"I didn't make a big deal of it," Boltz says during a 90-minute phone interview from his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. "But I was trembling. I'd kind of had two identities since I moved to Florida where I kind of had this other life and I'd never merged the two lives. This was the first time I was taking my old life as Ray Boltz, the gospel singer, and merging it with my new life. Emotionally it was kind of a big deal to think about that."
"I thought I hid it really well," he says. "I didn't know people could see what I was going through, the darkness and the struggle. After I came out to my family, one of my daughters said she was afraid to walk in my bedroom because she was afraid she'd find me — that I'd done something to myself. And I didn't even know they'd picked it up."
"I thought, 'Well, I can just do what I always do and hide the truth or I can take a risk and be honest,'" Boltz says. "That day, with the tsunami, has become very symbolic in our family."
"It's hard to say I came out because I didn't have all the answers. I just admitted what I was struggling with and what I was feeling. It's hard to go, 'This is the point where I accepted my sexuality and who I was,' but I came out to them and shared with them what I'd been going through."
"I'd denied it ever since I was a kid. I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, 'I'm still gay. I know I am.' And I just got to the place where I couldn't take it anymore … when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, 'Just end this.'"
"I don't want to downplay it like it was just, 'Oh, well that's OK.' It was a very tough time for them too, but the bottom line was they loved me and they still love me … it's been an amazing journey of acceptance on their part … I was offered support and love from each member of my family, including my wife."
"Those were definitely wonderful, wonderful years," Boltz says. "There's absolutely no question about it … I believed what I sang but in the back of my mind, I always felt I could never quite measure up. So yes, they were good years, but there was also a lot of pain."
"You get to be 50-some years old and you go, 'This isn't changing.' I still feel the same way. I am the same way. I just can't do it anymore.'"
WE MUST FORGIVE RAY BOLTZ!
Matthew 18:34-35 (New International Version)
34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
Matthew 6:14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 6:15
But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
WE MUST BE PURE IN OUR INTENTIONS!
Luke 6:42
How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
2 Corinthians 12:7
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
THIS VERSE MANY OF US CAN RELATE TO.
ARE THERE SOME KIND OF SIN THAT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO TEMPT YOU??? That is this THORN in YOUR FLESH. A MESSENGER always wanting to TAKE YOU OUT!!!
1 Corinthians 6:9
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
NOW THIS IS THE POINT WHERE I WILL PAUSE....
There are TWO PARTS TO THIS HAPPENING where we SHOULD NOT ASSOCIATE with these kind of people.
BUT IT IS NOT FOR MANY NEW CHRISTIANS TO TRY ALONE
HOW TO TELL SOMEONE TO REPENT
FIRST: REBUKE
SECOND:TELL HIM YOU FORGIVE HIM IF HE REPENTS
Luke 17:2-4 (New International Version)
2It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3So watch yourselves.
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."
Ezekiel 18:30
"Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.
1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
2 Corinthians 12:21
I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
WE MUST REBUKE IN LOVE NOT HATE!
WE MUST HELP OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO STRUGGLE WITH SEXUAL SINS
COULD YOU IMAGINE A NEW CHRISTIAN WHO CAME FROM THE BACKGROUND???
THE LIVES THAT COULD BE CHANGED THROUGH THE TESTIMONY OF THERE LIFE!
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF SUCH A PERSON!
