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. 1Cor 5:9-10 . . I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
. Col 2:20-23 . . You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world, such as: "Don't handle, don't eat, don't touch." Such rules are mere human teaching about things that are gone as soon as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, humility, and severe bodily discipline. But they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person's evil thoughts and desires.
I think one of the behaviors that Christians need to avoid at all costs is asceticism: which Webster's defines as practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and/or spiritual discipline; viz: touch not, taste not, visit not, watch not, look not, hear not, be not, wear not etc, etc, etc. Not only will asceticism turn you into a weird person, but it will also make you a cultural moron somebody who cannot relate to their everyday contacts on any meaningful level.
I once knew a church member who felt guilty just by crossing the threshold of a BlockBuster Video store. I'm not kidding. He was so wracked with guilt over anything that looked "worldly" that he couldn't even let his teen-age son play rock music in the house. The poor kid had to go outside in the backyard; even in bad weather, and we get plenty of that up here in Oregon.
I've also known Christian girls who didn't wear make-up because they truly believed it was sinful. They would have seriously benefited from a shopping spree at Sephora believe me; it would have been an improvement!
There was a time in my early Christian experience when I didn't own a television, didn't go to the movies, didn't look at girls, didn't listen to modern music, wouldn't wear a tee shirt in public, didn't go to the beach, didn't read novels like Harry Potter and Twilight, etc, etc, etc. Denying myself those simple worldly pleasures didn't make me holy, no, it made me judgmental and it made me no fun to be with because I became a stuffed shirt and a cultural moron.
When the first Jurassic Park movie came out, the ascetic Christians in my Sunday school class so soundly excoriated the movie that I was ashamed to wear my Jurassic souvenir tee shirt in public lest one of them should see me and give me lecture. Imagine that. Just a dumb 'ol dinosaur shirt. That movie meant nothing to me but entertainment; but to them, it represented The Devil. (T-Rex sure kicked those Raptors' butts didn't he!? He was the hero of the day!)
I once heard it said that romance novels are to women what pin-ups are to men. That's because in matters of the heart; men are visually oriented and women are emotionally oriented. Every woman instinctively knows that in matters of attraction, men think better with their eyes than they do with their heads.
If you're a normal, red-blooded girl, then I highly recommend novels by Debbie Macomber; my wife's favorites. They're a little steamy in places, but a nice steamy, if you know what I mean. Debbie doesn't write trash. Her novels are stories that portray the kind of relationships you'd probably find acceptable in real life: just normal boy/girl romance and man/wife affection; not inappropriate content. I suppose to an ascetic person any display of affection is inappropriate content, but to those of us who view boy/girl affections as the normal round of life, Debbie Macomber is not offensive at all.
. Gen 26:7-9 . . And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said: She is my sister; for he feared to say, she is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
(In my opinion, Becky was way past the "fair" mark and well up into the "hot" category)
. . And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said: Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister?
What kind of "sporting" were Isaac and Rebekah doing? Well, it was certainly not the kind of sporting that men do with their sisters. Isaac was caressing Rebekah in places that only lovers do. Was that bad? No, that was normal. If you stick to books and movies that portray normal stuff like that, I think you'll be okay; and you'll also retain your membership in the human race too.
. Song 1:13 . . A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
. Song 4:5-6 . . Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
. Song 7:3 . . Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
. Song 7:7-8 . . This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell to thy nose like apples
Those four excerpts are from the Song Of Solomon, located in the Holy Bible right after the book of Ecclesiastes.
C.L.I.F.F.
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