Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline
From The Journal Of James Hartline
September 4, 2006
- Six Years In Sodom -
"But at the same time, God rescued Lot out of Sodom
because he was a good man who was sick of all
the wickedness and immorality around him.
Yes, he was a righteous man who was distressed and
vexed by all of the wickedness that he heard and saw
day after day." 2 Peter 2:7-8
On September 1, 2000, I moved into the little apartment that I still live in during these hot, closing days of the summer of the year 2006. It is has been a long, hard six years. However, as I celebrate the sixth completed year in this location, I would not have exchanged this experience of trials, tribulations and great triumphs for anything. God has trained me in His school during these past six years and it has prepared me for my assignment in these last days. Most Christians who are placed in the kind of difficult circumstances that God has placed me in for this ministry-training experience, will run, rather than absorb the spiritual benefits that come with that assignment.
During these past six years, I have dwelt in the midst of one of the darkest spiritual places on earth. To the natural eye, the neighborhood I live in does not seem all that unusual. Shops, restaurants, quaint little houses intermixed with condos and high rise apartment buildings, and yet, it is, in the spirit realm, one of the blackest, demonic places in our city. Indeed, I have lived in the midst of a modern spiritual Sodom, a neighborhood called Hillcrest, the homosexual stronghold of San Diego, California. The moment that God instructed me to move into my present location in 2000, the devil came to me and said directly to me that I would not survive, that he would kill me off.
There it was, in one unsettling fragment of time, the devil declaring war on me. His fury at my stepping foot into his domain, ran down my neck like the breath of death, and I was repulsed into a place of uncertain contemplation. Emaciated from AIDS and recovering from years of drug abuse and imprisonment, who was I to obey God while the devil, who had always held me captive, now sought to issue me my final death certificate. God had emancipated me from thirty years of homosexual slavery and now He was sending me back, so soon, to a great California city of spiritual Sodom to liberate the land. This is where the testing of the soul and the revealing of the true Christian commitment is made sure. Am I really that one who stands at the front of the church declaring myself a born again Christian? Or am I all talk in front of the flock, but unwilling and unyielding in the secret places when God calls me to give my all to His will for my life. After six years of great spiritual warfare, I am still standing firm in my commitment to Christ and I think I have done my best to keep my covenant to God and His will for my life.
Since that day on September 1, 2000, the devil has taken his best low blows at me. I have received many death threats. I have been spit on by supporters of the gay agenda. I have been grabbed around the throat and thrown to the ground by a demon possessed homosexual activist. I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians (http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2006/08/here-he-comes-again.html). I have no fence around my apartment and over these past six years, the angels of God have encamped about my home. I have certainly learned in the deepest part of my spirit man, the meaning of Psalm 91:10-11, "No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your dwelling. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways."
In 2005, after two lesbians allowed a death threat against me to be posted on their website (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45879), I was awakened at 3:00am to the sound of someone trying to turn the doorknob of my front door. Outside, I could see two men on my patio. The police were called and without even checking for identification, they just let them go. My only recourse was to turn to the word of God. To this day, I now have posted on the inside of my front door a piece of paper which declares, "In peace, I will both, lie down and sleep, for Thou alone, O Lord, doest make me to dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8." The word of God is my law enforcement, and I haven't had a man or a devil try to get into my house in the middle of the night since!
The Book of Genesis describes the ancient city of Sodom to be a cruel and evil place. So vile were the men of that perverted city, that they actually attempted to rape the angels sent by God to rescue Lot:
"Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord."
Genesis 13:13
"And the men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house, both young and old, all the people
from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, 'Where are the men (angels) who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have sexual relations with them."
Genesis 19:4-5
"But they said to Lot, after he pleaded with them not to touch the men (angels), 'Furthermore, this one came in as a judge; now we will treat him worse than them.'
So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break down his door to get to the angels to rape them."
Genesis 19:9
The same treacherous and demonic immorality that was pervasive in ancient Sodom has arisen again in the newly resurrected Sodomic gay communities around the United States. I have lived through six years inside of the gay community of Hillcrest as a commited Christian and I am a sure witness that Sodom has, in fact, resurrected itself. The anti-christian hatred that continues to grow unabated inside of this neighborhood has been cloned, spiritually speaking, from ancient Sodom. The atmosphere, the attitudes, the sexual immorality, they are all the same as that which permeated ancient Sodom.
God, even back then, was looking for a way to spare Sodom. He heeded the pleas of Abraham to spare Sodom from destruction, if the angels of judgment could find a certain number of righteous citizens. God has sent me to help drive out the demonic forces that have ensnared the citizenry of Hillcrest, that God might spare them as well. Sadly, the hatred and abuse that is daily extended to me, is a misguided and delusional perspective harbored by my neighbors towards me. They do not understand why I am here and why I do what I do. They do not comprehend the mercy of God in placing me in their midst. I fear, that the same outcome that destroyed Sodom is quickly approaching this territory as well. The clock is ticking loudly towards midnight.
When I renounced my thirty year involvement in homosexuality and picked up my cross and followed Christ, I assumed an obedient life and that meant living by myself. Most men with AIDS who are living in the homosexual lifestyle will shack up with their sexual partners and share their finances and live in nice homes and take care of each other. I choose to go without many of the things that they have when they pool their combined resources. I have been greatly blessed above and beyond everything I could ask or think, including complete deliverance from sexual immorality, the cleansing of a foul and reprobate mind, and liberty from the imprisonment of my spirit to many demons. I will surely live alone as an obedient man of God with the Spirit of the Living Maker dwelling in my house, rather than appease my flesh with some void, sensual and ungodly relationship.
I have lived six years in resurrected Sodom. I am now in the seventh year of my assignment. The seventh year, the year of harvest, the year of restoration, the year of jubilation.
"If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you,
than he shall serve you six years,
but in the seventh year, you must let him go free."
Deuteronomy 15:12
I have faced the devil and I have lived to tell the tale. Six years in Sodom. Six years in the midst of the devil's prison camp. Let every citizen and prisoner of Sodom claim their lies and their immorality, but I am alive, yes, alive with the Spirit of the living God, even in Sodom.
From The Journal of James Hartine
September 4, 2006
Preparing For My Departure:
But Running My Race
Until I Leave!
September 4, 2006
- Six Years In Sodom -
"But at the same time, God rescued Lot out of Sodom
because he was a good man who was sick of all
the wickedness and immorality around him.
Yes, he was a righteous man who was distressed and
vexed by all of the wickedness that he heard and saw
day after day." 2 Peter 2:7-8
On September 1, 2000, I moved into the little apartment that I still live in during these hot, closing days of the summer of the year 2006. It is has been a long, hard six years. However, as I celebrate the sixth completed year in this location, I would not have exchanged this experience of trials, tribulations and great triumphs for anything. God has trained me in His school during these past six years and it has prepared me for my assignment in these last days. Most Christians who are placed in the kind of difficult circumstances that God has placed me in for this ministry-training experience, will run, rather than absorb the spiritual benefits that come with that assignment.
During these past six years, I have dwelt in the midst of one of the darkest spiritual places on earth. To the natural eye, the neighborhood I live in does not seem all that unusual. Shops, restaurants, quaint little houses intermixed with condos and high rise apartment buildings, and yet, it is, in the spirit realm, one of the blackest, demonic places in our city. Indeed, I have lived in the midst of a modern spiritual Sodom, a neighborhood called Hillcrest, the homosexual stronghold of San Diego, California. The moment that God instructed me to move into my present location in 2000, the devil came to me and said directly to me that I would not survive, that he would kill me off.
There it was, in one unsettling fragment of time, the devil declaring war on me. His fury at my stepping foot into his domain, ran down my neck like the breath of death, and I was repulsed into a place of uncertain contemplation. Emaciated from AIDS and recovering from years of drug abuse and imprisonment, who was I to obey God while the devil, who had always held me captive, now sought to issue me my final death certificate. God had emancipated me from thirty years of homosexual slavery and now He was sending me back, so soon, to a great California city of spiritual Sodom to liberate the land. This is where the testing of the soul and the revealing of the true Christian commitment is made sure. Am I really that one who stands at the front of the church declaring myself a born again Christian? Or am I all talk in front of the flock, but unwilling and unyielding in the secret places when God calls me to give my all to His will for my life. After six years of great spiritual warfare, I am still standing firm in my commitment to Christ and I think I have done my best to keep my covenant to God and His will for my life.
Since that day on September 1, 2000, the devil has taken his best low blows at me. I have received many death threats. I have been spit on by supporters of the gay agenda. I have been grabbed around the throat and thrown to the ground by a demon possessed homosexual activist. I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians (http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2006/08/here-he-comes-again.html). I have no fence around my apartment and over these past six years, the angels of God have encamped about my home. I have certainly learned in the deepest part of my spirit man, the meaning of Psalm 91:10-11, "No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your dwelling. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways."
In 2005, after two lesbians allowed a death threat against me to be posted on their website (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45879), I was awakened at 3:00am to the sound of someone trying to turn the doorknob of my front door. Outside, I could see two men on my patio. The police were called and without even checking for identification, they just let them go. My only recourse was to turn to the word of God. To this day, I now have posted on the inside of my front door a piece of paper which declares, "In peace, I will both, lie down and sleep, for Thou alone, O Lord, doest make me to dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8." The word of God is my law enforcement, and I haven't had a man or a devil try to get into my house in the middle of the night since!
The Book of Genesis describes the ancient city of Sodom to be a cruel and evil place. So vile were the men of that perverted city, that they actually attempted to rape the angels sent by God to rescue Lot:
"Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord."
Genesis 13:13
"And the men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house, both young and old, all the people
from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, 'Where are the men (angels) who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have sexual relations with them."
Genesis 19:4-5
"But they said to Lot, after he pleaded with them not to touch the men (angels), 'Furthermore, this one came in as a judge; now we will treat him worse than them.'
So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break down his door to get to the angels to rape them."
Genesis 19:9
The same treacherous and demonic immorality that was pervasive in ancient Sodom has arisen again in the newly resurrected Sodomic gay communities around the United States. I have lived through six years inside of the gay community of Hillcrest as a commited Christian and I am a sure witness that Sodom has, in fact, resurrected itself. The anti-christian hatred that continues to grow unabated inside of this neighborhood has been cloned, spiritually speaking, from ancient Sodom. The atmosphere, the attitudes, the sexual immorality, they are all the same as that which permeated ancient Sodom.
God, even back then, was looking for a way to spare Sodom. He heeded the pleas of Abraham to spare Sodom from destruction, if the angels of judgment could find a certain number of righteous citizens. God has sent me to help drive out the demonic forces that have ensnared the citizenry of Hillcrest, that God might spare them as well. Sadly, the hatred and abuse that is daily extended to me, is a misguided and delusional perspective harbored by my neighbors towards me. They do not understand why I am here and why I do what I do. They do not comprehend the mercy of God in placing me in their midst. I fear, that the same outcome that destroyed Sodom is quickly approaching this territory as well. The clock is ticking loudly towards midnight.
When I renounced my thirty year involvement in homosexuality and picked up my cross and followed Christ, I assumed an obedient life and that meant living by myself. Most men with AIDS who are living in the homosexual lifestyle will shack up with their sexual partners and share their finances and live in nice homes and take care of each other. I choose to go without many of the things that they have when they pool their combined resources. I have been greatly blessed above and beyond everything I could ask or think, including complete deliverance from sexual immorality, the cleansing of a foul and reprobate mind, and liberty from the imprisonment of my spirit to many demons. I will surely live alone as an obedient man of God with the Spirit of the Living Maker dwelling in my house, rather than appease my flesh with some void, sensual and ungodly relationship.
I have lived six years in resurrected Sodom. I am now in the seventh year of my assignment. The seventh year, the year of harvest, the year of restoration, the year of jubilation.
"If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you,
than he shall serve you six years,
but in the seventh year, you must let him go free."
Deuteronomy 15:12
I have faced the devil and I have lived to tell the tale. Six years in Sodom. Six years in the midst of the devil's prison camp. Let every citizen and prisoner of Sodom claim their lies and their immorality, but I am alive, yes, alive with the Spirit of the living God, even in Sodom.
From The Journal of James Hartine
September 4, 2006
Preparing For My Departure:
But Running My Race
Until I Leave!
Comments