Some other thoughts on #LGBT

Today I spoke a bit in my sermon about the #LGBT experience.  As I don't fit into any of those categories, I am looking in from the outside. So let me point you to one person's experience:

I’m gay. Other people are too. Let’s move forward. by @DanCBravo

An excerpt:

I had been told countless times God had created men and women, to become one flesh in marriage. Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve blah blah blah. If God had created us purely for this, then surely he would help me along the way with the whole ‘finding-guys-hot-and-women-not-so-much’ thing?

I had been told at church and conferences that Jesus can make the impossible, possible.
It was this statement that eventually led me to realise that I am, in fact, gay.
It made me realize that, because I asked Jesus to heal me.
I spent countless nights, sobbing, in prayer for him to change my sexuality.
I promised him everything, if he would just change this one thing about me.
I stood up at conferences, several years in a row to be prayed for inner healing.
And nothing changed.

Not because Jesus can’t do the impossible. I fully believed, and still do believe that anything is possible with God. I wasn’t healed of my gayness, because there is nothing to be healed of. God revealed to me that there is plenty of things I do wrong, and plenty of things he wants to change about me, but this isn’t one of them.

Thre is still much for us to think about and here are two more articles on my mind:

• The Real Christian Debate on Transgender Identity
• Why Christian summer camps should stop rejecting LGBT counselors, campers

And as I said in my sermon:

The question I come back to with Caitlyn Jenner and other LGBT members of our society, is how can we help them live that abundant life, how can it be well with their souls? Too many Christians want to jump in and answer that question for them, instead of letting them answer it for themselves. It may make us uncomfortable. We may be confused. But Jesus would insist that we love them, include them, and accept them. We can leave the judging to God.