Read 1 Corinthians, chapters 5-7
This Week’s Topic: Sex
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you” “don’t you know that a little bit of yeast works itself through the whole batch of dough?”
1 Corinthians 5:1 (NIV)
Reflect
In the 70’s and 80’s I would spend about a month a year in a certain town in Germany. One of the things I noticed was that the German’s view of sexual morality was overall much different to that of the average American. For example it was simply expected that couples would live together before marriage, if indeed they would marry at all.
I wondered then if this liberalized view of sexual practices would eventually become the norm in America. Indeed that is what happened.
When the Bible speaks of sexual immorality it’s not so much an issue of “doing something bad” as it is an issue of how life works, how God has created people to flourish and what causes them to crash.
Sex is powerful. It creates life (babies) and is a conduit to the destruction of life (disease). The highest things contain within them the potential for the lowest of things. Sex as marital commitment between a man and woman where it represents mutual love is beautiful and wonderful and creative power. Sex as an act of the animal kingdom still creates life, but without commitment and marriage it creates poverty, creates a vast population of people who do not know what a father is and fills prisons.
One begins to see that the term sexual immorality has much more behind it than the secular critics want to see.
Prayer
“Help me to see beyond the desensitizing mores of 21st century America to your plan and purposes for sexual expression among us human beings onto whom you have conferred your image” Amen”
YouVersion Results from Sunday, July 1, 2012
Question: What are some things that I worship ("I have to have in order to be happy", "can't live without") ahead of God?
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:30pm EDT - TV and chocolate.
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:30pm EDT - I guess it's electronics, I don't bow down to them but I use them all the time.
Question: What do you see in the Lord's Supper that is the foundation of all Life? What do you see in the Lord's Supper that models how I should live?
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:30pm EDT - Taking on the role of a servant on purpose.
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:30pm EDT - Jesus want us to have something to remember him by, he gave us the broken bread which represented his broken body, the wine represented his blood which was spilled to make us clean.
Question: Why is it crucial for every believer to orient his life around attending Sunday morning worship every week regardless of how one feels, regardless of whether or not one feels "fed"?
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:31pm EDT - Refueling is required, because we can't go on empty. Further, no matter how one worships during the week, we need to be with others in community.
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:31pm EDT - To grow stronger in Christ, a weekly refreshment of God so they continue to feel "fed" all week.
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:31pm EDT - It is important to start the week out centering your plans around Christ and what he wants for us. Without God at the head above all of our idols we cannot live a life for Christ.
Question: How do you or could you place yourself in a position each week where you can learn to love, honor and enjoy God?
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:27pm EDT - Put him first when I wake.
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 1:27pm EDT - Talk to other believers, check up on each other and go to church along with a small group (men's group, United, etc.)
Poll: In What area of worship do you most need to grow?
33% Attending Worship for God not me
17% Serving others as a life style
33% Seeing unfulfillment as God speaking to me
0% Accepting the pain of releasing an idol
0% Choosing to enjoy God
0% Choosing to believe God is Good
Pastor Jeff
ReplyDeleteDaily Reflection obviously is not intended for lengthy discussions. However,I strongly disagree with its premises, deductions, and conclusion. Valid cultural 'marital' relationships vary significantly & are blessed by God. As you relate, this is not a racial issue. Isn't 'martial' but a legal term ? The Bible distinguishes often man's versus God's laws.
I believe a couple's personal relationship is shared only with God. To condemn a couple's perceived behavior as 'animal sex'...Whoa! Judge not.. Is that what God teaches us through the Bible? Concluding overcrowded prisons result largely from unmarried, immoral & uncommitted sex acts is not true. The 153 babies born in 2011 in Kennett Twp. resulted from cultural mores, not lust. Many are married, working families, living in poverty, even those with no children. Locally, 50% of minority girls under 18 are pregnant at least once. Sexual education, outreach, counseling including morals are successful. However, the only effective approach will be culture change.
Before spending a lot of time bemoaning sexual immorality and viewing poverty as the product of sexual immorality, we should stop and reflect. There is a something of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace" in this. Cheap grace is attending a few father-son retreats, working to be a good father, valuing marriage and thinking we are saved. Cheap grace gives us the idea that if those poor people were more like us they could have some cheap grace too. Cheap grace involves endlessly focusing on men (except the homosexual men) and ignoring women. I take little comfort in passing the cheap grace test of being a sexually moral and good father. I know many non-Christians who would pass the same test, some with better grades than me.
ReplyDeleteFor Bonhoeffer, true grace requires costly discipleship. What does it mean to follow Jesus? For me, it means going outside my comfort zone and toward others who are poor, disenfranchised and different. The Sermon on the Mount is a starting point in defining what it means to be a true follower of Christ. This comes at a cost that I am not always willing to pay and I'm a pretty poor work in progress.
Lord, I pray for you to lead me toward building relationships with those who are different, and to guide me in becoming a better follower of your son Jesus Christ.
I do not wish to argue for scripture teaches me that it is fruitless, 1 Timothy 1, but I sense a need for scriptural balance here. In Ephesians 5 the latter half Paul teaches us of the relationship between a husband and a wife. At the same time he teaches us that this relationship is a picture of Christ and His bride, the Church. The word translated "mystery" in the 32 verse means that something that was hidden is know being revealed. As well this is a "great" mystery, one in which our lives as believers are blessed to be used by God as a canvas upon which He will paint a picture of His Son and the devotion He has to His bride. To then say this is a matter of personal choice or is a private matter only is to focus on self only to the exclusion of the revealing that God desires. The devotion to my wife both in my public and private life are only realized because Christ is working in and through me to acccomplish His will. Part of that will is to demenstrate "reveal" to an unbeleiving humanity the depth of the Godheads devotion to us and what is available to all who believe. The two are to become one flesh, but this deeper and more profound then mere sexually union. As the two set aside their selfish desires to seek the best and highest of the other we paint a deeper and more complete picture of who Christ is and how He relates to His Church. Only when self is removed can this truly happen and we be truly free, free of our need to seek self at the expense of others which is by the way the root of all sexual immorality. None of us well ever do this perfectly but we are to be moving in the direction of being perfected. That is what it means to be in the process of being "sanctified". It will require a great deal of the grace of God to move me from a place of selfish desire to seeking others needs first. Grace can never cost me anything or it is not grace. That is not to say that I do not have a part that I must "do" but we must be careful not to suggest that grace costs us anything. True discipleship is very costly, it will cost me my desires "my self life" Deny your self, take up your cross and follow Me Jesus said, but He also said apart from me you can do nothing. Whenever Christ steps in to complete what I lack that is Grace. My part is to yeild not to do, Galatians 2:20
ReplyDelete"Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly...." Bonhoeffer quoted by Pastor Jeff
ReplyDeleteMarriage is a sacrament, a visible sign of an invisible grace. I'm incredibly grateful for my wife who is a sign of Christ's love and God's grace for me. I wonder if if a church or a church faction can turn a sacrament into an idol. Paul preferred celibacy, so there are other sacraments, other signs of God's invisible grace. Marriage is one but I'm grateful for all the unmarried disciples of Christ, be they single mothers, homosexuals, or prisoners. We should not turn marriage into a demand on others. If homosexuals enter into a loving committed relationship, God bless them. They may understand more about God's grace than I do. Should the state call that marriage? I don't know, maybe. Should the Christian church marry them? Probably not, at least not in the 21st century. But homosexuals who follow Christ in loving committed relationships are an important part of the community of Christians, and we should love and encourage them as true brothers and sisters.