Yes, Christians can be sexy

An adulterous woman consumes a man, then wipes her mouth and says, "What's wrong with that?"

"This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, 'I've done nothing wrong.'
Proverbs 30:20

The Bible is full of sex. Good sex. Bad sex, like is portrayed above. Many Christians feel it is a subject (and feelings) that must be avoided at all costs. I'm here to say they are wrong.
Now, I hear some of you gasping in disbelief, so let me explain, OK?
Biblical wisdom is good counsel, and at times is earthy. In fact, in the first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs, there is an awful lot of fatherly advice on the subjects of love, romance, and sex.
I think it is very interesting and important that this material is a mixture of realism, understanding – even sympathy – and a flinty, no-nonsense demand and warning. Perhaps that is because Proverbs is written for the young in the first place, though that sort of mixture of attitude and approach should always be ours. We should be unwilling to excuse bad conduct in this area of life; we should leave no one – especially our children – in the dark as to the tragic consequences that await those who fail to honor the Lord in their romantic and sexual life -- but we have all lived in the world and tried to maintain a pure heart. We can sympathize with those who have fallen or who are struggling to submit this area of their lives to Christ.

Well, one very quickly gets the idea when reading what this father in Proverbs says on the sexual life that the man knows what he talking about from first-hand experience. He’s felt the terrific power of temptations and knows what it takes to resist them. His counsel, his wisdom is iron cloaked in velvet!

There is something wonderful, and even amazing about the sexual life. How all of it works, how function and feeling, reproduction and romance are combined into one highly charged, significant something. It is heavenly; it can be celebrated; it can be enjoyed; and God can be thanked for it as long as it is pure and faithful sex. It cannot be celebrated if it is the selfish behavior of the person in verse 20! That is the example of a person who does not believe that sex is the expression of a life-long commitment, and a celebration of true and selfless love in marriage.

Sex is a mysterious wonder, a great gift of God, and something he has invested with mighty power. It is ours to enjoy to the fullest extent but it is also ours to steward, to protect, and to use as God intended, like all his other great gifts to us. When it is so used, as in marital sex that is loving and romantic and selfless, men and women find what a wonderful mystery it is! When it is misused it destroys individual lives, marriages, families, and eventually whole societies.

So, back to my title. Yes, Christians can be sexy. In fact, as Christians we have a great advantage in this department! You see it works as it should when it becomes one more way of putting the interests of others before your own and loving someone else as Christ loved you! Wow! Think about that for a minute....

If you go back to chapter 7 of Proverbs, you will find a description of the ways that a woman "lays a trap" for a youth, someone who is not as wise as the father giving the warnings. It speaks of tactile sensations, aromas, soft lighting and fabrics . . . okay, let's just be straight here. We are talking about aphrodisiacs -- things that pave the way for a lovely experience. Now, I hope I haven't lost you here . . . I'm still the same old Snoodles that you know. 

If you look over at the Song of Solomon, where a bride and bridegroom are speaking, you find many of the same things.  In the Song, the bridegroom and the bride take turns saying wonderful things about each other. Have we forgotten the power of an affectionate word? Taking the time to give evidence during each day that we love one another . . . have we forgotten how fun it is to surprise each other with a chore done, or a favorite small gift given? And yes, taking from our modern culture whatever the new-fangled options are for myrrh, cinnamon, and other smells and tastes ...

Are we somehow less spiritual because we cultivate the pleasure we find with our spouse? Far from it! Make it as pleasurable as you can, for the Bible encourages us to live holy lives and be "intoxicated" with the love of our mate!

Proverbs 30:18-19 Mysteries

¹⁸ “There are three things that are too amazing for me,
    four that I do not understand:
¹⁹ the way of an eagle in the sky,
    the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
    and the way of a man with a young woman.

Ah, the mysteries of life! In addition to inspiring songs, they should also provide amazement, and then, in a Christian, should motivate praise to God the Father!

In other words, these are mysteries of our Creator; these are things that amaze us because they "shouldn't" work or function as easily as we might think . . . and so they are proof positive of the Divine Design that is in our world.

The first wonderful thing is the way of the eagle in the sky: that is, the soaring, seeming effortlessness with which the great bird defies gravity. Eagles are very large birds, very heavy. If you could ever lift one up it would amaze you that so much weight can navigate the sky with such seeming ease. The condor, for example, when it is aloft, flaps its wings on average once per hour! And the condor is even bigger than the eagle! Wonderful indeed.
            The second is the movement of a serpent on a smooth rock. It has no legs and the rock has nothing to grab onto, but a snake moves lickety-split across the rock and even as you watch it is not easy to see precisely how it manages to move as quickly and easily as it does. The zoologists would tell us that is because of their well-developed muscles and their ventral scales! This is wonderful, too.
            The third is a ship on the high seas. The marvelous thing is the way it defies the hidden depths of the sea and is untroubled even by great waves. In those days ships were smaller than our large ships today but even the mighty ocean with its terrible power couldn’t drag them under. They would disappear in the trough between two waves and seem certain to be buried, but then would pop up on the crest of the next wave, safe and sound. Again, a wonderful thing, how the ship is able to float and navigate on the top of the water.
             The fourth thing is the "way" of a man with a young maiden. The Bible is not prudish when it comes to our sexuality, as we will see in our study tomorrow. (Have I gotten your attention?) We all have seen the mysterious and wonderful attraction of love, romance, and sexuality between men and women. It is indeed wonderful, and it is something to be celebrated!

Aren't you glad, like I am, that our Father created a wonderful world for us to live in? So many things point to His authorship, and cause us to praise Him!

Prayer Requests

Every other week on our study blog, we offer the opportunity to share requests and praises for answered prayers here.

Please let us know if there is something that we can pray with you about. The Bible tells us these encouraging words:

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 18:20

And

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James 5:16

Please be sure to also check our Prayer Request Page to refresh your memory about needs that have been shown to us, and pray with us today in your time with the Lord.

Proverbs 30:17 Stones or prayers

“The eye that mocks a father,

that scorns an aged mother,

will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley,

will be eaten by the vultures.

Many of us are shocked at the verses here and at the ones in Deuteronomy, which state:

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. Deuteronomy 21:18-21

These were written to the Hebrews, who were under the law of Moses, and serve as an extreme warning to young people. God meant business when He told children to respect their parents.
This seems truly harsh to us in our era, but there were important reasons why this was necessary:
                  1. First, it was to demonstrate the exacting requirements of the Law, a perfect and unforgiving standard.
                  2. Second, it demonstrates the need for grace that would eventually be made known on the cross.
                  3. Third, should rebellion take root, the very heart of the gospel would be at risk since the prophecies of the Messiah coming to and through Israel could be undermined should rebellion become rampant and society could fall apart -- causing the prophecies to fail.
There are also safeguards built into this law:
     1. It refers to a son, not to a daughter.
     2. He is stubborn, rebellious, gluttonous and a drunkard.
     3. Only the parents can do this, and they must agree on the issue.
     4. He is brought before the elders, and investigation is held.
     5. There is no case on record where this law was used and upheld.
     6. This law (by its mere existence) would have discouraged youth from these vices.
(Courtesy of John Haley's book, Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible, Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1992, p. 288.)
Under God's grace, instead of His law, we find these instructions for children:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour your father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.  Ephesians 6:1-3

And we find these instructions for us, as parents:

And you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  Ephesians 6:4

 If we are Christians and we want to live as Christian parents, then we should start by having daily devotions with our family -- daily reading the Word and praying. Take the children's concerns and prayers to heart, and show them by example that we should rely on God.

Have we prayed with our children (or grandchildren) today? Have we read the Bible to them or with them? 

Friday Slowdown

Thank you for sticking with us this week, in our studies.

I hope that you have received some small thought that will help you in your daily walk. I know that God will bless us as we study His word and strive to live for Him.

We studied people and things that are not satisfied. And we closed with notes on how He can satisfy our longings. I thought this song was appropriate for our meditation today.

I can't get "no" satisfaction, Conclusion

“There are three things that are never satisfied,

four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

the grave, the barren womb,

land, which is never satisfied with water,

and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’

It's hard to stop a wildfire.  We've all seen reports on television showing firefighters struggling to contain fires that threaten woodlands and homes. The flames are forcing them back to safety while the helicopters drop many thousands of gallons of water in attempts to quench the fires. Each year millions of acres are devastated by fires.
This verse is talking not just about those types of fires, but also about the fires of hell. That is not a topic that many people are comfortable talking about, but it is a fact that hell exists. Some people will insist that hell is not real, but personally, I will take Christ's word for it:

 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Matthew 25:41

And in the ninth chapter of Mark, Jesus says that "the fire is not quenched." It never burns out, and is never satisfied. Hell will never end.
No one has to go to hell, though many will:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  Matthew 7:13

But God has provided a way of escape:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  John 3:!6

And we can be confident that He will hear our prayer, asking for deliverance:

And this is the confidence that we have with regard to him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we had asked from him. I John 5:14-15

Yes, Jesus does save us and He satisfies us!

for he satisfies the longing soul
    and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:9

The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.  Isaiah 58:11

I CAN get satisfaction! Amen!

I can't get "no" satisfaction, Part III

“There are three things that are never satisfied,

four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

the grave, the barren womb,

land, which is never satisfied with water,

and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’

You don't have to have lived in the desert to have seen parched earth, do you? Many of us who enjoy gardening have experienced the frustration of coaxing plants along, only to have them succumb to drought conditions!
Some of us have seen the way that dry earth can form large cracks on the surface, for lack of moisture. I remember when I was a child I poured water into one of those cracks and it never seemed to fill up with water.
In much the same way, we can never be satisfied until the Holy Spirit pours Himself into us -- and we need a fresh infilling each and every day!
Isaiah 44:3 tells us:
For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
    and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants.
And David tells us in Psalm 42: 1-2:

¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

Jesus told His disciples, and we need to hear it too . . . the absence of the Holy Spirit will bring dissatisfaction, discouragement, and defeat. The Spirit will instruct us, and will guide us in all things. How miserable we are when we don't have Him in our lives!  But I received the Spirit when I was saved, you say . . .yes, but it is clear from the Word that we can grieve the Spirit (Eph 4:30), and we can quench Him (I Thess. 5:19). We must repent of our sins each day and ask Him to work freely through us. Then we can have the satisfaction He gives. We can have His presence afresh each day.

Is the Spirit free to work in us today?