Good evening everyone.
Sorry, I just need to be very clear. I’m from Costa Rica, I have just five years ago I started this journey of overcoming sin, but at the same time overcoming the language barrier or borders. So is, it will be difficult for me to speak in English and this is the first time that I am speaking in such big church. But I’m so thankful for the opportunity that Village SDA Church has given to us, to communal ministries. And I am so grateful with God to give me this opportunity.
Seven years ago, I could not imagine to be here talking about sharing my testimony. I was that kind of people who were, I didn’t want to share what happened to me, to anyone. I just had just few friends that I talked to about, I talked about this and I said to them, I will never share this to anyone. But when I met Coming Out Ministries, I remember one of the members came to me, I shared my testimony and she told me that I should pray for that. Well, I’m here and now doing it in English is just wonderful.
God is wonderful. So I want to start with a word of prayer. Okay, let’s bow our heads. Our Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving us this great opportunity. This week has been a real blessing for each one of us. God, I just praise your name for the many things and blessings that you have given in my life and also our ministry. I just want to do everything for Your will’s sake, for Your name’s sake. So God, please guide me, give me, please help me to be very clear in my English and I hope everyone lives here very blessed after this. So God, use me. I am your son and I put myself in your hands. In Jesus we pray. Amen and Amen.
Okay, well, my presentation is the title is Living Dead but Resurrected. Maybe you have been thinking or asking or questioning why that title? Well, I was born in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. All my life I have been Seven day Adventist Church. My dad, he was studying theology in the Adventist university, the Central American Adventist university in Costa Rica. And he was 70s since he was eight years old. And my mom, she had like two years before I was born to be Adventist.
So they met in these activities for the church. Well, they fell in love, they came from very broken families. They just wanted to leave their homes. They didn’t want to deal with the different things that were happening in their houses, in their homes. And so they thought that the solution was to get married.
So they dated like seven months and they got married. And then after some months I was born. But the thing is that my parents and I want to show you. These are my parents. They were my dad, 23 years old, my mom, 19, and I was there. That’s one of the Adventist churches in Costa Rica, Moravia. Probably my friend. I forgot his name.
Ariel in Spanish. He’s from Costa Rica. And just so glad I can say Vida here. So they are there. But the thing is that, as I told you, they brought all those issues to the marriage, thinking that they were going to be gone, but not. That was not true. They began to be worse.
So, my dad started to be very harsh towards my mom. There was a circle of violence in my home. My dad started to hit my mom. And then after some years, my mom, she thought, I will not allow him to beat me all my life. So she fought back. And so it was a really mess. And this was something that I grew up with, this confusion, because I taught and I learned that if you are part of the Christian family, you have a happy life. And these things is supposed to not happen in our homes, our Christian homes.
But we were in the church, and the people looked at our faces, oh, they are a happy family. But they didn’t know what was happening in our home. When I was four years old, my dad left the church. He got a job that he had a very bad company and very bad college that invited him to go to bars and to meet women and all the mess. So it became more violent towards my mom because he came to home drunk in some time. I remember that I just wanted them to get divorced. I just wanted them to be separated because it was a great burden for us. I have another two brothers. They were with me. They were facing all this stuff with me growing up in this Christian Adventist family, also, there were many things that were from the world. For example, the music. I remember just all the week, sometimes we were just listening worldly music, and then on Sabbath, we were listening or switching to Christian music.
But I like it the most, the worldly music. So I think it’s something natural. We are sinners, and we want the bad things for us. And so that was a great confusion. Coming Out Ministries, we talk about identity, and it is not a matter of only people who were part of the LGBT community, but also, for many people, even in our church, that they were not dealing with that.
So, that was in my case, I faced a broken identity about who I am as a Christian. I like it the most the world. And I had the world in my own home. And I thought that God just wanted me to go to church and to be part of the different activities, like being a part of the pathfinders, adventurers, master guide, to be deacon, to be all the things that the Church provides, the areas and activities. But I did not learn three lessons that are very important for us.
The self control, the individual relationship with God. And I had a lack of faith. I don’t blame my parents because they gave to me only the information that they had at the time. And so I cannot blame them. But the thing is that these kind of things lead me to take bad decisions later.
So, I want to share with you this quote that is from Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students. It says in the page 85 that, “we are living in an age when almost everything is superficial. There is but little stability and firmness of character, because the training and education of children from their crowd is superficial. Their characters are built upon sliding sand. Self-denial and self-control have not been molded into their characters. They have been petted and indulged until they are spoiled for practical life.”
So, that was me, because my dad, I remember him talking to him and he thought that the most important thing for him to provide for us was only the material things. You have a home, you have food, you have clothes, you have all the superficial and material things. But the spiritual things were lacking in my home. But I need to thank my mom too, because she tried with the information, the few information he had. She tried to teach us those things, but the worldly things were really crushing us and it was like attracting us the most.
So, I remember when I was twelve years old and I was in my school and I was with these classmates and they were talking about pornography. And so it was something new for me at the time. And I just wanted to know what was that?
And so they explained to me how to get that information, because at the time, they don’t have this kind of cell phone that we already have right now. And so it was very difficult to get that kind of things. But I got them anyways and I got deeper in masturbation addiction. And so it was very difficult for me, not at the time, because I thought that I was doing the right thing. I remember going to church and there were some seminars that they talk about sexuality for the young people and they only said, no, that’s not right.
But that’s all. No more information. It was, just, don’t do that. That’s all. So when we grow up, just asking, why not? And that was my question. But when I came to that TV, in front of TV, looking at the news, there were several doctors and psychologists that they were saying, that’s good for you. So I say, well, if the church is saying to me, no, but they are not giving to me, why not? But these people who are professional are giving to me that information that is truly good for me. I will follow them.
They are professional. So, that happened to me. And several years I thought that I was doing right even when the church, they were saying no. So I remember being part of all these activities in my church. When I was 13 years old, my parents divorced, and I was happy. Let me be honest with you, I was really happy. I just wanted that to stop, doesn’t matter what. And either stopped in some way. But anyways, there were another issues. Well, my dad had this messy life, but I will talk about him later.
The thing is that when I was 19, no, 17 years old, I gave my life to Christ. But I think that I didn’t want to give that step because I remember an elder from my church, he was just pushing me and pushing me, you should baptize. You should baptize. And I was like, okay, I will baptize. And I got baptized.
I understand that it mattered. And I know that God saw that and he approved that. But the thing is that I was not in that spirit, that I really wanted that in my life. And two years later, when I was 19, I left the church. When I left the church, because thinking, I was thinking that, okay, well, everything is the same. Every Sabbath, every activity, everything is the same thing.
I just want to know what the world can provide for me. I want to know the world. So I went out and I remember that I went to bars and get drunk and all the kind of stuff, living the life of the world. But I remember being or thinking even I was very stuck with the music, the worldly music, that I wanted to become a DJ.
So, that was my dream, being out the church. And I was thinking about that. I wanted that. And then I now realized that I wanted to be praised. And sometimes we as humans, in some matter or in some way, we want to be praised. And I don’t know. In that time, I just imagine all the people clapping over me and saying, encouraging me to do those things. And I was preparing to do that. But I remember visiting my friends on the church after almost two years being out of church. And I remember this pastor, he gave this sermon. It really impacted my life.
And I say, if I continue doing this, I will not go out. I need to stop. And I came again to the church, but still with my addictions at the time, I was still thinking that was right, but there was something in my mind. It was telling me, no, Harrison, this is not right. Until I found this group that they were sharing in a home, like a small prayer meeting, youth people. And I remember that talking to them, I started to understand the righteousness by faith message. At that time, it was something. It just blew my mind.
I grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist church, thinking that I was going to sin until Jesus come openly. You are gonna sin until Jesus comes. So don’t worry. We all deal with sin, and we know we are going to be tempted. It’s different than sinning. So, I grew up thinking about that. But when I talked to them and I was part of these meetings, I understood that God wanted something else in my life, and He wanted to provide something else. And I was like, I want that. At the time, I started to pray, please, God, I don’t want this. I know now that I don’t want to be addicted to this.
So it was very difficult for me. And so I want to share with you this quote that says, “if the soul is to be purified and noble and made fit for the heavenly courts, there are two lessons to be learned, self-sacrifice and self-control. Some learn this important lesson more easily than do others, for they are exercised by the simple discipline the Lord gives them in gentleness and love.”
But that was not me. I was this one. “Others required a slow discipline of suffering so that the cleansing fire might purify their hearts of pride and self-reliance, of early passion and self-love, so that the true goal of character may appear and that they may become victors through the grace of Christ.”
So, it was a tough journey for me. So, remember that my dad left the church. And I remember one time, I was a deacon, then an elder, and I was still struggling with that. And I remember he came to me and said to me, Harrison, I want to give you a very good news. I want to be baptized. I want to give my life to Christ. And I was like, wow.
And I just remembered that he was visiting the church one Sabbath, two, then a month and two months. And I was like, what’s going on? He’s changing. The way he talked, the way he walked, he was changing. And I was, like, surprised about that. I had never seen that before. And I saw my dad going to church, like, one time, two times. That was all.
So I thought, oh, again. But the thing is that he had a year and then telling me that, but not just that. He asked me he said to me, I want you to baptize me. And I was, well, dad, that would be an honor. But I was struggling with something. But when I came to my home, I said to the Lord, Lord, I don’t want to do this anymore. And as You have been changing the life of my dad. All the mess that he did. I want the same power that You have been providing for him.
And I started this journey of victory. Then I met GYC, and that was the time when I met Coming Out Ministries. It was in Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky, 2015. I met Coming Out Ministries. I was part of the GYC, Costa Rica. And then I realized this. Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers p.456 asked, “What is justification by faith?” That’s why it’s very important for us as a church to share this message. It says that, “it is the word of God in laying the glory of the man in the dust and doing for man that which is not in his power to do for himself.”
That’s justification by faith. And that’s why ministry, like Coming Out Ministries and Know His Love Ministries are here. Because we are witnesses of the power of the Lord. So I met Coming Out Ministries, and I said, okay, that’s my dad. That they advertise him. It really helped me a lot. And then I met Coming Out Ministries. We brought Coming Out Ministries, and it just blew my mind. Whole people, LGBT people, they were able to have victory over their temptations and their sins.
Because I thought time before that, being gay, it was the worst thing for a human being. I want to close because my time is done. This quote that I think is very important. If you have not read this book, I hope you could. Victory in Christ from W.W. Prescott. It’s wonderful.It’s very short, little, small, but it’s powerful, it says. And this is something that I needed to learn, understand.
“For a long time, I tried to gain the victory over sin, but I failed. I have since learned that reason. Instead of doing that part, which God expects me to do and which I can do, I was trying to do God’s part, which He does not expect me to do, and which I cannot do, primarily, my part is not to win the victory, but to receive the victory that has already been won for me by Jesus Christ.”
And that’s the key. Because some months, and I need to say this before I finished, after some months to have victory, I fell again. And I was devastated. And I told a friend of mine that also Coming Out Ministry, they knew. And he told me, Harrison, you need to understand something, because I thought that that temptation was gone. And I say, oh, I don’t need to pray for that anymore. It is just gone. And so I started to pray for another things that I needed to overcome. But then he told me, Harrison, you need to have in mind that yesterday’s victory does not work for today and today’s victory does not work for tomorrow.
It is a daily surrender to God. And that’s why I wanted to share with you this quote, because it talks about that I wanted to be by myself. I say, okay, well, thanks God. He gave me the victory, and that’s all. No. Satan knows how weak we are, our weaknesses, and we need to surrender ourselves into His arms every day.
And there is a promise. “No temptation has overtaken you, except such as is common to men. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with that temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.” And I just pray the Lord for that promise and something that Pastor James Ash shared with us a few days ago. Well, I don’t have any time more, but I just want to say this, because for me, it has been a key for my life, that message of justification by faith. Because it’s that third angel message. It says, first John 5:4, “for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world.” Our faith in the One that only and the unique One who is able to give us the victory. So that’s my prayer for you. Made sure I finish with a prayer.
Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving me this great opportunity to share my testimony. This is a journey that I just thankful that you have provided for me and many here. And also those who are dealing with this, just increase our faith. As the disciples ask to Jesus increase our faith, they knew their lack of faith. I know my lack of faith, and I need to deal, and I need to ask every day for that faith that allows me to understand and also allows me to receive that power that only comes from you. There are many people that in some way, they don’t have that faith to understand that you are able.
When you said that in Christ we can do all things, that’s all, and all is even seen. So God help us and help us to be witnesses to orders. Use us to be an example to the world that is dying in sin. Use us powerfully for Your name’s sake, because You are very close to us in Your Second Coming. So, God, thank you for this opportunity. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen and Amen. God bless.