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Unconditional Surrender by Gwen Gibson – Real Stories for August 2010

August 26, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments
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This testimony appears in both our offline and online newsletters.  To receive testimonies like this along with the full newsletter online via email or offline through the postal service please sign up here. --- Unconditional Surrender by Gwen Gibson I struggled with same-sex attraction for nearly twenty years. In college I hung around lesbians and developed lesbian friendships. Finally one asked me, “If you aren’t homosexual, why do you hang out with lesbians?” It was like she held a mirror up to my face and said, “Who are you, and why are you here?” In my twenties, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church, Culture, Encourage, Identity, Lesbian, Post-gay, Sexuality, Testimonies, Youth & Young Adults Tagged With: Change, Church, Counsel, Counseling, ECA, Emotional, Exodus, Freedom, Friends, Friendship, Giving, God, Grace, Healing, Heart, Homosexuality, Identity, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Journey, Lesbian, Life, Love, Men, Online, Relationship, Sexual Identity, Sexuality, Sin, Soul, Testimony

Living Water, The Well – Kristin Tremba’s Video Testimony

August 24, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments

Living Water: Labels from The Well on Vimeo. From The Well's vimeo page containing this video: Kristin Tremba struggled with gender identity and same sex attraction throughout the early years of her life. She experienced emotional intimacy with a good friend during college and through those feelings she concluded that she was gay. However, she didn’t want to take on that gay identity and kept her struggles silent. In her late 20’s, she began to fear that she would never marry a man and have a family. She lacked the trust that God would provide for her future and fell into an emotionally … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church, Encourage, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Lesbian, Marriage, Media Mentions, Post-gay, Presbyterian, Testimonies, Video, Websites Tagged With: Church, Culture, Emotional, Exodus, Family, Fear, Gay, God, Identity, Intimacy, Kristin Tremba, Life, One By One, Prayer, Presbyterian, Relationship, Testimony, Trust, Truth, Video

Facebook Flashbacks and Friendship

August 18, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments
Friends

Facebook is crazy.  And  little bit scary. Almost every significant (still living) relationship I have ever had is represented in my friends list.  It's been an astounding adventure to reconnect with people from almost every stage of life from my past to present. It all started in August of 2008. Two years ago I was on sabbatical and had a thought, "Hmmm... I wonder if my high school friends have found facebook yet?"  Two hours later I had found 15 of them and was quietly tripping out on how much life had changed for some and was completely the same for others.  This has led to a roller … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, Friendship, Gay, God, Holy Spirit, Identity, Jesus Christ, Post-gay Tagged With: Abuse, Anger, Change, Christians, Facebook, Family, Fear, Friends, Friendship, Gay, God, Heart, Holy Spirit, Homosexuality, Jesus, Kid, Life, Love, Men, Relationship, School, Sexuality, Sin, Teen, Testimony, Video

Asking Questions

August 13, 2010 By Brenna Kate Simonds View Comments
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My son is in that stage of asking the same question over and over again. “What his name is?” is one of his favorites.  He especially wants to know all the names of superheros, kids at the playground, and animals.  I don't even know the names of the superheros, so I've had to get creative in answering.  I just recently discovered that if I asked him the same question he's asking me, he often knows the answer and will go ahead and answer it. We see in the Bible that God often asks questions. In the garden of Eden, God asked Adam and Eve where they were hiding- as if He couldn't see them. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, God, Support Tagged With: Bible, Brenna Kate Simonds, Encourage, God, Jesus, Kid, Life, Ministry, Needs, Truth

What Is The Gospel Response to Prop. 8? – Christianity Today Quotes Alan Chambers

August 10, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments
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From What Is The Gospel Response to Prop. 8? : Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International: I believe that God is calling his church to a place far above the arguments surrounding what is sin and what isn't. We cannot avoid the glaring scriptural truth that there is, and will always be, a right way and a wrong way concerning just about everything we can imagine. And, yet, I believe that our attitudes towards people (internal and external) are just as important as our positions on the issues at hand. So, when I first saw the news that Prop. 8 had been overturned, my very first thought was, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogs, Church, Culture, Encourage, God, Identity, Marriage, Print, Religious Liberty, Sexuality, Websites Tagged With: Alan Chambers, Christianity, Christianity Today, Christians, Exodus, Exodus International, Gay, Gay Rights, Gospel, Grace, Heart, Judgment, Life, Marriage, Relationship, The Gospel, Truth

Masturbation: Is it Sin?

August 4, 2010 By Chris Stump View Comments
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*Posted originally at Exodus Youth. About seven years ago I attended my first Exodus conference.  As I was looking at the multitude of workshops offered during the week I came across one entitled "Something, something...MASTURBATION".  I can't remember the whole title, because I just saw that "m" word.  I knew I had to go to that one.  But of course when the time came to go I was filled with so much trepidation and shame.  Would I be the only one in the workshop?  I got up enough courage to go, and to my amazement, the room was so full, there was barely any standing room.  It was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, Purpose, Support, Youth & Young Adults Tagged With: Addiction, Battles, Biblical Sexuality, Chris Stump, Christians, encouragement, Exodus Youth, Freedom, Gratification, Masturbation, Orgasm, Pornography, Sacrifice, Selfishness, Sexual Purity, Sin, Young Adults, Young People

Dear Gay/Porn Forum User

August 3, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments
confession

Yesterday's post on the disenfranchisement of Christian therapists and clients from professional counseling had a surprising source of linkage that drove a decent amount of traffic to the blog. The sources of the links: Two gay/porn sites.  And I think it comes as no surprise I won't be linking back to them. :) I didn't investigate them to figure out what the purpose of these sites were or what is being said but given the URL of the addresses it was kind of obvious what the overall sites are about. So ... sincerely ... welcome! I can't quite figure out why yesterday's post would be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Encourage, Gay, God, Post-gay, Sexuality, Websites Tagged With: Addiction, Adultery, Christians, Counsel, Counseling, Covenant Eyes, Exodus, Gay, God, Gratification, Hope, Intimacy, Judgment, Marriage, Men, Porn, Pornography, Professional Counseling, Sexuality, Sin, Testimonies, Testimony, Video, Women, Worldview

Eighteen Years and Counting

July 23, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments
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This is cross-posted on the ETC Blog.  Here is an audio file (embedded at the end of this post as well.) *** Today is the day that I remember the actual moment in which I turned away from my gay worldview and began my Christian post-gay journey. This is *not* the day I became a Christian.  I was born again before I turned away from homosexuality.  The anniversary of accepting Christ as Lord and Savior is in the last week of May.  So yes, I considered myself a "gay Christian" for the whole two months between May and July of 1992. During a prayer time 18 years ago the Lord (no one … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church, Encourage, Friendship, Gay, Holy Spirit, Identity, Jesus Christ, Post-gay, Sexuality, Testimonies, The Father Tagged With: AIDS, Bible, Change, Christianity, Christians, Church, Community, Counsel, Criticism, Ex-gay, Exodus, Faith, Family, Fear, Friendship, Gay, Gay Community, God, Heterosexual, Homosexuality, Identity, Intimacy, Jesus, Journey, Joy, Life, Love, Men, Ministry, Post-gay, Prayer, Relationship, Reparative Therapy, Sexual Orientation, Sexuality, Sin, straight, Teen, Testimony, Women, Worldview

Parenting The Sensitive Soul

July 22, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments
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A mother sent me a link to this article, Parenting The Sensitive Soul, by Ricky Chelette who is the Director of Living Hope Ministries.  She was deeply moved by it and was forwarding it on to some in her family.  From the article: "I think my son wants to be a girl," the father blurted out through tear-filled eyes as he entered my office. He was an enthusiastic father, an articulate, well-educated man, with a passion for God and truth. His wife was with him, tears streaming from her face as she saw the pain in her husband's heart. She was a gentle mother with a deep passion for her family … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Encourage, God, Identity, Member Ministry, Parents, Post-gay, Support, Youth & Young Adults Tagged With: Change, Educate, Family, Fear, Gay, God, Heart, Hope, Identity, Journey, Life, Love, Music, Needs, Pain, Parent, Ricky Chelette, School, Sin, Soul, Truth, Youth

When To Confront Someone’s Sin? – John Piper (Video)

July 21, 2010 By Randy Thomas View Comments
Piper

I am currently writing for a different project the topic of salvation and how some emphasize sin and hell to an inordinate degree.  It's a tough one to write.  I found this video late last night. I think it is important to note that Piper says that the importance of "confronting" sin in another increases among Christians to other Christians. That is what I understand from the scriptures as well. However, he also emphasizes that we have to be aware of our own spiritual walk with humility and meekness before talking with someone else about what he terms "destructive" behavior. Now, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church, Encourage, Jesus Christ, Post-gay, Support, Video Tagged With: Christians, Feedback, John Piper, Love, Salvation, Sexuality, Sin, Video
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