Drink Teas and Enjoy Life!

I love Tea. Hot or chilled or on ice. Sweet or unsweet. Herbal or non-herbal. I just love Tea! My favorite is Green Tea. I mostly drink Lipton Green Tea with Citrus. It’s great! It’s sweet but not too sweet and lacks that usual “grassy” taste associated with Green Tea and has a nice light citrus flavor. I’ve tried making my own from a dry tea, but can never seem to get it quite right. Herbal Teas are a gift from GOD! I love them.
As a boy and man raised in the South and North Carolina, I’m used to Sweet Iced Tea. Usually made in a way that it mimics maple syrup or coffee, but not always. I love it when it’s not so sweet and not so strong. But the advantage of Herbal Teas is they are soothing and relaxing. Like a gentle medicine. Like laughter and a good mood in a glass or mug. A gift from GOD!

Jesus Teaches GOD’s Law And Will

Jesus condemns the religious for their hypocrisy, self-righteousness, legalism and lack of love then, now and for all time!

Jesus explains the whole of GOD’s law and GOD’s will for each individual human being. How each of us should live our lives and relate to each other.

The Lonely And The Alone

In this ever increasingly crowded world of humanity, there are those among us who manage to find time to be alone. This is a good thing. We each need that time to ourselves when we can get away from even those we love. We need this time for our psychological and social and relationship health. When we get too close to another person(s), this can lead to stress and even conflict. Alone time is beneficial to all.

Now there is also in this crowded world of humanity the “lonely” among us. Those who while surrounded by those they love and those who love them, are missing something in their lives. A void in their being that is not being filled. Even in a relationship between two or more loving individuals, some basic psychological and/or social or relationship need is not being met.

Now I’m not stating anything new or surprising here, but it does need to be said on occasion to remind each of us, there are those who are lonely even in a crowded room and world.

I’m just such an individual myself. I’ve never had a romantic relationship in my life. I have had a “partner” on the rare occasion, but never a “relationship.” People compliment me all the time on my good looks and friendly persona and the fact I am a caring and friendly person, but no one has ever asked me “Would you like to go on a date?” “Would you be my boyfriend?” “Can I come over and see you?” etc.

I don’t know why this is. I do try to be a nice person. I was raised right by my parents. I don’t have any ego or attitude issues. I have tried to start a relationship with a few, but no takers. I am now 48 yrs old and I am very lonely. Most all my adult life I have been busy taking care of my now deceased parents, a mentally and physically handicapped sister and was for a time successfully running my own company, but that is gone now. I know the pain of loneliness and I know the comfort of being alone. I just want the loneliness to end, not the time I spend alone.

Equality Is As Human As Diversity

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” (Article 1 – UDHR). Unfortunately all over the world, millions of LGBTQ men and women continue to be treated as second-class citizens.

As humans, we are all diverse, different, individual. Not all of us are of the same race. Not all of us have the same blood type. Not all of us enjoy the same quality of health. Not all of us have the same sexual orientation. Not all of us have equal intelligence. Not all of us have equal responsibilities. But we are all human in nature. Each of us is an individual. Each unique. We all share 99.9—-% the same DNA. We are as humans all equal while at the same time diverse individuals. Each of us demand respect for that reason alone.

Socially, there must be leaders and followers for a society and civilization to function, but that does not mean that some of us are better than others. Not all of us observe ethics and morals equally, which only makes us all equal on another level. The rest is a matter of personal choice and personal integrity. But under the law of any nation, we must all be treated with equal respect and be required to observe equal responsibility for ourselves and our actions. Equality must account for human diversity.

How Did Jesus Distinguish The “Religious” From The Faithful?

I like to keep my posts brief and to the point and not produce a long editorial unless the subject calls for it. My next post here is brief but to the point. How did Jesus distinguish the “religious” from the “faithful?”

In Matthew 23, he warned:

“Woe to you Pharisees, you hypocrites! … You load men’s backs with burdens that are impossible to bear and do not lift a finger to help them … Woe to you Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven to men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. Woe to you blind guides! … You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

The Apostle Paul admonishes: “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Jesus said with what measure we judge, we will be judged. He said in the final judgment, he would make decisions based on how people treated “the least of these my brethren.” Too often we forget that when we’re speaking of sinners (or the unredeemed), we are talking about God’s children and about a God who will hold us accountable for the way we treat each and every one of them. Remember, scripture only distinguishes two kinds of people in the world. The unredeemed and the redeemed. We are all bad people. Scripture tells us there is no one good but GOD. We are all sinners. Some of us are just redeemed sinners. The heart of religion is self-righteousness and hypocrisy. The heart of the Christian faith is forgiveness, love and redemption.

What Is The True Nature Of A Real Christian?

The true benchmark of a true Christian who have been truly “born again” as Jesus instructed Nicodemus is this: Love and forgiveness and a kind heart. If you forgive others their wrongs, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive you either. (Matthew:14-15)

The Scriptures clearly teach there will always be within the Church real and fake Christians. Or as the scriptures put it “sheep and goats.”

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

1 Corinthians 13:2

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

MATTHEW 25:31-46

31. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
33. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
34. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35. for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;
36. I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?
38. When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?
39. Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
40. And the King will answer and say to them,
‘Assuredly, I say to you,
inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41. Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
42. for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;
43. I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44. Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
45. Then He will answer them, saying,
‘Assuredly, I say to you,
inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
46. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

What Makes A Person A Real Christian And Can A Real Christian Be Homosexual?

Now, what are the five pillars of Christianity, according to the New Testament?

The five pillars of Christianity are:

1) The virgin birth of Jesus, see Matthew 1:23.

2) The deity of Jesus, see Romans 9:5.

3) The blood atonement of Jesus, see Acts 20:28.

4) The bodily resurrection of Jesus, see 2 Timothy 2:8.

5) The second coming of Jesus, see Acts 1:11.

Believe and trust in Christ work to be born again as Jesus instructed Nicodemus. Believe these 5 essentials to be a true Christian. Believe and live the two great commandments of Jesus :  “Jesus said…Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  Matt.22:37-40.  All else is incidental.

Based on this, what would prevent someone who is homosexual from being a Christian? Nothing really. Being homosexual is a natural state of being, an orientation, not a moral or ethical state. Morals and ethics are about free will choices. Orientations are biologically determined either by genetics, brain chemistry and/or brain structure. Nurture can produce similar results, but such would not be basic to an individual’s nature as it would be changeable, whereas, an individual’s nature that is set biologically is unchangeable.

Being homosexual is not a choice. Being a Christian is a choice. Engaging in varied behaviors are either instinctual or involve making a conscious choice to act in a certain manner, however difficult to resist. When it is all said and done, Christ never said anything against homosexuality. Homosexuality as we define and think of it today would be a foreign concept to a person from the time and culture of Jesus. In those days it was believed that there was one set human sexual nature. Heterosexuality. Anyone engaging in sexual activity that violated that nature was doing something unnatural (abominable) and that was a sin in the eyes of GOD. But today we know after centuries of medical research and scientific discovery that human sexual nature is a spectrum of varied expressions. Namely three natures: Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual. To say that there is only one human sexual nature is ignorant and backward thinking.

So, can a person be homosexual and a Christian? Yes. One cannot violate one’s true biological nature and to do so would be a true sin.

There are a few sexual mental illnesses that are not healthy and even dangerous, such as sexual addiction and pedophilia.

What about people born sexually indeterminate and those who are transgendered? Once again, it’s a matter of nature and biology, not morality or ethics.