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In having made reference to Harvey Weinstein and the sex scandal spinning around him as I did in the introduction to last week’s blog, in follow up, I am led by the Lord not to judge him, but to declare His Word on the ancient use of sex as a tool of power and ambition. Let me be biblically correct from the outset: all sex outside of male and female marriage is sin--period (Genesis 2:18-25)! The beautiful sexual intimacy of marriage God intends for a man and his wife outside of that framework is not only immoral in His eyes, but cheapened and degraded. This is all the more so when sex becomes a medium of exchange for anything including the promise of success in any career field.
Before going further, let me also say that a man should make no further advances on a woman after being firmly rebuffed by her.1 All touching of a female’s body (genitals, breasts, legs, buttocks or any other parts she asks not to be touched) is inappropriate and out of bounds. Intimate touching is to be considered private foreplay between a man and his wife (Proverbs 30:18-19). Rape, of course, is sin before God and men with even a tiny bit of morality and conscience (Genesis 34). Men know all of this, but the tempting work of demons, testosterone driven lust, deceitfulness of sin to include arrogance, conceit, pride, selfishness and evil mindedness easily overrule doing what is right.2
Thus, female prostitution is of the oldest professions and rape, of the oldest crimes on earth because sinful men--many as passionate hedonists--believe they have the manifest right and entitlement to be sexually gratified by women as need, convenience and opportunity present themselves. A natural historical development was that the most powerful of men could command the sexual indulgence of large numbers of women as wives, concubines and slaves (1 Kings 11:1-3). Of the most stinging pain American slavery still holds for many black American males is the sexual abuse and rape of our slave foremothers in some cases even while married to slave husbands.
From such positions of power, typically men have exploited women for sex in exchange for granting them their ambitions. Sinners too and no dummies, rather than as victims, many women have purposely and wickedly leveraged their bodies and sexual talents to manipulate lust filled men weak and powerful to gain what they were after. “You got to use what you got, to get what you want.” So goes the modern female line with roots in very ancient times. In the Bible, Tamar posed as a face covered prostitute to be impregnated by her father-in-law, Judah, (Genesis 38) as one example and Bathsheba surely knew who David was as another (2 Samuel 11:1-5).
Then there are the seductresses like Delilah with Samson who use sex to conquer a man for their own ends and/or payment by their benefactors (Judges 16:1-20). Some are simply in it for the sport and prize of owning a man’s soul as Solomon warns (Proverbs 6:20-7:27). Others, as women of power, pursue men of their choosing (a fact cheered by some feminists today). Potiphar’s wife with Joseph, an aspiring strong man of God is an example.3 In this rare occasion of being rejected, she took vengeance by falsely and successfully crying rape (Genesis 39:1-20). This, by the way, illustrates the ability women still have to this very day to ruin men with false sexual accusations.
As Solomon pensively resigns, “there is nothing new under the sun,” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, NKJV). More and more women entering the predominantly male work force from the beginning of the industrial revolution until now has seen incidences of male exploitation, harassment and molestation increase. Because of sin, expect this to continue. Hollywood among the industries of recent invention has had moguls such as Harvey Weinstein as accused, to take sexual advantage of female ambitions for stardom. And while much is being made of how wrong this is as it should be, in all balance, the Lord would equally have female aspirants check their character and souls and consider whether ambition for whatever is worth using sex as a means to achieving it (Mark 8:36-37).
Indeed, for do you not know that ambition for anything of this passing world enough to sell your soul or body for is evil (Genesis 3:1-13, 25:29-34; Hebrews 12:12-17)? What all seem to be missing in this current blame game is that the living God is holding accountable both sinful men and women as perpetrators and self-described victims of using sex as a medium of exchange for whatever reasons. Everyone now saying, “me too” that kept silent for the sake of career aspirations rather than real fear of bodily harm or forgiveness; who invited, welcomed or were flattered by advances, sexual language, touches or attempts to “make love” is a deceitful hypocrite with no innocence before God holy, true and just who judges (Psalm 69:5; Proverbs 30:20; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Jeremiah 17:9-10)!
Therefore, neither active seducers, promiscuous fornicators, adulterers, pornographers or exploiters, harassers, abusers, molesters, rapists, prostitutes, pimps or sex traffickers of any human being will endure before God without consequence now and lacking repentance and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, eternally on Judgment Day (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11; Hebrews 13:4; Revelation 21:8). Let all of the guilty then, repent now! And for all that are true victims of sex related human sin, repent of any bitterness against the perpetrator(s) among your sins and turn to Christ as well in order to receive God’s forgiveness. Then, having been forgiven, be healed in God’s power to forgive those that have harmed you (Mark 11:25-26; Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:30-32).4
1 Ladies, this means you are not and will not be playing coy or hard to get in the ancient game of male pursuit and female “catch me if you can.” Your seriously firm no is
“game over!”
2 As a lightweight wannabe “player” (translated smooth fornicator seeking sexual conquests) in my youth and early young adult years, I was confused at times by females
that gave mixed signals about their interest level in having sex. A half-hearted “no” with the allowance of deep kissing and heavy petting was (and is by most aroused
men) received as an invitation to continue the pursuit which in that wicked mindset, makes the eventual conquest much more gratifying. On the flip side, as I am shameful-
ly aware from those past days, men caught up can easily be construed as having attempted rape when pressing the pursuit after the half-hearted “no” remains consistent.
So, the best policy to follow even with one’s wife not in the mood is to accept “no” as “no” and stop right then. Thank God we Christian men have supernatural help (if
sought) to exercise His “self-control,” (Galatians 5:22-25, NKJV)!
3 Joseph is among men of the Bible I hold up in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics available at all major internet booksellers and in the Strong Man Store.
In an important Appendix of the book, I also speak to Christian men about appropriate sexual conduct before God.
4 Having been molested as a child by two different female teen babysitters and escaped the attempt by a non-immediate family male relative, I know the truth of what I write.
It is said of Jesus Christ, He was “born to die.” Consider that as a man’s life ambition for a moment. No, we cannot even fathom such a thing since most of us spend our lives doing everything possible to stave off the inevitable. However, the Son of God and Man came into the world with the express ambition to secure salvation for fallen mankind by the only means possible: the shedding of His own sinless blood culminating in death (Mark 10:45, 14:32-42; Luke 24:44-47; Hebrews 9:11-22). As this edited 2011 Commentary shows, ambition is of God and can drive men in noble and ignoble activities. Marginalizing men demoralizes them and chokes off their natural ambition.
Originally Published December 2011
Tied directly to visionary leadership is the necessary drive to fulfill what has been envisioned. This drive is called ambition. Without this drive no man would have ever set out to achieve or accomplish anything. The so-called advance of civilization never would have occurred nor buildings that touch the clouds, sports records, great musical compositions, technological breakthroughs or sea voyages to the earth's edge. Ambition is the natural companion to visionary leadership and like it, is another of the transmittable attributes of God imparted to man made in the divine image and likeness. Therefore, of itself, ambition is not evil. Men on the sidelines stifle human achievement.
As it originates in God, ambition is a marvelous quality of the divine nature. Indeed, not only does God envision the thing to be done, but He also exerts the drive and power to make it happen! In the case of the universe, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands,” (Psalm 19:1, NIV). The perfect ambition of God acted to bring forth the physical creation with a joyful ultimate purpose: the creation also of His image bearer, man. Even when it appeared that this act of love was a bust because of man's sin in the garden, God announced His plan to help him (Genesis 3:15). From the Seed of the woman would come hope and deliverance.
Package it any other way you want to, Christmas for Christians celebrates the unbridled ambition of God Almighty to save the creature of His love. For this plan of His was not hatched in a “fly by the seat of the pants” moment of inspiration when His creature fell. But He foreknew man's failure and planned from eternity to send His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to be our Savior and Champion (Matthew 1:18-21; 1 Peter 1:20-21)! Seven centuries before His birth the prophet Isaiah ended an inspired utterance announcing it saying, "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this," (Isaiah 9:6-7, NKJV). What is the Lord's zeal but His passionate ambition for His causes?
What is the joy of the mother of Jesus, a virgin that miraculously carried Him in her womb if not at the ambition of God fulfilled in her centuries after the promise (Luke 1:46-55)? What is the joy of the angels if not at seeing the unshakable will and ambition of God to save lowly mankind take another step closer to realization (Luke 2:8-14)? Moreover, what is this ambition in the Son of God to serve His Father as a youth (Luke 2:41-52); this Son of Man too who upon reaching the prime of adulthood, began His fulltime service to God? His genealogy through His mother goes back to the first man and historically demonstrates the longsuffering ambition of God to save (Luke 3:23-38)!
"Like father, like son," the saying goes. Thus, Jesus Christ spent the next three and one half years of His life consumed with the ambition to please His Father and do His will which preeminently involved the salvation of lost mankind (Luke 19:9-10; John 6:38-40). In His ambitious warfare and work He victoriously contended with "that serpent of old" for the liberation of His people from prisons of darkness, torments and afflictions of every kind including death. In the process, He fulfilled His personal ambition born of love for His Father to seek His glory (John 8:48-50, 12:27-28, 15:8, 17:4). Finally, in His death on the cross He completed His ambition and mission to save (John 19:30)!
The excellent divine virtue of ambition is nearly impossible to see in its purity in fallen men. Influenced by sin and often deceived by Satan, fallen men dream dreams and pursue them with the most selfish of motives. Truly, what evil men in their selfish ambitions will not do even persecuting the righteous (John 11:45-53; James 5:1-6). The chief end of ambition in sinful men is personal pride of achievement and glory from other men. This is true too for no small number of those professing to be Christians and working in ministry. The aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ takes to heart the apostle Paul's instruction to do nothing out of selfish ambition, but all for the glory of God (2 Corinthians 10:17-18; Philippians 2:3-11). Such men give us our fleeting look at noble ambition.1
Nevertheless, men sidelined because their historical visionary leadership and ambition are no longer valued is leaving its mark. Many decry the loss of American ingenuity that once dreamed never before imagined inventions, built companies to produce them and created jobs. The News is filled with stories of suffering families and disillusioned, out of work men. Many churches have few men and a number of them suffer the inability to fulfill their divine design because of oppression by threatened leaders that pander to the women. Like a bizarre nightmare, the very group that claims to know God cooperates with the world in deconstructing men as He designed (1 Timothy 4:1-2). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Learn more about the aspiring strong man of God by getting a copy of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available through all major internet
booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store.
As a pastor, I greatly enjoyed preaching and celebrating Christmas in July since doing so pulled its biblical prophetic/historical fulfillment and glorious truths out of the make believe secular cultural trappings of the holidays where it can be more deeply appreciated as the vivid reality it is. The same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who personally came down to oversee and effect the deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage, came down again robed in human flesh to save them and all willing men from slavery to sin and death to the glory of God the Father forever (Exodus 3:1-10; John 1:1-34, 12:27-28)!
As He suffered in His work to save us, so, we now suffer as those who labor “in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ” proclaiming and standing on God’s Word and His “testimony,” (Revelation 1:9, NKJV). In this second part of what was originally posted for Christmas 2012, look again to the witness of the saints that have gone before us as well as the “author and finisher of our faith” to be encouraged by Him and His example for what faithful American Christians as a powerless minority are about to endure in step with our brethren in many other nations (Hebrews 11:4-12:2, NKJV).
Originally Posted December 23, 2012
The silver lining in the incredible reversal of fortune Western Christianity and the faithful minority are suffering in these latter days is that it signals the near completion of God’s unfolding plan that began to be fulfilled at the birth of His Son that first Christmas. Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem as foretold (Micah 5:2), wrapped in common swaddling cloths and laid in a animal feeding trough by His mother, Mary, accompanied by Joseph, her husband (His surrogate father) that were ethnically, nationally and religiously oppressed as Jews (Luke 2:1-7).1
Shepherds of the lowest class stratum in Israel were sent by God (Luke 2:8-20) and Jesus was brought to a pair of patiently enduring faithful saints so they might behold and rejoice in Him born to save them ultimately from every source of oppression (Luke 2:25-38)! Confirmed in God’s fulfillment, Mary and a relative named Zacharias who was also a priest had earlier rejoiced in His faithfulness too (Luke 1:39-80). Knowing the Son of Mary was the long awaited Champion that was to come and bruise his head, Satan attempted to make a deadly pre-emptive strike against Jesus but God protected Him (Genesis 3:15; Matthew 2)!
As a Nazarene Jew, Jesus would grow up seeing and experiencing all of the bigotry, mistreatment and powerlessness that go with being part of an oppressed minority or nationality ruled over by those of superior numbers or might (He has felt my pain!). During His three and one-half year ministry He would encounter the three major layers of oppression upon His people: the kingdom of this world ruled by Satan, the wicked Roman Empire ruled by Caesar and the spiritually dead religious establishment of Israel ruled by the religious educated elite.
The Lord only directly and mightily engaged the demonic powers of this world oppressing His people with all manner of spiritual deception and affliction and Israel’s religious establishment who oppressed them with cold, dead and corrupt religion until the final hours of His ministry (Luke 4:1-13, 31-41, 5:30-6:11, 13:1-3, 31-33). Along the way in His service of preaching the Gospel and showing the glorious might of the Kingdom in great works of power, the Lord’s own family thought He might be mentally ill and tried to get Him to abandon His mission (Mark 3:20-21, 31-35); His brothers resented and despised Him in unbelief (John 7:1-9).
Not only did the religious rulers of His people want to kill Him, at times, the people wanted to do so too (John 8:48-59). However, the Father protected His Son till the time should come that He would undertake the final decisive part of His mission in which He engaged all three layers of oppression upon His people at once. His successful mission would first rescue the willing by faith among His people and the Gentiles from the tyranny of satanic oppression through sin and death and cause the promised judgment of Satan, “the ruler of this world,” to be another step closer to final fulfillment (John 12:27-33; 16:5-11; Hebrews 2:14-18).
As a minority of One, the Lord Jesus endured all that the prophets wrote in advance about His suffering before and on the cross (Isaiah 50:5-6, 52:13-53:9). He experienced the full oppressive weight of this world system’s might in the work of the powers of darkness through men upon His Person. Truly, for our sakes, they did far more to Jesus than any of His followers have or ever will endure! He even tasted what are now to us who have been born again, the horrors of spiritual death (Psalm 22:1-21a). Then, in accord with His and the Father’s plan, He ended His suffering and died triumphantly declaring the successful conclusion of His mission (John 19:30). His body was immediately buried but on the third day after He arose from the dead never to be subject to death again as foretold (Psalm 16:8-11, 22:21b-31; Isaiah 53:10-12; John 20:1-23).
Now, as the Lord Jesus foretold of His disciples beginning in the 1st century, fulfillment has reached us also that live in the latter days. We are persecuted by the ruler of this world and his human agents including in increasing severity our own unsaved, false and religious professing as well as Christian apostate family members who betray our love--so much for the successful measure of a man’s life being his devoted children (Matthew 10:16-26, 24:9-10). We are not to fear or become discouraged, but stand faithful to Christ as He stood for us until the end (Matthew 10:27-31, 24:13).
For all of the evil of these latter days is permitted by God as the testing of men’s hearts revealing their true loyalties and attitude toward Christ (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Psalm 7:9-10, 11:4-6; Matthew 10:32-42; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; Revelation 3:7-13, 14:9-13, 16:15). Truly, as my Christian slave and free forefathers along with all the saints of history have joyfully discovered, the Lord is a comforting refuge for the oppressed and powerless minorities that have put their trust in Him (Psalm 9:9-10). These evil days too will pass for the Lord will prevail for His people who have had the kind of prayer He taught us on our lips and patiently endured waiting on Him (Psalm 10:12-18; Matthew 6:9-13).
1 See my two-part blog, Jesus: The Jewish Messiah originally posted for Christmas 2013 under the category, Holidays, but reposted January 28, 2014 (after a satanic interruption) for a fuller treatment of our Lord as an ethnic Jew.
As the Lord has led, I have left the original, sad introduction to this now 2012 blog repost intact not only so that readers may have a wider historical context for it, but also see the inescapable reality and steady intensification of prophetic fulfillment in these times revealed in it. So many professing Christians are in denial about the times because in their arrogantly invented, culturally conditioned amalgamation of manmade Christianity the religion and American patriotism God would not allow what He has foretold in His Word to occur in this nation. Ignoring His Word, they fail to grasp the God of the Bible truly “shows no partiality” to anyone (Acts 10:34, NKJV).
Thus, the United States Supreme Court decision handed down on June 26th giving national legal status to same sex marriage is a final repudiation of the selectively created, biblically based Judeo-Christian morality historically espoused by American Christian religionists. It is a day the Lord showed me and I have been warning for years was coming because of the historically demonstrated impotency of manmade Christianity the religion and its centuries long corrupt practice by those in America’s majority culture that allowed for evils such as abusive slavery and the bigotry and discriminations of racism amazingly still practiced in many contemporary churches.
Now that our nation has reached the point of no return to any kind of biblical morality having by the Supreme Court legally excluded God and His Word from public life as well as enshrined feticide and iniquity into law, what is the response God expects of faithful Christians? With encouragement, that is what the Lord from His Word leads me to briefly present in this two-part blog repost and the one to follow. If it is not said plain enough in what follows, let me say here in absolute clear terms, no born again Christian is authorized by Scripture to take up arms to fend off or violently resist our government or the prevailing culture (Matthew 26:47-54; John 15:18-16:4; 1 Peter 2:11-25, 3:8-17, 4).
Originally Posted December 16, 2012
(Note: This past week’s outbreak of violent lawlessness in a mall here in Oregon and elementary school in Connecticut forms a foretold wider context for the following blog as well as fulfills another way satanic hatred for God and mankind that He loves is being manifested in these latter days (Matthew 24:12). This lawlessness and that which is still to come in increasing tragic proportions also clearly demonstrates that sinful men of humanistic philosophies, law, medicine, religion or in churches are not nor ever have been the restrainers of evil: God is (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8; Revelation 6:3-4)! What we have seen happening before our eyes are the natural consequences when a nation rebels against God and forfeits His blessings including the restraint of lawlessness.)
In one day this month Washington State became the legal host for same sex marriages and dope smokers. My reaction of helpless powerlessness is one I have known in various settings all of my life. Most frequently however, I have known powerlessness as a racial minority. This world system under Satan’s rule is bound and determined to challenge and resist God and His moral order in every area of human life on earth to the end (Revelation 16, 19:17-20:3, 7-10). Besides continuing to witness Christ and preach the Gospel that even now some might be saved, praying and laboring for spiritual revival among dying churches and exhorting believers to turn out in numbers to vote biblical righteousness on all issues, there is nothing else faithful Christians as a minority can do about the rising tide of open satanically inspired rebellion against God in the West except patiently endure it.
Indeed, faithful Western Christians from every race and ethnicity should begin to adapt to the new reality of shrinking societal influence, increasing hostility and the overt discriminatory mistreatment that is already in progress when one is the despised minority. Apparently, many professing white Christians in particular are finding minority status incredibly oppressive, suffocating, chafing and infuriating if the talk in Christian media is any indication. Welcome to my world and that of most every kind of racial, ethnic or religious minority in human societies since the days of Noah and Lot who had to patiently endure the evil and oppressive deeds of the majority until God intervened in judgment (Genesis 6:5-18; 19:1-25; 1 Peter 3:18-20; 2 Peter 2:4-9)!
Christianity as a religious force, of course, once dominated the predominantly white nations of Europe and their colonial satellites around the earth. This was so much the case, Christianity came to be referred to negatively as “Christendom.” America was founded by Western Europeans looking for religious freedom and wealth in a “New World.” A nation was built on Judeo-Christian morality and values selectively drawn from the Bible. The result was a cultural Christianity and national religion that cut across denominational lines becoming as it turns out temporarily part of the American fabric of life. For all of its appearance as righteous, the spiritually dead religion practiced by the majority of white Americans has permitted much wickedness including the oppression, discriminatory mistreatment and abuse of blacks, other people of color and ethnicity as minorities (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Christian abolitionist and later Civil Rights preachers peacefully challenged America’s corrupt form of flesh driven Christianity that oppressed racial and ethnic minorities. Reluctantly, the white majority gave up some of its more egregious corruptions of biblical morality where race and ethnicity were concerned--a Civil War had to be fought to end slavery and the Civil Rights era Voting Rights Act guaranteeing blacks the right to vote still has to be periodically reaffirmed by Congress a generation after it was first enacted.
This reluctance is still evident among many predominantly white churches that call themselves preserving biblical morality and values, but are really only holding on to America’s corrupt, spiritually impotent, manmade “old time religion” of bigotry and oppression as I am a witness. From among these religionists who are either spiritually weak or impostors will eventually come those that take up arms to violently resist the new rebel majority and bring needless suffering upon the faithful who will be wrongly lumped in together with them.
The rebellious white children of the sixties have come along and rejected most aspects of the American Christian morality of their fathers including those that were biblically sound and introduced their own system in the form of political correctness, tolerance and multi-culturalism. They are joined by many racial and ethnic minorities that are secularists, biblically and politically liberal religionists (including our current President) and Christian apostates seeking to correct all perceived past inequities. The morality and values that have grown out of their humanistic approach have now led to the current state of affairs where those faithful to Christ and God’s Word regardless of race or ethnicity are being marginalized as religious minorities with worse still to come as we have been warning.
Covert sexual promiscuity among black Americans and the paradoxical moral conservatism that developed along with it from slavery through the Civil Rights era is well known. However, what is now, quite overt sexual promiscuity has evolved with the “sexual revolution” of the wider culture since and is plainly seen consequentially, for example, in the high number of single parent households many have mostly attributed to the unsaved and nominal Christians. But as I was shocked to learn and wrote about in this edited two-part 2012 repost, a growing number of sexually active young blacks are boldly declaring their faith in Christ while also openly practicing what they fully know is sin!
Deeply troubled about this very apparent misunderstanding of who He really is, I also wrote to this group as the unchanging God full of grace and mercy led to give warning and helpful instruction. I make this repost hoping again to be heard at a time when the wider culture is attempting through media to make all manner of sexual immorality normal. So much is this the case, that in the January 30, 2018 episode of a new black American themed CW show called “Black Lightning,” the main character’s lesbian daughter is consoled in a hospital setting by her mother over the break up with her lover while the Gospel Music classic, “Mary Don’t You Weep,” plays in the background.
Surely, all of us over fifty remember either our mothers and/or grandmothers weeping to this song a generation ago not only as they thought hopefully for Mary overcome with grief for her dead brother, Lazarus, but cathartically, the plight of their own children facing the sometime deadly challenges of growing up black in an oppressive and segregated America. For the show’s producers, the network and black cast to allow this mockery of Christianity and the Christian black experience in the cause to further sexual immorality is wicked beyond words and marks the arrival of the next clear consequence of trying to have God and sin too! The guilty must snap out of satanic delusion and repent before it is too late; realizing the immutable, holy God never embraces, but judges sin.
Originally Posted September 16, 2012
One more article published in the May 2012 Ebony Magazine that caught my attention focused on Christian black American singles and their attitudes toward having sex outside of marriage. Entitled, Single, Saved--and Having Sex, the article written by Chevonne Harris appeared in the Love And Relationships Connect section of the magazine.1 A set up tag line reads: “A Majority Of Young Christians Are Foregoing Abstinence, Even As They Keep The Faith.” While a few men are cited in the article, it is written with a decidedly female audience in mind right down to the graphic art seemingly showing two females embracing on a bed while in shadow a solitary woman is draped over a pew in apparent sadness.
This article showcases again the liberalizing trend of especially many young black Americans away from the historic faith of the Bible and our faithful Christian slave forefathers. To struggle with sex as a Christian is not new. I confess my own struggle (key word here is “struggle”) with living celibate as a young Christian in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.2 So, let no one read me as unsympathetic. However, it is one thing to struggle and another to just flat out go for it without concern about biblical prohibitions or consequences. This is a new attitude among historically morally conservative blacks claiming to be Christians the article is reporting on as a current trend.
Citing Relevant Magazine as its source, the article states, “As many as 80% of young, unmarried Christians have had sex.” In Ebony’s own polling at one Ohio church, 54% of 192 single Christians were practicing abstinence while 46% were not doing so even as they retained their belief that sex before marriage is a sin. The attitude of the Christians represented in the new trend of unapologetic sexual promiscuity is expressed well in the article by 34 year old Yolanda Jordan when she is quoted as saying: ‘“Just because I have a Bible on my nightstand and condoms in the drawer doesn’t mean I love God any less or that He doesn’t love me.’”3
Professed Christian John Fitzgerald has “ended relationships because of the woman’s decision to remain abstinent.” He adds, ‘“Yes, it’s wrong, [but] I’m still doing it.’” Author, Sophia Nelson, admits the Bible’s clarity about abstinence until marriage, then offers, ‘“that is not the reality of what’s going on.”’ Moreover, she says, “‘It is unrealistic in the 21st century to expect celibacy until marriage.’” She cites how sexualized society is, the trend to marry later and the “double standard” of tolerating Christian male sex outside of marriage that is unfair to women to support her claim.
Ebony’s article did reference a Creflo Dollar publication explaining the world’s turn away from honoring God’s Word on abstinence until marriage as due to “selfishness.” I would generally agree with this assessment and remind struggling Christian singles as a result, it is not about you. God knows all about your physiology--He gave it to you! He has also given you ready access to His power to be the master over your own body (Galatians 5:22-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8). God has given Christians no commandment that He has not also given us the power through the Holy Spirit to obey (Ephesians 3:14-20; Philippians 4:13; Colossians 1:9-12).
However, you must have a made up mind as an aspiring strong man or great woman of God to please Him in obedience, not yourself in sexual gratification. As it concerns the times, you have been called out of the world to Christ and no longer are to follow its thinking and practices (Romans 12:1-2). Regardless of the culture or century, the will of God in Christ remains the same. Every type of sex outside of marriage between a man and woman is sin for all time and all who willfully practice disobedience to this, will eventually be visited by God with judgment (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 5:1-5, 6:9-11; Galatians 5:19-21; Hebrews 13:4, 8). Why would you foolishly put God to the test (Acts 5:1-11)?
1 Find the article at Ebony.com.
2 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store.
3 A footnote informs readers names in the article had been changed.
Willing Christian singles are encouraged to fight the worthy fight of sexual abstinence until marriage in part two of this edited 2012 repost.
Originally Posted September 23, 2012
Yes, you will be tempted at times especially when your resolve to faithfulness to God and abstinence weakens. But purposely call on the Lord at those times (1 Corinthians 10:13; James 1:12-14)! Yes, you may yield to temptation and sin as the Ebony article commends T.D. Jakes’ movie, Jumping The Broom for accurately depicting (James 1:15). But you get back up from your failure in heartfelt confession and repentance being doubly resolved to walk in the love (it is your deepest motivation for obedience to God), victory of faith, obedience and power over all the lusts of the flesh God has called you to in Christ (1 John 1:8-10, 5:1-5).
Abstinence from sex before marriage is not some religious rule prudish preachers made up to practice in order to appear righteous or spiritual. God in His Word has made sexual purity before marriage a matter of honoring Him as its Author! He made man male and female and put them together in the lifelong covenant bond of marriage to fulfill His primary purpose for them to procreate (Genesis 1:27-28). Sex in marriage is the sacred vehicle by which God participates in the conception of a new human being. It is pleasurable as a gift to ensure the divine will would be accomplished. Beyond pleasure though, sex is also of the deepest expression of marital intimacy in oneness.
There is no double standard with God. Prospective male and female spouses are to save their bodies to exclusively share them with future mates. This leads to the difficulty of waiting for God to send the mate He has selected. This issue is hardest, in my opinion, for the person who was sexually active before becoming a born again believer in Jesus Christ. Virgins certainly know something about arousal and desire. However, not knowing exactly what they are missing in the actual act of intercourse, they will not have to deal like junkies with memories and phone numbers that could be called to find immediate gratification.
In my book, I talk about some sensible and supernatural things in the Holy Spirit that can be done to help one live celibate while waiting for God to bring the spouse He has selected. As was the case with Adam, it is God that we wait upon for our spouse (Genesis 2:18-22). That means faith and patience--even longsuffering because our Father knows best. Lack of faith in and patient waiting on God can lead to disaster both as a compromising single or spouse that has married outside of the Lord. A Bible on the nightstand and condoms in the drawer is a lowering of God’s standard of purity for Christian singles in a lack of faith, resolve and impatience.
While God’s love for us even when we are in sin is never to be questioned, the person in willful sexual immorality is claiming to love God as they blatantly offend His holiness. If “love does no harm to a neighbor,” then certainly our love for God is not to hurt Him (Romans 13:10; Ephesians 4:30, NKJV). I submit that this professing Christian’s love for God may be real as a sentimental emotion, but comes up way short of the love He wants. The standard of love God requires from us is proven by obedience and of His own love. Among its many superior attributes, God’s love is not self-seeking and never rejoices in iniquity (John 14:15-24; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
In typical, selfish human love, this person by implication is insisting that God accept their offense to His holiness and sexual sin out of His love. This is idolatry in an attempt to remake God into what they want rather than accepting Him as He is--the Holy One! The Father has already fully and finally shown His love for us and rejection of our sins in wrath at the cross of His Son. God only accepts us now through Christ crucified for our sins, buried and risen. He makes no special exceptions for anyone. Believers are to be completely respectful of that fact and run from sexual immorality to live in purity until and faithfully after marriage (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)!
Truly, our Lord Jesus Christ sympathizes with the plight of single Christians and wills to help if called upon (Hebrews 4:14-16). Nevertheless, after all else, writing about Christian singles the apostle Paul says, “…but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion,” (1 Corinthians 7:9, NKJV). This is not to be understood as urging marriage to the first person that comes along. God’s minimum requirement for our yoking together with anyone is that they be an authentic fellow Christian (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1). God will never send you an unbeliever to marry just to help you be sexually gratified.
The lack of Christian men in female filled churches is a major reason every Christian father and single woman ought to be standing with me to restore men by bringing them to Christ and the life of the aspiring strong man of God in His image! In all practicality, this will greatly expand the pool of single men worthy of marriage in the churches.4 That said, there are a few Christian men available to marry even now that are being overlooked by some sisters because they have set their standards patterned after worldly feminist ideology higher than God’s. As a result, some do end up waiting a very long time for “Mr. Right.”
There is a scene in Tyler Perry’s 2006 film, Madea’s Family Reunion where the matriarchs of the family (the old men present are portrayed as lust-filled and sexually perverted since they wickedly ogle one of their own young female relatives) call everyone together to aunt Ruby, the eldest. On land and in front of an old shack that used to house their slave progenitors who had purchased it, Cicely Tyson as Myrtle in the fictional family verbally chastises them. She rebukes the men for their gambling, fighting and abandoning their families; the young women for dressing sexually provocative. She does this after aunt Ruby had asked: “Is this what we paid for?” The question has lingered with me as I have labored in Christ to hold up a biblical worldview of the black experience.5
While in slavery sexual promiscuity was facilitated by the family destroying practices of our former masters and our own permissiveness in far too many cases, a number that became Christians sought to preserve and do marriage and family right. Christian singles: do not quit on God; you have a legacy of faith and patience in Christ they paid for with their lives! As fictional Myrtle declares, we their descendants exist to “thank God; giving Him the glory for getting us over.” Therefore, honor God and that legacy by keeping yourself pure until marriage; fighting the good fight of faith and patience. In the end, it will yield for you the rich blessings of God now and forever (1 Timothy 6:11-16)! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
4 This means many Christian single women must make an important decision at this critical juncture of history: continue pressing the usurping feminist agenda for the
home and in the churches with the result of seeing relatively few suitable men available to marry or repent and submit to God’s order for the home and in His house
to become aspiring great women of God attractive spiritually to the harvest of aspiring strong men of God He wills to bring forth with their supportive cooperation?
Read my November 16, 2014 Blog, Christian Women And Restoring Men, under the category, Instruction, to reflect more on this important decision.
5 Visit the Home Page of www.fromslaverytovictory.org to click through the short presentation.
If as a professed Christian you read through the November 25, 2018 post, “Standing In The Evil Day,” under the category, Encouragement, with skepticism and scoffing, then you may not be a Christian at all or deadly unbelief has a grip on your heart. By express divine will, faith in God is to characterize the lives of those professing to be Christians since through it we are saved and live before God (Habakkuk 2:4; Matthew 21:18-22)! Just because amazing works of power may not pop off every day through us who have faith, does not mean we are not to believe they are possible anytime we look to our God to speak or act in accord with His will. Not to live with such expectancy of faith is to automatically limit what God can do through us as I write in this edited 2013 repost.
Originally Posted March 17, 2013
Reflecting further on what the Lord led me to write last week about my journey and encounters I have had with fearful, this present world focused professed Christians who are silent in the face of evil,1 I have seen how many such persons also walk in a spiritually debilitating cynicism regarding the genuineness of Christians like myself that are truly zealous for the Lord and His Kingdom. Because they never had or long ago quenched the Spirit’s fire (of course, some in the flesh are simply envious or threatened), they refuse to believe anyone else could be so passionately “sold out” to Christ and attempt in some way to either discourage them through negative acts or obstruct their ministry efforts.
The churches and their pulpits are filled with these professed Christians that live in cynical unbelief not only concerning the genuine commitment of other Christians, but most devastatingly, the power of God! Since biblical Christianity is about faith in God from beginning to end (Romans 1:16-17), unbelief for a professed Christian would surely have consequences. First and foremost among the consequences of unbelief is the impossibility of pleasing God (Hebrews 11:6).2 Lack of faith in God by His people not only displeases Him, but their deeds (sin) born of unbelief grieve Him (Psalms 78:40, 95:7-11; Ephesians 4:30). Unbelief also limits the display of God’s power among His people (Psalm 78:41-42; Mark 6:1-6).
Now, while the context certainly shows the unbelief of the people in His hometown was influenced by their familiarity with Jesus and His human family (Mark 6:1-4), the end result is the same for not believing: the Lord could not do any “mighty work there,” (Mark 6:5, NKJV). The Jews of Nazareth in the 1st century had done just as their forefathers in history and limited the power of God being displayed in their midst by Jesus through unbelief. Please note the Lord’s reaction: “And He marveled because of their unbelief,” (Mark 6:6, NKJV). The Son of God who knows the hearts of all men and the history of His own people, Israel, still walked away in stunned amazement at the unbelief He encountered in Nazareth that day.
No doubt our Lord continues to be amazed by the many Jews and Gentiles since those days to this hour that profess to know Him personally, intimately as Christians and yet, do not believe in Him. Indeed, surveying the earth at the time of His return, the Lord with sober amazement concludes, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth,” (Luke 18:1-8, NKJV)? Today, to counter the many sensationalist charlatans who act as if they have harnessed God and His power to do their commanded bidding (and are mixed in with the authentically gifted which has been the case from the 1st century--Acts 19:11-17), those of cynical unbelief go to the other extreme and teach God is no longer doing any works of power through men.
To be sure, the men at both ends of these extremes displease the Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; 23:13-15; 2 Timothy 3:1-9). However, those that walk in and teach cynical unbelief are far more wide spread in the churches; destroying the faith of some and discouraging many by their own unbelief smugly presented. Faithful Christians; aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ understand the continuing display of God’s power through the Holy Spirit is how we live in faith every day (1 Peter 1:3-5).3 God responds to our prayers for miraculous intervention to heal, deliver, breakthrough or alter circumstances on our behalf (Mark 11:22-26; Luke 11:9-13). But even when He does not, the knowledge of His good end and joy of His living presence sustains us (1 Peter 1:6-9)!
We also pray for each other in expectant faith as dear children (James 5:13-18; 1 John 3:21-23, 5:14-15). Finally, we successfully engage in the family war against Satan in the strength, armor, weapons and resources the Father supplies to us as His sons through faith (Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; 1 Peter 5:8-11)! Rather than limiting God through unbelief, through our child-like faith we completely free Him up to do whatever He wills in the display of His power on our behalf and to His glory! Nonetheless, professed Christians walking in cynical unbelief among the carnal practitioners of manmade Christianity the religion has led the way into apostasy unfolding for centuries and leading to the foretold full blown major event shortly to come.4 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 See the August 9, 2015 repost, Silent Endorsers Of Evil under the category, The Faith.
2 Read Easy Belief, reposted on July 8, 2018 under the category, The Faith
3 Learn more about the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all major internet book-
sellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
4 See the February 2, 2014 post, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
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