Tag: homosexual

What to Expect When You’re Different

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Once more, Dear Abby comes through with something that I can use.

A letter to her this morning was from a woman who gave a friend’s 18-year old son an “adult” birthday card that was from a men’s boutique shop. After reading it he cried and ran to his room; his mother read it and asked the woman to leave their house. The problem later was revealed that he identifies sexually as a “their”, not male or female (or anything else that I’ve ever heard of) and the mother said the friendship was over.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The message for today has nothing to do with the boy’s sexual orientation (or lack, thereof) but instead with his and the mother’s reactions. It is obvious that the card-giver had no idea of the boy’s orientation and assumed that he was heterosexual. It’s not like he wore a sign saying, “I prefer androgynous boys to girls”, which is what the mother said his orientation was.  That being said, his childish tantrum in reaction to an innocently presented birthday card, which was supported by his over-protective mother, was uncalled for.

Here’s the segue into today’s message: the boy’s sexual orientation is not considered, even in today’s ultra-liberal viewpoint, as the normal sexual orientation for a male. As such, he is different.

When someone chooses to obey the instructions in the Bible that God gave to us (which are found in the first 5 books, called the Torah), that person will not be considered normal by the majority of the people in the world. At some point in their life, when a Believer is confronted by someone who doesn’t know their “spiritual orientation” and treated to a dirty joke, or given a pork sandwich to eat, or possibly subjected to some pretty foul language, should the Believer cry and run away?

Of course not.

And after asking the person to please stop cursing, or to please not tell those types of jokes in my presence, or to politely refuse the sandwich, explaining that as a God-fearing person these things are somewhat disagreeable to me, the difference will become obvious. And then what can be expected will be some form of harassment. Hopefully not, but in reality being different isn’t generally accepted by other people, and they treat you with disdain and (often) cruelty.

The 18-year old boy over-reacted and showed immaturity, which demonstrated that he wasn’t ready to go out into the world as a “their” and work or live among people who won’t accept his lifestyle. The mother also has (obviously) coddled him to the point where he isn’t able to face rejection. She certainly isn’t helping him, at all, to be able to live as he wants to.

Someone who is “Born Again” must have the opposite reaction when they demonstrate being spiritually, and thereby, behaviorally different from others. The way we should react to those who ridicule, disapprove or disagree with us is to be kind, mature, and self-assured. When I say self-assured, I mean to remain faithful; Yeshua told his Talmudim (Disciples) not to worry about what they should say when brought before officials, but rather to trust in the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to give them what they need.

This poor, confused and insecure 18-year old should have been able to accept the card with dignity, and if he wanted to, could have gently explained about his sexual orientation and how the card wasn’t really appropriate for him, but thank the giver for their thought. That, in my opinion, would have demonstrated maturity and comfortability this boy had with his sexual orientation.

We, as Believers, need to show that we are comfortable and secure in our faith. We shouldn’t react angrily or hurt when someone is surprised or even nasty to us because of our beliefs. Likewise, we should never try to force it down someone else’s throat or threaten them with destruction in hell for not believing, and never, ever insult their lifestyle or life choices. We should confidently and compassionately confirm our choice by explaining why we accepted Yeshua and why we want to honor God and show our thanks for all he does for us through obedience to the instructions he gave us in the Torah.

If you cannot do this, you need to work on your spiritual maturity and your faith in God; being faithful is not something everyone else has to be, it is something YOU have to be!

I will end with a quote from one of my favorite trilogies, “The Matrix.” When Morpheus demonstrates his faith in Neo, and Commander Locke says, “Not everyone believes as you do.”, Morpheus replies, “My faith doesn’t require that they do.”

My faith is between me and God, and your faith is between you and God- what someone else believes should not have any influence on you, but by the demonstration of your faithfulness through your actions, you may be able to have some influence on them.

Thank you for being here. Please don’t forget to subscribe and share me out.

I will be closing out the Ugandan Messianic Synagogue campaign to raise funds to send them Bibles, Talits, and copies of my books (which they asked for) at the end of next week, so if you haven’t contributed or this is the first time you have seen this, please consider..on second thought, there isn’t that much time left, so just go ahead and donate something to this very worthy cause. Here is the link to the Gofundme site:

Ugandan Messianic Synagogue Project

I always welcome comments, and all I ask is that you be nice.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

AT&T Recognizes Gay Marriages as a Viable Market

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No video today. I have been gone for almost two weeks because I was on vacation (I don’t post on a public forum that I will not be home for a week.) The first week Donna and I were on an anniversary cruise, the second week I have been home suffering from a kidney stone that appeared the third day of the cruise (it didn’t ruin the cruise but it certainly placed a damper on it.) Today is the first day I feel better, after two operations over the past five days.

Watching TV last night I couldn’t believe what I saw.

I saw a commercial for AT&T services. It had a young female with short dark hair saying she was an “okay” babysitter. Her part was written so that she is a Bimbo, and the two parents are getting more and more concerned about leaving their children with her because she just doesn’t seem to know what she is doing. The point being that okay isn’t good enough, so we should use AT&T to get the most reliable service.

What does this have to do with my title? The two parents were both men.

Now, before anyone who is a member of the LGBTQ community comes down on me, I am not saying anything against you. In fact, I have often posted that homosexuality is as normal a part of society as anything else because it has been around as far back as the ancient world.

As a God-fearing man, I don’t condone or accept homosexuality and recognize it as a sinful lifestyle, but then again, so is lying, adultery and all the other sins people commit that are just as normal a part of our society.

I am writing about this because there are two messages here: one is obvious and the other is more subliminal.

First off, you need to understand that Sales and Marketing is not a social or economic science- it is based on the science of psychology. I was in Sales for over 15 years and I can tell you, absolutely, that it is based solely on psychological manipulation. To be a good salesperson or marketing professional you need to understand how people think, their basic nature and how to get them to tell you what they desire, even if they don’t really know what it is, themselves. In other words, you have to be able to make them believe that, on their own, they came to the answer you have given them.

Next, you need to also know that when a section of society is viewed by marketing professionals to have enough economic influence to be a target for their advertising, they will advertise directly to them.

Now, back to the messages: the obvious message is that AT&T’s marketing experts have determined the LGBTQ community has enough economic power to be addressed as a separate and unique market. For those people who are members of that community, this should be seen as a major feather in their cap, so to speak, because to some degree it shows they are an accepted member of our society.

The subliminal message that is of concern to me is the same exact thing: that this lifestyle is being shown to be as acceptable as the traditional heterosexual family unit. The subtle psychological manipulation is while people are consciously focused on the Bimbo babysitter, subliminally they are made to believe that a same-sex parent family unit is normal.

No matter how anyone feels about homosexuality, history has shown it to be a failure with regards to societal advancement. Look at Sodom, Gomorrah, ancient Rome, ancient Greece, and other nations throughout history that have had homosexuality as an accepted part of their society. Those that have survived until today are in ruins, and the others, well…they just aren’t here anymore.

How can there be gay Pastors marrying each other? Whoever heard of an LGBTQ church or Gay Christians, which is the epitome of an Oxymoron? And what about the traditional synagogues and churches who are supporting the LGBTQ community? One would think this couldn’t be, yet these things exist in our society, so what are we to do about it?

I don’t think there is anything we can do about it.  It is here, we don’t have to like it or accept it, but we do have to learn to live with it. It has been here since Day 1 and will not go away until the Messiah returns, the Apocalypse is over, the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven, yadda-yadda-yadda. When God’s plan of salvation is complete, then this lifestyle will no longer exist. For those who are members of this community, all I can say is you still have time to reconsider.

There can be no argument that human sexuality is proven by science to be composed of both physical (hormonal) and psychological influences. With today’s technological advancements in medicine, anyone can choose to change their sexual orientation and even their physical gender. Even if one wants to argue there is no choice, there is the opportunity to make a choice.

So there you have it! Those of us who worship God as he says we should and have traditional, heterosexual relationships are going to have to get used to homosexual relationships. We don’t have to condone or like it, we can talk against it, but it will not go away. This is what the Bible says will happen, so in some way, I am willing to embrace it as a necessary part of the overall plan of salvation.

It is like the kidney stone I have been struggling with for nearly two weeks now. I drink water to clear out the system, knowing that evacuation of that water will be very painful, but I still drink more. I know that I have to deal with this and that it won’t go away until it goes away.

So, too, with the way the world is heading. Destruction is coming and the society we live in, as well as the political events happening all over the world, are telling us, absolutely, that the end is really getting close.

We all have free will to choose how we will live. I have made my choice, and you have to make yours. All I can say is that I hope you choose wisely.

 

Parashah Ki Tesa (when you take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

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Wow! This parashah is really full of such wonderful stuff: the formula for the incense, God giving the Torah to Moshe (twice, in fact), the sin of the Golden Calf, the sacrificial attitude of Moses, refusing to allow God to make a nation from himself so that the people survive (even asking God to blot him out with the people), Moses also begging God to travel with the people or leave them where they were, and finally we are told of the Divine attributes of God (in Judaism called the Imitation of God), which God, Himself, calls out as He passes by Moses.

With all of that, what shall I talk about today? None of it. I want to talk about something that is in-between the lines, something mentioned in the Chumash commentary but not mentioned directly in the Tanach.

What I am referring to is that when Moses left to go up the mountain to meet with the Lord, he left two people in charge (Exodus 24:14): Aaron and Hur. Aaron from the tribe of Levi and Hur from the tribe of Judah, yet when the story of the Golden Calf begins we only hear about Aaron. The Chumash explains the traditional belief is that Hur resisted the people’s wishes for an idol and was put to death by them. Seeing this, Aaron decided he better build the idol.

The Chumash states that Aaron’s deeds were not correct, but the “spin” they give is that he was stalling, hoping for Moses to come back in time to stop this. Another explanation is that Aaron was a man of peace, so seeing resistance as futile and fearing division within the tribes, he acquiesced to the demands of the people.

Really? So because Aaron was a man of peace, he ignored (in truth failed to perform) his duty as the Cohen HaGadol (High Priest) and rejected the commandments God gave the people so that they wouldn’t fight among themselves? Sounds more to me like Aaron was interested in saving his own skin. Clearly, the idea of being a martyr did not appeal to him, whereas Hur became the first martyr in the bible.

Sidebar: it is usually taught that Stephan was the the first martyr mentioned in the bible , but when you consider the (Merriam-Webster) definition of the word:

A person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion.

when we talk about the first martyr mentioned in the bible, it seems Hur should hold that distinction.

Here is what I see- Moses, representing God’s ideal government of both religious (prophet) and civil (king) authority in one position (which is what we will have under the rule of Messiah), goes to commune with the King of kings, and leaves two people in charge. One whose authority is religious (Aaron, from the tribe of the priesthood) and one whose authority is civil (Hur, from the tribe of Judah: remember that Judah will hold the scepter until Messiah/Shiloh comes, which was the blessing that Israel gave on his deathbed in Genesis 49:10.) This is a precursor of the times at the end of the Prophets, when a king was requested who would rule separately from the Prophets (1 Samuel 10), setting the standard of separation of church and state that still exists today.

The authority of the prophets comes directly from God, and the authority of the king comes from the people. Oh, yes, we read how God told the prophets who they should anoint, but we see later that the kings set themselves up more often than a prophet did. And today the political power of nearly every single nation is from human choice, not Divine announcement.

I believe that the bible shows us (starting in this parashah) that civil authority is what the people prefer, and yet the best authority is the one God grants. Whenever we listen to humans instead of God, we reject God and fall into sin, and when the religious authority succumbs to the civil (as Aaron did), all hell breaks loose. We see this happen throughout the bible, and yet we never seem to learn. Even today we still have rejected God- He has been taken out of our courts, out of our schools, and replaced with political correctness under a one world court called the United Nations.

The ideal government God designed is the one that the enemy of God, the Son of Perdition, will establish. That is why, I believe, it will be so powerful and will only fall to the Divine intervention of God. The prophet-king government, a Theocracy, is what God wants on earth. We had it under Moses, and the first time we tried to break it up (in this parashah) we see that the government failed to function.

For you and I what this means is that we need to decide who we will follow- God or Man? Yeshua (Jesus) tells us to give unto Caesar what is his, so we pay our taxes (correctly!) and obey the laws of the country and municipality. But what we see from our religious leaders today is coming more and more under a civil dictate than what God says: in both Jewish and Gentile places of worship we see not just allowing some members to remain members even after professing they are homosexual, but support of that lifestyle as acceptable. We see churches and synagogues presenting their position for or against candidates for office. I agree we should support those politicians that are god-fearing, but we are supposed to accept that God is in charge and He will put in authority whomever He chooses- our political choices should be secret. After all, isn’t the right to a secret ballot one of the most important rights we have fought for? If we have shed blood so that we can vote for someone in secret, why then do we go around violating that secrecy by announcing who we will vote for and (even worse!) demanding to know from others who they will vote for?

We are just so wrong in everything we do, yet we continue to do wrong even in the face of history and seeing, over and over and over….and over…how when we reject God’s path we walk into a pile of manure.

OY!!

Until we have that perfect, Divine government under Messiah, we will have to work within the political system we have. Historically, every attempt at returning to the Mosaic government has failed: the leaders of these attempts are called Dictators and Despots. That’s not the government God wants. So what we have to do is remember that we are to respect the government authority, and follow our leaders as long as they are following God’s design.

One day you may have to face that ultimate challenge, which is (essentially) to take the mark of the devil or refuse it; when that day comes, we all need to be ready to give our mortal life so that we can retain our immortal soul.

Glitter Ash Wednesday- really?

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There was an article in our Florida Today newspaper the other day about churches adding purple glitter to the ashes for use on Ash Wednesday. Why? To show support for LGBT Christians.

LGBT Christians- that sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? According to the word of God, homosexuality and cross-dressing is an abomination.

Now, don’t go flying off the handle at me if you are an LGBT person- I am NOT homophobic: I have family members and friends who are Lesbian and Gay, and I love them, accept what they are doing as their choice (note that I say accept what they do as their choice, not that I accept what they do) and I have nothing against anyone who has that type of sexual preference. I just agree with God that it is not right.

Actually, because God sees any and all sin as sin, homosexuality is no different than lying, murder, adultery, etc., right? So, if we are going to show support for LGBT Christians (and the Jews are no different in this- there are relatively as many LGBT synagogues as there as churches), why not support murderers, rapists, child molesters, crooks, adulterers, embezzlers, and all people who perform any one of the plethora of sinful activities that humans do to each other?

What I believe is this: churches and synagogues should not demonstrate any kind of support for any sinful activity. For me, to add glitter to ashes to show support for homosexuality is no different than throwing those ashes back in God’s face and telling Him that what He says we should do is less important to us than what the world says we should do.

The two greatest commandments are to love God and love each other- it should be in that order! When we do things to be “politically correct” instead of to follow God’s commandments, we have already taken the first step to accepting the mark of the Beast. That’s right- when you start to act in ways that honor the opinion of this fallen and sinful world instead of standing against it and acting the way God said we should, then you have bowed to the enemy of God and are rebelling against the Almighty.

If you don’t like the sound of that- tough! The truth is there is no middle of the road with God: you are with Him or against Him, there is only black or white, evil or good, with no in-between. Again, if you don’t like that, tough luck, Buddy- that’s the way it is!

So if you do Ash Wednesday and your church has added glitter to some of the ashes, I suggest you find another church because when Yeshua returns, that place is going to be in trouble. The leadership of any church or synagogue that is openly accepting of any sinful activity is leading you away from proper worship of God and will be marked for destruction.

Strong words, I know, but I am for God and not for the world. To paraphrase a godly and righteous man, “As for me, I will serve the Lord ” (Joshua 24:15), and if that means any of my friends or family members will no longer have anything to do with me because I reject some of their lifestyle choices, then so be it (although I know that won’t happen because we have been through this already, and we respect each other’s right to an opinion, and we love each other even when we disagree- that is the correct way we serve God.)

No one who worships God is perfect;  we are all sinners who continue to sin. The real issue isn’t what that sin is, but whether or not we are repentant of it and wish to overcome it. I believe that is what separates the sinners who are forgiven from the sinners who aren’t forgiven- the ones who ask for forgiveness receive it. That is the simple and direct  way God works. If you are sinning (any sin) and you repent of it, then clearly you would not want to do that sin anymore because when we sin, it hurts God. Yes, it does- when you see someone you care for doing something that is hurtful to themself, don’t you feel bad?

If not, you’ve got bigger problems than I can help you with!

So, then, when God sees us hurting ourselves by rejecting His rules and commandments (which provide immortality and eternal joy), He is hurting, too. God is a better parent than any human could ever be, so if we are hurt seeing loved ones suffer, imagine how much more painful it must be to God to see us (literally and spiritually) killing ourselves.

Let me bring this down to a simple statement: if your place of worship supports sinfulness, leave it! If you don’t then you are the blind man being led by another blind man, and you will both fall into a hole (that leads directly to Sheol.)

 

pink or blue- does it matter to you?

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The demographic group being referred to as “Millennials” are those who were born in the 1980’s and reached young adulthood around the turn of the Millennia. I read a recent article about how the majority (almost 2 to 1) of this demographic group thought there is nothing wrong with using the bathroom for the gender one “identifies” with.

Maybe that’s because they don’t have a 13 year old daughter going into a bathroom, followed by a 45 year old man.

There are other social “norms” that have been changed, such as same-sex marriage and open carry laws being relaxed. Yes, I know there is a difference between having a gun and being married to the same gender, but the one thing these changes in attitude represent is a devolution of society. It is not evolution, which implies an improvement, but it is devolution, indicating clearly a return to a worse condition.

Sodom and Gomorrah had no gender identification issues- everyone did anything with anyone. Rome, in it’s heyday of perversion, was the same way. There have been people who identify with the opposite (physical) gender since God first made gender, so what’s the problem?

The problem is you can put a square peg into a round hole if you jam it in there hard enough, but it will never fit right and neither the round hole or the square peg will ever feel fulfilled because they are not doing what they were designed to do. It’s that simple- round-to-round, square-to-square: anything outside of what the design is made to do should not be.

OK- so maybe I say I am a man in a woman’s body, or vice-versa, but what really makes a man a man, or a woman a woman? In the past it was the genitalia, but today it is more the emotional and mental state than the physical state. And therein lies the problem- since when has the human race ever demonstrated a sane, emotional state of being?

Hormones are what drives us, emotionally- too much Testosterone and you are an aggressive male, too much Progesterone and you are an effeminate male. This is all too evident when we consider that it is the hormonal treatments which are the essential first step in sex change operations. The genitalia are less important when it comes to gender identification than the hormones racing through our systems, and when we have an hormonal imbalance we have gender identification problems.

There is more to it than that, surely, but hormones are the foundation on which gender is going to be based, emotionally.

It is mostly in third world countries that we still see very harsh treatment of homosexual activity. We, uh…”civilized” nations (as we like to call ourselves) are more tolerant (accepting) of homosexuals, as well as of many other (previously called) abnormal, or degenerate, activities. So far, sodomy (sex with animals) still seems to be frowned upon, but give it time.

All of these societal changes are preparation for the rule of the Antichrist. I know that sounds very “religious”, but it is, like it or not, the truth of the matter. The Antichrist is not just against God, but against everything pure and good. Hedonism must have been the first evil that left Pandora’s Box because it has such a strong hold on nearly everyone. And, unfortunately, many, many things that are bad for us, spiritually, feel so good, physically. I guess that is really the definition of what living in a cursed world is: the good things are hard and the bad things are easy.

Personally, I do not want to be using the urinal with a woman next to me, and I really, REALLY don’t want to think of a young girl being in a bathroom with a adult man in the stall next to her. Call me old fashioned, but the bad people do what they want, and have no honesty in how they present themselves. If I am a man who likes to take advantage of young girls, I am going to stand outside the woman’s bathroom in the same way the lions hang around the watering hole. I guess if animals could talk, the lion would tell us he identifies with antelopes and feels he has a right to hang in the middle of the herd.

At least, until his stomach starts to grumble.

Look- I am not “bashing” anyone: all I am saying is that when you learn about carpentry (remember Yeshua was a carpenter) you learn to use a hammer to drive nails and a screwdriver to twist screws- you don’t bang a nail with the handle of a screwdriver or use a chisel to insert a screw. You use the tool in the manner for which it was designed, and when you do the finished product comes out looking, and performing, correctly.

Our society is not working as it should- true, it never did, but things are devolving at an alarming rate, which means that the End Times are just around the corner.

The real issue is not which gender you choose to identify with, but who’s servant you will be.