Russell and I had a lot of good conversations last night. The last one I had though, made me go home and weep. A young man we'd talked to before came and told me he now believed that Jesus and the 12 apostles were all gay. He was quite insistant about it. I asked what evidence he had for that and he said that they loved each other.
Mankind has been given this beautiful gift, pure and lovely, like a handmade blanket out of the purest white. So we take this precious covering, lay it out carefully on the bed, then take a dump on it, urinate all over it, and lay down and roll in the filth.
This gift, this covering, it is Jesus. He is God, but he came down here and lived as a man, but without any sin. He gave us an example of how to live. He loved us. He spent his time teaching us, healing us of our sicknesses, delivering us of our demons. He made us well and whole again, when we were broken and downtrodden. He showed us the way to come up out of the filth and muck we'd been living in.
So men killed him.
But he loved us so much that willingly went to his death and thereby paid the punishment for all our sins. God didn't have to make us. He didn't have to give us life. He didn't have to love us. He didn't have to send his own son as a savior for us all when we refused to obey him.
He did all this for us so we would turn away from sin, from the things we do that are not good for us or others. He's a loving Father, not an ogre. He wants us to follow a good path, not wallow in our own filth.
Maybe all of our sin looks this way to God, like we're down here rolling around in our own waste. Maybe he sees it all this way, all our wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossiping, slanderering, hating God, insolence, arrogance, boasting, inventing of evil, disobedience to parents, not understanding, untrustworthiness, unlovingness, unmercifulness.
Romans 1 says:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
