As we've been focusing on sex in this week's blog posts, I'm sure many of you have been thinking, "These views are really old-fashioned."  They definitely swim against the stream of our culture.  We live in a culture that says anything goes when it comes to sex and sexuality.  Many of the "mainline" denominations have chosen to follow the culture's lead and affirm homosexuality as a faithful expression of sexuality.  Most Christians turn aside from saying anything against couples living together before marriage, and expressing their sexual oneness in those relationships.  While many Christians may still tell their children that pre-marital sex is wrong, they don't expect their children to listen.  Our culture's sexual education courses affirm many practices the Bible clearly calls sin.

So, how are we to handle all this?  As believers who believe the Bible is true, and that its teachings are the only sure guide for our daily lives, we must affirm that God created us male and female and gave sex and sexuality as good gifts of His creation.  He established that the practice of our sexuality is to be lived out in marriage relationships between one man and one woman for their lifetimes.  As "old-fashioned" as that may sound, every modern study of sexuality has found that those who live within those guidelines experience the greatest fulfillment when it comes to expressing their sexuality.  That makes sense since God ALWAYS knows what's best for us. 

The bottom line in our discussions, not only of sex, but of every aspect of human living is God really does know best.  It doesn't matter what our culture says, teaches or does.  If it goes against the clear teaching of God's word, it will hurt us. If it lines up with the clear teaching of God's word it will benefit us.  This is never truer than when we're talking about sex.  While our culture may laugh at us, ridicule us, or tell us we need to "loosen up," when it comes to biblical standards of sexuality, in the end following God's will and purpose for our lives, always leads to blessing  If we've let our culture's lead us to assume that sexual sin is okay, God's forgiveness is available, and the sooner we return to His ways, the sooner we'll experience the joy of His blessing!

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, Thank You so much for establishing guidelines from sexuality throughout Your written word.  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we may live in Your will, regardless of what our culture says or does.  This we ask in Jesus' name.  Amen.