one up at a fundraising sale for Ukraine in our area.

Ephesians 4:14 … that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

With the aid of this book, Let’s damage the dark, evil plans of our enemy by practicing love, forgiveness, and restoration of relationships. Let us spur each other on, speaking the truth in love and acting in loving ways, even if it’s tough love, toward those God places around us.

Shalom my dear readers, until we meet again.