Showing posts with label fornication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fornication. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Sex (Part 1 of 2) - the Evil Side - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Sex

(Part 1 of 2)

- The Evil Side 


Now Think On This
Steve Martin


 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper…” (Romans 1:28, NASU)


This Now Think On This message has a simple title: Sex.

Why so simple? Because the basics of life for sex are not complicated. Thus the simple title.  (Please notice though that there will be at least two parts to this message, being this is obviously Part 1.)

As you read, I want you to know that I do not adhere to PC (political correctness). You’ll find none here. Nor will there be any confusion present. There is nothing more clear and direct than what we are to know about sex.

You believe God. He tells it like it is. It is definitely not rocket science. He has no intent to lead us astray or make it hard to understand Him.

You don’t believe God? Then I suggest you go read something else, because you lost it right out of the starting gate.

If you don’t believe something that has been proven over, and over, and over again to be the truth, then you will go on living the deceptive lie that has swallowed men and women to the point where they believe anything about anything. How much more deception can there be? Especially when it comes to sex.

One look at the results where we have finally arrived, in our free societies, and you know that there is not much left at all to be deceived about.

So what are we made to think is ‘normal” sex today? With full exposure in all its forms, we are being taught (notice how the hot water has been rapidly heating up, and yet the frogs inside the soon to be boiling pot on the stove have no clue) – that all is OK. I’m OK. You’re OK.

It is all around us – the late-night, though ever earlier - TV reality and drama programs; movies that used to be rated XXX when I was a teenager, now get an “R” rating, and even some PG-13 shows are pushing the line further across the “don’t go there” marker passed decades ago.

Cute looking books with nice covers are available in almost every book store, family-themed included (except in the few remaining Christian ones that have not shut down yet for lack of support) teaching our kindergartners that it is normal for “Mommy and Mommy to love each other” and “Daddy and Daddy teach us the way to go, to walk there on.” Their new gospel has replaced the most common sense one, given to us by the Creator of sex Himself.

Talk about common sense, or lack of it? Even my Dad knew that I knew, when he handed me the plumbing pipes, as I helped him in my middle school years, that the “male end goes into the female end" of the pipe, when joining together to get a good fit. Or connecting the garden hose to the faucet. Didn't take much of a brain to figure that out. Simple human anatomy science at work.

Don’t dare allow any of the “righteous ones” to speak out against that though, for that would be judgmental. And we each shouldn’t judge one another or how we want to live.

Love that is love” is always right, right? Simply put – “No it is not.”

Out-of-marriage sex – starting as early as possible, with anyone, and then going on even after leaving your wife or husband, after 30 years, to just play around. Now you are free?

Marriage? Millennials don’t know what that word is? “I don’t need to be committed to one person. What happens if we don’t love each other, or even like one another, after a year or more of living together? Then I won’t have to go through a nasty divorce like my parents did when I was eight.”

If unwanted life happens to happen, we can get rid of "it" tomorrow. It's just tissue. We'll go to Planned Parenthood, for they have the way to keep my body my body.



Or Liam will marry William, and Emma will partner with Olivia, and if we all want to live together, no problem. You can even be Bruce tonight and become Katrina tomorrow night! (Or is he/she another name? Can’t keep up with it.)

What fun it will be! Until at least when the inner emotional pain, sexual diseases and other unnatural results, result.

How crazy has it gotten?!

And then there is the astronomically expanding quantity of easily accessible, 24/7 Internet, affecting all levels of society.

Just today I saw this article published by a leading Christian news organization, CHARISMANEWS, where incidentally I get most of my accurate, up-to-date-good news.

“Research has shown that early summer brings a peak in porn searches on the internet. While the reason for this is unclear, with 68 percent of men in the church viewing pornography on a regular basis, it is likely that these men are being exposed to more triggers in the summer months. As the weather warms up, people dress in Summer clothing. 

For someone who struggles with pornography, this can act as a subconscious trigger that leads them into a downward spiral to going online and acting out. Some other possible explanations are that people have more time on their hands or are around family, which could bring up childhood triggers.” (Source: Porn Use Skyrockets with Onset of Summer” 6/6/2017 KINGDOM WORKS  CHARISMANEWS. Full article and further material below.)



Sex trafficking and prostitution has hit all the major (and minor) cities of the USA and throughout the entire world. Young girls, some just barely over the age of 12, with the average age being 13 in America, are lured into giving their bodies even to older, much older perverted men. CBN News had a report on their 700 Club, with Pat Robertson, this week of a woman who described her horrible years trapped in the evil, sinful destruction of young lives. Most “clients” didn’t even care that she was 13 when the horrible abuse in sexual perversion began with her.
Thus in our sex-crazed, unstoppable, uncontrollable access to anything, we have convinced ourselves that this is now OK, that the Bible is totally outdated and obsolete, and we have found the freedom, the better way, for our enlightened cultures.

No more laws. No more commandments. No more legalistic rules to hold us down. Yes, freedom is fully ours! And if we want to change it next week, we’ll just go right ahead. Majority rules! We’ll just get our lawmakers and judges to do it, or we will vote them out (if elected) or have them removed!

No one has been left unaffected, unless you have lived on a deserted, middle-of-the-Pacific island for the past 20 years.
There you have it. Part 1. Come back in a day or so for my next message. 

There is good news.
Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People, Inc.


You can now read Part II here: Sex (Part 2) - The Beautiful Side


P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

We are blessed when the ministry receives gifts to support the families that we do, primarily for those living in Israel, Pakistan, Northern Ireland and India, and the hurting ones here in the USA. You also can share out of the abundance you have been given.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.

 If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 06.06.17 - #291 – “Sex (Part 1 of 2) - The Evil Side” – Tuesday, 3:00 pm

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This
Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve


6/6/2017 KINGDOM WORKS  Charisma News
With pornography use reaching its height during summer months, churches are being called to provide a program to disciple their men on sexual integrity.
Research has shown that early summer brings a peak in porn searches on the internet. While the reason for this is unclear, with 68 percent of men in the church viewing pornography on a regular basis, it is likely that these men are being exposed to more triggers in the summer months. As the weather warms up, people dress in Summer clothing. For someone who struggles with pornography, this can act as a subconscious trigger that leads them into a downward spiral to going online and acting out. Some other possible explanations are that people have more time on their hands or are around family, which could bring up childhood triggers.
We live in a free society where we don't dictate what people wear, but there are thousands of men in desperate need of accountability and discipleship so that they can respond to these triggers in a healthy way.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul says: "No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, and He will not permit you to be tempted above what you can endure, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it."
If you've ever struggled in this area, you've probably been looking for that way out and wondering, Why haven't I found it yet?
Over 400,000 men in over 60 countries have started their journey to freedom through the Conquer Series, a six-DVD cinematic study.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

BOLDNESS - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

BOLDNESS

Now Think On This
Steve Martin


“While they were still praying, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, and they spoke God’s message with boldness.” (Acts: 4:31 Complete Jewish Bible)


Living these days in the USA would make you think that Christians have no say in what goes on in our country. If you listened to certain government “authorities”, daily newscasters, or the life-time educators in our public school system, you would think that believers no longer have any rights, that we are to “keep our opinions to yourself, in our church boxes on Sundays, and not say anything to anyone”, or we are stepping out of line. Oh really?

You know what will keep you from being bold? Believing the lie that as believers we are just to “love our neighbor”, keep to ourselves, and let whatever happens in our nation happen. After all, we don’t want to step on another person’s toes, or be looked upon as trouble makers, now do we?

Again, “Oh really?”

Where do you see that in your Bible?

Here is what my Bible says.

“So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: "Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:

'Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.'

"For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus."

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:18-31 NKJV)

That is what my Bible says. And yours too. Read it.

It brings me great courage, and boldness myself, to hear men and women of God stand up, speak the truth, and let it be known that our country, founded on the eternal godly principles that is was - those of Judeo-Christian – will not just lay down and let the lies of the ungodly tell us what is to be.

It gave me great courage when our church opened its doors during this election year to hold a forum, having one seeking the office of the President of the United States to come and speak his mind. If we would have listened to the lies of “politically correct” people, we would have just had a one hour “sing and hold hands” meeting.

Enough already.

Believers, those of us empowered by the Living God of Israel, are to get up, stand up, and proclaim the full Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned us to do. That begins with the salvation message, but then we are to continue on in forth telling the whole truth.

And here is another part of His whole truth.

1.      Killing the unborn, God’s creation, is murder.
2.      “Marrying” the same sex is wrong.
3.      Fornication, pornography and adultery is not to be practiced and accepted in our society.
4.      Saying Bible-believing Americans have to keep “separated” from government involvement is not the truth.
5.      Letting Israel stand alone is going against God’s plan.
6.      Sitting back and watching Christians be slaughtered by Islamic killers is not acceptable.
7.      Letting America go to hell is not in the heart of our Lord.

The Living God of Israel, Whom has dramatically demonstrated His eternal love and goodness in bringing the Jews back to their Promised Land, is embolding His people in the other nations to stand up, let our voices be heard, and share the full Gospel of salvation and redemption.

We are the ones being called upon to do that which we have been apprehended to do.

I love it how the Scriptures proclaim this truth.

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:7-14, NKJV)

Now is the time. Now is the day. While it is still light, let us be about doing all that we have been apprehended for and given to do. The darkness is rapidly coming our way. In many cases it is smothering many already.


In His strength, wisdom and power, let’s get doing what He has commanded us to do.

So think on this, in the love of Jesus,

Steve Martin
Love For His People, Inc.
  


P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

We are blessed when the ministry receives gifts to bless the families that we do in Israel, India, Pakistan and the hurting ones here in the USA. You also can share out of the abundance you have been given.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.

If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This - In the New Year of our Lord 01.17.16 - #234 –“BOLDNESS” – Sunday at 8:30 am

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This


Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Pornography: Not Innocent Fantasy Island - KENNY LUCK/EVERY MAN MINISTRIES CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Pornography is no innocent fantasy.
Pornography is no innocent fantasy. (Flickr )


One of the most popular TV shows of back in the 1970s was Fantasy Island, starring Ricardo Montalban playing the role of Mr. Roarke, a suave, tuxedo-clad host who, along with his sidekick, Tattoo, greeted his visitors by proclaiming: "Welcome, welcome to Fantasy Island."
Let's talk about Fantasy Island.
The storylines, weaving extravagant fantasies of the newly arrived quests, didn't always work out the way they wanted. In fact, their fantasies actually brought them back to reality, making them want their reality more than the fantasy. This "aha" moment is sorely needed by male guests visiting the new fantasy islands of today.  
Someone has to talk about this idea of fantasy because it has become an epidemic—not only here in the United States, but globally. I'm not talking about innocent fantasies, childhood dreams, like the Disneyland fantasies. I'm talking about millions—more likely billions—of men chasing manly fantasies, mainly pornography and extramarital sex.
These guys are experiencing the same thing guests on the fictional show did—the promise of fantasy only delivers a moral hangover, a cheap release and a numbing shame that exposes his lack of character. The "aha" in front of today's Fantasy Islanders is resolving to accept our responsibilities as men and reject the double life of Fantasy Island.
Today, pornography revenues in the United States exceed the revenue of ABC, CBS and NBC combined. Indeed, the revenue of the pornography industry is larger than the revenues of Apple, Amazon, Google, eBay, Microsoft, Netflix and Yahoo!—combined.
This fantasy problem is so large that it's not only plaguing men globally, but it's creeping into the lives of our mothers, our wives, our sisters, our daughters—even our grandchildren. There is nothing more obviously evident than the New York Times best-selling trilogy called Fifty Shades of Grey, three books which chronicle the dark secrets of Anastasia, a college student who desires to be dominated by Christian, a tortured man who has particular sexual tastes (fantasies). The caricature of "Christian" is stunning. He is so lost and needs so much help. Where have all the good men gone?
These disturbing cultural trends should hit every Christian man in the mouth and reboot his moral compass as this country heads toward moral, spiritual and cultural implosion.
But I'm not discouraged. As we go through our series called Fantasy Island, you will embrace reality and reject fantasy. We can turn things around. We need, however, to turn to God for spiritual direction and revival. Our reality is the reality of God's glory: His redemption, His love for us.
Men, let God bless you! Pray about your decisions to embrace reality or live a life of fantasy. The choice is yours, and God is waiting for you to make the decision.

Join Every Man Ministries

Fantasy ranges from innocent to indecent. From Disney dreams to dark diversions, it is the wallpaper of popular culture offering every man an alternative relief or escape from reality. Why is fantasy so powerful? Why is it so destructive on so many levels? Most importantly, what does fantasy reveal about a man's relationship to reality? Watch this eye-opening session with men's expert and Pastor Kenny Luck and learn why fantasy is an island. 
Try the 30-day Free Trial and sign up for the Every Man Ministries Newsletter
Kenny Luck is the president and founder of Every Man Ministries. As the former men's pastor at Saddleback Church in California and current leadership pastor at Crossline Community Church, Kenny has found the proven way to improve men's ministries around the world. Sleeping Giant is this blueprint, and gives men the tools they need to lead and understand their own men's ministry. Watch Kenny's teachings at everymanministries.com and start your men's group today!
Follow Every Man Ministries now on FacebookTwitter (@everymm), and YouTube.
For the original article, visit everymanministries.com.
For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!
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Friday, September 5, 2014

4 Sexual Sins Every Christian Should Avoid - CHARISMA NEWS

4 Sexual Sins Every Christian Should Avoid

couple in love
There are at least four primary sexual sins of which the Word of God speaks of. (Mart1n/freeimages.com)

The Flaming Herald, by Bert Farias

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Excessive sexual sin and nakedness is one of the marks of our Western culture and much of the world today. Everything is sensual. Everything must be sexy. We live in a sex-crazed world, and nakedness jumps out at us from everywhere. It is becoming more and more difficult for men and women to keep themselves in a state of moral purity.
Sexual sin and neglecting the laws of purity in the body of Christ is one of the elements that can potentially bring weakness, sickness, and even premature death to many in the Church. It is one forgotten aspect of not discerning the Lord's body (1 Cor. 11:29-31).
Those last statements sound so primitive in today's contemporary church. There is a lack of ministry from pastors in this area because of the fear of forthcoming accusations of being unloving, judgmental, legalistic, and ministering guilt and condemnation. Frankly, we've lost our way in this regard. Correction, rebuke and reproof are clearly missing from our counsel in these new crooked days of false comfort and unscriptural mercy.
In days of old it was rather common for correction to be made not only using the Scriptures but through the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For instance, it was observed by one old timer that in praying for the sick, individuals who had been unfaithful in their marriage and had not repented, but who nevertheless sought healing, had been rebuked sternly by the Spirit of God. Back then they understood that only deep repentance and cleansing through the precious Blood of Christ could the gravity of such a crime be pardoned.
Today, as I said, we are considered condemning and judgmental if we minister in such a manner. Yet it is common for many to get in a healing line and seek deliverance, or submit prayer requests while living in gross immorality without any earnest desire for genuine repentance. Those who practice sexual sin, or any other sin for that matter, and profess Christ, are partaking of the body of the Lord unworthily; and in doing so they are receiving a curse rather than a blessing.
"For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep" (1 Cor. 11:29-31).
I realize that sexual temptations are great, no one is exempt from them, and none should boast of their self-righteousness. I'm also aware that in seeking to turn someone from the error of their ways we must do so in gentleness and humility (Gal. 6:1; 2 Tim. 2:25). But if there is to be victory in this area, it must begin with a reverent understanding and a scriptural estimation of the defiling and degrading nature of sexual sin and its terrible dangers. Before people obey God, they must be thoroughly awakened. Only then will they overcome counteracting forces.
Carefully read these words of one of America's greatest evangelists, Charles G. Finney:
"Worldly desires, appetites, and feelings prevent true Christianity—the human will is, in a sense, enslaved by fleshly and worldly desires. It is therefore necessary for God to awaken people to a sense of guilt and danger and thus produce an opposite excitement or feeling and desire. This counter-feeling breaks the power of worldly desire and leaves the will free to obey God."
That ideology, my friends, is clearly absent from the mainstream of contemporary Christianity, yet it is so sorely needed.
As in modern-day America, sexual sin and nakedness were celebrated in the city of Corinth too and was infiltrating into the church there. Thus Paul had to remind the Corinthian saints that their bodies were now the temples of God and not their own. Their bodies, as ours, are now members of Christ, so a sin against our bodies is a sin against Christ.
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:15, 19-20).
As far back as the Mosaic books we find some interesting references to sexual immorality and nakedness.
  • The first recorded human curse was over nakedness (Gen 9:20-23).
  • Nearly two entire chapters along with many other references were a code of ethics on nakedness and sexual immorality (See Lev. 18 and 20).
  • Exposed genitalia or nakedness were common in Canaanite demonic worship. Instructions and prohibitions to Moses were so Israel's altars would not be like the Canaanites' (Ex. 28:41-43; 20:26).
  • When Moses returned from the mountain, Aaron had lost control of the people as they worshiped a golden calf, "unrestrained" (Ex. 32:25), as the New King James says it. The Old King James says "naked," and the Living Bible says "committing adultery." And all this happened shortly after a move of God.
One of the keys to overcoming sexual sin lies in the meditation of the Word of God concerning it. This will nurture the fear of the Lord in you. For example, in Gal. 5:19-21 the works of the flesh are divided into four basic categories 1) sexual sins, 2) sins connected with pagan religion and the occult, 3) sins of the temper, and 4) sins of drunkenness. It is interesting that sexual sin is listed first, not only here, but also in several other scriptural references in the New Testament.
  • Romans 1:24, 6:19 – Uncleanness is singled out.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – Sexual sins listed first.
  • Galatians 5:19-21 – Sexual sins listed first.
  • Ephesians 4:19 – Lewdness and uncleanness singled out.
  • Ephesians 5:3 – Fornication and uncleanness singled out; let it not once be named among you.
  • Colossians 3:5 – Fornication and uncleanness listed first.
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:3 – Sexual immorality singled out in our walk of sanctification.
  • 1 Peter 4:3 – Lewdness listed first from our past life.
  • There are at least four primary sexual sins the Word of God speaks of: adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lewdness.
  • Here are the definitions of these four sexual sins:
    Adultery: Unlawful sexual intercourse involving at least one married person. Adultery is incompatible with the harmonious laws of family life in God's kingdom, and is under God's judgment since it violates God's original purpose.
    Fornication: Pornography, illicit sexual intercourse including prostitution, whoredom, incest, licentiousness (lack of moral restraint), and habitual immorality (would include sexual fantasies that lead to masturbation).
    Uncleanness: Often refers to homosexuality and lesbianism
    Lewdness: unashamed indecency, unbridled lust, unrestrained depravity (a disposition or settled tendency to evil, the innate corruption of unregenerate man), the person with this characteristic has an insolent defiance of public opinion, sinning in broad daylight with arrogance and contempt. Again, this often refers to sexual sin.
    Here's where many people err in their understanding of their sexuality. Notice the following verses.
    "Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power" (1 Cor. 6:13-14).
    Paul is correcting the dangerous misconception among the Corinthians who believed, "as the stomach is designed for food, the genitals are created for sexual experience." This mind-set is not only common among unregenerate human beings but also among Christians who justify sexual immorality. Paul shows how this analogy is false because your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and belongs to Christ.
    Eating food is a secondary and temporal arrangement, but sexuality reaches into the eternal and metaphysical depths of one's being. An essential identity exists between the present physical body and the future glorified body (v 14). Sexual intercourse is more than a biological experience; it involves a communion of life. Since Jesus is one with the born-again believer's spirit, it is unthinkable to involve Him with immorality; thus the strong admonition not to let the sin of fornication and all uncleanness "even be named among you" (Eph. 5:3; emphasis added).
    Sexuality is a uniquely profound aspect of the personality involving one's entire being. Sexual immorality has far-reaching effects, with great spiritual significance and social implications (v18). Such immorality is not only a sin against the body but against the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the body. It is one of the ways we are to discern the Lord's body, which when consistently neglected, as I stated earlier, often brings weakness, sickness, and even premature death.
    Regardless of how satisfying and fulfilling sex is in its rightful place within the marriage, it is still a temporal arrangement and not a part of our eternal existence. And yet by it we procreate and give birth to eternal spirits. Sexual immorality messes with the power of procreation with someone to whom you are not married. The sexual drive is not sinful, but it is hurtful if not kept in its proper place. Scripture forbids sexual immorality in order to protect you.
    Politicians, businesses, schools and our public institutions are not qualified to handle the subject of sexual immorality and deviate sex problems we have in our culture. They are a part of the problem, not the solution. Sadly though, the church has fallen so short of addressing this problem from a strong scriptural perspective. Some churches no longer even believe what the Bible says about sexual immorality is pertinent. One high-ranking church official said that the church is going to have to come to an understanding of homosexuality according to the changing culture. That is one of the biggest problems in the church today. Many of us are conforming to the standards of the culture around us.
    Another well-known charismatic television preacher told his audience that homosexuality is not sin but brokenness. "What do you think David and Jonathan were doing? What do you think Ruth and Naomi were doing?" implying that they were involved in homosexual and lesbian relationships. I had to shake my head at that one. And yet this preacher is considered one of the greatest preachers in America with a very large following. It turns out that one of his own children is a homosexual. Although this is a very crushing trial for any godly parent to have to face, one cannot be loyal to his family at the expense of betraying God's holy Word.
    When influential preachers say erroneous things like that, it opens the door for deception and compromise among masses of people who respect these preachers. This will lead to a flood of evil, immorality, and all kinds of perversion among the hearers of such.
    It is sad to see the dilution of sound doctrine in much of the church today. It is grievous to the Holy Spirit to see such cowardice and compromise among preachers who have either departed from the true faith or who are afraid to teach sound doctrine in the area of sexual morality. As a result, our children and young people are getting educated by the reprobate minds of the world.
    Let the preachers of righteousness speak up with strength and conviction, for the time is here when many are not enduring sound doctrine, but with itching ears are heaping up teachers unto themselves.
    Bert M. Farias, founder of Holy Fire Ministries, is the author of The Real Gospel and co-host of the New England Holy Ghost Forum. He is a missionary evangelist carrying a spirit of revival to the church and the nations. Follow him at Bert Farias on Facebook or @Bertfarias1 on Twitter.
    Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed are solely the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Charisma Media.
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