Today is the first post by Aaron McCartney.  He’ll be blogging at the Sex Rev twice a month or so.  Make sure you say hello!

“This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News.”

Think is the first thing that caught my eye while reading God’s word about a month and a half ago, and it’s still rocking my world. I’ve read Romans many times, and this verse has never struck anything inside at all. It was the phrase “a slave of Jesus Christ.” So, doing what any human this side of the universe would do, I jumped on Google and typed in “define:slave”.

These were some things that stuck out:
1. Nowhere in any definition did it say slaves worked for free.
2. Slaves were loyal to their masters.
3. Slaves were very hard workers.

Then it really hit me: God even had a good intention for slavery. As humans, we have put holes in the ozone. God intended our World to be a beautiful place, a place where everywhere we look we see God’s creation, not steel factories and strip joints. We also have created bad intentions and ideas for marriage. God intended marriage to be a harmonious unity of bodies that are one.

As humans, we messed up the actual meaning of slavery. God didn’t mean it to be torture, abuse, and harassment of “workers” who are sold and bought with no wages, barely any food and clothing, and crappy sleeping areas. God meant it to mean loyalty, working for a master and while expecting nothing, given good clothes, good food, and a private room for the deeds the slave does for his or her master.

We need to sell ourselves into slavery, just as Paul did, and do it God’s way. How does this apply to us? We have to die to ourselves and be alive in Jesus. That’s the basis of being a follower of Christ. For guys, that means living pure, leading your spouse, fiance, girlfriend. That means living in God’s Word and letting it bleed out of you. For girls, that means cover your bodies. I don’t want other guys to see my fiance’s cleavage. That’s for me in marriage; that’s off-limits, for no one else to see. Girls, save yourself the heartache. If enough guys date you because you’re exposing your double-Ds, eventually you will have a DD heart: Done like Dinner.

It`s not worth it!

Someday I want to be able to say “My name is Aaron McCartney, and I am a slave of Jesus Christ”. I pray to my Father that you can too.

Aaron

Got an awesome email over the weekend from my dear friend Alex.  Part of it was too good not to share with you girls…I hope she doesn’t mind!

(As you know) I was dating God for a year.  Well yesterday was my one year!! SO crazeh but SO great. I love God so much and he is providing opportunites to encourage me and others to become more godly even when I don’t “feel” like it. This world has so many pressures but with Gods help I am slowly escaping them, like the pressure of the media, needing a boyfriend to be secure, etc. God is just teaching me to trust Him. I just encountered a struggle and all God said was to trust Him, “just trust me, just trust me” He would keep saying. and its actually insane how faithful he was to that. I couldn’t have gotten thro it without Him, and he provided just what I needed to get through! I am learning everyday and am excited for a new stage of my relationship with God. Through dating Him, I became much more confident in myself and in who I am. I am really excited to see what God has in store for me in the next few months!!

It PUMPS ME UP that there are young women who live like this. It’s totally goes against what the rest of the world is doing.  It’s absolutely counter-culture, and completely life-changing.  Alex- I’m SO proud of you, you’re (probably literally) 1 in 1000.

Has anyone else ‘dated God’ for a while?  What was the experience like?  Was it worth the time and effort?  Any tips/suggestions/ideas on how to make the best of it.

As Easter gets closer, I have been thinking about Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Though fully innocent, He died a criminal’s death on a Roman cross.  For us.  But the part of the story that gives me shivers is when the women went to the tomb and found it…EMPTY!

Can you imagine how crazy it would be to see it all firsthand?  What would be running through your mind?  What kind of earth-shattering power raises someone from the dead?

It is the same power that lives inside of you.

“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.  And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.  Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.” -Romans 8:11,12

If you have asked Jesus to become your Lord and Saviour, the very same Spirit that raised Him from the dead has taken residence within you.  Let this sink in and ask yourself the following:

How is God’s power evident in my life?  What is my sinful nature urging me to do, and how often do I remember that I am under no obligation to follow it?  Have a wrongly assumed that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is somehow different from the Spirit that lives in me?  What would my life look like if I lived out this verse?

Ladies, if you feel like you are losing the battle, I encourage you to think of the following words by Casting Crowns as we approach Easter.

I’ll go but I cannot go alone

Until you bring the victory

By the power of Christ in me.

Michelle

I will never forget the shrieks of laughter that occurred this past Thursday morning.  We ran, giggled, spun in circles, fell head first down the drive way and haltingly picked ourselves back up for the better part of an hour.  I could give you time to guess what we were doing…but you wouldn’t!  We were chasing shadows. That’s it.  There were no dramatic events or special props we were just enjoying a beautiful spring day and the effects that the shining sun was giving us.  Playing is one of my favorite parts of my job!  For those hours while I look after these children, I get to stop acting like an adult and get down to their level.  I get to relearn life and how each small detail thrills or horrifies them.

As Sam and I chased our shadows, I began to wonder…when exactly was it that I stopped loving the simple things of life?  When did I stop being thrilled by a shadow, or awed by moth?  Children have this unique gift of taking time to smell the roses and appreciate the hugeness of everything God has given to us.  When was the last time I took time out of the busyness of life, to simply enjoy life?  I have found that when I allow the spontaneous, unplanned and sporadic moments to happen and when I have allowed myself to truly appreciate them for all they are, that God has often chosen those moments to whisper his words into my heart.

So here’s the question I’ve been asking myself.  A question that really I think we all need to be asking.  How can I begin appreciating the simple things of life again? What needs to change in my life so that I recognize the simple things as being unique God moments?  Today I took time out for a long walk in nature and a phone call to my Grandma.  Not only do I feel less stressed then I do when I am in constant high gear mode, but I also have a Grandma who was blessed that I thought to call her and made sure to tell me that she prays for me daily.

So what does it look like for you?

Andrea

This Week’s ‘That’s What He Said’ comes from the alway hilarious Caleb Teeple.  But this time, he’s being very serious.  Great advice from a godly husband.

I think the one thing that really needs to be reaffirmed for girls is that the world we live in is screwed up and its value system is in direct opposition to the Kingdom of God.

This is highly evident in how girls in our society are constantly told that their value comes from their physical appearance and sex appeal, when the truth is that God values each of them equally and loves them with an unconditional love that is better than anything they can chase after in this life. I guess you could extend that to say (in a more quotable form)…

“Stay away from any guy who feeds you the lie that your value is intrinsically tied to your physical appearance and what you can offer them sexually.”

Caleb