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" a situation is created where an unqualified officebearer could serve the church in perpetuity." That is what is happening and it is ridiculous to allow this to continue.

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It's all in the language! When God met Moses at the burning bush he did not actually provide Moses with a name. A name would beg comparrison with the hundreds of Egyptian gods as well as those of Midian and neighboring tribes. He would tell Isaiah that His thoughts are not ours and neither are his ways ours. A whole lot higher. He is the one who is able to do far more abundantly than even our imagination. Job may have been a righteous dude, but when the Lord confronts him, he realizes how igorant, how uninformed he really was . . . and is. A measure of uncertainty of questioning is ultimatly a relfection of humility that we cannot pissible understand and accurately depict and speak about God. We do our best using what we know and our limited vocabulary, but we must come up short. It is hubris to think we have it all absolutely correct. But let's set this aside and move to the HSR.

This is not simply theology, it is personal. If I have a sibling, or a child, or another family member or a close friend who is LGBTQ+, then to affirm the confessional stance and traditional understanding of "unchastidy" creates or at least potentially creates a relational tension. So here I take exception. It is not simply a matter of crtiquing how one thinks but how one lives. There are individuals whom I know who never would ahve questioned that understanding until someone close to them "came out." It forced them to deal with an issue that otherwise may never have acught their attention. Indeed, it was not an issue for hundreds of years until the attitude of society began to change.

(Quickly written. Please forgive gramatical and spelling errors. It's been a long day. :))

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Luke 14:26 seems to give us some important guidance on how to live and honor Christ even in the midst of the most challenging of family relationships.....

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Yes, understaning that the word "hate" used in a number of translations does not have the meaning that it carries for most individuals. Better understood as "love less." It is a matter of where your primarily allegiance is. Our heart, mind, and strength belong first and completely to the Lord. A reality is, however, that scripture, the word of the Lord, is more easily taught than lived. On a personal level, we have a grandchild who has struggled with their sexual identity. "They" know where we stand on the issues and know that we love them regardless. Love does not, however, equate with agreement or approval. As muddied as it may be, we are all still made in the image and likeness of our creator.

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Another deeply reformed issue at play is the notion of two books and being faithful to both while seeking to reconcile the differences when they arise. Our understanding of the natural world is ongoing. Which also aligns with the thinking around ‘without reservation.’ How do we not have reservations when we know new understandings could be discovered? We can be settled while having the intellectual humility to allow for different thinking should new information present itself.

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