Have you ever had a divine appointment? You know, where you met somebody at a specific time and place and you knew it was far more than coincidence? This happened to me just this week. Rebecca Bond of Immanuel Productions in Deltona, Florida somehow found my myspace profile online and began reading my blogs.
On Tuesday Nov. 7th Rebecca contacted me via email and asked me if I had any speaking engagements in the near future. I told her that I did not and that if she was looking for a speaker that I was available. We passed a few emails back and forth and even spoke for about an hour on the phone.
By the end of this same day I was sitting in a meeting in Deltona, FL (an hour away from me) with Nick Pizza (Peeza) founder and director of Youth Explosion for Christ who is financing the up and coming Abstinence and Pregnancy Awareness campaign with author and Grammy Award-Winning singer Rebecca St. James.
During my time at the meeting I met several wonderful people who are promoting this event and I was also asked to be a guest speaker. I agreed and asked for only five minutes of stage time as I wanted to share a profound illustration of the importance of sexual abstinence.
What Rebecca Bond did not know when we met was that I already had planned to post four to five blogs about sexual abstinence, lust, the destructive power of pornography, and the power of pure passionate love. The timing of all these events coming together was simply mind boggling. Since the event is coming up on November 18th I decided to start posting about the importance of sexual abstinence starting today.
What is Abstinence?
Abstinence is the belief that to save oneself sexually for your marriage partner is a command from God; that it is His ideal and that you will be greatly rewarded by Him if you obey.
Why Should I Abstain Sexually?
h The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed country in the world.
h More than 19 million STD infections occur annually in the US. Half are contracted by youth ages 15 to 24. That is larger than the entire population of Florida which is the fourth highest populated state in the US.
h According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 25 known diseases are spread primarily through sexual activity.
h Florida ranks 6th highest in the US for teen pregnancies.
h One out of every three teenagers who are sexually active acquires a sexually transmitted disease. (If you ask me that's like placing two bullets in a six shooter, spinning the barrel and putting the gun to your head.)
What Does God say about Sexual Sin and Abstinence?
h Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality (all sex outside of marriage) and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Romans 13:13
h Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. I Cor. 6:18
(In other words if you sin sexually you incur the consequences in your own body by the diseases you contract. So when you sin sexually you sin against your own body.)
h The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Jude 1:7
Nevertheless, I (Jesus) have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Revelation 2:20-23
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. 1 Thess. 4:3-8 (NIV)
God is dead serious about sexual sin. He warns us to not have sex outside of marriage, not because He is trying to steal the joy of sex from us but to protect us from possible death and diseases.
God designed sex to be shared with only one person, our spouse and that only after the marriage vows occur. Sex is the most intimate act God designed to be shared between two people. When sex is saved for marriage it can be an incredible source of pleasure and intimate bonding of spirit, soul and body for the couple. And if we have the self control to save sex until marriage it will be an incredible gift that each spouse can give to the other on their wedding day.