It's Not About Me - Max Lucado [24]
SEX IS A CELEBRATION OF
PERMANENCE, A TENDER
MOMENT IN WHICH THE
BODY CONTINUES WHAT
THE MIND AND THE SOUL
HAVE ALREADY BEGUN.
Such sex honors God. And such sex satisfies God’s children. Several years ago USA Today ran an article with this lead:
Aha, call it the revenge of the church ladies. Sigmund Freud said they suffer from an “obsessional neurosis” accompanied by guilt, suppressed emotions and repressed sexuality. Former Saturday Night Live comedian Dana Carvey satirized them as uptight prudes who believe sex is downright dirty. But several major research studies show that church ladies (and the men who sleep with them) are among the most sexually satisfied people on the face of the earth. Researchers at the University of Chicago seem to think so. Several years ago when they released the results of the most “comprehensive and methodologically sound” sex survey ever conducted, they reported that religious women experienced significantly higher levels of sexual satisfaction than non-religious women.1
(I’m thinking this article would be an effective evangelism tool.)
Your body, God’s tool. Maintain it.
Your body, God’s temple. Respect it.
“God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20 MSG).
Manage God’s house in such a way that passersby stop and notice. “Who lives in that house?” they will ask. And when they hear the answer, God will be honored.
CHAPTER TWELVE
MY STRUGGLES ARE ABOUT HIM
12
Martin and Gracia Burnham married with mission work in their hearts.1 For seventeen years they served God in the Philippines.With three children born on the mission field and valuable skills in the ministry’s aviation program, they were acclimated and essential to the work. He, single-minded. She, gracious and convicted.
Then why didn’t God block the bullets? Why did he let her get shot? And why did God let him die?
On May 27, 2001, while celebrating their eighteenth wedding anniversary at a beachside resort, Martin and Gracia were taken hostage by a militant terrorist organization with ties to Osama bin Laden. Captors chained the couple to guards, marched them through jungles, and rationed their food. They endured seventeen firefights and for over four hundred days were either running for their lives or bored.Their health deteriorated, but their faith remained sturdy. “We might not leave this jungle alive,” said Martin, “but at least we can leave this world serving the Lord with gladness.” A premonition led Martin to write a farewell letter to his children.
The premonition proved accurate. On June 7, 2002, Philippine Rangers attacked the terrorist camp, catching Martin and Gracia in the cross-fire. One bullet entered her leg. Another took his life. She was left a widow, and we are left to wonder why. Is this how God honors his chosen? How do you explain such a tragedy?
And as you’re thinking of theirs, how do you explain yours? The tension at home. The demands at work. The bills on your desk or the tumor in your body. You aren’t taken hostage, but aren’t you occasionally taken aback by God’s silence? He knows what you are facing. How do we explain this?
Maybe God messed up. Cancer cells crept into your DNA when he wasn’t looking. He was so occupied with the tornado in Kansas that he forgot the famine in Uganda. He tried to change the stubborn streak in your spouse but just couldn’t get him to budge. Honestly. A bumbling Creator? An absent-minded Maker? What evidence does Scripture provide to support such a view? What evidence does creation offer? Can’t the Maker of heaven and earth handle bad traffic and prevent bad marriages? Of course he can.Then why doesn’t he?
Perhaps he is mad. Have we so exhausted the mercy of God’s bank account that every prayer bounces like a bad check? Did humanity cross the line millenniums ago, and now we’re getting what we deserve? Such an argument carries a dash of merit. God does leave us to the consequences of our stupid decisions.Think Egyptian soldiers in Red Sea, Hebrews