So I was just browsing through the different threads looking to see if there were any posts that have been left unanswered. Especially in the teen section because we have a responsibility towards you guys to teach, mentor and intruct. I came across yours,
@Nando, and whilst it's not an easy topic for a lot of us to talk about, it is also a
necessary one. Whatever is left in the dark, Satan twists and distorts for his own work. Sexuality is most certainly one of those topics he perverts most potently. In your OP you said,
I'd like to talk to someone that has clear answers, from a modern chirstian view...
As much as I'm aware of you, I am also aware of all the other viewers that have visited your question maybe hoping for answers themselves. It is for that reason, I'm stepping out of my own conservacy to talk about this. Before I even attempt to respond to your post, a quick prayer:
Lord, I pray for Your help, Your anointing, and Your ability to respond to this topic. I pray you would equip me to impart Your perspective on something You created; that You would change our perspective on sex and sexuality from something perverted and defiled, to holy, glorious and sacred. I pray this in Jesus' precious Name. Amen.
I want to share with you the perspective that was shared with me by my Youth Pastor. He was as open about it as I am going to be with you. It is something that has preserved me, and hopefully will preserve you and many others who might stumble upon this. I said it in my prayer, but to reiterate: sexuality is something that
GOD created, not something that the
devil invented to cause us to stumble! It is something holy and glorious, and because of that, it is to be
covered -- not exposed for all to see like what's happened in the world.
Ever wonder why Satan would do his utmost to pervert sexuality? To make it an unclean thing so that people either don't want to talk about it, or when they do, it's defiling? Because
God's glory is locked up inside it...
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him:
MALE AND
FEMALE He created THEM.
Genesis 1:26
Don't you love that? God created man (plural) in His Image... God does not exist Alone, but in a glorious Union -- Father, Spirit, Son, and likewise God created
man to exist in a
glorious union --
male and
female. When male and female
unite in marriage (and I'm talking about more than sexual intimacy, I'm talking about when a woman, a wife, can submit to her husband and take on his cause, his identity, his vision), that's what truly makes up "Man" and we see the Glory of God
reflected in that relationship. It's a beautiful thing!
But that Image was lost in the Garden of Eden. Man broke down to male and female, and there's been hostility between them ever since! But
PRAISE GOD FOR JESUS! Who restored the order and redeemed the Image of God in Man! He broke the curse that we were put under, where the male would toil for bread and the woman's desire would be to
rule over her husband (Gen. 3:15-17). We are to grow in our knowledge of Jesus until this isn't just written in the Word or contained in our head, but it becomes our experience because we've
believed it!
But there's a secret to Glory that Satan knows and not many of us do (it's found in the Word if you dig for it deep enough). The secret to
GLORY is that it must be
COVERED!!
"...For over all the
glory there will be a
COVERING."
Isaiah 4:5
If you look at the Ark of the Covenant which represented the Glory of God, on the top of the Mercy Seat where the two Cherubs, set to cover the glory. The example I want to use is when the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philetines and they eventually sent it back to a Priestly City called Beth Shemesh. Instead of the Priests preserving and protecting God's Glory contained in the ark, what did they do? They
dared to lift the lid of the Ark and EXPOSE God's glory! The anger of God broke out and many were killed that day. (1 Sam. 6:19)
It's the same with sexuality. It is is not meant to be uncovered and exposed out of curiosity, but rather covered and preserved because it's glorious... Twice the New Testament refers to our bodies as being the Temple of the Living God:
FLEE SEXUAL IMMORALITY. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 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 Corinthians 6:18-20
My Pastor always says that if our bodies are the temple of God, then one day, in the covenant and context of marriage, you as a man will have the privilege of going into the holy of holies of your wife. Make sure you yourself are holy for that day (I'm speaking to both the young men and ladies here!). If a young man and a young woman can preserve themselves and COVER their glory, that day will be holy and sacred and you will encounter the Glory of God in your relationship -- a glory that Christ paid to be restored.
But if we choose to expose our sexuality before that day, like the negative of a photograph that's brought to the light before it's developed, it will be empty and hollow... there will be no glory in it.
When you see the PRIZE, the beauty, the
GLORY, you set your site on that and like they say,
ITS WORTH THE WAIT... Satan, on the other hand, resents anything to do with God's Glory and image, so he will do everything in his power to distort and destroy that glory found between a man and a woman. He himself was known as the "anointed cherub who covers" (Ezekiel 28:14) -- but instead of covering, He coveted the glory, wanting it for himself. Ever since he fell, he wants to trip man up and destroy anything resembling God's glory. So he hits hard and tries to trip us up in our sexuality. Seems we're back where we started, so we must be at the end.
I hope this perspective helps and sheds light on some of your questions. Sexuality is a glorious thing not to be ashamed of, but COVERED and preserved for that one that God has chosen you to reveal it to.
(or if you want to be friends)
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