Honestly Thinking

Honestly thinking (& rethinking) about God, the universe, and everything in between

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“Is Same-Sex Marriage Sin?” and 1000 Other Impossible Questions Answered

October 4, 2015 / / 5 Comments

(Part 2 of 3 of God, the Church, and LGBT)

Thousand Questions

Music blared several decibels from her bedroom to grab my attention.  Upon arriving at my 15 year old daughter’s room I saw the collection of homemade construction paper posters plastered all over the outside of her door.

With words in crayon and colored pencil scribbled over pictures of rainbows and picket signs, the message was meant to be clear.

“Equal Rights!” they exclaimed.

“Same-sex marriage!”

“Bi-sexual and proud!”

But the most offensive:

“My dad hates gays!” and “My dad hates me because I’m bi.”
Continue reading

Why God Favors LGBTs

September 27, 2015 / / 3 Comments

(Part 1 of 3 of God, the Church, and LGBT)

rainbow3

In my last post titled “God  Really Likes You, But You Suck: The Confusing Message of Grace” I shared about the subject of God’s favor.  If you have not read it already I strongly encourage you to do so before reading on.  It will make a lot more sense related to the theology behind what I am about to say and potentially answer a lot of your questions.

In summary of it: we have confused our understanding of grace, which is often defined as God’s “unmerited favor” toward us.  It is not that one must do something wrong first, thus unmeriting themselves, before undeserved favor is offered; instead, it is favor freely given that never had to be merited in the first place.   Continue reading

God Really Likes You, But You Suck: The Confusing Message of Grace

September 20, 2015 / / 14 Comments
Photo by Melissa Baldwin

Photo by Melissa Baldwin

“♫ Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me ♪” We sing about it all the time. “♪ Grace, grace, God’s grace.  Grace that is greater than all my sin ♫” We talk about it. “By grace alone you have been saved.” And we offer it to each other. “Grace to you.” It is one of the most prominent messages in the church.  But do we really know what it means?

The Greek word for grace, χάρις (charis), is most often defined as “favor” and sometimes as “kindness.”  It has the implication of favor that is freely extended – and thus often defined as “unmerited favor.”

So if God really favors you a lot that should make us really feel good right? But do we?

Last week, blogger and former evangelical Christian turned atheist, Neil Carter, tweeted:

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We’ve Made God Too Small

September 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Screenshot from IMAX® 3D movie Hidden Universe showing the Helix Nebula in infrared

The Helix Nebula in infrared *

Imagine with me for a moment that the Universe called out to you. Would you follow it? And what I mean by the Universe is all that is out there: the billions of stars, the planets, the super novas, the galaxies, everything that is within them and all that you could possibly imagine, as far as the almost infinite, expanding Universe can go. And further yet, the laws that are behind all that exists in the Universe. What if it called out to you in one big unifying voice? Would you tune your ears to listen to it? Continue reading

Why I Was Kicked Out of Vacation Bible School at Age 5

September 6, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Bellamy_salute_1
(Welcome to my blog part 2 of 2)

Yes, it’s true.  Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t exactly a rebel growing up.  About the most rebellious thing I did as a kid was, when upset with my parents, I would go into their bedroom and gently lay their bedside lamps on the ground so that it would look like I was so angry I had gone in and knocked them over.  Well, what do you expect?  I didn’t exactly want to break them.  But I could just imagine the anguish they experienced upon discovering the lamps.  “What have we done???  Where have we gone wrong???  Our otherwise gentle, perfect son has gone on a rampage.  We’ve lost him forever!!!  Well, at least he didn’t break them.” Continue reading

Not Gonna Lie

August 30, 2015 / / 8 Comments

or….Thanks, God, For the Really Sucky Years

(Welcome to my blog part 1 of 2)

I’m not gonna lie to you….half of what I’m going to tell you throughout this blog site is a lie. What???  Steve, you’re starting out this blog called “Honestly Thinking” by telling me you can’t really be trusted (not to mention the contradictory sentence and bad grammar)??  Yes…and no…and not exactly.  I promise to always be honest with you, but that means telling you up front that a big percentage of what I say to you I don’t fully believe myself.  In other words, I constantly tell lies to myself.  I’m a hypocrite.  What I say I believe and what I actually end up doing are often two different things.  That’s because what I truly believe in my head doesn’t always transfer to what I truly believe in my heart and vice versa; thus, I continually end up living a contradictory life.  Continue reading

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