Former Homosexual Turned Pastor Recalls How Movie on Christ Made Him a 'New Man'
A leader of a Christian organization has admitted that he was once a homosexual who decided to live an openly gay lifestyle after failing to find relief in the church.
Going to church "a lot," fasting, praying, and confessing his homosexuality to church elders didn't relieve Darryl Foster of his sexual identity problem, according to CBN News.
Foster is the founder and executive director of Witness Freedom ministries, a Christian outreach to men and women who struggle with same-sex attraction.
Sharing his testimony in a YouTube video, Foster said his problem became even worse when he told church leaders about his problem, including the fact that at age 13, he was molested for several years by an older boy at church.
Instead of helping him, the church leaders even blamed him for what happened to him, Foster shared.
"It tore me to pieces," he said, adding that the pain of feeling let down by his church led him to openly embrace the gay lifestyle.
"I decided that I would no longer try to be what I thought God wanted me to be. I decided that I would be a homosexual," he said.
However, the gay lifestyle, including the sexual encounters, only left him feeling empty inside and bereft of joy. The depression filled him with suicidal thoughts.
But one day, something amazing and life-transforming happened to him: God talked to him.
After watching a Christian movie showing the tremendous suffering and excruciating pain that Jesus experienced before He died on the cross, Foster said he had a vision of Jesus.
"I did all of this just for you," he recalled Jesus telling him.
He said he was stunned and couldn't help but cry.
"I didn't think anybody heard me or saw me and I could not believe that He would say to me that He endured this for me," Foster said. "He took this pain, what these people were doing to Him, He did it for me. And at that time I realized it was Jesus."
Right then and there, Foster found the strength to get rid of his homosexual feelings and abandon the gay lifestyle.
"I decided that I would ask God to forgive me," he said. "I fell on my face before God and I began to ask him how could you love me knowing all that I've done?"
When he got up, Foster said he felt like a "new man."
"I was a new creation. All the old things had passed away and my life had become new on that day," he said.