WARNING LABEL

Our Secretary of State spoke before a group of gay and lesbian State Department employees on Monday.

Question: Why are State Department employees divided into sexual preference?

She told them of State Department efforts to get Lady Gaga to come to Rome to participate in a Lesbian/Bisexual/ Transgender/Gay festival.  Our Ambassador to Italy, David Thorne, apparently wrote a letter urging Gaga to take part.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hillary-us-ambassador-instrumental-seali

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13948149

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/hilary-clinton-us-state-dept-instrumental-in-securing-lady-gaga-gay-prid/

Question:  With Arab governments imploding, debt riots in Europe, and worldwide terrorism, why is our State Department involved in such a thing?

Color me flabbergasted.  My country's leadership has dragged all of us onto a world stage movement to poke God in the eye.  If individuals wanted to participate in such a thing...GO.  But don't throw the weight of government into seeing to it that a vulgar pop star insults the Pope in his backyard...as well as the whole of Christendom.

Thomas Jefferson said "to compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical".  Yes, Mr. Jefferson!  It is sinful to cause my money to be used for purposes that will bring judgment.

Question: How is it possible that in only 2.5 years, we have managed to hack off every world leader or ally...and now we insult our greatest Ally, the Almighty?

Society is clearly changing while God stays the same.  The essence of the Great I Am...His patience, generosity, mercy and grace...are welcomed into the world and presumed upon.  The equally present character traits...His purity, judgment, and wrath (His fixed opposition to all unrighteousness)...are skipped over. We skip them to our peril.  He loves, but He also calls to account. 

Question:  When a person challenges aberrant behaviors, what is the predictable response?  Hater?

The FDA is wanting to put graphic pictures on packs of cigarettes.  They are hoping the gruesome pictures will persuade people to quit smoking.

Does anyone think the FDA is hateful by trying to save lives?  No.

We still have the freedom of speech in our country to speak within reasonable limits.  Some would speak a warning to keep people from killing themselves spiritually. 

God has painted a graphic picture in both His testaments of offensive sexual behavior.  The word pictures in Romans 1 draw the eye like the cigarette pack's warning pictures. What shall we do with His words?  God included the verses because He wants people to avoid things that would separate them from Him.  That is not hate; that is love.  God wants our company in eternity.

A loving Father calls the behavior an abomination (in Hebrew,"tow ebah", meaning disgusting or detestable).  When I hear that God HATES something, I snap to.  How smart would it be to love something He hates...or endorse something that He does not endorse?

The choice to engage in the behavior will always exist in this fallen world.  God won't MAKE you go to heaven with Him. He's looking for folks who WANT to go there because they love Him.  He's explaining how the behavior puts you @arm's length from Him.  

Question:  Is it love or hate to explain such an important distinction?

The Lord set up His kingdom to work with a man and a woman.  The whole anatomy thing is pretty self-evident.  To go another way is to say "Listen, God.  I know what you say, but I've come up with a better idea".  What an old story!  People have been going their own way (sinning) since the garden.  We may all have gone there, but we don't all STAY because God can't bless anything that He has a fixed attitude of opposition toward.  And unrighteousness will receive His wrath.

Question:  What does His wrath look like? 

The first chapter of Romans says God put the truth about Himself into EVERY man and then illustrated that truth through the creation He made.  Therefore, no one gets a pass for "not knowing".  

When someone decides to suppress truth, there is a downward progression of events.  Foolish speculations (about what God is like)...result in darkened hearts, then an exchange of God's glory, and finally, a "giving over".  That last one is scary.  First God gives them over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, then gives them over to degrading passions, and then gives them over to a depraved mind to do those things that are not proper.  Ironic that in an effort to be in charge of their lives, they totally lose charge.

Finally, descent results in a dreadful laundry list of sinful behaviors that follow in verses 29-31...ending in verse 32, the final stiff neck which Gaga illustrates:  "They are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway.  And worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."

The first chapter of Romans is an amazing warning label.