Volume 5: Issue 4
January/February 2001
Letting Go of Our Fear!
Table Of Contents
Cover Story: Letting Go of Our Fear!:
If we live in our fears and let them rule us, it proves we have no faith in God. When we let go of our fears, we put our faith in God to make a way for us where there seems to be no way. God does not promise the transition will be smooth, or easy. Often embracing the devil we don't know is the hardest thing we'll ever do.
Fear saps our energy
and distorts our perception of reality. I have found, however, that
most of the things that I feared never happened. Fear makes us
vulnerable. Fear is never our friend. Fear causes pain and torment.
When "perfect love casts out fear," therefore, freedom and release are
overwhelming.
It's not bad to fear, but it's a shame to live in fear. God has given us
a tremendous solution. If we rely upon Him, we have freedom from
fear. And, what devil is going to pick on you when your strength isn't in
your muscles or your brains, but in the Living God?
I'm not a super-Christian. God is still converting me, and I'm still walking the long road to salvation. I don't make any pretence of having anything in my life together. And I know, from personal experience, that fear is much more common in the life of Christians than most of us want to admit.
Letting go of my feeling that God has been hiding was a releasing experience. It brought me a sense of freedom I had never known. Learning that you grow to be more joyful in the crucible only when the heat is turned up has released me to know the presence of God in some of the areas of my life where I thought I was completely alone.
I think that the best way to let go of fear is to work on breaking it down a tiny bit at a time, by shattering the myths that others still cling to in fear about LGBT people. The first place we must begin, in my opinion, is by honestly studying the Bible and what Jesus' ministry and teachings were really all about,
and understanding that His teachings are about being a loving person, not giving up being who God made us to be.
It is only when we are tested to and seemingly beyond our limits that we are able to proclaim triumphantly that it was God who held our hands, God who provided shelter from life's storms, God who reached forth to heal all those wounds deliberately inflicted.
For so long I had been afraid of anyone finding out about my being transsexual. I was afraid of even finding that out myself, or at least admitting it. I was so certain that God could never love me because of my being transgendered. He must hate it.
There are only two kinds of events in our lives, those we can do something about and those we cannot. If we can do something, then do it. Otherwise it is a waste of a good moment to worry about it. Life is meant to be lived to its fullest, and that can't happen if you are afraid.
To listen to hate-mongers -- or anyone else for that matter -- to let others, other than God, to define our reality, is idolatry. Many want to
be liked, approved, and affirmed by those who are of the world, whether
they wear a clerical collar or not.
Many heterosexuals still doubt our normality and the feeling of guilt still plagues many homosexuals especially the young. For them we must continue the vigil. For those of us who have had, as Paul Tillich put it - 'The Courage to Be', let us give thanks for our deliverance.
We can be free from stress or we can be filled with stress and fear
and never be free. As born-again believers, a divine power resides in
our souls. We have the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Word
of God dwelling in us. It is our choice whether we use these
resources or not.
As long as there is a fear of self-acceptance and lack to embrace one's
sexual identity in a spiritual fashion, then homophobia will continue to be
the Enemy's stronghold over the Black same gender loving community. How long
will some black homosexuals continue to live their lives according to
other's norms in order to be accepted?
I believe
that the only way that the fear and hate will go away is for their to be a
name and a face to what people generalize as a gay, lesbian, bisexual or
transgendered person.
Fear makes us
question whether or not we are even loved by God, it makes us doubt our own
goodness and worthiness to live. No wonder the phrase that most often
crosses Jesus' lips, in one form or another, is "Do not be afraid."
Homospirituality
A lot of this is embarrassing, of course, on many levels. Not only was I
lusting after comics characters, I didn't even realize that I was lusting
after these paper creations. All the while, I piously chided my male peers
for how they looked at Farrah Fawcett's poster. "Embarrassing" doesn't even
cover it.
I am no longer interested in your condemnations of me.
What Jesus has been trying to convey to us over the centuries is this simple message ... we are not condemned ... we are blessed ... we are forgiven ... we are God's children ... no matter what. Jesus' message is one of grace, of love, of compassion, of justice, of mercy, of walking humbly with our God.
Based on the way the churches and ministers mistreated my mother and me and how the gay community has been so good to me, this leads me to believe that many churches are also very wrong in their teachings, condemnation, judgment, and mistreatment of gays and lesbians.
 Offense
--By: Edward J. Ingebretsen
It takes no great historical awareness to say that homosexuals are an "offense" against Christianity (in fact it requires a lack of such awareness). Nor does it take much charity to escort homosexuals to the door of the church, actually as well as symbolically, and to close that door. And this failure of mercy -- not any "condition" of the homosexual, nor offense nor threat of their alarming presence in Rome -- is the scandal of the modern Church.
Transgendered:
Does that pain matter? Some religious leaders say it is a good thing because
we need to hear the hard message of sin and the need for repentance. They
explain that they are speaking out of love. But what if they are wrong and
the simple act of cross-dressing isn't an abomination after all?
Features:
If God rejects us and you reject us, is it any wonder that our families
and friends reject us, that we are demeaned by our classmates, fired
from our jobs, evicted from our apartments, hunted down and hounded out
of the military, harassed and taunted in the streets, and even killed by
teenagers with knives and baseball bats?
The resolution vote was preceded by the congregation's approval of
Constitutional changes allowing St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church to call
a pastor outside the guidelines of the Evangelical Church in America (ELCA).
These guidelines prohibit the ordination of gay or lesbian pastors
candidates living in committed relationships. Ms. Hill is a lesbian woman in
such a relationship.
From The Pulpit:
Jesus helps us notice that the little things do make a difference and do
count in God's scheme of things: two copper coins and the sharing of meager
rations. And we are reminded that we are saved by one thing: the life and death of
one person, namely Jesus Christ, the author of our salvation.
Bible Study and Inspiration:
Each of us have been to the mountain
top and had our own experiences with the Lord. But after such
experiences, we have to come down from the mountain top to minister to
those waiting in the valley below. We've been given strength for the
journey and tools for the task: we need to go out and do the work to
which we've been called.
Holy Humor!
Comments? Please fill out our Reader Survey!
|
