Emily Thomes did not think that anything would ever make her change her mind about same-sex attraction, so she was surprised when it was God who transformed her.
Thomes shared in a video for Anchored North that she became a lesbian at the age of 15. She was extremely close to a female friend, so when confronted about their relationship, she decided to own it and affirmed that they were indeed dating.
What came after that was a series of partying, lying, and twisting of Scripture to suit her new lifestyle. "If you were truly a Christian, you were on my side. If not, you were legalistic and needed to reread what God was really about," Thomes said of her former mindset. "Judge not. God being love meant God was nice and and God was chill with what you were cool with. By 18, 19, 20 I was super wild and in serial relationships with women."
She even got engaged to one of the women she dated, according to Faith Wire. But at the age of 22, Thomes was invited to a Bible study. "I expected them to bring up my lifestyle really early, and then [I] would use that as justification for not coming back, so I agreed to go," she recalled.
But when that did not happen, Thomes got frustrated. She remembered the other women who shared their own testimonies with so much heart and passion that she began thinking, "What if all of it is true?" Thomes then Googled verses on homosexuality and was directed towards a passage that changed her life for good.
The said verse was 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10. It reads: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
The passage really scared Thomes, because she was part of the "lineup of the condemned." However, the next verse opened Thomes' eyes to the truth about God's boundless love and mercy: "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
After reading that, Thomes knew she had to give up her past sinful ways and embrace a new identity in God. "I could hold onto my sin and reject God, or I could turn to him. All the debt that I'd racked up living like I lived, didn't have to be mine, if I could trust Him. So that was it," she said.
"I knew what I wasn't going to do, because it was right there - it was black and white. I'd twisted those Scriptures before, I'd argued them down. I said judge not to them like that mattered. And then, that day, it was like my eyes were really opened. I was amazed at the grace He showed me."
