This Little Light of Mine

Upon reviewing my Twitter feed, I came upon a friend’s series of posts which quoted one Bishop Gene Robinson, who has made the following bold and completely unscriptural claims regarding God’s impending acceptance of the LGBT community (which isn’t surprising, since Robinson is gay himself).

Here are two quotes she tweeted:

“God will keep expanding that circle of ‘us’ and ‘them’ until there is no more ‘them’” -Bishop Gene Robinson

“”LGBT people have suffered at the hands of religious people…We will see the church repent of this.”- Bishop Gene Robinson 

Well. Let me begin by saying that I don’t even have to make any comments of my own since the Bible quite clearly speaks on the subject of homosexuality and its consequences, as it speaks on the creation of and nature of marriage. Marriage was instituted by God, by His rules, and cannot be changed to fit the comfort or lifestyle of those who don’t want it done God’s way. It’s not your institution, and it may be regulated by secular government, but it’s not a secular institution. Thus it cannot be secularized to the point of it being accommodating of just any two people in love, whether the same sex or not. Marriage means one man and one woman uniting for life to the exclusion of all others. Call a gay couple cohabiting a domestic partnership or civil union, but it’s not marriage and never will be, not in God’s eyes, and I’ll tell you how I know. Firstly, check out the story of the creation of man in Genesis 2, and the institution of marriage very clearly outlined in chapter 2 verse 24:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Then please check out the reference back to this verse in Matthew 19:4-6 by Jesus:

He answered, ^(G)“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said,^(H) ’Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and^(I) the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh.^(J) What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Nothing unclear about who was created to marry who. But, just to make sure it’s very plain what God thinks about homosexuality and the unions which result from it, let’s take a look at Romans 1:24ff:

 ²⁶For this reason^(AV) God gave them up to^(AW) dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another,^(AX) men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

So, just from reading these passages, we can deduce that marriage is the lifelong, God-joined union of a man and woman only, and that any homosexual activity is dishonorable, unnatural, and punishable. That’s the Bible speaking, not me. Any man who professes to have even a shred of godliness or Bible knowledge at all (which I presume this “bishop” does), should at the very least know what the word of God says. Does Robinson seek to deny the Bible says these things at all? Or does he mean to say God will make exceptions? Sounds like it. However, God preempted him long ago and made a decisive statement regarding what the consequence of such activity and unions will be in 1 Corinthians 6:9:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous^[a] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:^(A) neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,^[b] 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Thus, it becomes very clear to even a nonbeliever what the Bible says about the fate of the LGBT community. There can be no repentance for no wrongdoing. The true church (Ephesians 4:5) upholds the law and word of God, and will therefore have no need to “repent,” ever. In fact, the only one in need of repentance with regard to that statement is Robinson himself for blaspheming.

However, we do know that God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), and that He offers salvation to all (John 3:16). We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), and yet all have the hope of eternal life. No one is condemned for eternity unless they refuse to hear the gospel, believe it, repent of sin, confess Christ as Savior, and are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let’s instead focus on the hope of eternal life by repenting of ungodly earthly lusts instead of wrongly affirming we will receive the reward of acceptance for them.

 ^3(F) For the time is coming when people will not endure^(G) sound^[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,⁴and^(H) will turn away from listening to the truth and^(I) wander off into myths. 

2 Timothy 4:3-4

So, I’m seriously considering what I can craft that will make a substantial and revelatory contribution to the 8th wonder that is Etsy.com. The thing is, I’m either realllly creative or completely lacking. Last night as I was falling asleep I had the bright idea of embroidering Bible verses on mini-pillows or something. Guess which end of the spectrum I’m on right now. Help. Well, actually don’t help, because as I told Jeremy, I have a really neurotic hang-up about not being able to execute someone else’s idea and be okay with it. Any future endeavor of mine has to be 100% authentic (of my own conception). ‘Tis why I typically don’t work well in groups, unless I’m doing about 10% of the work. 

So, apart from Jeremy’s actually really cute idea about making durable and cute toys for pets (I love animals, remember?!), I decided to make a list of abstract concepts that I’m trying my darn-dest to develop into concrete cuteness. Are you loving the alliteration? I am. Comments, input, what have you to share, share, share away.

-Pet toys

-Something functional from a bygone era that women used and could use again (think not as awkward or hush-hush as a bidet but not as work-intensive and time-consuming as lace gloves)

-Something that you want to touch gingerly and collect…something applique 

-Something between paper goods (I love stationery like Papyrus and origami) and food…though I suppose I could look up old-fashioned candy recipes—though that seems so ordinary and doable by anyone

-Something that fuses spirituality and feminism…?

1. People who don’t believe in absolute truth or morals really do think they’re more intelligent, superior, and culturally heroic, don’t they? Newsflash: Postmodernism’s a JOKE.

2. I love how brave folks are on facebook/twitter. They complain, they condescend, they get really angry and really profane really fast and yet…oh! They’re safely behind a computer, away from any real confrontation or opportunities to showcase a backbone.

3. People who were once my friends in real life de-friend me on facebook because they’re offended by my beliefs and political stance…like they didn’t know this about me. Get over it. Acceptance of our differences only goes as far as acceptance of yours, right?

Let’s begin with a fist pump!: Leslie decided to become more actively involved in maintaining her blog. 

I apologize for it being so boring thus far but I’m just not a big photo-uploader…except on Facebook, on which the photos, if you have access to this post, are probably old news to you anyway. I just can’t justify taking two sets of photos or toting my camera everywhere for the sake of my blog readers. Sorry :/

But this time, I’m going to include a couple. They’ll be redundant, sure, but hey, at least my blog will be a little more colorful.

First on the news recap: Jeremy and I moved back to California! We’re thrilled…both of us. Really :) For snaps of the trip, check out my LA to CA album on Facebook. It was long, it was rough, but it was really beautiful, once we got out of Texas. However, the change in altitude and time zones caught up with us and we both ended up with traumatized sinuses. I even had to take DayTime while in Vegas to offset whatever bad, bad cold was incubating. It put a total damper on our Vegas Strip tour.

So, we went through New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada and stopped in Albuquerque, Flagstaff, and Vegas, respectively. 

Thoughts on each city/state can be conveyed by each photo below. 

Albuquerque:

Happy! We’re finally in a major city NOT in TX and somewhere I’ve never been! Also, this was taken at Sonic, where everyone’s happy to be purchasing an obscenely large drink made just how you like it.

Cool highway decor. I really like the Southwest’s art and culture.

Taken from the passenger seat, as most of my photos are, but whaaaat a landscape. I <3 the desert, for real. Cool state, NM.

Arizona: First, we stopped at Meteor Crater…

Then the Grand Canyon…

God’s handiwork - indescribable, just observable. 

We drove over the Hoover Dam…AWESOME:

Then we hit Vegas for one night, just to walk the Strip, have some dinner (we wanted to see a show, but…alas, good seats in Vegas don’t often exist for less than $250). So, we stayed at the Stratosphere (we were unaware of just how far down on the skeezy end of the Strip it was—the tickets were way cheap, so we jumped on them):

We walked the Strip, saw a few hotels…

Then I started feeling so badly we went back to the hotel. The next morning, we drove to California the Beautiful.

Annnd since we’ve been here, we’ve mainly just been enjoying the clemency of the weather and looking for work.

One day Dad, Drew, Jeremy and I all went up to Golden Gate Park to see the Birth of Impressionism exhibit at the de Young museum:

2 days after this, for the first time in my LIFE, I cut my hair off.

And I love it. So much less maintenance and frustration.

Over Labor Day, we went to visit my grandparents in the valley, during which visit we drove up to Three Rivers to eat at the Gateway restaurant (perched right outside the gateway to Sequoia National Park, I think) and eat ice cream:

Now we’re back in the Bay Area, for a couple of years, at least. 

Now, about work… just today we found out that JEREMY GOT ON AS AN INTERN WITH A COMPANY CALLED LIVEFYRE!! He’ll be doing community management for a period of about 2-3 months, and mayy end up with a full-time job following this internship!

Check LiveFyre out here: http://livefyre.com/

Please continue to pray for him and myself, as we continue our job search. Your prayers carried us safely to CA from LA, and we couldn’t be happier to be here.