Pastor’s Desk February 3rd

Posted on 3Feb CATEGORIES: Pastor's Desk

Scripture Passage: “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.” “Let thine fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breast satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.” Proverbs 5: 15, 18-19

Dear Friends,

Are you kidding me?!!!! Talk about juicy stuff. This is the stuff romance novels are made of and this came directly from the Bible. In this age of promiscuity and sexual freedom, many opponents of Christianity believe you cannot follow Christ and still have any sexual pleasure. They believe marriage limits their opportunities and hinders their experience. They believe any limit or moral boundary suppresses their sexuality and stymies their enjoyment. The exact opposite is true. God gave us guidelines and rules to focus our desires in a way that produces passionate energy and unmatched satisfaction. God wants to give us the best, while Satan wants to slip us a disappointing counterfeit.

The beginning of chapter five begins with an interesting description of what Solomon calls “a strange woman.” “For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.” How did he know this? Apparently he had experience with women from all walks of life and by this time realized the futility and vanity of unbridled passions. This is the same man who looks back 13 verses later and advises; “Rejoice with the wife of your youth.” I often deal with individuals who did not know what they had until they lost it all. Such is true of those who choose to live lives of impropriety.

What were the conditions and characteristics that Solomon believed would produce a satisfying marriage? First, he said you did not need to be looking for satisfaction in every source of pleasure along the way. There are bars, strip clubs, brothels, pornographic material and adulterous relationships, but they only produce distractions and counterfeits to the real thing. To find the real thing you must find the one God intended to be your mate for life. When you have found them, be faithful to them by “drinking waters from your own cistern and well.” Secondly, enjoy your mate and their company. When you cease to be best friends, your love life becomes non-existent. Any sexual activity becomes nothing more than animal like behavior and often feels like a last ditch effort to keep the marriage together. If you don’t like someone, you can’t love them. Finally, be ravished always with their love. The word ravished is the same word we get the English word intoxicated from. One of Webster’s definitions for intoxicate is to excite to a frenzy; to elate excessively. When we were young desire, passion, and excitement were synonymous with the word sex. Oftentimes the older we get it is synonymous with “the good ole days.” The point Solomon was making was sexual intercourse can never be the only factor in determining a good marriage and an exciting relationship. If you can’t enjoy being together, nothing else is really going to matter.

In Christ,

Pastor Johnny