Tag: sexual

Markethive

Restored Sexuality

God’s plan for sex

Written by Joy on 14/06/2016
Series: Weekly Devotional
Tags: Lust, Marriage, Sex, Sin
Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 5:10
God created sex to be a beautiful gift. In Genesis 2, God says it was not good for man to be alone so God created the perfect partner, a woman, so they could become one flesh. The chapter closes with the statement, “they were both naked and felt no shame.” Sex creates a unique relationship that involves physical, emotional and mental unity and completion.

If sex is blessed by God, what makes it immoral?

Blessings Lost
When we forget God has authority to set limits, blessings are lost. “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.” (Romans 1:28). Your phone works best when you use it the way it was designed. In the same way, God designed sex to work a certain way. Rejecting His design leads to darkness, confusion, secrecy, shame, and judgement.

Blessed Design
God used His infinite wisdom to design sex in the beginning. God does not need to “evolve.” He does not change his mind based on our opinions. Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation give a very clear picture of the kind of sex that pleases God. “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24). God approves of sex when it is between one man and one woman who have made a lifelong commitment to marriage. Jesus confirmed this to be an unchanging truth in Matthew 19.

Are you willing to trust God’s wisdom and love and follow his guidelines?

Blessing Restored
“He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.” (Colossians 1:13-14). We no longer have to sit in the darkness of shame and confusion. Jesus has made us children of light! (Ephesians 5:8-11)

“You cannot say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies…If we belong to Christ our body is not our own but a temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore we should honor God with our body.” (1 Corinthians 6:13, 19-20). Obedience to God’s plan for sex is a choice we make when we want to please God, not ourselves (Colossians 3:1-17). God has given every Christian the Holy Spirit to teach us truth and empower us to obey it.

Are you going to find out what pleases the Lord and choose to live by it?

Pray this week:
Show me, Lord, where I am not pleasing you in my attitudes and actions regarding sex.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Avoiding Sexual Sin and Violation

Avoid taking advantage of someone else

Written by GodLife on 21/06/2016
Series: Weekly Devotional
Tags: Holiness, Love, Lust, Sanctification, Sex
Don’t violate or take advantage of a fellow believer in such matters. As we told you before and warned you: the Lord will settle the score with anyone who does these things.

1 Thessalonians 4:6
First Thessalonians 4:4-7 is about being sexually dishonest. Getting someone to sin with you is violating them, and God promises those who do these things will face consequences. Has someone taken advantage of you? Have you taken advantage of someone else? Here are some things God wants you to know about your responsibility to your sisters or brothers and how to avoid sexual sin and violation.

Flattery can be dangerous
Flattery means praise that is not honest. The person doing it always wants something in return. Is it OK to call another person ‘hot’ or ‘delicious’? It is not. These words describe food. Why use them for people? A person is not an object. Proverbs 6:26 describes how immorality makes objects of both of you: “…one is brought down to a loaf of bread.”?

Love makes you pure
To know what true love is, we can look at God Himself. (1 John 4:8, 16) First John 3:16 says: “We know what love is because Christ gave His life for us. We should give our lives for our brothers.” Christ gave Himself up for us. (Ephesians 5:25-27) His sacrifice made His Bride pure. That is what love is. Leading someone into impurity is not love. Using a weak person and making them do shameful things is the opposite of love.

Lust is the death of love
King David’s son Amnon thought he loved princess Tamar. He convinced David to send her to him while he pretended to be sick. “…he grabbed her and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’ ‘No,’ she said. ‘Don't force me to do such a degrading thing! That's awful! How could I ever hold up my head in public again? And you—you would be completely disgraced in Israel’ …he would not listen to her; and since he was stronger than she was, he overpowered her and raped her.” (2 Samuel 13:11-14) Afterward, Amnon hated Tamar and sent her away. This act later led to Amnon’s death and war in the nation of Israel.

Are you worried that a relationship has gone wrong? There is hope: God is not just the example but the source of love, and he can redeem it.Turn away from sin to trust Him. If you ask, He will send the Holy Spirit, who will bring His love into your life. “Hope never makes us ashamed because the love of God has come into our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5)

Pray this week:
For women worldwide who are being sexually assaulted every day.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Facing Sexual Temptation

Everyone—from presidents to preachers—is subject to sexual temptation.

Tags: Sex, Sin, Temptation
Adultery. It’s a common word and a common occurrence in our society.

But adultery’s stain goes deeper than the individual. More dishonor has come to the name of Jesus Christ by sexual sin than any other sin.

You Will be Tempted.
C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, said, "No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good. There is a silly idea that good people don’t know what temptation means."

We must learn from the Lord to enjoy full mastery over sex, His marvelous gift. "For God did not give us the spirit of timidity," Paul reminds us, "but the spirit of power and love and self-control."

Proverbs 4:23 exhorts, "Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it flow the springs of life." How can we do that?

Monitor your fantasizing and daydreaming when your mind is idle. Refuse pornography, whether written or in movies or videos.

You can talk yourself into sexual sin. It happened to a friend of mine. He had won thousands to Christ during 25 years. Suddenly he left his wife and became hard and rebellious, even pretending to return to evangelism. I found out that for years he had secretly watched pornographic films, yet preached heavily against immorality. Eventually, like a serpent, it bit him. It has happened to better people than you and me.

Firmly implant in your soul God’s principles established for our protection.
Believe them, accept them, reaffirm them. Study Malachi 2:13-16 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, and make Joseph in Genesis 39 a model. He faced, resisted and triumphantly ran from temptation. But be ready! As my mentor, Ray Stedman, said, "Woe to the man who has to learn principles at a time of crisis!"

The Word of God, as our meat and drink, keeps the inner man and woman strong and sensitive on a continuing basis. "Your Word I have hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11).

Resisting temptation by quoting scripture still is a mighty tool.

One preacher I know allowed himself to become enchanted by an attractive, sensuous convert who had made advances shortly before he led her to Christ. He resisted and she had converted.

Three years later, he saw her again. He drew close to offer an "innocent" kiss nothing more, he tells us when the young woman started quoting, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). He left in a hurry!

God will remove His hand from your service to Him if you allow lust to lead you to actual sexual immorality. Samson lost his power. "He did not know that the Lord had left him" (Judges 16:20). So many friends started out well—winsome, friendly, authoritative. Where are they now? I can think of half a dozen on the sidelines because of money, sex, or pride. Useless, lonely, fruitless, bitter.

Beware:
Failure does not occur suddenly, overnight, in one blast of a careless moment or the explosion of uncontrolled passion. Dr. George Sweeting of Moody Bible Institute said, "Collapse in Christian life is rarely a blowout. It’s usually a slow leak." When a man takes that fatal step, it has been gestating in his soul for months, perhaps years. Toying, daydreaming. One step at a time, the sensitivity level lowers. Then, the unthinkable occurs.

Have you stumbled in this sensitive area of your life? Confess, make amends, clear yourself with the proper people. Where are you in your walk with God? If you must get reconciled to Him, do it now! "He who comes to me, I will in no way cast out," the Lord has said.

Sexual holiness demands we not play games in flirting, body language, and clothing. In the cases of fallen men I know, they first failed in precisely those areas. Keep friends accountable before drastic failure, discipline, and sadness happen.

What Bible verse helps you the most when faced with sexual temptation? Do you have an accountability partner? For additional help in this area, send a message by clicking the below, and ask your Onine Missionary to send you the "Sexual Purity" Bible studies.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member