Love, love, love!!

God is love, we are called to love, we all want someone to love, we feel happy when we love…..

Love will keep us alive!!

So why then did a wise personal friend of mine who also happens to be a priest coin this phrase recently….”love has become the problem rather than the solution”!!

In terms of my life and ministry this is certainly the case because who I love and who LGBTQ people love is deemed to be wrong to some.

But my friend Paul correctly pointed out that it’s not just limited to gay people. Many straight people find themselves divorced and in second relationships which are often full of love and yet these too are often deemed to be wrong.

Yet my experience of Jesus isn’t a Jesus condemning people for who they love but actually freeing people to love more, to love better and to love Him!!

In the case of gay people such as myself, Jesus has taught me and continues to teach me how to love Rayne more faithfully, more purely and more intimately. He has never tried to break us apart because He knows we love eachother and He loves us too!

Obviously the church is behind in how to handle this love and doesn’t know what to do! Any dummy can see that we are happy and compliment eachother and after a year together I myself am astounded at how much I’ve changed and how much more happy and free I am.

Even my body is showing the changes and you know what they say, the camera doesn’t lie!!

And of course there are many people’s who’s first marriage broke up and find themselves in second relationships and happy. Are these to be condemned too?

Traditionally we’d say yes because of the stigma of divorse and the difficulty in getting an annulment. Fortunately nowadays this process is somewhat easier and at least gives the hope that people can one day get married to the person that they love without being labelled for life as “living in sin”.

You see the Jesus that I know is the lover and the deliverer and not the stickler!

He desires not to condemn us or our love but rather to free us and untie us from our pasts, our mistakes, our false beliefs…..

And to bring us into the promised land of milk and honey where our mistakes are forgotten and where we are given a new beginning and a new start.

Satan’s job is sadly to try to tie us to our past mistakes, tie us to the law and offer no way out and sadly many people in the church unwittingly work for Satan by placing heavy moral and religious burdens on poor souls that Jesus wants to free!

So ya, love is very often considered to be the problem and an inconvenience rather than the solution and a blessing.

So what to do?

We must simply love anyway and keep on loving until our sleeping church reawakens and realise that she too is called firstly and foremostly to love!

Have a lovely day!

Michael