What do you mean "NO sex"?!

Valentines Day-hearts, flowers, candy and dates--it’s the perfect time to rejoin the conversation about what God expects from Christians in terms of sex.  In our last pair of posts we answered one question from two perspectives: “Should I be having sex?”  Angela Legg from The Diligent Woman answered the married half of this question with a resounding, "Yes." I answered the single side with a resounding “No” (LINK).  Now it's time for some details.   If you are married, head over to Angela's post "How to Make Time for an Abundant Sex Life." If you are single, keep reading to learn more about God's vision for a single life. 

Teach Me Your Statutes

This New Year I have dusted off my audio Bible.  Specifically I committed to spending my first 25 minutes of listening for the day to listening to my Bible.  I am on track with all the folks who are reading and HOURS behind on my usual podcasts.  I am absorbed by the Torah.

The Lie: You are Good Enough

This post, which appeared in a slightly different form some years ago, is part of a list of posts about the lies that sin tells us hosted by Bethany Mcllrath.  I hope you will click over and read more of these articles!

Who would you die for?  Not risk your life for, like heroic police officers, soldiers, and others do.  I mean for whom would you deliberately step forward and offer to die in his/her place?

For me, the answer's easy. I would die for my daughters, my nieces.  I might die for my husband if he didn't beat me to it.  Or perhaps for other adult family members.  But that's it.  Short list.

Why do I ask? 

 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him (Romans 5:7-9).  

Because these verses haunt me. Because left to myself, I know I am neither righteous nor good.

God the Pursuer

Can you imagine what our world would be like if God sat back on His fatherly heels and said, “I’ll wait till they come to me?” What if he had never spoken to Abraham, never wrestled with Jacob, never declared his name to Moses?  What if he did not reveal himself to us? Never wrote his glory in the stars or gave His law to the assembled people he had claimed for himself (Psalm 19)?  Aren’t you glad that he is the God who pursues us?

In the extremity of love and need, He pursued us right down into our own neighborhoods. John 3:16  reminds us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” God loved and God gave.   

Providence: Not Just an Old Lady Word

There are many Biblical concepts that are not named or laid out in a logical fashion in the Bible.  Take the Trinity for example.  The word "trinity" is never found in the Bible, but the idea of "God in three persons" is evident all over Scripture (Matthew 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 12:3-6; 1 Peter 1:2 to name a few).  Another one is providence.  Unlike trinity, which is a scholarly word, providence is a word used by little old ladies every where.  It isn't in most versions of the Bible, but I've come to believe that God really does move in all situations in our lives for our good and, more particularly, the good of those around us, just as he did throughout the Bible.

Deodorant, Incense, and the Will of God

I'm not from around here.  When I'm in America, it's my ignorance that makes it plain. Music, movies, TV shows, and all things slang elicit a baffled smile.  When I'm here in Asia, it's my hair.  I'm not too tall, too big, or too oddly dressed but that headful of disheveled brown hair marks me as clearly as a neon sign, "Not from around here!"

I'm cool with it.