By Steve Rees —
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.
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