“Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.”—I Corinthians 7:2-3 (NKJV)

“A deceitful peace is more hurtful than open war.”—Unknown

Oh, if I could remember your last name, Steve…cause I certainly like to give credit where credit is due (Proverbs 27:2). The Lord knows my heart. You’ll reap (Galatians 6:8) for the humorous-yet-highly-profound seed that you planted into my psyche a couple of weeks ago, whether you see this message on not. The Spirit is a great, the best, translator of things.

Oh spiritual family, don’t knock where you’ll hear wisdom. Lately, the Lord has made me doing a lot of research on false teachers (2 Peter 2)…cause there are a lot of them out here. Don’t let the tailored suit fool you. Flesh manifests in all forms…and platforms. The good news is that Yahweh’s messengers do as well. Isaiah? The naked prophet (Isaiah 20:2-4)? Yeah, let somebody pull that now and we’ll see if you’re quoting him in church the next weekend (LOL). It’s hard to “go deep” when perceptions remain shallow, isn’t it? We must remain open. Wise (Ecclesiastes 8:5)…but open. That said, a couple of weeks ago, as I was waiting on my food, a guy came up to me and asked why I hadn’t been on Facebook lately.

“Steve, we’re (FB) friends?” I asked. Social media is a trip…and a stumbling block, sometimes.

He smiled and shook his head “Yes” as we got into a discussion about the mass foolishness that goes on there. Yes, as with most things in life, how did the sitcom song go? “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life.” With Facebook, that philosophy would certainly apply. Oh, but when it comes to the level of passive aggressiveness, nosiness…potential drama of soap opera proportion? (I’ve known a few marriages to separate due to it.) Whew! THAT is what we were talking about.

And yet, while I’m not totally sure how we segued into the issue of sexual immorality (running the gamut, and I think it started with porn), he mentioned to me a conversation that he had with two lesbians who used to frequent the restaurant where he worked.  When he got into a theological discussion with them about homosexuality, yes, the usual Scriptures were referenced: Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1, I Corinthians 6:9-11. However, it’s what Steve followed that all up with that I loved. Personally, when I have the conversation with homosexuals about why it’s not within God’s will, I often ask them what would happen if we all were. When it gets down to it, there would be no more us. THE LIAR’S AGENDA. But Steve told it in joke/riddle form. I loved it!

[Paraphrasing just a bit] “So there’s a plane that’s going down because it’s overloaded. There are two goats on the plane and so the people on it decide to toss them over. The goats swim over to the first island. It helps a bit, but there is still the potential for danger.

A couple that swim really well decide to jump off the plane believing that they can make it to the second island. They do. When they get to it, there are only lesbians there. They ask, ‘Can we stay?’ yet the lesbians respond to the husband with, ‘Your wife can. You can’t.’ So, they swim over to the third island.

A hundred years later, some historians visit the first island. There’s nothing but animal bones on it. They go over to the second island. There are tons of female skeletons there. Oh, but the third? There were over 300 people living on it.”

“Shellie,” Steve said as I laughed. “All I know is that God is about life and preserving it. Homosexuality does not preserve life. The lesbians asked me, ‘So are you saying that God loves us less?’ and I said, ‘No, what I’m saying is YOU LOVE YOU LESS.'”

He shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “It’s just that simple.” And the free-setting truth (John 8:32) is that…he’s right.  Christ said that he came to give us abundant life. He also said that the Liar (John 8:44), the thief, would come to steal, kill and destroy it (John 10:10). When I read about the ban on homosexual marriage being lifted in California yesterday, I thought, “Here he goes again. Telling more lies.”

And the sad part is that humanity is not only listening to it, but people, even in the Church, are starting to defend his falsehoods (Matthew 24:24). What did a certain wise man once say? Repeating a lie doesn’t make it any more true, right? It doesn’t. Last night, I sat and read an article chocked full of homosexual and, I’m assuming, heterosexual celebrities singing the praises of the judge’s ruling to overturn Proposition 8: the ban on homosexual marriage. The first thing I thought? Yeah, well, Dictionary.com does say that two synonyms for “counterfeit” are “Hollywood” and “queer”…and a good lie looks like truth to the less discerning (Proverbs 15:21). It’s supposed to.

Then I thought about what a friend of mine (Mario Nocentelli) says in a book of his that’s about to come out. As a survivor of same-sex molestation and the lifestyle of homosexuality as a result, now happily IN A MARITAL COVENANT (and we’ll get to that in a minute), one of the points in the book is that the lifestyle is symptomatic of the Anti-Christ spirit: it wants everything that heterosexuals have just as Satan wants everything that the Lord has (Isaiah 14:14). And the truth is, Satan doesn’t create anything. He only manipulates what’s already here. He didn’t come up with the concept of marriage and family. The Godhead did (Genesis 1:26-28). Copiers copy…from the original…BUT IT’S NOT THE ORIGINAL.

Yet, for some reason, as “spiritually sea sick” (the best way to describe it) that I felt upon reading the news, I wasn’t as angry as I would have been, say, even a year ago. There are two reasons why.

One is because I choose to be a disciple (John 8:31). I choose to abide in Yahweh’s Word (John 1:1). His Word told me that there would be a lot of people who didn’t/won’t/will not. It’s not up for debate. It’s just the way it is. However, for my own salvation’s sake, I need to keep the following verses in mind:

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”—Colossians 3:1-11 (NKJV)

It grieves me that people who claim to be followers of biblical doctrine are no longer speaking truth and/or are arrogant enough (Proverbs 16:18) to try and edit the Word of God, but what the Comforter told me today is to make sure I LIVE TRUTH. When I was still heavily battling with fornication, the Comforter would tell me, “The same spirit that wants you to have sex with your boyfriend is that same spirit that rapes children.” Yeah, a harsh reality, but a (wo)man who fears God deals with all of reality, not just a part of it, right(Ecclesiastes 7:18-Message)? Evil desire is from the Liar and the Word tells us that he is out to devour whomever he can (I Peter 5:8). What makes something evil? It’s morally bad, it’s harmful, it’s injurious…TO THE SPIRIT MAN. The Bible says homosexuality is wrong. The Bible says that ALL SCRIPTURE is used for reproof, correction and guidance (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible says, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” (I Titus 1:15-16-NKJV) This is what the Bible says. Either we abide in it…or we don’t. Hmph. Think I don’t want to have sex tonight? The lead verses say that due to sexual immorality (in my case, fornication) a MAN should have his OWN WIFE (no adultery, people—Hebrews 13:4) and a WIFE should have HER OWN HUSBAND.

I don’t have a husband (yet).

I am a disciple.

I won’t be having sex tonight.

Again, what’s to debate about?

“Exactly, Shellie” is what I heard the Holy Spirit, my advocate, say as he took my mind back to one of the young women I mentored last year.

“Miss Shellie, you wanna meet my husband?” she used to always ask me.

“You don’t have a husband,” would always be my reply. “You’re not married.”

Yet, every Thursday, she would roll into class talking about her husband. HER SAYING IT DIDN’T MAKE IT ANYMORE SO and my standing firm against it, while explaining to her why what she said was inaccurate, caused her to refer to him as “My Boo” by the end of the year (baby steps, y’all…BABY STEPS-LOL).

“Homosexuals saying they are married does not make them a part of marital covenant, Shellie.” This is what I heard the Comforter follow up that “last semester recap with”. “This is why we have been teaching you about covenant (Malachi 2:14) and why you were introduced to the entity of God known as ‘El Berith’, the God of Covenant. Marriage, in the spirit realm, is a covenant. Homosexuals cannot be a part of it…no matter what they say. They are ignorant of its purpose, just like your student was about her boyfriend not being her husband. Don’t bend on truth. But don’t get frustrated. Lies don’t threaten you when you know truth. Liars can’t harm (spiritually damage) you when you live it.”

LIES DON’T THREATEN YOU WHEN YOU KNOW TRUTH. LIARS CAN’T HARM YOU WHEN YOU LIVE IT. Selah. Amen.

Even when I speak to heterosexual Christians about marriage, I say that I think a lot of marriages end (Malachi 2:16, Matthew 19:1-12) because people aren’t taught the power of covenant. I started a blog for single women who desire marriage for this very reason (http://onfirefastmovement.blogspot.com/).  Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us that a threefold cord is not easily broken. If you want the Lord to be apart of that formula, you have to abide in his Word. The Lord shows his covenant to those who fear him; those who respect and honor him (Psalm 25:14). There are grave penalties to those who do not walk in his law (Psalm 78). A marriage, yes, while I still see it as a faith-based union between and man and his wife (NO MATTER WHAT), a covenant is a concept that no human judge can “overturn”…and the benefits that come with it? There are promises that the Lord makes to covenant-keepers. YET THEY ARE CONDITIONAL ON KEEPING HIS LAW AND HONORING HIS WILL.

“Take pity on those homosexuals, Shellie,” said the Holy Spirit. “You’ve been caught up in sexual sin before. You know what it’s like to believe a lie. Don’t be mad. Pray for them. Yesterday brought them closer to how the foolish (I Corinthians 3:18-19) see marriage, but moved them further away from how we revere covenant..from our vision for mankind. The Enemy didn’t GIVE them anything. He TOOK, actually. We’re the ultimate teachers. We are the givers (and takers) of life. Telling us ‘That’s my husband’…’That’s my wife’…doesn’t make it any more so in our kingdom.”

This world is not my home. This world is not my home. This world is not my home.

Hmph. Perhaps if I say it enough, I’ll really start to believe it, huh? Visiting a place can be frustrating…until you remember it’s only temporary.

“For my mouth will speak truth; Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.”—Proverbs 8:7 (NKJV)

“Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.”—Ephesians 4:25 (NKJV)

I heard the Comforter loud and clear. TRUTH IS, we all need the protection of covenant. Something beyond what marriage brings.

On earth…as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

This is my prayer, oh Lord.

Amen. And amen.

©Shellie R. Warren/2010