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Health Devotional
Sex, Twentieth-Century Style
Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? Gen. 18:25, NIV.
Some have argued that the Sodom and Gomorrah story is fiction—that the ancient cities were victims of a natural disaster arising from an accidental ignition of the oil and tars prevalent in the region. They claim that this whole bit about sexual immorality is just a threatening myth and nothing more. After all, are people so much different from the animals that sex must be regulated by law? Is God so picky that we can't use our own common sense about the way we live our lives?
Just for fun, let's assume that the Bible is nothing more than myth, and that the code of ethics that has come down to us through the centuries represents the cunning efforts of ancient strongmen to control the masses.
Now look at our society. Do you like what you see? Broken homes, broken people. Kids with a dozen sets of parents, yet no parents at all. Divorced people trying to pick up the pieces of a shattered relationship, devastated, never to be the same again. Nursing homes full of old, displaced persons whose families have scattered before the four winds. And each succeeding generation compounding the problems of the one before. Is it any wonder that self-esteem has reached an all-time low, and that drugs, perversion, and violence have come to rule our world?
No, it seems that the evidence speaks for itself. Things haven't gone too well since we have taken the law into our own hands. Perhaps the old Book is right after all!
But in a society that blatantly displays sex on every signpost, in which sexual innuendos dominate common conversation, in which dress and high fashion inflame temptation, how can anyone pass through unscathed? What hope is there of living godly lives when people in our own homes become the victims of adulterous relationships and sexual abuse?
There is none, except to place ourselves in the care of Jesus and let His strong arms protect us. Remember what happened to the crowd that rushed Lot's door? Is His arm now too short, so that it cannot save? "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
What can you do to protect yourself from sexual temptations?
Some have argued that the Sodom and Gomorrah story is fiction—that the ancient cities were victims of a natural disaster arising from an accidental ignition of the oil and tars prevalent in the region. They claim that this whole bit about sexual immorality is just a threatening myth and nothing more. After all, are people so much different from the animals that sex must be regulated by law? Is God so picky that we can't use our own common sense about the way we live our lives?
Just for fun, let's assume that the Bible is nothing more than myth, and that the code of ethics that has come down to us through the centuries represents the cunning efforts of ancient strongmen to control the masses.
Now look at our society. Do you like what you see? Broken homes, broken people. Kids with a dozen sets of parents, yet no parents at all. Divorced people trying to pick up the pieces of a shattered relationship, devastated, never to be the same again. Nursing homes full of old, displaced persons whose families have scattered before the four winds. And each succeeding generation compounding the problems of the one before. Is it any wonder that self-esteem has reached an all-time low, and that drugs, perversion, and violence have come to rule our world?
No, it seems that the evidence speaks for itself. Things haven't gone too well since we have taken the law into our own hands. Perhaps the old Book is right after all!
But in a society that blatantly displays sex on every signpost, in which sexual innuendos dominate common conversation, in which dress and high fashion inflame temptation, how can anyone pass through unscathed? What hope is there of living godly lives when people in our own homes become the victims of adulterous relationships and sexual abuse?
There is none, except to place ourselves in the care of Jesus and let His strong arms protect us. Remember what happened to the crowd that rushed Lot's door? Is His arm now too short, so that it cannot save? "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
What can you do to protect yourself from sexual temptations?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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