Thank you for sharing Gay4Jesus.

I am prompted to say 2 things my friend.

1) God does NOT hate gays! Homosexuality is an abomination to Him, but we all fall short in some way. Sin reveals itself a multitude of ways, and each of us must learn to deal with the shortcomings with which we have been cursed. Some are tempted with things that you might not even see as sinful, and they may be as deeply troubled in their circumstance as you are in yours. Be of good courage - greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!

2) Drawing attention to your gayness is sure to defeat your desire to overcome it. All attention needs to be focused on Jesus! It is good to confess your faults, but be careful that you do not fall into the trap of openly confessing particular sins - Satan will most assuredly find a way to use them against you my friend.

Overcoming is a fruit of a relationship with Christ: it is NOT victory over sin. We do not overcome by exerting effort to overcome - we overcome by knowing the power of God, in Jesus Christ, who has already overcome.

Strive not to be sinless, but rather, strive to know the sinless One!

A friend in Christ
and a Christian Son

Quote:

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My boring conversion?

Conversion stories are always exciting, aren’t they—full of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll?
Hmm . . . Not always! Kristin Dewey explains.

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I am the father to this little lady. And as such, will greedily promote things to advance her cause....Since this is on conversion stories, I thought she might like to have you'all view it....So here is her story that she has published.

I grew up in a small SE Texas town called Silsbee. We were the average middle class, or slightly working class black family. My Mom, and I, and later my step dad, lived next door to my grandparents. We had another relative, Uncle Tiny, as we called him, who lived just out of town, out in the woods. Uncle Tiny had a cabin that he built out there, also a well and a outhouse that was further back in the woods. Uncle had come back from the Korean war and decided to semi drop out of society. He worked as a handy man, doing electrical work, carpentry, this and that, a sort of jack of all trades.

Lots of folks in town, including some of the family, thought Uncle was a bit strange, living out in the woods alone. They thought it especially strange that he had this weird thing about stopping everything on Saturdays, and having church. After coming back from the war, Uncle attended the regional VA hospital in Austin, Tx., for various war related problems he had. While there someone, a white man, as uncle likes to tell it, gave him a bible study card for some vop bible lessons. He accepted the things he learned as bible truth and became an adventist.

There were no adventist churches near by, at least none that were predominately black. There was an ostinsibly white adventist church in nearby Beaumont, Tx., but uncle, back then, had seen too much racism, lynchings, etc., to feel comfortable with worshipping with white people. You have to understand, some of the nearby towns were places like Vidor, Tx, and a town many thought as a racially benign called Jasper, Tx.

So Uncle would have church by himself. Sometimes he would invite some of his neighbors, those that would come. Saturday evenings, around dusk, he would come up to the grandparents house, his parents, and we would talk. The family would sort of chide him about his sabbath keeping, and from that a discussion would start. My grandfather, who was a local deacon and who did some speaking in the local baptist and methodist churches, would be the lead person arguing, and disagreeing with my Uncle, his son, about the sabbath issue.

After awhile they would get out the big family bible, and have a bible study/set to. All the family would gather around them. Sometimes other aunts and uncles and cousins from Houston would be there. It would be my grandfather against my uncle, and everyone else watching, and backing my grandfather. My grandfather would make a point, and my uncle would counter that with a verse. The verse would be so clear and so unmistakable that I would here some of the other grown up say, "it sho does say that, um hum".


This went on, off and on, for some time, perhaps years. Then one year the sda churches in Houston were having a big tent effort in the 3rd ward area of Houston, near Tx Southern University and the University of Houston. Uncle persuaded all the family members to come out to the meetings, which were conducted by EE Cleveland. After those six weeks or so of meetings were through, several of my greater family became sda, including my grand parents and my mom. That's when I first became acquainted with the sda church, and all that. Afterwards, I was on quite a few occasions one of those 2 or 3 having church with my uncle in his cabin out in the woods.

DB

Elder E.E.Cleveland! What a powerful preacher he was! And what a nice person, besides. I had the opportunity of working as a secretary at the General Conference office in Takoma Park during the time Elder Cleveland was there. Everyone always liked him. He was a wonderful Christian, and a great preacher.

God bless you.

God has had His eye on you all your life - and he sent you to Elder Cleveland's meetings (and to your uncle's Bible studies) for a purpose!

Thanks for sharing.

Just a little update: Today is the 5-month anniversary of my baptism. It's not been an easy five months .... I've had my share of questions and criticisms about un-Christian-like attitudes and behaviors amongst church members. But then I was abruptly (but nicely) informed that I was doing the devil's work by *condemning the brethren* ... and if I saw something that needed *cleaning* in the church, well....I have a broom that's not in use anymore!

Thank you. That made my eyes water a tad.

Gerry

Hi, guys-it's Laurie. My grandfather (1885-1974) was raised SdA, was educated in church schools in Denmark and the U.S., including Skodesberg and Union College, and was a denominational worker for many years. He left the church for good in the early 1950s, insisting after a year that my grandmother leave too. I'm curious now to reread his "autobiography", written a couple of years before his death, to see what explanation he gives for leaving the church. He was very antagonistic toward the church the rest of his days. That's why I was raised to think that Adventists were all nut cases. He was a Nazarene, a Baptist, and finally a Pentacostal (!) in the last 25 years of his life. How is it possible to go anywhere else when the beautiful Advent truth is so alive in every page of the Bible? This is a puzzle to me. If his autobiography has any explanation(s) for his leaving, I'll pass it along. I rather doubt that reasons for leaving are any different now than they were 50-plus years ago. I suspect the biggest reason is pride (then as now).