Chastity, Passion, and Sex

 

“But chastity means passion." So Mustapha Mond told the Savage of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Huxley painted a picture of a future where pleasure is king and sex is cheap: a world where God made Himself known by His absent and where man made himself independent of the need for God. It was in 1932, that Huxley created his Brave New World. And to a frightening degree, many of the attributes of his fictional world have come to play in the reality we know in modern America.

  In Huxley’s world the family was abolished and sex became a pastime. Human modesty was stripped away at an early age: everybody belonged to everybody. The modern world has not come so far, it is true. We do, though, live in a day and age where promiscuity is accepted as a part of life. Sex has by and large been degraded to nothing more than fun. Many of the past consequences associated with promiscuity can be covered up now in ways they could not be in the past. So while there are no consequences, “eat, drink and be merry; for tomorrow we will die.”

  In the face of such blatant sin, many Christians avoid the subject of sex altogether. They say it is necessary in marriage and evil anywhere else. Then they address it no further. The Bible reiterates over and again that sex outside of the context of Biblical marriage is wrong, but it also says that within the context of marriage sex is a good thing. In I Corinthians 7:3-4, Paul says to husbands and wives, “The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone, but also to his wife. “The book Song of Solomon is about the relationship between a wife and husband, and a large part of the relationship portrayed is physical. In The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis says of the physical relationship between a husband and wife, “…this is the body’s share in marriage which, by God’s choice, is the mystical image of the union between God and Man.”

  With the fact that marriage is picture of Christ’s relationship with the church in mind, sex becomes a holy thing. It becomes something valuable, something worth protecting. Christians know, unlike the lost, that sex is more than fun. And in a world where God is abandoned and sex is devalued, it is important for believers acknowledge its worth. Contrary to what society thinks, purity does mean passion. Chastity is not just for nuns living in convents. It is for believers who know the beauty and value of a physical relationship. It is for believers who know that God commands them to be sexually pure, and because of their knowledge honor the marriage bed. Being a human being makes sex a good thing. Being a Christian makes it great.

 

 

 

'Cooking Tutorial': ice cream cake

It has been awhile since I did a 'cooking tutorial'. This is a family favorite, my brother like it as birthday cake.

 

Start by gathering your ingredients. 

 

  Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with the ice cream sandwiches, trimming them to fit.

 

 

  Scoop the cool whip onto the ice cream sandwiches.

  Then spread it out.

 

  Put the Oreos in a bag.

  Then bust them up.

 

  And spread the Oreos on the cool whip.

  Freeze the whole concoction for a couple of hours.

  The cut it up and dish it out.

 

Bon Appetit!

Night

comes early.

The world goes to sleep

sooner.

Gaps

between the branches grow.

Leaves tumble down

softly.

The earth readies

to rest.

Breathes in

the crispness of fall.

The Beauty I Teach

 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.' I have heard that phrase all my life. There are many times I have quoted it to another. I do believe it somewhere in my heart of hearts. But everyday I see what I am told beauty should be and I sub-consciously accept it.
  Last week, at Family Camp, I took my two-year-old sister for a walk. Since there were pinecones all over the ground. I told her we should pick some up to take to Mom. It is fall and so we have pinecones instead of flowers. I tried to find the most symmetrical pinecones that had touched the ground. My sister picked up cones that were crushed on one side: they were not so spiny. As I gathered my pinecones, I would hold them out for her to look at and would tell her, "See, pretty." Then she would hold up her crushed pinecones for me to see and say,
  "Pretty." I then found myself saying,
  "No, look at this one," as I held up a mostly symmetrical pinecone. "This one is pretty." Then she, in her two-year-old way, insisted that she wanted her pinecone, that it was pretty.
  I stopped for a moment and had to ask myself: Why was I telling my sister it was the symmetrical pinecones that were the pretty ones? She liked the crushed ones, and that was her opinion. There are definitely times when I will have to tell my sister there are absolutes that will override her opinions. But when it comes to pinecones, I am not really an authority on which are pretty and which are not. Perfection, as I think it should be, is not always beautiful. After all, I am human. My ideas of goodness and beauty will always be flawed. God made some things symmetrical and He made some things asymmetrical. And everything He made is good and beautiful whether or not I think so.

What I did this Week: Family Camp 2015

  This past week was spent by my family and I at Family Camp. And here are some of my favorite pictures I took in no particular order.

I watched many volleyball games

And a really fun play.

At the end of the week I came home with a shirt covered in signatures.

You Are Not Weird

You are a human being: unique.

But you are not weird.

In your scramble for individualism you paint yourself obscene in an attempt at difference.

And you simply are not.

You all have your quirks.

Idiosyncrasies even.

And so does everyone else.

You are not so vastly different as you would like to think.

It is not a bad thing.

It is what ties you to the rest of humanity.

Making you a part of this broken and beautiful collective called mankind.

Do embrace every little flaw.

But know your person, your individual, does not raise you above the rest.

You stand unique with all of mankind.