One80: Testimonies of Transformation
Be inspired by stories of Christian transformation from around the world--and next door! Hear miraculous coming-to-Jesus stories from all walks of life and be amazed at how God writes a story in all of us. One80 is a production of OneWay Ministries.
One80: Testimonies of Transformation
100: Straight to the Father, Lex Renick, Part 3 (trans)
“I now pronounce you husband and husband” were the words spoken at Lex Renick’s wedding. Lex had a miraculous transformation through Christ out of the trans lifestyle and Straight to the Father, as did her husband. In this moving three-part show, see how Lex seeks God’s heart and finally finds it, as well as the truth of scripture, the love of Jesus, and the freedom in her new identity with Christ.
In this three part story, you'll see the slow but steady transformation of Lex and how God honors those who earnestly seek Him. And you'll never see the lost the same way again!
Part 3
In this final episode, experience Lex and Nic’s new marriage and their attempts to seek the Lord, and her heartfelt plea to put aside her trans identity with the help of Jesus. Witness true miracles as God opens her womb and gives her life new meaning.
Links:
The Best Part, the song that played when Lex met Nic
Jesus, My Gender, and His Perfect Love, child's book by Lex Renick
Lex on Instagram
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OneWay Ministries
Welcome to One80. Transforming testimonies from next door to across the globe. Be amazed at how God works to bring people to himself. Share today's One80 with a friend. It might be the best news they hear today.
LexRenick:Stop going there. Go straight to the source. Go straight to the Father. Like get into your word. Go spend time with Jesus. Get your answers from God.
Margaret Ereneta:It's Margaret Ereneta. Welcome back to Straight to the Father Part 3, the final chapter. Learn how Lex married Nic and how she has total surrender. Even sees God meeting her right in planned parenthood. This is such a great story. Enjoy it.
LexRenick:Three months we were engaged, six months we went to Vegas and we got married. Because when the Bible says, if you can't wait, get married, and we got married. And our whole life, you know, shifted. We were not expecting what our life is in this moment now to have happened from even going to that coffee shop or from saying yes to Jesus.
LexRenick:And I have to give my husband credit where credit is due. Even when we both identified as this and got married as this gay trans couple, he always pointed me back to Jesus. If I at once a month, I would be like questioning, well, technically, like we're okay, right? Because I'm a biological female, you're a biological male, even though we have these labels and identities and we identify with that community.
LexRenick:Technically, it's okay. No. But I kept on thinking that. I kept on having this inner conviction. And I would run to podcasts, I would run to YouTube videos where people would take scripture and twist it and make it okay. And my husband just kept saying, stop going there, go straight to the source, go straight to the Father, like get into your word, go spend time with Jesus, get your answers from God.
Margaret Ereneta:I love what Lex says here. It's just Jesus and the Word is enough. Yes, they're living this lifestyle, and we know that's not what the Bible says, but they're in the word, they're seeking the Lord, and that's enough. God has what he needs, he has their hearts and they're in the word, and he's gonna guide them to the truth, and he does. And he did, and it's so awesome. Praise the Lord. Amen. Hallelujah.
LexRenick:And I was so, so grateful that even when we identified in that way, he spiritually led me to the Lord. And so we we were together, we decided to, you know, get married and then go move to Kawaii. That was not the Lord's will. Uh, the Lord gave me a warning to not go to Kauai. I didn't obey and I learned my lesson. That's a whole story for another day.
LexRenick:That's why when the Lord tells us to do anything, we're so quick to obey because of what happened in Hawaii. But I remember right when we got married, you know, the whole Kawaii thing didn't work out. We were not sure where we were gonna go, but we're like, okay, God, we disobeyed you and you clearly warned us not to go there. Please redirect us according to your will. And we ended up having to move to Las Vegas. And as we're driving into Vegas, I remember thinking, Lord, what could you possibly do in Sin City?
LexRenick:And it wrecked my whole life. God, in the best of ways, God wrecked our whole life for his glory and his good. And we found an incredible church called Church LV in Las Vegas. And God brought me back to where my sin started. See, the root of my sin and my sexual sin was exposure to pornography at a young age that started in Las Vegas. How you would walk the strip and we'd go there for wrestling tournaments for my siblings or for you know my cousins that were older than me. And my parents would be drunk stumbling in front of us, and my brother and I would be in the back.
LexRenick:And I was always a tomboy, look like a boy just like my brother. And the grown men would hand us these call girl cards, the prostitute cards. And these are naked women. And I remember having a whole stack of them at a very young age, and the devil saying, When we'd go back to the hotel room, go into a secret place, go somewhere where no one can see. And that's where the addiction started. The Lord revealed that to me when I was in Las Vegas. And I encountered him and received deliverance from a pornography addiction. And God removed that from me. And so we lived there for two years. We were laying it down just at the feet of Jesus. God gave us everything we wanted, the church, the community. This church loved us and was not ashamed of us.
LexRenick:They never rejected us, but they never edified us or affirmed our relationship. They just loved us and allowed us to be included in things and not just on a Sunday service. And let me tell you, that is so important. The hospitality that they had, the way that they just loved us and weren't, again, ashamed to be like, hey, let's go hang out after this. And that is when a lot of the growth happened. That's when a lot of the challenging of the lies of the enemy were happening in those circles and not just church pews, but actually going deep with other people, other believers that were willing to be vulnerable and safe with us.
LexRenick:And I remember God called us to move to Tennessee and we didn't want to. But again, like I said from the last thing that we learned in Kauai, we knew that we had to obey the Lord. We just didn't know that that would mean that I was gonna detransition, that that would mean that we were gonna see miracles happen, that we were gonna have miracle children. We had no idea that that would happen, but we packed up everything that we had in a little Prius, bought a storage unit, our little chihuahua and I. We all drove across the country with no place to stay, and God blew us away. I was in a hotel room and my husband just said, Hey, like, I gotta work a 10-hour workday, seek the Lord. Really seek him.
Margaret Ereneta:When Lex says, Really seek him here, she's not kidding. This is like really surrender, lay it all down on the line and see what happens next.
LexRenick:If you're still questioning, you know, if it's okay for you to live as Austin and be married to me as Austin, then you need to seek the Lord. And he said, make this hotel room a furnace, make this hotel room a sanctuary for the Lord and go after him. And so I began to go after the Lord. And I was just praying and I was just worshiping and I was just crying out to God. And I'm like, Lord, I know that you are real, just like my doc moment of my sexuality surrender. And I remember just saying, Lord, you have already done so much in my life. I know that you are real, God.
LexRenick:And Lord, I just ask about my gender identity, God, that if this is something that I'm not supposed to identify as, God, I need to hear it directly from you. Not someone telling me it's okay, but also not a Christian holding up a sign saying that I'm gonna go to hell. And I just said, God, please, just clearly, like, please, just tell me. And I just heard the Holy Spirit say, Austin, do you trust me? And there is something so profound that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords called me by the name that I chose, not the name that he gave me. Not that he was saying it's okay, but that he was saying, I truly mean what my word says, come as you are, but I love you enough to not let you stay as you are.
LexRenick:And when he said, Austin, do you trust me? I was listening. And I said, Yes, Lord, I trust you. And he said, Then you need to trust me with this. Lay down your life and pick up your cross and follow me and go out and boldly share the good news of Jesus. And I remember having this encounter with God, being so afraid of losing my marriage, being so afraid of being the ugliest woman in the world, if that meant I was no longer gonna be on testosterone, because I'm not gonna lie, I was a pretty looking, good looking dude at the time.
LexRenick:You know, I I didn't know what my life was gonna look like. But at this point, I'm like, God, you could have told me this like before I got surgery. At this point, I had top surgery, even with that situation, almost died on the table. That was a crazy story. And I just remember God saying, You have to lay it all down. And I said, God, I don't agree. I I don't agree, but I'm gonna choose to obey anyway. And when I said that, I knew that I was gonna lose my marriage. When I said that, I knew that my husband did not sign up to have a wife, he did not sign up to be with someone who was identifying as one thing and going back to another, he didn't need that in his life, but I knew that I was gonna choose Jesus, no matter how much he is the love of my life and was the love of my life at the time.
LexRenick:And I just knew that I was gonna choose Jesus. And so he comes back and he poor guy just wants to eat his food. He comes back and he just looks at me and he's like, Oh my gosh, you did you got your answer? And I told him everything that the Lord said, and the last thing that the Lord said is he said, every fear that you have, I'm going to bless. And so I began to tell my husband everything that God said to me, and he just said, Okay. Kind of took a step back and and I just said, I'm sorry, I'm choosing Jesus.
LexRenick:And his face just kind of went flush because I always told him that God was gonna come first, but he knew in that moment that I really meant that I was going to choose Jesus over this marriage now that I could clearly see that I'm I'm walking in the wrong direction. And he just said, Look, if you're saying that you are my wife and God wants you to live the way that he created you, then as your husband, I'm gonna go pursue him and seek him because if I'm your husband, he will speak to me too. And he just said, Just give me an hour.
LexRenick:I'm thinking, an hour? You could have asked for the whole rest of the day. This is like total mic drop life change we're talking about. And so he takes his hour to go go to the gym to go seek the Lord and have his time. And I remember just thinking, like, I just lost it all, but that's okay. I just know that I need to rely on the Lord to get me through this. I don't know what that means. And he came back in the hotel room very confident, very chipper, and it shocked me. And he said, Look, I talked to the Lord, he talked to me, and this is gonna be so much easier than you think it is. You're worried right now, you're uncomfortable right now, but it's gonna be so much easier because you are not doing this in your strength.
LexRenick:He is walking with you, he's already gone before you. And he began to speak life over me, over all the fear, all the worry, over all the anxiety that I had. And he said, The Lord even said that this is going to wow doctors. And I remember him speaking that, thinking, like, what could possibly, you know, wow doctors? Well, when him and I got together before we got married, I was already on testosterone for seven years, which means I did not have a period for seven years. And I had, due to the testosterone, people want to argue with this with me on the internet about it.
LexRenick:But if you even Google an informed consent form for taking testosterone and you look at the fine print, it even says that taking this synthetic hormone can cause cancer. And so I had all these cancerous cells within my womb and within my cervix. And the doctors, my doctor at Planned Parenthood, yes, of Planned Parenthood, that prescribed me the testosterone would be begging me every time I would go and hey, we really got to get this hysterectomy scheduled, which is very common for transgender men, so those born female identifying as male, to have to get that removed because now you got all these uh cancerous cells there, you have this dying organ in your body.
LexRenick:And she kept begging me. And even before this holy moment, this holy encounter and holy surrender with the Lord, Nick always said, No, we're gonna pray about it. So I avoided her for a year because my husband said we're gonna pray about it. And I made sure I had enough testosterone to get me through the whole year so I didn't have to see her. Fast forward after you know, Nick spoke life into our marriage and to us and to the wowing of doctors. We just started from that moment on praying, God renew our mind, God renew our mind, take away the same sex attraction, God, renew our mind.
LexRenick:And it was a daily act, not a one-time thing. It was a daily act of obedience to lay it at the altar. And over time, God renewed our mind. We no longer had the same sex attraction, we no longer felt temptation and lust. We no longer had uh, I no longer had the confusion of my identity. It was like I knew who I was, and I took the rose-colored glasses off and I could see why I thought and I felt all the things that I felt. And Nick and I at this point, I'm like, I need to get off of testosterone. I don't know how to do that.
LexRenick:So I go to my doctor, she tells me we need to do a vaginal exam. She does it, and she looks in with the binoculars and she's like, hold on, looks in again. She pushes the table away. Mind you, I'm very vulnerable. My legs are in the air. Like, this is a very vulnerable setting at a planned parenthood. And she looks again and she says, I don't know how this is physically possible, but there is no sign of any cancerous cells in your womb. It literally looks like your cervix is brand new. And she keeps looking. I don't know how this is impossible. And I start crying. I begin to worship in this planned parenthood again with my legs in the air, saying, God doesn't have to make sense. And I was giving God the glory and thanking him because all those times that I prayed, God, please renew our mind.
LexRenick:All the times my husband prayed over me, God not only blessed us by renewing our mind, but he renewed my physical body. And not only that, three months later, we conceived and we had our first miracle baby, and her name's Iris, and we had no idea that in Hebrew, Iris means God's promise the rainbow. If you can't tell me that that's not prophetic, I don't know what, because our whole life in ministry is about taking back the true meaning of the rainbow. And even before we conceived, there is miracle after miracle after miracle.
LexRenick:Like the doctor still said, you can't cold turkey, get off testosterone. We're worried you're gonna have suicidal thoughts because of the chemical imbalances. Hormones have a lot to do with your mental health, you have to slowly wean yourself off. And I remember her saying that. And I continue to seek the Lord, and my husband continued to seek the Lord after that appointment, before we conceived. And I was just on my face with the Lord in prayer, and the Holy Spirit just said, No, I'm the great physician, not her. You don't need it. And I remember being like, Okay, God, that's kind of crazy.
LexRenick:Okay, and I walked into the bathroom to tell my husband so he could hold me accountable and that we were gonna do this thing together, and I was just gonna cold turkey get off. And right when I opened the door, he's like, Oh babe, like I was just praying right now, and the Lord said, You don't need it. I about fell on my face and cried and said, What? I was literally coming in here to tell you what the Lord told me, and this is just confirming it. Our God is so real. And some Christians might think that this is too someone told me you got too much Jesus in your testimony. I'm like, it's all about Jesus, it should always be about Jesus. Too much Jesus in your testimony, love it. And I truly believe that we can encounter him in such a way if we truly desire and long to.
LexRenick:And oh my gosh, we obeyed. We I stopped injecting myself with it, and we conceived Iris in three months, and then next thing you know, we conceived again, and that's our sweet Violet, that's only three months, and then we just found out that I am pregnant again with our third miracle baby. So to God be the glory, and now my husband and I get the privilege and the opportunity to travel the world and share the good news of Jesus.
LexRenick:See, God has taken our brokenness, our pain, and he's turned it around for his good. And I believe that we walk through what we went through because ultimately now we can equip the body of Christ how to love the misfit community effectively. We could equip the body of Christ how to have effective evangelism because we've experienced the good parts and the bad parts. And so it's just such an honor that we have a ministry where we are weekly and daily doing prayer calls with people and walking them out of the lifestyle into the arms of Christ.
Margaret Ereneta:In closing, we wanted Lex to give us advice on how to love the misfits in our world and the ones even in our church that come into our lives without affirming them, but loving them and being a seed. What would we say? What would we do? And here's what she said.
LexRenick:I think the number one thing to recognize is that when we are ministering to people, when we're praying to people, we shouldn't be preying on people. You know, we want to see redemption right away. We want to see God plant the seed and see the harvest, but sometimes our job is just to plant the seed.
LexRenick:Our job as believers is to bring people into reconciliation with Christ. And we do that by being hospitable, by creating an environment where they feel safe. And at the end of the day, we have to discern through the Holy Spirit how we should react, how we should respond to the hard questions that people might have. And we can't do this without preparation in the Word of God. We can't do this without seeking the Lord on how to navigate and handle the hard conversations. But we have to also remember that sometimes it may be uncomfortable.
LexRenick:But if someone looked at me, I think the best, if I was identifying as Austin, right? If someone walked up to me at church, got to know me, invited me out to eat, we start building this relationship, they begin to be vulnerable and start ministering to me through their vulnerability. That would create an opportunity for my heart to crack open to start being a little vulnerable. And within that vulnerability, for them to respond in such a way of saying, Wow, at the time, wow, Austin, I'm so sorry that you experienced that.
LexRenick:So you're sympathizing with them. I'm so sorry that you went through that. I I want to let you know that Jesus loves you and that God has a plan for your life. And that I want you to know that God wants what's best for you. And this just might not be what God's best is, according to the word. It's just not. If someone were to say that to me rather than, hey, you're going to hell, just want to let you know Jesus doesn't love you.
LexRenick:Oh my gosh, I would have received that with such grace and compassion because we're emphasizing the fact that Jesus loves me. We can't start with biblical truth. If first, if first people can't even understand and remove the lie, because we have to understand the queer community and the misfit community has believed a lie that Jesus doesn't love them. So immediately go there. When we evangelize the people and we know that their walls are up, we first say, Hey, I just want to let you know, I apologize on behalf of any Christian that has ever misrepresented Christ.
LexRenick:You are so loved. The Lord desires to have a relationship with you. And man, let me tell you what God did in my life. And then I just give them a quick testimony, and you will be surprised at that level of vulnerability. If you could be so vulnerable with the stranger, even if they don't agree, their walls will find out because people could relate to pain. And you could point to your pain and point to the savior.
LexRenick:So always minister through your testimony to the other person and never diminish the power of being vulnerable. Thank you so much for allowing you know God to use me as a vessel to be a voice for his kingdom, to have the hard conversations. Because if we don't, then that means that we don't love the lost. Like we have to have the hard conversations to love the lost.
Margaret Ereneta:Thanks for listening today. Lex said it right there: never diminish the power of being vulnerable. Learn how to share your own story with others. Go to our website. The link is in our show notes. We'll show you how to share your own story.
Margaret Ereneta:It's way more powerful than you realize. And check out our show notes. We have lots of resources for you on there. If you have misfits in your world and maybe even family members, and you want to know the resources that might help you, check those out. And so appreciate your likes, your follows, and your shares of 180. Thank you so much for listening today. God bless you.
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