Its very interesting and I will thank a friend for pointing this out, but its interesting that a post about Anthonys book at koorong has opened up such a strong post. Sounds like we should open a post just for the very things we are discussing here……..would anyone agree?

The Bible certainly is peoples experiences with God (plus fact as in events and numbers) and were well thought out by the people who put the old/new testament together as in what should be included in a book of instruction and what should not because it was more of a diary entry or their were no parchments to support the letter supposedly written by whom ever (im sure there were other things written by the apostles that either got lost or were as i wrote just more a diary entry so to speak).

Since the same Holy Spirit spoke to the men of old as the one that speaks today, people do still receive instruction and direction, sometimes individually and sometimes as a church, but not everyone will receive the same instruction and not every church (as a body) will receive the same instruction. Paul says the church is the body of christ and every member has its own function, joined by ligaments etc…that he goes into, hence the reason diff. churches are well known for diff. things,eg focus more on the poor, prison ministry the list goes on……..and so it is with our own lives, we have diff. giftings and placements to serve a God given personal destiny.

Sandy you are right that somethings will not be the benchmark for all christians to follow since it is given by God to us alone, Jannah made a point that she sensed God saying that celibacy is better but if u choose not to be that way then thats ok too, I have been getting the same witness as her in the last few days…..it does fit with a scripture regarding the different wills for our life in God. The point of this as I speak is this, if God had witnessed to you that he wants you single for this time (since we know not the future) then go with what he says, I do the same and we all do our best to usually follow what God wants for us individually…….yes there are things we are all to do but God being personal will personalise somethings (same as peter was married but paul never had a witness to do so).

So in saying all of this, the way my life experiences are, is fact for me because for me personally i have evidence beyond a doubt of what i have experienced and at times my own experience has helped direct(very different to command)others in a certain direction where they either avoid certain things or if not then they have there own first hand experience to go by, so that is why I listen and ponder peoples journeys, give some things a go(step out in faith) and if its wrong for me then God will give me that witness or “gut feeling” and hopefully i will respond. (all this comes with trial and error but eventually u do get to recognise his voice and his grace is there for us to err. even to challenge some things because he knows the heart of why we are challenging)

Well, i will finish here before i go into a full blown sermon lol but I just felt I needed to write this………..It is true that in writing its hard to get some things across that work better with verbal communication, so hopefully one day we can do that, it would be great D

Geez I knew my post would raise some eyebrows but I never expected this…

Actually I have spoken to people who activly take part in gay sexual relationships and are not totally 100% convinced that they are doing the right thing. I think there is even some posts about it on here. Obviously this isn’t your experience. Basically it comes down to us disagreeing on wheather people ought to be in same-sex relationships. I disagree with your stated convictions, to me they are a testement to the persuasive false teaching that is unfortunatly out there. I have the utmost respect for you as a person Jannah, we disagree but there is no reason why we can’t still live in harmony with each other, respecting your seperate views.

Hey Maggie, do I get a gold star? 🙂

I can’t remember if I even made a connection to Anthony’s book in my post. It originated from me re-reading an e-mail he sent me, but thats another story.

I get that alot of people’s ‘conviction’ is based on personal testimony from the holy spirit and well what can I say except that while thats good for you it means little to me because it’s such a personal thing, and well we have had this discussion before.

and that is the beauty of discussion isn’t it Sandy that we disagree and it is not personal at all even though such a personal thing is being discussed. That is why freedom2b is so important…

this can not be freely discussed in an open dialogue in many places and i appreciate and love your entrance into my world. Though at times it pushes my healing wounds… it keeps me thinking and growing..

cheers sandy

See below for my response from koorong regarding a request for Anthony’s book. Directly below is my letter in response to Koorong’s letter.

I find it sad that this has been deleted. It was really what i was looking for. I was looking for something to round out my study. So that i could endeavour to have a holistic approach, however contraversial. Are there any other books of this calibre, or in this genre that are not from a conservative stand point within Koorong.

I question my use of Koorong if it going to shy away from different religious standpoints, just because it is controversial. I dont believe it is controversial, just a difference of opinion. It only becomes controversial whenever someone (note: God is not involved in this process) complains….. this saddens me and lowers my respect in Koorong.

Sincerely,

Jannah Burgess

——————————————————————————–

> Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:47:27 +1100

> From: [email protected]

> Subject: Re: a book that was stocked (fwd)

>

> Dear Jannah,

>

> Thanks for your email.

>

> Unfortunately this book is no longer stocked by Koorong due to its

> contraversial content, but there are many other books which can help you

> in this field and here is the weblink:

>

> http://orders.koorong.com.au/search/search.jhtml?key=homosexuality&context=&action=go

>

>

> Kind Regards,

>

> Sue

> Koorong Customer Service

Conviction comes from finding what we each perceive to be truth. This ‘truth’ is relative and is not the same for everyone. That does not mean that we are all right, some of us must be misguided if so many people say conflicting things. An Islamic person can be very convicted in their beliefs, the only place it’s going to get them is a one-way ticket to hell.

Hey sweety, I kind of cringed a little with that statement… you remember that story about Abraham and his wife Sarah was baren so he took on a concubine and she bore him a son… then later Sarah bore Abraham a boy too…. according to their law the eldest boy gets everything and Sarah manage to convince Abraham to “get rid” of the boy and his mother. They were sent out into the Desert and God heard them and provided them with water and looked after them… they became the Arabs which became Islam… so technically they are our brothers.

Islam believes in Christ, you can’t be a pracitising muslim following Islam if you don’t beling in Christ… I have this belief that God is so massive and huge… that this world fits into the palm of his hand… different people respond to God in different ways… can you imagine that there is only just the one church and set of beliefs… in the whole world… it’d be boring, no real growth… you remember babylon… how God scatterd the people into linguistic mintories…. they develop their own cultures and beliefs… We just have to believe that God is in every religions meeting peoples needs differently. Smile.

Craig.