Sexual Sin

There are few things in this life that give me more joy and more relaxation then spending time at camp. Despite some cold and dreary weather, I spent four fantastic days up in the Poconos. A little work on Saturday (if you consider leading low ropes and belaying the climbing wall working), but the rest of the time I was pretty much hanging out with a couple awesome friends. In this setting, topics cover pretty much everything, from the ridiculous, to nonstop quotes from The Office, to bowel functions, to serious "God stuff".

One of the more serious topics was on the topic of the church's involvement with sex, particularly how many Christians view sexual sin differently then other sins. The general consensus among us three was that the church seems to view this sin as being worse than other sins. To this point I agree that this is a common trend, and I also agree that it is wrong that it happens. Several years ago I heard a great analogy to demonstrate this point. Imagine two beautiful white walls with absolutely no blemishes. Pure, chaste white. At the first wall, take a bucket of red paint and splash it all over the wall. Obviously, there has been a lot of paint (sin) that has terribly damaged this wall. Now at the second wall, pull out a fine tip red sharpie. Approach the wall and tap the end of that sharpie ever so lightly that there is but a speck of red on that wall. The red may not be covering the wall, it might take less effort to fix this wall, but the pure whiteness of it has been ruined. It takes but a pinch of sin to separate us from God, in fact, condemnation (Romans 5:16). As we know, salvation through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, we are called to eternal life! Amen!

Although I stand by the fact that all sin separates us from God, all sins are not to be treated equally. I reiterate, sins are not to be treated equally, I did not say sinners are to be treated unequally. In regards to this post's topic, we are to flee from sexual sin (1 Corin. 6:18). In fact, "no other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body" (1 Corin. 6:18, NLT).

This approach differs greatly to other advice given about sin. In other parts of the bible we are told to put on God's armor to stand firm against Satan's temptations (Ephesians 6:11-17), to stand firm against Satan (1 Peter 5:9), and even that resisting Satan will make him flee from us (James 4:7). So clearly, if we are instructed to flee from sexual immorality, there must be something that differentiates this from other sins. Not that it separates us from God anymore than other sins, but that its effects are not on the same level as other sins.

What then is sexual immorality. Let me quote from Mark Driscoll's Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions. From the chapter titled, "Sexual Sin":

"I do not mean to be graphic, but because there is such widespread sexual confusion, I will plainly state what constitutes sexual sin (though this is not meant to be exhaustive). Some acts are always sinful, such as homosexuality, bestiality, rape, polygamy (including both polyandry and polygyny), pornography, prostitution, pedophilia, sinful lust, and incest. Some are sinful outside of marriage, including sex, masturbating another person, phone sex, sexual online chatting, heavy petting, oral sex, anal sex, and dry humping."

He continues:

"In the New Testament, porneia (from which we get the word pornography) is translated as 'sexual immorality' and encompasses all sorts of sexual sins; it is frequently used as a junk drawer in which every sort of perversion is thrown. This is because God in his wisdom knew that if he only listed certain sexual sins as off-limits, someone would find a loophole by which to keep the letter of the law while denying the spirit and write yet another book explaining how to sin against God in a way that is 'biblical.'"

Although I concur on the "junk drawer" idea of the term "sexual immorality", I do so for slightly different reasons. I believe if God wanted to explain all sexual sins without people finding a loophole, he could. People might believe they found a loophole, but it wouldn't be one. Rather, I think sexual immorality is left vague because things we engage in today included on a list thousands of years ago would make no sense at that time period. I'm not an expert on what was available, but certainly pornography in magazines, videos, and the Internet wouldn't make any sense for many years. Also, other sexually immoral use of technology such as phone sex and cyber sex couldn't be included. Therefore, the term "sexual immorality" is very useful, even if there are those interpreting its meaning very loosely.

So basically, what I'm saying is this: all sin separates us from God, and the church needs to stop the excessive guilt trip being laid onto those who have sinned in this way. Rebuke needs to be done, preferably by a pastor, a church leader, or a friend, but the congregation is failing the person if they ostracise him or her. With that said, more attention needs to be paid to this sin, knowing that we are to flee it as opposed to simply fighting it.

Carry Me (Live) - Jars of Clay

Jars of Clay.

Acoustic.

Live.

You're Welcome.

You Are My Joy - DC*B

Yeah, I know, I posted DC*B yesterday. Well, guess what, they're amazing. It's a Monday and we all need to be reminded of where our true source of Joy comes from. Happy Monday! :-)

As They Went...

This morning's messages was on being called by God, and used Luke 17:11-19. This is when Jesus is approached by 10 lepers desiring to be cleansed. He orders them to present themselves to the priest. That's it. No drawing in the sand, no mud on the eyes, no touching of his cloak, just sending them away. "AS THEY WENT they were cleansed" (Verse 14). Only the Samaritan came running back to thank Jesus.

The sermon took one direction for the remainder of our time, but my focus rested on the words "as they went". Oh, how true! What would have happened if they ignored what Jesus said and just sat down? Probably nothing. They had to obey and go. They had to do. How often do we pray and pray and pray and ask and ask and ask and then be still. Although there are many times for this, it is not for all times. Sometimes we need to act out our faith for the blessings to come.

I've been stuck in a cycle in my life where everything seems to be in a rut. A job rut. A dating rut. Spiritual life rut. For a couple years I prayed for God to heal my relationships and to give me guidance as to what to do for a career. In all honesty I just needed to be pulled out of this pit that was my life. And I prayed and prayed and prayed. Nothing changed. But I know God hears, for "if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him" (1 John 5:15). I believe He heard every single time I went to Him. But why wasn't anything happening?

Nothing happened because I didn't do anything. God gave me wisdom and advice. He comforted me. He encouraged me. He extended his beautiful and strong hand into the pit, but I laid there looking at it, too afraid to grasp it and climb out, climb to Him.

So this was the situation. For two years I did nothing but be miserable in the rut of my life, wondering why God hadn't pulled me out. But God was still working on me. He worked through sermons, specifically those from Mark Driscoll, to get me out of a relationship that held me down. Not that it was the fault of the young woman who happens to be a wonderful and beautiful person, but the relationship basically held me hostage. God also presented opportunities for a new career. He showed me the M.A. degree that I had been searching for. And what happened? I stood up. I walked towards God's sovereign hand, ended the relationship, applied for grad school, and slowly, using God's own loving arms, climbed out of that pit.

We can't save ourselves. We need God. But God isn't going to do everything for us. We need to live out our faith and follow God. Things won't always be easy, but He will be with us and take care of us.



Below is a a video for "How He Loves", which my church performed this morning. This is the official music video from David Crowder* Band. Unfortunately, EMI won't let the embedding work, but it'll give you the link over to the YouTube page.

Okay, but, seriously, folks...

So I have decided to be an official blogger (whatever that is). I'm going to try to get this going and have this be my spiritual musings and what not. A bunch of the older posts won't quite fit in. In fact, I even deleted a couple personal posts. Over a year ago I started this blog as an easy way for me to share my feelings with...myself. And although I think I need to keep some outlet for that, I've decided to maybe make this something for other people to relate to. I don't know anything about embedding videos, I have a twitter that is rarely used, but I do have opinions. And if nothing else, that's what I have to offer!