On June 12, 2016, less than one day after the Orlando gay bar shooting, Twitter user @jananamirah posted the following tweet: "Can't preach that gay people are going to Hell then tweet your prayers are going out to those in Orlando. Love in not a light switch."

Her tweet ignited the media with over 13,000 retweets, 17,000 likes and thousands of shares on Facebook, Tumblr and other social media platforms inspiring similar posts penetrated several newsfeeds, including my own. While it was little surprise that the non-Christians in my circles pounced on the attack against the Christians, it was shocking to see how so many Christians responded. With so many mixed opinions of the tragedy of Orlando in the Christian churches, it is no wonder that @jananamirah and several others took the bloodbath in Orlando committed by a non-Christian male as an opportunity to hack the Christian church into pieces.

Christians have not been standing up but condemning their own faith. Why this is the case has been a bit of a mystery. It is likely, upon looking at the several comments and posts of Christians during this time, that many feel guilty about their outlook on homosexuality, or believe that the church treats homosexuals wrongly and therefore should not be defended. In both cases, the Bible has been forgotten. After all, if it's true that love is not a light switch, you can't love and preach judgment at the same time, right?

Thankfully, the question does not have to hover in cyberspace unanswered. The Bible has answered @jananamirah's statement long before she or her Twitter account was ever created. Which I am thankful for because I am totally incapable of answering that question on my own.

So, can Christians preach that homosexuals are going to hell and then pray for the homosexuals too? Isn't that just a bit hypocritical?

Yes, Christians can preach and pray, and that is one of the key aspects of Christianity. Before I go on, let's dissect @jananamirah's tweet to look a little more closely.

Why do people go to hell?

The story begins in the Garden, when Adam and Eve were created perfectly in God's image. They were created to glorify God (Colossians 1:16) and serve Him. Though they were made perfect, they were capable of sinning. Adam and Eve were not content to keep God's law, but instead, discontented with His protection, wanted to be God. They ate of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-6), destroying their perfection. The penalty for sin (breaking God's law) is death (Genesis 3:2-4). A Savior was promised to save man from this spiritual and eternal hell (Genesis 3:15).

Hell is the consequence of sin, and "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24).

Is homosexuality a sin?

Yes, sin is the result of our "earthly" nature that is at enmity [actively hostile] with God. It does not want us to be close to God again. (Romans 8:7-8: "Because the carnal [sinful] mind is at enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.")

Homosexuality is a sin of this earthly nature, as written in Colossians 3:5: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry," and "In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error." (Romans 1:27).

It is a sin because God gave man and woman to each other, as told in Genesis 2:24: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

This is a symbol of Christ's love and marriage to the Church (Isaiah 54:5: "For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth He is called.")

Is it any surprise that every aspect of creation reflects our Creator and His love for us since, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10)?

Should Christians preach that homosexuals are going to hell?

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Therefore, God says, “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezekiel 18:21-23).

He says this because He sent His Son to take the punishment of our sins in our place. "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16).

God promises that everlasting life begins with this transformation in Ezekiel 36:27: "And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws."

If repentance is not preached, there is a lack of God's love: "And He [Jesus] said to them, 'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.'" (Mark 16:15-16).

1 John 1:3 says, "What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." John had seen the body of Christ after He was executed for our sins, and rose again from the dead.

Christ's death as a propitiation [appeasing God by taking our punishment in our place] restores fellowship with God, and with the Church, God's people. "God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood--to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished" (Romans 3:25).

And this love in the Church is sacrificial, just as is Christ's death for us--united together in Him as His Church--His bride. 1 John 3:16: "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

This gives us JOY! John 15:9-13: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends."

This is true love, and it brings true joy. Repentance and salvation through Christ's love gives love and happiness. I can assure you, I did not deserve the redemptive blood of Christ, but the joy He gives my soul is far greater than I could have ever hoped for.

Should Christians pray for the homosexuals hurt by the shootings in Orlando?

Absolutely! We are to imitate Jesus (1 Peter 2:21) and Jesus prayed according to His Father's will. My favorite passage of this is John 17, in where Jesus, when praying to His Father, says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent," in verses 1-3. Those who pray according to God's will are heard by God (1 John 5:4).

So what is God's will?

Paul, a writer of many of the New Testament epistles, was told by Jesus, "I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me."

In 1 Timothy 2:4, after speaking of the need for Godly submission to authority, is the verses about the pleasure of Jesus, "who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

"Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you," says God Jeremiah 29:12 in speaking of the redemption of His people. Praying God's will includes praying for those we long to come into fellowship with us and specifically with God.

And God hears our prayers when we pray in the name our Savior, Christ, our mediator (John 14:13).

So

I am by no means perfect, but am being sanctified everyday by the blood of Christ. If not for His love, I would be burning in hell because that is what I deserve every second of my life. But instead, He died for me, gave me His Spirit, prays for me, and draws me to His heavenly Father. All Scripture is God-breathed and true (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and His Spirit I feel within me is a testament to His love and grace. This is the love and grace I, and all true Christians, desire with a passion all unbelievers to have.

And so, @jananamirah, I do not wish to bash you, but instead agree with you: Love is not a light switch. Love is the death and resurrection of Christ to return undeserving folks of which I am the worst, to Himself. Preaching judgment and praying for repentance is one of the most loving things a Christian can do for an unbeliever. This is not hypocrisy or self-righteousness. There is not a Christian who wasn't first an unbeliever. But I found love, or rather, Love found me.

And Love always wins.

Orlando, you are in my prayers to Jesus. And Jesus is the love that never switches off.