You are attracted to dudes?
May the Lord continue to give you strength. God bless.
Hey Joe, good luck... my comment, was an off the cuff take at humor. Sorry if you were offended. Good luck and god bless.
I will keep you in my prayers. It's funny how some people will make fun of somebody who struggles with this, then go home and drink themselves silly. Bondage in sin is bondage, regardless of what it is.
joedownthestreet
Since Mar 15, 2004
By your admission/confession, you run the risk of alienating heterosexuals (who may deride you or shun you) and alienating homosexuals (who will surely berate you for "not being true to your feelings"). Consequently, your decision to approach this problem forthrightly and attempt to help other's facing similar struggles strikes me as very courageous.
May God continue to bless you with the power and courage of the Holy Spirit to keep you free from Sin. May the Peace of God be with you always, now and forever.
Good luck to you Joe. I was once enamored of syringe needles injecting poison liquid into my blood stream.
The message of Jesus brought me back. You are a courageous man, and I salute you. Ignore the taunts. Take them in stride. I hope you find the right lady and have children.
You know most problems, I mean the lurking kind aren't really actively solved, like changing faulty spark plugs in a car, but trasnscended, forgotten, as if cured not by surgery, but by a healing balm. The message of Jesus, by setting you on a better path, propitiates that. Bring children into your life and you'll be so busy and distracted, so grounded in the "what's what" that you'll occasionally look at the past wondering if that was you... but mostly you'll be looking towards the radiant future someone of your great human courage deserves.
((joe))
God Bless you.
I don't have gay tendencies but I can relate. I used to be submissive and had been since I was a little kid. My parents divorced (no regular father-figure in my life) and my mom is very liberal. I was raised to be a post-feminist nice, effete "man" and I grew up with a sense of inferiority to other guys. Basically the old "nice guy vs. bad boy" dynamic.
But as a I got older I was able to start raising myself, basically. I got hooked on snowboarding and move to the mountain to ride every day. It may not be football, but I ended out in the hospital many times trying new tricks. I taught myself to be tough. I wasn't the best athelete but I learned to love competing with other guys athletically. If someone beat me then I'd work twice and hard until I was better.
Eventually that rubbed off on my personal life. I felt like meeting women was a lot like sports. You compete with the other guys and the woman will choose a man who rises above the pack. I may not have always been that man but I learned to love the process of competing in that arena, whereas before I was terrified.
And at that point my old weakness just melted away. The submissiveness just doesn't work for me anymore.
That's my take on the gay thing. I have never met a gay man that I would consider to be an "alpha male". That doesn't mean people that have tendencies in that direction are any less intelligent or athletic (heck, look at all the gay dancers, I'm sure they are people that can turn the double play or go up and make the catch over the middle), but they have completely opted out of the game of competition among men. They just don't have the stomach for it.
You don't have to be the best (I'm not!), but you have to be willing to take your lumps and get back in the game and compete again.
as a footnote, my wife is a Christian and she led me to the Lord. But I don't think the transformation started with God. In the same way that people say "It takes a bigger man to walk away from a fight", it was only when I was genuinely able to get out there and get in the fight that I was able to walk away from it, put my trust in Jesus, and turn the other cheek.
Alcohol was my master.
Freed by the grace of God for 23 years now.
Christ is the only Answer bump!
People are continuously tempted to commit all manner of sins. Fighting it is a constant battle. The liberal concept of 'anything goes' aims to eliminate the guilt and feeling of (healthy) shame that results from sin.
Keep fighting. Keep praying.
A real church is a hospital for sinners. We require regular visits, self-appraisals, and ongoing treatment.
God bless you Joe, and thank you for your vulnerability and honesty.
God certainly has even more incredible things in store for you!
Glad to see you've confronted your problem and dealing with it. Just remember we're all slaves to sin, and that sin can come in many forms. Mine is alcohol.
Welcome to FR. Glad to know your relationship with Christ is the most important and He will guide you to make the right choices.
By the way, are you at all attracted to the opposite sex and would you like to get married and have kids some day?