... short and sweet.

8But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I. 9But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
      10But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
      12But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. 14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 15Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. 16For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
      17Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. 18Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. 19Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. 20Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called.
      21Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. 22For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. 23You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. 24Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.
      25Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy. 26I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you. 29But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; 30and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; 31and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.
      32But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; 33but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, 34and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. 35This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.
      36But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let her marry. 37But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well. 38So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.
      39A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. 40But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.


---------------------------------
OK, I'm not gonna lie.  I've gotten totally bogged down here.  But when I read this all at once, I think the bottom line is "Be content".

Start from where you are,  married, not married, wishing you were married.  Free, not free.  Circumcised, or not.  There are moral boundaries that save us from a lot of misery.  But really?  None of it means anything apart from wanting to please Christ.

This morning, I'm facing a lot of my inadequacies.  Seems like my best intentions are drowned - or at least watered down and soggy - in my inadequacies.  I tried to make pizza for a family and I botched a simple recipe.  Their desert never made it to the car.  How can I completely fail at something so simple?  Why is cooking such a challenge for me?

I could spiral out on this thought pattern really, really quickly.  It's just that time of year for me.

Trying to make things magical but too busy to revel in a moment.  Putting up reminders of a miracle and forgetting the celebrate the miracle itself.

I feel like these verses.  Straining to do the right thing and almost missing the point.

Then certain segments pop out at me.  If I'm hearing this right, it sounds like this.

Whatever your circumstances, what matters most is the keeping of the commandments of God.  Did you start this walk with less or more than someone else?  Don't worry about it.  You were bought with a price.  Don't get wrapped up with your status except in relation to Christ.  Be free from concern.  If you can accept where you are right now, then you'll be happier.

That's about it for today.

... purchase-very-carefully-all-sales-final-no-return

I Corinthians 7: 1-7  Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. 3The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

When I glanced ahead, I thought "piece of cake" on  this passage.  But it's never a piece of cake.  It's always real meat with the Bible.  There's always something to really chew on.

 My marriage happens to be in a really sweet place at the moment.

On December 1, my husband gave me the first of 25 surprises.  They are each amazing in their own way, but this one was a bonus.  He'd already given me one for this day.  See where it says, Day 6 - Surprise 7?

Paul was right in that it is less complicated to be single.   Marriage complicates things sometimes.

It's so easy to blame my day on Rich because he's there.  Every day is not paradise.  But one thing we talk about often is that we keep our eyes toward each other.

It's odd.  There are some men who find married women more attractive than single women.  It's flattering for a second and then disgusting for all the rest of time.  Why would I give up a man who works all day with women and yet calls me to tell me where he is...comes home to me even if I'm still in sweats with no makeup?

We are not wealthy, but I am completely spoiled.  I would take a mocha walnut cookie over a new car any day when it comes with the fact that my husband wants to share his life WITH me – thinks about me even when he's just stopping for a cookie at the bakery.

My husband keeps his word.

Now part of that is because of the passage above.  Marriage is not always convenient.  Marriage is not always time efficient when you've got a big list of "to do" items.  Marriage is about a long haul commitment through some bothersome obstacles.  Marriage is between a man and woman.  Marriage is a purchase-very-carefully-all-sales-final-no-return commitment.

Now STOP.  THIS is the day to seek God for your marriage.

If you are single – STOP! Do not believe the lie that you are less desirable.  Girl, this is who you are:

from Beth Moore Simulcast 2014

If you have been divorced, STOP listening to lies that You are less loveable, less holy, less desirable to God.  And please don't call Him a liar by saying "You can't love me."  Um... HE said He does.  That's what HE said.  He wants you to move on WITH Him. 

Let's think about who God used to write his WORD to us.   Um... Abraham.  Made some really stupid marriage decisions.  David...same.  Paul was a murderer.  WHY?  Why would God let them tell his story?       Grace...  they understood it.  They didn't cover their sin.  They talked about it.  Let God change them.  Walked forward TOWARD Him.  Walked on WITH Him.

Sorry for the tyrade.  I just get passionately angry at "us" when "we" fail to see how precious forgiveness is.  I was self-righteous for so very long.  There's absolutely no reason on earth I should have been given a faithful husband.

That's the point, isn't it?  Life is just life.  God let's us live with our choices, but He never turns His back when we seek Him.

Dearest Friend, Jesus.  You understand marriage.  It's the whole pattern of your relationship with the church.  Help me love my husband the way you want your bride to love You.  Help us as a couple be a portrait of how you view your church.  Father, please... even in this moment... heal the deep wounds of my friends who've suffered the pain of divorce.  Restore all that the divorce ripped away.  Bless their children and let them be page turners to new chapters where things/their own marriages  will be written out differently.  Mentor all of us in what a good marriage looks like.  Help us see that things we've tagged onto that picture that don't belong there.

Thank you.  I have no idea why you listened to my plea when I asked you to choose for me... except Grace.  You chose far, far better than I deserve.  Could you please bless my husband today at work?  Could you help me love him purely, passionately, with a bucket of fun?  Could you please cover my children with your protection; keep them pure and focused on you until the time you bring their mates?  And then, would you please let their marriages cause them to be even more focused and pure toward you as you hold their marriages in your arms?

Lord, may these marriages - may my marriage - bring you great joy.  I would so very much love that as a gift to you...   Amen

Well, I'd better go.  My husband is planning a surprise for me today.  I want to be ready.

...this is not about food

I COR 6:12-20   12All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 17But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Can't tell you how many times I've read this verse and tried to make it about food.  But, excuse my point blank language, this is about sex.

I think we'd all agree that some of the most famously messed up lives are some of the most famously talented people - actors.  Grueling hours, accessing deep emotions, pretending you're someone else so deeply that you forget who you really are.  And then, so deeply moved by their performance, we model our reality from a piece of fiction we watch on a flat screen.  Amazing.

And then thinking "I'm just acting," we enter an act so spiritually black and white that we fail to realize that our actions affect the whole body of Christ!  ...that even pricking your little finger with a needle causes the whole body to recoil.

When I was 24 or 25, I was a nanny in Massachusetts.  I was set up on a blind date with a guy in his young thirties, wealthy, and named Biff.  (Yes, really.)  I expected to at least be taken for coffee.  No.  We just drove.  He was an adamant thinker... and lost.  We talked about pretty much everything including sex.  He couldn't believe I CHOSE to be a virgin. 

For the next few days, we had several phone conversations.  His argument, and I do mean ARGUEment, was that there was no way I could possibly pick a successful long term partner for marriage without knowing how they were in bed.  I rather surprised him by saying that my mom had explained that the beauty of virginity is that you get to experience everything together for the first time... a beautiful private adventure.  He all but yelled, "You ask you mom if they didn't have major problems..."  I said, "OK, I will."

(Looking back, I realize that most wealthy blue bloods have almost no relationship with their parents until they are adults and most not even then.  They confide in their nannies.  So the mere fact that I even had honest conversations with my parents was probably totally foreign to him.)

So, we hung up and I dialed home.  After my mom got over the shock that I was even having a conversation like this with a guy, she gave me a totally honest answer.

Were there difficulties?   "Yes.  But that's the beauty of keeping intimacy within marriage.  You have a lifetime commitment in which to work it out - together.  Being vulnerable in a safe relationship means working things out - together - and that brings you even closer in the long run.  It requires honesty and trust.  Going through any kind of difficulty as one brings you closer together.  Makes your marriage stronger.  You both win in the end."    (Not her exact words, but the best I can do 30 years later.)

I hung up the phone realizing what a treasure I had in my parents. 

No subject was off limits for conversation.

I dialed Biff back.  "So what did she say?"

I told him.

He said, "I would tear you up in bed."

I explained something like I wanted to be cherished in bed, not torn up.

He said something that changed my life forever.  "You base EVERYthing you believe on the Bible!"

I thought about it and heard myself say these words to him.  "Yes.  I do.  I base my whole life on knowing Jesus and what the Bible says.  So far there has not been one thing that the Bible didn't answer.  Everything I read works.  If it didn't, I'd be wasting my time. 

It's either all true or it isn't true at all. 

If ever it totally fails, I'll walk away.  But it doesn't....      You base everything on what you want, and that changes all the time.  That's not big enough for me.  I need something more than that.  C.S. Lewis says that either Jesus was really who He said he was, or He was a lunatic or a liar.  I've met him.  He's real. "

Sometimes being forced to verbalize what you believe becomes the most profound and needed

.defining moment.

I'm not gonna lie. The guy was good looking.  I did wonder if I was missing something by not being torn up in bed.  But after 21 years of marriage and purity, that viewpoint looks like a filthy rag someone is trying to sell me saying it's better than my precious pearl...

Pearls grow in a protected, private environment that may not look appealing from the outside to others.  In fact, pearls grow from an irritant, a grain of sand.  But given time and privacy, that becomes the priceless treasure.


 Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 

Face value.  My body is the most blessed when my body stays connected to Christ.  My physical body matters to him.  My physical body has a purpose so much greater than just sex.  Sure, sex in the context of marriage is great.  He created it that way.

But there's a bigger purpose for my body and how I live in it.   Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Christ wants me.  I'm part of HIS body.  I'm part of his bride.  And he takes sex VERY seriously.


Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? 

May it never be! 16Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 17But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Sex is a spiritual act!  God says, "Flee immorality."  Put quite simply, RUN!  RUN HARD!  RUN IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!

Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

This has me stumped.  Envy?  Outside the body?  Greed?  Of course, what I envy is not what's inside of me.  I envy something outside of me.  I envy someone's house?  Even if I got their house somehow, it would still be outside of my body.  Hmmm...


Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 

You're connected to something bigger than just yourself.  Everything you do effects something bigger.  You separate yourself, there are repercussions to everyone else.

Read it again, slowly.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.  

This statement is written to those with pure AND immoral pasts.  This is NOT about past sins in the sense that we're doomed if immorality was where we came from.  But it IS about past sins in terms of the high price God paid to deliver from it!  This is about how we live with Christ.  How we view our bodies now that we belong to him by our own choice.

This is BLACK and WHITE.  Some things in the Bible are more subtle,  and this part about the power of how we offer our bodies and what happens when we have sex holds a lot of mystery.  But it is still black and white.

HOWEVER, the point is not what we are to stay away from.  THE POINT IS TO SEE WHAT WE ARE A PART OF!!!!!  CHRIST!  He actually becomes one with us!

Emmanuel.  God WITH us.  In union WITH us.

Lord, it's Christmas again.  Let me GET this!  Let me walk in what is beneficial for US together.  I can't walk with you and expect to stay aloof from the body of Christ.  What happens to them happens to me.  Break my heart for what breaks yours.  Let me learn to glorify you in my body.  Forgive me for not seeing my body as truly valuable to you.  You paid such a high price for it.  This is so beyond how I view myself.  You place so much more value on me than I do.  I'm not sure exactly how to handle that this morning.  Thank you.  That's all I can come up with that comes close to a response.  Thank you.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht5QvAMDMzE



  

antidepressant: make a list of His benefits

I Cor 6: 12All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

I'm in pain this morning.  Everywhere I look, Lord, relationships are strained.  People are hurting.  My friends' children are hurting.  Marriages are hurting.  My own children are hurting.  I honestly don't know how to navigate this day.  I used to be one to take sides and defend... but your cross is the thing that is changing me.  Your cross.  That thing you did when we didn't take your side.  You could have won any argument that the "know it alls" or the "front line fighters" or the "intellectuals" or even the "rich and famous" threw your way.  But you didn't look at them as the enemy.  You recognized the real enemy and fought FOR them to win against the source of their wicked/thoughtless behavior.

When our children are in pain, we want for them to win.  That's not Christ's way.  He wants his kids to thrive.  Sometimes winning a circumstance would rob us of that.

But I need to look at I Corinthians 6:12-13...

I don't understand these two verses really.  What does he mean, "the stomach is for food...?"

Half of it is crystal clear.  All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.

4851 symphérō (from 4862 /sýn, "together with" and 5342 /phérō, "bring, carry") – properly, combine in a way that brings a profit (gain), especially by a "concurrence of circumstances" that results in benefit or advancement (M. Vincent). 

not all things are beneficial 

To want what is beneficial is what I'm asking you for, Lord.  That involves seeing myself as worth being blessed/benefited.  Worth being the receiver of your benefits.  People keep confusing "seeing your worth" with "self worth" but they are not the same.  "Self worth" starts and ends with me.  "Seeing my worth" starts and ends with You.

My friend J and I had lunch yesterday.  

 We talked about the word benefit.

I told her about what I just wrote above.

She had read Psalm 103 and noticed that when David said, "Forget not all his benefits" he  then proceeded to list them out!  She decided to do that along with David.  She's been listing his benefits on her facebook page each day for the whole year!  The year before, she'd written 365 days of praise.  We marveled at the subtle difference.

This morning, my friend sent this email.

"After we left lunch, I was pondering the difference between praise and benefit…and this is what I came up with:

Praise is what we give to God
Benefit is what He gives to us."


So here I am trailing behind and starting fresh.  If I'm supposed to "forget not" then I have to NOTICE, focus on it.  I'm noticing the very first benefit David says...

2Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; 3Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; 4Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;…

 See it?  It's the key to all that follows.  Who pardons all your iniquities

Out of God's forgiveness come the rest of his benefits:  Good health (healed from diseases).  Freedom from depression (the pit).  The ability to give to others freely (lovingkindness and compassion).  

5Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.  (Better than retinol)


6The LORD performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.… (Peaceful relationships)

It ALL hinges on forgiveness.  Being forgiven.  And - made in His image - able to forgive.


All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.  

The only way to not be mastered by anything is to live in the freedom of the cross.  David lists what things are beneficial/profitable for us.  He lists what God Himself IS for us.  He doesn't just give us these things.  He IS these things for us.

I'm still stuck right here on this verse.  I think maybe getting all that's been said up to here in I Corinthians will help me understand all that is coming.  

Christ and him crucified. 

I could go forward and mentally check off the verses ahead, but there's something for me right here.  I'm OK camping here for as long as it takes.  

These two verses are ultimately still referring to immorality.  It's painfully clear!  

But they are to be seen in the light of God's desire to BE our benefit, our benediction, our blessing.  He does not cut himself off from the immoral.  But He does not sit around a say He'll bless their immorality when it robs them of His presence!  And yet, sandwiched in there, is this verse about food.  I'll have to face that tomorrow.  

In the meantime... It's advent.  Christ is being born into my heart.  The first candle stands for prophets/faith/history.  They waited so long for Christ to show up... They waited when things were bad.  They waited when things didn't make sense.  They waited through seasons of not feeling blessed at all.  

And one night, to their surprise... he just showed up.  Suddenly, I'm seeing it.  He showed up wrapped in the very things they wanted deliverance from.  Swaddled in rags.  Wrapped in poverty, born with rejection from a roof over his head, hungry, dependent on the mercy of others.  Born like a refugee.  A frowned upon marriage.  He came and let himself get

wrapped up in everything we try so hard to avoid.

Hmmm... something to think about. 

...this is not a race.

I Cor 6: 12-20  All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 17But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Okie dokie....  Here we are.

Lord, I'm not sure if I should call you "Lord" over this passage since this is an area where I am an idolator.  Food.  Sugar in fact.  I confess to you that I turn to food more quickly than I turn to you.  The rest of the passage doesn't apply to me, but the principles surrounding it do.  I do not want food to be where I spend my thought time.  I want to see myself as a girl for whom Christ died and rose and reigns in every area of my life.

Lord, I WILL call you Lord, because the fact is you ARE Lord of all, whether I submit or not.

Help me please not go back to unhealthy here as I plow through this verse by verse.  Let me, if maybe for the first time, approach this area in the light of your grace.... for me.

This will be a section I have to go through "intimately" because of my first commitment.  There is freedom for me here and I want to walk in it.

Recently, I felt I heard the Lord gently say, "You trust sugar more than you trust me."

---------------------5 day break happened here----------------

I don't know where to start.  I'm glad to be back.  We just produced a show that was THE most challenging ever.  It was mainly because we were tired and tense before we got to show week which rubs off onto everything.

The end product was beautiful!

The clean up was ... is... overwhelming.  (Did I mention we ombre-d over 80 t-shirts?)

I confess to collapsing.  I keep talking to people who are so busy, we aren't breathing.  We've created so many BIG events that we are missing the small ones.

This has nothing to do with these verses, but if I'm learning one thing through 1 Corinthians, it's this:

...everything is connected.

So sometimes, we just need to back up.  Slow down.  Reflect.  Then we begin to feel our own breath.  Smile gently.

Even this blogging began to feel like a race.  This blog is not a race.

This blog is not a race.

This        blog         is           not            a               race.


I know I need to back up to the section before this and maybe research what the word "judge" and maybe see what the Greek word means in each case, but I confess I'm just feeling like I "should" - a word that has haunted me into guilt more than any other word in my life.

Hmmm.... and here's the connection.


SHOULD.

I had to go through counseling because of the word SHOULD.

I vividly remember my wonderful counselor, after several weeks, saying, "Lydia, you have the biggest list of shoulds and oughts I've ever seen."  I remember thinking, "Whoa.  I know a tiny handful of his total list of clients...  If I top even them, this is really a big statement."

I went silent.  We had been talking about telling myself the truth.  I realized that literally every task I undertook or even a dream of a painting began with "I should...."

I smiled at what I was about to say, but I honestly didn't have any other vocabulary to ask with.  "So... what should I say instead?"

We both busted out laughing.   Then he said, "How about this...'I would like to...'  That way, if it doesn't happen, there's no guilt."

I immediately saw the freedom there.  "... and saying, 'I would LIKE to...' makes it something I can look forward to..."

Am I on a tangent?  NOPE.  I'm not.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

It's right there.  See it?  Lawful....  should/ought.  Law.  I should do this..and the list never ends.  Profitable. I would like to...   joy.  Not mastered by guilt.  Not mastered by others' opinions and expectations.  Focusing on the profitable possibilities because all the possibilities, even the good ones, aren't necessarily profitable for me to pursue.



I lived the last few weeks back in the shoulds and oughts.  I confess, working in the shoulds and oughts can produce a really pretty product, but does it profit my life? I could have done the same work with joy.  It's not always the task.  Sometimes it's just who I am in the task.

profitable:  beneficial, expedient, helpful

This is about to play into the next verse about food, but I'm done for today.  I've got to let some of this soak in for a while.

Thought for today regarding working relationships:  We are commanded to love difficult people.  We are not commanded to necessarily work with them.  (profitable?)

 

done and done

OK, Lord.   I must confess I can hardly keep my eyes open.  I just got up and read this.  Lawsuits, boring.  I don't like reading about lawsuits .... or math.  Help me see YOU somewhere in here...

I Cor 6: 1-11  Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? 2Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? 4So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
      7Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.
      9Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 

 This passage has one point to me... what are doing not using the Matthew Model, guys?  If someone wrongs you, go to them with a desire for restoration.  If they don't reconcile, take someone else from the body who also has the goal of reconciliation.  If that doesn't work, take it before the church?

The point here is not how to win a lawsuit.  The point is reconciliation to Christ.  Paul says Christians are doing wrong and defrauding (illegally obtaining money) each other.  Not the James model, for sure.  Nor the Acts model.  We're supposed to SHARE, BE NICE.

Paul has this tone of talking to children in this part of the book.  But as I read it now, they are acting like kindergarteners.

Verse 9-11  Immorality again.

I'm sorry, but there's no getting around this.  The Biblical view on homosexuality, transvestites? It's pretty clear.  But there are some questions I have.

effeminate |iˈfemənət|
adjective
(of a man) having or showing characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly.

OK.. I want to be honest here.  Does a guy have to walk like a joc to be masculine?  Can't a guy be a designer? A wedding planner? and not be effiminate?  Of course they can.  God even had designers work on the intricate sewing and decorating of the Temple and even the tents when the ark was travelling.  God Himself even cares about decor, food, feasts, celebrations.  So we can't say that just because a guy doesn't have calloused hands, that he's not masculine.

So I looked up the greek in my big fat concordance: 
effeminate, soft.
Of uncertain affinity; soft, i.e. Fine (clothing); figuratively, a catamite -- effeminate, soft.

The word clothing keeps coming up when I looked it up.  I'm no scholar but it seems to me that this is referring to men trying to act like a woman, literally, by cross dressing and/or mannerisms. That the guy wants to BE a woman.  Today we'd include sex change operations, I guess.  

So really.  We're done here.  If I have a non-Christian friend who is gay, I'm not to judge but to intercede for them to come to know Christ, the lover of their soul.  The same for the thief, the alcoholic, even the swindler (may their phone schemes ever fail...)

BUT WAIT, before we go judging the world.  STOP.  This is about the church!  And the list also includes revilers!  They will not inherit the kingdom.  Pretty harsh words!  I don't think, after talking of our need to approach this with mourning in earlier verses, that Paul takes this lightly.  I think it breaks his heart.

This is the point where I look at the most icky things on the list and skip the rest... "I'm not doing THAT... skip ahead, skip ahead."  

It's not just sexual immorality that eats away the fiber of Christ followers.  Let's look at this one.

revile |riˈvīl|
verb [ trans. ] (usu. be reviled)
criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner : he was now reviled by the party that he had helped to lead. See note at scold .

This hits close to home at even the most conservative church.  This hits close to me.  Haven't I gossiped and verbally slashed other church members in the past?  God, forgive me.  I can be such a petty jerk.  You paid such a high price and I walk around like I'm the center of your universe sometimes.  Thank you so much for showing this to me.  Thank you for your forgiveness.

Oh, and how about the covetous?

covet |ˈkəvət|
verb ( coveted , coveting ) [ trans. ]
yearn to possess or have (something) : the president-elect covets time for exercise and fishing | [as adj. ] ( coveted) he won the coveted Booker Prize for fiction.

So... I somehow skated by, good little church girl that I am, till "covet. " Yeah....

I've coveted positions of leadership.  I've coveted attention.  I've coveted funds for ministries I care about.  I've coveted friendships others have. I coveted volunteers.  I've coveted facility space.  I've coveted pretty clothes.   It's really embarrassing to be so human.

THE POINT IS THIS!!!!!  When we become Christ's very own, THERE IS NO NEED for all this nonsense!!!!

Don't we get it?  (Apparently not) Christ and Him crucified.  Our identity is secure:   loved, eternally accepted, forgiven, free to love the unlovable because they can not steal, defraud or fake this love.  They can't eat or drink it away.  They can't replace it with sex or wild parties.  This JOY is permanent as OURS... and it doesn't give hangovers or addictions.   YOU CAN NOT BUY  OR SWINDLE OTHERS OUT OF THIS JOY.  It's been paid for.  The check has cleared.  It's my inheritance.


Such (Practicers of all that nonsense)were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 

DONE.  let's move on.

...let's talk about Netflix

Odd that after posting yesterday, I was exercising and watching an old TV show on Netflix.  Suddenly one confused superhero who is attracted to another confused superhero is confronted and almost killed by yet another confused superhero who was a former lover.

Superhero soap opera.

I usually don't watch shows like this carefully... or at all.  I like decorator shows or adventure.  But sometimes I find something just to fill the space while I work.  I leave the room often to do my daily chores and loosely follow the story line.  And I admit, I got sucked in by the suspense.  This particular show had tons of twists and turns which I enjoy trying to figure out.

But it has gotten really dark and sad.

 I'll fast forward to the end scene of the season to see the final result and not watch the rest.  It's not worth having these images in my mind.  I have the freedom NOT to watch this.  (Netflix is a neutral.  I can choose what I watch.  But if I'm too tempted, then I should not subscribe to the service.  I am free to choose.  Another thought for another day.)

But the sadness came in this.  Superhero #1 was a blond female.  Superhero #2 a Hollywood face male.  Superhero #3  (or rather supervillain) an exotic middle eastern brunette female.  #1&2 had been dating.  Time passed.  Tragedy.  Separation.  Then blond and brunette end up kissing in a reunion where brunette will either kill blond or let her live.  That's right.  The females.  Making out on screen while confused and tormented Superhero #2 watches from a distance with that gorgeous face that makes us want to support him... no matter what stupid choices he makes.

What makes me saddest?  It's this.  That I'm more eager to excuse one form of adultery for another.  Have I become so jaded by sex outside marriage on TV that it seems normal to me?  More easily excused?

Even sadder?  These very real actors who end up playing those roles...  Real people getting any morality they may have had when they first entered the industry totally contracted out of them.

Be careful where you sign your name.

But, according to the word, I do not judge them.  I ask for an intercessor's heart.  But nor do I support them just because I want to be entertained.

The verses this morning (in context of the whole chapter)  call me in very clear terms to draw a line in terms of the fellowship of believers -vs- non believers.

I Cor 5:12-13 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13But those who are outside, God judges.

We are responsible to confront and even make firm decisions about those within the church.  We are to intercede and weep for those who have not met Christ, but leave the judging to God.

In most cases, we do the exact opposite.  Why is that?

...so I guess you're wondering

...so I guess you're wondering whether I'm not having a quiet time if I'm not blogging.  You'd be partially right.

Right now, I'm avoiding this next passage.  I've been thinking about it for days.  But I don't want to go on record with my thoughts.

ICOR 5:9-11  I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^c but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

Does this make me uncomfortable?  Um, yeah.  All the TV show favorites pretty much fit into this somewhere.

Immoral.  Sex with anyone outside marriage... whether through pornography, telephone, social media or in person.

Homosexuality.  Now there's a hot one.  If I call it immorality, then I'm judging?  But let's group this with greedy and swindlers, or idolaters.

Paul is saying he does NOT judge these people in the world.  He doesn't even say, "Don't associate with them."  You couldn't have a business or be a teacher or even buy anything you need if that's the case.

But what Paul IS saying is that if someone is claiming to be a Christian and is practicing or being
             immoral        greedy or a swindling   an idolater

Then stay the heck away!  Don't even eat with them!

This is hard core.

 I have friends who are homosexual, and a cousin I love dearly.  Wound carriers like us all.  But none of them are in the church claiming to worship Christ. 

The point is this.  Either the Bible is true, all of it, or it's just a nice piece of inspirational poetic fiction.  But if it's "just nice", then God-thoughts are a waste of time.  You can't sit in your comfortable chair, smoking your intellectual pipe and start clipping away the points you find distasteful.  Once you start clipping then you have to clip everything else on the list right next to it... like murder.

You can't call one item "not sin" unless you take the whole list... at least if you want to call yourself a Christian.  Sexual immorality, magic arts (can you say Harry Potter?), murderers, idolater, everyone who loves and practices lies/falsehood  (living like they are something they are not)...

It will not make me well accepted in my culture to believe that these are Jesus' words.  But I do not judge the world... However,  I am told to open my eyes and really judge those in the church who proclaim to follow Christ.  And among those being looked at critically would be me.  We call it accountability now.

The question is what do I excuse in the church in the name of tolerance?


Jesus' last words in the book of Revelation were very direct, and black and white clear:

12“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

14“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

16“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you^a this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

20He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

...beating at feathers

I'm friggled this morning.

That's a word I just made up.  I'm not quite frazzled, but there are so many things that need my attention that my heart is racing a bit faster, my mind is DEFINITELY distracted, thoughts are niggling at me while I'm trying to just sit still in this chair.

Lord, please help me.  Help me just sit still.  Help me just think one calm thought.  I keep thinking about that phrase that came to me years ago... "God is in His heavenlies... and He does not get stressed out."  

Lord, when I think of your "to do" list and compare it to mine...  sheesh.  I feel like a toddler trying to put her shoes on the wrong feet and all upset because I can't tie them by myself.

Last night, a really good friend came by for a drive-by prayer time.  She pulled up in the drive and I ran out of the garage, jumped in her still running van to pray with her before she finished her drive home.

As we talked about our "stuff" we realized our stress was not from just one thing.  It was from a million little things.  Both of us are the type to search for the bottom line and fight the battle with full commitment.  But there WAS no bottom line this go round.

Both of us are hearing God say, "Come"

- and it's a fight just to get there when the shrapnel is flying in from all sides.

I found myself saying that maybe that's what all this is about about.

God calling us to "mana" this.

To come daily and open our tent flap.  Maybe that's what all that wilderness time was about for Israel... having them learn that God shows up.  Every day.  To get us in the habit of realizing that whether we perform well or fail,  whether we're stressed or calm, whether we slept well or tossed all night worrying if we'd eat the next morning.... He "mana-d up" because HE's the one who made the promise.  Trying to eat off old stuff is not allowed.  Today.  It's all about Him showing up today.

As we prayed, I saw this amazing dream? vision?  mental picture?  This is what I saw:

There was a female.  It could have been my friend, it could have been me.  It was both third person and first person all at once.

She was in a well lit room but there were downy feathers floating all over.  It was as if she were in a pillow fight and the casings busted and the feathers were absolutely everywhere.  And she was fighting really hard, but there was nothing to punch.  As soon as she aimed a blow, the feathers floated away in the very wind her movement created.  As soon as she focused on one item, it was replaced by another.  There was no rhyme or reason and no connection between them.

As my friend and I prayed that we would be able to calm ourselves and "come", the scene changed. 

Now the female was kneeling.  The feathers began to fall to the ground all around her.  The longer she remained still, the more feathers settled until there were none in the air.

Then I saw her calmly get up and take one very deliberate and calm step and a time.  The layer of feathers she walked on was very thick.  You couldn't tell what was underneath.  But she walked on top of them, and there was something solid underneath that layer of stuff that held her up.  As she stepped, the feathers shifted to the side and her feet were on really smooth, flat, polished rock.

It was REALLY obvious that if she started scurrying or running, then all the feathers would immediately be air born - and blinding - again.

Somehow, I understood that each step was one day and sometimes just one moment.  My friend and I were being called to a "walk" and not a race.

Why would God show up like that?  It's because we are valuable to him.  Whether or not we perform our ministries or jobs or family roles well is not part of that particular equation.

My husband teaches third grade.  He was describing that they are in the process of helping the kids recognize what's NOT part of the equation for word problems.  Once you know what you're looking for, you simply ignore/throw out the parts that aren't part of the solution.  For example: Lydia's dad gave her  8 oranges for her basket.  She also had some apples.   If Lydia gave 3 oranges away,  how many oranges are left in her basket?"  

In this particular case, the apples don't matter.   Obvious right?  But for me, the apples are a total focus.  I want to know why she had them.  What she's going to do with them!

But if the apples represent my area of performance and the oranges represent my value, then my performance apples are just not part of  the answer to my value - at all. 

The question is about my value.  The answer has nothing to do with my performance. 

There's nothing wrong with apples.  They just don't come into the value equation.

(That's a really imperfect analogy!  Oranges don't represent grace well... and why did she give them away? and why doesn't she have an unending supply?  I know, I know!!!  LOL  Just don't miss the point...)


So if I'm really and truly highly valued by God, then it makes sense that He wants to spend time with me.  He shows up because He values me.  I can hide in my tent and complain that He doesn't come in and feed me... and all the while, there's mana all over the ground!

What does all this have to do with 1 Corinthians?  God is calling me to this daily thing.  Every time I come, He shows up.

Oh! and my friend J. taught me how to use my big fat concordance

to find the greek meaning of words as they are used in particular sentences!  There it was on my shelf all along!  And there was my friend all too willing to help.  All I had to do was ask.

Am I intimidated and inexperienced?  Um, yep.  But that's ok.  I'll just look up one little word at a time.

I COR 5:3  For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this...

In this reference, judgement means: to try, condemn, punish (as through the law)

as compared to I COR 4:3  I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

 Here it means: to scrutinize, investigate, interrogate, determine  then to distinguish, to decide (as in giving the sentance in court?)


So, we DO make firm judgement to morality but with MOURNING!  It should absolutely be with a breaking heart that will welcome them back as soon as they want to live rightly with God rather than arrogantly claiming to be His while flaunting their detestable actions as if God approves.

This whole judge thing may take me days of blogging...  we'll see.

But I'm not here to be right. And I'm not here to teach.   I'm just hear to learn.  I'm just here to "COME".

...poor arrogant idiots

I COR 5: 6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Lord, I don't pretend to understand this passage even though I've heard great sermons on it.  I know the basics, but I don't know how it relates to their boasting.  Could you teach me this morning?

So... here I am.  I keep reading this passage over and over and that word "judge" has me stumped.  In the midst of my business, I'm not supposed to judge some things but I am supposed to judge others.

How?  How do I know which things to judge?

But right in the middle of two paragraphs about judging, I'm thrown this one about keeping the feast and boasting.  It's somehow the glue between them, but why?

I guess I'll just take it phrase by phrase....

6Your boasting is not good.

So none of us would argue that boasting at best is irritating.  And then we turn around and use it- boasting -  to fluff our resumes, pad our progress reports, compare our "success" to other churches as if God looked at numbers.  (Oddly, God seems to constantly reduce numbers - Gideon started with 22,000 and God whittled it down to 300.  Pharoh had his tens of thousands with horses and chariots and God uses a little band of Jews on foot.  One little boy's lunch feeds thousands.)

But we, um, I mean the Corinthians.... were facing off.   "They" were/are factioning off.  Fighting for numbers as to who followed Apollos, Paul....  And they were boasting.  Back to I COR 4:6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. 7For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

 Paul wants us to walk humbly and not exceed what is written... which is Christ crucified and risen for us.  We always want to add to that.  "Christ crucified and risen and making us better than......"

When we forget that HUGE simplicity of Christ crucified... equally for each of us... we become such poor arrogant idiots.

It just takes a grain of pride to catch quickly.  Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? We think we've got it.  The key to being more important than someone else.   Pure evidence that we are not gratefully secure in the love of Christ.  That FACT that He has paid the price escapes us.  We start crusades and end up killing the chance for others to know him.

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

And the point?   as you really are     FACT.  I SO VERY MUCH NEED TO RECOGNIZE "AS I REALLY AM"    Because, and only because... and FREELY because Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.   

Easter follows Passover.  It's coming!  The blood of the lamb on the doorpost.  Death passes over.  We walk away on a step by step journey of faith toward the resurrected Christ. 

Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 God wants us to keep remembering who we are ... "as we really are".

When we get it, we become humble.  Thankful.  Effective.  HIS.

How does this connect the judging passages?  I still don't know.  I see the connection, though.  A thankful person is secure.  A thankful person doesn't need competition to be secure.  A thankful person has "enough" because they are complete in who they really are... HIS.

I think I need to ask my good friend J. to teach me how to look up the meanings of words in the original Greek so that I can understand how Paul is using the word "judge".

Thank you, Lord, for being WHO YOU REALLY ARE, the one who paid the price that makes me who I really am.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you so very much.  Because you are the LAMB, I am blessed!  You have blessed me!

...I'm becoming a nerd

I COR 5:3-5   For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

I don't get it.  And this is why so many get frustrated.  Didn't Paul say earlier in this letter not to judge?  Didn't I, in my blog before this,  assume he was saying "Mourn instead of judging" in verses 1-2?

So if he said not to judge in one place, then he's said they are arrogant and in error for not judging, maybe the difference is in what things are to be judged and what things are not to be judged?

So... what was not to be judged earlier on?

------------------
I started this post 2 days ago.  Insert here, a time of mourning.  I'm headed into Thanksgiving with SUCH a thankful heart.  But I had to be drug over an emotional wall to a place of safety to get here.  My own personal sorrows are tied up in loss.  Loss of a brother when I was only 13.  Loss of Laurie Lynn who I can not fathom our family being without.  Impending loss of friends and relatives who are bravely fighting mortality.  I have not faced tragedy nearly as great as others have.  But if you've ever lost even one person who died before their time, then you know the "why's" that you ask knowing there will be no answer.

A young boy in pain recently took his own life in our area.  He also took the lives of  some classmates.  Should we have seen it?  I didn't know him, but I did know another young boy who tried to commit suicide within a week of this incident.  All within the week of my brother's birthday...

And we want to scream, "This is crazy!"  ...and it is.

I wanted to block God out.  And yet He came to me with the sweetest comfort.

It's easy to block God out.  

You simply talk about Him instead of talking to Him.  

And we assume that if we talk to Him, He'll frown and scold us for not knowing the answers to why we don't understand Him.  But He is love... even in silence, even in pain, even in our doubts.

Why He lets us choose anything is beyond me.  But if I did not get any choices, then I'm quite sure I would never experience joy of any kind.  They are connected.

You can not have a healthy relationship without freedom to choose who you will be in that relationship.  Trust only comes when we choose to be trustworthy.
---------------------

In the meantime, I'm stumped about this "judging" thing.  Paul says NOT to judge here:  

Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. 3But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.

In this case, it has to do with whether he can be found trustworthy with the message of Christ.

But later on, when it comes to adultery, he says we ARE to judge.  Perhaps, that's because overlooking adultery, much less practicing it, means we are NOT trustworthy representatives of Christ?

I don't know how to look up the original Greek meanings of words.  I guess I'm about to find out.


AARGH!  I'm becoming a total nerd. 

immorality - vs - intolerance?

I Cor 5:1-2   It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. 

Immorality.   Are we even allowed to use the word immorality in the context of right or wrong anymore?  We are immediately accused of "intolerance" as if the two are reversed.  Is there a time to be intolerant?

My first commitment in reading at face value comes back to me.

 I've decided, no I've realized I want to, blog through the book of 1Corinthians.  I'm going to blog as a somewhat introverted, prone to depression, 50 something, never quite dressed well mom.  I'm going to take it at face value and assume God knows Himself better than even Beth Moore or Francis Chan or even Mother Theresa know Him.  I'm going to assume that if He says something is bad.... it's bad.  I'm going to assume that if He says "Do this",  then I should just do it.  I'm going to assume that if He describes Himself a certain way, then He really is that way.  I'm going to take it at face value and assume the Bible is Truth.

        I'm going to assume that I'll be wrong sometimes.  I'm going to assume that it won't matter because as long as I keep reading His word, He'll show me where I'm off.  I'm going to assume He actually wants me to know Him for our sake, mine and His.

        And if, in the end, I think He's a fake... I can walk away.  But I've known Him just enough and for too long to think that will actually be the case.  And yet I'm going in with that freedom.

    I'm going to take I Corinthians one verse at a time - for ME.  This may take a month - or the rest of my life.  I have no idea and I refuse to let it matter.  I'm reading it as Lydia Crouch...

Immorality has become entertaining...  We accept off color comments because they are funny.  They are.  Not because they are good.  They are funny because someone with a really good sense of humor wrote the script that way.  But then what?

Even Christian comedians  elude to sexual humor.  There are times when our sexuality is just funny.  It is.  People are funny.

But Paul is concerned that we have become arrogant.  We think it doesn't effect us.  We don't mourn.  We do not remove them from our midst.  We don't turn the show off.  We let them teach our children.

We don't mourn.  Note: Paul did NOT say "you don't get angry"  or "you don't punish" or
"you don't judge them."    Those are all arrogant actions?  Paul corrects them for not mourning.

Mourning is an emotion reserved for death, for great loss.  We mourn those we love.  October 26 was my brother's birthday.  It's hitting really hard this year.  I woke up so very sad this morning.  I miss him terribly.  Some years are worse than others.  I mourn for what I lost.  I mourn for what I can not have.  Sometimes, I just feel lost without my brother.
 
"You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead"  This is a call to love the immoral enough to set boundaries.  To feel lost without them, but to set the boundaries.

I have wept at times when I had to discipline my children.  They were already so miserable that it was hard to allow them to have consequences.  But without them, my children would have been left in a very lonely place.  They have looked back recently and thanked us for not letting them get by with stuff.  We talked about the beautiful "No's" in life.

We don't mourn...  It doesn't break our hearts that immorality is quite literally killing lives.

Someone has his father's wife... and we don't mourn.


Lord, show me how to weep for those who have so lost sight of how wonderfully they were created that they turn to immorality to try to see themselves as valuable.  Lord, show me how to be discerning.  Lord, let me ache with love for the homosexuals, the adulterers, the immorals who try to mold you into their own image instead of realizing that you created us in YOUR own image, but we've walked away... all to be entertained.  Lord, in my tiny little corner of this huge, huge world; let me stand where you stand.  There is nothing that you are unable to redeem.  Grace is unlimited.  Boundaries are maybe just the goblet given so that we can receive it?  Drink it to the full?