Deeper Waters
-
-
The Fight For Peace Of Mind
-
Does God Care About Your Sex Life?
In today’s Soul H2O Deeper Waters post, I dared to delve into the question, Does God Care About Your Sex Life? A hot topic in a sex-charged society and you might be surprised by what the Bible has to say.
Normally, I send out short devotions, but sometimes I just have more to say about a topic and they might not follow the Soul H2O Devotions format. I will share these posts as Soul H2O Deeper Waters readings and hope they help you to dive in deep to God’s Word!
Downloadable Soul H2O Journal Pages help you dive deeper into God’s Word with the teaching segment, devotions or Deeper Waters posts. You can find them HERE.
Does God Care About Your Sex Life?
February is deemed the month of love. Last week we celebrated Galentine’s Day on the Soul H2O Radio & Podcast Show, In The Soul H2O Splash and on the Soul H2O Blog. I encouraged you to share some love with your Gal Pals.
This week, many of us are still celebrating since much of Canada and parts of the US was in lockdown on Valentine’s Day. You’re finally allowed to have that romantic dinner out. But what does romance and Christianity have to do with each other? I mean, Does God Care About Your Sexuality?
Before you dismiss this question and hope that I’ll move on from it, think about God’s dialogue with Adam and Eve in the garden, soon after the fall.
The Trick
In Genesis 3 we read how Satan tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying the one rule God gave them.
Satan told them that the immediate reaction to eating the forbidden fruit would be a freedom from death and to be like God… which they already were, and to know the difference between good and evil, making them believe they would become better; but since Satan is a liar, Adam and Eve’s experience didn’t go as advertised to them.
The Effects of The Fall
Scripture shows us how Adam and Eve were left struggling with guilt over their choice to rebel against God’s direction. For the first time, human beings felt shame. This crippling emotion triggered that fight, flight or freeze response in Adam and Eve to run away and hide from God in the forest.
Shame caused them to want to hide their bodies. Genesis records that shame over their nakedness was an, immediate response to sin. In this effort to right their wrong in some way, “they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. (GN 3:7)
The Reckless Love of God
I want you to pay close attention to God’s response to their answer when, true to His character, He searches them out. God calls out, “hā-’ā-ḏām”, the term he used for both Adam and Eve until Adam gave his wife a separate name after their fall. In Genesis 3:20 Adam called her Chavvah (ḥaw-wāh), or Eve as we say in English.
{If you want to learn more about this, listen to Soul H2O Radio & Podcast Show EP#31 We Rule with Amanda Benckhowsen) https://soulh2o.com/31/
God calls out to both of them,
“hā-’ā-ḏām”, Where are you?”
Genesis 3:9Adam responds,
“I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Genesis 3:10To which God asks:
Who told you that you were naked?
Genesis 3:11What God Didn’t Say
God didn’t scold them by saying, “You bad people, you can’t hide from me.” Or “Well it’s about time you put some clothes on!”and He didn’t say, “I’m glad you covered yourself, your bodies are shameful!” NO. He didn’t.
Before The Fall
This might be awkward to some people listening to this show, but God was fine with Adam and Eve’s nakedness, and so were they… until sin entered the picture.
You see, before sin entered the world and messed everything up, God chose to start the world with a couple, sharing intimately in the garden, without shame.
God created your sexuality to be expressed in passion, vulnerability, and intimacy. It’s how He designed you.
The most beautiful expression of your sexuality is to be a metaphor of the love relationship between Christ and His church. Not in any weird way, but a whole, holy union, a covenant of love, faithfulness and security, expressed through passion, vulnerability, and intimacy as the Songs of Solomon portray. The love life of a Christian couple should resemble the romance of that book, not a lackluster, boring, or unemotional existence of two roommates.
What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
But, if you don’t know God as a loving Father, Friend and Creator, you’ll have wrong mindsets towards your love life. If you see God as an authoritative, punitive, killjoy with lots of rules, then you might tend to think of God’s viewpoint on our sexuality as, well, shameful.
Shame around your body and sexuality, when expressed in healthy ways is not from God. Shame is from the devil, the one who starts the accusative self-talk that demeans, discourages and can defeat us, if we allow it to continue.
He Cares
Know that God Does care about your sexuality. He created you and doesn’t condemn you. He doesn’t shame you. God wants the best for you and any direction He gives in His Word is never to punish but protect you, sparing you from hurt, so you can live His best and life to the full!
In His Grip,
Related Soul H2O Radio & Podcast Episodes
EP 57 | Does God Care About Your Sexuality?Sheila Gregoire
Does God Care About Your Sexuality? features an interview with Author, Speaker and Blogger, Sheila Wray Gregoire. We’re talking about her latest book and hoping to help rescue Christians from warped views on their sexuality and regain a healthy Biblical perspective.
EP 31 |We Rule! With Amanda W. Benckhuysen
We Rule! features an interview with Amanda W. Benckhuysen discusses the equality of the sexes, as God originally intended.
-
6 Power-Packed Prayer Meetings In The Bible
I was writing my weekly Soul H2O Devotion about how God Still Answers Our Prayers and it started getting toooooo long, so I decided to make this another post to just include these incredibly inspiring stories! I’m hoping you’ll possibly use this post as a Bible Study to help increase your faith.
6 Power-Packed Prayer Meetings In The Bible
1. Oh Baby! {Luke 1:5-25}
This corporate prayer meeting (vs. 10) resulted in an angelic visitation followed by the miraculous conception and birth of John the Baptist to a woman past menopause!
2. Gift Received {Acts 1:4-5, 12-15, 2:1-4}
At Jesus ascension, his last words of instruction to his disciples (both men & women) were to stay and pray; waiting for the power of God to come on them to witness through the power that would come from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And boy did it come! The believers praying in the Upper Room received the baptism and began speaking in tongues, which caused such a stir in the town that it led to Peter began to walk into his destiny and began to preach. About 3000 people got saved that day alone (Acts 2:41) and the church moved forward in boldness and power!
3. Pre-Service Prayer {Acts 3:1-10}
When Peter & John were on their way to prayer meeting (vs.1) they saw a man who couldn’t walk. In boldness, they were used by God to see the man miraculously healed and then Peter spoke boldly and told every there for the prayer meeting about Jesus.
4. A Holy Shaking {Acts 4:12-31}
When Peter & John were brought before the authorities and threatened not to continue preaching about Jesus, the church got together and prayed for boldness to testify more about Jesus. It says that when they prayed the place shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and went out to speak the word boldly!
5. Who’s Knocking At The Door? {Acts 12:1-17}
When Peter was thrown into prison, the church began praying at John Mark’s house for him (vs. 3). Miraculously, the angel of the Lord visits Peter in jail and sets him free! Peter’s chains literally fell off when he began to move forward as the angel said. I think this is the only sleep-walking miracle in the Bible (vs.11) 🙂 Peter runs to John Mark’s house where they’re all praying for him and when Rhoda hears Peter’s voice at the door she’s so shocked that she leaves him standing outside waiting while they all argue that it couldn’t be Peter! Oh, I wish we weren’t like this; doubting God’s answers to what we’ve prayed about.
6. Chains Breaking {Acts 16:25-40}
This two-person prison prayer & praise meeting resulted in the miraculous release of Paul and Silas’ from jail. The Bible records that when they prayed together it caused an earthquake that broke open their shackles and those of all the prisoners! How crazy is that! When the Jailer woke up he feared the prisoners had all run away and was going to kill himself before the Romans killed him. Paul calls out and lets him know they were all there. Paul proceeds to boldly witness about Jesus to the jailer whose whole family comes to faith in Christ! Next, the authorities come and personally escort Paul and Silas out of jail and they went straight to Lydia’s house to see the brothers. Could they have been holding a prayer meeting too? We’ll never know until heaven. One of the many questions I’ll be asking up there 🙂
This is just a few of the prayer meetings recorded in the Bible. I hope reading about them has sparked your interest to believe what I said in the Soul H2O Devotion God Still Answers Our Prayers…
[tweetthis]When people get together and pray; God releases His power… His provision… and His presence #praymore[/tweetthis]
In His Grip,
~Sherry
xoxo
Here’s the list you can save to Study later, Pin on Pinterest, Save To your Device, or Print out for a constant reminder.
YOU CAN OFTEN FIND ME LINKING UP WITH:
MONDAY Monday Meditations – Laura J. Davis, Soul Survival – Donna Reidland,
TUESDAY Cheerleaders of Faith #RARaLinkup – Kelly Balarie,
WEDNESDAY Coffee For Your Heart – Holley Gerth, Word Nerd Wednesdays — Liz Giertz
THURSDAY Heart Encouragement Thursday – Crystal Storms, Chasing Community – Barbara Bradford Ottinger
FRIDAY Dance With Jesus Linkup – Susan B. Mead, Grace and Truth Linkup – Arabah Joy, Counting My Blessings – Deb Wolf, Fresh Market Friday – Crystal Twaddell ELLEN’S PICKS– Ellen Graf-Martin