Sunny Side of The Stream: Man at Pride Festival Asks God for Freedom and Forgiveness
By Aliya Kuykendall
Stream.com
June 3, 2023
This is a beautiful and encouraging story to remind disciples of Jesus to be full of love, grace, truth and readiness to preach the Gospel even in the face of pride in sexual perversion. Surely June, a.k.a. "pride month", has the potential to be an exciting time to help people encounter God and the truth -- rather than a month we dread.
A young street preacher named Nicholas Bowling attended a pride festival and led a man who was wearing a dress in prayer to God. They prayed a prayer of repentance from sin and freedom from homosexuality. Bowling got the man's number to meet up with him later for a meal. It's such an encouraging scene.
Bowling posted the video to YouTube back in March. It's an hour and 18 minutes long and includes numerous interactions. Two weeks ago, another Christian content creator, Nick Jones, posted an abbreviated clip from the video with his own commentary, which is helpful to parse out what is being said at certain points.
In this shorter clip, Bowling encounters several people who argue with him. It ends with his interaction with the man he prays with. The man says he is married to a woman. He also says that he is a Christian and doesn't believe homosexuality is a sin. Bowling explains that the Bible says homosexuality is sin and that sin separates us from God. He says he's cautioning him away from homosexuality out of love because he wants the man to be close to God because God is love and God is amazing. The man listens. Bowling then tells him that he thinks deep down the man knows homosexuality is wrong and he has guilt and shame that he has to fight off. The man listens and nods. Bowling tells him that God can set him free. The man prays with Bowling to receive freedom. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neL-HX1EiG0
How beautiful!
I encourage Christians to watch this to see God's love in action through preaching the gospel at a pride festival and be encouraged. I pray this man experiences the true freedom of repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that he walks in newness of life all the days of his life, faithful until the end. The love of Jesus is so much better than the sins that separate us from God.
Documentary What is a Woman? Streams for Free on Twitter This Weekend
What is a Woman? is a funny, moving and important documentary made by The Daily Wire. It came out one year ago on the first day of June. In celebration of the one-year anniversary, The Daily Wire has posted it on Twitter, so now anyone can see it for free. Originally advertised as a 24-hour event, it will now be kept available through the weekend.
Through compelling conversations, Matt Walsh exposes how people who have bought into the gender madness can't give a concrete definition for the word woman without using the word woman in the definition. His conversations ultimately lead to the understanding of how dangerous gender ideology is for the people, and especially the minors, who buy into it, and how our society got to where it is today.
It's a powerful film that promoters of gender ideology have tried to silence. Even Twitter was suppressing its reach by not allowing the post with the film to be shared on the site. Thankfully, that restriction has been lifted. As of this writing, the video post has 70 million views. Read more in my article about the censorship -- and then promotion -- of this video stream here.
Is Pride Month Starting to Die?
Is pride month starting to die as controversy rises around the indoctrination, sexualization and mutilation of children? It seems some have decided this year that the pride rainbow isn't such a good look.
MLB's Facebook page shows their profile picture did indeed change from a pride rainbow at the start of June 1, back to normal on the morning of June 2. That was fast! I guess pride month is just getting one day this year?
But the pride logo had an even shorter life at the U.S. Navy's Facebook page. It lasted just over 3 hours. The Navy's pride banner lasted a little longer: less than 12 hours.
Praise the Lord that destructive lies are starting to become unfashionable.
Let's Use This Opportunity
As long as pride month is still around, let's use the opportunity. We can share the truth that no person is born in the wrong body, sex is for marriage between one man and one woman, and sin separates us from the God of love, goodness, truth and beauty.
The world needs to know that God is amazing. He's a loving Father, full of goodness and mercy, and He made us to know Him and represent Him to the world.
The world needs to know that God will pour out his justice against everyone who lives a life of moral crimes against Him -- which is all of us, without His help. But we can have peace with God and forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus.
The world needs to know that all we have to do to be connected to God and be forgiven of our moral crimes is to trust in Jesus to save us, turn away from the thoughts and behaviors God hates and begin to love the things God loves, be baptized and receive His Holy Spirit to live inside of us (Acts 2, especially verse 38).
Jesus said He's the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to God except through Him. By His grace, let's commit to staying on the path of life all our days, until the end, no matter the cost. Being with Jesus when He comes back to earth to make all things right and put an end to death and suffering will be worth it all.
Aliya Kuykendall is a staff writer and proofreader for The Stream. You can follow Aliya on Twitter @AliyaKuykendall and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.