Heart of the Matter: Marriage and Sexual Expression
Live from the Mecca of Mormonism, this is Heart of the Matter, where we are re-learning how to live in the age of fulfillment. And I’m your host Shawn McCraney.
Show 5A: Insights on Marriage and Sexuality
Marriage and Sexual Expression in the Age of Fulfillment
February 3rd 2020
Last week, I revealed some details about my own sexual experiences going way back to my formative years and up to the present. I felt led to do this because I wanted to crack open up the fact that we humans are, by nature, sexual creatures, and because of this fact do we rarely see people escaping from this life without being involved in some sort of sexual indiscretions – some more than others, as my personal story revealed.
Before we get more deeply into the topic of sexuality in the age of fulfillment, I want to wrap up some thoughts on marriage as I defined it two weeks ago, which was that the Biblical definition of Marriage is when two people of different genders willingly agree to sexual intercourse.
I firmly stated that marriage, again in the biblical sense, was not then nor now, a wedding ceremony, a party, or a religious person saying any magical words. Certainly, those things are not forbidden, in fact, they can be really festive and meaningful, but the point we need to stress to our children and grandchildren is that the marital commitment to another person is made when the two bodies become one through sexual intercourse because that has the potentiality to multiply and replenish the earth.
Earthly vs. Godly Union
Should pastors perform ceremonies and call them marriages as a means to validate the earthly union between two people? Not in my opinion. That is part of the problem we mentioned two weeks ago. In my opinion, an “authority-less” pastor has no business (in the name of God) inserting themselves into the individual union of a couple and suggesting that he or she is sealing or marrying anyone on earth. And because they have assumed this faulty position over the centuries, we find ourselves facing another mess relative to religious sticking its nose in the things of God – homosexuals wanting to be “married” in the Godly sense of the word. There is a Godly version of marriage – which I have defined, and there is an earthly sense of marriage, which involves ceremonies and tax-exemptions and the like.
Understand clearly that Jesus said in his day that marriage was for the children of that age, and Paul suggested it was for those who could not abstain or refrain from sexual intercourse. I get this and so when it comes to homosexual couples who love each other, I offer no resistance to their earthly union being sanctioned by earthly powers. I don’t know why Christians, especially Evangelicals, care, to tell you the truth. Oh, wait, I know why they care, because they errantly see marriage as a ceremony and a paper rather than what the biblical definition is! Get it?
Any homosexual couple has the right to a civil union that is seen as binding in the courts of law and benefits them and their tax status. That union is of the earth, but it cannot be seen as marriage in God’s eyes because marriage in his eyes is?
That’s right, when TWO people of the OPPOSITE SEX WILLINGLY agree to engage in SEXUAL INTERCOURSE. When Christians begin to start to define marriage in this biblically defined way, all the wars against the outside world will end – and we can love people as they choose to live, giving ourselves a better chance to share Jesus with it.
Biblical Standards of Marriage
But again, by virtue of the definition of biblical marriage, it is impossible for two of the same sex to be married in the eyes of God – no matter how much some want to make it amenable in God’s eyes. This has nothing to do with whether two people of the same gender love each other in the romantic and erotic sense. It has nothing to do with their freedom as human beings. It has to do with what God established as the standard.
As a messed-up heterosexual man, I want to have marriage mean lots of women to one man. That is my heart and desire, and I think I could love and care for them to a certain extent. Does this mean I get to say it is of God? No. The biblical definition does not allow it. So penchants and drives have nothing to do…
Understanding Christian Perspectives on Marriage and Sexuality
Christian churches will save themselves a lot of pain and trouble if they stop performing what they call church weddings and tell their congregates to go to a justice of the peace if they want a special tax status for their union. And homosexuals can do the same thing and Christians should shut their mouths about it.
In the age of fulfillment, it is really important to see this world for what it is – a place reconciled to God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That this world will go on – and God loved it before He gave us His Son and He continues to love it afterward.
There are many people who do not care for the things of God on this earth – and God loves them. As Christians WE are to love them too – unconditionally. These will live through all sorts of expressions of their own choice and will have all sorts of views about the meaning of life, and that is their choice and right while on this earth.
Life in God’s Kingdom
As Son’s and Daughters of God, we live for and in His Kingdom and seek not to destroy but to love, to share Jesus, to walk by humble faith and this has nothing to do with their marital status or NON status – these things are elements of the flesh and of an economy that does NOT exist above.
So, let’s talk a bit about sexuality in the age of fulfillment. God’s laws – written on our hearts and our minds and encouraged by His Spirit, moves believers today. His concerns for His children are based on what is best for us – and the laws and spirit confirm that to us all. We do not need religious men to interpret what is right or wrong in our lives and this includes our sex lives.
Religion has long gone after masturbation, inappropriate touching, oral sex and of course anal sex. It has built a chain of corner-stores selling guilt, shame, and fear of these natural practices that are part of the human experience. The answer to sexuality is not addressing sexuality, the answer to all sexual issues is faith in Jesus Christ. Why? Because once that is in place each individual will understand by and through their direct relationship with God what is right and good for them, and what is not.
The corner stores want to make set rules and standards for EVERYBODY to follow. Not so. Just as Paul had a thorn in His side and God told him that His grace was sufficient for him, God WILL tell his children the same in a hundred different ways – and will correct them when they are not. This is called walking by faith, walking by the Spirit.
When I was a young LDS man the Bishop called Mary and me in and asked if we participate in oral sex. He told us that if we did we must stop. I wondered if that included kissing? Religion will ALWAYS make a case for its positions – and they make them in the name of God, taking His name in vain.
Sexual Relations in Marriage
But God is of the Spirit, He works in the Spirit, and where the Spirit is there is liberty. So are there limits, rules, and parameters wherein people of God are to define themselves when it comes to sexual relations in and outside of marriage.
There are: Outside of marriage God tells us that sexual intercourse is the marital act. He also wants us to live by the spirit and not the flesh – so take that for what it means to you in your life. Inside marriage God tells us to keep our sexuality within those parameters. And he also wants us to live by the spirit and not by the flesh – so take that for what it means to you and your life.
There is not thing evil unto itself folks – and sex and sexual relations are a good thing, not a bad thing. Start there if you have what you believe are issues – and let the Holy Spirit guide. He is with us. He has been aware of and seen it all when it comes to us humans. Be open with Him, tell Him your heart, and give Him your soul and I promise you – whatever you like, or are, or do – He will validate it or He will move you away.
Main Topic
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