Oct | 16 | Wild but Not Woolly

Key Word:- CHANGE

Title:- Wild but Not Woolly

Isaiah 3:8,9 For Jerusalem stumbled, And Judah is fallen, Because their tongue and their doings Are against the LORD, To provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, And they declare their sin as Sodom; They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.

The most publicly flamboyant of 19th Century homosexuals, Oscar Wilde, was born today in 1854 in Dublin Ireland. From 1895 onwards, his imprisonment for sodomy and subsequent total destruction at the hand of a revengeful Marquis of Queensbury, have made him a figurehead of homosexual persecution and suffering. Christ died for all kinds of sinners including Oscar Wilde, yet God is neither woolly nor silent concerning the sin of sodomy.

Now friends, though I am personally flamboyant, love poetry, chick flicks and weep openly, I am not homosexual. No, I am afraid to say that my sins run far, far deeper. If a gene can be discovered for ‘pride and prejudice’ then maybe I shall feel a little better in being reconciled to my evil twins? Maybe?

My point is this, God will not, He will not reconcile sin with the sinner. His task is Wholeness and Holiness, no less! He will deliver us all, me included, from every evil. Friend, sodomy may not be as evil as my personal stumbling and fallings, but I tell you that homosexuality is also an evil that needs repenting of.

So what to do? We are in the depths of open warfare between the polite and politically correct and the seeming impolite bombastic bigots of a far right conservative evangelicalism. The lines are drawn but what are we to do when many of the churches children have openly confessed and are walking in homosexual sin? What are we to do when some of our most renowned leaders have come ‘out of the closet’ and shaken us to the core in advocating such a lifestyle? What are we to do when society presents us ‘repenters’ as white hooded, pokey hatted, full of hatred, sulphur spitting Bible thumping oh so phoney, homophobic homicidal maniacs? What are you to do, when today you battle with that same sin? Dear friend, what are we to do?

I believe our verse today is dealing with my personal problem of pride. Overtly Jerusalem and Judah had already prophetically fallen, when their inward sin of pride began to be outwardly and unmistakably worn upon their rebellious and hard-nosed faces. Some might say that our society is already well past that stage and is consequently and doomed to destruction. What can we do? From the lips of a ‘repenter’ I wonder if you would all, consider my advice:

Confess your tendency and if needs be, confess your sin. Agree with God concerning your sinful condition, for you know He’s been wrestling with you about this. Ask for God’s gracious forgiveness and humbly receive it, and then finally begin to lay hold of His power, especially as it is expressed in a loving community of fellow ‘repenters’ of every size, shape, colour and background!

This is not easy. He never said it would be. This is a fight, He told us it would be. Yes, that’s what you are to do, it’s what we all are to do and do together. Repent & Fight. We can do it; after all, we’re all in this together.

Listen:- ......if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

Pray: - Have mercy upon us, O God, According to Your loving kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, And cleanse us from our sin. For We acknowledge our transgressions, And our sin is always before us. 4 Against You, You only, have we sinned, And done this evil in Your sight — That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, we were brought forth in iniquity, And in sin our mother conceived us. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make us to know wisdom. Purge us with hyssop, and we shall be clean; Wash us, and we shall be whiter than snow. Make us hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from our sins, And blot out all our iniquities. Create in us a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within us. Do not cast us away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of Your salvation, And uphold us by Your generous Spirit. Then we will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. (adapted from Psalm 51:1-13 )