1:20

How do you reconcile judging right from wrong without being judgmental? How do you speak the truth in love without condoning what is so biblically wrong? I feel like a bad witness for Jesus Christ because I am looked down upon by those in and outside the church. If my position is judged the moment some meet me, how am I going to be that example for who I truly am in Christ and in Him alone? Why does my flesh need approval and acceptance by others in the Church?

1. When dealing with unbelievers we have to be careful, loving, and patient even when it doesn’t make sense. We know the arguments, we know the answers, but in all of the years that I’ve tried to share Christ with others, I’ve never argued anyone to salvation.Be loving, patient, and caring—and don’t worry about the outcome.It’s not our job to convict others of sin, it’s the holy spirit’s. If another person doesn’t know Christ, they don’t have the holy spirit yet, so the priority is to love them and to introduce them to Christ.
2. Understand: judgment, like any number of terms, has been changed and vilified in our culture.Every time I corrected my young children as a parent, I was judging them. If we’re going to use “judgment” the way our culture does, we have to develop some courage and use it kindly.Reference: The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis

   People understand right from wrong. The question is: how do you get there?

3. Speaking the truth in love is overlooked by too many Christians.We need Christians to speak the truth and to do so lovingly.
4. Don’t correct others in anger.
5. Everybody lacks encouragementPart of the gift of getting older is that I don’t care about the approval of others, apart from a small group who I trust to share the truth in love with me.

Resource: When to Walk Away, Gary Thomas

8:33

It said in Genesis Cain took a wife from the Land of Nod. How did the people in Nod come into existence when God only created Adam and Eve who bore Cain and Abel at that time. Did they all come from Adam and Eve since they were the first creation?

Genesis 4:14-16

Circle the word “wanderer” in your Bible—I will be a wanderer on the earth.

Cain went out and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

The word “wanderer” is the same word as “Nod” – Cain would be a wanderer, and he settled in the land of wandering.

The descendants born to Adam and Eve, listed in Genesis 5, will blow your mind.

The genealogy in Genesis 5 takes place over about 900+ years. The USA is 245 years old this year and has a population of 331, 000, 000 people.

Consider this: Adam and Noah were contemporaries. Adam was still on the earth when Noah was building the ark.

So, the short answer is: Cain’s wife was a descendant of Adam and Eve.

12:41

Article: Has Homosexuality Always Been in the Bible

A friend sent me this article and I’m VERY interested in Dr. Easley’s thoughts as I am raising my girls and want to educate them appropriately on this topic.

Resources:
Christopher Yuan’s Holy Sexuality in the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and relationship shaped by God’s Grand Story
inContext interview with Christopher Yuan.

The idea of word-for-word translation of the Bible is nuanced. It can’t happen because many of the words we use in English don’t exist in the Biblical language.

1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1 – Paul coins a word from the words for “man” and “coite” indicating a man who beds other men, referring to Leviticus 18 and 20. An online transliteration can help you compare these terms, but Paul is intentionally using the Torah to coin this new term.

Whenever I hear a person or group changing the terminology of the Bible to accommodate a cultural view, I’m going to lean on the Biblical text in its context.

It’s easy to get lost in the weeds of all of these discussions, but if we pull back to the big picture: What did God create? What was His design? The Bible is clear about God’s created design for marriage: one man and one woman maintained throughout the body of Scripture.

Your identity can’t be in your sexual preference or gender expression. The culture has hijacked sexuality and we don’t need to be angry about it, but we do need the courage to say that’s not what God intended: male and female He created them.

Do you have a biblical or theological question?

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