A Soldier for the Lord with HIV<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The testimony of James Hartline has blessed me, and I am proud to say he is my friend. With his permission, I am posting the testimony of this man who lives to tell others about Jesus, walking the road of the cross with HIV. We are going to give out his testimony in our outreach at the Lighting The Way "Heart for Him (Psalm 37:4)" booth in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />West Hollywood, bringing the gospel to homosexuals. As we read about all of the error in the church today, how refreshing to see an authentic Christian making the most of every day for Jesus. James also sends me important research against the emerging church and contemplative prayer and the gay agenda in America. He is quite a soldier for the Lord, even shutting down gay bathhouses in San Diego for God's glory--all the while with death threats on his life. May his testimony invigorate us all as we journey toward (to quote John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress) the "Celestial City", avoiding the "land of Doubt" along the way.From the Journal of James Hartline:My Gethsemane has been a lonely and arduous battle for me. The long shadows of death have encompassed me for nine years now. On December 1, 1997, I was infected with the virus that causes AIDS. There is no cure. That is the beginning and the end of the matter. Without a miracle from God, I will one day succumb to this wretched disease. Those who engage in homosexuality will eventually bite into what the Bible calls the "Vine of Sodom." Once I bit into that seductive fruit, the poison began to make its parasitic march throughout my bodily organs and systems. Oh, what a fatal flaw, did my thinking provide me, when I thought that sin's consequences would pass me by on its deadly way to others.I have had to go to Gethsemane many, many times to wrestle with God and my flesh in dealing with AIDS. Each time, the wrestling has brought me closer to Him. Most bound in homosexuality will die in their sins rather than repent and surrender to Christ. The mind, once given to that reprobate state, will rarely find its way out of that pit of delusion and eternal damnation. I am most fortunate. For, in my wrestling over this disease of AIDS, I have surrendered my flesh and all homosexual desires to God. In the process of seeking healing from AIDS, I have been completely delivered from homosexuality. Gethsemane has served me well in the eyes of God.Arrows of Hate, Arrows of Scorn"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake." Luke 6:22Most American Christians are oblivious to the extreme hate that is now manifesting in major metropolitan areas of the United States towards those that adhere to a belief in the Bible. Nowhere is that hate more intense then inside of the homosexual communities within America's urban areas.Living inside of Hillcrest, the homosexual stronghold of San Diego, California, it seems as if I have been swallowed up at times, into a great caldron of hostility and bigotry because of my faith. What have I done wrong? What have I said that has germinated such anger towards me? Simply, standing for Christ and proclaiming the Word of God, has brought me into a war that I did not invent. Nevertheless, by surrendering to the will of God, I have enlisted in such a battle. It is a war over philosophies. It is a war over ideas. And most assuredly, it is a war with titanic spiritual dynamics: it is the war of ages between God and the rebels under Satan's spell. Everyone who chooses to pick up the cross of Jesus Christ will enter into this conflict. To wave a white flag in surrender to Satan, is to drop the cross and deny Christ.
Posted by Dwayna Litz
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Dwayna Litz
Lighting The Way Worldwide
www.lightingthewayworldwide.org
www.lightingtheway.blogspot.com
P.O. Box 202
New York, NY 10044