February 12, 2007

Happy Valentines Day?

We wish each of you a blessed and Happy Valentines Day this month. For those of you that are single and do not have a significant other we encourage you not to stay home and feel sorry for yourself this year. Do something for you. Promote your most important relationship, the one between you and God.

For the past several weeks every podcast we do with Mr. Carroll Roberts results in his telling us and the listeners that women need to stop giving themselves to men so easily. As part of our Valentines Day message to you we want to deal with that issue. Whatever you do this Valentines Day, do not settle for something less than what God has for you, just to say you were with someone. The New Living Translation of the bible says in Matthew 7:6: “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy.[a] Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you. The New International Version says it this way, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Here is the Angela take on this scripture. You are sacred. Your body is sacred and belongs to God. In the Message version of the bible, 1 Corinthians 6:16-20 says, There's more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one." Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never "become one."

There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

You are special. Psalm 139:13-14 says, You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You have been set apart by God. Contrary to what Mr. Roberts is saying this is not just an issue with women. Men have to begin to understand that their bodies also belong to God and a dog can be either a man or a woman. God in His Word has told us specifically not to cast or throw our pearls, that which is that part of us that is choice or precious to that which is unholy. You may find yourself alone, but it is better to be alone than to give yourself to someone who does not deserve you or even recognize your value or the value of what they are receiving. They are receiving your pearl, which is a gem as though it were something common, a fake pearl, not recognizing or appreciating that they have received the real thing.

Then the scripture goes on to say they will trample it under foot. That is what happens when we don’t appreciate what we have received. We lay it aside. But the scary part is that they may turn and attack you. You say Angela what are you talking about? We have all either been part of or heard about the stories where the result of someone giving themselves to someone that was not their spouse ended in an unwanted pregnancy and someone denying the baby even belonged to them, you know failure to take responsibility. Or maybe it resulted in talk about how easy he or she was and comments about the act itself with their sister friends or buddies.

You became a conquest or a cheap way for that person not to be alone on Valentines Day or some other night. Maybe you even become his or her call in the midnight hour when they feel like it. Is that really what you wanted? The horrible thing about casting your pearls is that once it is done it cannot be undone. Pearls are not specific to women, men you have pearls also and you also must stop casting them to the swine. While it may feel good is it what God wants for us or are we really delaying His perfect purpose and plan for us by our own choices? Make the choice to have an expectation beyond sex. You would not want to settle for anything less than the full gold package if you were buying a car. You know a meal deal instead of a sandwich or a side order.

Think about it this way, if that is the person God has for you, would you want him or her being test driven by anybody else. Let’s stop putting the purpose and plan of God on delay by taking somebody else’s car on a test drive, adding unnecessary mileage. Don’ let your loneliness or your eyes get your focus on the wrong car. You could end up in a spiritual hooptie when you should have had a brand new top of the line slamming Lexus. We have to stop blocking the blessings God has for us by choosing contrary to what He tells us in His word.
Do not trade your body, your finances or your relationship with God for dinner and a movie. In the meantime guard your body, your finances and your heart. Be obedient to God and get all that He has for you.

  Weekly Scripture-

Matthew 7:6: “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy.[a] Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

For further discussion contact angela@mynewtemple.org or write to us on the message board http://mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html.