Craig you said something so needed above in your post, for everyone to look at people from Gods perspective. Its always love that brings change, also im sure most people have noticed that when you focus on the positives in people, most people, whatever negatives they have eventually start to change because they start to see the positives themselves and eventually notice it in others too……if we constantly point out where people are going wrong why would they want to even try to do anything right or try something differently or if we present God as only a judge and jail sentencer, why would they want to know him in the first place? the world does a great job at judging and condemning so why would i want to follow a higher power presented as the same?

Jesus was different, he came with love, truth, healing and undoing the external facade people hide behind (position, power, religiosity, sometimes illness and hardness of heart) He showed a God of love and one who loves in truth and forgiveness and wanting to be close to his people no matter where they were at. its simple, yet still seems to be the hardest thing for people to follow. (

I really had no expectation of having any finalities in anyones journey as such when I raised the questions I did. Thats the beauty of it, no one has officially arrived so to speak. We can arrive at a place where we find peace with our creator regarding our orientation and that is a great place to get to but as in our evolving with our christianity, that will always be a continued journey, Paul said it beautifully, when he said that we are going from glory to glory. D

Its wonderful to hear the responces to the questions tho, no matter where we are at on our way through the life we lead, each of us has something wonderful and thought provoking to share, I always find something helpful that helps me on my walk thru it all and sometimes, many times, I find myself faced with things I never thought to consider.

Personally my light at the end of the tunnel was this, getting an understanding of the culture of the people in the bible, as Jannah said also the study of the scriptures myself and church history and the biggy of it all, that all have fallen short of the glory of God and we are purely saved by grace that comes through our faith in Jesus Christ and I have no-one to answer to but God and he knows my heart that I love him and no one has the right to judge the love I have for him according to their own understanding of what the measuring stick of that should be.

The people in Jesus day and there after didnt have a bible to follow, they had the word of mouth teachings of Jesus and the spreading of that good news, so are they less valued than me cause I do have a bible which spells things out in one big caboodle more than what they knew? I dont think so. Did they serve God any less or with less passion than I do or vice versa because of this? No prob. not, Im sure there are thousands stax more passionate than I will ever be anyhow….

Doesnt the bible also say that God looks at my heart and its intentions? absolutely!!! Thing is, people could throw all sorts of scripture at me and I could pull another out of my own bible to to counter it and the scripture tossing could go on and on could it not? so where does it end? you cant even necessarily get 2 straight full on pastors of a church to agree on a lot of scriptures!!! at the end of the day the question will be “who do you follow, who do you bow your knee to? who have you confessed as your lord and saviour, believing him to be the son of God? “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus”. Gal.326…….There is no condition on this, “all” are sons of God thru faith in Jesus Christ, we all have gowns of salvation because of our faith in Christ Jesus, no one is going to get to heaven perfect in any way. It will all be by grace thru Jesus.

hey Sandy……..if you could see me i’m chuckling……Sandy wrote a short post of two words…….I want to say something funny but i know that humour doesn’t always translate the same on the internet.

BTW……your location still says Central Coast….do you want to leave it to that or your curent location.

LOL 😳 I’m busy!!

You mose well leave it as the Central Coast, I don’t see how it’s really going to matter, if it bothers you then sure go ahead and change it.

I really should stop asking the same questions and expecting different answers. I could probably quote Maggie verbatim on this stuff by now. It still doesn’t satisfy me, but then thats ok, its time I stopped expecting other people to have the answer and start relying on God. It’s time to live life, not suspended in indecision but trusting that I am not the one who needs to decide. From what I gather, the more we know of God, the closer we get to fufilling his intentions for us, whatever they may be.

Oh and since we are all having a laugh…. My dad is dating a christian!! My dad, the atheist!! So funny, God cracks me up sometimes. It’s true, Gods ways are not our ways.

I’m interest Craig, what was it that brought you from the place of

I felt like I was excusing my sexuality and making it ok for me

to

I don’t have the doubt about me being Gay and Christian as I did before

. To me it seems like a pretty significant change of mind. My question I supose is, why?

Its a good question Sandy… i was reading this book “What do I say to a friend who’s Gay?” by Emily Parke Chase in the first chapter where person talks about his experience of being gay… he said “Believe it or not. I still appreciate God. But I don’t speak with him very much since the weekend in the hospital. For sure I don’t understand or like the way he sometimes allows things in my life. I still appreciate people, although I watch out and am careful an wary” pg. 22

It was a bit of a revelation to me personally why I sometimes say to God that I’m not in the mood to talk to him. Reading that chapter helped me understand that the lack of supportive environment and supportive friends and directions has already had an impact on my life as Craig Maynard… that under those circumstances it is understandable why I would feel tired and not wanting to talk to God, because, lets face it, God did not heal me. So there’s some little frustration issues that needs a bit of ironing out. Then there’s that nice slow warmth inside where I just felt that if I just stop struggling and just be… I could possibly experience that peace that is often spoken about in the bible… and yeah it got that… so if I can take another step in accepting that I can be Gay and Christian… I thought why not. Years and years of repressing, getting angry with myself, and finally acknowledging myself a bit better.

Hmmmmm I think that’s where I am at the moment.