Are you ready for it?

I am not a prophet but it appears to me that there is coming some days of persecution for us who follow Jesus within the U.S. over the issue of homosexuality.

If you stay some other place, I think you can benefit to learn from our experience.
We have, and have had opportunities to minister to homosexuals when they are/were still in the closets, but we may have condemned instead, or so it seemed. It is like a preacher that talks about sin and hell and does not reach out in love and compassion to help you to get God's alternative - fellowship and relationship with Him, eternally.

Now homosexuals may see us as the enemy and a hindrance to their freedom. Can you imagine what it would be like if every one practicing a lifestyle of sin saw followers of Jesus as enemies, what that would be like? I will be surprised if the homosexual movement does not have this view of God's ministers today.

Now they are not only out of the closets, they are demanding rights reserved from the beginning of known history for marriage and family; they not only want to be respected, it is also a no-no to disagree with them, and it has become politically incorrect not to endorse what they are involved in.

Another dynamic to this saga is that they either are running Hollywood or both are allied because it is obvious to me that they are trying to sell it to anyone that watches any kind of screen. And Hollywood has a pretty good record of getting the general public to accept a point of view. I think they are succeeding in dignifying homosexuality in the eyes of the world. So the time will come when people will be wondering "what's wrong with these Christians that think and say that there is something not right with homosexuality. That's why I believe trouble will come soon to those of us who hold to the biblical views of sexuality and relationships.

Recently it's been reported that a well known female artist got a $million from Office Depot, I think. I didn't know they had that kind of money to spare, in these times that people are talking about economic recession, talkless of using it in promoting the idea that it is normal for someone to be born homosexual. And JC Penney seems to also want to be promoting homosexuality, just like the U.S. military. And Sears seems to want to sell books that sell bestiality, and the list can go on.

It is time for the body of Christ, members individually and collectively to prayerfully engage in intentionally reaching out with the love of Christ  like never before. For one, praying will allow us to develop the right perspective and God's heart concerning this issue.
Then we need to do what we receive from being in His presence. God loves homosexuals, and like with all humans, wants them to experience the healing of His liberating forgiveness, presence and love.

Coarse joking, making fun of, secretly or openly deriding, identifying homosexuals for acceptable mockery and the other things we may have been doing isn't working. Infact we need to stop them. You cannot minister effectively to anyone you look down on, you cannot minister to anyone you are intimidated by either. Let's allow God to remove whatever apprehension we may have, homosexuality cannot be transferred by physical contact and communication, and see what God does with us to help.

By Guest Blogger Okien Peters