Remaining In Conversation

I realised that people changed but do not change much unless there is an open heart coupled by a deep spiritual revelation by the Holy Spirit.

I have a colleague and friend, a very wonderful Christian, who did his best at his work, but due to fear almost freezes at work when faced with any small challenge, difficulty or something new or even minutely threatening. Thus he lived in a big closet ignoring the client's complaints and thinks he is doing well despite several incidents. It is easy to live without tackling our fears or problems and once we start to run away, we start running away from life itself amd live in a delusional world where everything is allright. Truth cannot be known by mere conversation. It must come from a heart of repentance and recognition of the issue.

In Acts, when Peter opened his ministry to Cornelius, it was the Holy Spirit that revealed that Gentiles were cleaned though by defnition against the law - to both Peter and Cornelius. It must be a revelation to both parties before a conversation takes place to seal the matter, when Peter saw them being baptised by the Holy Spirit, the very same upper room experienced which has set their own faith on fire for God.

I realised that in the areas of GLBT, it is useless to have a conversation with the Christian Church because their hardened hearts and pre-conceived ideas will not change even though the biblical interpretation is clear. If one interprets the bible as anti-gay, he must also consistently deny the work of grace in Christ Jesus. The boundaries of our revelation on the grace of God, is set by the boundaries of whether grace is sufficient to extend to the Gentiles first, and then the extent of Grace to the Eunuch, the natural Eunuchs whom the Jewish themselves knew well are born like that without being naturally inclined for women.

Therefore, when Phillip who himself was a gentile, spoke to the Eunuch whom after being rejected by the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, was on his way back to Ethiopia, it was breaking the law, but also extending the grace of God to the Eunuchs as was prophesised by isaiah, the very book that the Eunuch was coincidentaly reading aloud when Phillip passed by. The Eunuch went on to minister to the whole of Ethiopia.

Therefore, conversion can only be meaningful where both parties are being led by the Holy Spirit. There is few precedence in the bible, for the lesser to be in conversation with the greater ie Cornelius, a God fearer did not insist that he was right or clean to Peter on account of the cross. Nor was the Eunuch expected to take the initiative to talk to Phillip. Conversation is useless unless the Spirit of God breaks the hardened heart especially in areas of certain religious dogma hardened by centuries of traditions. It is not the responsibility of the oppressed to educate the oppressor. It is by God's grace, we have voices urging constraint.

In summary, remaining in conversations are useless, to change people from believing that the GLBT population is not intrinsically unclean for they first must have the revelation that what is made clean by the grace of God is cleaned indeed. When Paul opened his tirade against the Judaist in Rome, it was that conversation stopped long ago, as he did try to talk to them in all the missionary trips but now opened with a strong condemnation. How we missed the entire argument by seeing it as a statement against homosexuals I can only wonder in our delusion and almost fear to face the truth lest our blibical interpretation and our bible be deconstructed. But we need to let the Spirit of God work in us in areas we fear most, that revival breakthough will come.

In His grace.