JANUARY 18 "WHAT IS YOUR TESTIMONY TODAY!?"

Christian singer / songwriter Ray Boltz recorded 16 albums during his nearly 20-year recording career. He sold close to 4.5 million copies, won 3 Dove Awards and was a huge name for years in churches and the homes of Christian music fans until his retirement from the industry in the summer of 2004.
On September 14, 2008, Boltz again became a big name in Christian circles; but for a much different reason. Ray Boltz officially came out to the world as a gay man through an article in the Washington Post  

Though Boltz was married to wife Carol (they are now divorced) for 33 years and he fathered four children (all grown now), he said in the article that he had been attracted to other men since he was a young man. "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.'" Paul the Apostle wrote, "I bring my flesh into subjection every day, lest after having preached to others, I myself might become disqualified". The danger is that this can happen to anyone one of us. It may not be a homosexual affair, but is any affair, heterosexual or homosexual acceptable by any that have proclaimed the Gospel of Salvation to others? The reality is, whether we want to admit it or not, all Christians war with the flesh and temptations that they would often not admit or confess to another. Ray Boltz would say, the temptation was there for a reason, why would it be there if God had not put it there or made it that way? However, if a man takes this same approach and solicits a 17 year old girl for sex, (just 1 year short of being considered an adult) he will be arrested. Our society will even acknowledge that there are desires that lurk within man that are wrong, regardless of whether that temptation is there pounding on your door everyday, our society says, "restrain yourself, just because you have that desire doesn't make it right" and if you go ahead and engage in that lust/desire, we will arrest you! Ray Boltz simply lost the battle over his flesh. Why was it men that he lusted after, that is irrelevant, every man, every woman, every disciple has their own war that they must battle with their flesh, for some it may be perversion for others it may be hatred and violence. Regardless, Paul wrote, "I bring my flesh into subjection everyday, lest after having preached to others I myself might be disqualified. Who knows what Paul struggled with and who cares; the point is he struggled and he had a healthy fear, that there was a chance, if he didn't guard himself, he too, might find himself disqualified and shamed some day, even as Ray Boltz.

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