Homosexuality

 
    
    “All sin is generic to the human species, including the sin of homosexuality, but no sin is genetic. Because it is a function of choice, God holds everyone accountable for it. To overcome the tendency to sin, the sinner must be transformed: ‘Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17).” [1]    

    But what specific steps can a person take to experience freedom from the bondage of sin, including homosexual sin?

    This final article of our discussion of the ideology of homosexuality is a continuation of the previous one titled “Testimony from an Ex-Gay.” It is chapter 8 of Must We Be Silent (and reproduced on this drpipim.org website under the same title). Written by an ex-homosexual who is currently a Seventh-day Adventist minister, it offers some practical suggestions to assist pastors and counselors, family and friends, the homosexual himself, and any person struggling with seemingly insurmountable besetting sins of whatever nature.

    “That Kind Can Never Change!”

    Considering my having been born into and raised within a Seventh-day Adventist Christian home, please try to imagine the anxiety, the frustration, and the despair I experienced through childhood and youth growing into the realization that I was homosexual. Why! No one I knew was attracted sexually to another of his own gender! And, clearly, from the Word of God, homosexuality was condemned.

    Being ashamed of my sexual orientation, I tried desperately to hide my true feelings and emotions, and practiced living a lie. But deep inside, this thing festered until one day it ruptured, and I came “out of the closet” to openly live the homosexual lifestyle. My family was devastated, and my home was broken.

    However, before terminating our marriage, my wife and I counseled with a number of Seventh-day Adventist professionals. Sadly, no one was able to help me. The psychiatrists advised my wife, in essence, that “That kind can never change,” and that she should then seek counseling for herself. Two very prominent Seventh-day Adventist ministers counseled with my wife alone. Without ever contacting me to offer counseling, they both advised her to divorce me, because “That kind can never change. . . !”

    In hopeless despair, I turned my back upon my God, my church, my friends, and my family. For the next sixteen years I blamed God for all the heartache, pain, and suffering that I caused others and that I experienced myself, believing that I could not be changed.


    However, in total selfless love and compassion for me, God followed me and would not let me go without giving His all. In my book, “‘That Kind Can Never Change!’ Can They. . . ?”, I share the story of my life, my fall from grace, the feelings and emotions of being trapped in a lifestyle some call “gay,” a lifestyle of unfulfilled expectations, guilt, shame, hopelessness, and despair. I also share the story of my conversion, and rehabilitation, and my “Jonah Call” into the ministry I had fled in my youth. Most importantly, however, I share the “how to’s” of victory in Jesus for homosexuals, (and other sinners), based upon my own personal experience, study, and application. [2]    

    The attitude expressed in the title quote, “That Kind Can Never Change!”, is held by many Christians today in regard to the homosexual in particular, but this attitude could also extend to those of any socially unacceptable besetting sin or lifestyle. This title is based upon an unfortunate direct pronouncement against and denouncement of me by a local pastor one year after my conversion; a pastor who just could not believe that even God could change someone like the homosexual. The same point was made repeatedly by an elder of my local church two years after my conversion.

    Such Seventh-day Adventist Christians need to understand that their faith may be no more than a mere “form of godliness, denying the power thereof.”

    May the same come to know and understand our God as being mighty to save; even to the uttermost. “Whosoever” includes the homosexual.

    While elements within our own church choose to remain silent upon this subject, or to even promote the idea that our church needs to revise its stand on this issue, non-Adventist Christian and secular talk shows alike around the country are promoting the message of my book, bravely taking a public stand and speaking out for victory over homosexuality through Jesus Christ.

    I know of 109 ministries in 40 countries working successfully to save the homosexual from his lifestyle of sin. Numerous gays have responded and now bravely give their testimonies of victory in newsletters from these ministries. [3]    

    Must our church be silent. . . ?!

    We are the repositories of God’s law! Who better should be able to assist the homosexual sinner overcome his sin than we?!

    The following excerpt from my book is entitled “You, Too, Can Be Made Whole.” Laying out the sequential steps to victory that worked for me, a homosexual, it is meant to be of assistance to pastors and counselors, family and friends, the homosexual himself, and any person struggling with seemingly insurmountable besetting sins of whatever nature. Jesus’ plan of salvation is for the “whosoevers.” For He came to save His people from their sins, not in their sins, and to save to the uttermost. Yes! Even you, dear reader. . .

         “You, Too, Can Be Made Whole!” [4]    

    “I’ve never known anyone coming from a homosexual lifestyle that has ever been able to remain straight for more than two years!”

    “Sure, I believe in victory over sin. But that kind can never change!”

    “You’d better keep your children away from him. . . !”

    “I’ve been a preacher for forty years, and I’ve never met a perfect person yet!”

    If you are a sin sick soul seeking deliverance from bondage in this life, how do remarks such as these affect you? Do they give you hope, or leave you despondent and in despair?

    Statements such as these coming from the mouths of some Christians reveal their focus to be upon the ability and works of man, the sinner, the helpless victim, rather than upon the omnipotent ability and works of the Savior. They unwittingly portray God as impotent, rather than omnipotent. He it is who has promised to save you, dear reader, from sin. He it is who has promised to cleanse you, to work within you, to perform that good work He has begun in you until the day of Jesus Christ, to keep you from falling and to present you faultless. He it is that paid the infinite price for your redemption. He has a vested interest in you and will finish what He has started, if you only will stop resisting Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is not a quitter!

    Without this understanding, what hope does the Christian have to offer any sin sick soul who wants deliverance in this life from the bondage of sin? Without this understanding, the best the Christian can portray to the world is a form of godliness, denying the power thereof. The call for repentance can be heard from every pulpit in the land, but when a homosexual repents, too many Christians reveal their lack of faith in the God of love Who is mighty to save to the uttermost, and express doubt in the ability of the victim to be saved by the Savior.

    As I by God’s grace was leaving behind my homosexual life, a gay friend of mine who himself had been a pastor for several years made the following statement. “Jesse, I’m going to be keeping my eye on you. If you last for two years in the straight world, then I’ll believe that just maybe I would be able to do the same.”

     I pray to God that this dear friend of the past will somehow find this book in his hands, for at the time of publication of this book, it will have been nine years of victorious living for me.

    Friend, you, too, can be made whole!

    May the following suggestions help you find restoration and victory at last, even as they
have been so sustaining for me.


    1. Know, and believe: first of all that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Know and believe that whoever you are, whatever you are, God loves you unconditionally, just as you are. For God the Father so loved you, the homosexual, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, (whosoever means even the homosexual), should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). He loved the world, as it was, and poured out His love upon the world in the gift of His son, demonstrating and revealing that incomprehensible love, while the world was still in rebellion. His love has been manifested toward you, the sinner, the homosexual, in that while you are yet at odds with Him and His will for you; yes, even while you see Him as the enemy, blaming Him for everything wrong in your life; even while in this attitude of enmity towards Him, He poured out His love for you in the gift of His Son.

     “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. [That is you!] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. . . . when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. . . .” (Romans 5:6, 8, 10).

    God the Father paid the redemptive price for you, which just happens to be the infinite cost of His own Son, knowing who and what you are before you were ever born. As with Jeremiah, He can say of you, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.”

    “Not only that, knowing that you would become homosexual, I paid the redemptive price for you, allowed you to be born, loving you anyway and wanting to spend eternity with you. Therefore, I have preserved you in life with a stay of execution provided by My only begotten Son, even though you have been totally out of sync with my plan for you up to this point. But, if you will slow down and look at Me, comprehend how much I love you, and allow Me the opportunity, I can and will save you personally from your lifestyle of sin. I can heal you, recreate you, wash you and make you clean. It is your choice. May I have you for my very own. . . ?”

    Dear reader, God is love, and He loves you with an immeasurable love, regardless of whether you love Him back or not. In the end, the lake of fire of Revelation 20:10,13 will be the final resting place for billions of people whom God loves unconditionally. But they have rejected that love, refusing to respond by allowing Him to prepare them with a fitness to dwell in His presence for all eternity. Sin is consumed in His presence. If it is enthroned in the heart, the soul will be consumed with the sin.

    2. Now, step up to the mirror and face yourself. Do not be afraid to take an honest look at who and what you really are. Eternal Reality is the real issue to consider. If you are truly OK, then it doesn’t hurt to examine yourself closely. Truth can bear scrutiny. So scrutinize your condition and your position.

     Jesus invites you with great love, compassion, and sincere personal interest in you, whosoever you may be: “Come now, and let us reason together.” He pleads with you, “Though your sins be as scarlet, don’t be afraid to come to me; they shall be as white as snow, I promise; though they be red like crimson, don’t refuse me; they shall be as wool, I promise. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land, I promise: But only if you refuse and rebel in determined stubbornness and self-deception, shall you be devoured. . . .” (Isaiah 1:18, 19; paraphrased and personalized).

    3. Acknowledge: who and what you really are. Face up to it; you are a sinner. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Don’t deny it, for you will only be deceiving yourself to your own eternal ruin.

    “Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God. . . Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you. . . You have perverted your way and forgotten the Lord your God. Return, ye backsliding children. Come back to me, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jer 3:13, 14, 21, 22; paraphrased).

     If you will but confess your sin, God is faithful and just to not only forgive you of your sin, but to also cleanse you from all unrighteousness; to change you; to recreate you into His image, into His character (1John 1:9).

    4. Realize: The wages of your sin is no greater nor less than the wages of the sins of others who may have a particular disdain for your particular besetting sin. For the wages of any sin is death. . . . Yes, the Bible does call homosexuality abomination. The Bible seems to call all sin abomination. Notice:

     “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination” (Lev. 20:13; & 18:22)

    Other abominations: idolatry - (Deut. 13:14); an impure sacrifice---(Deut. 17:1); occultic practices---(Deut. 18:10-12); wearing that which pertaineth to the opposite sex - (Deut. 22:5); certain remarriages to former spouses - (Deut. 24:4); dishonesty - (Deut. 25:13-16); perverse behavior - (Deut. 3:32); A proud look, a lying tongue, murder, wicked imaginations, mischief, false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren - (Pro. 6:16-19); justifying evil and condemning the just - (Pro. 17:15); adultery - (Eze. 22:11).

     It should especially be noticed in this line up of abominations that adultery of any kind is included. The heterosexual sinner need not look down his nose with condescension upon the homosexual sinner, for any sexual behavior outside the marriage institution as designed and created by God is sin; abomination. In short, we all need a Savior from sin and from abomination of one kind or another.

    5. Understand: If you are homosexual, it matters not how you became so. Being born homosexual, choosing to be so, or being environmentally conditioned to be so is not the issue that should really be of concern. Rather, how do we arouse you, the homosexual, to your need, if there is one; and how do we answer to that need, regardless of how and why you happen to be what you are? Do we just accept homosexuality in ourselves or in others as an acceptable alternative lifestyle, or do we see a need for redirection, and a means to accomplish that end? Is the issue of homosexuality a salvation issue or is it a non-issue? Is it an “eternal reality” issue? Did Jesus come to save the homosexual in his homosexuality, or from his homosexuality? (Matt 1:21).

    Perhaps a simple little allegory can illustrate this point:

    A person floundering helplessly in the stormy sea is happened upon by a lifeboat. As it draws up alongside the helpless victim, before throwing out the lifeline the life guard calls out to him over the din of the screaming wind and billowing waves the qualifying questions, “How did you get yourself into this predicament anyway? Did you fall off your boat, or did you jump in? Did someone playfully push you into the sea, or did someone maliciously throw you in? Is it my fault that you are drowning in this sea? Is it something I have done. . . ? Are you in this plight against your will, of no fault of your own, or did you choose to swim out here of your own volition?

     The spitting, sputtering victim weakly calls back, “No! I did not choose to be this way!”

    Having now qualified the drowning victim, the all important questions being answered, the lifeguard skillfully throws out the lifeline, only to see the victim refuse to grab hold.

     “Take hold!” shouts the lifeguard.

    “What’s the use?” calls back the drowning victim. “I didn’t choose to be in this quandary!”

    And so the allegory ends, in tragedy.

    In just such a light, many homosexuals and heterosexuals alike view their own state in life. More grievous than this, so do many people picture Jesus the Lifeguard and His plan of salvation, as qualifying the victim first, as if God cannot, or chooses not, to save to the uttermost. . . !

    The good news, however, is: Unlike the allegory above, Jesus cares not how you became the homosexual, or sinner, that you may be! Whether you be in denial, latent, “in the closet”, openly gay, “married”, militant, or even a “flaming queen,” the fact still remains: if you are a homosexual, you are a sinner. However, Jesus is mighty to save you. He has come as the Lifeguard, asking no questions, except “Will you take my hand?”

     “Come unto me”, he says, “and I will give you rest.”

     God’s re-creative plan of salvation and redemption is as much for the homosexual, sin sick and desperate for deliverance, as it is for any other element of society, all of whom were born with inherited tendencies to sin of one kind or another that were later cultivated.

    Every baby ever born was born with a self-centered nature that must be overcome if he is to become fit for the kingdom of heaven and God. Every person on earth living in sin of any kind is only doing that which comes naturally from a heart centered in self-gratification: the murderer, the liar, the thief, the drug addict, the whoremonger, the street walker, the alcoholic, the smoker, the overeater, the cheating spouse, the promiscuous teenager, the idolater seeking to avenge an angry god or working for reward, the Christian likewise obeying God in fear of punishment or hope of reward. . . ; all are allowing “self” to be their rule of faith and practice.

    Homosexuality is but one of many fruits, or manifestations, of the innocuous root of “self.” Self-gratification is paramount in this sexual orientation. Pride is also very rooted in the heart of the homosexual; as is covetousness, wanting that which God has forbidden us to have. Like the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, homosexual behavior is forbidden by the explicit word of God.

     Three sins especially offensive to God are pride, selfishness, and covetousness. Why? They are not so easily detected because they are the hidden roots of all other sins. They are the sins of the heart that manifest themselves, perhaps, many years later in outward “fruit”. They are the sins that festered in the heart of Lucifer in heaven that worked so successfully to deceive his own self and one third of all the angels of heaven who stood in the very presence of God Almighty. They are the sins that eventually made a devil out of Lucifer and broke the heart of God. Is it any wonder then that these sins are so offensive to Him?

     Recognizing your need, dear reader, will be a major accomplishment, a major stepping stone, on your road to restoration.

    6. Accept the fact: It’s all about choices. God created everyone of us with the power of choice. This is the only barrier He cannot and will not cross, the only obstacle He cannot surmount in your behalf. He must have your permission to wash you, to make you clean, to create within you a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within you; to re-create you. Ask, dear reader, and you shall receive!

    Never forget that you are in good Company. Jesus Himself had also to choose to follow His Father’s will. The warfare against self is the greatest battle ever fought.

    “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). If He asks you to follow Him in daily self-denial, then He also had to daily practice denial of self.

     “I can of mine own self do nothing:” He says, “ . . . I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30).

     “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39) “Not as I want,” He said, “but as You want.” And this in agony of soul, struggling against His own will in Gethsemane.

     Jesus’ daily victory was based upon His daily choices, sustained by the power afforded Him from God, even as the same is promised to you and me through the working of the Holy Spirit in the life.

    7. Walk with God: It is vital that you develop and maintain a relationship with God through communion with Him in prayer and Bible study. He is the power Source for your victorious life. As your Creator, He has self-less love for you and the power to recreate you into His own image. Daily devotion time, plugging in, making that connection with Him, is of utmost importance, for in no other way can you really get to know and appreciate Him and tap into His strength.

    This was the secret of success for Daniel, of whom there is no recorded sin in the Bible, though we know that “all [including Daniel] have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23) Evidently, Daniel was an overcomer, living the victorious life as one who had been made whole. What was his practice in this respect? “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime” (Dan 6:10).

    Apparently, Daniel spent as much time and frequency in communing with God, his power Source, feeding himself spiritually, as he spent in feeding himself physically.

    Enoch is another example of one who maintained victory through a close connection with his power Source. “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Gen 5:24).

     You, too, can have what Enoch had. You, too, can have Christ as your constant companion. Enoch walked with God, and when assaulted by the enemy with temptation, he could talk with Him about it. He made God his confidant and counselor, maintaining a close relationship with Him. While trusting in your heavenly Father for the help you may need, He will not leave you. God has a heaven full of blessings that He wants to bestow upon you, if you are earnestly seeking for that help which only He can give. It was in looking by faith to Jesus, in asking Him in prayer, in believing that every word spoken by God would be verified, that Enoch walked with God. He kept close by the side of God, obeying His every word. Christ was his companion, and He longs to be yours.

    8. Protect your environment: Guard well the avenues to your soul. Do not place yourself in the path of temptation. Be careful what you watch, what you read, what you behold, what you hear. Give Satan no advantage over you. “Whatsoever things are true, . . . honest, . . . just, whatsoever things are pure, . . . lovely, . . . of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil 4:8).

    And when Satan plants those impure thoughts and desires into your heart, (and he will. . . !), Paul bids you take every thought captive, “. . . bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). Use your power of choice to “change the subject.” God will help you do this, if you choose.

    “Submit [yourself] therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

    9. Immerse yourself: into the context of Scripture. Personalize it as in the following example using Isaiah 53:3-7,11,12:


As I in my homosexuality was despised and rejected by society, even so, and because of me, Jesus was despised and rejected of men; As I sorrowed and grieved over losing my children because of my bondage to sin, even so Jesus was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with my personal grief: and, not appreciating his empathy and sympathy, I hid as it were my face from him; I turned my back to him and walked away, blaming Him for every consequence of my own bad choices. But, and nonetheless, as a willing substitute for me, he was really the one despised, and I never realized it.

Surely he has borne my griefs, and carried my sorrows: yet I did not appreciate his being stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted for the sake of my falling into the sin of homosexuality.

     But he was wounded for my transgressions of the seventh commandment of His law, he was bruised for the sake of my lifestyle of sin: the somewhat peace of mind I experienced by giving up the battle resulted in reproach upon him; and, looking to the cross, realizing the infinite self-less love for me that put him there, beholding his bruised and bleeding body in my place, all this has brought healing to me, reconciliation toward him. For, how could I not respond to that incomprehensible totally self-less love manifested towards me even while I have maintained my rebellion against him?!

All of us, not just the homosexual, but all of us like sheep have gone astray in one way or another; we have turned every one to his own way. We are all naturally self-centered; and the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquities of every one of us.

     He was oppressed as some of us are, and for our sakes; and he was afflicted as some of us are, and for our sakes; yet he opened not his mouth in complaint, but endured willingly anticipating the joy of seeing me respond and return to him in love and appreciation. He is brought as an innocent, obedient, compliant lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth in self-defense, or seeking self-preservation.

     He shall see the results someday of the travail, the anguish, the heartache, the suffering and misery of his soul, and shall be satisfied, as I finally respond with a heart appreciation that will cause me to live no longer for self-exaltation, self-ambition, and self-gratification. No! But to honor him, to exalt him, to gratify his self-less will for the good of his creation. Through a knowledge and understanding of what he has done for all mankind, including homosexuals, many shall be brought back into a right relationship with their Creator; that means many homosexuals shall also be brought back into a right relationship with their Creator; for he shall bear their iniquities, the wages of which is the second, or eternal, death.

     He was numbered with the transgressors, with the likes of you and me, homosexual sinners and heterosexual sinners, yet he did not participate in our sinful behavior. He did, however, bare the sin of every one of us, and made intercession, arbitration, intervention for us the disobedient ones.

     Another one:

“Therefore if any man be in Christ. . . . ‘Any man’ must include me, the homosexual! Then I, too, am a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And now all things are of God, now according to his will and pleasure, not my own; God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18; paraphrased and personalized).

    10. Act: upon His word. There is power in the word of God. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. . .” (Gen 1:3)

    “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps 33:9).

    “The just shall live by faith” (Heb 10:38) we are told. Faith in what? Faith in the Word, Jesus Christ.

     When Jesus spoke to Mary, saying “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11), she was enabled by faith in His word.

     “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10:13)

    “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph 3:20).

     “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil 4:13).

     “. . . Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

    All God’s biddings, dear reader, are enablings. So, take these and other promises of the Word and act upon them.

    11. Be grateful: Accept with gratitude that which God has offered you. In the Garden of Eden, God created an helpmeet for Adam: a woman. In His infinite wisdom and love for the well-being of man, He gave him the gift of a woman to be by his side. There was no alternative. So, did God make a mistake? Did He not know what He was doing? Did He somehow not understand the needs of the man He Himself had just created?

    I have children. While on one of my recent engagements overseas I went to great lengths to find what I thought would be a very special surprise for them. I searched in each country I visited for what I had in mind. Finally, I found them. Arriving home at the airport, I had them sticking out the top of my backpack.

     “What’s that?” they both asked excitedly.

    “I have a surprise for you,” I said.

    “What is it?” they jumped up and down in excitement.

     I took down my back pack and gave them each a doll. Little Heidi I gave to my little girl, and little Peter I gave to my little boy. I just knew they would both love these little treasures, because they both played house and “mommy and daddy” with little dolls all the time.

     “I don’t want it!” whispered my little boy.

     “Why not?” I asked in surprise. “You are always wanting to play with your sister’s little dolls, so I brought you one of your very own!”

    “I don’t like it” he answered. “I like hers.”

     “Well, I’m sorry,” I said with great disappointment. “Heidi is for your sister.”

    My special gift purchased at such “great price. . . ” and effort was spurned by my little boy. I had to put it away in the attic, hoping that someday he would appreciate it and want it. (I love him still; he is very dear and precious to me.)

     Likewise, God went to great lengths to provide for man the wonderful gift of woman. Some of us have turned up our noses at this gift, and, instead, burn in our lust for one another. Does God stop loving us? No! Of course not. Does he give us the gift that he has created for someone else, that he has provided for the woman? No! It is with great disappointment that he sees man covet for himself what was meant by the Creator to be for the woman.

    It is not a sin to do without the gift. But it is wrong for us men to covet what He has forbidden, that which was meant for the woman. It is equally wrong for the woman to lust and covet after another woman whom God has created for man.

    “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

     “Rejoice in the Lord alway” (Philippians 4:4).

    Be grateful for what God has provided for your best interest. Father truly knows best!

    12. The Secret to overcoming the sin of homosexuality, or any other besetting sin, is in helping someone else to overcome his sin. This premise is based upon the heavenly principle for happiness: self-less-ness. True happiness comes in helping someone else be happy: Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last creates the acronym for JOY.

    Joseph, far from home in the land of his captivity, never forgot this principle. “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” he cried as he fled from the temptation of Potiphar’s wife. His concern was not “fear of punishment,” nor was it “hope of reward.” No; for his faithfulness in obedience resulted in disgrace and confinement to the dungeon. Joseph’s concern was a total self-less interest in the will and pleasure and honor of his God; regardless of consequences. He also loved and honored his master Potiphar, putting his interests above his own.

     All the heavenly host is focused upon the happiness and well-being of others - yours, for example. . . ! All creation, except for sinful man, lives for the benefit of the rest of creation.

    The apostle John gave us the concise formula for victory as follows:

     “And they overcame him [the accuser of our brethren] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. . . ” (Revelation 12:11)

     From the day of my deliverance and victory, I have lived to share the story of “the blood of the Lamb”, the incomprehensible demonstration of the love of God for the likes of me that would constrain Him to give His only begotten Son that I, even I the homosexual, might have eternal life with Him! What a price! What love He has for me!

    “By the word of my testimony” to others, this love and power of God is kept ever fresh in my own heart and mind. By beholding Him, I am daily changed and sustained in victory. In the face of such beautiful love, I can, like Joseph, respond to the tempter, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against my God?”

     Jesus told the cleansed Gadarene demoniac, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.” He has enjoined me to do the same, and through this book I have.

     And I pass along to you, dear reader, this same commission. Now, why don’t you also “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee?”

    When you hear someone say about you, or about someone else, “That kind can never change. . . !” Do not believe it, nor accept it. For, you, too, can be made whole!

    Benediction:

“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Heb 13:20, 21; emphasis added)

[NOTE: All the homosexuality articles on this drpipim.org website were reproduced from the author’s best-selling Must We Be Silent. Among other things, this valuable work addresses such issues as women’s ordination, racism and racially separate conferences, liberalism, worship styles, etc. You can obtain your personal copy from the Berean Books website: www.berean-books.org]

    Endnotes

[1]    Donald J. Wold, Out of Order: Homosexuality in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 212 (emphasis mine).
[2]    Victor J. Adamson (psuedonym), “That Kind Can Never Change!” Can They. . .?: One Man’s Struggle with His Homosexuality (Lafayette, Louisiana: Huntington House Publishers, 2000). The book is available through the Adventist Book Center and also through its publisher, 1-800-749-4009.
[3]    Anyone wishing more information or seeking counsel may contact the following sources: Exodus International North America, P.O. Box 77652, Seattle, WA 98177; Tel. 206-784-7799; Fax 206-784-7872; Internet: www.exodusnorthamerica.org; (2) Regeneration, P.O. Box 9830, Baltimore, MD 21284; (3) New Hope, P.O. Box 10246, San Rafael, CA 94912-0246; (4) Love in Action, P.O. Box 753307, Memphis, TN 38175; (5) Outpost, P.O. Box 15263, Minneapolis, MN 55415-0263.
[4]    The discussion that follows is a slight modification of chapter 23 of Adamson’s (psuedonym), “That Kind Can Never Change!” Can They. . .? ( 199-212). It is reproduced with the permission of the author and publisher.