My parents had recently come to know the Lord and when I came to visit them their church, soon to become my church as well, welcomed me! They hugged me! They told me about the love of Jesus! They got me involved in reading the Bible! When I asked them about homosexuality and why did God’s word say it was wrong if God had made me that way, they lovingly yet truthfully and compassionately told me that they believe the Bible was God’s word and He states that homosexuality is not what He, God, intended for our sexuality.

College Park BC came alongside me, and I came to have that wonderful relationship with Christ Jesus! The Holy Spirit did the changing as only the Holy Spirit can do. The Church loved me, told me about Jesus, about God’s love, and God changed me and healed me of my homosexuality. PRAISE God! Thank You College Park!

Today, after 5 years at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, and two degrees in Theology and Educational Leadership, I now minister to those who struggle with their unwanted same sex attractions. I also speak with churches and share with them the experience of how College Park Baptist Church in Las Vegas, NV ministered to me as guided by Scripture.

There are so many hurting folks out there who struggle with their unwanted same sex attractions and they are afraid to speak up because, regretfully, they see the Church as judgmental and hateful. We know this is not true! I know this is not true! And as we continue to reach out with the love that we also received, I so pray that more and more folks will be set free out of their captivity to the sin of homosexuality.

Church, we have the key to their chains, to their prison bars. That key is Christ Jesus! Tell them about the love of Christ, reflect the love to Jesus to them, get them into God’s word! Truthfully and compassionately tell them the Truth of God’s Word! The Holy Spirit will do the convicting . . . .

Please remember, they are looking for love and acceptance . . . not acceptance of their homosexuality but acceptance of themselves. The gay community embraces them with false love and false freedoms. We need to embrace them with the true love and the true freedom and the true peace of Christ Jesus.

Charlene
415 465 0517
http://www.earthenvesseljournal.com/issue03/articles_03/Hios_03/Hios_03.html

Consequently, we each are tempted by different things. While there is no temptation not common to man, there are certain of those which are more difficult for us as individuals because of our genetic makeup and the enviornment of our formative years. For one, the temptation may be sexual in nature; for another it may be to steal. One may be an habitual liar and the other a gossiper. WHAT sin is most tempting for us isn’t as important as what we DO about that temptation.

So, what do we do, Mr. and Mrs. Christian?

We fight the good fight, which means to resist the temptations of the devil as much as we can. However, without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we are unable to overcome a single one of the things which tempt us, even the smallest ones. If we can quit violating even the most minor and easiest of God’s laws on our own, with more effort we can keep from violating them all! But, we can’t do that. If we could, we have no need of a redeemer. We, on our own, are completely powerless to withstand the devil and our own, sinful, fallen nature. Only God can give us the victory!

But..He doesn’t always do that, does he? If He did, none of us would sin after Salvation. We would all live perfect lives, yet none of us do. Why? Because God has not yet given us the victory we seek! We’ll get it one day, (that’s why we can confidently claim that victory even as we still yield to tempations), but on God’s terms and on His schedule.

Why would God allow us to continue wallowing in sin and breaking his Commandments? It’s simple…God’s intent is not that we transform ourselves and live “right” by our own authority, but to rely completely and totally on the blood of Jesus Christ for our righteousness! From Genesis to Revelations, the totality of God’s Word to us and His redemptive plan is built around the resurrection of Jesus Christ and HIS victory over sin, not ours! Don’t you understand? That’s why there is sin in the first place! Without it, there would be no need for a Savior!

Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that if we commit to keeping even one point of the law on our own authority, after Salvation, that we bind ourselves with the law once again and that Christ is of no effect to us. In fact, he says that if we do that, we have “fallen from grace.” Think about the implications of THAT!

So, what do we do? Held accountable for sins which we cannot overcome on our own, we seem to be stuck in an endless cycle of sin until the day comes when God gives us the victory we so desperately want, right?

That’s exactly right! But, it is not hopeless, nor does this mean we ought to revel in our failures and simply, easily give into every temptation. No, what we ought to do is recognize our own evil nature and accept that we will fail, no matter how hard we try, then pick ourselves up off the ground, claim the forgiveness in Christ which God has promised, stop beating ourselves up and move on doing God’s work.

This is the liberty of grace which Paul talks about! Liberty is not a license to sin, nor is it assurance of complete victory in this life, but it IS escape from the righteous judgements of God through the victory of Jesus Christ. It is the ONLY way escape His judgments and THAT is what we need to cling to.

Whether it be a temptation to homosexuality or a temptation to rob banks, the believer is assured of victory over it at some point. It may not be now, but the victory is real and already accomplished, so let’s act like it.

Sadly, for too many of our brethren, we’re not willing to allow the homosexual who trusts in the blood of Christ to fail during his walk with God. We’re too personally offended by that particular sin to offer the same repeated forgiveness which we ourselves claim for our own repeated failures. That’s wrong and dangerous. The Lord’s Prayer clearly shows that OUR forgiveness is predicated on our forgiving others and, if we’re not willing to forgive the failing homosexual and offer him/her the hand of fellowship, we’re not going to get the forgiveness we need from God until we do.

So how does this change things? Other than making it all the more important that we show understanding and love to those so afflicted, not at all.

According to what I believe in re Original Sin and the fall of man. Before the fall, man was perfect genetically. Since the fall, this is no longer the case. People are born with many mental and physiological genetic disorders. It is my belief that homosexuality is in fact just such a genetic disorder.

Some men are born with a very high sex drive. For such men, it is much harder for them, than for the “average” man to stay celibate before marriage, or to remain faithful to his spouse in marriage. I would also class this as just such a genetic disorder.

There is no doubt that those so afflicted have a much harder battle to remain true to God’s good law in these areas. But those laws are given by God for the good both of the individual, and for the good of society.

Does God DEMAND that we obey his law or go to hell? ABSOLUTELY NOT! He knows that without his power, it is impossible to do so, and even with his power, because that old flesh still clings to us, we will not constantly nor completely do so.

What God does demand is that we acknowledge our dependence on Him. Acknowledge that we are saved, not by how well WE keep the law, but by how well JESUS has kept the law. He calls on us to renounce the sin that is in us.

St Paul, in Romans 7, writes, “21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Note now how this section ends, this is important.
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Doesn’t sound very condemning of our sinning as a christian, does it?

Reading on in Chapter 8, and in other places in scriptures, we learn that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can and will transform us as we allow him to do so. This can, however, be a slow process.

As recovering sinners, we will fall many times into various sins. Even as a pastor, I sin daily, and all too much. I, just as all sinners must, cry out daily, O Lord, Have Mercy upon Me, a sinner.

But I am also much more than that. I am also a Saint. the righteousness of Jesus rests upon me, and in him, i can conquer. In Him, i can change.

And so each day, i fight the good fight of faith, renounce that flesh that clings to me and look to my loving savior for strength in that fight, and deliverance, so that my witness for him not be marred by my sin, but be made all the greater by my obedient response to his mercy and grace.

You were right to say that you cannot make a homosexual into a heterosexual. GOD CAN. On a few occasions, he does this miraculously. For most it is a lifetime process of change that is not fully completed until the resurrection of the flesh.

You said… the biblical references make their lives 10x more unbearable. This statement proves you do not understand the grace of God.

I deserve to go to hell, you deserve to go to hell, the homosexual deserves to go to hell. If you focus on the law, then yes, such verses do make life unbearable. THAT is what they are supposed to do, so that you give up on yourself, and rely instead on God’s Mercy and grace.

It is the laws job to drive you to the Gospel… That Jesus has lived the perfect life for you, in your place. it is not up to you to do it. He already has.

You said, ‘I know for a Christian preacher like yourself, and being a truly heterosexual male, this is a hard statement to grasp since the scriptures are your guide, and understandable so.’ Did you not read what Thom said about himself? His struggles? His continual fight against his fleshly desires for other men?

You said, ‘I cannot sit all mighty on my bible and say since it says so by the prophets it is so by God, I do not know God’s thoughts.’ This saddens me perhaps more than anything else you have said. For all scripture is “theopneustos” God exhaled. I do know God’s thoughts on those things on which He has spoken to us in his word and through His Son.

Finally, on your last sentence. The question is the answer. By dealing in a compassionate and rational manner, realizing that because of genetics, or changes in the body brought about by addictions, or whatever, it is VERY hard, even for the christian seeking to lay hold of Gods power to change, to do so. But also believing the Gospel, that they ARE and STAND forgiven when they call on God for forgiveness and for the power to be transformed, even in their bodies.

I hope my comments help.

Randy

I am celibate, always have been and always will be (I am 55 years old). My orientation is not a problem with my Christian relatives, probably because of my celibacy. But, I also have a niece and two second cousins (one man and one woman) who are or have been in homosexual relationships. The family does not ostracize them, nor consider them a threat to the children, as far as I know, and this includes some very conservative Christians. We do have one family member that may be uninformed about us. She is a nephew’s wife, from South America, and said to be homophobic. When they visit, I hug my nephew, his wife and generally their (teenage?) daughter, and nobody thinks ill of it.

If the Christian church wants to reach out to the homosexual community it would be better to focus on LOVING than judging. It would be better to focus on the sins of oneself before throwing stones at others.

In the church’s attempt to “communicate” that homosexuality is a sin, the church is missing the opportunity to show love and compassion. Of course, the first response my saying this is usually, “But we can’t condone it!” Since when is showing love and compassion condoning anything? I think that every non-Christian on this planet has heard from Christians that homosexuality is a sin. Do you really think that by repeating it 500 more times that they’ll see your love? Do you think that hearing it another 500 more times will bring them to Jesus? The church is pushing away people and failing to judge itself.

As I first said, it is disheartening that many gays feel that Christians hate them. If you say, “We should hate the sin and love the sinner” – then also ask yourself how many gays see that love. If they are thinking that you hate them, maybe you should change something.

I’m neither condemning or condoning homosexuality or gay marriage by saying these things. But, I have seen the hurt, anger and hate within gays by how Christians have waged war against them and against gay marriage. Gay people see the hypocrisy in the church. They realize that the church has found an easy target and a way to avoid looking at oneself. We say that we want to protect marriage and yet what are we doing to protect heterosexual marriages that are failing around us?

Maybe someone reading this will disagree with me on many things. But, how can you disagree with how the church is isolating gays vs. dealing with other issues within the church? How can you explain why gays feel hated by Christians? The church is obviously doing something wrong if they feel that Christians HATE them. You attempt to “hate the sin and love the sinner” isn’t working. I suggest we all look at our own lives, our own sins and spend more time with Jesus. Lets not be quick to judge when we ourselves are failing miserably at loving others & addressing sins in our own lives. Lets not be so quick to say, “You can’t be a Christian AND gay” and yet ignore how many Christians are habitually guilty of greed, gluttony, selfishness, gossip, etc.

I’m sorry for the difficult position you are in. I can tell you want to do what any loving Christian would want to do for anyone who is involved in habitual sin: point the way to freedom in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit. You’ve done that and, with a lot of prayer, hopefuly God will intercede and the Holy Spirit will lead your sister and your nephew out of the lifestyle. Today’s culture, and indeed even some denominations, have gone astray with the intention of acceptance. This is wrong. Sin is sin, regardless of the cause or the comfort. I do have some contact information for Exodus and SBC’s The Way Out, as well as some other resources that were to have run in the second article. If you would like to e-mail me at th2950@yahoo.com, I’ll send you that information. And I’ll be praying for your family. My journey was longer than it needed to be and caused greater damage than it should have, even though I never professed homosexuality as good. To me, it was always a sin. I just struggled to find freedom. It is my hope that others will find it faster and without causing others the pain.

Thom