So as a little bit of back story to this post, a couple of months ago I was assigned to read a chapter from the book "Boy meets Girl" for one of our relationship POCs. Well I really enjoyed the chapter that I read, it just had a refreshing dose of honesty. Since I got so many books for free from BPI I kind of got spoiled and didn't want to buy the book. Fast forward to clean out week and I discovered that I had both BMG and his earlier book "I kissed dating goodbye." I figured that I would start reading IKDG and read chapter 2 yesterday on the plane. Well at the end of the chapter was a section that really almost made cry because of the honesty and truth of it.
"I think that's the story of our generation's pursuit of fulfillment in relationships. We wished for intimacy without obligation. we wished for sex with no strings attached. we wished for the pleasure of love with none of the work, none of the vows, none of the sacrifice.
And we got it.
But the results aren't what we hoped for. And we're left feeling emptier than before. The intimacy is superficial. The sex leaves us dissatisfied and hungry for something real, something true.
Where is true joy? It's found in God's brand of love - love founded on faithfulness, love rooted in commitment.
The joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment."
So I added the emphatic elements but how honest is that. We all thing things of the world while still "following Christ." For me it wasn't about relationships until the last couple of years, but it was about having anything that would fill the hole in me that only the Holy Spirit was able to fill. It doesn't have to be this way, we don't have to compromise and I would be one to say that the believing ones don't compromise.
Luke 9:57 - 62
"As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." And He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." But He said to him, "allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." Another also said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home." But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God."
I generally really dislike the cliche verses of us churched up people, because well, everyone has heard them and can quote them, but I think that they are very rarely actually thought about and so much less effective then they could and should be. For example, it is easy to talk about stewardship, a very biblical principle that needs to be practiced to be done well, but I think that sometimes stewardship is the excuse people use for holding onto treasures and never having to trust God in the financial arena. Another example that I hear about a lot is how we should be involved in the political process because of our Christian values. I kind of hate that though, aside from the fact that it uses Christ for leverage in the see - saw of earthly crap, because really a lot of the same people who talk about political involvement won't go for more then a few minutes before they are bashing the God appointed leaders that they don't like. Hypocritical BS.
I don't want to compromise, but I do. God is working on me about though. To be really 100% surrendered to Him. Surrender, as in war, where we have lost the battle but don't want to die, we are stripped of everything we have and made apart of the conquerors army. The alternative is to hold onto stubbornness, *hand raised - I am guilty* and suffer, then die. I fear that a lot of people who have made the mental assent of Christ as Lord will be judged as not knowing Him when the time comes for their judgment. Repentance is the solution, repentance, meaning surrendering and never looking or going back to the old way.
This went a long way from where I intended it, but God was stirring stuff up so I figured I would let the typing continue for His purpose to be fulfilled.
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