Words of Jesus Christ in "Red" 
Introduction
In our present society, perhaps more than ever in
past years, human sexuality is promoted and explored in every public forum
imaginable. Just recently, those opposed to pornography on the Internet won a
battle by pushing forward a federal law that prohibits this type of materiel
"without sufficient controls by the provider to exclude children from it's
influence".
Television also must provide, as a precursor to it's programming, a plainly visible rating system "to provide parents a means to exclude their children from distinctly violent or pornographic content.
Pornographic magazines, wherever sold, "must be secured so that underaged children do not have access to their content".
Will this make a difference? Will all these controls protect our children? "I doubt it." For if adults engage in the same activities that they try to restrict from their children, you pass that behaviour down just as surely as if laws were never enacted. Our children have learned from our baby boomer, '60's mentality of "free sex", and are starting to put this behaviour into action. The only hope for our country, for our children, even for ourselves, is to "get back to the Bible!"
God is not some cosmic prude, as many Christians would have you believe. The same God who created the heavens and the earth, also created man and woman "complete with their sexuality". The act of love was given to mankind by a loving God. This act certainly "feels good", and carried with it the ultimate purpose of procreation. The act of love, as given by God, was never dirty or immoral. Rather, man took this clean act, and in departing from the original gift turned it into a cheap thrill, no more intimately satisfying than a handshake. The beginning of the perversion of the act came from man's evil thoughts and intents as our Lord states here in Matthew:
Modern liberals would have you believe that the best way to avoid sexually transmitted disease is to use some type of contraceptive device, such as a prophylactic or some pill. Modern moralists would have you believe that the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancy is by abstinence. But Jesus teaches us that the best way to avoid either of these undesirable situations is to "control your eyes"! As humans, we may not be able to control the environment around us (television and the entertainment media are always going to move into immorality for the sake of sales), nor can we always control those we come into contact with. Homosexuals and people of loose moral character will always seek to justify their behaviour, rather than to change it to God's Divine Plan. "One thing we can always control, if we will, is our own bodies." Ancient philosophers believed that the eyes are the windows of the soul, and to a large degree they are right. If you open your windows to speculative glances at other women (or men), shortly after this perusal you will begin contemplating acts that are evil in the sight of God. As you dwell on the acts, you will enter ever increasing stages of excitement until, at some point, you may actually seek to make the imagined act "real by pursuing the other person". "Because of this, Jesus defined adultery not as the actual committed act of sexual sin with another person, but rather the moment you lingered in a sexual gaze over someone not intended for you by God". By averting the sexual gaze the root of adultery is nipped off, and the act never has the opportunity to bloom into full sin. Jesus, through what I have come to call "shock teaching", emphasized control of the eyes and hands in every day life by suggesting that it would be better to lose these out of control members than to allow them to lead you into sexual impropriety. Certainly our Lord didn't expect us to willingly engage in self mutilation to avoid adultery. But He did want to emphasize that, what God created clean, we could only bring despair on ourselves by transforming it into filth. I have had long talks with many people, young and old, on the act of marriage and the wedding ceremony. One man wanted to know why it was necessary that he go through a Church sanctioned wedding ceremony, why couldn't he just find the woman he loved and live with her in sexual and (intended) marital love. I can honestly say that I have found no instance in the Bible where a certain ceremony brought two people into a state of marriage in the eyes of God. The Jewish marriage ceremony, for instance, is no more mandated than the Catholic or the mainline Protestant ceremonies. The only common thread that I can find in scripture that unites two people in matrimony is that physical Act of Marriage. Adam recognized this act in:
Adam recognized that God, in His infinite mercy, had given him a mate to share his life with. Over time, mankind developed various ceremonies to impress on the marrying couple the sanctity of marriage, that it wasn't just some one night stand. I believe the ceremony to be important in that it emphasizes monogamy as opposed to animalistic mating and degradation of the Act of Marriage between the sexes. Whether you have a judicial ceremony (with a justice of the peace residing), or a Church wedding (with a Priest, Reverend, or Pastor residing), or a Jewish ceremony (with a Rabbi presiding) the ceremony is valid in that it focuses the couple on the permanence of their union before both God and man. What finally seals the ceremony in God's eyes, though, is the culmination of their physical unity in the Act of Marriage. Not too long ago, mothers used to teach their daughters that the wedding bed was a joyless ritual that the wife had to perform as a "duty for her husband". I find it interesting that God teaches otherwise:
God developed the human body so that it would experience great pleasure while in the Act of Marriage. This pleasure is heightened when the act is committed with your soul mate, the one God designed for you in eternity past. By maintaining sexual fidelity with your mate, you prevent the "wandering eye syndrome" that so easily leads men and women into experimentation with others. I find it shocking that one out of six Americans have genital herpes, that a vast number of people in our country today have experienced or now are experiencing AIDS, syphilis, or some other form of sexually transmitted disease. By turning back to God, and returning to the Divinely established institution of marriage, as a people we could eradicate these self-induced plagues.
Though your married friends may tell you otherwise, marriage isn't for everyone. There are those (of which the Apostle Paul was one) who forsook marriage in order to promote the Kingdom of God. These people possess a spiritual gift of celibacy, an ability to resist the desires of the flesh to a degree possessed by few. But if, as the Apostle Paul said, you cannot resist the charms of the flesh, to avoid fornication (illicit sexual activity) you should seek out a wife, one God has planned for you. Animals, to a large degree, mate without compunction or monogamy. Men and women are not animals, we are being created in the image of God. Please avoid the pitfalls of "free love". Concentrate on Christ in your life, and let the maxim you live by be: 
 Send E-mail to Russ: webslave for Christ ( russ@jesuswept.com ) with questions or comments about this web site and it's content. Last modified: 12/04/2002 |
