Gays in a Sexless Heaven

Perhaps a solution to gays and lesbians in the church might be some variation on the following idea:

This approach would benefit the mainstream church and its gay-lesbian-transgender members/visitors.

This approach is for spiritual minded folk who seriously love Christ and who want to maintain a love relationship with him.

More important than the actual sex is the companionship that any relationship provides.

Heterosexuals that have been married for years sometimes have sex out of courtesy and not because they are inflamed with passion for each other.

The proposal: in the same way that heterosexuals who are unmarried cannot have sex but can embrace and provide companionship for each other, and with great restraint might even live close to each other or in the same building or suite, gay-lesbians-transgender members/visitors of the Adventist church should be accorded the same privilege.

Yes sex is important in human life, but companionship and moral support for each other is even more important.

Of course, some mainstream members might question whether gay couples could live together or near each other without the temptation to "go all the way" but that can also be said for unmarried heterosexual members. (Some conservative members who divorced, and not because of adultery, might find someone they love, but feel in their conscience that they should never remarry, but must remain celibate all their life. They would be in the same sexless situation that celibate, but committed gay/lesbian/transgender couples would be.)

Through prayer and bible study and a loving support community, it is certainly possible to live with the one you love or close to that person, and still enjoy a celibate life. There are heterosexual couples that have greater pleasure in sharing a meal together or taking in a museum exhibit regularly than the actual pursuit of the perfect orgasm and it's aftermath. Some put up with less-than-ideal sex, in order to enjoy the intimacy after all the mechanics of sex have taken its biological course.

I often wonder about homosexual couples in heaven. They, presumably, like other "angelic" beings will live and love each other without resorting to the sexual act.

Some will find problems with this approach, perhaps thinking it impractical. Perhaps others will find it a stepping stone to greater solutions for gay/lesbian/transgender folk, as well as unmarried heterosexual couples in the Adventist-Christian community.

God bless all his children, heterosexual, gay, lesbian, transgender.

Holy Spirit Manifestation at Midnight

Last night out of nowhere I found myself in what seemed like a prayer meeting in an Adventist church. When it was my turn to give my testimony I spoke spontaneously. I had only one thing on my mind and that was to quote from Ezekiel about how God will give us a heart of flesh in place of our heart of stone. God would write his laws upon our hearts and move us, yes move us, to obey his commandments and comply with his decrees.

I mentioned to those present that a friend from college had once said that unless God honors his covenant promises to change us into his likeness, then the promise just quoted would prove invalid. Only God can do what he says he would do for us and to us. We are powerless to do that for ourselves.

I then mentioned to the astonishment of all there, that until God wrote those laws on our hearts and caused us to obey his commands, it made little difference whether we of our own effort and power, complied with those commands. We cannot produce genuine righteousness of our own. Any we might try to produce so as to make true the words of the promise would be tainted with selfishness and humanity.

I was concerned what further reaction my words would cause upon the brethren present so I left the building as suddenly as I had entered it.

Later on, I could only wonder how I had been able to stand up and look all those folk in the eye and say such bold things. Nevertheless, it warmed my heart that someone had had enough conviction and resolve to say that in front of a group of Adventist believers.

Secular Sabbath

The Secular Sabbath article, in the New York Times surprised me. I had designed a web page outlining the concept of Futurism of the 8th-Day three years ago. Although it does not use the words "secular sabbath" it outlines just that very concept. In it I define the secular sabbath as

• Eighth-Day Futurism is embodied in an abstract day of meditation, contemplation, acts of charity, positive action and beauty. This Eighth day can occur during any of the days of the week and, if a full 24-hour period is not available, should consist of at least three or six or nine hours of your day.

In a similar vein, I wrote a blog post containing the words "secular sabbath" dated December 27, 2006. Technically, however, it was about a spiritual sabbath, but with some flexibility as to when the Sabbath started and ended, or continued for those with time, discipline or need for it to do so.

In my post I have a link connecting readers to A Never-Ending Perfect Day with a publish date of July 01, 2006. Even though the leeway I mention is not as strict as the 24-hour secular sabbath the New York Times writer spells out, I'm surprised about the concept of a secular sabbath being tossed around on blogs.

I continue to practice the eternal sabbath, as I now refer to it in my devotions, to make up for the bi-monthly demand of my employers for me to work on the Sabbath. When I didn't have to work every other Sabbath, I didn't appreciate it as much. Now I celebrate the Sabbath at sundown on Fridays, continue it Saturday morning before work, continue it during my breaks during my work day, pick it up again after I leave work on Saturday night at 6 pm and sometimes finally say my goodbyes to the Sabbath experience when the sun rises on Sunday morning. Occasionally I enjoy the beauty of the Sabbath rest on a midnight walk with my golden retriever any day of the week and thank God for the eternal rest that awaits me in the next world.

It's nice to note that others enjoy and need a conceptual sabbath, as well. I wonder where the idea originated for non-religious folk to come up with a 24-hour break from secular demands.

God bless all Sabbath keepers in all their varieties. May he bless those that keep the strict 7th-Day Sabbath, those that keep the conceptual Sabbath (the 8th-Day Sabbath), and those that keep the secular sabbath. A sabbath is still a sabbath no matter what you call it. Some Sabbaths are more fulfilling than others. In the end, they give the rest and richness humans are seeking. God bless all our sabbath days.

Evolutionary Adventists: Death and God

Having just read the Adventist Today article on this topic, Debate: Can you be Adventists and an Evolutionist?, I came up with these options:

Man/Woman was created perfect then became imperfect, but can become perfect again. (Creationism)
Man/Woman was created imperfect (through evolution), is imperfect now, but can be made perfect when Christ comes again. (Adventist Evolutionism)

Nowhere is a third possibility given a chance. Life always comes in threes, e.g., hot, cold and lukewarm. What might the middle or third option be?

Therefore, it follows:

Man/Woman was created imperfect (through evolution or some other process) and will continue being imperfect until humanity becomes extinct.
Man/Woman was created perfect (through evolution or some other process) and is either as perfect as he/she will ever be or is on the way to becoming perfect someday.

Second Life Stream-of-Consciousness

Recount the delight and unusual feelings in meeting someone friendly inside Second Life. It was easier interacting with this cyberfriend than with people in the real world.



Develop an a.i. program to mimic yourself realistically inside Second Life. Once you move on to the next existence, this virtual entity will continue as long as Second Life does. It might even be taken over by Second Life's successors. Load the a.i. program with as much as one's writings, voice clips, video tapings, personality so hardly anyone, except perhaps family members know its not the genuine article.



Develop a cottage industry of virtual replicas of people inside of Second Life who feel their ideas or other contribution would benefit the world posthumously.



Await for the a.i. program or self inside Second Life to one day develop consciousness and then create a replica of itself in order to preserve itself in case someday it moves on to the next existence.



Meet Christ inside of Second Life.

Dead but Not-Dead

Living this life is all about positive approaches to the challenges life presents. The same can also apply for the after-life state. I was brought up believing that the dead know nothing and that all await a successful resurrection at the 2nd coming, or an unsuccessful one at Christ's third coming after the 1,000 years are over. That was all very fine until I lost a friend 20 years ago who died of AIDS. He was not Christian and it was the first friend or acquaintance that died of this dread disease. For me at any rate, I couldn't accept the fact that he was in the ground hoping against hope to be resurrected at the second coming. It was healthier psychologically, at least for me, to think him in a positive afterlife where he was happy and conscious and free from the pain and disease that had killed him. Lately, I've been focusing on those ambiguous texts that Paul drops casually, and not on dire and dismal texts from Ecclesiastes about the "dead not knowing anything." How much better to focus on this text, "... neither life nor death can separate me from the love of Christ."

Time traveling for the Lord

Years ago I was strangely thrilled when I read Poul Anderson's novel, There will be Time, about how time travelers from different centuries, or millennia, chose the crucifixion of Christ as the probable "center of time" where any and all past and future time travelers could convene to find each other en masse.

From time to time, as I read the gospels I imagine myself being in the multitude as Jesus is teaching or healing or simply walking by a Galilean town. I don't just wish I could have been there, I see myself actually in that time period. I imagine that somehow I brushed up on my Koine Greek that I studied for two years in the 70s, as well as Aramaic and Hebrew. The actual method of time travel is not important but what is important is the question I ask myself every time I find myself back in the days of Christ.

As I come to him to be healed, or blessed, would he realize that I am not of his time, that I am a time traveler from the 21st century? Would that knowledge be imparted to him or would it be kept from him, especially since I know that he will rise from the grave. What proof would I have to show him that we still think of him and pray to him across 2,000 years? Perhaps I could show him my bible in Koine Greek that spells out the future of the early Christian Church. Would he believe me?

Would I be prevented from interacting with him? Would I merely be allowed to observe, but not participate, with him or with anyone I meet?

Since nothing is impossible for God, I would like to travel back in time once this Earthly dispensation finally ends and the eternal dispensation begins. With an eternity to fill up with projects and revelations of God's love, I would love some day to become a time traveler for the Lord and experience Christ's life on Earth first hand .

Eternal Sabbath Sun

Lead me to your eternal Sabbath, oh Lord.
Lead me to a land where the sun never sets.

With the coming of the night, the Sabbath ends, tomorrow. Tonight, as I closed my bible and prayed after having read several Psalms, the words about the eternal Sabbath came to me suddenly. I was surprised by the choice of words. What could possibly motivate such a desire? I had anticipated the Sabbath all day and now that it had arrived I realized that it would leave just as suddenly 24 hours hence.

The Prayer of Jabez

Lately I've been repeating the Prayer of Jabez, which I ignored years ago, thinking it was simply a marketing trick. Now these words also help to increase my appreciation for God and are changing my attitude and relationship to God.

"Oh, that he [God] would bless me and increase my territory. Let the hand
of God be with me and keep me from harm so that I may feel no pain. And God
granted him [Jabez] his request." 1 Chron. 4:10.

God's Smiling Face

I never thought God smiled at me until yesterday. Let me explain. Even though I've related to God since childhood, I always thought of him as being either too serious to smile, or upset with me for what I did or did not do in my day to day life.

Yesterday, after the Sabbath ended and I continued my post-Sabbath devotions by thanking him for his being my creator, and savior, I added "friend" for the first time in my life and really felt that I meant it. When I thought of God being my friend, I smiled and felt that for the first time, perhaps, in my life I sensed God's smiling face.

I was almost choked with emotion when I realized that I had been thanking him sabbath after sabbath for being my creator and savior, but never my friend.

It isn't easy relating to a triune God. At times I've felt it necessary to address all three when praying to indicate that I had all three persons of the Godhead in my affections. I must confess that when I think of the Godhead I have warmer feelings, or more fully-realized feelings towards Jesus Christ. For three years now, I have also been having a love relationship with the Holy Spirit, who I once thought so holy that it was safer to not think of him too much, or at all, lest I accidentally offend whom I considered the most holy person of the Godhead. This was due in part to Christ's statement about the sin against the Holy Spirit being the only sin that had no pardon. How wrong I had been all my life long to stay away from the person of the Holy Spirit out of fear of somehow offending him.

Now regarding God, I come to the most complicated relationship I've had with all three persons of the Godhead. Even though all three divine Persons are God, normally when the bible speaks of God, with no other descriptive terms, it is referring to God the Father. At times in my life I've felt warm toward God, but seldom completely at ease. The reasons are many.

My own relationship with my father has been difficult in my life. Even though I have a good relationship with him now, that wasn't always the case. Whenever I used the expression "God the Father," my human father, with all his eccentricities and imperfections came to mind and influenced my conception of God.

During my late adolescence and early adulthood I had come up with the term Father Jesus and that had helped me soften the shock of using the term father to describe God.

In the past year I've sometimes felt that the term God is too generic, as historically there have been other gods, and to capitalize the term was not as endearing as speaking of Jesus Christ, or even Holy Spirit, which sounded very specific in my mind.

A few months ago I started reading Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking book, and the phrases, "God is on my side; God is blessing me; God is helping me; God is guiding me; God is my friend;" greatly helped me to think of God in warmer terms.

Even when I make mistakes I don't like to dwell on them. I don't linger on God's frowning face in the same way that a loving parent doesn't let a frown, or momentary relaxation of a smile, linger on their face due to their child letting them down. What good can it possibly do me to think of God as frowning on me when I fall short of his perfect ideal? I confess my shortcomings and claim his promise of forgiveness and cleansing, and continue thinking warm and positive thoughts of the God with the smiling face. That's what my God is like. His smile never fades for very long, if at all.

Thank you, God, for showing your smiling face to me no matter what else I experience or do in my life. Someday I hope to gaze on your smiling face as one gazes into the face of a good friend or loved one.