Does two times in one week mean a habit is forming?  Both yesterday and today got a late start in writing the blog post.  Our company left this morning but said they’d like to have some of the garden veggies to take back with them.  So this am when I’d finished my devotions I went to the garden to dig potatoes and onions, pick some squash and cucumbers and finally pick a bucket of apricots.  They were planning to leave by 7:30 or so which was fine except I had to be at church by 8:00 am due to the worship I was helping lead today.  All this to say that I’m late again.  I hope this isn’t annoying to some of you that take the time to read these.

Yesterday afternoon I had a man text me that he’d like to meet as soon as we could find a common time.  His son had announced to their family that he was gay and had a partner.  This had been a troubling week for the family trying to adjust to this news and then how to handle moving forward with it.  He has recently read my book.  We are meeting tomorrow at 3:00 pm if you’d like to be praying for this time and for him and his family.  Sin is sin.  Temptation is temptation.  I say this because homosexuality is identified in scripture in some distinct ways as sin if it is taken beyond the temptation by acting on it.  Just as any other temptation becomes sin, it is all about the choice we have to surrender it to Jesus or to actively indulge in it.  This sounds so black and white to write it this way, but in reality, it is a black and white issue.  What isn’t so black and white is the struggle.  Our mind and our society have made this particular issue very perplexing from man’s point of view.  I do know that anyone with the struggle feels like they weren’t given a choice about it.  They have known this struggle from the time their sexuality began to develop.  That piece isn’t the choice we are in charge of.  The choice we take charge of is the one of stepping into the temptation to act on it.  I do not know life without same sex thoughts.  I’m sure my brother who was gay didn’t know life without them either.  What I’ve been asked is if my thoughts were due to his abuse?  I just say I don’t know and at this point in my life, it doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that I keep God’s command in scripture as my guide.  I know that the pleasure man seeks from sexual participation is strong and hard to resist.  However, we will never know the strength and pleasure God has for us if we fulfill our own gratification by choosing other than what God’s scripture says.  The sexual temptation in the heterosexual world is just as sinful if it is taken out of the bounds of marriage as scripture also states.  God gives us His directions regarding this loving act.

God’s kingdom work is before (me) us.  I ask for your prayers as I move forward on my journey.  To God be the glory!