Another 'How To With Amanda Jo'

Welcome to another session of 'How To with Amanda Jo'! You may remember my previous work "How To Lose Friends on Facebook".

Today's lesson is:

'How to Take Down Vacation Bible School Single-Handedly'.

First first (i forgot this step and just thought to add it in), sign up to teach the Bible study of VBS for a small church. This means you will teach every age group, everyday. Four lessons a day, five days a week - activities, drama and story time!

First, prepare at the last minute. This is always a good idea. If you're not doing stuff at the last minute, you're just not working hard enough. Preparing in advance is the lazy way to go.

Second, the day before VBS take what you have prepared and throw it in one GIGANTIC bag to take up to the workday. I recommend this one, not only is it beautiful but it's VERY well made. Anyway...take it up to the workday full of stuff and set it down somewhere.

Third, remember that all the paper you need to decorate your room is in your friend's other car. Leave everything at the church and go back to get the paper from your friend's house. Instead of trying to shove the BIG rolls of paper into your friend's Carola, simply stitch to your friend's much bigger SUV. This should confuse you very much later on.

Fourth, run back to the church and get to work. Make sure you're up there by 4pm and don't leave until 12:00 am. Try not to look for your bag during the day - remember: you're too busy!

Fifth, just before it's time to go realize that your bag is GONE. Nowhere to be found. Spend the next 30-45 minutes searching the church and both of your friend's cars looking for it. Also, it helps if you make your friend search her home as well.

Sixth, give up for the night and have nightmares instead of sleep. That's what worked for me, at least.

Seventh, after determining that either you hid your bag in the best place *EVER* or somebody stole it, panic your sweet friend at work about the pickle you and your church are now in.

Finally, thank the GRACIOUS and AMAZING Father above for providing what you need JUST IN TIME! to prepare for VBS, even though your notebook, bag and study plans are GONE.

(a great church was gracious enough to give us their old materials when they were finished with their VBS!)

This concludes another glorious session of 'How to With Amanda Jo'!

Still Ruffling Feathers

So after the whole How to Ruffle Feathers on Facebook debacle, I decided to reach out to my old (now ex) friend to see if we can lay our differences aside and be friends again.

Here is what I said:

Hey ________,

I just wanted to drop you a message and let you know that I have been
thinking about you a lot since our "fall out". Listen, I love you and I treasure
your friendship very much. Losing you as a friend really hurt me, and it hit me
the hardest on Tuesday when I was going through a box of stuff in my closet and
found a bunch of pictures and stuff from our trip to San Marcos.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I still look back on our
friendship with fondness and I hope that one day we can lay our differences
aside and become friends again. So anyway...I just wanted to share with
you what's on my heart. Please feel free to e-mail me back...I'd love to hear
from you.

~Amanda Jo

to which he replied:

Amanda, I realize you have your beliefs. What bothers me is you can't seem to
reconcile those beliefs with life. If you care about me, great. Give god enough
credit to take care of what he created. How can we question him? We don't know
his plan, and by judging people you're stepping on his toes. Christ's whole
point was love and support everyone. Without that, we have nothing. Christ would
not agree with degrading anyone. Religions can have their beliefs excluding
people like me, but Christ would not have done that. He accepted and believed in
everyone. We should all aspire to that. You know me, you know my religion is
important to me, my family, my extended family can reconcile that. They know
Christ wanted people to be good people, and to try to be happy. Believe in
Christ, believe in his goodness, believe in his understanding and acceptance.
That's the whole point of being a christian isn't it? I will never forget that
response to prop 8, do I forgive you, yes, long ago. You love god, love Christ,
but love like they do and work like he did for everyone's life. Give me the same
chance as he does. Let everyone in and give everyone the chance.

So, yeah.

Needless to say he does not have a Biblical view of Jesus. This e-mail further demonstrates how society sees Christ and how far off base it is.

I have many more critical words about his views on Christ but I will spare you guys those (for now at least). I do need your help though...

How should I respond to this e-mail?

It is true that Jesus loved everybody...He loved everybody enough to die on the cross for our sins! But, while salvation is given by the grace of God to anybody who has faith in Jesus Christ...there is still a matter of repentance.

There is still a matter of sin. Without knowing our sin, we would never know our depravity or our need for a savior. If I didn't know that I took the Lord's name in vain by calling myself a Christian and going on with my sinful lifestyle I would have never known I was Hell bound. I thought that just because I didn't use God's name as a cuss word I was in the clear. Once I found out I was trashing the name of Christ by calling myself a Christian and not really knowing Him I realized my sinfulness and how I had never actually been saved.

Homosexuality is a sin just like fornication (sex before marriage) is a sin. Homosexuality is a sin just like not honoring your parents is a sin. And whether you are a "good person" or not a sin is a sin and we ALL do it...myself included.

Even as a saved believer in the TRUE Jesus Christ of the Bible, I sin. My sin is disgusting to me and I work very hard to avoid sinning and to persevere through temptation but I am not always successful.

I am just so thankful that God's grace and Christ's sacrifice is sufficient even for my continued state of depravity. That's not to say that I continue in sin just cause, well, I'm forgiven and "why not?"

Anyway...all that rambling comes down to this: How should I respond to him?

A Debate

I am sure you all remember my blog post How to Ruffle Feathers on Facebook ...if not click on that link and you'll catch up quickly. Anyway...a couple of weeks after I posted that blog a mystery lady named Shirley started commenting on this subject.

To make this debate easier to find and follow I've decided to post it as an actual blog. So, here is the conversation we've had through comments on my blog. Her first comment is listed, obviously, first. Then my response which is followed by her last response to me. My newest response will be posted at the bottom in blueish purple.

Enjoy.

Shirley said...

I'm not surprised your words inspired such a reaction on Facebook. Didn't Jesus love everyone regardless of sexuality, nationality, race etc etc???? What a tragic and shocking blog to stumble across.I can only pity you and those who are influenced by your dangerous values. I hope your child develops a questioning, loving mind of his own and embraces the love of Jesus Christ without resorting to this kind of cowardly propaganda.
Friday, December 05, 2008


Amanda Jo said...

Shirley, You're right, Jesus did love everybody (just as I do) BUT He has a standard, a law, that has to be upheld. Just because you love somebody doesn't mean you allow them to break rules. Take my home for instance, we have rules. If my son breaks them then he is punished. God has rules. If we break them, and we all do (from liars to thieves to abortionists to adulterers to homosexuals...we all fall under at least one of these labels), then we are subject to the consequences - Hell and eternity spent separated from God. Jesus, though, loved us all SO much despite our sin that He died on the cross to save us from the consequences of our sins. That is how He demonstrated His love for us, not by allowing us to live the life that we want which is opposed to God's law.I will pray for you today, Shirley, and feel free to e-mail me so we can discuss this further if you wish.
Friday, December 05, 2008

Shirley said...

There is nothing in the Bible that suggests God regards homosexuality as sin. God is interested in our relationships with ourselves, others, the things in our lives, and with God (MAT 23:36-40). There is nothing in the mind of God that is against a loving, sexual relationship, freely entered into, without coercion, among sincere adults whether gay, bisexual or straight. Your prejudice rejects people or things outside your understanding. But the God of creation speaks and declares, "I have looked out on everything I have made and `behold it (is) very good'." (GEN 1:31). The word of God in Christ says that we are loved, valued, redeemed, and counted as precious no matter how we might be valued by a prejudiced world.


Shirley,

There are many instances in the Bible where homosexuality is listed as a sin. I'll just give one example because it's pretty clear and straight forward:

Romans 1:26-27 says "This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for what is unnatural. The males in the same way also left natural sexual intercourse with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty for their perversion." (I read the Holman Christian Standard Version but this reads the same way in the New King James Version and NIV)

I've looked up the verse you're using in Matthew and, read in context it is actually saying that the Pharisees have been warned and have killed all the prophets, sages and scribes that the Lord has sent to them proclaiming the truth and God's name. It goes on to say in verse 39 that Jerusalem will never see the Lord again until they accept Christ. Sadly, this verse is often taken out of context. It's very important to read the Bible as God wrote it, not as man perceives or twists it.

Also, you said "There is nothing in the mind of God that is against a loving, sexual relationship, freely entered into, without coercion, among sincere adults whether gay, bisexual or straight." The Bible would disagree in many points, for length and time sake I'll only list a few.

First...we cannot know the mind of God outside of what He had provided in the Bible. Isaiah 55:8-9 say "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways." This is the LORD's declaration. "For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts." So to state that there is "nothing in the mind of God against..." is dangerous territory for two reasons: (1) we cannot know the mind of God outside of what He has provided in the Bible and (2) the Bible is very clear about the roles of men and women (sexually speaking).

Second...(about God being against the things you listed) let's recall Romans 1:26-27. The Lord is clear that homosexuality is unnatural and is a perversion. To take it a step further He makes it clear that adultery is a sin (Exodus 20:14) - even if entered into freely without coercions among sincere adults. The New Testimony takes adultery to another level: Matthew 5:28 says "But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Shirley, we have ALL lusted....every one of us.

Moving on to the verse on creation in Genesis. The verse you reference was spoken by God well before Adam and Eve sinned. There was no sin in the world and the world as God created it was, indeed, perfect and good. Then, when Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and ate of the forbidden fruit, He had to discipline them and they were cast from the garden and that's when sin entered the world. Adam and Eve didn't realize they were naked until they ate of the forbidden fruit. Once they did they were ashamed of themselves and the fact that they were naked and HID from the Lord because of their nakedness.

God didn't just leave them in the garden naked and ashamed. "The LORD God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them." (Gen 3:21) He loved them enough not to leave in their nakedness.

He continues to do this for us today. In the Lord's eyes a sin is a sin...whether you stole a paper clip from work, hated another person, murdered another person or lied to somebody about spending a quarter, or having an adulterous or homosexual relationship. James 2:10 says "For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all."

We ALL should be ashamed of ourselves for our sins, including homosexuals. God loved us all, despite our sins, SO much that He didn't want to leave us in our nakedness (depravity) here on earth but He gave His Son Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrifice for our sins so that we can be with Him again for eternity.

The Bible says that "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble". I am a sinner...I'll be the first to admit that I am. I am no where close to perfect...neither is anybody reading this blog. Jesus Christ, though, IS perfect and is/was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He bore our shame and punishment so that we don't have to...all we have to do is have faith in Him and His sacrificial blood that covers our sins.

It is by God's grace (unmerited favor) that we have been saved by Jesus Christ if we believe in Him (not by works). Romans 6:1-2 offers us a great warning: "What should we say then? Should we continue to sin so that grace may abound? Absolutely Not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

So...to sum all of this up...

Homosexuality is a sin.

God does have a standard for sexual relationships and, as with any other sin, when those standards are broken the consequences are Hell and eternity away from God.

But, there's hope!

There is no sin "bad enough" that God cannot forgive it if somebody is sincerely repentant (recognizes and is remorseful for sin, ask forgiveness and turn away from it) and believes that Jesus died on the cross so we can be forgiven. Jesus' sacrifice was sufficient to cover ALL of our sins...past, present and future. We just have to believe in Him.

(By the way, just because I recognize and agree with the Bible that homosexuality is a sin doesn't mean I don't like gay people or don't have gay friends. I have to uphold the Word of the Lord before the preferences of this society...whether on the subject of homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment..etc. DO NOT MISTAKE THESE WORD FOR HATRED! I do not hate gay people. Heck, I lived with a homosexual male for six months before I was married. He knew how I felt about His lifestyle. If I hated him, I would have never shared an apartment with him.)

How To Ruffle Feathers on Facebook

This is a short instructional blog on how to ruffle feathers on facebook and lose friends.

At the top of facebook is something called a Status Update and you can go on there and change your status. It will always say "Amanda Jo (is)_________" and you add the rest.

So you could say something like:
"Amanda Jo is happy"
"Amanda Jo loves potatoes"
"Amanda Jo breaks for unicorns"

And people can leave you comments on your status updates just as you would on a blog. Until yesterday I had never gotten more than 3 comments on one of my status updates.

Well, yesterday I REALLY got some people going by saying:

"Amanda Jo is proud of California"

See, they passed the gay marriage ban yesterday and I was just expressing the fact that I was excited that the people of California voted to uphold the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman. I am always excited when governments uphold God's law. Call me crazy.

Once upon a time I had roommate who was (and still is) a homosexual and we got along REALLY well even though he knew, without a shadow of doubt, that I did not approve of his lifestyle. While I know that as a Christian living with him wasn't the best choice (separate rooms, separate floors of the apartment), I don't regret it. I learned a lot during those six months.

Back to the point at hand. Yesterday, after I updated my status to say that I am proud of California. My ex-roommate left me a comment expressing his disappointment. He wasn't disrespectful or vulgar, I just don't feel it necessary to post what he said.

My reply, in my opinion, was bold yet gracious:

"I know it upsets a lot of people but I have to stand up for what the Bible says. You know I've always held this position...and I've always treated you and others with love and respect and I plan on continuing to do so."

This little conversation set off quite the debate! I'm not kidding you, by the end of the day I had 42 comments on my status.

And my ex-roommate deleted me from his friends list. I was also called a 'facebook drama maker' by one of our mutual friends.

So, if you want record numbers of status comments and fewer friends all you have to do is stand up for the Word of God and mention that you don't support gay marriage. Then all of your old high school friends (from before you were a Christian) will come out of the wood work to attack you.

Who knew updating a status could cause all this drama!

I think we'll tackle my pro-life stance next time!

Oh, and I over use, commas.

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