Social Salt & Light (finally:))

To put it real simple.  Go on a media fast and you will definitely feel the weight lifted! I am glad to have my comuter back, but it really was nice little break :)

I had a conversation with someone the other day about marriage and intimacy (sex) and the fact that as an engaged couple your expectations are so high regarding that area.  This due clearly to the fact that TV and Entertainment media (magazines, etc.) portays an unrealistic expectation of what that area of marriage is created for.  I regret, more than anything in this world that I was not a virgin when I got married.  But even physical virgins can loose their "emotional" virginity by allowing the world to set their standard and not God's word. 

Galatians 5:16-24 says:
16-17 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do."
- I will stop there and say that this VERY CLEAR about desires of the flesh.  The world feeds the desires of the flesh, the Word feeds the desires of the Spirit.  If you are spending more time each day on worldly media than on reading and meditating on God's word, it is impossible to flee the desires of the flesh.
19-21 "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these."
- Now think about what worldly media puts out there.  If we are to stay away from these things physically, why in the world do we think we can watch and read about these things and not be affected?  God's word is very clear.  I don't know the exact statistics but the percentage of teenagers that have sex before marriage is significantly higher when they are exposed to sex (not just intercourse but PDA also) on television.  And you can find that on the Disney channel!!!!

Friends, this is not how the God of the universe who created us for his pleasure and worship meant for it to be.  He desires for our minds to stay on Him!  There is so much freedom and peace when we do.  The love of God is a beautiful thing - but it is pure and holy.  Christ wants His bride to be pure and holy.  We must begin in our homes, spending time with Him first, then cleaning out those areas where the world has invaded. 

22-24 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  And those who belong the Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

The more I fall in love with Jesus, the more I spend time with Him, the more I realize the depth of His love for me, the more I want to keep my heart and mind pure.  That is when the fruits of the Spirit are so evident in me!  The fruit of the world with distort, tear down and destroy - but the fruit of the Spirit with produce life and peace and freedom!