Real Life Ministries
For real life people with real life problems.
Real Life Ministries
Faithful Reflections on Gender
Is altering one's gender truly a rebellion against divine design, or is it a journey toward personal truth? Join us as we explore the profound narratives of Genesis where the creation of man and woman unfolds with divine precision, untouched by sin. We challenge societal norms and pressures, inviting you to reflect on the perfection of creation and the complexities of identity through a spiritual lens. By contemplating passages like Jeremiah 1:5, we discuss the significance of embracing our inherent identity as part of God’s grand design, despite the world's contrasting views on gender identity and transgenderism.
Navigating conversations around faith and identity requires a delicate balance of love and understanding. Our discussions emphasize the necessity of approaching topics such as gender identity with empathy and compassion, rather than judgment. Rooted in biblical principles found in 1 Corinthians 13:1, we advocate for prayerful guidance and the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in these dialogues. Offering reassurance to those who struggle with identity, we highlight the importance of seeking acceptance from our Creator, encouraging listeners to find peace in their unique journey and purpose.
Hello and welcome back to episode 3 of Real Life Ministries. This is our season 1 episodes. We're working through parts of Genesis. In the first few episodes we went through the creation and we also went through how long it took, how we view it and we explored some different areas within ourselves that might be holding us back on how to believe it. And now we're working into chapter two and we're going to look at the creation of man and woman in Eden.
Speaker 1:And I do want to say and preface this before we start this podcast, that I know this is a sensitive issue right now in our world there are a lot of people that are battling with their identity and who they are, not only in christ, but who they are just in general as a person, where you see transgendering taking a huge um front seat when it comes to the news and everything, and everybody's when it comes to the news and everything, and everybody's thinking, oh, I was born a man but I should be a woman and is trying to change who they are and are unhappy with who they were born as. And it really just goes against everything that God's doing and his creation and how he created us, because when he created us. He's God and basically, when we look at him and say you know we were created wrong, then we're looking at God and saying, well, you're wrong, even though he's the all-knowing God that he is, and it's pretty much a direct rebellion against him. So I'm going to start out in. In Genesis, chapter two, and uh chap in verse four, says this is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth, for the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground, trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit in the middle of the garden and then, skipping down a little further, it says the Lord God played them, placed a man in Eden to work it. And then he realized in verse 18.
Speaker 1:Then the Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him. So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky and all the wild animals, but still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib and he brought her to the man At last. The man exclaimed this one is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman because she was taken out from man.
Speaker 1:Now we'll stop there for a second and look at that. As you can see, god created man and he created woman, and he created them both at a time when he was creating the world and everything was perfect. He was creating everything as perfect as it could be. At that time, there was no sin that entered in. There was no, the fall had not happened as of yet, and these two were meant to be man and woman and they were created the way that they were. Now, today, as we see, going through our lives, the world has began to make transgender sensationalism lives. The world has began to make transgender sensationalism um, you know it's. It's becoming a very, very bad thing as we go through this world because it's it's causing people to directly rebel against how god created them.
Speaker 1:When we look at another passage, we look at Jeremiah 1.5. It says I knew you before. I formed you in your mother's womb, before you were born. I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.
Speaker 1:A lot of people look at the Old Testament and say, oh well, that wasn't really for Christians, that wasn't for us these days. But the Bible is the word of God. It's always relevant, it's always, always for everything. There were promises made here, there were commandments given in the old testament that we can still look at, that we can still take to heart, we can still live by, and this is one of them, where it. It speaks to a lot of different things, but it also can speak to right here, where we're looking at who we were created to be and how God created us, and when we look at this, that he knew us before he even formed us in the our mother's womb. He knew us before he made us man or woman to begin with. He knew us before we were even a thought in our parents mind.
Speaker 1:He is the all-knowing creator of the world and he has made us who we are and instead of us looking to him and being content with who we are, we are constantly a sinful people trying to change what God has done for us, who has created us to be what he's doing in our lives. We're not willing to accept it and see it. We're too prideful to even say you know, lord, I appreciate who you created me to be and I'm going to live out that purpose. We're too busy trying to change who we are and trying to conform to what this world thinks we should be, or we're trying to get acceptance in ways that are in direct rebellion to God. So we're getting acceptance from the world instead of seeking the acceptance from the Lord, and that is a major problem in our world these days that we just cannot continue to condone and nor continue to contribute to.
Speaker 1:And, like I said before, this is a very sensitive subject. There's a lot of people that may see things differently, but when we look to the Bible and we look to God's word and what it says and what it's telling us and how we're to live our lives, that's what we're to live by as Christians. This is what we're to do, thinking they need to transgender or change who they are in such a way that it grossly misrepresents who God designed them to be. I think, lovingly, we have to say to them look, this is not how God designed you. God designed you a man or God designed you a woman because that's who he intended you to be and that is what we need to do. And oftentimes, when we see these things going on, it can seem as though we're coming across as we're angry, as we're upset with these people because of what they're doing and how they're acting, and we can see it so plainly, and yet they can't. But oftentimes that's not our place, that's not our moment to say something. That's not.
Speaker 1:We're not the ones that are meant to do that now, if they are coming to us and they are asking us like, say, in a ministry setting, or say, as co-worker setting or something in that aspect, or, you know, friendship setting, someone you've been friends with, where they know, hey, look, this person truly knows about me. They truly have my well-being you know best well-being at heart. They truly know who I am. They truly care about me as a person. You know, in those moments, that's when you need to step back and say, look, this isn't what god designed you to be. This isn't who god intended you to be. He intended you to be who you are for a reason he intended he created you how you are for a reason.
Speaker 1:For us to just go around and feel like we're supposed to tackle this, this, uh, what's going on in our world? Just randomly, into any, any person we see that's doing this, that's not going to come across lovingly. It's going to come across as though we're judging them or we're, you know, looking down on them because we don't know them, we don't know truly who they are or what they're going through. In that moment, if we take some time to get to know them and understand you know what they're battling and what they're doing, then maybe at that point God would open a door for us to be able to speak something.
Speaker 1:But we also need to understand that it's not us that is going to be making these corrections or doing it's. It's not us at all. It's going to be the holy spirit that comes in that, that makes the, the person think, and to change how they're thinking and the direction they're going. If that's the direction they're going, it's not us, it's only god that can do that. All we can do is follow the leading of God, step into the moment that God has provided, plant the seed and allow the Holy Spirit to then work within them, and then maybe someone else down the line speaks into them, speaks more life into those people and helps them to understand exactly where they're coming from. It's not always us that has to save those people. However, god does provide certain opportunities for us to be able to speak into their lives and be there for them in certain moments in their lives, to where, maybe then, the Holy Spirit can take hold, can take root and start really truly working and convicting them and showing them where they, where their wrong thinking has has happened and what is taking place, and where where they need to change things. It's. It's not all us in having to do that. We don't need to constantly remind them and and constantly, you know, badger them about this type of stuff. It's when we speak into that moment, then that's what we do, and if we miss that moment, then that then unfortunately we have to live with that.
Speaker 1:But but that's where I think our world is is seeing christians as having such a hard time with these things, because at times it can come across as though we're we're belittling these people or we're looking down on these people. You know when in in actuality, we're trying to look at these people with love and say to these people hey, look, here's where you're at, this is who you're intended to be, this is how god designed you, this is, this is what we're trying to say, and we're trying to lovingly say this as best we can, because you're fixing to go down a path, uh, that leads to destruction. You know, the devil is the prince of this world and he is definitely taking that job seriously, because he is doing many different things to bring this sinful people into more rebellion against God, day in and day out. And as Christians, we just need to be really fervent in prayer about this and really, when given the opportunities to speak to this we can because they're especially in youth these days in the ministry, with all of the sensationalism that's been put around and all the news that's been brought up about transgendering and this, and that then it is definitely something that we're going to face at one point in our career or in our life to where we can speak into somebody and say, look, here's how God designed you. This is the truth. I understand that this is what the world is saying. But when we go to God's word, here's the truth and this is what God world is saying. But when we go to God's word, here's the truth and this is what God said. He created you this way for a purpose. He knew before he formed you in your mother's womb that he had set you apart, that he had a purpose for your life, and you need to find that purpose for your life instead of running from that purpose in your life, instead of listening to what the world is saying that hey, look, you're meant to be something else, or this, that and the other, that's. That's just totally not true.
Speaker 1:You know, my prayer for this is that as we come to these opportunities and we we see these opportunities to be able to speak love and the people we do it lovingly. First, corinthians 13 1 states that if I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. You know this speaks straight to the heart of what we're trying to do here with talking to people about this subject. It's a very sensitive, delicate subject that is going on in our world right now and we just need to speak to people in love in this, and we don't need to be in every person's business that we have no business being into. We just need to speak to the opportunities that we have and that we've been given by God and make sure we're doing that.
Speaker 1:And you know, I hope that this helps us to realize what's going on in our world and if maybe you're struggling with this, I hope that you realize that God does have a design and a purpose for your life. You know, and you know we'll be praying for you. We really want people to understand that they were created the way God intended them to be. They just need to look to God to find out where their purpose is, where they can get plugged into, how they can help further the ministry, where they can be plugged in in this life and doing life with others. It's a very important part of this life to understand that we're in this as a body of believers and that we're not in this alone and we need to be helping others as we go through this as well. It's you know.
Speaker 1:I've heard already of several stories where there are youth that are in Christian churches that are asking hey, you, hey, I'm battling with this, how should I handle this? And it's becoming more and more prevalent these days and it's very, very sad. But anyways, I hope that you have learned something from this. I hope that this maybe speaks to some issues that you're dealing with. I hope that you are able to speak in love to someone at some point that's dealing with this and be able to help them through it and be able to step back and realize that it's not all us to do this, it's God and it's the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:We were just placed in a certain situation at a certain time to speak up, but I know I just pray. We do this lovingly and I just want to pray for us right now. Dear Heavenly Father, lord, this is a very sensitive subject in our world right now. We know that you've created us. You knew us before we were even formed, before we were even a thought in our parents' mind.
Speaker 1:Lord, we just look to you to help in our world and help people that are battling with their identity and who they are in Christ, who they are as a person, whether they're a man or a woman.
Speaker 1:You know what they're doing, where they're going, and I just pray that you're able to help speak to them. Let the Holy Spirit speak to them and help them through these situations, and hopefully they find you through these situations. Hopefully they don't continue to rebel against you and look for that acceptance from the world, lord, that they look for the acceptance from you and that they truly look to their creator in these times of need and desperation that they're going through. Lord, and I pray that, if we're given the opportunity to speak to someone that's battling with this, that we do so with love. We do so so lovingly, lord, and that they understand that we, as christians, and as we deal with this issue and we go through this life, that we're, we're just trying to deal through it with love and help people and that's all we're trying to do. We're not trying to be rude or insensitive or anything at all. We understand people are going through things and we're just trying to help them. In jesus name, we pray amen.