Amazing Weekend—Amazing Grace

By: Steve Huston

Starting last week Thursday (10/7) through Sunday (10/9), American Decency was blessed to host our Freedom Realized Conference with Stephen Black and Laura Leigh Stanlake of First Stone ministries. Throughout five West Michigan locations, people came to hear the testimony of God’s transforming grace plus so much more. If you weren’t able to attend or there was more information than you could process at the time, call 231-924-4050 or email kimberly@americandecency.org to get your own DVD set (for a donation of any size) to watch or pass on to others. NOTE: We are only making DVDs of the Saturday event in Fremont.

Both of these godly people’s stories of brokenness and pain to healing and wholeness include loss, pornography, homosexuality, encountering the living Christ, and God’s transforming, sanctifying, and securing grace. This conference, however, was much more than just their testimony to God’s grace; it addressed Biblical truth, the causality of homosexuality, the deceptions surrounding “Gay Christianity,” and much, much more.

Stephen Black is very passionate about shedding light on several of the deceptions that are given by LGBTQ+ proponents. Here are only a few of them: “Jesus never talked about homosexuality.” “I was born gay; God made me this way.” “No one can ever really change.” He addressed these, and others, in a well-thought out way with quotes and studies to back up his statements.

In his presentation he included a quote from lesbian activist and writer, Camille Paglia. “Homosexuality is not normal. On the contrary it is a challenge to the norm. Nature exists whether academics like it or not. And in nature, procreation is the single relentless rule. That is the norm. Our sexual bodies were designed for reproduction. No one is born gay. The idea is ridiculous. Homosexuality is an adaptation, not an inborn trait.”

When it comes to homosexuality, Stephen is adamant that “it’s not nature; it is nurture (or lack of it).” That being the case, he states, “It’s important to understand the common causes of homosexuality if we are to compassionately help anyone to recover.” As a brief overview, his book (Freedom Realized) contains 11 pages on this topic. He and Laura also spent a considerable amount of time discussing this in the conference as well.

These two amazing and compassionate people fielded questions both during the presentation and after. Grounded in Christ and in the Bible, they would point people to various free articles on their resource table and take the time to pray with people.

Here are a few of the many articles that they would suggest during the conference. (All their articles can be found at First Stone Ministries.)

*A Grace-filled and Truthful Response Regarding “Gay Christianity”

* Perverting Grace – Red Flags to Alert You To Perverse-Grace Teachings

* Differing Views on Christianity, Identity and Homosexuality

*Prophecy of Pride

*Coram Deo–This term means “living in a cognizant state of being before the face of God

Let me share a grave concern about this conference. The attendance was small. That concerns us because there could be several reasons for that and none of them are good. Apathy, being deceived, fear, giving up…these are a few of the reasons people may not have shown up. Satan would love to keep these truths under wraps; but it’s the church’s responsibility to know the truth and speak the truth. We need to understand the truths revealed in this conference and then go out and put them into action. This is an important topic and it’s front and center in our culture, communities, the church, and schools; that was shown by the great percentage of those in attendance who shared their broken hearts over children, grandchildren, and others.

There was so much information given during the FREEDOM REALIZED CONFERENCE that I’ve barely scratched the surface here. BUT, you can hear it all and be blessed by the truths contained in Fremont’s Saturday event DVD set (for a donation of any size) by contacting us at 231-924-4050 or kimberly@americandecency.org. We also strongly encourage you to request a copy to give to your pastor. (If you’ll promise to give it to him and check back with him to see if he watched it, we will provide the DVDs for him free of charge.)

“Total deliverance from homosexuality comes only through a new lifestyle of absolute surrender and a complete dependence upon Jesus Christ as Lord.”

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