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Willa Medinger’s Family and Friends Celebrate Her Life Today

September 20, 2010 By Randy Thomas
Alan & Willa Medinger

Spouses dying within a few months of losing their spouse is more common than one would think. Sadly, but it is a bittersweet sadness, this has happened again. Willa Medinger passed away last week on September 16th. She had a couple of strokes and was not doing well. This after, her husband Alan Medinger passed away this past June. I only had a few interactions directly with Willa over the years but she was wonderful each time. What I love about her is that not only was she very kind to me when I did speak with her ... I would always hear amazing things about her from other friends who … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, Exodus Blog, Friendship, God, Jesus Christ, Member Ministry, Spouses Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Celebrating the Life of Nancy Brown

September 14, 2010 By Randy Thomas
Nancy and Tessa

Alan, Terri and I are going to Austin tomorrow to celebrate the life of Nancy Brown.  Nancy with her husband Don led Life+Guard Ministries. For those of you who don't know, Nancy has had ongoing health issues that have worsened this year and eventually led to kidney failure and a heart attack.  Nancy went to be with the Lord at 2:30 am last Sunday morning. Now that Nancy is living in eternity, she is now pain free and whole. That brings an indescribable joy into my mourning heart. I met Nancy in 1995 at my first Exodus Conference at Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego California. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, Exodus Blog, Friendship, God, Jesus Christ, Member Ministry, Spouses Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

God Is Not An Enabler

September 14, 2010 By Mike Goeke
learning to ride a bike

God is Not an Enabler Mike Goeke, September 2010 “God is love.” This statement, which is indeed Biblical, constituted a friend’s rationalization for his decision to leave his family and pursue a life defined by both direct sinful behavior and a general pursuit of what he claimed made him happy and satisfied in life. “I believe God loves all His children,” he told me. I had to agree with him, but as I mulled over his comments to me I realized that for my friend, ‘love’ meant that God cared nothing about his behavior or how he lived his life. To him, God was a sentimental … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Encourage, Exodus Blog, God, Jesus Christ, Parents, Pop Culture, Post-gay, The Father, Youth & Young Adults Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Unconditional Surrender by Gwen Gibson – Real Stories for August 2010

August 26, 2010 By Randy Thomas
young woman -1

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church, Culture, Encourage, Exodus Blog, Identity, Lesbian, Post-gay, Sexuality, Testimonies, Youth & Young Adults Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

August 24, 2010 By Randy Thomas

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church, Encourage, Exodus Blog, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Lesbian, Marriage, Media Mentions, Post-gay, Presbyterian, Testimonies, Video, Websites Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook Flashbacks and Friendship

August 18, 2010 By Randy Thomas
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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, Exodus Blog, Friendship, Gay, God, Holy Spirit, Identity, Jesus Christ, Post-gay Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Asking Questions

August 13, 2010 By Brenna Kate Simonds
question-mark-1

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, Exodus Blog, God, Support Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

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

August 10, 2010 By Randy Thomas
prop-8

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogs, Church, Culture, Encourage, Exodus Blog, God, Identity, Marriage, Print, Religious Liberty, Sexuality, Websites Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Masturbation: Is it Sin?

August 4, 2010 By Chris Stump
78814753a

*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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Encourage, Exodus Blog, Purpose, Support, Youth & Young Adults Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dear Gay/Porn Forum User

August 3, 2010 By Randy Thomas
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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Encourage, Exodus Blog, Gay, God, Post-gay, Sexuality, Websites Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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