FUN FOR A MINUTE

Sometimes as a Christian, life may seem that it's on a dimmer switch. As you look around it seems that all the non Christians are having all the fun. It appears that the hottest girls and the cutest guys are unbelievers and they are off limits. You sometimes contemplate letting go �get your freak on� , just for a minute, but the words "shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound" play like a looping record in your head, and you shake your thoughts off.

Yes, it may seem that the unbelievers are having all the fun, making all the money and top the charts and the head lines, and it can really get frustrating that all the fun things are off limits, but what are the consequences as Christians for engaging in these �fun� things.

SCENARIO # 1
You've got a friend, let's call her April .You are in the same department and she�s seen the difference in you as a Christian. She notices your diligence and is marveled by your integrity. You've been inviting her to youth meetings, and she�s always turned you down. You tell her about the love of God, his promises and your inheritance cause you�re a kid of the king .She finally agrees to go with you to youth meeting, and there she�s engulfed by the fellowship of the brethren, and she�s begun to consider giving her life to Christ.

A few days later she goes to the club, and there she see's you shaking your body to sexual songs, letting men touch you and handle you wrong. She's appalled to see this, you try to justify yourself but to no avail, your fun just earned your friend a one way ticket to hell.

SCENARIO #2
Your roommate and his friends mock you because of your moral stand on sexual issues. They tell you that you are just not able to get a girl into bed, and that is why you are using Christianity as an excuse. Deep inside you know that is not the reason and why you have made such a commitment to God. It doesn't help that you have strong human desires to satisfy the urges that you have, but you've avoided the situations that will make you fall so far, and you keep on the good fight. Your roommates use the room all the time when their girlfriends come over, and the sounds they make do not exactly help your cause. And you are beginning to have thoughts of trying it out just once to experience the feeling that they talk about so much.
One day you are invited to a party to celebrate spring break, deep down you know you are not to meant to be at, but you want to have some fun for a change, and suddenly that cute girl from the campus most popular sorority, that you been admiring for months spots you and comes over, your roommate is smoking some weed, and he offers you some and you decide to find out what it means to get high, and you take a roll from him. You and the cute girl hang out and begin to get physical, the next morning you wake up with a naked girl beside you and realize what you've done. You try to sneak away but everybody at the party knows what went on, and some of the frat boys that had the party congratulate on your "conquest" christening you with names to show. Later on your roommate meets you to tell you that despite all the times he mocked you, he always wished that he had the strength you had to keep to your beliefs, but now he�s seen that you are no different from anyone else. Your testimony is shot, you can never say anything to him again that he can take seriously.

These are things young Christians are tempted with; every where they turn to it seems temptation is calling. The thing about being a Christian is that once you make that commitment, and people know about it, everything you do is under scrutiny, from the way you dress, to your speech and mannerism and the way you react to people and situations. It's like they are watching, waiting for you to fall. Even when there are things that may be innocent, the fact that they might portray a bit of wrong, we are to avoid them. That's why the bible says fleeing from all appearances of evil. Sometimes it may seem like a though deal, but you know what you are striving for.

I conclusion I'd like to encourage you that if any of you has fallen, that is not the end; all you have to do is repent and get back on track. God forgives and he longs for you to follow him, the bible says in I Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, and God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted more beyond what you can take".

He knows exactly what you are going through, because Christ himself lived on earth and likewise had the same temptations that we have.

This doesn't mean that we should allow ourselves into tempting situations, that�s why Psalm 23 says Lead us not into temptation, and not deliver us from temptation. We are to use our own discretion to know where and where not we allow ourselves to be.

A club where some people are getting drunk, and some intending to pick up someone for a bed mate that night is not exactly an encouraging place for spiritual growth.

KINGDOM AMBASSADORS

Some times in this life, we sit down
and wonder why we are in the situations
that we find our selves in.
Often times we are the architects of our
own demise and we don't even realize it .
We pray and pray expecting "manna" to fall
from heaven in some miraculous way
when the power to change our situations has already been
given to us.

All the devil needs is a crack to get in ,
a chink in the Armour to sink his claws
into our lives, and it may be in one moment of weakness
when we let our guard down.He knows he needs only a little pressure on our lives for us to fall.

Living a life of purity, if one has chosen to do so
means that you have got to obey the rules,You have got to set boundaries, restrictions . Like a castle that has a crocodile filled moat and a drawbridge, and archers on the tower. You have got to have defenses,

Defenses that only you absolutely control and nobody can breach those defenses.

Boundaries that you do not cross, and situations you foresee and do not get yourself into.

If sexual purity is your decision ,what do you do to keep that.

Well for one thing , dating people that believe sex is a rightful part of a dating relationship is out of the question, you are only setting yourself up for a fall, and when you fall, you will fall hard. Their belief does not make them bad people ,it just means that you are tuned into a different frequency that you are.

If you decide that alcohol is no longer a part of your life hanging out at a bar or club certainly won't help.

You got to realize that your flesh is your slave and not
the other way around, you tell your flesh what to do
not it telling you what to do. It obeys you and not you obeying it.
Whether that applies to food, sex,credit card purchases you know you can't afford.

In order to live up to God's expectations you have to have
so much control over your body that it is your slave .
This means that when your flesh craves sexual satisfaction
You tell it NO,When it craves revenge you tell it NO .When you have a
dodgy heart and it craves a Big Mac, you tell it a resounding NO.

Because of lack of self control many believers have become worthless rationalizing the word of God and making excuses for their yielding.

The Kingdom of God is not a democracy, we can not choose what laws we want to obey and which ones are not convenient for us.

Without self control there is no difference between a Christian and any body else.If we yield to whatever our flesh desires place before us.
then we might as well put down the cross and be on our way.

The devil's intention is to slap God in the face by having Christians (God's Kid's) yield to every desire of the flesh, doing the same things that the world does.

These days more than ever safe ain't safe at all today.

Quit your jibber jabber ,Don't be a statistic, DARE TO BE DIFFERENT.