hey yay!!!!
Submitted by F.O.D. on May 24 1999 at 06:38:06
In reply to God, Christ and hope Submitted by Ben on May 23 1999 at 07:27:59
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You made it!!! Ben, it's been a privilege and an honour to share part of your journey together with you. I am sure you will grow from a "child of God" into a "man of God", and be a blessing to the lives of many. About fitting in with the church, with the fundamentalist line that masturbation is always sinful, I think that's only natural. Our environment, the Christians that we meet with in real life, is important to us. We need their love and concern, and so we often find ourselves accepting a harder line than we might otherwise have taken (though I agree with you that masturbation can be misused all the same). This phenomenon isn't restricted to moral issues like masturbation, either. For instance, one of the most divisive issues I've met with in the various churches I've worshipped in is the charismatic question - whether Christians should speak in tongues, etc. I've been in fundamentalist churches where they preach that anyone who speaks in tongues is from Satan, and I've been in churches where they preach that anyone who doesn't speak in tongues is from Satan. I suspect God's position is somewhere in the middle :) So, in both cases, I've just had to fit in, say "yes, dear", sometimes try to express objection to the more ridiculous manifestations of this attitude, and I concentrate on the other areas in those churches where they can minister to me and I to them. So don't feel bad about the tension over the attitudes towards masturbation. About your family...that's hurts, them disowning you. I'm lucky to have all my family accept Christ. But Jesus did talk about it...maybe you've come across this verse, maybe it's the one you were thinking of: (tks loves it when I do this, doesn't he? ;) ) Peter said to Jesus, "We have left everything to follow you!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields&emdash;and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternel life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first" |