You Are God's Temple: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

Honor God With Your Sexuality: God loves human sexuality? Really? The Christian community in the early centuries struggled with a balanced view of human sexuality. The missionary hero Paul was single and urged others to imitate him. The words "virgin" and "Mary" became welded together and seemed to indicate that God had a strong preference for perpetual virginity. Jesus himself never married. And so some concluded that human sexuality is essentially dirty and impure, a gross necessary evil for the propagation of our species. Does it surprise you to know that God delights in human sexuality and approves of it? Think about it--he invented maleness and femaleness. He was so excited about his first two people that he didn’t let them live singly. He brought Eve to Adam in marriage immediately upon her creation. Without a doubt the least-read book of the Bible is the Song of Songs. People don’t know what to make of it. It sounds like the libretto for a musical about a passionate romance. Actually, that is exactly what it is, and it demonstrates how God designed sexual attraction in marriage for our joy. (He): “How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.” (She): “How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant” (Song of Songs 1:15,16). You will find the Song of Songs between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah.