Aw Preacher Done Gone And Preached Again!

Sometimes I wonder if the Holy Spirit dwells in me, simply because sometimes I just don't feel adequate as a follower of Christ. I'll wonder if I even am saved and maybe I'm just fooling myself into believing that I love Christ enough, but really when He stretches me I sometimes cave. Other times, though, I know the Holy Spirit dwells in me for certain, because I'll start saying something and words come out of my mouth and theologies that I didn't even know I truly believed! That's how I know the Holy Spirit is in me and I have a place saved for me in Heaven.

For example, last night my group decided to walk through the Castro district of San Fran -aka the gay part of town. They just wanted to see what the community was like and I was like okay you can do that. Later that night when we were doing debriefing they were expressing how angry and mad it made them to walk around in that area and see all these homosexuals. They were thoroughly upset.

Now I will state here that I do believe homosexuality is a sin. 1 Cor. 6:9-10, 1 Tim. 1:10,and Romans 1:26-27 are a few verses that support homosexuality as sin and I trust the Bible to be the very word of God. That said, lying is a sin as is murder as is cheating as is anything that draws us away from Christ. The difference with homosexuality is that it is a lifestyle and not repented from, but none the less we are called the love ALL people. God loved me when my life was full of sin and I do not have the right to shun others when I was loved.

So as they were talking about their anger something rose up in me and I felt the need to say it. Ended up that I preached at them for about 5 minutes! Holy Spirit got it done! The thing that was put on my heart was that we look at these people in sin - whether homosexual, drug addicts, thieves, prostitutes - and we see them as disgusting and filthy. But that's not what they are, they are in prison! They are being held captive to these things that Satan is taunting them with and they don't realize it. When we change our perspective to see people as broken, held captive, in bondage to sin, we can see them the way God sees them.

He wants us to be broken for them. He is crying out, "Look at my children in prison!!! Save them, tell them who I am, tell them of the love I have shared with you!! Stop letting Satan crowd your mind with anger so that you pass them by, I LOVE THEM, TELL THEM I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!" Our hearts can be torn to pieces if we stop looking as people in sin as filthy and disgusting and instead look at sin as filthy and disgusting. Satan is the one tempting them, showing them how fantastic this sin is and Satan is the same one telling us that THEY are the nasty, disgusting people full of sin. Satan is a liar! Don't let him deceive you into walking by people in need, he will twist ours minds to believe that we are righteous to stay away from these people, but God calls us to the broken. Even if it's just to love them, hug them and pray for them, maybe if Christians stopped shunning everyone people could finally see Christ.

I pray that we can all look at people in a new light.  No longer as "sinners" but instead as people held captive by sin.