TESTIMONIES |
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11
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TESTIMONIES |
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11
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“I didn’t know how to handle attention from men and boys,” recalls Charlene Cothran. “I was tall for my age and fully developed at nine-years-old.” Her parents divorced when she was three and the absence of a father left her hungry for affirmation from the opposite sex. “I wanted a guy to really like me.” But when she discovered that most of the boys she met wanted one thing: user her, it turned her off. “I decided no more of this,” Charlene recounts. She then closed her heart to boys at 14 and fell into a trap in which lesbianism felt like a “safe alternative.” In doing so, she drifted from her Christian faith which was part of her upbringing. “I learned the Scripture; I learned about Christ and the cross and His redemptive power. I believed it.” She had once been a youth leader in her church. EXPLORING THE GAY CULTURE
When Charlene went off to college in the ‘70s, she felt like she was “outside the covering” of the church and she began to explore gay clubs and gay culture in the Atlanta area. “Little by little I gave more and more of myself, my thought processes, and my belief system to the gay lifestyle.” After college, Charlene began to produce private social events for black lesbians in Atlanta, which were very successful and drew a large following – including many pillars of the community. Ten years later, she launched Venus magazine. Aimed at African American gays and lesbians, it gained a multitude of subscribers throughout the world. At the height of her publishing career, she was hit by the early and unexpected death of her mother due to complications from ankle surgery. Charlene and her live-in partner decided to move closer to her grandmother in Yonkers, New York following her mother’s death. Charlene bought a three-grave plot for her mother, grandmother, and herself. “That was the beginning of God changing my outlook,” she recalls. “Every time I would go and put flowers on my mother’s grave I was reminded this is where I’m going to be some day. That made me stop and think about things that are eternal. I knew getting buried is not the end.” "What will happen on the other side of death?" she wondered. “Gays did not pay attention to eternity,” she says. “Nobody wanted to talk about death. They pretended that every gay person who died is in heaven.” Because of her upbringing in the church, she knew that couldn’t be true. But as she considered the seeds planted in her heart during her formative years, she felt conflicted. She thought she couldn't get out of the lesbian lifestyle. "You can’t go back to that. You’re a lesbian," she thought. A LIFE-CHANGING PHONE CALL On a Tuesday morning in June, 2006, Charlene placed a call to a prominent female minister in New Jersey. “Where are you in the Lord?” the woman asked Charlene. “I’ve been lesbian my whole adult life and I don’t think I could be anything different,” Charlene replied. Then the minister “opened the book of her life” and shared her own rough past, which included incest, drug addiction and prostitution. The woman told Charlene that feelings of unworthiness were from the devil. “I know you want to come back to Christ, Charlene,” the woman affirmed. Then Charlene felt God speak to her heart, "This is your day. Choose today whom you will serve. If you choose Me today, I have a Jeremiah 29:11 plan for your life. If you refuse me today, you can do whatever you want, but at the end of that road is judgment." But the enemy was speaking in the other ear, "Well, what about your income? You can't stop publishing Venus magazine." And she said, "I don't know how I'm gonna do it. All I know is, I've got to trust God and choose God.” The enemy kept saying, “Well, what about the speaking engagement that you've already been paid to go to New York City, to the Schomburg, the gay pride. What are you gonna say? You can't get saved today!” Charlene resisted saying, “I don't know what I'm gonna say, but I know I'm going there as a saved person because I'm choosing the Lord today.” Something like scales fell from her eyes and the light of Christ re-emerged. Charlene looked down and was shocked by what she saw. “I literally looked at my hands and my hands looked new. The world looked different that day.” LIVING THE FAITH After her repentance, she still went on to the Schomburg gay pride. She didn't call ahead and let them know that she had a change of life. She knew that God would give her the wisdom on what to say and He did in a passage of scriptures. But on the other hand, she was feeling a bit nervous because she knew the gay and lesbian community. They could have some kind of fit on her. She was part of a panel discussion where the speakers were all publishers whom she knew very well as they have participated in many events before. The host would ask questions and they shared their experiences. The first question was, "How did you all get started?" she certainly shared how "Venus" got started, and everybody else did. Second question was "How did you gather the audience that you have now?" So she shared that as well. But the last question he closed with was, "Where do you see your publication going now?" She knew that that was the door that God opened. She began to say, "You know, the direction of 'Venus' is going to change 180 degrees. We're going totally in an opposite direction. Our mission up until now has been to encourage gays and lesbians to stand up and be who they are in the community and come out of the closet and be proud and let your parents and neighborhoods know. We're going now in the opposite direction. We want to let gays and lesbians know that this is not what God intended." After that, you could hear a pin drop in that auditorium. And she continued, "This is not what God intended and Venus is going to now instruct people on how to get out of homosexuality and not only that, but you can't just get out on your own. It takes a committed relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what He's done for me.” It took a while for the silence to break up. And she didn't say anything, and they didn't say anything for a minute. The host, when he finally got over the shock, went on to the next speaker. But then a little fright set in because, of course, there was a reception immediately afterwards, and she didn't really want to go and was thinking of going home. But God said to her, "No, if this is your ministry, then this is where you begin. You're going to stay and take whatever comes.” She thought people were going to be cold to her and leave her all alone but to her surprise, one by one people came to her thanking her for her courage and sharing their story how they were not happy in the homosexual life style. “After a year I started to get letters from people saying they were tired of the gay lifestyle,” she notes. Her gay friends laughed at her story. Many predicted she would be back in the gay clubs within six months. After six months went by and she had not returned, they said she would be back in a year but it's been almost 9 years and she still hasn't returned.
5 Comments
sandi
8/8/2016 11:20:02 pm
"This is not what God intended and Venus is going to now instruct people on how to get out of homosexuality and not only that, but you can't just get out on your own. It takes a committed relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what He's done for me.” God bless you to utilizing the strength He gave you. May He continue to use you to help others who are so misguided. I pray He keeps you strong and loving and may He bless you richly!
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Elder JD Pearson
8/8/2016 11:40:19 pm
I love testimonies like this, please get with me we need a revival and a deliverance service.
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Angela
3/26/2017 12:55:09 am
Wow!! Such a beautiful testimony!! Thank you for sharing.
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Jessica araya
3/5/2019 02:33:30 am
Que tremenda bendciones este testimonio, gracias por compartirlo. Me siento identificada con aquellos que declaraban estás cansados con la vida gay. Dios también hizo un milagro en mi vida y me saco de este estilo de vida.
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