House Church Talk - More cage rattling and some deep pondersings--wandering out into deep waters

[Phillip Cohen]

Strange . . . 

Ignore the first version of this post. Somehow my auto spellchecker
changed you to you're. I also had a few more ideas. Sorry...

When Jesus walked the earth, God shocked the religious world by bringing
the uncircumcised Gentiles into His Kingdom.

A couple of hundred years ago, God shocked the religious world again by
using John Wesley and others to call the non-elite poor working men into
the Kingdom.

In around 1970, God shocked the religious world by calling many hippies
into the Kingdom. Why did He do this? Many hippies had forsaken all to
find something real. The nominal Christian world at that time offered
nothing with any depth.

Sometime soon, I believe God is going to shake the religious world again
by calling many new-agers and homosexuals into His Kingdom. Why? Many
new-agers are looking for something supernatural, and won't settled for
the diluted versions of a supernatural God presented in many churches,
including house churches. And many homosexuals are searching for
intimacy, no matter what lengths they must go to get it. And they don't
see it in the bashing and divisiveness among so-called believers.

God will do much more to help real people who are flying off course than
He will with professing Christians who refuse to fly at all. Maybe these
Christians understand all the theologies of flying, but never flap their
wings and just do it. 

A brother in Christ once asked me to start a church with him. I said,
hey, there's too many churches around here. Let's just do Christianity
together and see what happens.

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Page Two:
I'm taking some business classes that emphasize setting goals and moving
toward them. The instructor divided us into groups of 5 or 6
accountability partners. In my group were 3 Christians and 2 homosexual
women. Out of respect for the authority figures in the class I realized I
must show my Christianity to these women, and not preach it, unless asked
for it. Well, it's impossible for me to separate my business goals from
my relationship with God. So, along with reading textbooks and attending
seminars I spend a lot of time in prayer and seeking advice from our
pastors. But since I was in an accountability group, I needed to bare my
soul. I told them about the nights in prayer and digging into the Word
and meeting with brothers and all the sorting that was going on inside
me. Likewise, they shared their hearts. The humility was very painful me
at times. Sometimes I was tempted to get up my soapbox and thump them
with a Bible. But I knew that my motives were fear and self-protection,
not love and Holy Spirit leading. 

As I got to know these women, I developed love and deep respect for them.
I understood that God would need to change them, just as He was teaching
me to love them and esteem them of great worth. 

So, am I saying that homosexuals are OK in the church? Not really. No
more than any other form of immorality, strife, murmuring, or rebellion.
Is it possible for a homosexual to be a Christian for a season without
leaving their homosexuality? (I'm walking on water now--very scary and
radical.) Is it possible for two unmarried people living together to be
Christians for a season without leaving their immorality? Is it possible
for a drug addict to be a Christian for a season without being delivered
from addiction? Was it possible for you to be a Christian when you were
believing in Christ while doing some of the junk you were doing?

We must stand at the bar of God with these questions. The devil and the
law accuse all of humanity. But Jesus and the Holy Spirit sit as  defense
attorneys for any sinner willing to let Them represent us. We know that
God's heart is much larger than ours. (He's shown me that again and again
in so many profound ways since I left the denominations and began running
to Him.) It seems that He has more room for sinners crying out to Him
than He does for Spiritless and/or Bibleless religious people who think
they've monopolized God. How large God's heart really is, we don't know.

Bottom line is that we're not saved by our level of sinlessness, but by
honest faith in the atoning work of Christ. Repentance follows as God
reveals.

Keep yourselves in the love of God.

Phillip
spiritfilledhome at juno.com
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
1 John 4:16