Bev and I went to see “The King’s Speech” and sat through the preview for “No Strings Attached” a film about two single professional adults who are sleeping together as the title suggests without any obligation. Their immorality is a source of much hilarity according to the trailer. Also over the weekend, media reported on a new MTV show that has been an instant hit among teens called “Skins,” which celebrates the party culture, including uninhibited sexuality, of American urban high school students. All restraint is gone. Sex is god in our de-spiritualized culture.
Even Christian teens are heavily 'sexualized.’ Most consume the media and entertainment of our culture with few filters. It should not be a source of amazement to us that our teens cannot understand the Bible's call to sexual purity. The message of the culture obliterates the truth of the Word. It isn't just teens that are effected, either. Pornography and sexually explicit material has invaded all of our lives. When I did computer consulting work from 1997-2000, I found evidence of pornography access on computers in every business to which I was called! Barna Research found that 38% of Christians in America think that there isn't really anything wrong with pornography as long as it doesn't involve children. Many call it ‘dirty’ but don’t think it’s really sinful. They fail to understand that pornography exacts a heavy price from ALL who become consumers. It is not a harmless diversion. Pornography drains away our wholeness - spiritual and emotional - one little bit at a time.
The Word tells us "There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others.
In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body." (1 Corinthians 6:16-21, The Message)
The answer to the flood of sensuality that surrounds us is not a retreat into prudery where all sex is dirty and/or hidden away. Nor is the answer to impose dress codes that laud yesterday's fashion. The answer is to know the truth about sex. Sex is God's gift to us for pleasure and to bond us to our spouse for life in an intimacy that mirrors our love for Him! Sexuality is not something Christians should avoid like a sickness, it is something we should celebrate, lifting it out of the filth of the street by our celebration of this gift of God.
What messages about sex are filling your mind, your home?
Are you becoming a victim of the porn culture- unaware of the destruction it creates in your soul - like the proverbial 'frog in the kettle?'
I strongly advise you to evaluate ALL of your entertainment consumption habits. Put filters in place that keep you sensitive to purity. Choose wisely what you consume! The fact that you're reading this means you have Internet access. Are you computers monitored to protect the kids in your home? Are you monitoring your own online patterns? Offer yourself - including your sexuality - to God and pray that the wholeness that is found in His ways will make your life a light in a world of darkness.
Here's a word from the Word. I pray you will conform your life to it today:
"You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world, such as, "Don't handle, don't eat, don't touch." Such rules are mere human teaching about things that are gone as soon as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, humility, and severe bodily discipline. But they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person's evil thoughts and desires.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power. ...
Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. ...
now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. ...for you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds.
In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you. (Colossians 2:20- 3:10, NLT)
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