All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them 2 is vanity, since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of all are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun.

7 Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. 8 Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.

Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

 We have to take life as it comes to us. Sometimes, life is good; other times, life is bad. Whether a person is good or bad, we aren’t judged here on earth. We often feel as if nothing is going right in our lives. One negative thing after another happens. I personally get depressed and often I cannot see the positives that are in amongst the negatives. Life seems too burdensome and happiness too elusive. But the truth is, everyone has their own problems. We have to look on the bright side of life.

Life is sometimes challenging; sometimes frustrating. But wisdom lies in giving our troubles to God. He can and will help. Adversity and hardships are an inevitable part of your life. God knows this and we know that we cannot escape them. So take everything that comes your way with patience and dignity. Never give in to misery, but instead pray to God. Do not take your life so seriously as to miss your happiness. Happiness is always around us. We just need to trust in God to show us that happiness.

Happiness is a feeling of sheer joy; the state of contentment. We all have our own perception of happiness. For some, it is material things that we think makes us happy. Everlasting happiness does not have anything to do with material possessions. Real happiness does not lie in big achievements. It lies in small things that touch your heart.

Happiness can neither be demanded nor earned. It is a conscious choice that we make. We create our own happiness when we commit ourself to live a meaningful life doing things that we want to do. Our attitude determines how happy we will be. If we take everything was it comes with a smile and accept the good and bad of life, we will derive happiness in whatever you do.

Take life as it comes. Learn to enjoy the finer moments in life. Be willing to accept the intricacies with grace and consider them an opportunity to prove your worth. If you succeed in winning, you will rejoice; if you fail, you will be happy at least you dared to try. This will improve your self-confidence and boost your self-esteem. Also, you will end up getting richer and wiser in experience.

One reason I chose this passage for today is because today is May 1 and May is Masturbation Month. A lot of religions believe that masturbation is a sin, so I asked a minister friend of mine what he thought about what people called onanism. To refresh you memory, Onan is a minor biblical person in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, who was the second son of Judah. Like his older brother, Er, Onan was killed by God. Onan’s death was retribution for being “evil in the sight of the Lord” through being unwilling to father a child by his widowed sister-in-law. He accomplished this with coitus interruptus, or finishing sex with masturbation. In other words, he spilled his seed on the ground and was struck down by God. 

Early Christian writers have sometimes focused on the spilling seed, and the sexual act being used for non-procreational purposes. Since masturbation is one way to accomplish a sexual act with no procreational purpose, then it was considered a sin. Anyway, when I asked my minister friend about this, he quoted to me, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might” Of course, he was making a joke, but Onan was punished for the sin of disobedience to God, not masturbation. So as you celebrate Masturbation Month, remember, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might.” Have a wonderful month of celebration.

I had originally planned for this post to be about masturbation and how we are taught to be ashamed of it, when in actuality, it is a natural process of life. While women may masturbate less than men, masturbation does have many health benefits to men. It keeps our prostates healthy among other benefits. While that had been the plan of this post, I looked closer at the words surrounding Ecclesiastes 9:10 and realized that there is a greater message there about happiness. I know there are many people like me who suffer from depression and that happiness is often hard to find, but God will help us find our happiness if we just let Him.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.—Ephesians 3:14-21

In this prayer, Paul tells the Ephesians to ask God to strengthen them by His Spirit. This is not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength. This strength is so Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. He asks for spiritual blessings, which are the best blessings. Strength from the Spirit of God in the inner man; strength in the soul; the strength of faith, to serve God, and to do our duty. If the law of Christ is written in our hearts, and the love of Christ is shed abroad there, then Christ dwells there. Where his Spirit dwells, there he dwells.

Paul further asks God that with both feet planted firmly on love will be able to take in with all Christians the many glorious dimensions of Christ’s love. Paul tells the Ephesians to reach out and experience the breadth of God’s love, to test the length God’s love. He tells them to measure the depths and to rise to the heights of God’s love. We should desire that good affections may be fixed in us. And how desirable to have a fixed sense of the love of God in Christ to our souls! How powerfully the apostle speaks of the love of Christ! The breadth shows its extent to all nations and ranks; the length, that it continues from everlasting to everlasting; the depth, its saving those who are sunk into the depths of sin and misery; the height, its raising them up to heavenly happiness and glory.

He wants us to live full lives, full in the fullness of God.  Paul tells us that God can do anything. He can do far more than we could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams. He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Those who receive grace for grace from Christ’s fulness, may be said to be filled with the fulness of God.

In this prayer, Paul gives us the path to happiness. He wants us to realize how much God is there for us. we can turn to him when we are weak, and he will give us strength. He gives us the strength to do all things in his name. He wants us to understand how much God loves us. The truth is there is no way to measure God’s love. It is infinite and everlasting. If we live our lives in the fullness of God, then we will be able to accomplish anything. God is with us, and if we let Him, He will fill us with his love and strength.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 

     he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: 

     he leadeth me in the paths of 

     righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the 

     valley of the shadow of death, 

     I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; 

     thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me 

     in the presence of mine enemies:

     thou anointest my head with oil; 

      my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 

     all the days of my life: 

     and I will dwell in the 

     house of the Lord for ever.

Psalms 23
Sometimes we just need to be reminded.

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.      I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.       I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.      I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.      I write to you, children, because you know the Father.       I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.      I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:7-14

In 1 John 2:3-6, the apostle gives a test by which you can know that you truly know Jesus Christ, namely, if you walk in obedience to His word. In 2:6, he states, “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” Then, in 2:7-11, John goes on to apply this test of obedience more specifically to the area of love. If Jesus’ life and especially His death epitomized love, then those who claim to follow Him are obligated to live in love.

In the Upper Room, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus demonstrated His great love for the disciples by taking a towel and a basin of water and washing the disciples’ feet. After that unforgettable object lesson, He drove the point home (John 13:14-15), “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” He was not instituting a ceremonial foot-washing service, where everyone comes with clean feet to be washed! He was saying something much more difficult to practice, that we who follow Jesus must set aside our rights and serve one another out of love.

In that same chapter (John 13:34-35), Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Obviously, those words of Jesus were behind John’s words about the old, new commandment. It may be that the heretics against whom John was writing claimed to have some “new” truths. Using an obvious play on words, John counters them by saying that we don’t need new truth, but rather the old truth that his readers learned early in their Christian experience. On the other hand, if you want “new” truth, John says that the old commandment is the new commandment, which Jesus gave to us. In short,

Loving one another is an essential mark of a true Christian.

John never specifically identifies the old, new commandment in these verses, and he only mentions love once in this entire section (2:10). But his reference to the new commandment makes it obvious that he is referring to Jesus’ command to love one another.

This commandment was old in two senses. First, it was old in that Moses taught it in the Law, “… you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Jesus identified this as the second greatest commandment, after the command to love God with all your being (Matt. 22:37-40). So in that sense, this command had been with God’s people for 1,400 years.

But the main sense in which this was an old commandment is that these believers had heard it from the very earliest days of their Christian experience (2:7): “… which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.” John uses the phrase, “from the beginning,” in the same way in 1 John 3:11, “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”

The “New Commandment”, the Wycliffe Bible Commentary states, “was new in that the love was to be exercised toward others not because they belonged to the same nation, but because they belonged to Christ…and the love of Christ which the disciples had seen…would be a testimony to the world”.

One of the novelties introduced by this commandment – perhaps justifying its designation as New – is that Jesus “introduces himself as a standard for love”. The usual criterion had been “as you love yourself”. However, the New Commandmant goes beyond “as you love yourself” as found in the ethic of reciprocity and states “as I have loved you”, using the Love of Christ for his disciples as the new model.

The First Epistle of John reflects the theme of love being an imitation of Christ, with 1 John 4:19 stating: “We love, because he first loved us.”

John tells his readers that they have had this commandment “from the beginning,” and then identifies it as “the word which you have heard” (2:7). It was part and parcel with the gospel that they had believed at the outset of their Christian experience. When we hear and respond to the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners, at that point the love of God is “poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). The first fruit of the Spirit is love (Gal. 5:22). As I mentioned, the entire Bible may be summed up by the two great commandments, to love God and to love one another. So learning how to establish and maintain loving relationships is not “graduate level” Christianity. It is basic, beginning Christianity.

It all begins with how you think about others. Instead of thinking first about yourself, your feelings, your rights, and your needs, you must learn to think first about others. How can I show this difficult person the love of Jesus Christ? How can I serve this person in love? Rather than thinking angry thoughts about how he wronged you and how you’ll get even, you begin to think about how Jesus wants you to think about the one who mistreated you. You begin to pray for this person, that he would come to know Jesus. You look for opportunities to return good instead of evil. I recommend that you write out Paul’s description of love (1 Cor. 13:4-7) on a card and read it over several times each morning, until you have in your mind how a loving person acts.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I have often written about people who profess to know Christ, but their relationships are marked by anger, abusive speech, bitterness, and self-centeredness. Invariably, they don’t have a clue as to why they keep experiencing such hate. While I do not know their hearts (only God does), their lives do not give evidence that they have experienced the love of God in Jesus Christ. Rather, they seem to be in spiritual darkness, blindly colliding from one profession of hate to the next. They do not practice biblical love, which is an essential mark of every true Christian.

Again, none of us loves perfectly. When we fail, we need to repent and ask forgiveness of the one we wronged. It is a lifelong process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. But those who have met Him at the cross will be growing in love for others.

Also, note that love for others is a commandment, not a warm, gushy feeling. That should give you hope, because God’s commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3) and God’s Spirit gives us the grace and power to obey His commands, which are for our good. Biblical love is a self-sacrificing, caring commitment that shows itself in seeking the highest good of the one loved. You can obey the commandment to love others!

So if you’re thinking, “But I don’t love my mate any more,” or, “I just don’t like that difficult person,” the Bible is clear: Get to work obeying God’s commandment to love him or her. It’s not optional for the follower of Christ. It’s essential!

I wanted to answer Paul’s comment because I’d already received one email asking essentially the same thing.  So here is “Gay Devotional, Part II).

What is a devotional? In the church I grew up in we didn’t use that term. We had ‘devotions’ which were rites involving scripture and prayer, but surely there is no lack of that on the internet. What makes a devotional gay? The poster or the posting?

When you look up the term “devotional,” you get definitions like “a short religious service” or a “devotional exercise relating to worship.” It doesn’t really explain what a devotional is or why we do them. What most people talk about when they talk about devotionals is a book that helps you grow in your relationship with God. It is usually broken down into daily chapters that you can read and pray about. There are plenty of internet devotionals out there but not that helps the gay Christian grow in their spirituality as a gay Christian. What I think of as a gay devotional is to take a passage or verse from the Bible and extrapolate a meaning that is not only universal as all of the Bible is, but to present it in a way that speaks to gay Christians and our unique situation. I think the gay devotional is made by both the poster and the posting.

Also, what do you mean when you use the term Christianity in this post? There are certainly still gay, self-professed Christians among us. There are even gay, self-professed Christian congregations of various sects. Is your Christianity dependent on community? Were I a hermit who believed and tried to follow Jesus Christ, but had no contact with other Christians, would I not be a part of Christianity as a whole? Is a self-professed Christian deemed not part of Christianity because they fail to be Christ-like? or because they are unchurched? or because they actively and knowingly violate Christ’s command to love one another?

When I use the term Christianity, I mean a person who follows the teachings of Christ and believes in him as our Lord and Savior. The problem that I see is that there are people who call themselves Christians and profess their belief in Jesus as their Lord and Savior but do not follow the message of Jesus. They pick and choose which passages they want to follow, pulling from the Old Testament when and only when it suits their purposes to condemn others. And yes, there are gay professing congregations, the MCC and UCC are just two such congregations. I think that the greatest threat to Christianity is that people fail to act Christ-like (and I am not always saying that I do act Christ-like, I think it is impossible to be so all the time) and that they knowingly violate Christ’s command to love one another. I believe that when hate becomes part of the Christian liturgy then it is no longer Christian.

I always wondered about the passage you quoted where Jesus told the woman to ‘go and sin no more’, if she succeeded in doing so, if Jesus believed it were realistically possible for her to do so, and how each of them felt when she (probably) failed. Isn’t the adultery defense one of the arguments “Christians” use against homosexuality? You can’t have sex because you’re not married and you can’t marry because we say marriage is only between a man and a woman. Ergo, no sex for you, homo. If Jesus were to tell me to avoid this sin henceforth, I don’t know what I’d do, but I’d probably burn for it.

The part where Jesus tells the woman to ‘go and sin no more’ is the hardest part of that passage. Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin is part of our nature. Sadly we will sin, the question is: will we ask for forgiveness and try not to sin again? The thing about it is that if we really look at the Bible then thinking about sinning is as bad as actually sinning. Can we train our minds not to think about sin? Maybe some would claim we can but I don’t think it’s possible. We all sin, we will all sin, and all we can hope for is for God’s forgiveness of those sins. I think that sex within a loving committed relationship is not a sin, especially now that the loving committed relationship can now be a marriage.

While Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”–John 8:1-11

Have you tried lately to find a good gay-affirming devotional on the Internet? Used to, I had a number of sources I could go to for inspiration, but lately, they are harder and harder to find. Some of the sources that I used to use, either no longer have the content they used to or the website is no longer valid. I can think of a few reasons for this:

1. Have gay people strayed so far from Christianity that no one wants to minister to them?
2. Have churches become more welcoming and therefore there is no longer a need for Internet devotionals?
3. Do gay Christians just not care enough anymore to put out devotionals?
4. Are there resources out there that Google just can’t find?

I do think a lot of gay people have turned their backs on Christianity. Many “Christians” have certainly turned their backs on gay people. Is that an excuse? No, it isn’t. We must not give up on Christinity. God doesn’t give up on us. He loves us and wants us to love him. Just because many fundamentalist Christians have turned their backs on gay people and see no place for gay people within the church does not mean that God feels the same way.

In Vermont, there are no gay bars. The explanation I have found is that all bars are welcoming to gay and straight and therefore there is no need for separate bars for gay people. There are many churches here that are the same way. They don’t make one’s sexuality an issue when welcoming people into their churches. Quite simply, they welcome everyone. Is this true of the country as a whole? No, it isn’t. There are still many churches that if you are gay you will be asked not to come back.

That brings me to whether or not gay Christians care enough anymore to put out devotionals. I think since DADT ended and gay marriage and adoption became legal, we have become relaxed in our fight for equality. Churches are the last place in America where equality exists. Few churches are fully integrated racially, and they certainly aren’t integrated when it comes to sexuality and gender. Some churches are becoming better about gender equality and many of those are more integrated with different sexualities. Some of those churches claim to be gay affirming now, but honestly, when it comes down to it, they aren’t. We have become too relaxed in our fight for equality and we need to keep fighting to be included in our churches.

I hope there are sources for gay devotionals that I just couldn’t find. If anyone knows of any, please let me know in the comments. I love being able to take a devotional and allow it to inspire me for a post.

You may be wondering about the Bible passage above and what it means to this post. Well, the fact is whether other people who call themselves Christians may condemn us for being gay, they forget Jesus said, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” None of us are without sin and therefore none of us can cast the first stone. There is but one judge and that judge is God, for He alone is without sin.

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14

I have struggled with my past. I have struggled with things in my past. More than anything lately, I have been struggling with my grief over the past. I have struggled with things I cannot change. If I could, I would. It has taken a lot of prayer and thoughtfulness to understand I cannot change the past. I knew I couldn’t, but I prayed to God to at least take away the pain. He has helped me lessen the pain, but He has not removed it completely. Each day, sadness continues to overtake me. I think of my friend all the time. People have told me to just get over it. I feel resigned that will never happen; that I will always feel sadness when I remember his death.

But maybe one day I won’t feel sadness when I think of him, and what the world lost when he died so tragically. I love and trust my God, so when He says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” I am trying to see things new again, to see a life forward without my best friend, my greatest confidant. It’s not an easy concept and it is not one that I really want to deal with, but deal with it, I must. Ephesians 4:22-23 is a very encouraging passage of scripture. It says, “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self…and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” In other words, I can overcome any negative situation or pain from my past if I will just believe in God and say, “Yes, this tragedy happened. But You are on my side and I know You have a good plan for me.”

In fact, with God’s help, I can do anything within His will for me. For example, God wants me to be healthy. So if you need to lose weight and you decide to go on a diet, when the hunger pains start coming, no matter how much your flesh is screaming, I can set your mind to not give in. And if my willpower can hold out, I will see results! I have done it before, and I can do it again. Well, that truth applies to every other area of my life.

I think a lot of us try to do things in our own strength without God. At first, I tried to get over my grief without God. I blamed him for allowing it to happen, but God didn’t kill my friend. God allows us to live our lives and whatever happened on that tragic night, it was not God’s doing. But in order to have the godly determination we need to get results, we need to come under the leadership of the Holy Spirit―and we need to have a vision.

The Israelites stayed in the wilderness forty years because they couldn’t see God’s vision for their life. They thought of everything in terms of their past. In fact, they complained to Moses that they wanted to go back to Egypt and return to a life of slavery because that’s what they knew. But God wanted them to get a new vision―a land flowing with milk and honey. Like the Israelites, I have prayed for things that no one should pray for, and God has answered those prayers.  Thankfully, his answer was no.  It is not my time to join him in everlasting life, for I have more things to do in this life.

If you want to see change happen in your life, you’ve got to get a vision that goes beyond what you’ve already seen and experienced. And a good place to start is the promises in God’s Word. There are thousands of them, and you can claim each one of them for yourself. In 1 Peter 5:6-7, Peter tells us, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” I have learned to humble myself before God and to beg him to forgive me for the blame I cast toward him. I am doing my best to cast my anxieties to God, so he can help me.

We need to learn how to encourage ourselves in the Word. That’s what David did in Psalm 27:13-14. Even in the midst of his troubles he said, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”  The Lord God works in his own way in his own time. We must understand that and press forward knowing he will guide us.

Our hope should never be based on what we can see or what’s in our past. Our hope should be based on the Word of God and His promises for our life. Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” God is always doing something new. I need to use my gift of spiritual discernment to follow His plan and stop following my own thoughts and feelings. I need to look at my circumstance and stare at Jesus.

Paul told the Hebrews in Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Do you know what? God will give us anything we can see as long as it’s biblical. If we will just stop thinking about everything we’ve lost, everything we’re not, everything we’ve given up, the way we’ve been treated in the past, and set our mind on His vision for our future, God will bring us to our Promised Land. But first, we have to leave the past behind.