It's Just Sex,...Everybody does that -- Rationalizing Our Sexual Behaviors

     I'm a grown [wo]man. I don't need permission... It's my body. It's not like I'm hurting anybody... I'm already getting old, I need to get pregnant before it's too late... We're getting married... Who needs a piece of paper to prove anything, it's all about the heart... It's not like I'm sleeping around... Everybody does that...
These are some of the excuses we often hear and use in order to engage in sexual encounters.
     Then, after we're done with the encounters, as Christians, we cover it all with "the blood of Christ", saying to ourselves and anybody who wants to hear us "After all, aren't we all saved by grace?..." "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more"* conveniently forgetting what follows next: "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" **. To make matters even worse, we top it with a "God looks at the heart. He knows my heart is in the right place...
     Whatever excuses we use to justify our behaviors whether is to have sex, having an affair or engage in very questionable demeanors, they don't fly with God. He himself has magnified his Word above his Name***. Which means that He holds Himself and everybody else to his Standards, to his Word. What He says, stays. He won't modify to satisfy our preferences and/or fairy tales.
In the same train of thoughts, His word also declares that "if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment"****
     Let me break this down. If you do something evil and you know in your heart it's evil and/or it's not right, and/or your conscience repeatedly questions you...[Let me make a point here, to know that something is evil, you have to know what is good, to know that something is NOT right, you have to know what is right] and above all you claim to know Jesus Christ meaning you've received the knowledge of the truth as he said "I am the way, the TRUTH and the life..." but yet choose to do the evil thing, there won't be anymore grace to cover your "arse", just patiently wait for God's judgement. It may not come right away, but it will surely come.
     We no longer hear on our pulpits nowadays and I sure do wish we'll be judged by all the good stuffs that come from them, unfortunately it won't be the case. Besides during judgment day, our biggest regrets will not be over sins we had committed rather over all missed opportunities we had to rely on Him and chose not to.
     So what should we say? Are we screwed? No more love, no more grace? Of course not! He is LOVE!! However, the perfection of his love can only be manifested by the glory of his righteousness. We can't accept God's love and reject his righteousness. We can't choose one over the other.
     What should we do? Continuing the same behaviors? Keep using the same excuses? [after all it feels so good to gratify our flesh!] BY NO MEANS!! We must still repent and plead with God for deliverance for despite everything, He still remains in the business of total restoration full time.

This is enough food for thoughts. Stay tuned for part II.

Tresorly Yours,
Tresor De Beaute


* [Rom 5:20]
**[Rom6:1-2]
***[Ps138:2]
**** [Heb10:26-27]

God, Your [Wo]Man and Your Relationship (Part II)

3- A bad posture is you about to get marry but something is telling you "Don't do it!" or you're just not sure. Usually, in this scenario the person you're involved with may meet all your criteria, but for one reason or another, you're either not at peace with the decision to marry him/her or you're just encountering many obstacles. Friends, frenemies and enemies opposing your choice, Family members combating your partner, parents not totally on board with your decision. If you're in such a situation, it means you have 45000 French men fighting against you. And 45,000 French men can't be wrong. You might want to stop, retreat into a quiet time in a quiet place with The Lord and reconsider.
     I recently read a book by Perry Stone in which he shared a story about him being engaged to a fellow Christian female but every time people would see them together, they'd always make a comment in the sense that they (Perry and his fiancee) did not belong together. She wasn't a "bad" person as humanely defined, neither was he. But there was just this thing that wasn't clicking. They ended up breaking up the engagement and today Perry is wonderfully and happily married to his current wife Pam. Now, not all stories are drama free like Perry's. Many of us have received warnings against one or another individual that we were considering for our long time noce. But we usually presented a deaf ear and later reaped the consequences. I know of at least three different stories of people finding themselves in this predicament with disastrous endings. In one of those stories, the guy's family members were all against him marrying his fiancée who was from a different tribe. A little bit of background, both protagonists were saved and distinguished Christians in their communities. And although the girl's in-laws did not approve of her, they never interfere in her marriage. However, a strange thing happened. She cheated on her husband numerous times and over a long period of time, got pregnant from someone else, passed the child as her husband's, later the duplicity was discovered and she finally divorced him.
Again not all stories are as that tragic but they all leave emotional scars or sometimes incurable sentimental diseases because of one wrong choice we have made. There are many things we would NEVER had done, if we knew in advance the cost we would have incurred.

4- A bad posture is you fighting temptation. For this predicament, there's no other alternative than to flee even if you have to flee with half your clothes on. If you're a very proud person like me, think about this:
"You are slave to the one you obey"* . If you obey your flesh which leads you to sin, you're slave to sin. And if you don't like the idea, let alone the act, then walk away! Period.

*[Rom6:16] - NIV

Tresorly Yours
Tresor De Beaute