Sexperiment Day 5 Devotional – Singles

sexperimentDay 5 – Legacy 

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. Jeremiah 1:5

“So Goes Sex, So Goes The Marriage, So Goes The Family, So Goes Society”

The Bible tells us that God knew us before he formed us in our mother’s womb.

That’s pretty impressive! He custom built you and placed you on this big ball of dirt called earth for a specific reason. You are not an accident that happened by chance. God set you apart before birth for a specific purpose, and he wants to help you fulfill your purpose.

A lot of people think, “I don’t have a clue what my purpose is! And even if I did, I’m not perfect enough to be used by God.” But purpose isn’t reserved for the perfect.

Purpose is  something that God has given to every one of us.
If you think you’ve blown it or turned too far away from God, just browse through the pages of Scripture. Most of the people God used were mess-ups! Don’t miss out on God’s perfect plan for your life. You are the perfect candidate to complete God’s plan for your life. Simply ask God to show you why he put you here.

Answer The Following

  • What do you think the purpose is for this season of your life?
  • How can understanding your purpose affect your dating life?
  • Do the relationships in your life (friends, family, dating etc.) help you fulfill your purpose, or distract you?

Take Action 

  • Write down 3-5 personal characteristics that you possess that God could use for His purposes.

Go Further

  • Read the Section The Yoke is Not a Joke on page 157 of Sexperiment book.

To download the PDF click below:

Day_5-Legacy-Singles

SEX RidgeFor more about the Sex series or to sign up for a Sexperiment Growth Group go towww.RidgeFellowship.com

Source:  www.TheSexperiment.com

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Sexperiment Day 5 Devotional – Married

sexperimentDay 5 – Legacy

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29

So Goes Sex So Goes the Marriage, So Goes the Familly, So Goes Society
In this verse, we discover a powerful reality for marriage. We have the ability to build our spouse up simply by the words that come out of our mouth. But the truth is that it’s not only our ability, it’s also our responsibility.

Husbands, compliments and praises from you will build your wife’s self-esteem and energize her spirit. Wives, you can boost your husband’s confidence by affirming him and giving him recognition. This is how God wants us to communicate with one another.

Others are watching the way we talk to our spouse. It’s been said that lessons are more caught than taught. Your children are watching the way you communicate with your spouse. They are watching how you encourage and support one another.

The words we choose and the way we say them influence others. Like so many of our choices in marriage, the way we talk to our spouse is not just about our relationship, but about the legacy we want to leave others.

We can leave a legacy of encouragement by the way we speak to our spouse.

Carefully choosing our words can strengthen our relationship and set an example for others. Choose your words today with the legacy you want to leave in mind.

Discuss the Following

  • Ask your spouse, “What is one of the most powerful compliments I have ever given you?”
  • List three areas that are important for you to have your spouse’s validation and to hear it from them. Then tell each other.

Take Action

  • Create a list of ways you can honor your spouse through affirmation and admiration during the rest of this week. Choose one each day to help build intimacy in your marriage.

Go Further

  • Read the section How Deep Is Your Footprint on pages 138-139 of Sexperiment book.
  • Read about additional action steps in this area of your marriage on page 155 of Sexperiment book.

To download the PDF, click below:

Day_5-Legacy-Married

SEX RidgeFor more about the Sex series or to sign up for a Sexperiment Growth Group go towww.RidgeFellowship.com

Source:  www.TheSexperiment.com

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Sex & Superglue Illustration

SEX RidgeHere’s an analogy for the power of sex—one we can use with our kids.

Imagine that you’re a sheet of cardboard.  Sex is like superglue that glues 2 pieces of cardboard together—very helpful if your hope and goal is to be bonded to one person in marriage for the rest of your life.

Now imagine what happens when you rip 2 super-glued sheets apart.  Chunks of my cardboard are stuck on the other sheet, leaving holes, wrinkles, and tears, while chunks of the other person’s cardboard are now permanently stuck on me.  Then imagine super-gluing your wrinkled sheet of cardboard repeatedly with various other pieces of cardboard.

One study of college seniors found that 75% of students hooked up or had sex an average of 7.9 times.   After 7.9 of those sticks and rips, how’s your cardboard going to look?

I firmly believe that Jesus can and does heal the worst of emotional and spiritual damage–that even if your cardboard has been through 79 sticks and rips, God can heal and make whole what’s been broken.

If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

But I’d rather my kids not have to go through the pain of being ripped apart.    I’d rather them go through as much of life as possible whole.  Then when they get married they can be bonded for life to one person.

How about you?

For more about the Sex series or to sign up for a Sexperiment Growth Group go to www.RidgeFellowship.com

Adapted from: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/whatshesaid/2012/09/sex-and-superglue-talking-with-kids-in-a-hook-up-culture/
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God’s Super Glue

SEX RidgeThe God of the Bible places His nature in you and I. The God who had been one, breathed His life in a non-living thing and it became a living being.

God would spend the rest of the Bible wooing the man back to Himself, so that the two would one day be one again. God wants us to understand this aspect of Himself not just by study but by experience.

God began with Adam who was complete in himself and contained all of God’s nature but gave Adam a lesson in one-becoming-two. God put Adam to sleep and began the most unusual surgery in human history. He began to sift out perfectly complimentary features and created the perfect balance so that the one man, could become two, and remain a perfect fit, so that one day the two could become one.

And man would spend the rest of his story trying to figure out how to woo back to himself the woman.

Separate minds. Separate hearts. Separate wills. Separate bodies and separate Spirits. All these were once one. And God creates us to hunger in such a way that we crave one-ness. He makes both to desire deeply that these differences and the separateness be returned again to one.

What are the odds? More importantly what is the mechanism? What kind of glue would it take for all of these attributes, body mind emotion, and spirit would return again and be joined as one? What kind of glue indeed. God is a genius, and a generous genius at that.

He gave us the greatest glue imaginable; God gave us sex.

The drive for sex and connectedness, pulls us together. The act of sex, the only human act that connects body, mind, emotion and spirit, re-connects the separated parts and two are again made one. Genius!! Genius and generous. Not just glue, but fun, joyful, tender and exuberant glue.

At least that is how it is supposed to work. That is the design. But,oh, the number of possible things that could go wrong. Think with me for a minute. The beauty of super glue, is that it works so well. At the same time the problem with super glue is, that it works so well. Used rightly it works. Used in any wrong way, it still works!  All manner of things can be stuck together. I  heard of a woman who used super glue to put on her eyelashes and had to go to the emergency room, with her eyelids glued shut. Super glue works. Fingers stuck together, people stuck to objects, the number of options are only limited by the creativity of the human soul.

If you really want to see how super glue can be used wrongly, give a tube of it to a four year old. Or a fourteen year old. Let their undeveloped, wonder-filled, immature minds work with a substance with this kind of power. Just be sure you have good insurance.

If you really want to see how sex can be used wrongly give it to an undeveloped, disconnected, immature human race and see just how many things we can stick together. Things that don’t belong stuck together. But just like super glue, sex still works. Used rightly, it works. Used wrongly … it works.

The human heart can be stuck to person after person after person, until the man or woman is torn into pieces and carrying around pieces of strangers. Or attached to slick, lifeless images or writhing images on a video. And this kind of sticky-ness is just the building block of all manner of cultural shift. Soon, we as a race begin to believe that our appetites and urges are our identity, and it is a terrifying slippery slope from there to our destruction as a society.

Sex is God’s super glue, and it works. Used in the protected boundaries of a monogamous, covenant relationship man and woman can bring the one-become-two back together again, over a lifetime of bring our whole self into such a relationship. It is a brilliant, beautiful and powerful plan.

But because it works so powerfully, every brilliant plan with power can also go powerfully wrong.

Did I mention that Jesus lived and died to make wrong things right? Did I mention that the power of the resurrection can overpower all of our mistakes? Jesus has for us all the solvent that can gently yet cleanly break the most powerful of ties and separate those things that do not belong together.

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you WERE. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.   1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Use the super glue God has given us wisely. However if you have used it in a way that has left you stuck or broken, do not despair. The God who invented this super glue knows how to work with it. Bring Him things that have gone wrong. Bring Him the things that you want to go right. God can wash you, sanctify and justify you because of Jesus Christ.

For more about the Sex series or to sign up for a Sexperiment Growth Group go to www.RidgeFellowship.com

 

 Adapted from http://destinyinbloom.com/gods-super-glue/
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