Greetings!
I had just left the Summer of my 4th grade year and it was my first day in the 5th grade. Yep! Nine or ten years old and so full of mischief. Our teacher (she had dull red hair, pulled back into a bun - I remember that much) spoke to us about "Idiosyncrasy" and while defining the word she said she could be considered "idiosyncratic" because she (and her family) did not have a Television.
She was very engaging though; I remember thinking that I liked her. During the discourse she happened to use the word "gay" and heard the class snicker. Of course she meant "happy" or "joyful" but was curious because she suspected that the meaning of the word might have changed over the summer.
Since then everyone in the world knows what the term "means" and nobody snickers anymore. Schools have changed. So have we. Knowledge is being poured out onto the whole earth. Will wisdom follow? Hold onto your hats, kids - I think it may.
In the meantime I've pondered some of the terms that I've heard. When I ponder such things, and if I do this well, it is with a bible in my hands and only then after having asked that I am guided by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is absolutely Holy, there is less than zero sin there (if you get my meaning): Holy and separate from sin. When speaking about sexual sin I've heard men use the word "Abomination" and something stuck in my craw about that.
So here I am studying... and I find myself in Proverbs:
The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.
The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.
I turn to the next chapter (chapter 11) and see:
Pro 11:1
A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
Pro 11:2
When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.
Imagine that! But then, add to this the following:
Pro 20:23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.
Pro 20:24 Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Pro 20:25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry.
It is therefore my heart to understand that the Word of God makes no distinction between one man's sin and another. God is no respecter of persons. Provision has been made for each man. Each and every one who calls out, who asks, who seeks shall be brought to the simple truth. Our main commandment, the First of the two great commandments is to Love God. To love Him with our whole hearts, with all our mind and with all our strength. I believe that nobody save Jesus has done this perfectly but that He was the firstfruit of the earth.
I further believe that we of the church can not actually love God unless we love our neighbor. How can we love the invisible if we can not love the visible? When the word of God went to the Gentiles it went to all of them. Not one was outside of the net of corruption that had been cast over each an every sinner. But now we hear a new voice. This one says,
"Come and I will make you followers of men." == ahhhhh.... wait, I'll try again... This one says,
"Come and I will make you FISHERS of men."
Our God is a
master fisherman. He desires to strengthen His net (us) and bind us together in true bonds of love and it doesn't matter the depth of sin we've individually come from. I've spoken to Christians who were ex-Satanists, to those who were deeply involved in Witchcraft and Sorcerers and those hopelessly addicted to drugs and to those enslaved to "various flavors" of sexual sin. I'm fairly sure we each have. One thing in common to all of us though - at some point in time God breathed his Word into us -- we heard. The 'hearing' is also God given -- He causes us to hear. And then we were given the grace to turn toward Him and away from that which had ensnared and enslaved.
Consider this: God is infinite. Infinity minus X = infinity. I like math, maybe you do too? This means that it is just as easy (and just as 'difficult') for God to create the entire universe as it is for Him to any thing we might consider "small". It is as easy for him to shake the Mountain while he spoke to the children of Israel in the desert as it is for Him to speak to my heart. The same amount of effort. We are more valuable than Creation. We learn to trust Him even as we follow Him, yes?
The same promise that is given to you is also the same one that I oftentimes desperately cling to: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow! I've been in a place where I thought I was permanently slidden back. My comment? That place may be worse than what is considered being "gay".
This is the time that is spoken of in the parable:
For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, "Because no man hath hired us". He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
It must be the 11th hour now right? My conclusion is evidenced upon cripples like me given their hire. Oh! lol - even though the KJV translates the wage as a "penny" I understand that what was offered was a "days wage" - the amount of pay equal to what it costs to live. You probably knew that already, just saying...
~Sparrow
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Interesting sidenote: Per Chabad.org >>> Jewish Calendar >>> Hours:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/526872/jewish/Hours.htm:
The hour has a special meaning in Jewish law. "The third hour of the day" doesn't mean 3:00 a.m., or three sixty-minute hours after sunrise. Rather, an hour in halacha is calculated by taking the total time of daylight of a particular day, from sunrise until sunset,1 and dividing it into twelve equal parts. A halachic hour is thus known as a sha'ah zemanit, or proportional hour, and varies by the season and even by the day.
For example, on a day when the sun rises at 5 a.m. and sets at 7:30 p.m., one sha'ah zemanit, or proportional hour, will be 72.5 minutes long. The third hour of the day will come to a close at 8:37:30 a.m.
