I am so sad and afraid. I don’t want to live in depression and fear of hell, but I have been taught that homosexuals will not go to heaven. Please help me. I don’t know what to do and I have a multihandicapped daughter who needs me. I luv a woman who treats me and my children so well. I try to not be sexual with her, but it happens. I have been told by my sister that Jesus will most likely rapture the church this week (Roshashana-sp?) or for sure by the y2k breakdown. I am frightened and don’t know how to clean myself up enough to be accepted by God. I know I was saved by grace, but I do believe that a person can lose their salvation according the their life choices and styles. Sin means a separation for the Lord, and I am afraid that my sin of homosexuality has separated me from God and heavenly attainment!
PLEASE HELP ME!!!???
J.
Dear J,
I really want to help you but some of this must come from you as well. What I mean by that is you know that God made you, God gave you a daughter to care for and nuture and God has given you a special person in your life who loves you and you love her. Yet, you are afraid and think you are going to lose it all because of what your sister said?
“I have been told by my sister that Jesus will most likely rapture the church this week (Roshashana-sp?) or for sure by the y2k breakdown…”
I am sure your sister is well intentioned, however she is trying to predicted the coming of Christ and using it to frighten you. Jesus when asked the same question about when God would come, said that no one knows the time or date except God. Not even the Son knows. So I wonder what inside track your sister has?
I am more concerned by your next statement:
“I am frightened and don’t know how to clean myself up enough to be accepted by God. “
My dear child of God, if you believe then there is nothing to clean up. The slate has been wiped clean. There is no record of wrongs. Go to the scriptures, more specifically the Gospels, and read them for yourself. Time and time again, Jesus told people that it was their faith that healed them or set them free from some affliction. Please take note of who these people were — they were the dregs of that times’ society. They were the unwanted, the lost, those thought to be unworthy. Jesus’ concern in each of those cases was for these folks faith in God to be intact — not their life style. For instance, in the case of the woman at the well who had five husbands, nothing changed the fact that she had already had all these partners, rather her faith enabled her to begin to live a full and abundant life. Read the story of Levi, the tax collector, found in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus ate and fellowshipped with him. Did he quit being a tax collector? No, he just became honest and compassionate in what he was doing.
Does God want you to be something other than what you are? NO! What is it that God requires of us? That we do justice, act mercifully and walk humbly with our God. [Micah 6:8] That was the understanding of the Old Testament God. Jesus gave us a new command: “That you love one another as I have loved you”. [John 13:34] Not doing these things is what may put one’s salvation and grace in jeopardy, not the sexual acts done between to people who love each other and their God.
“I know I was saved by grace, but I do believe that a person can lose their salvation according the their life choices and styles. Sin means a separation for the Lord, and I am afraid that my sin of homosexuality has separated me from God …”
J, please read this piece of scripture closely and with great prayer because it speaks directly to your fear:
“What may we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not keep back his only Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not with him freely give us all things? Who will say anything against the saints of God? It is God who makes us clear from evil; Who will give a decision against us? It is Christ Jesus who not only was put to death, but came again from the dead, who is now at the right hand of God, taking our part. Who will come between us and the love of Christ? Will trouble, or pain, or cruel acts, or the need of food or of clothing, or danger, or the sword? As it is said in the holy Writings, Because of you we are put to death every day; we are like sheep ready for destruction. But we are able to overcome all these things and more through his love. For I am certain that not death, or life, or angels, or rulers, or things present, or things to come, or powers, Or things on high, or things under the earth, or anything which is made, will be able to come between us and the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:31-39
My dear sister in Christ, know that nothing in all of creation can come between you and God — not your sister, not your homosexuality, not anything. Know this day that your faith in God almighty and in that of Jesus the Christ has set you free to be who you are — a gifted, loving mother of a special child and, yes, a lesbian!
God bless,
Pastor Paul
Editor-in-Chief of Whosoever and Founding and Senior Pastor of Gentle Spirit Christian Church of Atlanta, Rev. Paul M. Turner (he/him) grew up in suburban Chicago and was ordained by the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches in 1989. He and his husband Bill have lived in metro Atlanta since 1994, have been in a committed partnership since the early 1980s and have been legally married since 2015.