4 - Give - Ness

Saturday...
I'm here in my so called "office" at home. It's more of a testimony to me being a pack rat. My wife refuses to come in here because it causes her such distress. Above me to my left on my computer table, a statuette of SUPERMAN guards everything that is right. Batman looks on to my right, ever vigilant and aware of the wrong that prowls the streets of Gotham City...er...at least the wrong that might come into this office.
Near the edge of the credenza sits a figure of the "praying hands". They were my Mom's (not literally her hands). She loved this figurine and it sat on our coffee table for years. Pictures and plagues and gifts from friends adorn the wall so of the office. There is a plaster cast Indian head made by my oldest son, Chad, when he attended YMCA summer camp. Regal looking fellow (The Indian, well...I guess you could put my son in that category. He is regal looking also) painted up and frozen in time as a scout. I love my office, but I do pity the one who has to clean it out after I'm gone. I'm sure there will be a whole lot of, "Now why did he keep this?"
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Ephesians 4:17-19 (Msg. Bible)
And so I insist----and God backs me up on this----that there be no going along with the crowd. The empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God, that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession. Addicted to every sort of perversion.

Touchy subject. Slippery slope. Not really.
We are a sexually obsessed people.
That which was created by God (Yes, Virginia...God created sex) for pleasure and procreation, has been turned into a perverted, selfish act.
It is hard to teach what the Word of God says about sex and the boundaries God placed so humanity could receive God's blessings. Our world today has cast aside all restraints and run's head long toward hell with a "It feels good...just do it" mentality.
Every time I reach the part of our curriculum that deals with sex and relationships that are not healthy or holy, I am seen as a prudish, puritanical old coot.
The men really don't want to hear what God truly says about sex. Why? Because they have lived their lives using women to satisfy their base desires.

I'm not very passive when it comes to this subject or the attitude that some men bring to it. One man laughed when I was teaching this part of the curriculum. He said, "I am not going to buy a cow unless I get to sample the milk." Translated: "I'm not going to marry some woman unless she has sex with me first."  The next visitation he introduced me to his current live in girlfriend. I shook her hand and said, "You must be the cow your boy friend was referring to in class the other day." Needless to say, there was a lot of explaining to do on his part.

Pornography....
Adultery....
Fornication....
Bestiality....
Pedophilia.....
Transgendered.....
Gay and Lesbian.....
You know, we don't need to break it down into categories so that we can say one is worse than the other. I think the church has done a terrible job in this case. Sexual sin is sexual sin.
One person asked me that since they were caught up in a particular sexual sin, would they go to hell for living this way. I replied, "You go to hell because you reject God."
Some who call themselves believers like their sin rated and categorized so they can feel better about themselves.
"Well at least my sin isn't as bad as theirs."
Which is better?
To be killed by an explosion...?
Or to die because of cancer.....?
Either way you are dead. The vehicle that got you there really doesn't matter...you are dead.
It doesn't matter what sin or which sin...it's the fact you rejected God, harbored and lived by the sin nature.
In the end your final destiny was eternal separation from God and His blessings.

If you truly have a salvation experience.  Repentance...confession...receiving God's forgiveness....the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit in you..........then you will know what is right and what is wrong and the truth of God and the love of God will lead you to life.

Am I making a statement that I don't want people who struggle with sexual issues in my church?
Heavens' no! How else can they hear the Word of God?
Scripture says that "it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance."
Did you catch that?
KINDNESS!
I want the person who is struggling with sexual sin to come under the conviction of God's Holy Spirit.
I want that person to feel what real love is.
Not a love that is selfish and self seeking.
A love that destroys all the damage done by sexual sin and then rebuilds according to God's blueprints.
That's what I am talking about!

God on you....
mb