Surprised no one has mentioned this yet . . .

Ray Boltz Comes Out | Liveblog | Christianity Today

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Rae W. | Elder @ Grace Central Presbyterian Church | Columbus, OH
Online presence: blog | twitter | facebook

That...just...doesn't seem believable...

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Ian Kemmerer
Trinity Bible Fellowship, Blandon, PA
Fleetwood, PA

"Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, And all is darkened in the vale of tears, Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay From His own fullness all He takes away."

"Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee."

When God chooses to blind someone, it is amazing the amount of wickedness they will attribute to God.

I wonder when the next pedophile will blame God for making him that way?

Very sad. Thanks for sharing,

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Adam B., Wine Country, California, PCA

"He who drinks much beer, sleeps well. He who sleeps well, does not sin. He who does not sin, goes to heaven." Martin Luther

Wow.

How pathetically sad.

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Ben
Chaplain, US Army
Ft. Riley, KS
TE Ohio Valley Presbytery, PCA

I am a gross immoral sinner that deserves Hell. That is the way I was born.

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Benjamin P. Glaser, M. Div
Licentiate Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

Member: Fairmount ARP Church Pittsburgh, PA
Attending: Looking for a Reformed church in North Central WV
Preaching: Nov. 8 Belington Presbyterian & Beverly Presbyterian PC(USA) Churches

Deo Vindice

well I wish it wasn't so.

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Richard H. King
Providence PCA
Lubbock, Texas
You know what my main problem is? I start things but rarely finish anyth...

Dissappointing to hear. To have the desires is one thing. To give onself over to them is sinful.

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"I was found by those who did not seek me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me." Romans 10:20b

Angela Asano
Edwardsville, IL
Member, Center Grove Presbyterian Church - PCA

"History never repeats itself, but it rhymes." - Mark Twain

His wife is now an advocate of this group.

Soulforce : Freedom for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People

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B.J. Edenfield
Member of Independent Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Savannah, Ga.
"Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave"- Stonewall Jackson

It's not all that amazing, actually, since they are in fact blind.


Anyway, who is this guy?

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Davidius
Husband of Emily
Member of All Saints Anglican Church - Chapel Hill (AMiA / Anglican Church of North America)
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German and Classics

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Bill in Dayton, OH
Member of Redeemer OPC

"Show me Your ways, O LORD;
Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day." (Psalm 25:4-5)

Ah, youth!

Or perhaps you just haven't seen enough music specials on Sunday morning.

My first thought is that a lot of people who sang Ray Boltz songs in church are going to question whether they were wrong to do so.

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Evie B.
New Members Class, RPCNA, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. -- Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV)

At first I thought it was the guy who played the Scarecrow on Wizard of Oz...

Well, that'd be a pretty silly thing to think.

Never heard of him.

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Ivan R. Schoen, B.A., M.A., M.L.I.S.
Pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church (SBC)
Poplar Grove, IL, USA
http://maranatha-sbc.org

Thank you.

I was just thinking of how a lot of evangelicals instantly boycott anything tainted by homosexuality -- not saying that is wrong -- and wondering if the same would happen here.

No, but I may be more inclined towards using his cd's as Frisbees, and less likely to play them now.

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Sterling Harmon
Presbyterian Church of Coventry (PCA)
Coventry, CT
Deacon
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"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk
Interim Pulpit Supply of New England

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He was a very popular Christian recording artist a few years back. I have a couple of CD's by him.

I did some research, read about him, listen to about four of his songs and I can tell you that I've never heard of this guy.

You're not missing much. His songs - his hits, anyway - were mostly sappy, sentimentalistic ballads. I never had the slightest interest in his music.

Yeah, the fact that he made bad music pretty much did that for me a long time ago. ;-)

Well silly me, I actually LIKED most of his stuff (though not agreeing it should have been sang in Church). How sickening to hear about this.

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Adam - Pennsylvania - Baptist

http://www.myspace.com/aleavelle

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/p...5655012&ref=nf

A nod to those who liked him, but I listened to four of his songs on YouTube and I couldn't stand them. Sappy is right. Never liked the type of music he performed so it's little wonder I've never heard of him.

I used to really like this song most

The worst is his justification of wickedness. Very horrible.

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[B]Manley Beasley[/B]
Southern Baptist Convention
Fayetteville, Arkansas

[B]Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum (We are beggars. This is true.).--Luther's dying words[/B]

Boltz recorded a few songs that I liked. "Watch the Lamb" and "The Bells are Ringing" were a couple of my favorites.

This was sad to hear.

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Ryan Barnhart - Pastor of OGBC
Husband to a beautiful wife, Father to two beautiful girls
Student at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary - B.D.

"I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms. And in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." - John Paton

His "testimony" screams the poverty of Evangelicalism today. People view their Christian walk and struggle as awaiting some "second blessing" to be delivered from further temptation and sin. The gospel of grace that announces Christ's righteousness and not our own is rarely preached from pulpits. Even the song "Thank You" is a song of the victory theology that permeates the "Christian" music scene.

Christianity is viewed as something that "works" or it doesn't. What kind of "testimonies" are on display with respect to sin? "I was delivered from alcohol and never desired another drink" or "I was gay and now I like women because God healed me completely". Those who never hear the true Gospel but simply hear the stories of victorious living by those who "dare to be a Daniel" are left hoping, week after week, that if they try really hard or "really let go this time" that they'll break through and their sincerity of effort will deliver from sin.

The sad part about this story is not a man convinced that something abominable pleases God. True, that's very sad. What's sad is that American Evangelicals have no testimony of the true Gospel for this man. Most will simply fold their arms and think of Ray as a sinner who doesn't get it like they do. Unlike them, Ray now has a sinful heart because they're remaining dedicated.

May God send a reformation.

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Rich
PCA, Northern VA
Student, New Geneva Theological Seminary

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Rich!!!

For these folks, It is all about "victory" (self induced with a shout out to God for the assist) and how sad is that?

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This is very sad. I kept wondering where is his church family? If what Boltz says is true, he thought Christ would help him with it, but he was afraid to ask for help for fear of being rejected. As awful as the sin is, a repentent Christian who is struggling with this sin should feel free to confide in his pastor or elders and get help without fear of being kicked out of the church (as long as he is truly repentent).

I am wondering where the church has been in the last 40 years or so as this sin has become epidemic. I saw it in the upper levels of the PCUSA, and in the Church of England. I'm sure it is common in other denominations. For years, these folks hid their sin behind the mask of a clerical robe where a lot of other like-minded folk were hiding as well. Meanwhile, the more conservative denominations were pointing fingers and pushing out anyone who even mentioned they had the slightest inclination in that direction.

What if, instead, the elders and pastor quietly pulled the individual aside and began working with them offering all the help, support and counseling available until the person was drawn back to Christ?

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

Semper Fidelis;

This jumped out to me, I am one who struggles in this area, so I know that I have to lean on God to help me get through those times when stress begins to take over and I yearn for that drink. I know I have to flee from those times of temptation and not give in to them.

There are times I have had to drive home a different direction, because there is a bar or liquor store the other way and that temptation to give in can be overwhelming. So I have to make a conscience effort to go the other way.

I can not hold on to the lie, that I was born a sinner, therefore it's okay that I sin..I have God's word to cling to and read and trust that my heart and flesh desires to sin against God and not to please Him, only through fleeing and running away from those temptations and trusting Him during those times can I please Him.

And we all have those same type of struggles in our lives..

this is the message Mr. Boltz needs to hear..

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Bobbi Clark
Covenant Member
Pinewood Pres. (PCA) Middleburg

When I kept Silent, My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Psalm 32:3

According to his homepage, he seems to be performing at many Metropolitan Community Churches in the US. A church started exclusively for the homosexual community.

I don't understand it either. The most frequent thing heard if you say that the bible says that homosexuality is a sin, the response is "no it doesn't." And that's the extent of the argument. Along with the UCC's slogan with "progressive revelation" - "God is still talking." "We live in different times and God is okay with it now" because self-esteem is more important than justification.

I don't know...it just really bugs me that he is trying to justify sin, publicly. What if anyone said "I am a __(insert depraved state here)___", would it make press? Some other respectable sins...lust (when with the male friends at the bar), blasphemy every once in a while, taking gum from a co-worker's desk sans asking, coveting, too busy to pray. And what if we really opened it up and read the sinful thoughts of this singer like a computer chip in the back of his brain? Would he be telling the press about all those other sins? Why is this one so special?

(BTW, never heard of him before today).

This brought tears to my eyes. "The Anchor Holds" was a favorite song of mine.

This is a part of the falling away spoken of in Scripture; when things get worse for the people of God in the West — the "civilized" countries — the falling away will be exponential, and the remnant small.

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Steve Rafalsky
Elder, International Evangelical Church (Reformed)
Limassol, Cyprus

"I am set for the defense of the gospel" (Philippians 1:17)

"Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious
power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness..." (Colossians 1:11)

Blog: A Great and Terrible Love

As Luther noted in his 1518 Heidelberg Disputation, the "theology of glory" was alive and well at the time of the Reformation. Unfortunately, broad evangelicalism has rediscovered it and found even more ways to glory in anything other than the "theology of the cross."

Today in Sunday school a woman kept challenging me about what is wrong with presenting the Gospel in terms of the "benefits" to our marriages, families, lives, etc. Well, for one, it is not the Gospel. The Gospel is not about how God helps me up over the last rung on the ladder to get to the top ("reach out to Jesus, he's reaching out to you"). The Gospel is about me having fallen to the bottom of the ladder with two broken legs and two broken arms, utterly unable to climb at all.

I tried one last analogy on her. If you want the Gospel of Santa Claus, beware!!! Last time I checked, Santa didn't just bring the presents, he was also "making a list, he's checking it twice, he's gonna find out who's naughty or nice." A Santa Claus Gospel depends on our being good and deserving his largesse = legalism.

It is no accident that the plank Luther tried to get his Augustinian colleagues to walk at Heidelberg was to face the fact that self-righteousness and my accumulated merit will lead in only two directions: to existential despair or to the foot of the cross.

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Dennis E. McFadden, Ex Mainline Baptist (in Remission)
Atherton Baptist Homes, CEO
First Baptist Church of Alhambra, Member, Transformation Ministries (CA)

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It is a huge disappointment. I have listened to Christian radio for years, and certainly they played his songs.

That "falling away" thought is a little scary.

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Janis
Christ Church ARP, NC
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Eph. 1:3-6 ESV

Jerusalem Blade;

that is one of my favorites as well, and I have to look at it this way, if I never listen to any music performed by a sinner, I'd never listen to any music at all..

What really makes this sad is that *he believes* "God thinks it's okay for him to give into this sin and not flee from the temptation", but even that plays into what many churches teach today. May God have mercy..

is it any wonder there is a woman running for the second highest office in this land?? and how many throughout the world are angry at her stance concerning God? They react, in what appears to be the most logical way, if we take Scripture into account..as if she is an alien in their land.

I see it even more radical than that. Using you analogy, I'd be at the bottom of the ladder DEAD! Or no ladder involved at all, me just dead.

And what was her response?

AMEN, brother, AMEN!!

I talked to a cousin of mine today who had him at his church (Assemblies of God) last year to sing. What disapointed him the most was that he was still hiding his homosexuality, all the while touring in churches that, under these current devolopments, would have not let him perform.

I personally wonder about a lot of music people in the church, at least the churches I was in before becoming Reformed. Some of them were so blatant that I wondered how anyone could miss it.

(More than a few youth pastors met this same criteria). Sad

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Erick Bohndorf, Redeemer Presbyterian PCA
http://qayaqtraveler.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pr...90&ref=profile
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. Ecclesiastes

If he came out of the closet does this mean that he is going to start living an openly gay lifestyle like "secular" actors and singers do?

Dear Ray.

God did not make you gay.Brethren his claim that God created him this way is a grave eternal mistake and Jesus said by their fruits ye shall know them {Matt 7:16}and not everyone that saith unto Him Lord Lord can enter into His glorious Kingdom {Matt 7:21}

Ray saying God created him that way would be like a murderer saying the same thing when God`s Word condemns such.It is spit in the face of God and right out calling His Word a lie.

God have everlasting mercy.

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For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness
but unto us which are saved it is
the power of God.{1st Cor 1:18}AV