(2 minutes read)
A couple of years ago I was at the airport waiting to board a flight when a lady quickly told me as she passed me by: “you are against homosexuals”. Her words caught me by surprise and I tried to learn why she told me that but we couldn’t interact much as she was running late to her flight.
According to what I figured, as she saw me in uniform her words weren’t addressed to me personally but to the Salvation Army. The little I could understand from our rapid exchange was that her homosexual son had had a bad experience with the Army, therefore she unburdened herself with the first salvationist she could find and it happened to be me.
This episode made me very sad because neither the Salvation Army nor I are against homosexuals. We salvationists do not encourage homosexuality but we are not against the homosexuals. The Army has one of the biggest networks of social work in the world and cares for all without discrimination of ethnicity, gender or religion. In fact, no organization in the world has probably cared for more homosexuals than the Salvation Army.
A person is not sinful because of its gender identity but because of its humanity. The Bible teaches that sin entered the world through Adam and passed on to all people. On the other hand also teaches that Jesus brought the antidote to sin when he died on the cross for all. Regardless of gender all people need to accept his sacrifice to get rid of the condemnation from sin.
To follow Jesus however implies to abandon the old practices derived from our human nature and embrace the new practices in line with our master’s divine one. This is true for all of us, heterosexuals, homosexuals or lesbians.
- Which practices from the human nature should you abandon?
- Which practices from the divine nature should you adopt?
(Sinful nature, Romans 5:12 / Sinless life, 1 John 1:6-9)
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ReplyDeleteYes praayer is the best way to deal with our humanity! Many blessings!
DeleteCommissioner this is a very serious topic especially here in Africa! We are struggling to address this problem, especially since the Army is now accepting Homosexuals to become officers. If we are not careful we might loose people especially in rural areas where the issue of homosexuality is still a Taboo! My advice will be, the Army should take it easy and not to come across as people who are in support of homosexuality! Yes we can love ❤️ them, but we need to be careful ❗️ of the people that we are recently accepting in CFOT or even Mission Team
DeleteThe fact that South African law allows for same sex marriage reveals that the issue is already out there. If we like it or not, that is the context in which our children will grow. We must learn to share the Gospel in a non judgemental way trusting that the Holy Spirit will convince people of sin, righteousness and judgment. Many blessings!
DeleteMuchas gracias Comisionado..muy buena reflexion..gracias por compartir suvblog..bendiciones y csriños desde Chile
ReplyDeleteEs mi placer compartir, gracias por leer. Bendiciones!
DeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteBut it’s very difficult because I feel as if we are been forced to make homosexuality a norm, we are forced to accept homosexuality. Those who are practicing it especially here in Southern Africa Territory, they don’t understand that we do not have a problem with them but we do not encourage their lifestyle. TC, they are so many questions that we are facing down here in our Corps as Officers regarding this issue. One of those questions would be “Why homosexuals are not allowed to enter Training College?. Others would say “ If you say you don’t encourage this, why do we have male Officers, some of them recently commissioned, who are part of our team “Gays and Lesbians”, and they promising to expose those officers! This is a very difficult issue and I don’t know how we are going to overcome it😔
I would encourage you to carefully read the "Parable of the Weeds" told by Jesus in Matthew 13 24-30. The responsibility of the Church is not to remove weeds but care for the whole plantation not judgementally. Many blessings!
DeleteLa biblia dice. Que los afeminados no entraran en el reino de los cielos, pero todo aquel que abraza la cruz y sigue a Jesus y abandona toda práctica pecaminosa alcanzará salvación.
ReplyDeleteLa salvación no es por mérito humano pero for la fé en el mérito divino! Por la fé en el sacrificio de Jesus en la cruz. Bendiciones!
DeleteAs Christians, we never accept homosexuality as normal because it is against biblical principles, but we will always love homosexuals because Christ also died for them.
ReplyDeleteExactly, as painful as it might be, we cannot abandon those for whom Jesus died for! Many blessings!
DeleteI pray for those who are in the closet to be brave and come out, for their liberation of course!!!
ReplyDeleteCertainly we must pray for each other, and build each other up! Many blessings!
DeleteVery interesting to read these comments. More special to understand what others say about the topic.
ReplyDeleteTaking from the the link posted by our Commissioner. I have read the whole story. Then from the comments side., I then get lost where unonymous wrote using other language which is not English and the TC responded on the 6th March. In other language. What I like is that as christans we are not judging people but to take care of them. Following the Bible's principles.
The other language you read is Spanish. Here goes what I wrote on the 6th: "Salvation is not throug the human merit but through faith in the divine merit! Through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross." Many blessings
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