Encouragement from God and Others

Tags

calling, depression, encouragement, friendship, homosexuality, insecurity, loneliness, relationships

Quick thought:

I was hanging out with single folks from my seminary the other day for dinner and dessert. We were discussing how difficult it is to get a job in the PCA and EPC if you are single…and I chimed in, “Yeah…but because I’m gay, I’ve got two strikes against me.”

Immediately, my phone beeped. This is the text message I received:

Hey brother, been thinking about you a ton lately. I think God is going to use you to do things you can’t even imagine for the glory of his name. Praying for you and the work He has laid out for you to do, work we don’t even know yet. Love you.

Complicated Relationships

Tags

ministry, relationships

Relationships are, for me, complicated. It’s not a complication I retreat from…not as a bona fide extrovert. No, no…relationships are the lifeblood of my existence. I’d sooner do without air than friends. It’d be less painful.

Welcoming

This morning, James White tweeted this:

‘Welcoming’ in a Christian worldview means ‘all repentant sinners are welcome to hear the gospel and believe.’

This is true as far as it goes, but I think many conservative Christians don’t really practice this. I don’t know Dr. White personally, so I’ll assume what I consider to be the best and guess that he has actually done what I’m going to suggest.

The ‘F’ word

Saw this article today in my RSS feed. It’s worth a careful read, especially by pastors who struggle to know what to do with parishioners who struggle with sexuality issues.

Presumption? Despair?

Tags

depression, despair, homosexuality, hope, reparative therapy

Wesley Hill has written a great article over at the First Things blog. One of my favorite moments of the article is this:

This is what bothers me about what I hear from certain kinds of reparative therapies: offering hope to gay people seems to amount to a prediction of orientation change (assuming the correct regimen is followed). And whenever a Christian expresses doubt about the surety of that prediction, the response can often take the form of, ‘Well, you just don’t have enough faith.’ (Or as a licensed professional counselor, a Christian with a certain angle on reparative therapy, once said to me, ‘That sounds like depression.’)

Yeah…something like that.

Check it out.

Getting It Right

Tags

Christianity, friends, homosexuality, sexuality

Getting It Right

This is a great article from the Odd Man Out blog. Check it out!

The Changing of the Weather

Tags

depression, emotions, mourning

I wrote this short post back on Jan. 30th, but never posted it for some reason. Decided I’d post it now, mostly because I have been thinking again about things I haven’t taken the time to mourn. Today isn’t overcast…it’s sunny and chilly. And yet, I still feel down.

It’s truly amazing how much difference three days can make. Two days ago, it was sunny at 61 at 11 am. Yesterday, it was in the low 70s and overcast. Today, it’s snowing off and on and below freezing. I grew up here, so you’d think I’d be used to it. The adage is true: if you don’t like the weather in the midwest, wait five minutes: it’ll change.

Something else I do…

When I’m not doing homework or blogging at this site, I have begun writing reviews at ZekeFilm. Both posts are reviews of Erich von Stroheim films: Foolish Wives and The Merry Widow. I really enjoy and collect silent film, so give it a look if you’re so inclined!

 

Director and Man You Love to Hate

 

Matt Moore: Not Ex-gay

Tags

Gospel, homosexuality, sexual sin, sexuality

I agree with him. If he hasn’t been reoriented, calling himself ex-gay would be inappropriate. It’s why I don’t call myself ex-gay. He’s also right…people in the Church don’t often understand the terminology because they don’t understand what “gay” actually even means in today’s English usage.

This is Matt Moore’s testimony:

Let’s pray for this brother. I appreciate his candor and his repentance.

“You’ll Make a Good Pastor.”

Tags

depression, encouragement, loneliness, prayer

This morning, I woke up after having stayed up way too late with two friends of mine…one Catholic and the other Baptist…talking about theology and liturgy (and of course, Mary). I had a headache, but I pulled my prayer book (the one I just recently purchased from CPO in Springfield, MO…published by Concordia) out and prayed one of the prayers for Sunday morning.

I dragged myself to church this morning. I was feeling really low. I literally sat at my desk at 11:20 (5 min. after church had started, 10 min. away), and thought, “What’s the use?”