Having been raised in a non-charismatic church, I had no idea there was any difference between worship and praise. Having now had the opportunity to worship with my charismatic brothers and sisters, I realize they do not either!

You already know the story of how I came to be a worship leader on staff at a church (In the article Worship Leading Made Easy as published at www.praisecharts.com). I did not know how to lead people. I did not know how to organize a music ministry with real ministry at its heart. I wanted to avoid the very appearance of performance but still wanted to make a place for all the gifted people God was bringing our way.

Today's world financial institutions find themselves in a major crisis...but that is not what this article is about! Lately, I have been asked on several occasions how to minister to someone who is bound up in some besetting sin or another (in my world, that usually means someone who struggles with same sex attraction, but the principles I am sharing apply to any ministry situation).

Yes, you read the title correctly! As complex and massive in nature as our God is, to think we could boil the leading of worship down to a simple methodology sounds ludicrous. But I honestly believe we make it much more difficult than it is – and usually the problems come when we confuse leading worship with being something akin to a performance. My theory is this: as a worship leader, my job is simply to remind people that ‘God is here…so deal with it’!

Because of my story of freedom from same-sex attraction due to my relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, I have many people tell me they long to know God intimately…long to be forgiven…long to be healed of past wounds…long to be free from whatever…long to be made brand new. For too long I believe the church has made knowing God more about jumping through religious hoops than about connecting people to a real and present God Who desires an intimate relationship with them. Knowing God intimately in a real-life relationship is as simple as a step of faith.

When talking about relationship, we must remember we are in relationship with a God who is alive and not distant. We have already discovered that He desires to have an intimate communion with us. He wants us to know Him even as He knows us. But how do you get to know someone intimately? How do you get to know God?

While meditating on what forgiveness means and what the benefits of forgiveness are to the human soul, I asked the Lord to give me an analogy that would help me understand the power of forgiveness in a very personal way. As I got into my car and headed for town to run some errands, this picture came.

The joy of temptation?!?! What do I mean by that? When we think of temptation, we think of it in terms of being a bad thing…and that is good! But through the years, I have learned to see temptation in a while new light. What I am about to share with you will bring much freedom and creativity into your life and will serve to keep you safe from harm and deliver you from the consequences of sin.

I grew up in the church…literally didn’t know that there were people who didn’t go to church. Being gifted musically with the ability to play the piano, I found a place to serve at a very early age. I also struggled with same-sex attraction – homosexuality.

I literally receive hundreds of requests for personal help and counseling each year. This is truly a daunting task since my desire is to help each and every person who asks…but reality is that I am but one person who also has a life and a family. For that reason I can only provide truly personal help to a few, as I am able. But DO NOT LOSE HOPE if you are in need of help. What I can do is provide several resources where you can find some wonderful biblically based help.

One of the most frequently asked questions in my life is, ‘How do I minister to someone who struggles with homosexuality?’ Most people have never struggled with same sex attraction so that sounds like a valid question, doesn’t it? Reality is that we feel most comfortable talking with others about our own particular failures because that is what we know…but God’s reality is something quite different. He did not command us to minister to only those we felt comfortable with due to shared experiences. He simply commanded us to ‘go and make disciples’. So what does that mean?

This article was written because I see far too many people begin their walk of freedom and then give up when the going gets tough. This problem is rampant across the various genres of bondage. People who struggle with sexual addiction, homosexuality, alcohol abuse, drug addiction, low self-esteem, etc. sometimes become overwhelmed with the onslaught of the enemy's lies and simply give up their quest for freedom and give in to their old ways of thinking rather than fight through to God's best for their lives.