Nonetheless, sinning without repentance (which is not just asking for forgiveness) will cause God to remove His protective covering and allow Satan to have his way with you.  You are not in His will (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

Are you sure about this? Because it;s bad news for me if you are. I can think of quite a few sins that I did for a long time, not realising they were sins. It could be that tomorrow I will realise that something I'm still doing now is a sin. When I realise, then I can repent and ask for help in dealing with it, but for a long time I am doing sins without repenting.

And to be honest, though on a good day I can get over some sins, other ones come back over and over. I think I'm really not very good at avoiding sinning.

So, Mr 5020, what about someone who thinks they may have a tendency to be gay? Not necessarily a hundred per cent open gay, but someone who is attracted, sometimes, to members of the same sex? If they were not in a relationship, or were in a heterosexual relationship, could they belong to a church?

lizmom, i didn't think your point was wishy-washy at all. I often feel a very bad Christian because though I believe God has saved me from the effects of my sin, I still sin, every single day. I like to think I might be a good Christian one day, but it hasn't happened yet. I'm a still sinning Christian, in sex and in other ways.

The promise of forgiveness is what keeps me going.

I go to a Baptist church, so of course we don't have bishops - no problem there!

But for people like us who believe in the priesthood of all believers, do you think it would be wrong to have any gay members at all?