Tag: grace

Gender Confusion?

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*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.

https://www.albany.com/things-to-do/tulip-festival/

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?

Shutterstock photo Ottawa, Canada Tulip Festival

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.

Pluots – Bing Images

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.

Tim Wesemann

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.

First Peter Chapter 1

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Glory!

As I stepped onto my deck at 7 a.m. this morning, I was under a canopy of clouds, in the presence of Father God. I hope my neighbors heard me yell, “Halleluiah, what a Savior! Thank You Father for a new day!” For today’s post, I have tarried in 1 Peter chapter 1 and want to share some insights from Holy Spirit as we begin with Peter’s ‘Greeting to the Elect Pilgrims’.

1 Peter:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Peter was not writing just to these pilgrims, but also to those of us who have come after. All of us who are Believers are part of the elect according to God’s foreknowledge of us. The Spirit sanctifies us, accomplished in us by obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. As we walk in obedience and sanctification, grace and peace multiply in our lives. Do you believe He sanctifies you; not by works of righteousness you have done, but according to Father God’s mercy? Let’s dig into the Heavenly inheritance we have.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Our Father God has blessed us with abundant mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a living hope that will never end; it’s living and growing in us daily. Halleluiah, the power of God shall keep us through faith; which comes from God and grows in us. Therefore, we have hope. Why do we rejoice?

6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

We rejoice in this salvation even as we find grief in these trials all around us. These trials come to test our faith, its goal found in Jesus Christ. Blessed is he that has not seen Christ, but loves Him anyway. What inexpressible joy comes as we trust Jesus! The prophets and angels wonder.

10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

Image result for prophets of old photo

Rejoice that you are experiencing what the prophets faithfully proclaimed, even though they did not understand how their words would come to pass. Angels question and marvel at the salvation we enjoy. They cannot experience what we do as we triumph in Jesus’ sufferings and glory. Don’t waste all that we have in Christ Jesus!

13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Our hope rests in the grace brought to us with the revelation of Jesus Christ in us. This grace increases as we obey and turn away from fleshly lusts and ignorance. We all wonder how to become holy as He is; it comes from communion with the Lord and walking daily in His presence.

17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

This paragraph explains the worth of our lives in view of Christ’s sacrifice. God’s work which gave our Messiah glory empowers us to put faith and hope in God. The last section of this chapter explains the endurance of God’s Word and what glory there is in the Gospel and reason for spreading it far and wide!

22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because “All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Dear friends, join me as I stand on God’s promises and follow the Lord into victory through these times Father God chose for us to be on this earth. Shalom dear readers!