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You have to move out of the past and into the present before you can
move into the future with confidence and hope. You might be feeling the
hurts and pain of past holiday seasons. Let go of it and live today.
You may regret a lot of things that you did during the past 12 months.
Let go of it and make the most of today.
Jesus let go. He let go of worn out traditions, sick and abusive
religion and legalistic judgmental teachings. Jesus created something
new every day of his life. Jesus did not try to fix sick oppressive
religion. He replaced it. You probably need to do the same thing in
your life.
Trying to repair the past is always a lost cause. You cannot live in
the past, because none of us really remembers everything that has
happened in out past. My sister and I laugh about having separate
childhoods, though we were brought up together in the same home. One of
us will remember every detail of a special event and the other will not
recall it at all. Our memories are always selective.
Forgiving ourselves is the hardest forgiveness to give. We want to
examine every detail and worry with every tiny facet of our past
mistakes and goof-ups. We become more self-centered in clinging to what
we have done wrong than in bragging about what good we accomplished.
"It was all my fault" certainly puts you in the spotlight and gets a lot
of attention, doesn't it? Nothing is ever "all your fault." There is
plenty of blame to go around for everybody.
As Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender people, we are constantly tempted
to blame ourselves for everything that goes wrong in our world. We
often have been singled-out by family, friends, society, and especially
religion as the first ones to blame when life falls apart or disaster
strikes. You remember how Rev. Pat Robertson predicted that Orlando,
Florida, could expect a powerful hurricane to hit the city because of
Orlando's celebration of Gay Pride week. No hurricane hit Orlando, but
one did hit Virginia Beach, Virginia, where Rev. Robertson's ministry
has its headquarters!
Not letting go of the hurt and misery of the past is as self-centered as
it is self-destructive. Make a list of all of the bad things that
happened to you this past year, give the list to God, wad it up and burn
it. Let go of the past.
Paul told in Philippians 3 how he had to let go of abusive legalism in
order to follow Jesus. Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14, "Forgetting
the past and looking to the future, I press on toward the goal of the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Read all of
Philippians 3 to see that what Paul was forgetting and letting go was
not "sins of the flesh" or ungodly living but was legalistic judgmental
religion! Paul called his former destructive religion "garbage" (3:8: a
strong word that means "dung" KJV!).
Many of you who have written to me have told me how
you had to give up religion completely in order to start over in
rebuilding your own personal spiritual life. You had to let go of
unhealthy religion in order to find the real Jesus and to develop a
realistic and workable faith.
A gay Southern Baptist minister recently told me that he did not believe
in God anymore. Well, neither do I, if God is the legalistic
judgmental homophobic monster that has taken over the minds of many
Southern Baptists today!
The Bible is filled with the experiences of people who had to let go of
the past and traditional religion in order to find and follow the will
of God. Abraham let go and moved on. Moses let go and moved on. Mary,
the mother of Jesus, had to let go of fear and traditional cultural and
religious prejudice in order to listen to the messenger of God and
submit to the Holy Spirit. Just think! The mother of the Messiah was
an unmarried, homeless, pregnant teenager. That has gotten the
attention of the world ever since it happened. When God does something
special in a human life, it usually means a radical break with the
past. Let go, and start over.
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Steps To Recovery From Bible Abuse Rembert Truluck Openly Gay, Openly Christian : How the Bible Really Is Gay Friendly Rev. Samuel Kader
Websites:
Other Articles By Rembert Truluck:
Also In This Issue:
With Feeling:
An Open Letter to Homophobic Christian Parents
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