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Subscribe to Revive MagazineFrom the Director
- Byron Paulus
- Tue, Nov 26, 2002
- Permalink
Just when I thought I had heard it all, one of our staff received this e-mail:
I have a problem that I don't know how to handle. My husband wants to be a female impersonator and wants to alter his body to look more like a girl. He wants to get breast implants and some work done on his face. I'm having a hard time. I don't know if this lines up with the Word of God. He found a preacher that had a sex change. He pastors an evangelical church of about 3000 people. So it's been very hard to disagree with him. I don't know what to do. Please help me and pray for my family.
Though this story may seem extreme, when it comes to sexually deviant behavior, we are living in an era of the unbelievable. As a result, we are encountering the unthinkable. Unfortunately, this account of one wife's struggle reflects the widespread confusion prevalent in our culture. Consider the following realities from this one testimony and how they relate to the broader issues so evident in the church as a whole:
- Sexual sin is a problem most people do not know how to handle.
- Sexual sin leads to all forms of depraved thoughts and actions.
- Individuals involved in sexual sin deeply hurt those they love the most.
- Few people understand what the Bible teaches about sexual sin.
- Even church leaders are succumbing to sexual temptation.
- People are desperate for help.
It is this last point that motivated our leadership team to choose sexual purity as the theme for this issue of our magazine. True revival will expose the extent to which sexual sin has infiltrated our culture and our churches. It will also demonstrate the power of God to set His children free from sexual bondage. Addictions—the inevitable result of living a life consumed with self—can be defeated. Victory is possible.
When my oldest son, then in his early twenties, was engaged to be married, I asked him how he dealt with sexual temptation. His answer was simple but insightful: "When you are in love with Jesus, you want to avoid anything that would hinder that relationship."
Revival is coming to the place where we are so in love with Jesus, that all our attitudes and actions are instinctively evaluated in light of how we can express that love more fully.
A few years ago, I met with an eighty-seven-year-old man who had just buried his wife of sixty-four years. I watched as his entire body convulsed with a sense of guilt, failure, and hopelessness as he admitted to having been unfaithful to his wife, sixty years earlier. The overwhelming conviction and regret were as intense as though the failure had occurred yesterday. Through his tears, he blurted out, "It's too late! My wife is gone! God will never forgive me. It's too late!"
The end of this story is a beautiful one. The man repented before the Lord. Then he wrote a note to his deceased wife, asking her forgiveness. He asked God to deliver the letter to her. Finally, he called each of his children, one by one, and sought their forgiveness.
As he obeyed God, an amazing transformation began to take place in this man's heart. He developed an insatiable desire for the Word of God and prayer. He began to devour everything he could put his hands on related to spiritual matters. I could not get over the change that took place. This man is now ninety years old and "growing like a weed."
I loved this man before. Now I love and admire him as much as anyone I know. His testimony is a powerful witness of the ways of God. For years he fell prey to Satan's number one tactic: don't tell anyone about your sin. What he didn't realize is that the power of bondage (sexual or otherwise) is found in its secrecy.
As this man chose the pathway of humility and honesty, God set him free—free from the bondage of sin and guilt, free to experience forgiveness and grace, and free to love the Lord with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30). Sexual freedom not only sets us free from the power of sin, it sets us free to worship Christ Who is the Victor over sin.
A revival in our personal relationship with the Lord is the key to winning the battle against sexual immorality. It is also the means by which those whose lives have been affected by the moral sin of others can experience freedom and healing.
May God grant us the grace, longing, and faith to walk before Him with hearts that are a reflection of His purity.
Praying for purity in our land,
Byron Paulus
Life Action Ministries
When my oldest son, then in his early twenties, was engaged to be married, I asked him how he dealt with sexual temptation. His answer was simple but insightful: "When you are in love with Jesus, you want to avoid anything that would hinder that relationship."
Revival is coming to the place where we are so in love with Jesus, that all our attitudes and actions are instinctively evaluated in light of how we can express that love more fully.
A few years ago, I met with an eighty-seven-year-old man who had just buried his wife of sixty-four years. I watched as his entire body convulsed with a sense of guilt, failure, and hopelessness as he admitted to having been unfaithful to his wife, sixty years earlier. The overwhelming conviction and regret were as intense as though the failure had occurred yesterday. Through his tears, he blurted out, "It's too late! My wife is gone! God will never forgive me. It's too late!"
The end of this story is a beautiful one. The man repented before the Lord. Then he wrote a note to his deceased wife, asking her forgiveness. He asked God to deliver the letter to her. Finally, he called each of his children, one by one, and sought their forgiveness.
As he obeyed God, an amazing transformation began to take place in this man's heart. He developed an insatiable desire for the Word of God and prayer. He began to devour everything he could put his hands on related to spiritual matters. I could not get over the change that took place. This man is now ninety years old and "growing like a weed."
I loved this man before. Now I love and admire him as much as anyone I know. His testimony is a powerful witness of the ways of God. For years he fell prey to Satan's number one tactic: don't tell anyone about your sin. What he didn't realize is that the power of bondage (sexual or otherwise) is found in its secrecy.
As this man chose the pathway of humility and honesty, God set him free—free from the bondage of sin and guilt, free to experience forgiveness and grace, and free to love the Lord with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30). Sexual freedom not only sets us free from the power of sin, it sets us free to worship Christ Who is the Victor over sin.
A revival in our personal relationship with the Lord is the key to winning the battle against sexual immorality. It is also the means by which those whose lives have been affected by the moral sin of others can experience freedom and healing.
May God grant us the grace, longing, and faith to walk before Him with hearts that are a reflection of His purity.
Praying for purity in our land,
Byron Paulus
Life Action Ministries