The Real Issue.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”- Psalm 127:3

It happened again.

I woke up this morning, thoughts racing through my mind, and the Lord impressed a message that I was hesitant to let out but assured that it must be.

Hesitant because I know that there are many who will read and not only dislike, but find absurd.

Reluctant, for there are some who have known me for years; and worse, some who do not know me at all.

So, before I continue, I want to get a few things straight:

I do not have a perfect past sin record when it comes to sexual purity.

I have both put myself in situations in which I actively chose to be impure; and also have been taken advantaged of in that setting. Each of those- whether my own doing or the other party- left me with baggage and emotional damage that not only affected me personally but also was carried into my marriage and continues to be healed.

Thanks be to God that I know and believe that,

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”- 2 Corinthians 5:17

Staring at the past is pointless. It gets us absolutely nowhere, and we cannot do anything about it. Yet, with God’s help, we can move forward and step into the new.

Within my profession, I also have worked with many, many women from many, many backgrounds who have either contemplated abortion or followed through on abortion. I have counseled them in the before and after stages of these decisions; and seen the affects that came after.

So, now that I have aired my own dirty laundry in order to assure that you as the reader not only know I am speaking humbly, but also know I’m not speaking from some sheltered corner, let’s move forward.

Speaking of dirty laundry….

In recent weeks, the Planned Parenthood videos have been released one by one.

No matter what your beliefs on abortion, they have been shocking and difficult to look at.

I have watched each of these, and all have saddened me to say the least.

I whole-heartedly am pro-life.

Yet, I am here to say that Planned Parenthood is not the problem; abortion isn’t even the biggest issue.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”- Proverbs 3:5-6

“But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.”- 1 Corinthians 7:2

“Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well…let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.”- Proverbs 5:15, 18

The real issue at hand is that we have strayed from believing and obeying what our Creator set up as wise guidelines for us to live by. Point blank, we have taken the commands above, thrown them aside as old-fashioned or no fun, and done our own thing.

And suddenly, we have gone from “just having fun” or “expressing our so-called feelings” to seeing baby body parts strewn across our computer screens.

And we wonder why.

You see, this is the nature of humanity whenever we stop listening to the God of the universe and start paying more attention to our own fleshly desires or the other people around us.

God, in all His infinite and sovereign knowledge, knows.

He knows that you having sex with someone outside of a marital covenant, however faithful you think you are to one another even, is not going to lead to thriving relationships in a thriving society.

He knows that the more potent problem is not your need to fulfill a sexual want, but rather the God-hole in your heart that can only be filled by Him.

He knows that when we stray from looking to Him for satisfaction, we will find ourselves on the hamster wheel of temporal pleasure- always looking to the next thing and always leaving wanting more.

You see, sexual perversion always starts somewhere, as does misused sexual intention.

And, at the core of the issue at hand stands that very thing. No matter what you believe about the intricate details of when life begins, we can all agree that technically, it does all start at conception.

I have never heard of a woman walking into an abortion clinic that didn’t have a sexual interaction prior.

The cart always comes before the horse.

So, where does that leave us?

We live in a broken world, and you don’t have to look at the past (including God’s Word) for long to see that this turning from God and turning to self pattern has been around since way before our time.

Yet, because His Word says that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against something more (Ephesians 6:12), I think we need to remember in the midst of the shocking videos flashing through social media this simple fact:

When we are fighting for flesh and blood, our fight is not against flesh and blood.

Always.

This is not an argument against a group of people. This is a battle for the minds and hearts and souls of those who have been deceived by an enemy much greater than Planned Parenthood. This is a wrestling within the spiritual realm of spirits that desperately need God but are looking everywhere but; and until we see it as that, we will just be scratching the surface.

If you want to take up the whole, “No sex outside of marriage with one person” thing, take that up with the One who created you.

If you feel like I’m exaggerating the entire situation, watch the current hot topic videos and take note that sexuality done outside of the confines that God has set up wrote each of those stories.

Sex, when occurring in a covenant relationship between a man, woman, and God Himself is a beautiful display of the intimacy, pleasure, and fulfillment that God wants to offer us as His children. That earthly comparison will always fall short of the heavenly reality, yet it is a beautiful, healthy thing when carried out God’s way.

The effects of it outside of those boundaries is seen in lives and cultures all around us.

Sex is a glorious gift; but it’s not the Giver itself.

When we put sexuality on a pedestal, carrying it as an idol in all that we do, we are walking on unholy ground.

If you have agreed with everything I have said up until now, may we be careful to not point our fingers outward; and instead, may we begin to look upward and humbly pray that the Lord would open eyes and hearts to the deceit that is thick within the walls of the world we live in. May we pray for protection to the lies that so penetrate our society as a whole. May we not look at those who disagree in disgust, but rather, may we carry out our lives in such a manner that God’s way is so overflowing in all that we do that others would see and question. May we cry out to God for mercy infinitely more than we call out our neighbors. And, when we are tempted to simply be appalled at baby parts and individuals and organizations and politics; might we joyfully find hope in the fact that the battle has already been won at the cross and that God’s love spans vastly beyond our sins or the sins of those around us. Might we look at the deeper issues of the heart rather than the things that scratch the surface.

The invisible rather than the visible.

The whole picture rather than a snapshot.

Whom the Son has set free, He is free indeed. (John 8:36)

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13)

His blood covers all, and His glory never ends.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.