Sermon Illustrations on Sex — page 2

Deferring Gratification

Proverbs 6:20

”My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” (Proverbs 6:20)

The real truth about sex and sexual satisfaction is difficult to see or understand outside of marriage. Many young people say to me: “Why all these negatives in the Bible concerning sex before marriage? Isn’t sex a beautiful thing?” I say to them: God doesn’t give His prohibitions because sex is a bad thing; they are there to protect us from doing the good and beautiful thing in the wrong context. Within marriage, sexual activity is the doing of the right thing in the right place. It is only when you are within marriage that you begin to see the point and purpose of all those do’s and don’ts.

Christians are people, or should be people, who take God on trust. There’s not much point in confessing to be a follower of Christ if you don’t believe what He tells you in His Word and you change it to suit your convenience. Passion has always been a problem, but wisdom and passion must be properly related. You must become acquainted with the principle of deferred pleasure which is one of the first evidences that you are becoming a mature person. An infant desires immediate gratification and will cry and howl until he gets what he wants. When he grows older, and becomes more mature, then the desire for gratification is brought under control. The concept of deferred satisfaction is a vital one for every young person to get hold of, for without it there can be no real maturity. You must learn to deny yourself now in order to experience the right thing in the right way in the future.

PRAYER:

Father, You will have to take me by the hand lest I be lost in the jungle of immediate satisfaction. If I get off the track here, I will find myself in a jungle that gets more and more tangled every moment. Help me and hold me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY: — 2 1 Peter 3:1-14; Psalm 24:3-4; Matthew 5:8

1. What are we to make every effort to do?

2. Who can enter into the holy place?

Is Food the New Sex?

“Put down that cheeseburger and listen up,” said George Will in THE WASHINGTON POST. In a provocative essay in POLICY REVIEW, scholar Mary Eberstadt offers a deliciously provocative analysis of the relationship between our attitudes toward sex and food. In some very fundamental ways, Eberstadt argues, food and sex have traded places. Two generations ago, most Americans observed strict moral codes regarding sex, but happily ate frozen steaks and canned vegetables. Today, society encourages sexual freedom, but condemns those who don’t eat locally grown organic veggies and free-range chickens. So we are left with “mindful eating and mindless sex.” There’s nothing wrong with eating more healthfully, of course, said India Knight in the London TIMES. Eberstadt’s point is that we seem to have transferred the notion of “taboos and rules” from sex to foodgiving rise to an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, and out-out-wedlock births.

The problem, said Mary Eberstadt in her POLICY REVIEW article, is that we increasingly think of our sexual activities purely as matters of personal taste. When it comes to food, we are more aware than ever of what our choices mean for our health and for the planet. But while “the all-you-can-eat buffet is now stigmatized, the sexual smorgasbord is not,” and I believe there is a direct connection between the two trends. All the new rules being drawn around food reflect the fact that many people, in their heart of hearts, are uncomfortable with how far the sexual revolution has gone. “Not sure what to do with it, they turn for increasing consolation to mining morality out of what they eat.” So in a very real sense, “junk food” has been replaced by “junk sex.”

[see also #35242]

Mindful Eating, Mindless Sex: Our Inner Sense of Right and Wrong

Imagine inviting some new neighbors to a dinner party. The first couple tells you they’d love to come. But, they warn, they think it’s immoral to eat animals, so please — vegetarian options only.

The second couple also wants to come, but — they’re almost embarrassed to mention it — they only eat locally grown food. No strawberries from Chili, or shrimp from Asia. Importing food from faraway countries damages the environment, they explain.

Couple number three also wants to attend — but, they ask, you aren’t serving genetically enhanced vegetables, are you, or meat produced by industrialized breeding practices?

At this point, you might be tempted to cancel the party and go out for a cheeseburger, followed up by a banana split — made with bananas from Ecuador. But you might wonder, as you bite into that greasy hunk of beef, just why it is that people have become so moralistic about food. Especially when so many are immoral in other areas — like their sex lives.

One person who has wondered about this is Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. In her article “Is Food the New Sex?,” Eberstadt notes that food is cheap and plentiful in the West. The same can be said for sex. Technology has tamed many of the dangers associated with sex, like pregnancy and disease. Moreover, social and religious strictures have all but disappeared.

Which leads to an interesting question: What would happen, Eberstadt wondered, when, “for the first time in history ... [people] are more or less free to have all the sex and food they want?” Would they pursue both food and sex with equal ardor?

Oddly enough, they don’t. Instead, many engage in a sexual free-for-all — but put stringent moral strictures on anything to do with food. A modern young woman might think nothing of living with several different men, and having abortions when she gets pregnant. But she would not dream of eating anything from a factory farm. That would be immoral.

In effect, some people have reversed the “moral poles” of sex and eating, Eberstadt writes. They are engaging in “mindful eating and mindless sex.”

Why is this happening? As Eberstadt writes, “It is hard to avoid the conclusion that rules being drawn around food receive some force from the fact that people are uncomfortable with how far the sexual revolution has gone.”

“Not knowing what to do about it,” she says, “they turn for increasing consolation to mining morality out of what they eat.”

Or, as my former colleague Jim Tonkowich notes, “For all our relativistic talk” about encouraging people to make their own moral choices, “we cannot get away from an inner sense of right and wrong and the desire to codify [it].”

Jim is right. As the apostle Paul put it, God’s law is written on our hearts. We can deceive ourselves into believing it doesn’t exist, but when we do, we find our God-given sense of morality breaking out in other forms. In this case, in food — though it would be better the other way around.

This is what we ought to lovingly share with our unsaved friends — maybe over dinner — people who may think nothing wrong with living together out of wedlock, but who wouldn’t dream of eating mandarin oranges from Spain.

________

[see also #35219]

The Dalai Lama, Christianity, and Sex

Mark 10:6

A prominent religious leader recently said that sex, however pleasurable it might be in the short run, leads to long-term trouble. He argued that celibacy is the way that leads to “more freedom.”

If you’re thinking that the leader was ridiculed for his comments, think again. The Associated Press described him as “waxing eloquent.” It probably helps that the “him” in question was the Dalai Lama.

Speaking in Lagos, Nigeria, the Tibetan leader said that giving in to “sexual pressure [and] desire” produces “short period satisfaction [that often] leads to more complication.”

While sexual desire is “natural,” the Dalai Lama said, our “human intelligence” should help us to understand the “ups and downs” that couples experience. In extreme cases, these “ups and downs” can take the form of “murder” and “suicide.” He even went on to say that attachment to our “partner” and even our children can become “an obstacle or hindrance [to our] peace of mind.”

Well, there are some things in these comments Christians can agree with. There’s also an awful lot that underscores the differences between Buddhism and Christianity.

For example, Christianity also commends celibacy. The apostle Paul wrote that whereas a married man is anxious about “how to please his wife,” the “unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord.” The avoidance of what Paul called “division of interest” is why Catholic priests are celibate.

But while both religions have a place for celibacy, their reasons are very different. For starters, in Christianity, celibacy isn’t chosen for the sake of the individual’s peace of mind. Nor to be detached from the world. Instead, it is something a person chooses to do for the sake of the Kingdom of God as a way to better serve God and his neighbor.

In addition, while Christianity acknowledges that marriage and family are full of “complications” and “ups and downs” that can cause suffering, it proclaims their goodness and sanctity.

Whereas in Buddhism, salvation consists of “becoming indifferent to the world, which is the source of evil,” in Christianity, “the world is God’s good creation, redeemed by Christ.”

For Christians, human institutions and their attachments are to be embraced, not renounced. This is especially true of the family.

As author Christopher West writes in his BOOK THEOLOGY OF THE BODY EXPLAINED, Christianity sees the union of husband and wife as “the fountainhead of civilization [and] the wellspring of culture.” Rather than being an obstacle to spiritual well-being, the conjugal relationship of spouses, when “open to God’s inspiration and ordered toward love and life ... builds families and, in turn, a culture of love and life.”

Of course, as our hedonist culture has rejected the Christian view of sex, the result, as West observes, is the “disintegration of marriage” and “a culture of utility and death.”

Given the mess we have made of sex and marriage, the Dalai Lama’s detachment might look like a good alternative. But it pales in comparison to the joy experienced by husbands and wives who embrace God’s plan for creating a culture of love and life.

Yes, worldviews matter — a lot.

________

Articles On Sex

John 13

“… In our society we are ‘overexposed’ to sex, so we can rationalize our thinking that it isn’t in the category as ‘murder, rape, drug-usage’, or other sins we KNOW are unacceptable, however, our Guide is the Word of God – not man’s thinking – that is how God got through to me – when I read the definition of these sins:

(1) Uncleanness: This fleshly sin includes a wide range of moral sins. Evil or impure thoughts, so-called dirty stories, lustful desires, desires to read pornography or to see morally unclean pictures or movies would certainly be included. Uncleanness springs from the fleshly desire to gratify (the) sensual appetite through thoughts and words in conflict with God’s Holy nature and divine plan;

(2) Lasciviousness: This sin represents the practice of stirring up lustful desires which cannot be satisfied within the limits of God’s approval. One may be lascivious about his dress, his speech, his laughter, his smile, his eyes, his physical gestures, his modesty, and so forth. This sin springs from the fleshly desire to attract attention to one’s self in a manner that flaunts God’s standards of moral purity. {”The Adversary” p.p.29-30 – Mark Bubeck Moody Press,1975}

These and other sins of the flesh are in Galatians 5:19-21 – but what precedes them is very important: ‘I say then: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; so that you do not do the things that you wish (Gal 5:16-17).’ Am I saying that I went on to ‘sinless perfection’ – Absolutely Not!!!! I am not saying I ‘never sinned again’ in this area, but the Power of the Word of God to change lives, and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit brings Victory. As the Lord showed me recently in my ‘Quiet Time’ as I read of the Temptation of Christ again in Luke – the difference between… Adam and [Jesus] was that Jesus quoted the Word of God to the devil with every temptation – Adam could have done the same since he had the Word of God directly FROM God, but listened to the enemy MISquote God’s Word instead and gave in to the temptation! Thank you for sharing your struggle… Many will be praying for you now – who would never have know if you had not shared! So, don’t be concerned about the ‘Pharisees’ and ‘Legalists’ – they end up miserable rejecting everyone!!!”

Message #2:

“This is a very difficult topic. On the one hand, we sometimes feel that we would rather not know about someone’s very personal struggles, and in certain situations that is more appropriate. On the other hand, when we are in a dialogue with a brother and he feels called to share with us, there is generally a good reason and we have a duty to thoughtfully listen and respond if we can. The key as you obviously know, is to remember at all times to detest the sin but love the sinner. Like ‘loving your enemy’ and putting old ways behind us, this is much easier said than done. For some reason, we tend to feel superior to someone who has a tendency toward sexual sin or substance abuse. We may find that it makes the rest of us feel ‘stronger’, and the other person ‘weaker’, I don’t know.

I was born and raised Roman Catholic, but later in life, through my wife, converted to a Protestant faith and began to read the Bible personally for the first time. It was a revelation, especially the comfort that Christ died so that we could be saved once and for all. Once accepted in truth, He does not withdraw his gift.

Man’s being sinful by nature and totally incapable of living up to the standard required to earn our own way into heaven is the whole reason for Christ’s coming. Having sacrificed himself for us, I can’t believe that He would then leave us to our own powers to finish the journey. If that were possible, the law of the Israelites would have gotten them salvation. The Bible tells us, though, that the law didn’t save them, it condemned them. Also, Christ died for future sins as well (since at that time my sins all lay in the future, He must have).

You are of course right and it’s sad that these people are missing out on a measure of peace if they are relying on their track record since conversion to get them into Heaven. If they are honest with themselves they must be condemned every day, or else they are completely unlike anyone I have ever known.”

Note from Chris now: The previous message mentions the “once saved, always saved” principle. Just for clarification, I need to make clear exactly what I was talking about in my previous messages. My intent was not to debate the merits of the “once saved, always saved” principle. All I was trying to do was point out that if a Christian sins and is sincere in asking for forgiveness, then I don’t care if you’ve come to God a million times before, He will forgive you and your eternal home is not in question. That’s what grace is about. But the issue here is of whether one who has accepted Jesus can lose salvation.

You guys, for a long time, I saw my sin of looking at pornography, as “the devil made me do it” type of a thing. Several years ago, that changed when one day I realized that I was making a conscious choice to deny Christ and follow satan. And once I realized that, my faith took a major nose dive and I found myself frequently unable to face God. But I was sincerely repentent in my heart. Sometimes I didn’t bring that to God because I wasn’t sure myself whether God would really forgive me, a lowly sinner, again, and I was afraid to face Him. Surely there must have been a limit, I thought, to how many times He would forgive me. But looking back, even during those darker times, I have no doubt now that my salvation was secure. Why? Because I was truly repentent after sinning. I still believed in Jesus and tried to follow Him. I turned my back on God and instead gave into the flesh temporarily, but I came back and sought forgiveness (even if I didn’t seek it as often as I should have). God knew my heart and He knew my sincerity. My salvation was secure.

Now talking theoretically here, if it is possible (and I have SERIOUS reservations about this) to willingly turn your back on God and never come back and you had no desire for forgiveness, then I suppose you could lose salvation. But I’ll tell you what: I’ve never seen this happen and I have serious doubts that one who knows the TRUTH and has accepted that TRUTH and has truly let Jesus into their heart can then turn around and deny that truth without any hint of sorrow and remorse. I very highly doubt it can be done.

And now, turning a corner, I want to just give you all a whole bunch of Bible verses on the area of sexual purity as well as grace: 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Corinthians 6:18-20; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 1 Corinthians 6:15; Hebrews 2:18; Acts 10:43; Romans 6:1-14; Matthew 1:21; Acts 13:28; 1 John 3:5; 1 John 2:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Timothy 1:15; Ephesians 1:7; Galatians 1:4; Hebrews 9:28; Hebrews 10:14

And finally, turning yet another corner, I’ve got a few more links for you on the subject of sexual sin:

http://www.christiananswers.net/sex/ (Q&A)

http://www.geocities.com/~newlifemn/ (Support for Men and Women)

http://www.afafilter.com/ (Server-based filter)

http://www.redrival.com/nlpartners/index.htm (Support for Wives)

http://www.estheronline.org/main.htm (Support for Wives)

http://www.imaginethatministries.org/bookstore.html (Books that can be ordered)

http://members.aol.com/hawebpage/ (Homosexuals Anonymous)

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*Thought for Today*

“Sin is not something that is really good that God for some reason has something against. Sin is toxic… I have never had anyone – anyone – say to me, ‘After I committed the sin, I was really glad about it.’ We dwell in the ruins of a disordered world, one in which sin has many defenders but no defense. Sin is destructive by it’s very nature, but it must mask itself in the beginning in order to lure us until we are caught by the bait of present or promised pleasures.” – James Bryan Smith

*The Lift*

LEARNING ABOUT LOVE, MARRIAGE, AND SEX (By Luis Palau)

I was only twelve, but I felt like a man. School was out for the summer, and I was helping with the family business. The work was a refreshing break from my just-completed exams.

This particular day I was helping deliver a load of cement bags. The driver, a twenty-year-old laborer, seemed friendly and boosted my ego as we worked together.

“Luis,” he said as we pulled over to the side of the road, “since you are becoming a young man now and you have no father, you need someone to talk to you about the facts of life.”

My heart began to pound. I was excited to think I might get some straight answers from someone who really knew the score.

But instead of telling me anything, the truck driver simply opened a magazine and turned the pages while I stared in unbelief at the pictures of naked men and women. I was shocked and disgusted.

Later, I could not push the images from my mind. I felt sinful, degraded, horrible, guilty. Impure thoughts invaded my mind. I had been curious before, but had always resisted the temptation to look at such magazines. Now one was thrown at me unexpectedly, and I was repulsed.

It wasn’t until I was twenty-three that a man talked to me plainly from the Bible about human sexuality. I was amazed by how much the Bible actually says about sex.

I think it’s a crime that, as God’s pilgrims journeying through this world, we leave sex education to other people and institutions that usually teach only about the physical aspects of reproduction and anatomy. We need to understand and teach what God says about the total spectrum of love, marriage, and sex.

The Bible teaches that God created sex. God made Adam and Eve as perfect, sexual beings (Genesis 2:18-25). Not until after the fall of humankind did Satan tempt people to misuse and abuse this gift. Often adults communicate to their children by their stubborn silence that sex is somehow evil. That’s false! Sex, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful gifts God has given humanity.

The Bible shows that God created sex for pleasure as well as for reproduction. God’s Word exalts the joys of marital love. See the Song of Solomon, for example. Scripture likewise speaks of children as a special blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3).

The Bible presents sex as wholesome and right only within marriage. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

Only six percent of the young adults questioned for a survey indicated that by age twenty-one they were still waiting for God’s ideal–sexual intimacy only in marriage. God’s beautiful gift has been distorted and cheapened in so many cases.

How were your own views of love, marriage, and sex formed? Are they consistent with what the Bible teaches? In an age of confused immorality, we need to personally study and understand what God says about wholesome sexuality.

To Ponder

Do you feel you have a clear, biblical understanding of sex now? To what degree? Think back to how you learned about sexuality. Did you have any experiences that left you feeling defiled? If so, what did you do about it?

To Pursue

In John 13, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, cleansing them from the defilement of the world. Ask the Lord to cleanse you from any defilement you’ve experienced.

Our Bodies Tell God’s Story

Mark 10:6

Now, in what may be called the wake of the sexual revolution, expressions of sexual chaos are everywhere. What started with the separation of marriage, sex, and babies has led to aggressive attempts to indoctrinate and reorder society against the essential realities of male and female.

The list of things that Christians must reject is a long one: pornography, abortion, infidelity, abuse and harassment, gender “reassignment,” same-sex marriage, polyamory, reproductive technologies, commercial surrogacy, even “drag queen story hours.” With so much to stand against, it’s more important than ever that Christians remember what they are for.

Despite an unfortunately common mis-reputation, both within the Church and without, Christianity doesn’t teach that human bodies are evils to be controlled in order to avoid sin. Rather, it teaches that our physical bodies are part of who we are as made in the image of God. As part of the created order, then, our bodies are a type of natural revelation, designed by God to reveal Himself.

Because God frequently uses physical realities to reveal and even embody the mysteries of who He is and what He wants us to know, Christians need to know the why behind the what when it comes to our bodies. Thankfully, to this end, Christopher West has made a remarkable contribution in a new book entitled “Our Bodies Tell God’s Story.”

West is best known for effectively making Pope John Paul II’s magisterial work “The Theology of the Body” accessible to the average person in the pew, especially the average Protestant. In his new book, West details a vision of our humanness, which includes our bodies as a feature and not a bug.

This is no vision of sexual repression, but of how our humanness fits in God’s overarching work of redemption. On this foundation, we can answer, both for ourselves and for others, the difficult questions of our culture, about why not all sexual impulses are good or just, about what it means to be male or female, about how human sexuality was intended by God in both single and married contexts, and about how the ultimate purpose of sex and marriage is found in God’s ultimate purpose for His image bearers and His creation.

After all, at the end of the day, all of the questions about sex dominating our culture right now are ultimately questions of purpose, not just morality. We are a world lost on who we are and therefore what our bodies are for.

Our purpose, as West reminds us, is revealed by God in His word and in His world. As the masterful storyteller He is, even our bodies point to the deeper realities of Christ’s self-giving love for His people who will, ultimately, be united with God in eternal communion. In the marriage covenant, God designed a way for us to act out His great cosmic drama on the smaller stage of our everyday lives together. Its significance is grounded in its imitation of the real thing: God’s covenantal love for His world.

In fact, the symbolism of marriage ties Scripture together from beginning to end. Genesis begins with a wedding and Revelation ends with one. The first points to the last and reveals the kind of relationship God wants with us through Christ.

Many Christians have long forgotten that our exalted view of marriage is not ultimately about preserving traditional moral norms or achieving personal happiness, but about God Himself. Many are called to human marriage, but all are called to eternal communion with God through Christ. This is why the Christian tradition values both human marriage and human singleness.

“When we get the body wrong,” says West, “we get the divine story wrong as well.” It only makes sense that the body and sexuality are under so much attack today.

To be clear, West approaches this topic as a faithful Catholic who maintains the teaching of his tradition. Not all Christians will agree on all the implications of his teaching (like the role of contraception), but I still say this book is must-reading for all followers of Christ who want to be theologically clear about who we are as made in the image of God.

As my friend Eric Metaxas writes in the Foreword, “This bold, compelling, hopeful, and healing vision of our creation as male and female has been hailed by Catholics and Protestants alike as an antidote to the sexual crisis now plaguing the church and the world.”

The Unknown Puritans

. . .The authors painted an entirely different picture of the Puritans. They were far more funloving than they’ve been accused of being, but they insisted that the pleasures of the flesh be subordinated for and to the greater glory of God. They were not ascetics, and they never even hinted that they wanted to deny or prevent the enjoyment of earthly pleasures.

(The Puritans) practiced the golden rule and shared anything they had with those who were less fortunate. . . They gave out of the very little they had, not out of an abundance.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, March 4, 1998, stated that the Puritans consistently extolled sex within marriage. William Gouge was typical in calling sex “one of the most proper and essential acts of marriage,” to be enjoyed “with goodwill and delight, willingly, readily, and cheerfully.” One congregation even excommunicated a man for sexually neglecting his wife.

The conclusion I reach is this: If we all followed more of the Puritans’ examples, we would have happier marriages, and even more to smile about and be grateful for.

Dancing For the Dead

Luke 7:32

In many Asian countries, paying respects to the dead with earthly gifts -- like food and money -- is not an uncommon practice. But in Taiwan, some have taken ancestor worship to sexier heights, as strippers pole dance and peel off their clothes for the benefit of the deceased.

According to an AFP report, pole dances and stripteases are commonly performed at religious festivals in some areas in Taiwan in order to “appease the wandering spirits.”

In some cases, women dressed in tiny miniskirts and revealing brassieres shimmy and shake on stage in front an audience of men, women and children.

However, though this may seem bizarre to some, it is neither a new nor terribly unorthodox practice -- at least as far as Taiwan goes.

In 2011, anthropologist Marc L. Moskowitz featured this practice in a documentary entitled “Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan.”

A synopsis of the film states:

Funeral strippers work on Electric Flower Cars (EFC) which are trucks that have been converted to moving stages so that women can perform as the vehicles follow along with funerals or religious processions. EFC came to Taiwan’s public attention in 1980 when newspapers began covering the phenomenon of stripping at funerals.

There is a great deal of debate about whether this should be allowed to continue. In Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, one often hears middle and upper class men complain about the harmful effects of this rural practice on public morality. In contrast, people in the industry see themselves as talented performers and fans of the practice say that it makes events more exciting.

The AFP writes that though some local critics have dismissed the practice, others say that it is a “traditional folk culture lacking in the sharp separation of sex and religion often seen in other parts of the world.”

“The groups attract crowds to our events and they perform for the gods and the spirits to seek blessings,” Chen Chung-hsien, an official at Wu Fu Temple, a Taoist landmark in north Taiwan’s Taoyuan county, told AFP. “They have become part of our religion and folk culture.”

Moskowitz told io9.com that though an “American’s first reaction” may be “laughter or outrage,” he too has come to appreciate the practice.

“As I watched these performances I came to appreciate the idea of celebrating someone’s life to help assuage the feelings of grief,” he said, according to the website.

Headed For Extinction: the Japanese Can't Be Bothered With Sex

Luke 1:7

When a society no longer desires to make babies, could it also lose its desire for ... well, relations, too?

Long-time BreakPoint listeners know about Japan’s catastrophically-low birthrates: by 2060, Japan’s population is projected to fall by a third, the same percentage killed by the Black Death in 14th century Europe.

Japan’s demographic decline has spawned some creepy adaptations, such as lifelike talking dolls for elderly Japanese without grandchildren, or the borrowing of other people’s grandchildren for a day.

Attempts to encourage child-bearing through economic incentives have failed, as they have in other countries with low birth-rates. Younger Japanese aren’t interested in reproducing themselves.

And now, according to a recent article in the UK’s Guardian, they’re increasingly uninterested in sex, as well.

A 2011 survey found that 61 percent of unmarried men and 49 percent of unmarried women between 18 and 34 were not involved in any kind of relationship. Another survey found that a third of those under thirty had never dated.

More ominously, a study by the Japan Family Planning Association revealed that 45 percent of all Japanese women between the ages of 16 and 24 “were not interested in or despised sexual contact.” More than a quarter of their male counterparts felt the same way.

As the Guardian puts it, “Japan’s under-40s won’t go forth and multiply out of duty, as postwar generations did.” Why? Part of the reason has to do with Japanese attitudes to women in the workforce. As one 32-year-old woman told the paper, “a woman’s chances of promotion in Japan stop dead as soon as she marries.” The assumption is that she’ll become pregnant and have to resign.

While that helps to explain why her generation isn’t having children or even getting married, it doesn’t explain the lack of interest in sex. And it certainly doesn’t explain why an increasing number of Japanese men aren’t interested in it either.

One 31-year-old man spoke for many of his peers when he said, “I find some of my female friends attractive but I’ve learned to live without sex. Emotional entanglements are too complicated ... I can’t be bothered.”

“Can’t be bothered.” Or “mendokusai” in Japanese. (Didn’t think I could speak Japanese, did you? Well, I can’t.)

Most of the other possible factors the Guardian cites, including “the lack of a religious authority that ordains marriage and family,” are only partial explanations. Japan’s “precarious earthquake-prone ecology that engenders feelings of futility, and the high cost of living and raising children” don’t explain the increasing lack of interest in sex. But here’s something that does: it’s the lack of interest in having children. The assumption of the sexual revolution was that, having severed the link between sex and procreation, the result would be “better sex.”

But the Japanese experience suggests that the opposite may be closer to the truth. Having stripped sex of one of its God-ordained purpose, we turned it into just another pleasurable human activity, albeit one that often comes with complicated emotional entanglements.

Since the “urban pastimes” available to younger Japanese provide pleasure without the entanglements, sex can seem like a bad investment of time and energy. Mendokusai.

The Guardian calls Japan’s separation of love and sex “pragmatic.” But the evidence strongly suggests that there is nothing “pragmatic” — as in “dealing with things sensibly and realistically” — about that separation. We human beings simply aren’t wired that way.

In some important respects, the difference between Japan and us is one of degree, not kind. It remains to be seen if a generation of young Americans will one day replace “whatever” with “mendokusai.”

________

Dancing For the Dead

Luke 7:32

In many Asian countries, paying respects to the dead with earthly gifts -- like food and money -- is not an uncommon practice. But in Taiwan, some have taken ancestor worship to sexier heights, as strippers pole dance and peel off their clothes for the benefit of the deceased.

According to an AFP report, pole dances and stripteases are commonly performed at religious festivals in some areas in Taiwan in order to “appease the wandering spirits.”

In some cases, women dressed in tiny miniskirts and revealing brassieres shimmy and shake on stage in front an audience of men, women and children.

However, though this may seem bizarre to some, it is neither a new nor terribly unorthodox practice -- at least as far as Taiwan goes.

In 2011, anthropologist Marc L. Moskowitz featured this practice in a documentary entitled “Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan.”

A synopsis of the film states:

Funeral strippers work on Electric Flower Cars (EFC) which are trucks that have been converted to moving stages so that women can perform as the vehicles follow along with funerals or religious processions. EFC came to Taiwan’s public attention in 1980 when newspapers began covering the phenomenon of stripping at funerals.

There is a great deal of debate about whether this should be allowed to continue. In Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, one often hears middle and upper class men complain about the harmful effects of this rural practice on public morality. In contrast, people in the industry see themselves as talented performers and fans of the practice say that it makes events more exciting.

The AFP writes that though some local critics have dismissed the practice, others say that it is a “traditional folk culture lacking in the sharp separation of sex and religion often seen in other parts of the world.”

“The groups attract crowds to our events and they perform for the gods and the spirits to seek blessings,” Chen Chung-hsien, an official at Wu Fu Temple, a Taoist landmark in north Taiwan’s Taoyuan county, told AFP. “They have become part of our religion and folk culture.”

Moskowitz told io9.com that though an “American’s first reaction” may be “laughter or outrage,” he too has come to appreciate the practice.

“As I watched these performances I came to appreciate the idea of celebrating someone’s life to help assuage the feelings of grief,” he said, according to the website.

Coming Out

One of a series in the issue dealing with homosexuals and the possibility of

changing. Interviews several leaders in the small movement.

"... an argument that makes some sense in our modern therapeutic society, but

none at all in biblical thinking [is] the claim that desires - particularly

sexual desires - have a fundamental claim on us, and that those who cannot

fulfill their desires must be unfulfilled."

#951

*

Thinking of consequences

Bob Russell, in his book TAKE COMFORT, tells about a friend of his who saw a wrecked car being towed away. The front end was smashed in. On the back was a bumper sticker that read: "Don't Bother Me; I'm Having a Sexual Fantasy." We need to understand that when we get involved in a fantasy it invariably ends up in wrecked lives. (Cincinnati, OH: Standard Pub., 1991, p. 119).

Thinking of consequences

The movie was first in the theaters, then on TV. It was about a middle-aged man who had a brief affair with a sensual woman. When he realized how foolish he was he tried to end it, but she wouldn't let him alone. Pursued him, blackmailed him, threatened him, even tried to murder his wife. Remember the name of the movie? "Fatal Attraction." (From Bob Russell, TAKE COMFORT, Cincinnati, OH: Standard Pub., 1991, p. 119).

Attracting others

Author Elizabeth Elliot says she is often asked, "What can I do to get him to notice me?" Her surprising answer: "Nothing. That is, nothing toward the man. Don't call him. Don't write a little note with a smiley face. Don't sidle up to him in the hall and gasp, `I've just got to talk to you!' Don't ignore him, don't pursue him, don't do him favors, don't talk about him to nine carefully selected listeners. Direct your energies to obedience to God, not to nailing the man."

At first glance, Elliot's perspective may seem like an inefficient way to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. Yet her point is that all these tricks don't really change or attract people. On the other hand, if we concentrate on living our lives as God would have us live, people will be attracted to that love which shows through us.

Forgiveness For Abortion Helped 'Bricks Fall Away'

Luke 1:44

April 19, 1994, marked a very special day for my husband, Kurt, and me. Amidst tremendous love and joy, I gave birth to our son, Christian Mel Jeremiah Birky. As we saw our son for the first time and held him in our arms, we were overwhelmed with emotion -- elated happiness and heart-wrenching pain.

Feelings of deep-seated guilt and sadness swept over me as I thought of the impact of the decision we'd made eight years earlier. Kurt and I had just finished our freshman year of college. We had just begun to date. Yet we made a mistake and I became pregnant.

My mind filled with panic. How could we tell our parents I was pregnant? How could I tell my parents I'd had sex? How would we finish college? How can we support ourselves and a baby? It's not time -- we just met.

At a local pregnancy center, I tearfully told the counselor I honestly didn't see how we could have this baby. The counselor asked about adoption, but I said we couldn't live with ourselves, knowing that a baby we had created from our love was out there somewhere, never knowing where or with whom. She nodded and explained that an abortion could be arranged.

She told us nothing about the "tissue" the doctor would be "removing" -- that it already had eyes, toes, a nose, fingers and even fingerprints. With very little discussion and no prayer, we scheduled the appointment.

Abortions cannot be performed before the eighth week -- the fetus must have time to develop so it can be pieced back together after it has been ripped apart and removed to make certain no part of the "tissue" is left inside the uterus to cause infection. So, for five agonizing weeks, I desperately hoped my parents wouldn't notice how tired and sick I was. I shrank from any baby brought within 20 feet of me.

We had been informed there might be protesters at the clinic when we arrived. My heart raced! Someone would see us go inside? Someone might try to stop us? Why would those people try to torment me for doing something that's completely legal? Relief washed over me that day in August when there was no one on the steps of the abortion clinic when Kurt and I walked up.

During the following years of my darkness, I have wondered a million times whether we would have turned away had someone only made us aware of the consequences. Because Kurt and I had both been raised in Christian homes, we had a small inkling of the power of Jesus Christ. However, we -- and others -- completely left him out of this experience.

The abortion was painful physically as well as emotionally. I remember every detail of the room I was in and the nurse who held my hand. I can even remember the color of the calico-patterned fabric stitched over the jars where the parts of my baby were collected.

Afterward, I kept expecting the medical staff to sit Kurt and me down and tell us that we shouldn't be having sex. Instead, they sent us on our way with a little brown bag filled with a three-month supply of birth control pills.

The immediate sense of relief the abortion provided faded quickly, only to be replaced by lingering feelings of guilt, depression, rage and worthlessness. Like many women who have had abortions, I experienced a physical pain in my arms so intense that sometimes I could barely lift them. They ached and felt so empty.

Kurt and I tried to gloss over what happened. But when Kurt met Andy Wineman, a leader for Campus Crusade for Christ, the Lord began to work in our hearts. Andy literally beamed with the love of Christ. "It was through Andy's gentle diligence in sharing the difference between having a religion and having a relationship with Jesus that I began to be convicted of the past. I made a life-changing decision to give my life completely over to Jesus," Kurt says.

Not long after that, Kurt shared with me he could no longer ask for forgiveness from God for something he knew we would do again. With that one sentence, Kurt went from being my "boyfriend" to being the man I was going to honor the rest of my life. With God's help, we made the decision to remain abstinent for the next three years, until our wedding night.

However, we were not fully convicted of what we had done until we settled in Los Angeles following our graduation and wedding. Our pastor, Tom Ciznar, frequently spoke about abortion, often to a hostile crowd at church. It was agonizing to sit in the pew and listen to him. Every cell in my body wanted to run away as far and as fast as I could. But I had to sit there and pretend that just hearing the dreaded word didn't make me panic. It is incredibly difficult to admit you paid someone to kill your child, so I tried rationalizing arguments for the pro-choice movement.

At one point, pastor Ciznar shared his testimony with us. While counseling a young pregnant girl who had no one to support her or her baby, he had done as he had been taught -- he advised her to have an abortion. Bravely, the young woman looked him in the eye and said, "Pastor, I already made one mistake. I'm not going to make another."

Later that year she came back to visit him with her baby. Seeing the very child he had advised her to abort changed his life forever. Tom Ciznar has since become a leader in the pro-life movement in southern California.

One Sunday a woman from a local pregnancy assistance clinic came to church to make an announcement about a fund-raiser. Before the congregation she sang a song she had written to her aborted child. For those five minutes I writhed inside my skin in sheer agony and bitterness. But those five minutes also marked the beginning of my healing.

That day I cried for hours. Kurt held me tenderly and rocked me. But when I asked him why people like that had to be so mean, he took a deep breath and responded, "I think they're right."

My pulse raced. What??

Kurt proceeded to tell me he had been reading the Bible on the subject. He explained that even though we'd asked God to forgive us for this sin, we weren't really repenting. Ours became an empty gesture to God.

That day, for the first time, I felt the full weight of what Kurt and I had done. Like a brick wall on my shoulders, it had been crushing me. Yet by our taking that first step to condemn our sin, a few of the bricks fell away.

We began to attend pro-life groups. More bricks fell. I applied for a position at the Right to Life League and, for the first time in seven years, shared the truth of my past with the woman who interviewed me. Still more bricks came tumbling down. In the midst of my PACE (post-abortion counseling and education) Bible study, God led Kurt and me to tell our families the truth. So we wrote a letter.

As each call came in from our immediate family members, grieving yet sharing their love and support for our repentance, I was finally able to stand up straight in the eyes of people.

However, I still had to take the last and most important step. I had to accept the clean slate Jesus Christ offered me -- and believe it. In my mind I knew about forgiveness, but I had trouble feeling it in my heart. Kurt often soothed me with the knowledge that Jesus can and does forgive any sin. Today, God has given us his total peace and wholeness through the mercy of Jesus Christ and his ultimate sacrifice.

Confessing and repenting of this sin before our Holy God is not an easy road, but I know now it is the only path that leads to peace and wholeness.

Through PACE and through sharing God's promise of restoration with others, my wound has become a scar. I now use that scar and my knowledge of the deception and lies surrounding abortion to try to save others from the pain and darkness that follows abortion. My scar offers proof of the powerful healing hand of Christ to other post-abortion women.

As Kurt and I revel in the development of our beautiful son, Christian, we can't help but feel we should have already experienced this wonder of birth, instead of the nightmare of death. For us, our son represents the goodness of God's unfathomable grace.

The Jeremiah in Christian's name is a reminder to us -- and Christian -- of our first child, whom we never want to forget. The Bible testifies to the importance of all children in the eyes of God: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" (Jer. 1:5).

==================

Birky is director of education for the Right to Life League of Southern California in Pasadena. This article first appeared in the January 1996 issue of Experiencing God magazine, published by the Baptist Sunday School Board.

#3529

*

Blaming others for it

DEAR ANN LANDERS: I am 41. For 20 years, I worked as a bank teller and never had a problem. Two years ago, the bank began hiring its first male tellers. Twice a week, I worked alone with "Bob" until the drive-in window closed. Bob was nice, good-looking, neat and a pleasure to work with. The teller area is small, and we got to know each other pretty well. Before long, he told me that his marriage was miserable and he had no feelings for his wife. The next night, after closing, Bob suddenly embraced me, said I was the most exciting woman he had ever met and promised to divorce his wife if I would let him make love to me. Even though I had a good husband and two lovely children, I gave in. Our affair went on for several months, and Bob said it was the happiest time of his life. We agreed that we would divorce our mates and get married. I asked my husband for a divorce. He was stunned but said, "All right, if that's what you want." When I asked Bob if he had talked to his wife, he said, "I'm afraid you've taken this fling too seriously." Within weeks, Bob got another job and left the bank without so much as a goodbye. I was in shock and heartsick. I begged my husband to forgive me, and thank God he did. I'm not asking for advice, Ann. I just want businesses to know what can happen when they create situations where men and women work closely together in isolation. --Naive in Missouri.

DEAR MISSOURI: Don't blame "businesses." It was your failure to conduct yourself in a mature and responsible manner that caused the mess. Temptation is often the test of what we are made of. Sorry your lesson was such a painful one, but consider yourself lucky you have a forgiving husband.

Controlling thoughts

When two people have settled in their minds that "We are going to love each other"; and they take those vows before God and witnesses, then that puts an end to the practice of comparing. From that day on they are never again to compare. Each is to say, "The whole of my affection is given to my partner, and I will not allow myself to think romantically about another." (David Mains)

Attracting others

Author Elizabeth Elliot says she is often asked, "What can I do to get him to notice me?" Her surprising answer: "Nothing. That is, nothing toward the man. Don't call him. Don't write a little note with a smiley face. Don't sidle up to him in the hall and gasp, `I've just got to talk to you!' Don't ignore him, don't pursue him, don't do him favors, don't talk about him to nine carefully selected listeners. Direct your energies to obedience to God, not to nailing the man."

At first glance, Elliot's perspective may seem like an inefficient way to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. Yet her point is that all these tricks don't really change or attract people. On the other hand, if we concentrate on living our lives as God would have us live, people will be attracted to that love which shows through us.

Sex and Character: Teaching Teens the Real Purpose of Sex

Here's an English Literature quiz. And you might give it to a teenager you know.

Who wrote these lines? A man and a woman in "naked majesty" were "imparadised in one another's arms," lying "side by side" in the "rites mysterious of connubial love," about which "hypocrites austerely talk," as if such acts were somehow "impure." Having made love, the couple falls asleep "embracing" -- "and on their naked limbs the flowery roof showered roses."

Okay, who's the author? D.H. Lawrence? Henry Miller? Or how about a devout Christian, from 17th-century England?

The correct answer, of course, is the Christian: the Puritan John Milton. He was writing about Adam and Eve, in the classic, Paradise Lost. Your teenager probably wouldn't believe that answer, but then, most adults wouldn't believe it either. And therein lies a problem.

C.S. Lewis wrote that Satan would like us to either have an unhealthy obsession with him -- or ignore him altogether. Well, we can say the same thing about human sexuality. John Milton knew that sex was God's idea. God created sex, for a reason. Satan knows that too. But Satan wants human beings to miss the real purpose of sex. He wants us either to be obsessed with sex, or to pretend it doesn't exist. Either error serves his destructive ends well.

Now, if anyone wonders about sex all the time, it's teenagers. Confronted with their changing bodies, adolescents can veer destructively from one extreme to another, either obsessing about sex or trying desperately to pretend it doesn't exist. A new book, Sex and Character, by the insightful writers Maureen Duran and Deborah Cole, helps to stop the destructive swing of that pendulum. As Christians, Duran and Cole know, just as Milton did, that one of the most fundamental and powerful aspects of our being -- sexuality -- was designed for a purpose. Sex is good, because God made it.

But, as Christians involved in teaching about sexuality, Duran and Cole also know that human beings are fallen creatures. The gloriously pleasurable and renewing experience that our sexuality should have been has been corrupted by sin.

As the book's title, Sex and Character, indicates, Duran and Cole argue that the ability to govern one's sexual behavior in a fallen world begins with a strong moral character. How do kids resist sexual temptation? Not by pretending their desires don't exist, or that their sexuality is bad and something to be denigrated. Rather, teenagers need to learn that the moral traits they most value in others -- like compassion, respect, honesty, courage -- provide the basis, on a Biblical foundation, for a healthy view of sex.

"What God declares pure," wrote Milton nearly 400 years ago, is marriage, because marriage is God's design.

___________________

*

Living In Sin Doesn't Work

More Americans are chosing cohabitation over marriage. Better than half of today's newlyweds live together before tying the knot, compared to 10 percent in 1965. "Living in sin," as it used to be called, was illegal in every state before 1970. Further research has found that while unmarried cohabitors have sex more often than married couples (once more per month), there's also more cheating by both partners, as well as more domestic violence and more cases of depression. Some sociologists doing this research are urging young adults to reject the argument that cohabitation is good preparation for marriage.

__________________________

Submitted by Jerry De Luca

Montreal, Canada

=======================================================================

"Study: Live-ins Likely To Break Up"

By Laura Meckler, c. The Associated Press. July 25, 2002.

WASHINGTON (July 25) - Dorian Solot isn't surprised by the rising number of couples living together before marriage. "They want to be absolutely sure this is the right person before they say, 'I do' for a lifetime," she said.

But a report released Wednesday suggests they may be hurting, not helping, their marriage prospects: These marriages are significantly more likely to end in divorce.

That is partly because people who choose to live together tend to be younger, less religious or have other qualities that put them at risk for divorce, said Catherine Cohan, assistant professor of human development and family studies at Penn State University. But that may not fully explain it, she said.

"Many people enter a cohabiting relationship where the deal is, 'If this doesn't work out we can split up and it's no big loss because we don't have a legal commitment,"' she said. "The commitment is tenuous, and that tenuous commitment might carry over into marriage."

It is one of several findings from a comprehensive report on cohabitation, marriage and divorce, described as the detailed look at cohabitation, marriage and divorce ever produced.

The report, based on a survey of nearly 11,000 women, found that by age 30, three in four women have been married and half have lived with a partner outside marriage.

It identified numerous risk factors for divorce: People who are young, with low incomes, no religious affiliation and less education. Also, children of divorced parents are more likely to divorce themselves.

Overall, 43 percent of marriages break up within 15 years, according to data from the National Survey of Family Growth.

Black women are least likely to marry and most likely to divorce, with more than half splitting within 15 years. Asian marriages are the most stable, with whites and Hispanics in between.

Women are waiting longer to get married than they used to, and after a divorce, they are less likely to remarry than women once were.

The survey, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that 70 percent of those who lived together for at least five years did eventually walk down the aisle.

But these marriages are also more likely to break up. After 10 years, 40 percent of couples that had lived together before marriage had broken up. That compares with 31 percent of those who did not live together first.

Part of the problem may be attitudes toward cohabitation are different than attitudes about marriage, said Wade Horn, a marriage expert who directs children and family programs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

When living together, he said, the attitude is "I vow to stay together with you as long as you make me happy." In a marriage, people focus on making their partners happy.

"If you're used to viewing being together as a test of the other person's ability to take care of your needs, once you get married it's hard to just switch that," Horn said.

Solot, executive director of the Boston-based Alternatives to Marriage Project, is more optimistic - as long as couples begin living together with similar expectations.

"If one of you thinks you're headed for the altar and the other thinks you're just splitting the cost of rent, you're both in for a surprise," she said.

The report, based on 1995 data, found other groups facing a high risk of divorce, including:

-Young people. Nearly half of those who marry under age 18 and 40 percent under age 20 get divorced. Over age 25, it's just 24 percent. The difference is maturity, says Chicago psychologist Kate Wachs. "A lot of young people focus on right now, and if I'm not happy right now, I should get divorced," said Wachs, author of "Relationships for Dummies." Older people have more life experience and realize "if I hang in there, it will probably get better."

-Nonreligious people. Affiliating with religion - any religion - helps. Of those who don't consider themselves part of any religious group, 46 percent were divorced within 10 years.

-Children of divorce. Women whose parents were divorced are significantly more likely to divorce themselves, with 43 percent splitting after 10 years. Among those whose parents stayed together, the divorce rate was just 29 percent.

The report also found:

-Broken marriages do not always lead to divorce, with many separated couples still legally married. This was particularly true for black women: Just 67 percent of women who were separated from their husbands were divorced three years after the separation.

-Just over half of divorced women - 54 percent - get married again within five years. These rates have been falling since the 1950s, when 65 percent of divorced women remarried.

*

The Unknown Puritans

. . .The authors painted an entirely different picture of the Puritans. They were far more funloving than they’ve been accused of being, but they insisted that the pleasures of the flesh be subordinated for and to the greater glory of God. They were not ascetics, and they never even hinted that they wanted to deny or prevent the enjoyment of earthly pleasures.

(The Puritans) practiced the golden rule and shared anything they had with those who were less fortunate. . . They gave out of the very little they had, not out of an abundance.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, March 4, 1998, stated that the Puritans consistently extolled sex within marriage. William Gouge was typical in calling sex “one of the most proper and essential acts of marriage,” to be enjoyed “with goodwill and delight, willingly, readily, and cheerfully.” One congregation even excommunicated a man for sexually neglecting his wife.

The conclusion I reach is this: If we all followed more of the Puritans’ examples, we would have happier marriages, and even more to smile about and be grateful for.

"Lord, Make Me Chaste ... Later!": Developing A Passion For Purity

Ruth 3:1

Imagine that you're attending the wedding of a girl you once dated. As you go through the receiving line, the groom suddenly puts his hand on your arm and says, "I want to thank you for standing watch over my wife's heart. Thank you for guarding her purity."

Well, how many people think it's their job to guard other people's purity? Joshua Harris, the author of a best-selling book called I KISSED DATING GOODBYE, thinks it's everyone's job.

Most Christians claim they desire purity in their relationships, but Harris asks, "do we live the kind of lives that foster this purity?"

Many kids think they're pure enough if they refrain from going "all the way." But that's not good enough, says Harris. True purity is not some point on a sexual scale. It's "a direction, a persistent, determined pursuit of righteousness."

We cannot simultaneously explore the boundaries of purity -- getting as close to the sexual edge as possible -- and also pursue righteousness. And that's why Harris advises young teens against "dating." Couples who date one-on-one struggle against their desire to be physically intimate. The longer they date, the stronger the desire becomes.

If we really want purity, he says, we have to change both our attitudes and our lifestyles. For starters, we must learn to "respect the deep significance of physical intimacy."

The secular world says it's okay to fool around, to "try out" people emotionally and sexually. But God says to guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between husband and wife -- and that means before marriage as well as after.

Well, you may be thinking, "one little kiss can't possibly do any harm." But look at it this way. Harris writes that God designed sex "to end in full consummation ... Physical interaction encourages us to start something we're not supposed to finish. It awakens desires we're not allowed to consummate, turning on passions we have to turn off."

And that's why, he says, "I avoid one-on-one dating.... It encourages physical intimacy and places me in an isolated setting with a girl. Can't I handle it?" Harris asks. "Yeah, maybe I could ... but that's not the point. I won't stick around to see how much temptation I can take."

Harris urges other teens to do likewise, to adopt a lifestyle that promotes purity instead of threatening it. Young men "need to stop acting like 'hunters' trying to catch girls and begin seeing [themselves] as warriors standing guard over them," he says. And young women must not, by actions, words, or choice of clothing, deliberately stir up lusts in their brothers in Christ.

...Learn why Christ said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." You'll also increase your chances for happiness here on earth.

___________________

Love's Labor

Luke 12:48

Biography portrays C.S. Lewis as a blustery, hard-drinking eccentric whose

private life included liaisons with two married women. Lewis was a marred

saint.

*1130

For Longer Life, Take A Wife

Not being married is a definite health hazard. Single middle-aged men were twice as likely to die during a 10-year span as men with wives according to a team of researchers from the Univ of California, San Francisco. Living with other people doesn't help. Worse rates are for those who were widowed, separated or divorced. Those who are married have better nutrition and sense of "well-being."

"Because they are cared for by nurturing wives, they just plain feel happier than the other guys do."

[see #1290]

74 Sermon Illustrations on Sex