Hi everyone, just letting you know I"ll be away from Monday 26th til the end of the week after that (whatever date that is). So there'll be no updates, no comments, no nothing till then.

 

I'm gonna be in Jindabyne/Thredbo/Perisher skiing and freezing my butt off.

 

YAY! :D

 

I'll bring back snowballs and throw them at you.

 

Love Leah.

Well I was recently re-reading the dialogue between me and Anthony Venn-Brown (back in Feburary, search the archives if you want) about homosexuals and the church (particularly AOG at this point in time.)

 

In his last comments on my blog, he said some stuff that obviously indicated he either didn’t read my email properly, or simply had a major misunderstanding. I don’t know why I didn’t reply to them earlier, but I’m going to now.

 

Background: Venn-Brown is trying to establish a homosexuals support group in the AOG church (ie. Support of the homosexuality, not supporting them in overcoming it.) I was saying how this is wrong and various other things.

 

So let’s clear some things up.

 

My same sex attraction is no more sinful than your opposite sex attraction. Sexual orientation is amoral.

 

No. No, no, no, no, NO.

I said in my email (and blog) that homosexuality is a sin. Therefore, I do not agree with the statement “my same sex attraction is no more sinful than your opposite sex attraction.” It IS more sinful. Look at my original Leviticus and Romans passages.

“Leviticus 20:13 "'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."
       Now, I know that you may argue this is void, as we shouldn't kill homosexual offenders, so why should the first part of the statement be considered valid? The only reason that homosexual offenders (and any other sinners) are not to be killed is because Jesus has already made the sacrifice; he has already died instead of said sinner. The 'crime' or sin still remains just that- a sin- it's just that the punishment is not necessary anymore as Christ has taken the punishment for us.
       Romans 1:26-27 "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."”

Homosexuality is more sinful than same sex attraction. Sexual orientation is NOT amoral. God makes it VERY clear he does NOT like homosexuality.

 

It’s unfortunate that many Christians equate homosexuality with immorality which is definitely not the case.

 

Yes, it IS the case. Homosexuality IS immoral, as is every other sin; lying, cheating, drunkenness, disobedience to parents, idolatry, etc. Again- simply look at the verses I already provided in Leviticus and Romans.

 

There are many gay and lesbian people who live in long-term committed monogamous relationships and love each other deeply.

 

That doesn’t matter. Loving each other deeply does not make up for their sin. Only accepting Christ’s sacrifice does that.

 

I have to say Leah that this is a fallacy. (“This” = gay people being able to become straight.)

 

No, this is NOT a fallacy. Has Anthony asked every homosexual or ex-homosexual if it is possible for them to change? No. There are many people who have written to Salt Shakers testifying to their change from homosexuality. The idea that it is possible is NOT a fallacy.

Even for people who claim they can’t change, or that “they can’t help being gay”, this does not excuse their actions, nor make them acceptable. I can’t help being sinful either, does that mean I’m allowed to indulge in sin, or that God finds it acceptable? Of course not.

 

…people who at one time claimed they had changed but now realised that even though some behaviours may have changed the orientation remained the  same.

 

This is a good thing. It is the behaviour that counts, not the temptation. Just because their orientation or temptations remained the same, does not give them the right to indulge in that. But to carry on with God-honouring behaviour (which is denying those temptations) is commendable.

 

Happy to keep the dialogue open.

 

Despite saying he would send a full reply to my email, he never did.

GO THE MAROONS!!!!!

 

Oh man! What a way to shut up people like Benny Elias and GUS!!!!!

*runs round in excited circles*

Adam Mogg, his first origin ever- and he gets two tries, is involved in numerous tackles, makes a couple of his own, and drives Gasnier into touch. *Rolls round laughing at the idea of a young 'un doing that to old Gasnier*
Then there was his amazing try which he got by the skin of his teeth, which they had to go to a video ref for... honestly...

Oh, and of course, WHERE WOULD WE BE without our COWBOYS!!! Webb got us our first try thanks to Mogg's tackle on Gasnier, and Thurston's conversions- and, my GOODNESS, that pass to Mogg?!

Anasta threw (or tried to throw) the ball to Gasnier (he wasn't having a good night, was he) which kind of sucked, Thurston tapped it through with his foot, recovered it (losing his balance in the meantime, what can you expect, coming off his shoelaces), meanwhile offloading onto Mogg who promptly took it over the try line.

And Hodges. Hodges, Hodges, Hodges. Ok Paul, if you think Matty Bowen's 70m run or whatever from last year wasn't impressive, what about a 90m run and try from Hodges? I had to laugh when he turned and pointed straight at his Blue pursuer, looking him square in the eye, before touching that football onto the ground.

And Mal Meninga. My goodness, what has he done to those boys. They were actually playing some damn good football last night! Everything they've done wrong for the past 7- 10 or so Origin games, they did right last night. Tackling? Yup. They committed to tackles, and took them down. Making ground? They did that alright. Where once upon a time they'd hang around and wait for NSW to move up, they flew forward, making ground like I haven't seen QLD do in a long time.

And defence. QLD's defence has SUCKED in recent years, but last night they put the pressure on, and NSW found nowhere near as many holes as they had probably become used to counting on. And when they did, they got chased and taken down!!!

NSW, on the other hand, fumbled balls, knocked on, elbowed people in the throat and face, and threw to phantom players (ie... no-one in particular.) Which QLD did a little bit of, but was usually able to recover, while NSW hardly had time to recover, and did it consistently.

And of course, who could help but take glee in Brett Finch's (who got their lousy winning field goal last game) fumble and loss of the ball?

I honestly think Queensland just freaked New South Wales out.
"You mean, they're committing to tackles? They're taking us down?"
"... they're running towards us? Not waiting for us to make ground??"

Especially in the opening moments, crucial to setting the mood, when play after play just went bang bang bang, taking NSW completely by surprise.

The only disappointment of the night was not leaving NSW in the dust without a point to their name. In the 77th minute, Tahu actually got through and made a try.

77th minute.

Can you imagine Graham Murray?
*Johnathon Thurston's grubber-kick and off-load to Mogg*
GM: YES! YES, GO JT-- I mean, no! C'mon Anasta! Noooooooooo!!

*Playing after Mogg's tackle on Gasnier*
GM: C'mon boys, don't let them through, keep that defence line-- *Webb breaks through* YES! Go Webb! You've got it-- wait, no! No!! Run, Hindmarsh, run! Take him down!!

(For those who don't know, Murray was the NSW coach. He is also the Cowboys coach, and Webb and Thurston are Cowboys who played on the QLD side.)

And I don't really agree with Lockyer getting man of the match. Yeah, he played very well, consistently, but Thurston and Mogg did some outstanding work, quite consistently too.

So yeah, we shamed the Blues, GO THE MAROONS!!!!!

Anyways, at the end of this, I have three words:

SHUT UP GUS!! (and Benny Elias)

 

PS. I have had enough of this abortion debate. I've reached 50 comments, that's a bit of a record. People are now getting snappy and aggressive and deliberately provoking rebuttals and argument, so I'm probably going to leave it at that. And if anyone else has a problem with the discussion, well please don't feel the need to add to it.

Mood: Meh

Listening to: Better Together (Jack Johnson)

Location: home

 

Accepts you as you are

Believes in you

Calls you just to say "hi"

Doesn't give up on you

Envisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts!)

Forgives your mistakes

Gives unconditionally

Helps you

Invites you over

Just "be" with you

Keeps you close at heart

Loves you for who you are

Makes a difference in your life

Never judges

Offers support

Picks you up

Quiets your fears

Raises your spirits

Says nice things about you

Tells you the truth when you need to hear it

Understands you

Values you

Walks beside you

X-plains things you don't understand

Yells when you won't listen

Zaps you back to reality

 

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*Shameless plug*

http://jn2021.blogspot.com

Well it seems the main topic pounced upon in my "Our messed up world" blog entry was abortion. No surprises there, although I totally did not expect it.

 

Joel made a good comment (or 50) on the circumstances surround abortion, and when it is or isn't right.

 

So here is a mixture of what he said (condensed) and my opinion. If you want to read his original comment, you can go look yourself.

-----

Hehe. Appears people liked my second-last blog entry. It's caused a few dicussions. And by discussions, I mean exactly that. They haven't turned argumentative or into debates or anything yet. Which, I think, is a record for me and the ex-Calvary boys ;) :P *cough*PaulCornish*cough*AlexClelland...

 

Anyway. That is a good thing. That people are discussing and not arguing, I mean. ALthough... arguing can be fun too... :P *Points out the "is very opinionated" in MSN Profile*

 

Hey... if you rearrange two letters in "Profile", you get "Prolife". Yeah, random I know. But Paul and I are talking about abortion, so it was on the brain.

 

What was with that wind last night? That was insane. I swear that's the windiest I've ever seen Townsville. At 5am it blew open our back doors (glass doors, not sliding- each of them are probably heavier than me) which is right outside my bedroom. I ignored it, thinking Dad would come and fix them. No such luck.  Eventually at ten to 6 I heard a massive bang and knew the doors were going to break something if I didn't close them properly. So I tried closing them. But yeah, the wind was having none of that... as I said... doors, heavier than me, lotsa wind... after 4 attempts I gave up and was about to get dad and tell him to close them when him and Mum turned up anyway :P

 

Haha, and the aluminium ladder which was against the house (two storeys high) got blown over and made a bloody racket in teh process.

 

Hehe I was "babysitting" the McDougall kids during church today... seeing as Dave was up the front for the first half, and Liz was playing the piano. Annie and Tom (both 3) are so cute ^_^ And yeah, Jack (6) is too... *cuddles Annie* hehe so cute.

 

Ooh ooh ooh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Seza (Sarah Johnston) for the 16th!... I think... sorry if I"m wrong Seza!!! Haha... you'll be 19... that's almost 20... and yeah, ocne you're 20, you're old... :P Yeah, I have another 18 months or so till I hit 20 :P And as for 21... *sideways glance at Joel, Beebs and James* Well, that's just over the hill... :P Haha, love ya's all.

 

Okily doke... I've updated this thing way too much over the past 3 or 4 days... I need to start studying for this week's exam sometime... but not today :P

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*Shameless plug* http://maria87.deviantart.com

What has happened to Townsville?? Ok. It just doesn't rain in Townsville outside the months of December-March. It just doesn't.

 

Ok, so very rarely.

 

The last THREE Cowboys games I've been to, it rained. It's raining now. In June.

 

In other news... I only have one exam left. YAY :) Umm... other uni news... Jessie's switching degrees... has given up on Psych/Ed, and is switching to Social Work. Oh well :) There are much worse degrees she could have changed to. Eg... *shudders* Med. (Just kidding Joel, Caitie, Cam, and all the other med students... I love you :D) Hopefully she'll enjoy Social Work better.

 

My last exam is on Friday. FRIDAY! What sort of person makes someone suffer through an exam on the first, AND last days of exam block? Both at 8:15am? >_< Tisn't fair. Well, at least I'm not alone... Jessie and Cint are going thru the same thing :) (Don't stress with studying, you two.)

 

Oh. And to clear something up, which Talia's comment highlighted people may have misunderstood- in my last entry, I wasn't saying "all abortion is bad." Neither am I condoning it, quite the opposite... but yeah. No generalisations. All generalisations are bad!!! (Yes... that was tongue in cheek :P)

 

Hehe. Jesse James is taking Andre and me, Jako and Jessie, and Penny and Budha out for ice cream after church tomorrow night :) ... he has to look after "his girls" now that they have boyfriends :P (it would be accurate to say Jesse is kinda the church kids' "Grandfather").  Anyway, should be fun. I haven't seen much of Jako lately and have never met Penny's bf.

 

Anyways... it's getting late and I was up late last night... s'pose I should probably head off. Have fun kiddies,  dont study too hard (but do SOME study), get lotsa sleep... and.. hang in there... exams are almost over!!!

We are living in one messed up world. You know, just in case you hadn't already noticed. I mean, consider some of the insanity going on around us.

 

We're living in a world where school "report cards" aren't allowed to say whether a child is doing badly, for fear that "negative comments" might affect their self-esteem or something. Instead, the child "has limited abilities" or "can improve". Teachers can't tell parents that the child is a ratbag in class. Teachers aren't allowed to discipline children, or what discipline does exist, doesn't do anything. Why? Was the previous method of schooling discipline and grading bad? Is that saying people who went through those methods have been affected adversely in some way? Because if you ask me, people who went through primary school prior to 1998(ish) when this madness began kicking in, had a better experience and learnt an awful lot more than kids now.

 

How else has this world screwed up? It's a world where killing unborn babies is Ok, but kill a cat and you'll end up in jail. Is a cat's life worth more than a baby's? It is not the "mother's body", and therefore, isn't her choice. If the mother's body is put on the line by the pregnancy there may be exceptions, but a majority of the time, it isn't the mother's body. There is another person's body inside her, and she feels free to take the liberty to end its life? Do that with a fish though, and there are suddenly lobbyists telling us how cruel we are to fish, and that "they can feel pain too".

 

We're living in a world where the "biggest problems" are considered to be global warming and "environmental issues". Can someone tell me what happened to the millions of children who die from starvation and AIDS each year?

 

We're living in a world where the most powerful nation on earth feels like it has to liberate the people of other countries, yet can't look after its own poor and homeless population.

 

We're living in a world where, say something "heretical" about Allah and you've got reason to fear for your life, but say something heretical about Jesus and people will think it's hilarious.

 

Where men can't be men because they might offend women, and where women can do anything but men aren't allowed because they might offend women.

 

Oh, and my personal favourite, courtesy of Nathan. We're living in a world where people suggest you stop sponsoring a child, and sponsor a panda instead. Ok, pandas are cute, but can someone please tell me when a panda's life became more important than a child's??

 

This is one very, very messed up world.