The struggle with same sex attraction is real. But you don’t have to struggle alone or in silence.

You’ve heard my story. Now, on behalf of my dear friend, Vincent, we are unashamed to share his (LGBT) story with you too.

God has been so good to free Vincent from 29 years of sexual bondage which started from a childhood incident when he was 5 years old. Vincent has chosen to share his story in hope to be a voice of encouragement to others who may find themselves in a similar situation.

If you are a victim of sexual abuse or inappropriate advances, you need to know that you have a voice to change your situation.

It is possible to break out of the shadows of shame and addictions. You don’t have to feel hopeless or powerless.

Take the small step to share your story with someone you trust and let the healing process begin.

Come Out. Come Home.

Pastor Ian

The post The Struggle Is Real first appeared on 3:16 Church.

I believe shame dies when stories are told in safe places.

When I shared my story to my church and Dad, I found myself freed from the bondage and repercussions of being sexually abused when I was 5 years old.

Today I choose to share my story with you. My hope is that it will help many others to experience the freedom and love as I did.

I believe every story counts. It counts to know that you are not alone.

If you are a victim of sexual abuse. If you are wounded and silenced, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to share your story with someone you trust and let them journey with you.

Shame has no place in our purpose, plan and destiny. Be unashamed to speak.

Pastor Ian

The post Come Out. Come Home. first appeared on 3:16 Church.

“The place that I went to hide in was pornography”, I shared with my youths one Saturday evening, while they were gathered in my living room. We were having a life group session titled, “Where’s your hiding place?”

We wrestled with such questions: Where do we hide when we are in pain? Do we know where to turn to for comfort and safety?

Then God reminded me that evening – He is my hiding place.

In December last year, I brought to light my “dark” secret in front of a camera, as part of a 3:16 video series on people who experienced God’s redemptive power in their struggles. Pastor Norman had preached a related powerful Christmas message on how our scandal needn’t be our story, because we have a God who redeems. I had volunteered my struggle with pornography (while serving as a Church pastor) as one of the examples of “scandals” which God can redeem.

Mixed feelings of disappointment and relief arose when my “scandal” wasn’t eventually chosen to be aired that Christmas service. Disappointed, as part of me eagerly yearned to see how God would use my story to impact the world through its release, yet relieved, because I didn’t have to confront my fears of how things would actually turn out.

But I know my God.

He always has a perfect timing and plan in mind. Recently, Pastor Ian used my video in his sermon on the topic of sex.

When I agreed to letting my video be used, I cannot say that I wasn’t afraid at all of the way people might look at me after they knew of my dark secret, but I found myself more concerned that the enemy would continue to have his way with my purity and others’.

Let me be honest: between the filming of the video interview and its actual release, I did fall back into pornography a few times. I’m thankful that I managed to confess to someone each time and receive needed prayer, yet I was angry at how I could still lose the same battle.

I found out later that God was waiting to speak life into cracks deep within my soul.

The Holy Spirit gently brought me into a place of repentance and breakthrough with Him during the first week of the 21-day Church-wide fast this February.

“You’ve had bad memories of beauty”, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper.

God spoke to me about how I am created to be a beholder and protector of a woman’s beauty, as a man. Yet every time I was hurt by a lady and felt less than a man, I valued what I was meant to protect less. I began to view beauty not as something to behold and cherish, but as something to fix and control.

Pornography’s secret appeal was a sense of control over beauty. Viewing pornography was my act of rebellion against the beauty I was made to cherish and protect. Instead of becoming a loving guardian of beauty, I turned into an abuser of beauty. I witnessed how a love of beauty, when distorted, can become a lust for beauty.

I felt a significant breakthrough and victory over my sexual sins, when I allowed the Holy Spirit to go through a list of past failed relationships in my memory. I submitted to Him every pain-related encounter that I had with the opposite sex, be it virtual or real-life, from those that were physical and sexual, to those that were emotional and verbal. Allowing myself to acknowledge every sense of rejection and hurt experienced with women in my life, I asked the Holy Spirit to heal and restore every broken piece.

I believe that God’s timing – divinely coinciding my video’s release and the Church-wide fast – was an invitation to journey into deeper healing and restoration of my identity in Him. It meant a lot as the video sealed what God had spoken to me this season with regards to my identity in Him. It is my heartfelt prayer to see God use my testimony to bring people into a vulnerable space, where they can meet the God who heals brokenness and binds up the broken-hearted.

For a lot of us, man or woman, we struggle with sexual brokenness. A distorted view of beauty has often caused purity to become like a city without walls, susceptible to invasion of an originally sacred space. To see healing and restoration in a world that is sexually broken, we need the Holy Spirit to reveal and illuminate to us the true worth of beauty.

It’s time for us to rebuild walls, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and make God our constant hiding place. I promise that the Creator of beauty will heal unpleasant memories and show us who we really are in Him.

Pastor Joel Peh

The post Memories Of Beauty first appeared on 3:16 Church.

My name is Joseph, and this is my love story.

I’ve been searching for love since I was a young boy. For half my life, I looked up to men for affection and security that I had never experienced before. The relationships were pleasurable, but they never satisfied. I felt so empty within. There was shame I could not shun and a deep hurt that wouldn’t go away. The more encounters I had with men, the lonelier I felt. I yearned for love – love that would satisfy and bring joy; love that would never fail.

God pursued my heart. He showed me crazy love – relentless and pure. I met a people who loved God. They loved me so much. It was not the sexual or emotional love that I was used to, but an unconditional love that came from God the Father.

God wasn’t judging me. He was loving me. He wanted to forgive me. He desired a relationship with me. God never gave up on me. He has always been there.

As the love of God overflows my life, I no longer want to act upon my homosexual desires because I have found love in the right place, in the heart of my Father. As He holds me in his arms, I know that His love outlasts the ends of days. It goes deeper and deeper, and I’ll sing of Him until my voice won’t let me…

Dear friends, God loves you so much. Come as you are, and let His love change you.

The struggles are so real. But I am overcoming. I will overcome.

I’ve found family. This is Love. God is Love.

Love,
Joseph

The post This Is Family. This Is Love. first appeared on 3:16 Church.

Amy’s story declares the freedom of love. This freedom liberates her from finding her identity in gender. This love flows straight from Jesus Himself.

Amy’s journey of lesbianism was one of confusion and uncertainty. Now, she lives a life of joy, courage and security in Christ. Amy was resigned to her life of homosexual activity but God freed her. She used to believe that her sexual tendencies would forever remain. But God lifted those inclinations and turned her heart to Him.

The church has so much to learn from her story. Christians need to realise that we are a broken people. We face challenges in our relationships and our journeys are fraught with insecurity, fear and hurt. It is certainly not all rainbows and unicorns. The world needs God’s grace and love.

Lastly, I would like to thank Amy for sharing her story. Thank you for coming out, and for coming home. Coming out is never easy, but coming home is worth it.

Home,
Ian Toh
Lead Pastor
3:16 Church

The post Come Out. Come Home. first appeared on 3:16 Church.

It doesn’t take faith to see a situation as it is. You could look at what Alisa went through and say that it’s depressing, and you might not be wrong.

Because it might actually be depressing to lose your father in a freak accident when you’re 8, when you have to deal with bulimia, when your mother leaves you or when the one who loves you the most passes away. It’s depressing when you have to live with the weight of your suicide attempt for the rest of your life.

So you can see the situation for what it is and you will always remember it as what it was. Or, like Alisa, you can redeem it. Redeem death for life. Redeem bitterness for gratitude. Redeem suicide for strength. In your kingly influence, you have the right to redeem.

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. – Genesis 50:20

Pastor Norman Ng
Assistant Pastor, 3:16 Church

The post The 3:16 Stories: Alisa first appeared on 3:16 Church.