Hm.
Well, it'd be easy (and probably save me a lot of time - emotional hot button, personalized, threads are always the ones that become the most consuming) not to respond. But you are a pretty straight shooter and you deserve the respect of having me return the favor.
1. All humanity is naturally headed towards hell because we are sinners, and that is what we choose. You, me, e'erbody. This is because we are inherently broken - we are sinful, we are born sinful. Children do not have to be taught to lie, steal, or hit others when they become angry; we do these things naturally. As we age, we don't have to be told to become tempted to sin, we are tempted because it is a part of our broken nature to do so.
2. Only those who repent and accept the forgiveness offered by Christ are changed - only they are not bound by the effects of their sinful choices; instead their choices' punishment falls on Christ, and his righteousness is imputed to them. It's an incredible gift offered in love by an incredibly Loving God. Those who reject this gift are punished by being allowed to do so - at a point, to the unrepentant, God says: "thy will be done". Before I was saved, I never realized how terrifying that truly is and will be (I was, instead, cavalier).
3. By your own earlier admission, your body is not wrong - your mind is. God did not screw up on you, he knit you together in your mothers' womb (Ps 139:13). Your mistaken impression that you are *really* a woman, and that - again, your own admission - therefore, since we cannot heal your mind, we must change your body is a part of your brokenness. That you seek to avoid healing your soul-brokenness via expensive and complicated plastic surgery and hormone injections doesn't mean you aren't broken - it simply suggests you are unrepentant. It provides strong evidence that you do not wish to go through the long, painful, agonizingly slow process of sanctification that ends with glorification and the healing of your soul, body, and mind.
3a. By itself, however, that evidence is not condemning, nor final. Plenty of Christians have been woefully wrong about a wide variety of topics, and they will continue to be woefully wrong about a wide variety of topics. If you are truly repentant, it could be that failing to see with and deal with this part of your brokenness is simply part of your ongoing struggle - at some point in the future, God may bring you to a point where you can begin to heal here, and that would be wonderful and a cause for celebration. It can happen. It has happened.
4. Unfortunately, you have another issue which strongly indicates that you are unrepentant, and do not wish to turn over your life to Christ when doing so would conflict with your desires: you claim to be a lesbian. Like artificially attempting to surgery-over your gender, homosexuality is a twisting of one of God's greatest gifts in a manner contrary to his will for our lives. Another way that homosexuality is similar to your continued search for a solve for your brokenness via cosmetic changes is that continued pursuit of it without acknowledgement of or attempt to leave that sin behind indicates lack of of repentant heart. Certainly it would conflict with claims that you are a repentant Christian. If you would so claim, if you truly are a woman, marry a man, or do not marry or engage in sexual activity at all. If you truly are a man, stay married to your wife, but do not disfigure the body God gave you to make it seem like that of a woman.
Saying this to someone is uncomfortable. The only sin that's still publicly recognized as such any more is that of "being judgmental". It's especially uncomfortable doing so to someone whom you like and respect, and with whom you have a relationship that you hope not to lose. My bet is that your friend didn't enjoy the conversation, but truly does wish good for you. It can be painful to love those whom you believe to be willfully Lost - the only thing I can compare it to is friends I have had who have committed suicide.
I should confess here that:
A. I avoid having conversations like this with my brother because of that exact fear (of driving them away, of losing them), a cowardice of which I am ashamed.
B. I am also a sexual sinner, who has failed more often than I have succeeded. Only continued love, mercy, and work from the Throne has caused what improvement I can see here in my brokenness.
Anyway, you deserved a respectful, but honest, response. I'm not going to take the easier way out and lie to you about it, I think the signs indicate that you are in real trouble.
I am not religious, but I believe what you wrote is exactly what someone who is religious should say and/or listen to. Good post. Hell, I almost believe it to be true, just without the "god" and "hell" part.Hm.
Well, it'd be easy (and probably save me a lot of time - emotional hot button, personalized, threads are always the ones that become the most consuming) not to respond. But you are a pretty straight shooter and you deserve the respect of having me return the favor.
1. All humanity is naturally headed towards hell because we are sinners, and that is what we choose. You, me, e'erbody. This is because we are inherently broken - we are sinful, we are born sinful. Children do not have to be taught to lie, steal, or hit others when they become angry; we do these things naturally. As we age, we don't have to be told to become tempted to sin, we are tempted because it is a part of our broken nature to do so.
2. Only those who repent and accept the forgiveness offered by Christ are changed - only they are not bound by the effects of their sinful choices; instead their choices' punishment falls on Christ, and his righteousness is imputed to them. It's an incredible gift offered in love by an incredibly Loving God. Those who reject this gift are punished by being allowed to do so - at a point, to the unrepentant, God says: "thy will be done". Before I was saved, I never realized how terrifying that truly is and will be (I was, instead, cavalier).
3. By your own earlier admission, your body is not wrong - your mind is. God did not screw up on you, he knit you together in your mothers' womb (Ps 139:13). Your mistaken impression that you are *really* a woman, and that - again, your own admission - therefore, since we cannot heal your mind, we must change your body is a part of your brokenness. That you seek to avoid healing your soul-brokenness via expensive and complicated plastic surgery and hormone injections doesn't mean you aren't broken - it simply suggests you are unrepentant. It provides strong evidence that you do not wish to go through the long, painful, agonizingly slow process of sanctification that ends with glorification and the healing of your soul, body, and mind.
3a. By itself, however, that evidence is not condemning, nor final. Plenty of Christians have been woefully wrong about a wide variety of topics, and they will continue to be woefully wrong about a wide variety of topics. If you are truly repentant, it could be that failing to see with and deal with this part of your brokenness is simply part of your ongoing struggle - at some point in the future, God may bring you to a point where you can begin to heal here, and that would be wonderful and a cause for celebration. It can happen. It has happened.
4. Unfortunately, you have another issue which strongly indicates that you are unrepentant, and do not wish to turn over your life to Christ when doing so would conflict with your desires: you claim to be a lesbian. Like artificially attempting to surgery-over your gender, homosexuality is a twisting of one of God's greatest gifts in a manner contrary to his will for our lives. Another way that homosexuality is similar to your continued search for a solve for your brokenness via cosmetic changes is that continued pursuit of it without acknowledgement of or attempt to leave that sin behind indicates lack of of repentant heart. Certainly it would conflict with claims that you are a repentant Christian. If you would so claim, if you truly are a woman, marry a man, or do not marry or engage in sexual activity at all. If you truly are a man, stay married to your wife, but do not disfigure the body God gave you to make it seem like that of a woman.
Saying this to someone is uncomfortable. The only sin that's still publicly recognized as such any more is that of "being judgmental". It's especially uncomfortable doing so to someone whom you like and respect, and with whom you have a relationship that you hope not to lose. My bet is that your friend didn't enjoy the conversation, but truly does wish good for you. It can be painful to love those whom you believe to be willfully Lost - the only....
Anyway, you deserved a respectful, but honest, response. I'm not going to take the easier way out and lie to you about it, I think the signs indicate that you are in real trouble.
I would say that the "God and hell" part is the part of that post I know to be most true (everything else - w/ one exception- is a really of my own thought and prayer, always an imperfect source). But thank you 
. I hope that you have people in your life who show you that, contrary to some popular opinion, the Christian response is not hate, but honest, love.
3. By your own earlier admission, your body is not wrong - your mind is. God did not screw up on you, he knit you together in your mothers' womb (Ps 139:13). Your mistaken impression that you are *really* a woman, and that - again, your own admission - therefore, since we cannot heal your mind, we must change your body is a part of your brokenness. That you seek to avoid healing your soul-brokenness via expensive and complicated plastic surgery and hormone injections doesn't mean you aren't broken - it simply suggests you are unrepentant. It provides strong evidence that you do not wish to go through the long, painful, agonizingly slow process of sanctification that ends with glorification and the healing of your soul, body, and mind.
Hm.
Anyway, you deserved a respectful, but honest, response. I'm not going to take the easier way out and lie to you about it, I think the signs indicate that you are in real trouble.
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. Whether you or I or the wisest man on earth "finds" His argument compelling is, well, sort of immaterial. :shrug:
Like Blindness, deformity, or any other physical ailment, mental brokenness is a reflection of our fallen, soul-broken status. It's an outward reflection of our truer brokenness inside. Jesus came to heal our brokenness and, in order to signal and demonstrate it, healed many outward reflections of that as well. God does not make us broken for His amusement - He went to incredible, painful, tortuous effort to offer us a way to be Healed.
No, I think I may have simply flown too quickly past a critical point. I was not arguing that Renae is really a lesbian and therefore living an unrepentant sinful life. I argued that Renae claims to be a lesbian, meaning that Renae therefore intends to be living an unrepentant, sinful life, which is evidence that Renae is unrepentant
We are soul and body - and Christ was also pretty clear (and more strict, in many ways, than what came before Him) on our bodies - particularly in the realm of sexuality. God has also made His intent for human sexuality clear - and he has made His opinion on what constitutes a twisting and breaking of that intention clear
No. Truly respectfully and truly without malice or any pretense to moral superiority here (I have none to offer, anyway), you are doubling down on brokenness, and reshaping the temple of your body with plastic surgery and hormone treatments in a doomed attempt to change who you physically are. If your sanctification has not led you here, yet, that is what Church Discipline is supposed to be for (to jarringly awaken you to the danger, to the damage, and call you to repentance), but given that you are not an active practitioner, tragically, this protective mechanism is not available to you. This is incorrect, and woefully so, as per the subject matter of the OP. Pain, in and of itself, is not bad; in fact, often it is good (those whom the Lord loves, he Disciplines). It can be a cry and a reminder to us that we are broken, a means of realigning our priorities and our faith. Maybe he's found love in the arms of another woman, or another man's spouse?
I was afraid it would be easy for folks to go high and to the right on this - easy to do so, when the subject is so intensely personal. Renae said:
Thank you. Though of course, I would pray that you would come around, I am grateful that you are willing to listen to me as I hoped to speak to you - honestly, openly, without ill will or disrespect.
I remember feeling simply elated with rounds cracking overhead, but it's been years since I've been willing to assertively engage even people in my life whom I love. Life is easier, in some ways, to risk than friendship. True enough. My little sister's first fiance (she claims to be a lesbian - it's a long story, she claimed to be a lesbian while spending years being sexually attracted to and hooking up with guys) decided she was really a He, and went through half the surgery, but couldn't go through with the other half, after seeing the horror stories. So now s/he is just sort of stuck in the middle, taking hormones and lifting and Trying So Hard to be a guy...