As the old foundation in my life was uprooted (see previous post) I realized that the new foundation must be based on God’s Truth. This course of action would require realigning my beliefs, values, and perspectives. As I began to sort through all of this, a friend shared these wise words with me:“This is a process rather than an event.” Having worked with several non-profit organizations and ad hoc groups, I was very familiar with the concept of creating core values. Everyone has some sort of internalized list of values and moral code. Few people ever take the time to sort out what they really believe in and place value and priority to their beliefs.
It never occurred to me that I would ever need to create a new set of core values concerning my identity, sexuality and marriage, until I engaged in reconciling my faith and sexuality. For over 18 months I had wrestled with God, desperately trying to prove to Him that the things I valued the most were of Him. When I surrendered my sexuality to Jesus I knew I could no longer embrace my own ideas but would need to yield to what God has revealed to us in the Bible about these things. At this juncture I was convinced this was the next step in my journey.
My experience had already brought me to a place in my heart of hearts where I knew that the Bible was right about sexuality and identity. Which meant I was wrong. Oh, that felt so humiliating to recognize that I had assigned more value to my sexuality and identity than embracing being a woman created in God’s image. Because I was created in His image He had given me prescribed safeguards to protect me relationally. I could live within those safeguards, being celibate and sexually pure, or I could continue to justify what had felt real and natural to me since I was 10 or 11 years old.
The first element that I needed to assign value to was Truth.
The question began to form in my mind: Was the Bible absolute Truth with a capital “T”? If this were so, I was faced with the choice of wholeheartedly embracing the Bible as Truth or rejecting it, walking away and doing what I pleased. As I weighed this decision it was necessary to include what I had already discovered about God’s nature and character. I had come to understand that God was the creator of the universe and He was also my creator. That Creator God desires relationship with each person He creates. As a result, I have concluded that the Bible is inspired by a Holy God and is inherently true and trustworthy, and that the Bible has the right to evaluate every aspect of my life and direct how I live. Since the Truth revealed to us in the Bible has the right to evaluate my life and direct how I live, then it equally has both the authority and power to transform every aspect of my life. Nothing is exempt, including sexuality and identity.
The Bible is inspired by a Holy God and is inherently true and trustworthy. The Bible is written by men, but divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit and is sealed by a God of Truth and authority. This God is good, faithful, fair, just, and trustworthy.
What about you, my friend–do you believe that the Bible is God’s revealed word to humanity?
Do you treat it as a good book with good suggestions from which you can pick and choose?
Thanks for following my journey, I look forward to your comments!
I highly recommend reading “Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate” by Justin Lee.
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Thanks for your recommendation Melodyann. I have not read Justin Lee’s book, but I am very familiar with the Gay Christian Network and the Side A and B debate. In fact up until two years ago I the labels gay Christian side B would have best fit me. Yet, I was never completely comfortable fully embracing either point of view. As a woman who lived openly as as a lesbian the majority of her life; I had a lot of biased about God and Christianity when I surrendered my life to Jesus in 2009. I came int Christianity off the mind set that God created me gay and that was that there was no discussion needed a year later my faith and sexuality collided and I set out to resolve my faith and sexuality through the Bible. I camped out in the first three chapters of Genesis bookended by Psalms 139 and Romans 1.
In the course of this quest I knew I need to define truth and understand its place within this discussion. I also grew to know and understand that God is good, loving and trustworthy. There is so more I an say on subject but I have where I have because God kindly and gently wooed me to Himself and revealed His point of view to me through scripture.
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