Tag: christianity

How Can You Obey God’s Word if You Don’t Read or Hear God’s Word?

God is full of so much love for individuals in the world that He would rather let Jesus undergo the suffering of dying on a bloody cross than to be without those he saves for eternity. With this kind of devoted love from God, that should peak the interest in hearing what He has to say, yes?

Even though many have apprehended this reality, many who are aware of this put the word on the back burner. What God has spoken through His word, because of who he is alone, makes His words worth being read, studied, and applied!

What can we infer from John 6:46? It reads, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Can we expect God to take into consideration how we respond to His Lordship when He judges us at the end of time? We who hear God’s word and have confessed Jesus as Lord, should we not judge ourselves ahead of time in this life and answer with honesty the question “are we LIVING in proper response to His Lordship??”

In order to live according to His Lordship, we must know what God tells us about how to live in His Word. What should be said to a person who finds little pleasure in God’s word in this life? According to Psalm 119, King David spent 176 verses expressing his delight in God’s word. King David’s reflection on God’s works, precepts, commands, decrees, judgments, ordinances and the words God used to express Himself was one of affection, honor, and reverence. David’s approach inspires all who read it the same kind of delight and honor of God’s word.

Not in replacement of faith, but in combination with faith, certainly the element of obedience to the word must get factored into the measurement God will use to distinguish the people who belong to Him at the end of time from those who don’t. The only obedience to God that there IS in existence anywhere on the part of a person who says they follow God, is to obey God’s Word, the Bible, and not to follow merely the commands of men! Obedience is not the method of salvation, but obedience is found in every life where Jesus is truly Lord.

There is NO REPLACEMENT for reading or listening to the word of God! The more we know God’s word, the more His word will challenge us to obey Him, prompt us in our growth, and become a living part of us. We will be in awe of God because we will have made room in our hearts as Mary and Joseph sought a place to abide with Jesus in the Inn. Our hearts can easily become filled with the business this world offers, like the Inn that was full of other business as Mary and Joseph first found. Let us learn from the Biblical example given to us, and work at making room for Jesus to have a proper place through his word to be laid in our hearts! Let us prepare ourselves to have value for and affection for His word that shows His Lordship over us and that we belong to Him! LG

Can God Change the LGBTQIA+, the Non-Binary Person, or Person With a Different Gender Identity Than What They Were Born With?

by Lisa Groen

I use the pronoun “he” or “they” many times to describe heterosexual men and women, LGBTQIA+, binary, non-binary, and people with a different gender identity than what they were born with throughout this post.

I am making these statements based on a fundamental belief that God tells us what the definition of sin is and God is the only one who has the solution to sin.

I am making these statements based on what God gives as the solution to sin for the heterosexual, the binary person, the LGBTQIA+, the non-binary person, and person with identity issues which is something called repentance which God can give freely to any person who agrees with God about his sin.

The person who is willing to repent and wanting to repent must agree with God’s definition of sin and turn from that lifestyle of sin that they have as either an unsaved binary or unsaved non-binary person or as an unsaved person with identity issues.

The Bible states that God accepts everyone who comes to him for help to be free from sin.

This is salvation. God’s salvation is spoken of in the Bible and is available to the heterosexual person and in the SAME FULL WAY to the LGBTQIA+, the binary, the non-binary person and to the person with a different gender identity than what they were born with.

There are conditions for all said people that God places upon them in order for them to have a faith in God that results in salvation and thus results in being in heaven with God for eternity.

The conditions are that God wants everyone no matter the group they are in to leave his life of sin by faith and turn to Jesus the Lord of Heaven and earth who gave his righteousness through dying on the cross for that sinner to receive (Jesus’) righteousness and forgiveness.

FREE GIFTS FROM GOD FOR THIS:

Faith in Jesus The Lord is a free gift of God

Repentance from Jesus is a free gift Jesus gives to sinners

Jesus’ forgiveness is a free gift he gives to sinners

Bearing fruit in keeping with repentance is a free gift but we must mix our faith with God’s command to bear fruit for God.

Following Jesus is a command of God that is a free gift but we must mix our faith with this command and follow Jesus through scripture

God’s word is a free gift we can find in many places on the internet. Abiding in the Word of God is a command that we must follow by mixing our faith with it which simply means to go through the Bible to learn His Word well so we can get a good understanding of what the words of God are we should be abiding in. The more we study the Bible and understand it the more we get better at abiding in it. Abiding in the word is part of the supernatural relationship God gives the believer to equip him to recognize his sin and overcome his sin by the power of the Spirit of God day by day.

What overcomes sin in the believer’s life?—The power of God’s Spirit working through the life of a person who comes to God as any of the above groups of people. The power of the Spirit is a FREE gift.

What will the result be for the heterosexual person who came to Christ and the LGBTQIA+, binary, non-binary person, or person with a different sexual identity than what they were born with who came to Christ? THE RESULT WILL BE THE SAME FOR EACH OF THE HETEROSEXUAL, LGBTQIA, BINARY, NON-BINARY, AND DIFFERENT GENDER THAN WHAT THEY WERE BORN WITH PERSON=EACH WILL RECEIVE AN IDENTITY CHANGE THAT COMES FROM GOD. No group can pursue their old identity and maintain a growing relationship with God; we, all of us MUST PURSUE CHRISTLIKENESS as our new identity. This New Identity is a free gift from God. It is not something we muster up in our own strength. It is a supernatural free gift of an identity change.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 reads “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; (Such were some of you means some were homosexuals, (pursuing same sex relationships–some were full of other kinds of sin, sin is an identity issue in God’s book) but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” This passage talks about God changing people to prepare them for freedom from sin and gives them a holy lifestyle of Christlikeness for eternity with Him

Can God change anyone? Yes! Can God give us the power to pursue Him? Yes? This is called bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. The identity change God makes in a person through salvation is supernatural, and will result in the person taking on Christlikeness, aligning their pronoun, gender, and sexual orientation, and spiritual pursuits, with the Biblical sexual orientation of Christ-followers, spiritual pursuits of Christ-followers, and becoming binary. Before I came to Christ I had the identity of a thief, I had the identity of a liar, I had the identity of someone who did not respect some authority figures, I had the identity of a person who cursed, I mocked, I was arrogant, I was hostile at my dad for the abuse me and my siblings suffered and mad at my mother for letting it happen. I carried bitterness around and a snarky attitude. Probably a lot of other things! Did God change me? YES! I ended up with a wonderful relationship with my dad before he died. I am not perfect, but I was giving to my mother and helped with her care and was patient with her and overlooked her tendency toward passivity in order to build a relationship with her and realized she needed people to understand her and that there were people she did not trust. I gave up selfishness in a lot of ways and found it is more blessed to give than receive. I still could give more to others around me, but I am growing. I gave up lying to follow the truth and speak the truth of God. I gave up bitterness because I had been forgiven, I gave up cursing because I had been blessed and in order to praise God, I gave up snarky-ness order to be a better friend to people because Jesus was a friend to me when I was not easy to get along with. I gave up pursuing emotions that made me bitter because I saw Jesus had a better way of life for me.

Most of all, I am an example to every LGBTQIA+, non-binary person, or person with a gender identity different from what they were born with out there. I have not pursued romance since 2013. Although I was never struggled with gender identity issues and never been tempted to pursue a same sex relationship for dating or romance, I did pursue heterosexual romantic relationships for a while during my walk with God. I am an example now for how to not pursue romance of any sort for the last 10 years but live simply for God. The Lord Jesus has given me the gift of celibacy and I don’t feel a need to get married, so I don’t date. I have joy and happiness in the Lord although I am celibate. I have a new identity in Christ different than when I first came to Christ years ago with multiple sin patterns in my life that controlled my life until He changed me. It was a free gift! I have a Christ-like identity now thanks to the grace of God which changed me! LG