My friend Ryan is transgender. In the past I hated God, but now I was a little more receptive to the idea of trusting in Jesus. In this article, I want to share some thoughts I’ve had about how I disciplined Ryan. transsexual, you’ll have some ideas to start with.
The most obvious problem you have probably imagined is that Ryan is not yet a Christian. How could it be disciplined? Then? Well, evangelizing and discipling are basically the same: getting people to see Jesus with his extremely satisfying treasure, so don’t worry, thinking that this article doesn’t apply to you. Even if you discipline Christians instead of non-believers.
- The reason I met Ryan is that I don’t ask a lot of questions.
- If I had been a little more careful at first.
- I could have avoided this whole situation and stayed in my conservative evangelical bubble.
- I was the most passionate.
- Outgoing.
- Cheerful person I’ve ever met.
- And you couldn’t say no.
- Because she always responded with things like “Jesus told me to talk to that person!?That makes you wonder if Jesus should have accompanied him in the car that day.
- Amy came to see me a day before our Wednesday prayer meeting and asked if I could meet a friend from her school.
- A homosexual who didn’t believe in Jesus yet.
- But who had asked for faith.
- She was so excited.
- So joyful in Jesus.
- So convincing in her tone: “Are you a shepherd and this is your job?”I can’t say no.
After accepting, he told me the rest of the story: Ryan was one of the outcasts at the university, because he dressed as a woman once a week. I had scheduled a sex-change operation for next spring. Was he married? With a young woman, lesbians, out of sheer formality, so she can discreetly maintain her homosexual lifestyle. His parents had kicked Ryan out of the house, and he hadn’t been to a church since he was a kid. I honed Amy’s trust and said I’d like to meet Ryan. So I went home and despaired a little.
The next morning, I knelt down and began to pray in the midst of my disability, I had never managed to reach homosexuals. Is my strong personality finally harsh and intimidating? Even for some Christians. So, for those who were wounded by the church, I should look like Genghis Khan. My prayers that morning were brutally honest and unso creative. Dear Jesus, followed by some exclamations and some growls.
That night, I met Amy and Ryan at a cafe. And in those first few minutes, God did profound work in my life. I think I was hoping to meet Dennis Rodman in a wedding dress or something. What I found was a human named Ryan, created in the image of God, with the same wounds, scars and questions as you and me and everyone else. Don’t get me wrong – there was a lot of discomfort on both sides of the table. It was much worse than one of those first dates. Ryan was pissed off. It was clear to me that he was testing me, to see if he could trust me. And I also felt uncomfortable, fearing that he would find out at any moment that I was Genghis Khan, if he got up and started shouting obscenities at me and making a great scene. Part of my fear was selfish, but part of this fear was sincere about the kingdom of God. He was sitting at a table with someone who had been deeply hurt by the Christians. She had finally found a happy daughter of Jesus whom she could trust. And now he was risking an interaction with a real pastor. I felt that many things were in danger during this meeting.
My goal in telling Ryan’s story is to convince you that discipleship must be focused on the gospel. To see a real transformation in someone’s life, you must make them rejoice in Jesus more than money, love, ambition, or selfishness. The only way to do this, is to constantly remember your state of sin and your faults?Can the bad news of the gospel, only then, encourage him to rejoice in God’s mighty grace through the cross?The good news of the gospel, so that he can feel and believe deeply in God’s radical love for him. Jack Miller, a missionary and seminary teacher, used to summarize the gospel in two sentences: “Rejoice: you are worse than you think. But rejoice: God’s grace is much greater than you ever dreamed of. ? The same gospel that saves sinners sanctifies believers. The gospel not only places you right before God, but frees you to plead with God.
Read on in Part 2
Is this book by award-winning author Kevin DeYoung on time and challenging each of us?Skeptical or interested, safe or confused? Humbly look at what God’s Word says about homosexuality. DeYoung examines important passages from the Bible and its teaching on sexuality, and answers the questions and objections that have been raised by Christians and non-Christians on this subject, making this book an indispensable reading to consider biblically one of the most debated and controversial topics of our day.
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