SEX

HA! Gotcha ya! Do I have your attention now? Funny how that this little 3 letter word can cause such a huge uproar with so many people. Its just a word for goodness sake. Right?

Whats so crazy about this word is the amount of discussion there is on it. You can find a wide range of topics that cover sex and health, sex and marriage, and sex and religion. Did you read that last one? Sex and Religion. That's right. I think most people, whether in the church or not, don't think that the two can go hand and hand.

I'm reading a new book called "Intimate Issues. 21 Questions Christian Women Ask About Sex" by Linda Dillow and Lorraine Pintus. Normally, I wouldn't read anything like this, but when my Saint of a sister-in-law, Jennifer, said it was a good read, I grabbed it. Its taken me awhile to get around to reading it but I'm so glad I have finally started it.

You should know starting out, whatever I read Aaron gets a full report. I love listening to his feed back because he always has great comments and gets me thinking. Sometimes more than the book does.

The book starts off giving 6 reasons why GOD gave us the gift of sex. 1. So that we may create life. 2. For intimate oneness. 3. For knowledge. 4. For pleasure. 5. A defense against Temptation. 6. For comfort.

I would like to start of with the first reason, "So that we may create life". The writers give us the scripture Genesis 1:28 (be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth). As Christian women, we've all heard that one. For such a long time, I hated this statement. I thought, "Oh no! Now, that I'm a Christian, all I'm good for is making babies." It goes onto saying in Genesis 2:28-29 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and they will become one flesh. The man and the woman were both naked and they felt no shame." You know they got to know one another because Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel. So you see, babies are the outcome of the sex. And the physical act of child birth was women's punishment for eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:16a). Your DESIRE will be for your husband (Genesis 3:16b).

If we keep reading Genesis, you will find in chapter 4, Cain found a wife from NOD. NOD was east of Eden. Did Eve have girls? NO. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but Cain and Abel are the only children that Eve bore. Just because we are women does not mean that the only time we can have sex with our husbands is just to get pregnant.

Move to 1 Corinthians 7:4-5 "the wife's body does not belong to her alone but also the husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife." Here is the kicker (verse 5) "DO NOT deprive each other except by mutual consent and only for a time, so that you can devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control."

I ask you? Why are there women in the world that are not physically able to bare children? Does GOD not love them? Absolutely not! GOD gave us sex so that we may share ourselves with our spouse in the most intimate way possible. Like the example in Ephesians 5:29-32, "After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church. For we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church."

I guess what Im getting to would be sex was created for husband and wife's ENJOYMENT with each other. Just read Song of Soloman. There is NO mention of birth control in the BIBLE. But that doesnt mean we shouldn't use it. The LABOR of child birth is our punishment for eating the forbidden fruit. Not the act of having sex. It is a great privilege being a woman. Lets celebrate that! With our husbands!

Grace

So Im reading this book on Grace based parenting. I dont know if Im learning things for myself or for the kids. In one of the chapters, Dr. Kimmel uses this verse; "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, you could not stand. But with you there is forgiveness: THEREFORE you are FEARED." (Psalms 130: 3-4) How absolutely beautiful is that?!

Its just my personal believe that you should follow that up with Paul's writings in Romans 7. Starting in verse 15: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (picking up in verse 24) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to GOD - through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Now it could just be me, but this should explain so many of our mistakes. While we are to live in the world but not be of the world, sometimes, we fall off that band wagon and screw up. If it were not for GOD forgiving us and letting us live with Grace, knowing that we are simple stupid humans, humanity as a whole would perish. I want to do the good or right thing all the time but in my feeble attempts, I mess up. Im learning each and every day that it is a new day every day and that being apart of the family of GOD, I get a second chance every day.

Tattoo agrument

Im reading this book written by Dr. Tim Kimmel. So far it has been a good book. Then I came up to this particular argument. Directions regarding "why" kids want to get tattoos. Dr. Kimmel starts off by saying, "we dont use the Bible to put words in GOD's mouth that he didnt say." He starts off this discussion with Leviticus 19:28. (THE NEXT COUPLE OF PARAGRAGHS ARE DR. TIM KIMMEL'S WORDS. NOT MINE.)

Leviticus 19:28 - Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.

Thats pretty clear- that is, if we believe we can use a Bible verse without any regard for the context in which it appears. Many peope use verses out of context to win selfish arguments and justify what they selfishly want. Using GOD'S word out of context to win your argument is a variation of taking GOD's name in vain - something strictly forbidden in the Ten Commandments. Obviously, a person that respects GOD's word would desire to use it properly, especially when trying to direct a child throught the maze of childhood.

If we study Leviticus 19:28 in its context, we see that it isnt talking about tattoos in general, but tattoos that identify a person with a pagan deity or pagan practice. Two verses before, it forbids the eating of meat with blood in it. Does this mean you cant eat your steaks rare? Not at all. This is talking specifically about the meat that was being offered as a sacrifice for their sin, not an evening out at Morton's. The verse directly before the verse on tattoos condems men cutting their hair on the side or trimming their beards. Does that mean men cant get haircuts or go around clean-shaven? Of corse not. In that culture, men wore their hair long and their beards untrimmed. Pagans trimmed the sides of their heads and the edges of their beards in such a way that it identified them with a specific heathen god or a specific heathen practice. Thats not why men trim their hair or go clean-shaven today. When men get their hair cut, they dont light candles to some dark deity - at least not at my barbershop. They might light up a cigar, but there is nothing about that process that is n deference to a pagan deity.

Which brings us back to Leviticus 19:28. It says first that we are not to "cut our bodies for the dead." This refers to distinctive marks on the face that anyone could look at and know we are part of a pagan ritual. GOD didnt want them giving credence to the false beliefs that attributed power or influence to the dead. In the next breath, the verse says, "or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord." Folowing down the contextual line, Moses is referring to distinctive tattoos that identified a person as a follower of a particular pagan deity. Moses writes that they are to make sure they dont make permanent marks on their bodies (cutting or writting) that give credence to a pagan ritual or god in a specitic way.

*** Aaron nor I have a tattoo or are thinking about getting one, but this is a touchy subject. I, personally, dont see anything wrong with tattoos but a friend of mine told me, its not what I think. Its what GOD's words says. I would like to hear some thoughts on this.