Friday, November 30, 2012

What is honest sexuality?

Ever since Madonna some 25 years ago, there seems to be a pervading mentality amongst Americans that if your honest about your sexual feelings then you're going down the right road.  This road, as it's communicated to us, is the best road because we're no longer hiding and we can really be ourselves.

This mindset has contributed to us glorifying the "American Pie" movies as successful movie-making.  It has made celebrities out of people who simply choose to flaunt their sexuality on what we've chosen to call "reality TV."  It has forced young, talented singers like Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, and maybe even Justin Bieber to "turn up the heat" on their lyrics and stage presence in order to keep selling records.  Recently, it has made a villain out of new-Christian Angus T. Jones because he spoke out against the content of the show he's on, "Two and a Half Men," calling it "filth."

Yes, we have come to a place where a person can feel convicted by something he's been doing, want to become a better person, and be publicly lambasted for it.  Yet, at the same time, Fiat, Direct TV, and a European beer company use Charlie Sheen (the former star of the same show) and his bad boy image to sell their products.

Truly honest sexuality is when a person comes to grips with who invented sex (God), who is trying to reinvent sex (Satan - God's enemy), and how the original cannot be reinvented.  A person does not have to do very much research to see the devastating effects of living life based on the lie of Satan that sex can and should be had when we want and how we want it.  It produces all kinds of abuse, unwanted pregnancies, dehumanizing of females through pornography, and the defining of a person based on their sexual preference.

Each of every person on the face of this earth is a creation of God Almighty (Colossians 1:16).  Not only that, but each and every person is created in God's image (Genesis 1:26), which means that He put His heart and soul into who we are and why we're here (see Psalm 139:14).  As a result, we have no choice but to search with our whole hearts WHO our Creator is, WHY He created us, and WHAT we are to do about it.  I guarantee you that if you seek Him and His Word based on this premise, you will find TRUE sexuality, placed in its right context, and end up with life that is truly life.  This world cannot offer such a guarantee with its shallow, lust-based, selfish version of the original.

Friday, November 9, 2012

"God bless America"?

Early Wednesday morning (late night of Election 2012), both candidates ended their speeches with the phrase "God bless America."

I shuddered.

After the long road of declaring your knowledge of everything and your opponent's stupidity in all things . . .
After pointing out that you are RIGHT and that the other person is wrong. . .
After making the motivation of your campaign, in essence, what people want to hear. . .
After lying to yourself and others about what you will do. . .

. . . do we really expect God to bless what goes on from here on out?

If there's an acknowledgement of God at the end of a campaign, what kind of acknowledgment was there during the campaign?  I don't mean blanket statements or addressing praying breakfasts and religious activist groups.  No, I mean acknowledging with humility and bent knee that God is who He reveals Himself to be and that we, in start contrast to Him, are under His sovereignty and lack ability to do anything on our own.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.  Ecclesiastes 12:13

We want the blessings of an all-powerful, loving, merciful God, right?  Yet we, many times, refuse to come to any sort of conclusion that He is in charge and, therefore, has every right to withhold blessing and even pronounce curse.  What?  Curse?  No, not the God I believe in.  He would never do anything to allow anybody to get hurt . . . right?

Without getting too much into how God's control of matters interacts with our free will, the key subject at hand hear is our willingness (and ability) to PLACE OURSELVES UNDER God's ultimate authority.  Think about it:  if He allowed is own Son (Jesus Christ) to suffer at the hands of sinful, mortal man for our sake, why wouldn't He allow suffering for the sake of our eventual benefit and His glory?

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   2 Corinthians 5:21


If we truly want to be blessed by the Almighty Creator of the universe, then we better humble ourselves under His mighty right hand.  Then, AND ONLY THEN, will we know Him and understand what it truly means to be right(eous)!