Chapter 6 Part 9

“And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither
did there remain anymore courage in anyone because of you,
for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and
on the earth beneath. Now therefore I beg you, swear to
me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness
that you also show kindness to my fathers house, and give
me a true token, and spare my father, my mother,
my brothers, my sisters, and all that
they have, and deliver our lives from death.”
Joshua 2:11-13

Notice how she recognized who God was and what He was capable of doing for not only her, but also her family. She had determined that God was God and that He had the power to do what He said He would do. Now remember this woman had been serving pagan gods her whole life, yet when presented with the evidence she knew the truth by faith. And of course she was saved along with everyone in her family. Though the whole city crumbled around them they were kept safe. Likewise for us though our whole society or our whole world is crumbling under the weight of sin, we must stand in our faith. We should stand not in who we are, but in who God is. The world may say it is ok to fornicate, to continue in sinfulness and that God does not care. That the only thing that matters is our own personal wants and desires. Rahab was willing to risk death for God. What are you willing to risk for God? Are you willing to set aside your selfish sexual pleasures for God, for your family, and for yourself? Just as with Rahab the thing we do not realize is that yes her eternal life was saved, but also her earthly life got better. She got saved and stopped being a harlot, she was able to join God’s people. Sin destroys our spiritual lives, but also our physical lives become more burdensome. How much more difficult is the life of an addicted person to the life of someone who is not? We should stop looking at spirituality as some pie in the sky when we die. It is for our earthly lives as well. The Bible says, “if we follow God’s commands our lives will be better today.[1] It will not only be better for us, but also our children and our children’s children. That it will be good for us as a people, as a nation.[2]

Remember the world is at odds with those that love God and attempt to follow Him. The world always has been and always will come against those who choose to follow God. We are not of this world, just as our Lord was not of this world.[3] Why do we continue to follow in the ways of the world? The world hated our Savior, but you think it will love you? If the world loves you that can only mean you are of the world, because the world loves its own. We continue to put our children in situations that are dangerous for them. Today, it is not uncommon to see gangs of children walking the streets late at night. Where are their parents I often think to myself? It never fails when one of these children comes up missing or dead the parent will say how much they loved that child and maybe they did but not enough to protect that child. This is not to say that there are not predators that will prey on children no matter how vigilant the parent, however we should not make it easy for our children to be prey. I know this is tough to take, but we should stop giving these parents free passes for not protecting their children better. You have mothers who not only know their sons are selling drugs, but they are either his best customer, dealer, or sharing in the proceeds. When these sons are killed by the street violence, these mothers are heart broken. Did these mothers love their sons? I am sure they did, but they allowed their own selfish desires to come before that child’s welfare. These decisions are based on a lifetime of other bad decisions. It is similar to when they allow their fornication to place their child at risk, especially their daughters. We have women in this society that have men in their homes who are sexually abusing their own daughters and refuse to acknowledge it. They will blame the daughter or profess disbelief in the daughter just to allow this pervert to stay in their homes. Your children are at risk because you have these men who you know little or nothing about around your children. You have no idea if they are pedophiles are what! All you know is that he says he “likes me and keeps me from being lonely. You put your children also at risk by showing them a lifestyle that is not only sinful, but dangerous.

We look up to these “celebrities” who are just as guilty of fornication for direction in life. We look to the world to speak out against the ways of the world. These people are no different than you are I, they were just willing to do what it took to be a “celebrity” Some of their souls have already been bought and paid for by their actions and decisions. If you are not following God you are following the world no matter who you are. No matter how much money or celebrity status you may have. God has no respect of person; sin is sin to Him. We take advice from people who are not following the Word of God, but their own moral compass. If that were sufficient we would have had no need for the redemptive work of Christ. God is our moral director through His Word. If you are getting advice that goes against the Word of God, it is not from God. God will never go against His own Word. This advice is of the world and may sound logical, but it will come to ruin.

Finally, there is the troubling trend of some parents to have their children picked up on Sunday or during the week by churches they have never been to themselves. While most of these churches are trying to do God’s work, there are some that may not be. We are reading daily about this church or that denomination having scandals. Even if the church is reputable, you have no idea what they are teaching your children. In addition, you are teaching your children that this is not important enough for you to attend. The lesson from this is that it is only important for children to attend when you become an adult you don’t need this church thing. How much do we love our children? Do we love them enough to put them first for a change? Mothers love and protect your children for this is the will of God for you.

“She opens her mouth with wisdom. And her tongue is
the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her
household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and Call her blessed.”
Proverbs 31:26-28

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[1] Deuteronomy 5:29

[2] Deuteronomy 28:1

[3] John 17:16

Chapter 6 Part 7

You were created to reflect the femininity of God as the man was created to reflect the masculinity of God. They are different sides to the same God. Do you know that you were also created in the image of God just as the man was? The woman was created to help the man take care of the earth. More importantly, you were created also to fellowship with God. You and the man were created from the same essence of God. The Spirit of God dwells in us both. The Spirit dwells in you to help the man to be fruitful and multiply in a Godly relationship. From the beginning of time it has been this way and will continue until the end. In God’s perfect design for us just as it was not good for the man to be alone so it is not good for the woman to be alone. Only men and women were designed to fellowship spiritually with God and with each other. That fellowship was broken by the “fall” in the Garden of Eden. Not only was the fellowship with God broken and damaged, but also the spiritual connection between man and woman. This damage persists to this day. We do not relate to each other the way God originally intended for us to.

Just as the command of God represented a choice to them in the Garden of Eden, so we have choices today. God could have created us to worship Him without choice, but that would not be true love. That would be like the animals worship God. The animals worship God by being what God created them to be, the fish worships God by being a fish. True love is when we can love anybody in the world but choose to love the person we are with. I can eat from the tree you commanded me not to eat from, but I choose to obey you. Thus, I demonstrate my love for you in the choices I make. Christ Jesus told us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”[1] So love requires action on our part. If we profess love for God we are required to keep His commandments. There are no loopholes. I remember being in church and seeing the same men and women every Sunday taking the altar call to repent or rededicate themselves. There should come a time in the life of a believer when his life begins to manifest the life of Christ. Some would say these are backsliders. I would venture to say that you cannot backslide until you have truly repented and been saved. We cannot continue to commit the same sins weekly or daily and claim salvation. True salvation requires, no demands a change in our lives. God loves me too much to leave me the same way He found me. It becomes a matter of my choices. Am I choosing obedience to God or obedience to Satan? Christ Jesus says, “Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin.”[2] A slave means that sin is my master and has control of me. A slave loses control of his life and all that entails when he becomes a slave. We of ourselves can do nothing against this addiction to sexual immorality. In the final chapter we will discuss the ways to break this cycle and begin to stop this epidemic.

When it comes to making choices, we demonstrate our love based on our choices. We demonstrate our love to our wives and husbands not because we cannot commit adultery, but by choosing not to. By choosing the love of our mate over the momentary urge to satisfy our selfish desires we show our love. We may say we love someone or something, but it is our choices that reveal our true feelings. Love requires sacrifice, when we decide that we love someone we make a conscious decision to be with that person, forsaking all others. By our being with our mates we are choosing not to be with anyone else, there in lies the sacrifice. For many today they want the relationship, but without the sacrifice. The choices give love meaning. If I can continue to be with others and still be with you where is the sacrifice and the choice. Without choices there is no meaning to love. You can make someone do what you want them to do, but you cannot make someone love you. Sometimes we don’t even know why we love what or who we love, we just know we do. Our choices in this life say much about who we truly are, not who we claim to be. The key to many of the bad choices we make is a spirit of rebelliousness. The world calls it independence, but it is rebelliousness to God. Anything I do independent of God is a sin, no matter how noble it may be. We are saying we know better than God what is best for us. I know better than my parents what is best for me. If you choose to harm yourself this is probably not a rational or sane decision. If you are making these choices it is probably not you who is making them but the sin that dwells in you. Normal people usually do not make decisions that they know will lead to harm for themselves. Choosing to have sex as a young teen is a harmful choice, it can and usually does lead to pregnancy. An unwanted pregnancy has “harmed” a large number of young women and men. Any woman who is not married at any age choosing to engage in sexual activities is making a harmful choice. The harm is not only the possibility of pregnancy and sexual disease, but also the harm that the sin does to the spirit and the fellowship with God.

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[1] 1 John 14:15

[2] John 8:34

Chapter 3 Part 2

2) Violation of God’s law

“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship
with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants
to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
James 4:4

The Bible says that those who practice sexual immorality are at war with God. Those who practice such are friends of the world, but not friends of God. God’s laws according to the Bible were given to serve two purposes. The first was to protect us from the world and from ourselves. The second reason was to drive us to Him. Because of God’s never ending love for us, He has always wanted the best for us. We believe that we know better than God what is best for us, but time and again, we choose the wrong thing. How many times do we say I have to have this thing or that person only to later regret choosing it. We do not know what is best for ourselves. God has the ability to know the future, to know what I am going to need and to provide it. In our modern society we have lost our fear of God. The psalmist’s tells us that there is no fear of God before their eyes. To violate God’s laws means nothing to us. However, the Bible tells us that God will not be mocked, whatever a man sows that he will also reap. God tells us that the guilty will not go unpunished. How long will we continue to ignore God’s laws? We ourselves cannot keep God’s laws. If it were possible, there would have been no reason for the death of Christ. However, when I surrender to God I am given the power to overcome sin. The Bible says that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That means all things! That includes stopping our fornication and all other sins I may be committing. If God has the power to create the heavens and the earth and raise the dead, does He not also have the power to stop me from sinning? I do not have the power within myself to obey God’s laws. I never have and I never will on my own power. I must submit to God before I am able even to begin to overcome sin. I must get back under the authority of God.

3) Illegitimate children

“For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and
the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise
your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.”

1 Corinthians 7:14

According to the Bible, children born out of wedlock are unclean. I know it sounds harsh, but that is what it says. For too long now we have been sugar coating the Word of God. It is time to get real and to get serious about God and His Word. Our future and our very souls depend on it. We are placing the shame of our sin on our children. It is amazing how we try to cover it up with these clever names: baby’s momma or baby’s daddy. No, you are both harlots! You are sinners and you need to repent today! It is even more amazing how so few of our “so called” religious leaders are speaking out on this epidemic. We should remove this obstacle and stop this now. We must break the cycle. It is only getting worse, as it always does. There is no reason why our young women are having multiple illegitimate children. What are we as parents, as a community, and as religious leaders doing to stem this problem? We should begin to ask ourselves some tough questions as a people. Why are we allowing this to go on unchecked? In addition, it is not just the impoverished, but young men and women with college degrees from middle class, upper middle class backgrounds. What does this say about us as a people? Where is our moral fiber? We have to do better. We can do better when we surrender our will to God’s will. Instead of treating these women as victims and martyrs, we need to acknowledge the fact of their sinfulness. If we continue to do what we know is sin, then we are practicing sin. Practicing sin is like practicing anything else, the more we practice the better we get. We all sin, but we all do not practice sin. Sin should not be something we want to get good at. Why do we practice anything? To get better at it of course. When I was a child and wanted to become a better basketball player, I would practice and eventually I got pretty good. So even a child knows what the purpose of practice is. Do I want to do that with sin?

Chapter 2 Part 4

Finally, there is the humiliation of sin. We talk about our “values” and yet we receive humiliation at home and abroad. We talk about exporting our values, the world doesn’t want them, and we wonder why. What’s wrong with them? They see our hypocrisy. How we lay claim to things that we do not have or believe in. How we attempt to promote our policies at the end of a gun. Sin brings humiliation to the individual, as well as to a nation. We try to hide it, but guilt and humiliation follows every sin. Initially, we cannot look people in the eye because of our sins, but as we continue to practice them there develops a comfort in them. We learn how to ignore the pain and humiliation. The only problem is that they do not go away, they manifest themselves in other areas of our lives. In how we view ourselves and others, from a shame based perspective. As we become more comfortable in our sins, we become more embolden to commit other more serious sins. But there is One who can remove all these epidemics. That One is God, may you come to Him now.

“Since the days of our forefathers to this day we have been very guilty,
and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been
delivered into the hand of the king of the lands, to the sword,
to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day.”
Ezra 9:7

It is unfathomable to me that the black church for the most part has been silent on this most important issue. It’s like the church has followed the lead of society, instead of leading society. The bible says that we must come out from among the worldly. Jesus said, “We are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?” It is no longer good for anything. So much of the modern church is about not offending anyone, except we are offending God. It’s getting so you can’t tell the sinners from the saints. It’s like if I were to go hang out in a nightclub drinking and slapping women on the butt saying, “God bless you sister”. Who would take me seriously as a Christian? But this is exactly what we do. And wonder why we don’t have any impact on the world for God. Why our sons and daughters continue to fornicate and have illegitimate children. Where is the leadership of the church? Where is the outcry of the church saints? You know what happens is that anyone that does speak out on this and other spiritual issues gets attacked by the church people, instead of praised. The bible says that, “they loved the praise of men, more that the praise of God.” In an effort to keep the membership rolls and tithes coming in, the church has ignored God’s word. And we as believers go from church to church looking for a brand of religion that will allow us to continue sinning without anyone making us feel uncomfortable. Jesus said following Him would be uncomfortable.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily and follow me”.
Luke 9:23

So in order to follow our example from God we should deny ourselves and our fleshly desires. We should take up our cross daily, that doesn’t sound comfortable to me. Instead of the black church preaching the kingdom of God, they are preaching the ministry of prosperity. This is in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ. For years, I have been waiting for a groundswell of condemnation of this epidemic of fornication gripping our community. There has been none forthcoming. We continue to turn a blind eye to this issue, not realizing that this issue is the source of so many other problems we face as a community. Rather than look at the true cause of the problem we look at the symptoms. Looking at the true cause of the problem is much more difficult for it requires us to look at ourselves. We cannot continue down this path, for we know what awaits us. It is as if we are all sitting in an airplane that is about to crash and everyone knows it and no one is saying a word. There is no outcry. We are pretending that everything is fine. I am here to tell you it is not all fine, the plane is crashing! The devil wants you to sit there and ignore it, but I can no longer do so. Wake up! Instead of God being your co-pilot, He needs to be your pilot.