COM Newsletter - June 2023
THE MONTH OF JUNE AND
THE CELEBRATION OF PRIDE
In June 1999, US President Bill Clinton declared “the anniversary of the Stonewall riots every June in America as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month”. In 2011, President Barack Obama expanded the officially recognized Pride Month to include the whole of the LGBT community, designating it as “National LGBT Pride Month” (LGBT: “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender”).
It is fascinating to me to see the lessening of femininity within the generational aggressive Women’s Liberation movement, the lessening of masculinity within the gay movement, the resulting blurring of the image of God in mankind, and the bold and brazen flaunting of homosexuality and transgenderism throughout our nation and around the world through “Gay Pride.” Today the very word “Pride” is automatically associated with the LGBT+ culture.
Mothers get one day a year. Fathers get one day a year. Presidents Day is one day out of the year. Jesus gets three days a year (Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). But the entire month of June is designated as a time for national celebration of homosexuality and other sexual perversions! I find this elevation of homosexuality, transgenderism, and gender confusion within our national culture to be extremely shocking and sad.
The Gay Agenda in my lifetime has gone through quite a metamorphosis, (actually paralleling and “skirt tailing” the Women’s Liberation movement to a large extent), both within society and within the church. First, wanting to just be left alone and tolerated. Acceptance and equal rights were next demanded, followed by affirming legislation, promotion, celebration, and now glorification. Pride in the Church, as in the world, will be on display this month with Gay flags billowing from church towers, Pride celebrations and promotions in Christian universities and schools, and Gay affirming services in Christian worship churches.
How does our loving Creator feel about pride? Along with selfishness and covetousness, (desiring what God has forbidden), Pride is designated as being especially offensive to God?
Why might that be?
These three sins grew undetected in the heart of Lucifer eventually making a devil out of this beautiful, gifted, highly honored and highest of all created beings. Pride is one of the three roots of evil the fruit of which has brought separation from our Creator and the resulting sorrow and suffering that has been plaguing our world for the last 6000 years.
The focus of pride is “self.” And as the flower that is turned away from the light of the sun eventually withers and dies, so the prideful person with focus upon self is turned away from the Source of life, the Sun of righteousness. Unless turned back to a focus upon Jesus first, the prideful person will also wither and die spiritually.
In this present time, Scripture is being very prominently fulfilled, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20, 21)
We must never tire in our efforts to right the ship, dispel darkness with light, counter error with truth. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression…,” says God.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Truth is fact. Truth is what is real. Truth cannot be altered, for the laws of nature, health, and morality are all authored by our unchangeable God of Love and reflect His unchangeable character.
Since God is love, and God is perfect, why would we ever want to alter His perfect law of love and liberty? Altering would actually be un-loving, perverting, corrupting, enslaving. And any deviation from “the Way” only leads to destruction.
God’s desire for His children is that they be restored to His original plan, found in Genesis 1 & 2. For in that original state, He could walk and talk with them face to face. What joy! In our fallen, prideful condition, the presence of God would be a consuming fire.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)
Q&A
Question: Can my homosexual tendencies actually be made to pass away?
Reply: Yes, they can be made to pass away, for the apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” However, we must realize that this is a process that requires time and cooperative effort on the part of the one struggling against the bondage and addiction of homosexuality as with other sinful orientations.
It is important that you make a daily commitment to follow Jesus, that you daily submit to His lordship, that you daily resist the devil's temptations to homosexual thoughts and behavior. This daily conversion process brings you into a new relation with God. Old things, your natural passions and hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, to homosexuality, pass away, and you are renewed, redirected, and reconditioned. But this work must be continual, for as long as Satan exists, he will make an effort to carry on his work.
“He who strives to serve God will encounter a strong undercurrent of wrong. His heart needs to be barricaded by constant watchfulness and prayer, or else the embankment will give way; and like a millstream, the undercurrent of wrong will sweep away the safeguard. No renewed heart can be kept in a condition of sweetness without the daily application of the salt of the Word. Divine grace must be received daily, or no man will stay converted...
Test and trial will come to every soul that loves God. The Lord does not work a miracle to prevent this ordeal of trial, to shield His people from the temptations of the enemy... Characters are to be developed that will decide the fitness of the human family for the heavenly home—characters that will stand through the pressure of unfavorable circumstances in private and public life, and that will, under the severest temptations, through the grace of God grow brave and true, be firm as a rock to principle, and come forth from the fiery ordeal, of more value than [precious gold]. God will [claim as His own, as His elect and chosen], those who possess such characters...
The Lord accepts no halfhearted service. He demands the whole man. Religion is to be brought into every phase of life, carried into labor of every kind. The whole being is to be under God's control. We must not think that we can take supervision of our own thoughts. They must be brought into captivity to Christ. Self cannot manage self; it is not sufficient for the work... God alone can make and keep us loyal.
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16.” (Our High Calling, 215, emphasis added)
Q&A text taken from:
Author: “Victor J. Adamson”
(Ron Woolsey)
TESTIMONY
As children growing up, we often see things we don’t understand and sometimes wonder why our parents make certain decisions. We may experience heartache and pain and begin to wonder what the purpose of life is.
My mother left my father before I was two years old and remarried when I was seven. Five years later we moved from a big city to a smaller community. At this time, I noticed my mother was struggling in her relationship with my stepdad, then one day a couple of ladies showed up at the house. My mom and stepdad started fighting and one of the ladies got involved. Before I knew it, they were all out in the yard fighting and the lady began having a seizure. An ambulance was called and after the paramedics arrived, she came to. My mother left that night with her friends.
A couple days later my mother gathered my sister and I together and began to tell us about her new friend. She asked us how we felt about her being with this lady. At the age of 11 and 12 this was hard for us to understand. As kids, all we wanted was peace in the home and some direction in life. Also, my mother didn’t know that a couple years earlier, while they were partying with some friends at their house, the oldest boy had molested me. I was so afraid and ashamed of what had happened that I never told my parents. Now, because of this and the pornographic material my dad left lying around the house, I was struggling with my own issues.
The fighting and arguing between my stepdad and mom continued over the next several weeks. One day it got intense, and my mom left. Later that night she came home and after coming out of the bathroom, she said some things to my sister and me. Today, I don’t quite remember what she said but I do recall that we were both worried and couldn’t sleep. After a little while, I went to the bathroom and found a note on the mirror. In the note, my mother said goodbye to us; that she loved us and was sorry. I shared the note with my sister. We cried. My mother had then gone into her bedroom and overdosed, attempting to commit suicide. We told our stepdad and he tried to wake her but could not. He then called an ambulance; her life was saved that night.
My mother stayed with my stepdad, but she was not faithful to him. Several years later they would divorce. All of this left me struggling with my own identity in life. By the age of 13 I was using drugs and drinking. Immorality was the norm for me as this was all I was exposed to. My mother remarried, then divorced again and went into the LGBTQ + community. By then I was in my twenties and had my own child that I was trying to raise without all the dysfunction I had been exposed to.
I never judged my mother. I always invited her to my son’s birthdays and had her over for holidays. Not once did I tell her she could not bring her friend. Later, after having a deep experience with God and becoming a Christian, I learned of God’s plan for us. I came to understand just how far out of line most of us were from this plan and the purpose for which He created us. Even then, I did not condemn my mother or her friend. My mother never asked me to accept her lifestyle as the norm, nor did she ever ask me to deny my faith by affirming her. But once I knew the truth about wholistic sexuality, as Jesus declares it in His Word, I not only asked for forgiveness for my choices in life, I also began to pray for my mother.
My mom became distant and didn’t talk to me for long periods of time. My life was now so much different. By the grace of God, I was seeking to know Him and surrender every aspect of my life to Him. Prayer was all I could do, and it was the key to opening the blessings of Heaven for God’s intervention.
I remember the day like yesterday. I was doing construction work at the time and it was a hot and humid day. The rain was coming down hard and every once in a while, you would hear the thunder roll. Then my phone rang, it was my mother’s friend Linda. She had never called me before, so I was quite surprised. At first, I feared that something had happened to my mother. After assuring me my mother was fine, she began to tell me that she knew the lifestyle she was living was wrong. She told me that she had grown up as a Christian but had made some poor choices in life. She did not go into all the details of what led her to an alternative lifestyle, but she told me she wanted to give her life back to Jesus and asked if I’d be willing to do Bible studies with her. I told her it would be a blessing to me to do so. Linda shared with me that my mother was struggling because she had already told her that she was breaking off the relationship. She said they could remain friends but that she was giving her life to God. She then began to tell me why my mother was avoiding me, and why when I called, she kept the conversation short. My mother had told her that it was hard for her to understand how I could be so different now and why I talked so much about Jesus. Linda then encouraged me to come share my personal testimony with my mother. I assured her that I would.
After I hung up the phone I was in a state of shock. I was praising the Lord for this turn of events and yet I realized that I had never even prayed for this lady. I had only prayed for God to do something to set my mother free from the deceptions and abuse of Satan. I understood the great controversy and having tasted the sweet freedom that comes from knowing the truth about God’s character and salvation, I wanted my mother to be free too. Jesus is so amazing in how He works!!
A few days later, I visited my mother. When I arrived, I said a prayer before knocking on the door. I didn’t know what to expect. I heard her tell me to come in and as I opened the door, I saw the room full of cigarette smoke and mother sitting there with trembling hands. She was obviously very distressed. I began to tell her my story and the longer I talked, the more she began to relax. When I finished sharing my conversion story with her, I asked her if I could pray with her. She agreed and for the first time in my life, my mother and I prayed together. I left her with the book “Steps to Christ.” I had read this book while in federal prison and it touched my life. Later, I began Bible studies with my mother. One day she came over with Linda and apologized to me for things I had been exposed to growing up and for her shortcomings as a mother. We shed a lot of tears, yet it was a day of joy and thanksgiving as we reflected together upon God’s mercy and His grace.
Some years later, my mother explained to me how her mother had wanted to have a boy, not a girl. She told me of how her mother had dressed her and cut her hair as a boy. I learned that she had been raped by one of her mother’s boyfriends at the age of 13. When she turned up pregnant, my grandmother placed her in a Catholic convent where she had given birth. The baby was given up for adoption. She never knew what happened to her son. My mother then remained in the convent for four more years. To her dying day she never spoke of what happened to her in that Catholic convent. She just always told me that when she died, she wanted to be cremated because her former priest hated this. She shared with me different struggles she had faced in her life and how they had influenced some of her choices. I continued to study with both my mother and Linda, though separately. They both were baptized and began going to church. Their lives led them in different directions, though they stayed in touch, and my mother became more active with all of us kids again. Though her life with Jesus had its ups and downs and she would struggle from time to time with choices she made in life, she came to learn that she could fully trust in Christ’s forgiveness.
My mother died in 2018 with my younger brother, my sister and I by her side. She had made peace with God. Today I bear the scars of the things I was subjected to while growing up. However, I rejoice in a risen and all-powerful Savoir that is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think. I look forward to seeing my mother under the tree of life and living in a world without confusion, heartache, and pain. A place where God will make all things new (See Revelations 21:4, 5).
Dennis Page serves as a Pastor in Michigan. His book, “A Drop of Grace” tells the story of his personal journey of salvation. You may contact him at 574-532-2119 or email dropofgrace1844@gmail.com for more information.
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