Following Some Odd Bunny Trails.

Apparently it is Lent. I don't get Lent ~ in the same way I don't get most of the Liturgical calendar ~ which explains why I no longer belong to a liturgical church. Lent just seems to be counting the omer on the wrong side of Passover. Counting the omer to Shavuot makes sense to me.  Shavout celebrates the giving of the Law, the Law that was replaced by the arrival of the Holy Spirit. I can get excited about that. I have no idea why anyone would do it the other way round ~ especially to make Easter a time of mourning, self~denial, & lack when Christ came that we might have life & have it abundantly.

However a number of my blogging buddies do Lent so I have left a cautious comment or two.  If it has meaning for you, embrace.  It doesn't for me, so I don't.

So I left this comment elsewhere in the blogging world: We ignore most of the liturgical year. Just the way the Holy Spirit has led us.

And I got this comment back:Hi Ganeida - "Just the way the Holy Spirit has led us" - that sounds right to me. x

I have sat with this comment mulling it over & over like well chewed gum. There is nothing remarkable in the comment itself.  My friend & I have politely circumvented different spiritual practices.  They do not divide us. So why does this comment bother me so much?

Because my friend has claimed to be Holy Spirit led ~ & the reason that bothers me is her stance on Homosexuality, transgenderism et al.

Three or four years ago, maybe more [I get a little vague around anything numerical], I first became aware that this was even an issue within the church, that the body of Christ was even considering changing a long held position on this, & in certain churches had already crossed the line. So I did what I always do when I run up against this sort of theological problem: I read.  I read everything I could get my hands on for the pro team I listened to their videos. I studied their views on the Greek language, on culture, on what God really meant when He said a man wasn't to lie with a man as with a woman. Then I did the same thing with the anti team.  I listened, I read, I studied ~ & I ended up really confused...which should immediately have told me something because we know who is the author of confusion, don't we?

And then I did what I should have done in the first place.  I asked the Holy Spirit.  I explained I didn't want to offend Him & if I was wrong I'd really appreciate it if He'd point out where I was missing it. I was willing to be corrected but I wanted to be really, really sure before I abandoned a position I felt had the full weight of scripture behind it.

It was like being slapped up the side of the head. Funny way to describe it I know but the Holy Spirit couldn't have been clearer. The Spirit & the Word do not ever disagree with each other. I do not believe the Holy Spirit would tell some of His people one thing & the rest of us something entirely different, which means only one thing: half of us have got it wrong!

When I was doing Hermeneutics I was instructed to take the plain meaning of scripture first. There was no need to look for *hidden* meanings or obscure meanings or deeper meanings ~ though sometimes those things are there prophetically but again they are pretty obvious & easy to see.  You don't have to bend scripture all out of shape to get there...& that was the thing when I was doing my study. The pro side was drawing some very long bows & really had to jump through some cultural & linguistic hoops to arrive where they did. The antis don't.  They take the plain, straightforward sense of the scriptures, as has always been done previously.

The MOTH has a way of putting things sometimes that just hits the nail square on the head & one of the things he says a lot is: We don't want to love people into hell.  No we don't.  The truth mightn't be the cultural flavour of the month but it is still the truth & the Truth will set you free.