I think one of the most profound statements in the Bible is in Matthew 11:28-30, when Jesus said “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Our preacher at church spoke on this and I had a “Aha!” moment, one that changed me forever. I was suddenly freed. Carrying the yoke of Christ means that no longer did have to be something I’m not. No longer did I have to follow the dictates of society or religion concerning what it means to be a man. No longer did I have to succumb to the propaganda of the LGBT community. (Colossians 2:20) All of a sudden I realized that God had not asked me to be straight (which I can’t) but just to love Him and keep his commandments. There are only ten.
It freed me to say to a guy “I love you” outside of a sexual context. It meant I didn’t any longer have to overcompensate and pretend to be manly. It meant I didn’t have to feel guilty for ‘betraying’ the LGBT community. I didn’t have to have a boyfriend. I didn’t have to have a girlfriend. I didn’t have to be conservative. I didn’t have to be liberal. I didn’t have to apologize to anyone for being SSA (gay). I didn’t have to apologize for being celibate. I didn’t have to apologize for masturbating. I didn’t have to apologize for noticing a cute guy’s butt. I didn’t have to apologize for missing David Wells…
I AM FREE!!!
Now this freedom doesn’t mean I can go hogwild and do anything I please (and believe me I don’t want to). It has freed me from having to live up to what somebody else’s idea of what a man is or what a gay guy is; and I lived with that for so long. God loves me for who and what I am, not what somebody thinks I should be.
Broken but redeemed 
Your story is typical of the deceptive ex-gay nonsense: you claim you gave up a lifestyle, but you avoid the truth: your sexual orientation never changed. And you are not honest about the fact you still masturbate, but that any reduction in it is due to your medical problems, including brain damage. The public has an easy choice to make: heed the warnings of the World Psychiatric Association, which joined its 265,000 voices to every national medical association calling for an end to gay cures since a person’s sexual orientation is not an illness. Likewise, every major, decades-old ex-gay ministry from the US to Australia folded after the leaders admitted no Christians had become heterosexual in spite of the stream of denunciations of LGBT people. The list of LGBT affirming churches is large and growing all the time. In fact, over half of millennial Christians now support full civil rights for LGBT folks.
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“”Your story is typical of the deceptive ex-gay nonsense: you claim you gave up a lifestyle, but you avoid the truth: your sexual orientation never changed.” I NEVER once claimed I was ‘cured’. Far from it. I want a dude as much as anyone else who is SSA. I deny myself for my God.
“And you are not honest about the fact you still masturbate, but that any reduction in it is due to your medical problems, including brain damage.” I don’t deny I masturbate. I have done so since I was thirteen. I just don’t talk about it much because it makes some people uncomfortable. I continue to do so (just not as frequently) as it keeps me from going back into the homosexual lifestyle. The reduction in it is because I abstain from porn, not due to brain injury. The porn addiction I have came from being shown it at thirteen by my uncle because he was uncomfortable talking to me about sex.
“The public has an easy choice to make: heed the warnings of the World Psychiatric Association, which joined its 265,000 voices to every national medical association calling for an end to gay cures since a person’s sexual orientation is not an illness.” I agree with this statement, but I am not interested in the opinions of a group that tells me to love myself the way I am and then turns around and tells a gender dysphoric to have themselves mutilated so that they can feel better about themselves. AND THE WORD IS GENDER DYSPHORIC, NOT TRANSGENDERED!!!
“Likewise, every major, decades-old ex-gay ministry from the US to Australia folded after the leaders admitted no Christians had become heterosexual in spite of the stream of denunciations of LGBT people. The list of LGBT affirming churches is large and growing all the time. In fact, over half of millennial Christians now support full civil rights for LGBT folks.” True too. But I don’t need affirmation of what I want, Does a parent affirm a kid’s desire to have an all candy diet, or do they no and dish out the broccoli? There is no ‘cure’ for homosexual desire. None. Anybody saying different is full of horse crap. Nor do I have a demon in me; this would be the same as me saying ‘The devil made me do it.’ Whatever I did (and I did plenty) it was my choice, and it is my choice to be celibate and have been so for twelve years. No one asked me to. I wasn’t even in church when I started (was too pissed off at God).
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Jerry,
I have a little something that I want to say about this topic. I used to be gay and still was long after I was saved the difference was that I tried not to act on those feelings. Since anyone can tell you that i’m not perfect, yes there were times that I failed. Even though I still had the attraction to men, the sin was acting on the attraction, many people tried to make me feel like just being gay was going to send me to hell, but my Lord told me in the word that there is no degree of sin with God so every sin is equal and that includes the ones made by everybody even RUE Christians. We are none perfect yet nor will we be while we inhabit this body of flesh, Paul said that he repeanted daily.
Now about closing all the “gay cure” places. I say close them all it makes no difference. You see when I was delivered from same sex attraction , I didn’t go to a clinic, or to my preacher, but I was delivered when my God saw fit! So people can close all those places because no man ever “cured” gay, they don’t have the power, but God does. Therefore, sign 10,000 petitions, pass 7500 laws, let the Pope, every priest, every preacher, judge, lawer, king , queen and dictator say that it is against th law to change someone from being gay and God will still be in the delivering business. He does not care for the laws of man nor is he in anyway afraid of their threats, he will still do his will and deliever as many as is his pleasure!
I tell you the truth and lie not, because of the grace and mercy of God I no longer am sexually attracted to men or women. All praise and honor to the holy God, the 3 in one, father, son and holy ghost.
Amen, and amen.
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I’m glad that you included one of my most favorite verses: “Come unto me…and I will give you rest.” The more I think about these simple words, the more meaning I find. I believe that when we seek His rest, no matter where we stand on any issue, the issue becomes less and less important as we rest in Him. Thank you for sharing your story so honestly.
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I must have read this verse a dozen times and never grasped its meaning till it hit me, that I had been set free from what society (religion, masculinity, LGBT, etc.) thinks.
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