各位朋友、主內弟兄姊妹：
澳洲工黨打算在今年七月舉行的黨大會提出強制工黨議員投票贊成更改婚姻定義，明顯為同姓婚姻開路，各位有良知的朋友和基督徒，請上網到 www.preservingmarriage.acl.org.au 填寫請願書或填寫附件的請願信並寄回 ACL National Office, 4 Campion Street, Deakin, ACT 2600. 同時也在此網頁內選擇”No”以投票反對同性婚姻: http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/05/26/02/09/greens-speed-up-marriage-equality-debate
願主賜力量為祂打美好的仗！
踏出黑暗 走向光明
| “同性戀 不是天生的，是可以被改變的” |
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在互聯網上曾經報導過一個很大的新聞，就是一個著名美國青年同性戀者雜誌的編輯，宣告他成為基督徒，退出雜誌社的消息。
這位叫邁克爾的年輕人，原本性格很軟弱，再加上他父親和母親在他人生當中最需要幫助的時候相繼去世，他對自己的性別還有其他人對自己的看法都十分茫然，因此他在十四歲的時候就成為一名同性戀者。
之後他成立並發行了美國青年同性戀者雜誌，為同性戀者爭取權利，為此贏得了無數的獎牌和鼓勵。直到2005年有一次被邀請到哈佛大學為同性戀者發表演說的時候，他看了自己表演的錄影後，開始懷疑自己的言論和由此所產生的影響。
他表示在他心靈深處始終有一種困惑和爭鬥，他認為同性戀並不是正常的行為，他覺得那是屬於一種淫亂，那種混雜在午夜狂歡當中，總是有吸毒和酒精，說到底那是黃色的東西。
他的困惑和問題沒有人可以給他答案，他就開始尋找上帝，向上帝尋找答案。
他開始讀聖經和禱告，在他的基督徒的姑姑的幫助下，他開始認識基督，認識真理。他相信耶穌說的是真理，相信耶穌是唯一值得信賴的，每次他的欲望促使他走向同性戀的圈子裏去的時候，上帝在他心靈深處的聲音讓他走向光明。
他表示人若陷在同性戀當中，根本無法認識真理，因為同性戀本身阻擋了真理，人必須走出同性戀的圈子，才有辦法走出黑暗。認識了基督，讓他認識到同性戀和他所 領導的同性戀權利的運動是一種背離上帝旨意的罪惡行為，他要成為一名正常的男人。他感到自從成為基督徒後，他不再困惑，也不再懼怕，因為主耶穌時時刻刻跟 他同在，幫助他度過許多似乎是很難跨越的障礙。他表示他自從轉變成自然的男人以後，感到從沒有過的自由、喜樂和開朗，他也很願意跟別人分享他是如何走出那 怪圈的故事。
在新約聖經裏耶穌說，我是世界的光。跟從我的，就不在黑暗裏走，必要得著生命的光。（約翰福音8:12）
聖經裏說：上帝就照著自己的形像造人，乃是照著他的形像造男造女。上帝就賜福給他們。上帝又說：要生養眾多，遍滿地面，治理這地；也要管理海裏的魚、空中的鳥，和地上各樣行動的活物。（創世記 1：17-18）這表明，上帝不是單單創造了男人或者單單創造了女人，而是有男人和女人，並且要男人和女人生養眾多。
因此，對於人類的婚姻，家庭和孩子，上帝在一開始創造人類的時候就給很清楚的旨意。而同性戀給婚姻，家庭和孩子都帶來了一系列的問題，是跟上帝的旨意背道而馳的，會給社會造成許多不可彌補的傷害。
現代醫學研究也不斷揭示同性戀的奧秘，同性戀並不是天生的，而是後天人的行為和社會環境所造成的，是可以被改變的。而人本身是很難自己改變自己的，只有依靠上帝的力量，才能從根本上走出黑暗，過一種正常、光明的人生。
(來源：生活月刊133期-2012年5月)
Stephen Bennett’s Testimony: husband, father, former homosexual
God’s Amazing Grace
In the fall of 1981, as an 18 year old aspiring artist with a dream, and a freshman at one of New York’s top art schools, I reached one of the darkest periods in my life. On a cold rainy night, far away from home I acted out on feelings I had throughout my entire childhood and teen years – I had my first homosexual encounter with another student. After drinking alcohol at a school party and getting drunk for the first time ever, something I swore I never would do because of my family’s past, my life literally changed in one night. I was plummeted into the deep, dark world of homosexuality. After only a few short months in art school, I suffered from a very severe depression, and dropped out of school and returned home to my family in Connecticut.
I found many of my old high schools friends had also “come out” as homosexuals, and became very active in the homosexual bar scene. I lived for the night – my drinking became worse, I started using cocaine to help alleviate my mental turmoil, and found much love and acceptance by other men. I had many numerous one night stands. I felt I was finally “me”. However, my drug addiction got worse to the point where I became a cocaine dealer just to support my habit – I lost my art business to drugs, as well as my dignity to a life based upon a perverse, sensual and decrepit lifestyle I couldn’t break free from. It was at this point many of my friends and one night encounters were getting “sick” and dying, and no one knew why. This sickness was the beginning of the Aids epidemic.
Things only grew worse and I saw a 135 lb. living skeleton, and I began to cry. I ran down to a payphone on the corner and called for help. I admitted myself into a drug rehabilitation program, and began my recovery as an inpatient for 3 months at a nearby facility. It was at this point I began to see God working in my life.
Within a few short months I was alcohol and drug free, as well as freed from my bulimia. I had gained about 25 lbs and was feeling great. However, I still had a deep dark secret past hidden inside of me. What was I to do with my homosexuality? Deep down inside I knew it was wrong, yet I was just suppressing it. After dating a few girls, I found myself one night back again at a local gay bar. I didn’t drink or do drugs – but that night I met a man that I fell in love with, and began a 3 year live in relationship with him. It seemed I had it all – my homosexual lifestyle and love, without the drugs, alcohol and bulimia, a great job, beautiful home, and great homosexual friends. I attended church faithfully every week – and felt I had it all. But God wasn’t done with me yet. In fact, He had just started.
My doorbell rang and it was my friend Kathy, a friend for years who had seen me through the good and bad times of my life. She had a Bible in her hand, and asked if she could come in.
Kathy told me she left her religious background and became a Christian. She told me how Jesus changed her life and how, according to the Bible, homosexuality was wrong – a sin and an abomination in God’s eyes. She told me how, according to the Bible, I was not “born that way”, and that it was a choice of lifestyle, from which Jesus could set me – today. I listened intently and something inside of me told me she was right. I told her I would take the Bible and she left. That day, the Word of God cut right through me. I saw my homosexuality for the first time as God saw it – as sin. Anytime something would happen between my partner and I sexually, I found myself praying for forgiveness to God on my bathroom floor. God was tugging at my heart strings, and I knew it.
The tugging was so hard and clear that I left my partner, my job, my family – everything, and headed off to Provincetown, Massacheusetts – a homosexual subculture – to live for a summer, to see if I could reconcile this pull between being a homosexual and being a Christian. Did I have to choose one or the other, or could I be both at the same time in God’s eyes?
Well, in that summer of 1991 God opened my eyes to the truth and perverseness of the homosexual lifestyle. I saw it all in full swing, in all of its glory – transsexuals, transvestites, sado masochists, men and women doing things one would never even imagine. After five months in Provincetown, I returned home to my partner asking for forgiveness for leaving him. I was sorry and I was going to put this “Christian” business aside. After only five short months at home in his house, by myself while wrapping Christmas presents, I happened to flip through radio stations and came across a Christian one. A man was singing a song and I heard the lyrics about “men marching for their right to sin”. I knew exactly what the song was talking about – it was talking about me. I may have put God on the back burner – but He was still chasing after me.
And on New Year’s eve of 1991 I attended a homosexual party with my partner, and for the first time ever in my life – I felt “dirty.” I hated myself. I hated my lifestyle. But I just couldn’t break free.
I called my friend Kathy on the telephone and told her I was going to move back to Provincetown for good and completely give myself over to the homosexual lifestyle. I felt as if I had lost my soul – I was crying out for help – and that’s when Jesus Christ stepped in.
She read to me from the Bible, from the book of Romans, how God will “call” you – and if He keeps calling you, and you hear, yet harden your heart, it may come to a point where He will make you a “reprobate” in His sight and give you completely over to your sin, and allow you to believe “the lie”. At that point, according to the Bible, you have basically sealed your destiny away from Him forever.
It scared me so much, I asked her what I needed to do, and she told me that I should pray to Jesus right then, ask Him to deliver me from the homosexuality and to forgive me for my sins and come into my heart and life to be my Lord and Saviour and to take control. At that moment I did, and physically felt the peace of God upon me.
On the telephone that day in January of 1992, I asked Jesus to come into my heart, and He set me free from homosexuality forever. That day God changed my life, and I will be eternally grateful to Him for what He did. Within two days I was out of my partner’s bed, and within two weeks I moved out of my partner’s home and was on my way and walk with Jesus Christ.
It is unbelievable how the journey has been. Within eight months, I was engaged to a beautiful Christian woman named Irene, who knew me as a homosexual and prayed for me for years. We were married on June 13, 1993. Today, we are very happily married. God has blessed us with two other miracles – our beautiful daughter Chloe Catherine who was born in 1999, and our son Blake Stephen, born on Chloe’s birthday in 2001. Chloe’s middle name is in dedication to my friend Kathy, who never gave up on me – a vessel of God, whom He used to change my destiny forever.
My life now is wonderful. I am truly free, and it is all because of Jesus Christ and His love for me. Jesus is the answer for all of our needs, no matter what they are. You may be, know or live with a homosexual, a drug addict, or an alcoholic. Let me make something very clear: God loves the sinner – yet He hates the sin. Remember that with God, nothing is impossible. Believe me; I know. I believe in miracles, for I’ve seen a soul set free! for that lost soul was me.
Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This is an update on marriage redefinition.
In a press conference held, Bill Shorten, leader of the Labour Party, announced that he would introduce a bill to legalise same-sex marriage.
Brothers and sisters, it is time to speak up and say NO to same-sex marriage. A big thanks to those who have already completed the online petition www.preservingmarriage.acl.org.au or completed the petition letter attached. If we do nothing now, what would we say to God on the Judgement Day?
Please let your friends aware of this. It has profound and adverse implications on our kids. We are irresponsible if we do nothing now.
This morning, Sarah Hanson-Young (a senator of the Greens) held a press conference pushing for a change in marriage definition. She said it’s time to recognise same sex marriage, drawing on the victory of ‘YES’ on same sex marriage in Ireland.
This is the war we have to fight for Jesus and for the generations to come. We Christians have been silent on this issue for far too long and the tide is now against us. If we continue to remain quiet, what happened in Ireland will definitely happen here in Australia.
Please spend a few minutes to complete the online petition at www.preservingmarriage.acl.org.au or fill in the form attached and mail it to the address on the form. Not to mention, your prayers are vital. Click “No” to disagree with same-sex marriage on this webpage: http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/05/26/02/09/greens-speed-up-marriage-equality-debate
Prayers + Actions = Results. Do it and God will be on our side.
Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has urged all people of Australia to take actions to preserve marriage. Here is what they say in their web site.
“In July, Labor’s National Conference will consider a move that would force all of its MPs and Senators to vote as one to redefine marriage.
If this motion is passed at the National Conference it would mean that any Labor MP who voted to preserve the natural, timeless and sustainable definition of marriage would be expelled from the party.”
Please sign the online petition at www.preservingmarriage.acl.org.au or sign the letter attached at your possible earliest convenience. Click “No” on this webpage: http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/05/26/02/09/greens-speed-up-marriage-equality-debate
Thank you for your support at this crucial time for the benefits of the generations to come.
May God give us the courage to stand up for Him.