TAKING BACK THE RAINBOW

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Freedom March declares move of God among ex-LGBT people

Freedom March 2021 DC

WASHINGTON — Men and women who once lived and identified as part of the LGBT community are confident that a “rainbow revival” is at hand. 

Gathered under the blazing sun with temperatures in the mid-90s at the Sylvan Theater in the shadow of the Washington Monument, approximately 200 attended the Freedom March, an event for formerly LGBT-identifying people who share testimonies of how Jesus transformed their lives. 

The gathering was first held in the same location in 2018. Last year’s Freedom March was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

With many sporting T-shirts decorated with rainbow flags and the words “Rainbow Revival,” march participants spoke with The Christian Post about the transforming power of Jesus.

Angel Colon, who miraculously survived after Omar Mateen shot him several times at the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in Orlando in June 2016, said the “rainbow revival” is a sign of God’s covenant. “We are taking back the rainbow,” Colon said. “It’s His. For us, it’s something beautiful.” “We are here and we’re loud, letting the world know that the rainbow is something beautiful,” he added. “And we shouldn’t be ashamed of what it really is.”

Colon and his compatriots are hearing from increasing numbers of people who desire to leave the LGBT life to follow Jesus, as Freedom March events have continued. He believes that the COVID-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise because it forced many to go deep with the Lord. “Especially now during Pride month, we want to say we love you” to the LGBT community. We want to tell the gay community that we love them. We don’t want to judge you or condemn you and welcome you with open arms and be a reflection of Jesus. We don’t want to do anything but love everyone.” Colon said.

Freedom March co-founder Jeffrey McCall told CP that he noticed an uptick in emails he received from people wishing to leave the LGBT life and identity behind last summer. “We are getting more emails, more people reaching out and wanting help than we’ve ever had in the past three years,” he continued. He believes that the Church is at the beginning stage of reaching out effectively to LGBT individuals with the transformational power of life in Christ. 

Kim Zember, who is Catholic and on the Freedom March’s board of directors, shared with CP that the phrase “conversion therapy” is misleading. “It’s not about ‘converting’ someone,” Zember said. “When Jesus walked the earth, he didn’t walk around converting people. He invited people to be transformed. And we’re transformed in a relationship with Jesus Christ.” He said, they are particularly concerned about efforts to limit counseling options for those experiencing conflicting or unwanted sexual feelings and impulses or gender confusion related to their faith. Faith-based approaches to help individuals deal with these unwanted attractions are often derisively referred to as “conversion therapy.”

Elizabeth Woning CHANGED

Elizabeth Woning of the CHANGED movement speaks outside the U.S. Capitol for a press conference on June 4, 2021

Taken from an article by Brandon Showalter, Christian Post Reporter

OHIO PARENTS MAY LOSE CUSTODY OF 17-Y-O CHILD FOR NOT SUPPORTING GENDER TRANSITION

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An Ohio court is set to determine Friday if the parents of a teen girl, who identifies as a boy, should lose custody because they object to hormone treatments and a “gender transition” process on medical and religious grounds.

God is already judging America. Moreover, He has His prophets (e.g. Jonathan Cahn) clearly demonstrating it’s God’s judgement and that it will escalate unless the nation repents and stops sinning. Whilst there has been some positive moves under Trump, same sex marriage and transgender issues involving children, as reported here, do not augur well for the church. Increased persecution is imminent, and Jesus prophesied “great falling away” will follow.

CNN reported Tuesday on a Hamilton County court’s ongoing proceedings involving the parents of a 17-year-old girl — neither of which can be named per court instructions — who want the court to intervene in order to stop her from receiving hormones and therapy. The treatment was recommended by a “medical team” working with the teen and who considers such treatment a “life-or-death situation.”

The parents, however, want custody of their child because they believe that by allowing the grandparents to have custody “it would simply be a way for the child to circumvent the necessity of parents’ consent,” said Karen Brinkman, their attorney, according to court transcripts. Brinkman contended that given the mental state of the teenager, she is in no position to make such a life-altering decision.

The parents, she continued, “have done their due diligence contacting medical professionals, collecting thousands of hours of research,” and believe that the administration of hormones are not a “medically necessary form of treatment” and that it “would do more harm than good.” Not all of the details surrounding the case have been made public.

“If the judge rules in favour of the ideologically driven gender clinic, the ability of all parents to protect their children of any age from all aspects of this social and medical experiment will take a tremendous hit,” said Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Paediatricians in an interview with The Christian Post Wednesday.

She noted that such a delusion is a disorder of the mind; that gender dysphoria is distinctly unlike a disease of the body like diabetes, asthma, or cancer; and that no long term evidence exists showing that encouraging a child’s delusion prevents suicide.

Furthermore, she stressed, “there is no evidence that any gender dysphoric child’s suicidal feelings are due to parents’ refusing to go along with the delusion. It is more likely that whatever has caused the child’s depression and suicidal thoughts is also triggering the gender dysphoria.”

The CNN report presumes the maleness of the girl and employs the pronoun “he” throughout the entirety of the piece. Medical experts from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, which has been working with the teenager, testified in court that the father’s refusal to call the child by her chosen name and the parents’ rejection of his daughter’s gender identity have caused her to have suicidal feelings. CNN also featured the words of Dr. Michelle Forcier for supporting commentary, who is a professor at Brown University and longtime LGBT activist paediatrician who works with children as young as four who think they are transgender, though she is not involved in this specific case.

“If your child had asthma and was turning blue, you wouldn’t deny them their albuterol inhaler or say ‘let’s wait,’ ” Forcier said. “If this were cancer or diabetes, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, but people get funny when it comes to medical care when gender is involved, and that’s harmful.”

Cretella made a point to tell CP that Forcier’s remarks are “unscientific.” “A child suffering from gender dysphoria has a fixed belief contrary to physical reality. This is a delusion,” she said, and “a delusion is not any person’s ‘authentic self.'”

 

“Since there are no long term studies regarding the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in young children and teens, this entire enterprise is, by definition, an experiment upon a minor — and a dangerous one at that given the life-long permanent side effects.”

In November of 2016 the teen contacted a crisis chat service to say she did not feel safe in her parents’ home and alleged that her father told her to commit suicide because she was “going to hell anyway.” Her lawyer said in court that her parents’ decision to enroll her in Catholic school where she had to wear dresses and go by her birth name contributed to her trauma and increased suicidal ideation.

The teen also said she was forced to sit in a room and listen to Bible readings for over six hours at a time, according to the complaint; the parents had reportedly stopped the mental health counselling she was receiving and opted for a Christian alternative.

CHANGE THE WORLD – POLITICS OR JESUS

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Are Australian Christians committing the same sort of errors as our American brethren? Lacking the power of the Lordship of Christ many frustrated believers feel like they must do something to be useful to God in the midst of a dramatic decline of national righteousness. The power of the political sphere is the obvious avenue to bring change, even if Jesus’ Lordship operates in an exactly opposite way to the coercive power of legislation. I foresee the Australian Church losing one political battle after another, all the while being distracted away from her chief concern, the abiding life of Christ.

What disturbs me about “political Christians” is that their zeal for a cause often comes across as more intense than their passion for the Person of Jesus. Why is this?

We live in a day when everything is being politicised, and in the popular imagination politics stands for power. A recent example of this is when government registry offices were opened to gay people last week the agencies were all flying the rainbow flag of the LGBT movement.  So powerful has been the political success of this lobby that its core values have now become part of the identity of Australia as a nation. As with the earlier feminist-libertarian victory over abortion, we are now subject to “institutionalised lawlessness”

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“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:12).

To think that politics shapes culture, rather than the reverse, is back to front. The de-Christianising of the West happened because densely networked anti-Christians took possession of the culture-making institutions of society, particularly higher education and the arts. Despite every good intention the average believer has no access to the more elite “clubs” from which social change is initiated. Unlike, for example, the wealthy, educated, aristocratic group that William Wilberforce drew together, few believers have influence in institutions that re-invent how people see reality. If there is no remedy for moral decline through the political process should we take more radical action?

There is another way forward for the re-discipling of our nations but it will require unprecedented humility (Matt 28:18-20).

Recently, 14 of Australia’s most senior Church leaders publicly appealed to the PM and Opposition leader to make good on their undertakings to uphold religious freedoms. This political act is as completely unsurprising as it is hypocritical. How often and how loudly have our spiritual leaders been speaking up, inside and outside the Church, for the cause of our persecuted brothers and sisters in other nations?  Why should a national Church which has so blatantly sinned against the Lord by failing to pray and advocate for our afflicted brothers and sisters (1 Sam 12:23) expect God to hear appeals for our rights? Do we secretly believe our long Christian history entitle us to some sort of preferential treatment? Perhaps in God’s good purposes we need to be oppressed in order to be revived (Hab 3:2)? Songs sometimes speak of a “near revival”, but is this actually imaginable? The answer is “Yes”, but not in the mode of power many selfish Christians are seeking.

When Hillsong and Sydney Anglicanism put their resources into the “No” campaign against SSM this signalled that political causes have the power to unite polarised Christian traditions. But contemporary Pentecostals and Evangelicals have lost touch with the source of real power. They have drifted far from their roots in great revival movements that transformed the character of Western Christianity.

It is idiocy to imagine that the Lord would send revival through the organised Church whilst it has its own elites and clubs who exercise political power inside the churches in a way that does not look like Christ crucified. Institutionalised Christianity can never defeat institutionalised evil.

Jesus said to the politically savvy Pilate, “my kingdom is not of this world” and went on to show the true  character of the divine rule, by death, resurrection and visiting people with the Spirit of repentance, joy and a radical change of lifestyle (John 18:36; Acts 2:37-47). The mass of comfortable middle class church leaders and their members do not really want to lose control of their life options. There is a market in peddling worldview programmes as a remedy to the spiritual decline of the West, but Jesus is not a set of mental images you can learn, cultivate and studiously apply. The power of the presence of the risen Christ cannot be contained in any wine skin, within or without Christianity. When we are broken enough to accept this and renounce any hope we have placed in politics perhaps the Lord will visit us with his mercy (Luke 1:78).

When the Australian Christian Lobby recently called on the “standing army” that had formed to oppose gay marriage to prepare for bigger battles ahead they reinforced the feeling amongst many Christians that something must be done to save Australia. Political engagement however is not the kingdom priority our nation needs if there is to be any remedy for lawlessness in the land. We need the powerful presence of the Jesus in his compassionate wisdom in all the culture making spheres where “Christianity” has been so soundly defeated (Eph 3:10). This does include politics, as well as education, the arts and other dimensions of culture. A Church compromised by political and other powers will never experience the limitless power of God that can change the world. We need to return to be seeking the Holy  Spirit power which took hold of our lawlessness and defeated at the cross and went on to raise Jesus in perfect righteousness (Rom 8:11; Heb 9:14). Only by abiding in the life of Christ can there be any transformation of our cultures. This is happened before, and can happen again, but only if we humbly submit to the final reality about divine power; “If Christ is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all.” May God turn our hearts to Jesus before any other power.

FORMER LGBTQ CHRISTIANS JOURNEY TO FREEDOM IN JESUS

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Today’s culture tells people who are homosexual there is no other way and there is no ‘cure,’ but Christians who were once LGBTQ have a different story to tell. And they’re telling it in a new documentary.

Men and women who once embraced gay relationships and transgender identities bravely share how their lives and their sense of self completely changed after coming to meet Jesus.

Just some of the ex-LGBTQ Christians sharing their story in the upcoming ‘Here’s My Heart’ documentary are Brooklyn Wojo, who identified as lesbian aged 12 and transgender at the age of 18, before meeting Christ and being born again.

Kaya Brown, 22, was homosexual for 10 years and struggled with gender confusion during that time until she had a powerful encounter with Jesus on her grandmother’s living room sofa.

Ieacha Lusk was a lesbian for 19 years and homeless for 12 years before God removed her desire for another woman in 2015.

Casual gay sex, drinking and clubbing were all the norm for Davon Johnson before starting his own spiritual quest into his sexual identity and landing at the feet of Jesus.  Today he is a minister and husband.

Joshua Buchanan spent his high school years feeling confused about his sexual identity before fully embracing the homosexual lifestyle at community college. He tried drugs, partying and homosexual relationships before hitting rock bottom in 2009 when he was diagnosed with HIV. That’s when he started going to church and met God in a magnificent way before fully accepting Christ into his life at an altar call. His identify was never the same again and he went on to graduate from Heritage Bible College with a degree in Worship & Music.

The documentary is being put together by MJ Nixon, author of The Journey Back Home and a member of the Refuge Ranch Atlanta deliverance ministry.

She’s not documenting these powerful stories as an outside observer; rather she herself also struggled with same gender attraction before experiencing a fundamental change in her heart after meeting Jesus.

‘The Lord started showing me all these people that I knew in the different groups and communities that I’ve been a part of in the last six years since I’ve been saved,’ she told The Activist Mommy.

‘All these men and women who have powerful testimonies of only the power of God being able to set them free from being transgender, being bisexual, being homosexual.’

She has so many hopes for her documentary. One of them is, of course, to give a witness to the power of Christ.

But that’s not all, though; she also wants to ‘equip the body of Christ on how to minister more respectfully to the LGBT community.’

And importantly, she wants the documentary to minister to those within the church who deny that homosexuality is a sin.

‘What I have found is that one of the hardest groups to reach is the Christians who believe it is OK to live this lifestyle and love Jesus,’ she said.

‘I look at Romans 1:26 I cannot deny that this is unnatural. No matter how much I try to justify it, it’s unnatural. When God showed me the truth of His Word, it set me free. And I couldn’t look at it and say ‘no God, I wanna live the way I wanna live.’

extracted from article by Rachel Howard in Christian Post

CHRISTIANS -“HATEFUL, MEAN, BIGOTED, NARROW-MINDED”

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Someone has said, “If I can define you, I can confine you.” Once the caricature “hateful, mean, bigoted, narrow- minded” attaches to believing Christians, we become identified through that false lens. Thus, for example, when we attempt to support religious freedom bills in legislatures, we are immediately defined as “haters.” Big businesses and the media target legislative members and engender public support for the idea that core religious rights that were long the subject of broad societal consensus, are in fact unjustifiable shields for “bigoted” religious people and institutions that must not be tolerated.

Marginalisation

Once the caricature is drawn, then it becomes easy to move to the next step—marginalisation.

Think of this, for example, why is it that there is no evangelical on the Supreme Court? Evangelicals are one of the largest minorities in the United States. But, our pro-life position and views on marriage are regarded as not acceptable and militate against an appointment to the Supreme Court—and beyond that, to appellate courts and district courts. Our views are simply unacceptable to the political powers that be and we are sidelined from the public square— marginalised.

us-supreme-court-memebersEvangelical Scalia DIED

Discrimination

Once you can make a caricature of a group and marginalise them, you can discriminate against them.

The biggest examples of that, from a legal point of view, are the recent cases before the Supreme Court of Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor. In both cases, the present administration forcefully sought to discriminate against persons who, because of religious belief, did not want to facilitate abortions. Those decisions hung by a slim thread in the Supreme Court. Hobby Lobby won by a 5-4 vote, and the Little Sisters of the Poor case was sent back down to the lower courts, in all likelihood, because a majority of opinion could not be reached on a divided 4-4 Court.

Another example that is impacting Assemblies of God colleges and universities as well as all schools who are members of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) is a recent change in the Department of Education (DOE). Christian institutions are now discriminated against because they hold to biblical teaching on sexual morality.

Next on the horizon is the possibility that accrediting associations will determine that a school which has behavioural standards for students regarding same-sex or gender identity relationships is a school not worthy of accreditation, and/or that companies, school boards, and graduate schools will not admit or employ graduates of schools who “discriminate” on the basis of sexual orientation and identity. Schools will either be forced to accept standards imposed on them or go out of business.

Persecution

Step one: make a caricature of persons committed to scriptural teaching on morality. Step two: marginalise them. Step three: discriminate against them. Finally, the last stage: persecute them.

This is what is pending in the California legislature as I write—the outright persecution of Christian institutions by a state that says, “We will attempt to humiliate and marginalise you if you don’t give in.”

What’s next? Unless present trends are reversed, I can envision a day not too far off in which faith-based para church educational and compassion institutions are forced to close if they retain biblical standards of sexual conduct for employment, or even requirements that employees, faculty, or students profess a Christian commitment.

The local church itself will be the last domino to fall in terms of persecution. Tax-exempt status may be lost. Ministers could lose the ministerial housing allowance. Donors may not be able to deduct charitable contributions. Churches which utilise their facilities for public events and compassion ministry, in addition to their times of worship, will be declared public places of accommodation and forced to provide marriage services to same-sex couples.

If you say, “Oh, that can never happen in America,” then let me remind you that we never thought a day would come when the White House would be lit up with the rainbow flag to celebrate a decision by the Supreme Court to legalise same-sex marriage.

I have never written anything like I am writing to you now. I realise that what I am writing paints a very dark picture. You are now asking yourself, but what can we do? Here are some suggestions.

Pray

There may be some who are cynical about a call to pray. But, we know the Lord hears the prayers of His people. Let’s take to heart 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” We must pray for a third Great Awakening to come to America.

Prayers of gratitude for the religious liberty we have enjoyed, and prayers of petition for its future protection should be an ongoing and regular part of our personal and corporate prayer life.

Engage

Use whatever means possible to exert your influence on our culture and political system. Be informed as a voter. Run as a candidate for office if you sense the Spirit asking that of you. Let your elected representatives hear from you on issues such as religious liberty protection.

It’s also vital that we understand that we advocate religious liberty for others, not just ourselves. It is against our religion to impose our religion. When we find persons, organisations, or religious bodies who stand with us on the First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion, then we welcome their advocacy alongside our own.

Of course, being engaged requires being informed; helping those who worship in our churches every week to understand the nature of the challenges we face, honestly but without overstating, is a critical first step. Had Christians across Missouri truly understood what was at stake in the religious liberty bill that failed in that state legislature earlier this year, the outcome may have been different. We must educate in order to inspire action.

Watch Your Spirit

There’s a fascinating verse in Jude 9 that says, Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil in a dispute about the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce upon him a railing judgement. But he said, “The Lord rebuke you!'” In other words, Michael did not behave like the devil in fighting the devil. We must take to heart the admonition of the apostle Paul,

“The servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but must be gentle toward all people …” Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will “grant them repentance to a know the truth” (2 Tim. 2:24–25).                                                                                                                                                                                         Let’s be gracious as we take our stand on issues that concern us.

Do Good

The world may not agree with our beliefs, but they cannot deny when we do good. As individual believers and as a church together we must continue to serve others. We must be known as people of compassion and mercy. We are for the just treatment of others and we help the poor, the needy, the addicted, the wounded, the lonely and the downtrodden.

Keep Doing the Main Things

Our first and foremost call is to preach and live the gospel. Let’s keep the main things the plain things, and the plain things the main things. We must fulfil both the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20) and the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37–39). That’s our priority! Let’s never substitute evangelism and discipleship with political action. Let’s keep eternal matters and temporal matters in perspective.

Our Battle Is Spiritual

God loved the world and so must we. We cannot give others any reason to identify us as “haters” or “bigots.” The world will not be won by Christians who are shaking their fists at sinners. Something is a truism when it is true. This truism is true: “We must hate the sin and love the sinner.” “For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armour of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph. 6:12–13).

Rejoice

Nothing happening has caught the Lord by surprise. He told us we would be persecuted because of our loyalty to Him. But we are not to be angry about that or downcast. Instead, Jesus said: ”

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.12 Rejoice and be very glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in this manner they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:10–12).

Thank you for letting me share my heart with you on this vital matter of religious liberty. In every dark time, believers have learned to say anew, “Our Lord reigns!”

This an abbreviated letter (grievous warning) was sent out by George O. Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God (USA) and chair of The Assemblies of God Fellowship