In the following article in Christianity Today (CLICK HERE), Jennifer Knapp comes out about her same-sex relationship. She was under a Christian label for a few years, got burned out and left and moved to Australia. There were rumors all over the place that she was now gay, yet those were unconfirmed rumors. Anyway, I really loved her music back then, especially because my walk was so new with Christ. I was genuinely sad to see her up and vanish. I remember going to a concert several years ago in Birmingham and thinking wow that really seemed like nothing more than a secular concert and not a time of worship and praise. Anyway, I am sad for her because she is so misled. I am sure someone will jump on here and try to argue with me to death. It is a funny thing to say we have freedom of speech, yet Christians don't seem to be allowed to have that same freedom without getting ostracized for their belief system. Everyone else can have a belief system, with freedom of speech, but a Christian.
Anyway, my point is you can not be a bible believing Christian and live an open life of a perpetual stronghold, not having any conviction and call yourself a believer. Can you struggle with sin and be a believer? Yes. But to live an openly gay lifestyle and try to make the bible fit around your life and your own belief system in the name of getting a little religion...no! It is the same thing with other issues as well. God made marriage for one man and one woman. We are commanded in Genesis to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Well, last time I checked you can't procreate with a man and a man or a woman and a woman. It isn't the natural design or order of Gods plan. Can you come out of a homosexual lifestyle and become a believer in Christ, yes! But you have to put off the old nature and put on the new. You can not persist in a stronghold and claim to have the Holy Spirit in you and be joyful about the sin you are wigging out in. I will be praying for her and I do not say that in a self-righteous manner at all, nor am I judging her. However, it is not ok to live an openly gay lifestyle and say you wear the name of Christ. The Lord will convict us and we all have a moral conscience which can become so tainted. Yet if we scorn the Lord and persist in rebellion, we will be given over to our own lusts and a debased mind. The Body of Christ should love, yet admonish in truth, and not preach a gospel of tolerance because that is not the gospel of Christ. He died for our sins so that we might live unto Him. In Him is liberty and freedom...we as believers should be miserable when we are living to please our flesh.
Romans 1:18-32
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Jennifer Knapp-Comes out about being homosexual
Posted by jennyhope at 3:42 AM
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12 comments:
I had heard rumors and such and thought there must have been a "coming out" by what was said on Sirius (isn't that where we all get our news...the radio station??).
thanks for the link Jenny. I hadn't hear this. Makes my heart sad too.
Wow that is so diappointing to hear because I enjoyed her music as well. And you are so right about what you said about freedom of speech and trying to make the Bible fit around your life.
People are so mislead and in an age where people try to make their own "religion" by taking from others to fit their lives rather than having a true relationship with Jesus Christ. The Bible warns that this will happen and that people would be led astray.
I will definitely keep her in my prayers.
BTW I have enjoye reading your blog posts.
Thanks for sharing Jenny. I definitely have had similar thoughts about this. Also, it is so true what you said " Everyone else can have a belief system, with freedom of speech, but a Christian."
You are right Jenny...
That news about Jennifer Knapp makes me sad. I've loved her music for years. I've just about burned out the "Kansas" cd.
In complete agreement w/ you sistah! I don't understand alot of things...
Katherine Ball
I agree Jenny.
Makes me so sad. Her one little song, Say Won't You Say, I just love so much.
How we need to keep our eyes on Jesus....I see this and realize again how easily we can fall captive to lies and be deceived.
I will be praying for her.
Michelle
The Journey Continues ~
Jenny,
I always enjoy your blogs and seeing you on fb.
YOU ARE SUCH A BLESSING!!
Thank you for your caring words!
Let's surround Jennifer Knapp with our PRAYERS and LOVE!!!
Maybe we could ALL get together and write Jennifer a note to share our love and not the lifestyle to her!!!
With "Heaven Bound" blessings,
Kim Safina
http://www.kimsafinathejourneycontinues.blogspot.com
You handled a very senstive issue very nicely. My heart grieves for her and many others as well.
very sad indeed...
and oh the rationalization!
tough subject, gentle loving scriptural way of addressing it Jenny
Well said sister. Tough subject these days. Way to be strong.
I believe that part of our inheritance in Christ is freedom ("sin shall not be your master, for you are not under law, but under grace"), so I would never allow a brother or sister struggling with homosexuality to settle for defeat. I'm thinking about it in the context of alcoholism, for example. "Can someone be an alcoholic and be a Christian?" I think the obvious answer is yes. They may be struggling with addiction and longing for freedom, but God doesn't kick them out of the kingdom temporarily until they find total victory over it. 2 Cor. 5:21 teaches us that His imputed righteousness covers us (ALL of us) while the weaknesses of our sin nature are being exposed and defeated. None of us can claim to have the absence of sin. So how do we harmonize the presence of sin with the promise of salvation when we know that "the wages of sin is death"? We trust in the cross and that grace redeems us from the curse WHILE we are being sanctified.
To those who can't seem to rid themselves of homosexual desires, I would remind all of us that God, in His wisdom, sometimes allows "a thorn in the flesh" to teach us His sufficient grace. In the same way that someone who struggles with rage should not give in to the impulse to kill, the one struggling with homosexuality shouldn't feel permission to practice a gay lifestyle simply because the presence of desire remains. It needs to be seen as a tool to drive us toward trusting God and learning the great lesson of "abiding" (John 15): obeying in the absence of feelings. That one should practice abstinence, let some brothers/sisters know about the struggle, remember that there is no condemnation in Christ, and cease to make their struggle the center of their lives.
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