Tag: sex

Temptation

Today’s reading is Proverbs 5 where a stern warning is given about adultery.

In this chapter King Solomon is writing to his son to tell him about the risk of the temptation of adultery and seeking temporary pleasure over the fruits of faithful marriage over one’s lifetime. This is steep contrast to what the world tells us. Sexual promiscuity is everywhere in ads, TV shows, movies, and now on social media. Satan and the world tell us to seek pleasure, you deserve it. It’s ok…just like the fruit in Genesis 3. The book of Ecclesiastes is also attributed to King Solomon and in it he also warns about seeking pleasure over what God wants.

I’ve mentioned in past writings that some years ago I had the opportunity to work with Jason Selk. Jason was a sports psychologist for professional teams and athletes and then began personal and business coaching as well. One of the things he talked about was doing a life projection when making decisions in the moment. If your goal is to get in shape and stay healthy, picture yourself 5 years from now if you don’t say yes to that workout you don’t feel like doing. And then picture yourself healthy when you say yes to that workout. One of my friends who was not a believer and now is and who is also very into personal and professional growth and books and podcasts on that topic said that pretty much every concept comes from the Bible. Well, we can see it here…

“and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

and you say, “How I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors,

I am at the brink of utter ruin

In the assembled congregation.”

Proverbs 5:11-14

Solomon is giving his son a life projection and telling him the temporary pleasure the world and Satan is telling you to chase is not worth it at the end of your life. How you feel on your deathbed about your choices and the life you lived is much more important. If you are someone who has fallen into this snare, know that there is forgiveness at the cross. Psalm 103:12 says he removes our sins as far as the east is from the rest. Read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. God loves and forgives you and wants you back.

Jason once told a story about a man he was coaching who struggled with his weight. They were out to dinner with a large group having a great time. After dinner the waiter came up and said he’d be right back with the dessert tray. At that point the man abruptly left and went home, despite the great time he was having. The next day, Jason asked him why he left so quickly. He said he’d done a life projection, and he didn’t like the person he saw 5 years from now if he said yes to a dessert…so he removed himself from the temptation. Not only did he do the life projection like taught here in the wisdom God gave Solomon, but he also follows what Jesus taught in Matthew 18:7-9 where he says if your eye or your foot or hand cause you to sin…remove it (not literally). Billy Graham said he would never put himself in a situation where he was alone with another woman who was not his wife.

Let us remember what God taught us in the very beginning in Genesis 2:24 and Jesus reiterated in Matthew 19:4-6..

“He answered, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife,, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefor God has joined together, let not man separate.”

 

1 Corinthians Introduction – Nothing New Under The Sun

The city of Corinth is on an isthmus which is a narrow stretch connecting the mainland of Greece to the Peloponnese peninsula halfway between Athens and Sparta. Scientists have found artifacts which they believe date back to 6,500 B.C., but the city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C. Under Roman rule, Julius Caesar built the city back up in 44 B.C. It became the capital of the Roman province Achaia. A few weeks back we were visiting family in Auburn which is near Springfield, and we attended West Side Christian church there. Pastor Eddie Lowen gave a great sermon on God’s plan for sex and marriage and the damages of sexual sin with the focus being on 1 Corinthians. He called Corinth “the original anything goes city like Vegas. In fact, it would make Vegas look good.” I have a note written in my Bible which says, “Vegas with the power of D.C.” It was known for its commerce, rampant immorality, and multiple religions.

Paul established the church and lived there for approximately 18 months with Priscilla and Aquila as we learned in Acts 18:1-18. In these verses, Jesus told Paul in a vision to stay there and to speak up because he would protect him.  Despite the immorality there, he also told Paul there were many there who were his people. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to the church he established there a few years later while in Ephesus between 53-57 A.D.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul not only addresses sex, marriage, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the Resurrection, but also unity in the church. He was concerned with division and wanted the church to have one thought and one purpose which was to glorify God. A few years ago, I came across my Grandfather’s Bible, and I found his many notes written in the margins and a Sunday school lesson he had likely written 40-50 years ago. As a side note, I love the Bible app and the ability to get  into the Word anytime when I don’t have my Bible. However, I want to thank Pete Wiedman who challenged me a few years ago to go back to using a physical Bible and to write my thoughts and notes in it so that my kids and grandkids could read it someday. Not I only have I found it helpful to reference back to past notes myself, but it is one of the main spiritual legacies, outside of words, teaching and actions, I want to leave to my kids and grandkids that can go on and hopefully impact them long after I leave this Earth. As far as we can figure out, my Grandfather was a chain breaker in his family as a believer and the legacy he left by raising my Mom in that way which now (with the help of our Father too) has carried on with my brother and me and down to our kids and I pray for their kids someday is truly awesome. I can’t describe how neat it was to go back and read his notes in his Bible. I would encourage you to give some thought to going back to physical Bible if you don’t use one. Anyway, I digress. My grandfather referenced in his Sunday school teaching notes many of the issues and problems at that time such as absent fathers leaving and creating single parent homes and the damage of some of the same sins Paul references in 1 Corinthians. Doesn’t sound much different than today in 2017 does it? One of my former mentors, John Wright, would often reference Ecclesiastes 1:9 which says, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

As we read 1 Corinthians, I would encourage you to look for Paul’s themes mentioned above and how the Gospel is the answer to many questions. Imagine how different the world would be today if we followed the instructions given to us by God through Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth…one unified church, following one source of instruction on how to live which is the Bible, with one common goal of glorifying God in all we do.