FORMED

Parents, Pastors, Youth Leaders, Children's Ministry Leaders, etc. all need equipping on the topic of LGBTQ+ in this day of western culture's faux wisdom. If you have longed for answers for yourself as a struggler, or for someone you love, look at this often overlooked proverbial wisdom and its conversational context in Matthew 19:1-12. To start, the implications undeniably arrest the longstanding debate of Nature vs. Nurture. To finish, this relevant wisdom opens prison doors for bewildered captives of our culture's errors. Whether well-intentioned or deliberately evil, an error is an error. God's Word can correct all the errors that captivate and kill us. For all of Nature and Nurture's ills, Re-Birth and Re-Nurture are God's healing answer.

In this seven week plus one day devotional study, you will hear some of my micro stories, while I attempt to bring forward the wonderful macro story of God's Redemption. I pray you are re-informed and trans-formed as your micro story intersects God's macro story of formation. The Creation-Fall-Redemption macro plan will be viewed as a process of formation - formed, in-formed, un-informed, mis-informed, de-formed, re-informed, and trans-formed. Explore daily devotions with these weekly formation themes for seven weeks; forty-nine-days-plus-one. The 50th day celebrates Jubilee—a once every generation cancelling of debts and restoration of all that was lost in the Fall of all!

The Macro story…
As followers of Christ, we operate individually in the knowledge of an overarching story of all mankind: the perfection of Creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve (+ their descendants), and the Redemption Story of Jesus.

Creation—Spoken into existence with one exception: God did not say to Adam, "Adam be" and Adam was. The first man and woman were instead formed out of something God had already made. Adam, from dust. Eve, from a rib. The breath of life came after formation. Pre-fall Adam's DNA was perfect. Eve's too. DNA is known to be the densest storage system of information in existence. There was nothing missing in their DNA.

Fall of All—Today, you and I haven't been formed directly from dust or a rib into God's image. Instead, we are born in the marred image of a dust-to-dust Adam, and a broken rib named Eve. When they fell from perfection, their DNA was damaged by the poison ingested—both the lie and the fruit. The spiritual damage manifested physically. And so began the genetic ruin of all mankind. It's what is missing in human DNA, the misspellings, that make us ill and eventually kill us. There is no escaping it. No perfect DNA. No perfect humans ever since.

Redemption—The plan existed before the Creation was set in motion. It unfolds throughout the current era of the Fall of All. God the Father sent Jesus, The Word, to set broken ribs, and regather the dust. Jesus then gave the Holy Spirit to breathe the breath of Life into re-informed creatures. It takes breath to speak words. His Words are truly, Words of Life when the Holy Spirit is breathing them into our hearts and minds. God can fill in the blanks of DNA. This is how I perceive miracles. Jesus speaks: DNA stands corrected. All nature obeys what? His voice. Seas calm, lame leap, blind see, dead are raised to life. All things respond to the Word of His power. He still speaks through the written Word, the Bible. It's not just in-formation. His Words of Life are within reach. All scripture is inspired/breathed by God, and is profitable. In Genesis, the Spirit was hovering over the void. As God spoke, creation was in-formed. It takes not only God's Word, but the Holy Spirit's presence to create, or redeem Life.
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The Micro stories…
When followers of Christ are sifting through the complexities of gender identity (with the multiplying expressions and confusion the growing acronym LGBTQ+ implies), only God's Words can re-inform and trans-form. Oftentimes, humans have misunderstood and even misinterpreted what God intended. Does the Bible offer any clarity on the topic besides the Old Testament Levitical writings, and Romans chapter One? Yes. Still today, Jesus straightens our wagon with His wise Words. Jesus, the Red-Letter God, is so called because the red ink indicates this is God Himself on earth speaking. He elevated the Law by taking it from the Letter of the Law to the Spirit of the Law. The letter kills. The spirit brings life. Jesus fulfilled and interpreted the Old Testament, so His Words are like a red light—Stop! Pay attention! His Words penetrate through religious, political, and cultural thought, to the heart of the matter. His is the final Word on any matter, including LGBTQ+.

The Eunuch Proverb spoken by Jesus in Matthew 19:12 and its conversational context in verses 3-12, are a road to trans-formation for any Christ follower, including anyone wrestling with LGBTQ+ issues. The key to unlocking any proverb is: compare, contrast, conclude. This study uses that key to unlock the proverbs meaning and arrest a common point of estrangement. Further, the conversational context between Jesus, Pharisees and Disciples reaches back to God's original intention when He formed Adam and Eve in His image. Jesus takes His listeners to the Macro story of Creation first. Then He shows how it applies to our micro stories as He answers hard questions with admittedly hard answers regarding marriage, divorce, cohabitation, and celibate singleness. He wraps it up with the Eunuch Proverb. There is applicable and powerful wisdom in understanding both the proverb and its conversational context.
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The collision of stories — God, mine, yours…
Allow the initial discomfort of your micro story colliding with God's macro story. See if it truly arrests debate within and without. Jesus never wasted or minced words. Because of that He is trustworthy. In trust, I've written about His words. I'm inviting you to read my words, and imploring you to trust His.