CTM Newsletter - July 2024
INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT
After multiple travel engagements I’m finally settled in Michigan. Kirsten and I just got married May 26th. After the wedding we temporarily moved Kirsten from NJ to TN for a month. We had to pack before having to leave for my friend's wedding in New Mexico a couple weeks later. During the short time period leading up to the big move up north we drove to MI. We wanted to see apartments in person and left her car parked at a friend's home in Michigan. Our new friends were graciously willing to house us for a couple of days! Praise The Lord. We ended up being able to rent the upstairs of a home in Berrien Springs. The availability was perfect timing as we just found out the apartments we were going to stay in were unsafe (someone's tires were stolen a month prior per reviews as well as a history of shootings). God has been stretching my endurance, faith, and strength during the whirlwind of changes happening all in a month!
The Lord has been paving the way for my wife and I as we faced the transition from newlyweds to accepting the call to serve as part of Coming Together Ministries. Through moments of grief and spiritual attacks His encouragement and guidance through His Word, praise and song, and other means has fortified us. I had to leave all behind: my clinical job as a social work therapist, youth director in my spiritual community in TN, and most bitterly my loving cat Leo. I cried a couple times as we dropped him off to a new family. They wanted him for their 14-year-old son who’s dad passed away last January. Even Leo was being called to serve in His ministry to comfort the depressed! Despite working through my feelings through all of this The Lord has been my stronghold during these transitory times (Psalms 18:2).
During my first Sabbath in Berrien Springs we were able to visit Lake Michigan. The Lord showed Himself to me as I watched the seagulls flying around with food in their beaks. He reminded me of the promise in Matthew 6:26-27 where he reveals His caring nature by tending to the needs of birds. He admonished me not to worry about the biggest adjustment of my life because He was providing and would continue to sustain me. Michael, Jerry, Kirsten, and I discussed the lessons Our Father allowed us to learn during life's varying seasons.
Now the second week of July, we have begun orientation. I wanted to extend a candid and warm introduction as director of the associate pathway program. My hope is to witness more of God’s power in reaching His lost children. Through our associates, nurturing/mentoring program, and other services our ministry is working to offer I believe He will continue to equip Coming Together Ministries as a light of truth during spiritually dark times. Please continue to pray for every part of the ministry to work together in Spirit and Power. May the Lord be Glorified and Honored during the growth pains of change in the ministry.
Sincerely,
SPECIAL INVITATION
Q&A
Question: Does God really have the ability to heal me from my homosexuality? If so, then why am I still attracted to guys and to my lover Bob?
I have been trying for years to become straight, for I know what God’s Word says. I’m at the point of just letting go of God and being true to myself, just accepting being gay, for He has not healed me. However, I know God won’t let go of me, and that’s the painful thing. I wish He would stop playing games with me and just deliver me from being gay, for I’m starting to lose faith in His ability to heal me. Maybe God likes me this way?
Reply: First of all, let me assure you that God does like you. In the words He spoke to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jeremiah 1:5). In other words, “I knew you from the point of conception. I loved you then, and I love you now. I knew what you would become in life, but I allowed you to be born anyway—knowing what you would become, but also knowing what you could become—and wanting to spend eternity with you, if you would allow me to be your Savior from sin, the wages of which, otherwise, is death.”
Yes, my friend, He does like you very much, even though you are gay and presently out of sync with His ultimate plan for your life. You see, it is the sin he hates, not you the sinner. He loves you enough to give you the opportunity to choose to become other than what you may now be.
I can assure you that God is not playing games with you. He is deadly serious about reclaiming that which was taken from Him by Satan. Just look to the cross of Calvary, and you will see how serious He is about saving you from a life of sin and its consequences. He gave His only Son that you, should you believe in Him, need not perish (the wages of sin), but that you might have life, and that more abundantly, even eternal life (See John 3:16; John 10:10).
God’s ability to heal your homosexuality is limited only by your power of choice, which He created in you. I remember the time I pleaded with God to get me out of my gay relationship. It was a bad one, and I wanted Him to get me out of it. So I made a deal with Him. “If you will bring this relationship to an end, God, I promise that I will go straight; I will never enter into another gay relationship.”
The relationship ended shortly thereafter by mutual agreement. And it wasn’t even two weeks later that I was considering another fellow as a suitable replacement! My promise to God was completely forgotten—not that I could have kept it on my own anyway.
Several years later, under much conviction about the sinfulness of my life, I again promised God that if He would bring my relationship to an end, then I would go straight. I just couldn't bear the thought of breaking another heart.
God did not bring that relationship to an end, however. He just laid on an ever-increasing conviction until I knew that I had to step out in faith. I had to act upon my beliefs and convictions, realizing that His grace (divine strength) was sufficient for me. With explicit trust in Him, I terminated my “perfect” gay relationship with a man I dearly loved and entered into a covenant relationship with my Redeemer instead, whom I had learned to love, trust, and obey even more.
Our God is able, but we must trust Him enough to obey Him, regardless of the consequences. We cannot hang on to our “lover Bob” and wait for healing from homosexuality. We must act upon our convictions, trusting God for His promised strength and healing during the process.
I would just like to reiterate that there is something we can do to make the change in our lives. God says in Jeremiah 3, only to acknowledge your sin, your need, and He will heal you.
First we must acknowledge homosexuality to not be in harmony with God’s will. Isn’t knowing this the cause of the mental anguish and struggle? Then we can choose to allow Him to be Lord and Master. We then trust and obey Him with a complete surrender of our own will. Jesus rendered unquestioning obedience to His Father, according to Philippians 2, and practiced total self-denial when tempted to deviate from God’s plan for His life. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
These are just a few suggestions, not meant to be comprehensive at all. We do have our part to play, mainly to surrender the will, and make the right choices. He then can work in us to will and to do what is right.
“Through the right exercise of the will, an entire change may be made in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, you ally yourself with all the power [in heaven and earth]. You will have strength from above to hold you steadfast, and thus through constant surrender to God you will be enabled to live the new life, even the life of faith.” (Steps to Christ, 48)
And, you are right, God won’t let go of you, my friend, because He truly loves you and wants the very best for you. Look once again at the cross, and you will see why He will not let you go easily. Jesus died for you. Why not live for Him?
Victor
Q&A text taken from:
JAWS 2024
SPECIAL INVITATION
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‘Coming Out’ Ministries at P.O. Box 285, 115 N. Main Street, Berrien Springs, Michigan, 49103.
May God bless you for your support!