Can Danny Change Options

[Truly Blonde]

I have been reading the different posts about the hardening of Danny's heart and that we don't see a change and what he would need to do for us to see a change or by your fruits we shall know you. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this and here is what I think. Danny CAN change. Even if the Lord is hardening his heart he can still change. If he stops long enough to listen. We had a guest pastor for our church campout and he told us his story. He was raised in an SDA home. (In the country) At the age of four he was sexually molested by a farm hand. He told no one. From that point on he had abnormal sexual fantasies. In his college years he went as a student missionary and ended up staying for several years. He thought he wanted to be a minister. Felt the Lord was calling him to this. Took Theology but kept having sexual thoughts. Prayed about it over and over. Came to the conclusion that if he got married it would solve all his problems. So he did. Had two children. When he finished schooling he was offered a church. He turned it down. His wife had to go take care of her parents. While she was gone he went to his first gay bar. He became immersed in the gay lifestyle. His wife was told by leaders of the church to divorce him. "That kind never changes." She did. He was in this lifestyle for 16 years. Had three semi permanent partners. Took up all the vices, smoking, drinking,drugs. His parents never gave up on him. They would come to visit and stay with him and his partners. When they left they would always forget and leave something. A book, a phamplet telling him of God's love for him. He wouldn't look at them. After sixteen years he was by a pool at a gay bar in Palm Springs and another gay came up to him and said "Hey pastor what are you doing in a place like this?" He had never told any of his friends or even strangers he had taken theology. He hit rock bottom lived so high he couldn't pay his child support, couldn't pay his bills etc. He thought he could just go to court and straighten things out. WRONG!!! He was arrested and sent to jail til his hearing. Through all of this his exwife was supportive of him. At this time he started praying and asking the Lord to forgive him and to help him turn his life around. The Lord answered that prayer. He started reading all the books his parents had left him and studying his Bible. He was rebaptized and he was offered a church to pastor. An elder in the church said "I give you 2 years and you will be back a homosexual, your kind never change". He was very discouraged and hurt but he clung to the Lord. The Lord heard him and not only that , He brought a new women into his life and they got married and have 2 children and he has been straight for 14 years. His former wife and new wife have become friends. This man is a changed person and he preaches the grace of God. He doesn't tell the details of his story because he doesn't want to glorify Satan. (He has written a book telling more of the details you can get it at the ABC. Its called That Kind Can Never Change, Can They?) He preaches repentance and change. He tells you without repentnce and change there can be no forgiveness. I tell you you can see God shining in his eyes. He loves the Lord and the Lord has done a good work in him. It oozes out of him he can't hide it. He tells you we must die to self, surrender everything to God.

Today in church we had a guest speaker who also talked about surrendering ourselves to God. Dieing to self and he said I can tell you an easy way to tell if you are surrendered to God. Have you ever been hurt by someone? Of course everyone said yes. He told us that if someone hurts our feelings and/or us we are not surrendered to God. If God lives in us these things won't matter to us because there will be no self to hurt. I have to say that hit home to me. There are times when I start feeling a pity party comming on because of things people have said or done to me. I now know that that is self getting in the way of my relationship with God.

SOoooo-the way I see it. Danny can change if he repents and changes. His hard heart can be softened by the Holy Spirit--IF he surrenders his whole self to God. That means-NO ME in 3abn. Just God. I believe that God is working through 3abn. It is winning souls to Jesus Christ everyday. However until Danny surrenders and repents God cannot work through HIM!! As long as he allows people to call him the annointed one and takes credit for 3abn God will not use him for his will.

What do you think? tb

[princessdi]

As long as he is breathing and in his right mind, he still has a chance. Jesus died for him, also.

[sister]

Blondie,

The Pastor you mentioned was a guest on one of the 3ABN Today programs, interviewed by Danny Shelton. It was one of many opportunities the Lord has given Danny to hear the wooing of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, the call to humble himself and repent...

Sister

[PeacefulBe]

SOoooo-the way I see it. Danny can change if he repents and changes. His hard heart can be softened by the Holy Spirit--IF he surrenders his whole self to God. That means-NO ME in 3abn. Just God. I believe that God is working through 3abn. It is winning souls to Jesus Christ everyday. However until Danny surrenders and repents God cannot work through HIM!! As long as he allows people to call him the annointed one and takes credit for 3abn God will not use him for his will.

What do you think? tb

Truly Blonde, I heartily agree with you. I saw that pastor on 3abn and was so moved by his testimony!

Through Jesus all things are possible. His power is limited only by our own choice.

Blondie,

The Pastor you mentioned was a guest on one of the 3ABN Today programs, interviewed by Danny Shelton. It was one of many opportunities the Lord has given Danny to hear the wooing of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, the call to humble himself and repent...

Sister

Sister, the loved ones of that pastor kept leaving materials for him to read. He read them once he was open to having a change of heart. Perhaps all of these opportunities are not lost on Danny.

[Clay]

where there is life, there is hope.... given that, anyone can change.....

[Jewel50]

where there is life, there is hope.... given that, anyone can change.....

Amen Clay. That was one of my late husbands favorite sayings. So yes all long as anyone has breath in this and allow the Holy Spirit to work in them there is HOPE. Amen

Jewel

[husbandoftheyear]

It is always hard to look at someone you would like to take behind the woodshed as a child of God. Dan is, in fact, exactly that and should be graced with God's limitless forgiveness and love.



On the other had - I expect to see a whole lot a whoopin goin on!



This post has been edited by husbandoftheyear: Sep 10 2006, 04:39 PM

[PrincessDrRe]

As long as he is breathing and in his right mind, he still has a chance. Jesus died for him, also.

where there is life, there is hope.... given that, anyone can change.....

Now...will he change?

Probably nope.

[sonshineonme]

Now...will he change?

Probably nope.

Anything is possible. But God is limited by a persons willingness to surrender. I'm watching for that white flag....

[Expression]

Today in church we had a guest speaker who also talked about surrendering ourselves to God. Dieing to self and he said I can tell you an easy way to tell if you are surrendered to God. Have you ever been hurt by someone? Of course everyone said yes. He told us that if someone hurts our feelings and/or us we are not surrendered to God. If God lives in us these things won't matter to us because there will be no self to hurt. I have to say that hit home to me. There are times when I start feeling a pity party comming on because of things people have said or done to me. I now know that that is self getting in the way of my relationship with God.

There is much to be said in regard to change. I feel that many have been thinking about this and I’m glad it was brought up. I may post later about the question at hand, but first I want to address the above statement. If you follow this line of thinking to it’s end result it’s rather disturbing--at least to some.

We say that God created us, true? But we must remember that we’re not just a body. God created us with feelings and emotions. This is what makes us different from mere automations. He made us in His image, with the ability to feel not only joy, but pain.

You might be thinking, “Yeah, we know. What’s your point?”

If we say that hurt equals sin we are attempting to take away the most basic component that makes us different than a machine or robot.

God tells us that in heaven there will be no more pain. Is this because we have turned off our emotions? No. It is because the outside factors that once brought us pain will no longer exist. If we take away someone’s freedom to feel the pain they have experienced we are telling them to deny what they have gone through. This is dangerous and extremely unhealthy.

Well you say, “We are to be dead--dead to self.” Does this mean we are to become a doormat? Theologians can go into great detail on this subject, but when we begin to say that people can no longer be hurt and still be Christian something is wrong. Very wrong. Our emotions are there to protect us, but too often we just shut them off and say, “I gotta forgive and move on.” Thus we are quiet when abuse is rampant and many of the families that compose our churches are in need of serious help.

Those within Adventism need to be learning how to listen and work through their emotions. All too often we suppress them in order to be “Christian” but you can only do that for so long. Our church is filled with people who are emotional wrecks on the inside, but they look good at church because they are “supposed to.”

If we can get people to turn off their emotions we are much more likely to be able to control them. This is something that you often see within cults, and though the Adventist church is not a cult, it surprises me how often ideology such as this appears inside our church.

As long as we live in this sinful world we will be hurt. But we are not to destroy our emotions. Instead of stuffing our feelings we need to ask, “Why do I feel this way?” and begin to work through them. This is the healthy approach. It is only as we work through the hurt that we can begin to find healing.

[Hersheys99]

Very good points Expression & I agree with what you are saying.

[summertime]

Blondie,

The Pastor you mentioned was a guest on one of the 3ABN Today programs, interviewed by Danny Shelton. It was one of many opportunities the Lord has given Danny to hear the wooing of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, the call to humble himself and repent...

Sister

I thought that tb said that this man never told his story--but he wrote a book and appeared on 3ABN? Maybe I have lost the storyline completely. If his ex-wife had continued to believe in him, why did they not reconcile? Apparently he found himself another wife. So where does that leave his ex-wife?

This post has been edited by summertime: Sep 11 2006, 11:03 AM

[Truly Blonde]

Summertime

What I meant when I said he doesn't tell his story is that he doesn't go into all the nasty details that are better left unsaid. He does tell about his life in general just not in specifics. When he preaches and alludes to his story it is in passing, spending much more time on repentance and change. For example he did not tell us he had been a homosexual in his sermon just said he had lived a very very very bad lifestyle and then told us of his comming to Christ and his asking for forgiveness and repenting and changing. Does that make sense?

When you read his book you find out about his homosexuality. Once again he doesn't go into the nitty gritty that makes people speculate about all the sexual innuendos of a homosexual lifestyle.
About his first wife. He does not tell us if she remarried during that 16 years or not. He just says that she helped him in different ways and that after he remarried that his first and second wife (who by the way had known him thru all of this because she was a good friend of his sisters and knew all his history good and bad) were able to hug and there was no animosity by the first wife to the second wife. I have to assume that the first wife was able to truly forgive him and was a Christian and that was why she was able to help him and to hug the second wife without wanting to be married to him herself, ( if she was even in a position to marry him.)

tb

[simplysaved]

She has to be a remarkable Christian woman to support her ex-husband emotionally as he struggled with homosexual lifestyle...not every woman can do that....

I do have a better understanding of what Terry McMillian meant in her situation with her now ex-husband.

Summertime

What I meant when I said he doesn't tell his story is that he doesn't go into all the nasty details that are better left unsaid. He does tell about his life in general just not in specifics. When he preaches and alludes to his story it is in passing, spending much more time on repentance and change. For example he did not tell us he had been a homosexual in his sermon just said he had lived a very very very bad lifestyle and then told us of his comming to Christ and his asking for forgiveness and repenting and changing. Does that make sense?

When you read his book you find out about his homosexuality. Once again he doesn't go into the nitty gritty that makes people speculate about all the sexual innuendos of a homosexual lifestyle.
About his first wife. He does not tell us if she remarried during that 16 years or not. He just says that she helped him in different ways and that after he remarried that his first and second wife (who by the way had known him thru all of this because she was a good friend of his sisters and knew all his history good and bad) were able to hug and there was no animosity by the first wife to the second wife. I have to assume that the first wife was able to truly forgive him and was a Christian and that was why she was able to help him and to hug the second wife without wanting to be married to him herself, ( if she was even in a position to marry him.)

tb

This post has been edited by simplysaved: Sep 17 2006, 07:18 PM

[justme]

Truth Will Triumph Gloriously

Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the
truth may enter in. Isa. 26:2

The truth of God must be enshrined in the heart, and we must be
determined to fight the battles of the Lord, if we would come off
conquerors with the final triumph of the truth; for the truth will
triumph gloriously. . . . If you are seeking to be a blessing to others,
God will bless you. We should bring all the good possible into our
lives, that we may glorify God and be a blessing to humanity.

The church is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered
by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to Him, obedient to all
His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine
grace. If she will be true to her allegiance, if she will honor the Lord
God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her.

Zeal for God and His cause moved the disciples to bear witness to
the gospel with mighty power. Should not a like zeal fire our hearts
with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and
Him crucified? It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look
for but to hasten the coming of the Saviour.

If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness,
withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the
dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast
forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many
generations. Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will
triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never
been checked. When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it
additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with
divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers, and
triumph over every obstacle.

From My Life Today - Page 266