Yes it is good to be home even though it is incredibly hot where I live. Had a good time with the family but it is always good to get home. It is also good to see that the world has not fallen apart since I was gone for 10 days. My house is still standing and the dog and the plants all survived (Thanks Nathan). The people in my church didn't figure out that they can survive without me so I still have a job. I don't have anything significant to say and I don't even have any vacation pictures to add. I just wanted to say that I am back and it is good to be home.
Last week I came across a tragic but beautiful story out of Washington. Click here to link to the article that I read on Yahoo news. Originally I had watched a piece on the Northwest Cable News network about this story.
It is a story of sacrifice and love of a husband for his wife and their friend as well. The three of them were on a day hike on Mount Rainier in Washington State when they were overwhelmed by a blizzard and were forced to seek shelter on the mountain for the night. They dug a trench in the snow and the the husband Eduard layed down in the bottom of the trench on the snow while the other two layed on top of him. Refusing to switch positions with the other two hikers, he took the brunt of the cold. When help arrived the next morning, he was the last to be rescued and the efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
"And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her." - Ephesians 5:25
Though tragic, this story is a beautiful picture of the sacrificial love that husbands are to have for their wives. If is also a great illustration of the sacrifice that Christ made for us.
This may be a bizzare post to some of you but I got to thinking about this in my morning devotionals. I was reading Proverbs 5-7 which has much to say about immoral women. Solomon warns us to stay away from immoral women because they will be our downfall. Proverbs 5:7-8 sums up much of what is said, "So now, my sons, listen to me. Never stray from what I am about to say: Run from her(the immoral woman)! Don't go near the door of her house!"
How true these verses are. We are all weak because we are fragile people who are born with a sin nature. Often times it does not take much to push us towards sin because we have a bentness towards sin. When we spend time around immoral people it becomes increasinly difficult to win the battle against sin and temptation. Especially when it comes to relationships between men and women. The desires for love and acceptance, which are from God no doubt, are so strong that we will often times lay aside our morals in order to please the other person.
I speak about this from experience. I dated a girl in high school that did not have a good reputation for possessing high morals. I don't know how else to state that without being rude. Although we have lost touch and I don't imagine that she will be reading this blog any time soon. It wasn't that she was a bad person, she was actually kind and quite nice, but she had a different standard for intimacy in a dating relationship. It is hard to say but biblically she was an immoral woman. Being a young man of 17 I did not know how to handle her advances and instead of running for the hills like proverbs instructs us I went along with her. This put me in a position that I didn't want to be in but there I was.
I am not blaming her at all because she was acting according to what she thought was right. If anything in God's eyes I was the one who was more in the wrong because as his child I knew better and yet chose the path of the world. I never did ask her for forgiveness for not being a man of standards and it would probably strike her as rather weird if I did it now thirteen years later.
So why I am sharing this with you all. First of all God put it on my heart this morning. I also know that many of you out there, especially you young men, will struggle with boundaries in dating relationships. I urge you first and foremost to not enter into a relationship with a individual who does not share God's standards of sexual purity with you. Second, remember that none of us are strong enough to withstand temptation on our own strength but that we must rely on the spiritual resources that God has given us through the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, run for the hills when that immoral woman looks you way. Run for the hills, you will thank me later.
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