PIGGO, PIGGERY, SQUEALI, GRUNTUM

Piggo, here is Jesus on the subject of thought and deed:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Don't worry about the pronouns; what that means is that you are as guilty for the thought as for the act, and I would LOVE to hear how you worm your way around that one. But what does it mean? Well, because it’s Jesus talking, I can promise you it’s not what most churches are serving up. What it means is that we are promised forgiveness IN EXACTLY THE SAME MEASURE we forgive others:

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

What I am after here is that:
The thought is as bad as the deed.
The deed will be forgiven if we forgive others who sin against us
[and that assumes the “act” is sin].
That includes ANY deed, including ...truck stops. Why would that truth make you crazy enough to kill yourself? What he is saying is that the deed is not so bad as you think. Give him a break...

Actually, I tend to agree that “all will be well, and all manner of things will be well”; that doesn’t mean that it will be any less painful when I cross some as yet undefined line and my wife decides she can’t take it any more. I have just laid all of that into a pair of more understanding hands than I possess, and will await what he brings me.

Well, at least we are on the same page with regard to the need to be honest and open and not hide what we cannot forsake. But I did NOT mean that we are responsible for being gay – did we create ourselves? No, He did. What I meant was that putting the onus on your parents, or my elder brother [long story] gets us NOWHERE. We have to take responsibility for our own lives and get on with it. I am getting confused now about what I have posted and what I have e-mailed, but let me say this:

We CANNOT fix it, and God is not asking us to fix it. Jesus [of all people] is not asking us to fix it – he is asking us to become more human rather than less so – to commit to people and not glory holes, to seek the spirit even in the flesh.

When I say that the thought is the same as the deed, I am not beating myself up about it; I am trying to tell you that I am not any better than you are, because if I had the courage that you have had – and I still worry about where you found it, and what else you found, dear God – I might have done the same. The key is that from Christ’s perspective we are equally guilty, equally subject to judgement, and EQUALLY open to free forgiveness. You are not responsible for acid rain, Piggo. Even you cannot really think that. You are responsible for no more than the intent with which you generate your actions. Don’t put yourself in God’s stead by thinking that you have control over WHAT happens; He has bigger plans than we wit of. All you can lay claim to, for good or ill, is what you intend.

...So by all means, live in grace, accept forgiveness, move on in joy. Like some wise person once said: “That is what I want to do. Actually, I have been living in grace and truth inspite of my inabilities, from time to time, to take responsibility for my actions. Living in God's grace and truth have to do with what God has done, not what I have done, or ever could do. We cannot earn it. It is gift. So profound a gift that we can hardly fathom it.” Well, YEAH.