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‘Rainbow Revival’ Shares Jesus’ Love, Testimonies of Freedom to Those in the LGBTQ+ Lifestyle
For Christians who oppose Pride Month and the LGBTQ+ community’s use of rainbows during June, boycotting WOKE retailers is good for the conscience and meant to harm the offending companies’ profits.
But for some other Christians who’ve left LGBTQ+ lifestyles to follow Jesus, Pride Month festivities offer opportunities to shine His light.
Rainbow Revival (formerly Freedom March), a diverse group of former LGBTQ+ people, is celebrating its fifth year of loving their neighbors as they share testimonies of transformation.
Pride Month is no exception.
During June, some Rainbow Revival members across the nation are capitalizing on Pride Month by praying for and sharing the gospel with LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors.
“We wear a seven-color rainbow – a symbol of the Lord’s promise to never again flood the earth. This month is a great opportunity to demonstrate humility, remember our brokenness and God’s greatness.
“In 1st Corinthians 12:9, Paul says we boast in our weakness, for there God is manifest strong. It’s a great time to remember how weak we are,” Rainbow Revival leaders MJ Nixon and Kimberly Zember explain here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/275671264845372
This year Freedom March officially changed its ministry name to Rainbow Revival, which will host its first event of 2023 in Dallas, Texas on Oct. 21st.
Rainbow Revival’s stated mission is to gather and share testimonies of freedom, and to call the body of Christ to love LGBTQ+ neighbors with the truth of transformation through relationship with Jesus.
Unlike his faith-building experience at Freedom March, Karl Jackson’s former celebrations of Pride Month were frequently marked by parties, drugs and alcohol.
That is until the Lord delivered him from an addiction to crystal meth and sexual promiscuity, following his grandmother’s death two years ago.
To ease the pain of his grandmother’s loss – she was like a mother to him – Jackson attempted suicide by taking an overdose of drugs.
While in the lifestyle, “lukewarm” Christians condoned his sinful behaviors.
“Undoubtedly, if I had died in my former lifestyle I would have gone to hell. My blood would have been on their hands.
“The person you see today is not the person I was a year ago,” says Jackson, who believes he’s alive because of his grandmother’s prayers.
They are why he’s a “fisher of men,” committed to evangelizing the community he left behind, which includes a family member.
Another man convicted by the Holy Spirit of “a hedonistic lifestyle” four years ago sees the LGBTQ+ community as a mission field.
Living in south Florida today, Jarrod Tobias participated in Pride festivities from coast to coast for 25 years – his entire time in the lifestyle – until the Lord asked him to follow Him.
“I knew that meant leaving behind many friends who were all broken in their camaraderie – like a family,” says Tobias, who didn’t think his lifestyle or theirs was wrong until the Lord showed him otherwise.
The Lord revealed his brokenness and, as he started dealing with it, “blinders were taken off my eyes and how I see things is completely different,” says Tobias.
His heart breaks for friends – he calls them his people – who are LGBTQ+. “My best friend and I were recently reminiscing about old times.
“I let him know that I think about the guys all the time,” says Tobias of his friend who, grieving the loss of his father, still isn’t interested in conversations about leaving the lifestyle.
As for Tobias, his faith in Jesus grows stronger every day, despite battling lusts of the flesh common to all believers.
“I’m not the same person I was four years ago,” says Tobias for whom Pride Month in Columbus, San Diego, Los Angeles, and West Palm Beach is different now that he prays for friends in those cities, rather than party with them.
“It’s a mission field now,” says Tobias.
“I pray that the Lord opens a door where I can see that He’s working and, just by His grace, allow me to partner with Him,” he adds.
A single woman from rural West Virginia, Tori Ann battles loneliness even in churches, where Pride Month celebrations are a toss-up among bodies of “believers” in her area.
But going to a LGBTQ+ party is out of the question for Tori Ann.
“Why go back to what, literally, took me to the train tracks in 2021,” says Tori Ann, who believes the Lord is calling her to pray for West Virginia’s gay and trans communities.
A ministry leader, Daniel Mingo heard the Lord say 20 years ago: “There are men coming along behind you who need to know my redemptive power in the homosexual’s life,” says Mingo, who was himself sexually addicted to promiscuity with men.
He founded Abba’s Delight (abbasdelight.com), a recovery ministry for men like himself who spent 30 years hooking up in anonymous sexual encounters.
Though Mingo never assumed a gay identity or lifestyle as a born-again, Spirit-baptized man, Pride Month is troublesome for him, due to the sheer numbers of deceived people celebrating it.
“Pastors tell me they never knew a ministry like mine existed; there are 250 ministries throughout the world that have helped millions of people,” Mingo says.
A Pennsylvania woman, Ellie Rosenberg, who’s been out of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle for nine years, says she too grieves for her friends who are still in sinful bondage.
Even Rosenberg’s new church is sensitive about celebrating versus mourning Pride Month because a couple of its members are LGBTQ+ or allies.
“Even though the church’s position is not gay affirming, we still welcome people who are, to come hear the gospel,” Rosenberg says.
One of her closest friends is still in the LGBTQ+ community. “I talk to her about my faith like she’s a Christian already, and she absorbs it,” says Rosenberg.
She will continue to plant seeds until they germinate, maybe even pray and fast for her friends who need Jesus.
Sources:BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS
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Nigerian Church Leader Killed During Worship Service
Nigeria — Yomi Adetula, a respected 54-year-old leader of the Celestial Church of Christ, Eagle Parish, in Ogun state, Nigeria, was shot during a morning service on Sunday, Jan. 19, by gunmen reportedly affiliated with a cult group targeting Christian communities.
The community admired Adetula for his devotion to prayer and community service and for serving as a commander in the Ogun State So-Safe Security outfit. Eyewitnesses recounted a distressing scene as three attackers entered the church and fired upon the congregation.
“Adetula was a man of God who dedicated himself to serving the community,” said Adewale Amos, a local community leader. “We face challenges from groups that oppose spiritual efforts, and we must advocate for greater awareness and collective action to protect the rights of Christians to worship freely.”
The Ogun State Police have confirmed the incident and are actively investigating to identify and apprehend those responsible. A statement from the Police Public Relations Office acknowledged the seriousness of the crime and affirmed their commitment to bringing justice to the affected community.
Sources:persecution
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നിക്കരാഗ്വയിൽ മിണ്ടാമഠത്തിലെ സന്യാസിനിമാരെ മഠത്തിൽനിന്നും പുറത്താക്കി
മിണ്ടാമഠത്തിലെ സന്യാസിനിമാരെ മനാഗ്വയിലെയും ചൈനാൻഡേഗയിലെയും അവരുടെ സന്യാസ മഠങ്ങളിൽ നിന്നും പുറത്താക്കി നിക്കരാഗ്വൻ സ്വേച്ഛാധിപത്യ ഭരണകൂടം. മൊസൈക്കോ സി. എസ്. ഐ. പത്രം പറയുന്നതനുസരിച്ച് ജനുവരി 28-ന് രാത്രിയാണ് സ്വേച്ഛാധിപത്യ ഭരണകൂടം തങ്ങളുടെ ഉത്തരവ് നടപ്പിലാക്കിയത്. തൽഫലമായി ഓർഡർ ഓഫ് സെന്റ് ക്ലെയറിലെ 30 ഓളം സന്യാസിനിമാർക്ക് അവരുടെ മഠങ്ങൾ വിട്ടുപോകേണ്ടിവന്നു.
“സ്വേച്ഛാധിപത്യ ഭരണകൂടം ആദ്യം മനാഗ്വയിലെ ആശ്രമത്തിലും പിന്നീട് ചൈനാൻഡേഗയിലെ ആശ്രമത്തിലും എത്തി സന്യാസിനിമാരോട് മഠം വിട്ടുപോകണമെന്ന് പറയുകയും അവരുടെ ചില സാധനങ്ങൾ മാത്രം എടുക്കാൻ അനുവദിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു” നിക്കരാഗ്വൻ ഉറവിടം കൂട്ടിച്ചേർത്തു. പുറത്താക്കപ്പെട്ട സന്യാസിനിമാരിൽ ഭൂരിഭാഗംപേരും നിക്കരാഗ്വൻ സ്വദേശികളാണ്. അവർ എവിടെയാണെന്ന കാര്യം അജ്ഞാതമായി തുടരുന്നു.
നിക്കരാഗ്വയിൽ കത്തോലിക്കാ സഭയ്ക്കെതിരെ സ്വേച്ഛാധിപത്യ ഭരണകൂടം നടത്തിയ ആയിരത്തോളം ആക്രമണങ്ങളെക്കുറിച്ച് ‘നിക്കരാഗ്വ: എ പെർസിക്യുട്ടഡ് ചർച്ച്’ എന്ന റിപ്പോർട്ടിന്റെ രചയിതാവും അഭിഭാഷകയുമായ മാർത്ത പട്രീഷ്യ മൊലിന വെളിപ്പെടുത്തിയിരുന്നു.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
Nicaragua’s government has expelled over 30 nuns from three convents in its latest assault on detractors, and their whereabouts are unknown, a researcher and exiled media reported on Wednesday.
Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer and expert on matters concerning the Catholic Church, told AFP the women were “evicted from their monasteries” overnight by government agents.
It was not known if the nuns, mainly Nicaraguan, had left the country, said Molina, herself in exile in the United States.
Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of real and perceived opponents since former leftist guerrilla Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007, quashing presidential term limits and seizing control of all branches of the state.
According to the United Nations, more than 300 people died in a crackdown on 2018 protests, which Ortega’s government denounced as an attempted coup.
Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.
One of them, the online news site Confidencial operating from Costa Rica, reported the nuns were expelled from convents in the capital Managua and two other sites.
The exiled La Prensa newspaper said the order the women belonged to had its credentials scrapped by the government in 2023 with other Church-linked NGOs.
Ortega and his wife, vice president Rosario Murillo, accuse the Catholic Church of supporting the 2018 protests.
A constitutional reform approved last year is due to come into effect within days, giving Ortega and Murillo absolute power over all affairs of state.
It allows for the media and the Church to be monitored for any allegiance to “foreign interests.”
Ortega’s Sandinista rebels toppled a US-backed dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979.
He led the country until 1990 and returned to power in 2007 with a more moderate program.
But in recent years he has seized control of all branches of government and led a sweeping crackdown on groups he sees as a threat to his rule.
Hundreds of politicians, businesspeople, journalists, intellectuals, human rights activists and religious figures have been expelled from Nicaragua and stripped of their nationality since February 2023, accused of treason.
world news
Pastor Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Distributing Christian Materials
China — The drawn-out saga between the People’s Court of Shunde District in Foshan, Guandong, and the Shengjia House Church seems to be ending.
On Jan. 17, the People’s Court sentenced Preacher Deng Yanxiang to two years in prison. He is scheduled to be released in May because he has already served more than 18 months.
Preacher Deng Yanxiang joins four other members of his house church who have been imprisoned for alleged illegal business operations. The charges were tied to the church’s publications, including Daily Bible Readings and Interpretations, which were sold and distributed to locals.
These five Shengjia Christians were arrested in August 2023 for their Christian literature and materials. Local Christians have said that charges by local Communist officials for fraud and “illegal business operations” are frequently used against unregistered house churches throughout China.
Sources:persecution
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