I ain’t no Bonobo
Do you know what the Bonobo monkey is known for?
Its crazy sex habits!
Have you ever thought that maybe those that try and teach you about sex think that you are no different than a Bonobo; having sex is simply an instinctual desire- as food is to the stomach, sex is to the crotch!
Atheist Aldous Huxley said, “We objected to morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”
I grew up in Southern California where we were taught that was exactly the way it was. We came from monkeys, and like ‘em, sex is what we do! And that’s what we did.
I never thought it was wrong and certainly never thought there would be consequences to such education.
We live in a day where sexual stimulation is everywhere. Better sex, bigger boobs, bigger junk in the trunk. We are fascinated with the pursuit of personal pleasure. Self-gratification is what my generation is all about. Sex is about my body, my desire, what I want to experience. No-one can tell me how to use my body, it’s mine…me, mine, I…
What happens when we live for selfish purposes? How many marriages fail today? How many relationships fail today?
It is true that the more sexual partners you have the greater the risk is of not only disease, but future relationship disease! What I mean is the more sexual encounters I had, the more I sought my own self-gratification in those encounters, which in turn lead to an inability to be in a long-term relationship. The reason?
Lust!
When viewers of porn are imitating it, Porn mogul, Al Goldstein said people are imitating “the worst possible kind of sex”.
The paradigm that I am picturing is the one of lust as opposed to Love. As long as I sought self-gratification in my relationships failure was just ahead. Lust cannot last, because it is unable to satisfy the human heart.
I struggle with porn. I used to struggle a ton! The porn industry is interesting; it seeks to cash in on customer dissatisfaction! Yep, when we view porn we go from one image to another, to another and so on, it sucks. You can never get satisfied. Lust is unable to satisfy. And those that walk down this road are not having sex with the people they are in the sack with; they’re simply self-gratifying with your body as the tool instead of there own hand!
Those in the Porn industry understand this themselves. When reading “The Hardest Man in Showbiz,” by the porn star Ron Jeremy, you get the idea that he is sad because he has forfeited something that he longs for due to his self-lifestyle. That something is Love. He has wanted to be in relationship with only one person throughout his life. But because lust becomes an uncontrollable behavior with no room for selfless acts, he has been bound to the thing which he knows causes him to not have what he so wants. That does not sound good.
I actually understand that. So many of us want to have a killer life with someone, but unfortunately we will never have that because of what we do in the here and now. The more sex you have, the more you will compare your future husband or wife with. Sex is no longer special at all, but we have made it common. And when you get to meet the person you think you want to spend the rest of your life with, he will have had 15 partners already and you too! That sucks! You’ll be so used to a life of self-gratification that understanding the best part of sex, which is being selfless and giving, will not be in the cards.
“The orgasm has become today’s secular sacrament.” – Dinesh D’Souza
You might think you’re different than the billions of people that have lived before, that crappy for-self sex will not have its consequences in your life. But please don’t believe the illusion of the Matrix. I hope to unplug you!
The Jewish Scriptures are filled with guys and girls that have tried and tried to be the most sexually selfish people ever. King Solomon, of all people, was a sex maniac and his life was jacked! King David as well, and his family went to pot! Abraham had sex with the maid, Judah slept with his deceased son’s wife thinking it was a prostitute because he was horny. Lot drank too much and had sex with his daughters! Come to think of it, I think all porn is a parody to the Bible, in a way.
Through the paradigm of scripture I understand now that God is real. And He created me and made sex as a way to know Him, and His love for you and me. I love it that the Bible paints the picture that many of the so called ‘saints’ who have trusted God failed miserably, constantly looking at sex through the wrong lens.
And that includes me too!
When I read the Bible I was 17. I started in Genesis and being raised an agnostic I was blown away by the idea that God made this union called sex and it was already talked about in the second chapter of the Bible!!! The greatest impact on my intellect was the idea that maybe sex is to be special. Maybe I am not a Bonobo after all. Maybe one man and one woman for life was really the Better Pleasure. Maybe I had been wrong.
Today I have been married 20 years! I have learned many killer sex lessons in my life. But the greatest is that in my marriage, sexual arousal today is not from selfish lusting, but from Love. The arousal I’m talking about is that which comes from giving joy to my beloved. She is mine! I am hers! My body is hers, and her body is mine. Arousal is not from lusting her, but from giving of myself to her (Love). That is much different from the idea of, “How can I have better sex?”
Better sex happens when you exalt sex to what it was meant to be, something sacred, special and beautiful, where Love lives and not lust.
The old way of thinking about sex does not work. You are not a Bonobo and that is why it will not work with you either.
One day you and I will be old, and on that day your self-gratification, self-lusting, self-sexuality will not matter. We will only desire at that time to see Love. Love’s roots can only go deep in the soil when you see it as special, sacred and Beautiful. For love is not common… lust is.
You were created not to be common, but to be special. I learned that…finally.
Try reading the Bible and learn from its view on sex. It changed my life. And it would be awesome one day to see you in a killer marriage of 20 years, where it is special and not the ‘norm!’ Be uncommon. Pursue Love not lust.
Blog
Sex, to the glory of God
What a title! I hope I have your attention now. We live in a sad time where we don’t equate the two right? Sex, the glory of God…what do they have in common? I was speaking the other day at the university and before the service we sent out teams to get the students to come in and attend the talk I was giving on better pleasure. One of the leaders who went out encountered a girl and ask her if she would be interested in listening to a talk on porn and the bible. The girl looked at the leader with a blank stare and began trying to figure out in her overwhelmed brain now the two go together. That is kind of how it is with sex and the glory of God. Oh they go together…or they should.
Now I can tell you a quick way to start your marriage of in a jacked way; do not pay attention.
This is important.
If you and your future spouse do not see the pursuit of Christ in the most intimate of places…the bed room…then you will have some potential problematic issues for sure.
All things are to be done for the glory of God. Even sex.
What would it be like if you don’t see sex as a way to glorify God? It would become a secular experience alone. That’s porn and porn is duty…they get paid!
What makes sex a God glorifying experience? Wouldn’t it simply be what makes eating food sacred act as well…or anything else for that matter. When we live our lives with a heart of thanksgiving to The Lord and prayer we see from rabbi Paul that it is a God glorifying act. See Tim ch. 4
When sex becomes a God glorifying act it is done with the same attitude. Thankful hearts come to the marriage bed! Hearts that want to seek the joy of Christ in the act of sex. If this is foreign concept to you, I apologize..we pastors need to teach the entire bible which is all about a real, intimate relationship between God and His people. See Ezk 16, but really, the whole bible is about this oneness. See John 17 too!
See Christ exalting sex is all About what you bring into the bed, When a man or woman say watches pornography and then enters the bed they import those images to find arousal. That is lust, not love, no matter what body is in the bed with you. That cannot glorify God even if its with your wife. Why? Lust seeks its own, love does not. Love pursues the joy of the beloved while lust
knows not such things but is satisfied only in self. For God to be glorified he must be the focus, and God does not lust the world, he loves it Sex should reflect that, everything else is a lesser joy,a distortion.
Christ glorifying sex is the best, because God is the greatest pleasure! If pursuing Jesus in your heart when in the marriage bed then you a going after the better pleasure. Come drink from the river of Gods pleasure. Taste and see that he is good. At His right hand are pleasures forever more.
Why would we remove God from the marriage bed? Maybe it’s been the way your were brought up. Maybe affection was not showed or modeled to you as a child or teen. Giving yourself to someone is a big deal, there is no abuse like sexual abase, so lets exalt it! But if we don’t seek to glorify our Lord in it, then it is just porn, common is that way, a path most taken.
Sex can be scary for newly weds. Pray, be thankful for the gift you are to one another. Ask The Lord to give you a heart for His glory and you won’t go wrong. Love and not lust will rule. For we are one with Him in Spirit it says, so you are acting out a sermon on your marriage bed…Christ and the Church, becoming one…a prophetic dance it is! What joy for those called to marriage. Enjoy!
Genesis & Porn! Reality & Reaching Others
One thing I have noticed over the years of listening to Pastors, Leaders, Speakers within the Church culture when talking about the porno culture is this:
- We tend to show how unsatisfying having a secular view of sex is from today’s culture
- We try to show from science how watching porn causes problems
- We tend to focus on the men in general when it comes to porn
Though I think all the speakers that I have heard speak the truth, I believe most talks are a bit outdated.
- Women view and make up the consumer market or the porn industry today like men.
- Women use sex toys to stimulate themselves (Was in Denver and heard a stat that said 1 out of every 2 single women in the US use one!), so they pursue pleasure on their own terms.
- People who have viewed porn mostly are not deemed un-stable, chemically imbalanced people.
These are just observations.
But things are changing in the community and it is my heart to show people that the Bible addresses the overall problem; an unbridled, unchanged from times past, lust that dwells within all of us!
In sharing the dangers of porn I could tell students just how bad it is and how it messes you up in the brain and how you look at people all jacked and that if you keep doing it you will get to a place where nothing matters but your idol; porn…But that is only half of it. Porn is a mind set, it is a world view. What is the best way for me to help people see a Biblical world view? Maybe it’s through reading the Bible.
How many Christian parents out there would let their child watch a movie on the Bible? I bet if I asked the question to a room full of parents they would all say a resounding, “YES!”
But really, would you? Would you allow your teenager to watch the two becoming one flesh in Chapter 2 of Genesis or Onan later in Genesis spilling his semen on the ground? How about Jacob’s older sons killing a whole town of men in a terrorist attack while they are hurting from being circumcised? Or how about slicing the necks of animals and draining the blood, skinning the animal, and cleaning the inner parts out? Do you allow your kids to watch animal sacrifices from Bangladesh on video social networks sites? What about Lot getting hammered and having sex with his daughters? And then there’s Abraham with the maid! Or would you allow your kids to watch a show about Judah getting a bit horny while away on business and finds a escort, who just so happens being his son’s wife! And I’m not even out of the first book of the Bible!
I believe that everything we see in the world is just a re-telling of things in the Bible! Why? Because the Bible reports to be real history; real world history. So we shouldn’t be shocked that it’s reporting of the facts is just as hard core as the world we live in today.
There is nothing new under the sun. Nothing!
Everything we watch on Tv or in the movies, online or elsewhere is just a reflection of what has always been. The Bible tells us so.
So when I share with students the issues of porn and its effect on them, Genesis is a place I show them that the Bible is based in reality, we need not look any further. God’s own people struggled with porn (arousal through viewing women or men,) and so it shouldn’t be shocking when we do too! Yes, that means me too.
Great men and women of faith have been knee deep in the porn culture throughout the Word of God. How cool is that!
So would you allow your students or children to watch a movie on the Bible? I bet you wouldn’t if you really have read it. It’s about as hard core as you can get.
Do you allow your students to watch violent movies? Do you allow them to read the Bible?
Do you allow your students to see sexual movies? Do you allow them to read the Bible?
You following me now?
The reason the Bible is so cool and should be allowed to be read or watched, is that we see the realities of the world in their entire context where in a porn movie, we unfortunately take the ‘real’ context out and buy into a fantasy…a non – reality view, which causes arousal. (Lust)
If we were at the studio in Chatsworth, CA holding the lights for the porn vid, I’m not sure we would be aroused but you would see things in a better context for sure; starting, stopping getting water, resting, arms getting heavy from holding lights, getting hungry, when’s lunch anyway! But the Bible gives us the best context in which to view sex, violence and everything else in between this context is the God context. All is laid out before God in the Bible. You see the consequences of King David’s bad sexual problems. You see his son’s lust issues which come from the father. You see the destruction of the family because of lust’s reign! But you also see an incredibly merciful God, who reaches and touches the very heart of these men and women to move them to repentance. I love that!
Maybe the best way to help people see the destructive nature of porn is simply to read the Bible! When we see things in its proper context then we will not be moved. How is it that Jesus could talk to women alone and not have a problem with it though his all too wise apostles did? That sounds a bit like us men leaders today doesn’t it! “Don’t meet with women because you could fall!” mmm, once again, we have horrible contexts which even we in leadership view women. The more I hear that kind of statement, the sadder my heart get’s that maybe we are not seeing people in the correct way, and actually so bad that we can’t meet with a person without lusting!!! Urrrr, that stinks and it’s a porn view of sexuality.
The more students and adults read the entire word of God they will see everything in its correct context and understand that today as always people are simply doing what people do. The world is the same. It’s us in the Church that needs to get things in focus!
Leading in Repentance to the Glory of God
The idea of Repentance cannot mean the total annihilation of a sin. Because if so, sin would never ever return.
Someone can repent of Porn use but still lust! To say that You have repented from pornography and no longer deal with the lustful desires that go astray would be quite a fictional statement. It is very hard to believe that lust of others, things, or places does not come up in the human heart, though there is a sincere repentance that the same person has experienced, as seen in his amputation of porn.
Maybe we do not understand repentance well. Maybe how we have been lead is to think it means a total eradication of sins, instead of a moving in a lifestyle of confession, amputation, accountability as contrasted by a hiding of the sin.
Jesus assumed that we are sinners and need daily forgiveness. In the Lord’s prayer (really the disciples prayer) he is very clear in the line, “And forgive us of our sins…” If repentance meant a complete annihilation of sin, never to ever struggle with it, then at some point, we would no longer have sin. Lust would be gone…geed, jealousy, covetousness etc…too! This seems like a move towards the legalism of the Pharisee sect which outwardly showed no sign of sinful behavior, (and talked a good holy talk) yet they could not hide the stench of lust as it seeped out of there pours!
Today’s Church wants to be strong, to be seen as no longer struggling with sins. At times it is tough to see where Pastors themselves need the line, “and forgive me of my sins,” because they never seem to have any!
Without a lifestyle of open confession the need for God seems lame, fake & simply not necessary. God is not so exalted as our all sufficiency when we have no need. You can hear preaching all day long on your need for God, but why is it that you (preacher) need the Christ? What depths of sin do you find yourself in? Is it not His Grace alone that saves you and I from the same Lake of Fire as any of his other saints in the pages of scripture?
Many that come to church hear the same tune; Christ loves you,, He died for you, He saved you from your sins by dying on the Cross. But then the thought comes in the congregates mind, “But I watch porn every night,” I bet he never has done that! Without the ministers own confession of sin and the real showing of need for Christ through that confession then the gulf is present. There is the ‘Holy’ and the ‘not so holy.’
In Romans 7 Paul not only spoke openly of his sin of covetousness, but over and over again shares his inability to get out of the pit of sin though he tries and tires! What a great pattern for us leaders in the Church to share openly with our flock the depravity of our own sin, the wretchedness of our pride and how it crushes those in it’s way.
Repentance cannot mean a total termination of the sin:
Repentance is a calling a spade a spade. IT’s saying the same thing about something that God does. Repentance stands on acknowledgement of sin, confessing it, and moving away from it. This certainly is not a one time act, for the fight against desires that go astray in the flesh will be until the body no longer can hold the Spirit within it. “The body wars against the Sprit and the Spirit wars against the body, so that you do the things you do not wish to so.”
If repentance meant a total eradication of the sin, then the Spirit would not fight with the body any more in that particular area. And that seems a bit in contradiction from what Rabbi Paul is trying to tell us.
There is a constant fight against desires that go astray within the flesh and Paul gives us the details on how it looks in the Galatians 5 scripture. Those that simply continue in the life of the flesh with no heart to move away when approached with such a danger have no place in God’s Kingdom. They do belong to it, or a burdened heart would have shown itself at the sin.
The Christian daily senses this burden of sin, and the need to walk in the Spirit, trusting, leaning, drinking of Jesus.
As we continue to grow in a daily life of repentance we see that God supplies us with new things, which include a new heart, with different desires. No longer do we want to go back, for it no longer fits the ‘new man.’
But this maturity does not come easily, but with years of fighting, through a life of confession. It is through this, ‘coming into the light,” that God has made the way of escape for us! Through daily confession comes greater accountability, which is another gift of God for our joy and His Glory. Through the hands of many come easier labor. Fighting the fight alone is a waste! We will loose. God intended for us to win together, for the benefit of each other!!!
It is only in my confession that others see my need for Christ, and can witness the work of the Holy Spirit to change my heart and mind (repentance), leading me to victory.
May the Lord give the Church a understanding into these things so that we might grow united together in the battle against sin, lifting up one another daily, knowing daily each others struggles in the flesh, that our reliance on Christ would be seen by all though our acknowledgment, confession and move away from destruction to His Glory. When we are weak, He is strong!
Why Sex Trafficking takes place.
I’ll never forget the time I went to hear Natasha Herzig share her story of being abducted out of a small town at 18 years old and brought to the City to be used as a sex slave. Wow the impact that had on all of us in the room listening to her tell this story of pain, struggle for survival and bondage.
Since that time I have seen my share of documentaries on the Sex Industry in Arizona, the U.S.A. and Internationally. All of them tell a different part of the Sex Industry and all of them I recommend others to watch. But none of them have given a real answer to the problem of Sex Slavery. Sex Trafficking exists due to people wanting it to exists There is the elementary principle of supply and demand at work here. For some countries it is an acceptable way to make money for your family. In other countries it is the only way some find a way to stay alive financially.
In our country, sex is how we sell merchandise everyday which creates quite a desire for sex. This over sexed culture gives way to a great demand for sexual experience. Those that are in bondage to sex find pornography a fix and some find prostitution one too. The Sex Traffickers tap into this source no doubt. When more and more people have a obsession for sexual experience and are unable to fulfill this desire freely (without pay) then paying for sex becomes the option. This happens all the time now. You’ve heard of the Online sex dating sites that are in the thousands where you can pay money to be a part of a online sex community, to Ashley Madison the infamous adultery web site. Our culture pays for sex all the time. But largely people agree to it, there is no corrosion or forcing involved.
But what makes legal Ashley Madison and the Illegal Sex Traffickers go is the same desire. Lust!
This is where the documentaries I have seen loose me. The problem is lust in the human heart that would lead someone to find a prostitute. When lust calls there is no logic, rhyme or reason to it, just a incredible itching to get what is desired at whatever the cost.
I never knew many guys growing up that while at a party picking up girls where asking questions like, “how old are you?” “Are you being trafficked?” “Why don’t we just go to a movie and talk a bit to get to know you more.”
Mostly the burning, out of control lust moved them right to ‘GO’ to collect there 200 dollars. (Monopoly) They needed to get to the prize that lust promised. And this is the reason that Sex Trafficking will not stop no matter what laws are in place. Lust happens! Laws are put in place to hopefully nullify the greater evil. You can kill, but laws prohibit first degree murder You can steal, but robbing a bank is against the Law. You can watch porn, but prostitution is illegal. Though the laws are there to prevent the greatest ‘evil’ the potential for the greatest evil is there within us. No law can restrain it.
This is the position of the Holy Bible; “The law is good, but I am sold as a slave to sin!” Nothing is wrong with the Laws that we have, but the problem is that lust continues to rule and reign in the human heart. For those in the Church and those without the Church, lust lives.
There is only one way to stop Sex Trafficking and that is to stop lust. Doesn’t that sound impossible? It is. “What is impossible for man, is possible for God.” Jesus said to a women bound in lustful living that if she took of Him, then out of her would flow rivers of living water. He was letting her know that her desires would be changed, a new heart is what is needed in these situations and Jesus promised to give her one.
Sex Trafficking is my problem. It starts with me and my own lust. Oh, how easy it is to point the finger at those that sell people as sex slaves to get out of the poverty that they have seen there entire life. And how we look down at the pimps, that starting pimping to help mom live a better life. But when I look at why it all works…why Sex Trafficking works, it comes back to my own heart. Lust.
The only way for me to get off this bandwagon of desire is to be given a new heart with new desires and a new pleasure. This is what Jesus gives us to those who drink of Him. For those that make the documentaries on Sex trafficking they will no doubt revert to the need for government crackdowns, new policies and the like to curb the growth of the Sex Slave Industry. But the elephant in the room will be standing…the 900 ft Gorilla of lust will still be there finding a way… and it will!
“A man with an obsession has very little sales resistance,” C.S. Lewis wrote.
The Lust of man needs to be killed. When that is killed, then you have one upped the abolition movement.
The impotence of the Church…Changing Things within
“First remove the plank from your own eye and then you are able to remove the plank from your brothers!”
These are no doubt famous words of Jesus of Nazareth used and miss-used over the years. When I read this passage it tells me that as a person I can be quite hypocritical in how I judge others. That hypocrisy can be so blinding that I can no longer make proper judgments towards others. And at worst this passage warns me that there is a continual potential of living in a state of blindness, of obliviousness.
I not only apply this truth of Jesus to me personally, but also to his Church. Can the Church have a plank in it’s eye that renders it’s ability to judge properly? Is the crust in the eye so normal that we simply have become used to it?
I was reading a article from the pro-porn group in Australia that has caught on to this hypocrisy within the walls of the Church. They have a link to a site that is called “Deception” that is dedicated to the facts of case after case of sexual abuse within the holiest of institutions. One particular quote from one of this web site says it all:
“However, there are also people involved in religious orders who, for reasons best known to themselves, use their positions of trust to molest and defile the most vulnerable individuals in our society – young children. Some of them have stooped so low as to have molested intellectually handicapped children.”
What this tells me is that although those outside the Church need to understand that those within the Church are in many ways no different from them, we in the Church have to realize that due to our own failures to uphold the holiness we preach that our testimony to those outside the Church is very hindered. I find this is the reason that legislative work is not the most important think the Church should be doing. I believe that as the Church needs to focus its attention within its walls and not without. If we really have a pleasure in Christ that is ‘better’ than the world, then wouldn’t it come to reason that this joy and pleasure in God would shine to those that do not have it.
The Church needs to govern itself, not those outside the Church! I find great Biblical merit for this in 1st Corinthians Chapter 5. We should be looking at how we do ‘sex’ in the Church instead of judging those whose eyes are not opened to Biblical Truth.
Just think if we all within the Church looked to how we conduct ourselves! Especially us as leaders of the Church! Within every Church there are plenty of areas where we can help people gain a deeper understanding to what God intended for sex, and the incredible joy in it to the Glory of God. Why do we continually need to look at passing legislation that tells those outside the Church to live to a standard that we ourselves within it are not able to conform too?
Here are some examples that I think off:
I am against abortion. I believe that within the Church it would be awesome if there was a pro-life group within every Bible believing Church where there main concern would be that none within that body of believers would consider aborting a child but instead the Church would bring such help to pregnant ladies that they would not need to consider an abortion any more. What love and impact that would make! What a dream that is; the Church would not need to abort any children because of the outpouring of concrete acts of love in the self sacrifice for others!
I believe Pornography is a trap to so many which distorts God’s intention for Sex. If the Church taught their congregations what Sex is for and how it glorifies God, and helped those that were within its walls that desire to break free from bondage to pornography then I believe there wouldn’t be much time left to do much else, especially trying to conform others to our beliefs through legislation.
The Church lacks so much in looking at our own issues that we tend to find the mission of converting the ‘lost’ through law, the way to go. This is not a new phenomenon for sure. In Jesus day it was the Pharisee’s, in the Dark Ages it was the Catholic Church, and today if we are not careful, it will become the evangelical Church repeating the old way of making change in this world. But will it be lasting change?
One thing I know for sure I was once blind, but now I see. Jesus came into my life and changed my heart and desires. What was once of value to me no longer seemed like a treasure. No legislation did this; it was the sharing of the gospel of Jesus. I find it refreshing to read the gospels and see Jesus going from one town to another with just a small group of people, teaching, healing, and talking with those that needed him desperately. Did he go to the Jewish religious scribes to get a new law in the books for those pagans to live by? Did he go to Rome in the hopes of banning the practices of Rome?
When the rabbi Paul was in Rome we are told he preached to all the gospel of Jesus. How cool is that!
As the Church falls in love with its Lord, there groom; Jesus, Change will happen. Abortions will stop in the Church and porn will not seem so pleasurable as it once was. And wouldn’t it be so cool for those outside the Church to look at it from afar and say, “What a particular people those Christ lovers are.” “Within their walls there is no abortion, molestation, or any other harm, but a love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” “I want that.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving from Us at RLM!
We are thankful for all of you!
If you get a chance, read Psalm 100 today, and think of the mercy of God in our lives!
Though we deserve death, through Christ blood we have been given life. Thankfulness is a responsive expression. When we are given something by someone, knowing that we do not deserve it, but that thing we have is understood as a gift, then the response is a heart of Thankfulness.
We cannot be Thankful if we believe that what we have is not a gift.
We cannot be Thankful if we believe what we have is deserved.
Why would anyone be thankful for what they earned by there own merit! When you work 8 hours and get 8 hours of pay, do you thank your boss or is the paycheck what is to be expected by working 8 hours? You wouldn’t be thankful, nor do we thank our bosses every time we get paid…we earned it!
But what if your boss gave you double what you get paid! Wow how thankful we would be every time we received the extra gift. Why? Because we know we didn’t earn it nor work towards it, but it was a act of benevolence from the one who could give it.
God glorifying Thankfulness is when we recon that we have received a paycheck that we didn’t deserve. God who is “rich in mercy” sent His One and only Son to pay a price for sin, our sins, that we could not pay without it costing us Hell.
Thankfulness is a response we have in understanding this act of mercy on the Fathers part on our behalf. We appreciate God.
Those that do not believe in the Living God must believe that all they have received is something earned for themselves and not from a Creator/Sustainer/Sovereign Being. What would they be Thankful for? Random mutation over time resulting in a larger brain? How would one define Thankfulness? Isn’t that just a idea with no concrete meaning?
Our country today will celebrate Thanksgiving today, yet so many have rejected the ideas that make up this Holiday. Whenever we remove the Creator we by default succumb to a meaningless existence, though how impossible is it to live that way!
“because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools…” Romans Chapter 1
Getting mixed signals about sexual behavior!
I notice two news articles today. One of them is regarding General Petraeus and the other Elmo from the Sesame Street fame. The later has to do with the voice of Elmo’s sexual behavior with a minor.
In a culture that is educated in Freud, Kinsey, Darwin, and Huxley it seems a bit hypocritical to get in such a pinch about General Petraeus affair or the voice of Elmo guy who has a thing for someone under the age of 18.
Reading the news you would think we live in a culture that believes there is a absolute right and wrong way to our sexual behavior.
I find it scary that on one hand a person can say, “hey if that makes you happy then who am I to question what you deem to be true,” and then on the other hand hold the same person to any standard of living at all. And then to publicly humiliate them by making it ‘news!” Ouch talk about the thing you love hating you back.
What makes something right or wrong anyway? Is that just person choice? Are you really able to say that your sexual preference is any better than mine?
Let me confuse you more! How about polygamy? Why is that ‘wrong.’ What’s wrong with being married and having a affair? The Romans used to have a wife and also a lover on the side. Also the rich Romans used to engage in under age sex all the time! It was considered a sexual delicacy, as it still is in some parts of our world.
The profound question rings out today from the Roman governor of Judea “What is truth?” Pilate asked.
We teach Freud the pervert as he had the answers to life’s difficulties and hardships.
We teach Darwin to understand that we are nothing more than a animal.
We teach Kinsey the pedifile as he has the answers to the meaning of sex.
Well which is it?
Is there a right or not?
Jesus gives us a answer to this delusional world. “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
Jesus claims to have the insight on what is true about this world and another. Jesus was so cool to not propagate the, ‘you believe what you want to believe,” mentality. Instead he spoke what He called, “The Truth” and actually claimed himself to be that Truth.
Ah, you say,”that was written thousands of years ago by some crazy monks living in a bunker.” “We know from science that there is no God, no Truth, no Way…We know from Freud that the answer is in behavior modification through therapy and that Kinsey is right to say that sexual anarchy works great!”
And maybe the culture can stop pretending that sexual behavior matters.
There is a better way!
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
Don't Underestimate the Greatness of Joy In Christ. Like in Intimacy!
Christian marriage is awesome. My wife and I enjoy each other every day…really we do, every day. And we have for so many years now. When we grew up we enjoyed talking to each other and when we dated in college the same joy was there and now after 19 years of marriage that joy remains and continues to grow. Every day of our lives together has been a experience in this joy. As young adults we thought all Christian couples were like this, yet 18 years of counseling in the Church as been quite the rude awakening. So many Christian marriages are not like mine. Love for the beloved is absent. In my book I wrote about how the time Jesus had on this earth was not a indifferent love, put a passionate one. He in no way was a man of lifeless sacrifice. “For the joy set before He endured the cross!” He loves His beloved. He promised to come back at a unknown time and take His betrothed to the wedding chamber. What a picture of passion in intimacy. A husband & a wife together in their wedding chamber where the marriage bed is!
Sex is not to be undermined as a secondary thing in the Christan marriage. For when God made Eve we see in Genesis 2 that sex was the action that showed the two becoming one flesh. Though they are two distinct and separate persons, they now through the sexual act become one flesh. There is a connection in the one flesh relationship, and a intimate one at that! And for Adam there no doubt was a joy like no other at that moment, as so there should be for us.
I don’t think Adam had to think about having sex with Eve his wife. It was the natural overflow of the love they experienced towards one another.
For my wife and I, we care for one another. Our joy is in the joy of each other. I love seeing her grow and blossom as a independent woman! She loves to play sports, spend time with her best friend, and watch movies. Though I don’t necessarily enjoy the same things she does, I have great joy in entering into her joy by participating in activities with her. She loves it that I like to be around her and experience the joy she has. He joy becomes my joy and we together share it! I like that.
The marriage bed is the greatest area where this sharing of joy is experienced mind and body! Through the sexual act we experience a better understanding of God, as God is one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so we to understand this better through intimacy! How cool is that!!! Also God’s love (agape) should be on display in the marriage bed at all times! Love and not lust! Love is desire for goodness and joy of the other, not your own desire at the others expense. So many times it saddens me to hear about many in the Church where there sex life is out of duty and not joy! The marriage bed is to point you to Jesus and His Church! Jesus loves his Church and as stated is passionate about her. This is the example to us. Relations in marriage should be joyful. You will certainly see how self fish you are by how you relate to one another sexually in marriage. (I could write a whole chapter on that alone.) Sex is not about you, it’s about glorifying God as all things are (Col 3:17). If you make it about you then you can seriously damage your marriage by misusing this most important area. For instance if you are unable to show the passionate agape love in the wedding bed then how will you show it outside of it? The bed is the most intimate you will be with your spouse. It is just you two and that’s it! The marriage bed is a place where we learn to move in agape love, seeking the joy of the other. This is what is so cool about Song of Solomon. Though Solomon was a pervert of the first rank, the Lord used him to write this wonderful picture of the sexual relationship between a man and his wife and how it is a picture of God and His people. This shouldn’t be to weird of a thought to us who have studied our Bibles as God is always speaking relationally to His people in Husband Wife allegory. Learn to grow in your enjoyment of one another. Pray and ask the Lord to be honored and seen through this intimacy between you and your beloved!
Oh, how killer it is to be in love. I am 40 now. I still kiss her like I always have. We love to be together to hang out together to laugh and flirt with one another and I pray your marriage will find such joy too! This is my hearts desire! It’s to let people know that Jesus does this work in our lives. Our bed is about Jesus and wow how awesome are the pleasures of God!
“Come drink from the river of my pleasures!” Psalm 36:8
Beau James Ouellette – www.runninglight.org
A place where there is no desire for porn.
There is such a place and I’d like to share it with you.
In our ‘Babylon’ of sexuality it is nice to find a place where value is placed in something else besides sex. The place I have been blessed to be in lately is a old folks home in Tucson, AZ. Not much desire for pornography sex, or lust for matter of fact.
What I find so refreshing about this place is the freedom from the battle itself in such a place. Why is the battle less in there than outside?
Context!
Isn’t context everything when reading a book or interpreting a conversation? The context within the elderly community is bodies falling apart, sadness crying…people unable to move. When seeing this context there is no desire for anyone to lust, for there is a sure greater need. In Babylon it seems that sex is the great value, but in the elderly home there is no need for such elementary party activities. Love, compassion, patience and understanding are at the forefront of the need in these places. Just try to find arousal in such a place! You will find none!
God is the greatest value. An investment in learning about God can follow you into the life after. And this makes the endevour worth all the riches in the world.
If we could see the needs of those in our ‘Babylon’ as those inside the elderly home then maybe we would start seeing things in a proper context and not find ourselves in bondage to lust.
Get out in your community and see what needs are there. Realize the joy of Christ love through helping others. This is the Better Pleasure.
Mark 9:37 Whoever welcomes one of these little children (those that need) in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
If we want more of Christ we will.