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How would you handle this?

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I truly seek the input of the Actscelerate community on this issue. I apologize that this is not worded better.My father passed away in June of last year at the age of 85. Several months before he died, I discovered my sister was secretly twisting his arm to cut me out of his will. Sources close to my father informed me that my sister had provided my father with papers to sign. I obtained a lawyer who counseled me to keep quiet for the time being. He suspected that my father was going to make the mistake of changing his will without changing the deed to the home, which would have made the new will void if my father died. He and I checked the on-line county records regularly to see if there were any changes to the deed. Interestingly, my dad died suddenly in his sleep before he could file any of the papers my sister had given him, and I thus remained the executor. Not so surprisingly, she smuggled the papers out of his house before I could find them, which was illegal. Due to the horrible circumstances in my life at the time, I chose not to confront my sister (Heavy load at graduate school, 8 weeks with shingles, knee surgery with 6 weeks on crutches, 1 week in the hospital over a tick bite reaction). Sadly, she lied about my wife as her means to convince my dad that changing the will was necessary. She invented a wild fantasy that my wife was going to divorce me after my dad was gone and give all of his possessions to her family in Mexico. I can no longer withhold expressing disapproval for what happened, especially since my wife and her family were so disrespected. Our family was always unusual. It was like living in the Bizarro world where everything was opposite. The youngest child was ignored while the middle child was spoiled. In fact, a pastor once told my mom that my dad should not have had sons as having another male in the home seemed to make him feel threatened. He hardly spoke to me until I was a Sophmore in college. My sister was always coddled. Dad supplemented at least 30% of her income her entire adult life (she’s 54). She has never married or gotten any serious college education. I took a total of 300 dollars from my dad in my entire adult life. Yet, he told friends that made me the executor of his estate because he knew my sister could never handle the responsibility. But I knew when he made the will 15 years ago that she would never settle for a 50-50 split. I do not seek revenge. I have continued to exhibit a Christian attitude when she comes around. She has no clue that I am aware of any of this. But moving forward, especially as we enter into the phase of the final disposition of my dad’s home (both our names have been on the deed for many years), she needs to understand that treachery will not be tolerated. Unless God does a real work in her heart, I expect her to simply refuse to discuss the matter, much less show remorse. I’ve often wondered if she realizes that God took my dad to prevent him from making a horrible mistake on her behalf. Your prayers and counsel are appreciated________________

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How would you handle this?

Acts20.com NEW Acts-Celerate

How would you all handle this? This is the second time in the last month that we have received a request like this. We did not answer back on the first one and I feel that maybe we are being probed maybe to try and set us up. This is the message we received. We do have those of the alternate lifestyle visit with us periodically and one couple has been coming for the past 2 years and the attendance is sometimes two or three Sundays in a row and then a few months off. They are treated the same as everyone else but have never tried to go any further than attendance. We are a lesbian couple. We were attending Movement Church in Charlotte. However the drive has become too much. Therefore we were wondering how would your congregation accept us?[/url________________

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  1. Hard to tell if there are ulterior motives from this couple or not without having a discussion with them.I wonder why the gays who have been attending for 2 years haven’t come any further than sporadic attendance? Are you sure they’re being treated like everyone else? If they weren’t gay, would you have already talked to them about their long absences? Just a thought. I wish you well as you navigate these waters________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”

  2. This is a tough one for sure. WE allow couples not married but living together to attend, but not take ANY leadership or active day to day operations. WE KNOW by our church standards and beliefs that is sin. I know the lesbian idea rubs the wrong way. I sure would not know what i best for the church and most of all for the Kingdom.Tough one……. After all our church is supposed to reach out to the sinner…… BUT….________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

  3. On the question about conversation with the couple that comes, yes, we do converse with them and there is no situation there. One of them was born and raised Pentecostal and they do worship. They have never exerted themselves concerning their lifestyles and have even been to our extra activities at times. The have been treated like everyone else as well. I don’t know why this request hit me wrong, but I intend to go the high road and tell them they are welcome to come and see if our style works for them. Our congregation has had to deal with other couples coming and they have welcomed them and encouraged them to worship and enjoy. We are not a shut door and usually if people come for any length of time they end up making positive decisions. Thanks for all of the comments. I’m gonna do what is right. lol… Just needed the push________________

  4. I’m not a pastor, but here’s my opinion, for what it’s worth. It sounds like what you are already doing.The church doors should be open to any soul in need of a Savior. These are the folks we are called to. But I would be honest with them that while we welcome them to worship with us, it would not change who we are and what we believe. They may hear some preaching that doesn’t line up with what they believe, and if they can handle that, they are welcome to come. I’d also make it clear that while they are welcome to be a friend of the church, they would not be eligible for any leadership position like the praise team or teaching, etc., or membership. And while it’s true they might be trying to trap you, it’s equally possible they have been rejected elsewhere and are just looking for a place that would love them.The COG has a couple of position papers about same sex marriage, and I think there is a resolution somewhere on the COG page that your church could use as a guideline for an official position (whether you are COG or not.________________More of Him…less of me.twitter.com/camiracle77www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=691241499&ref=name

  5. How about a dose of Holy Ghost conviction________________Charles A. HutchinsSenior Pastor SPWCCongregational Church of Godwww.spwc.church

  6. Remember the woman who washed Jesus’ feet (Mary, Martha’s sister)? She washed Jesus’ feet WHILE she was a sinner. He did not reject her worship. In fact, He forgave her of her sins!

  7. You could write about salvation first, then talk about discipleship and the expectation that people who join in fellowship, members or not, follow Christ. You could share testimonies of those who have been delivered from sin, with their permission, especially if you have someone in the church who used to live a homosexual lifestyle.You could quote I Corinthians 5, say that those who live in sexual immorality should not partake of communion and write a long treatise on the problem with a sexually immoral lesbian lifestyle.