Buffet Style God

I had an interesting conversation with a friend today about various temptations that people face, namely sexual temptation. I am human just like the next girl and I am not immune to temptation so of course the topic of sex is one of those things that come up with me from time to time. Sex is every where so there really is no escaping it. I don't watch TV very often and when I do find the time to watch TV, I usually stick with The Food Network or HGTV. I'm not one of those head in the sand Christians but I do know where to draw the line so I am not having to deal with temptations that can certainly be avoided.

In chatting with my friend, the topic of sin came up and I asked his thoughts on pre-martial sex. We had this conversation before but I realize he never really said whether he is for or against it.

Turns out he is on the fence about it. Aren't most people when it comes to something that we enjoy?

I wasn't disappointed in his response because lately, I have been on the fence about it too. Not on the fence about whether it is right or wrong because it is wrong. More on the fence about why its wrong. I know the Bible says its wrong but in my head, I was allowing my own fleshly rationalization to take over. I asked God to seriously do work on my thoughts because I couldn't do it on my own.

And He did. With this very conversation.

I asked my friend is it OK to pick and choose what sins we choose to refrain from and what we choose to indulge in. Christians today tend to treat the Bible like a buffet. They pick out what suits them and leave the rest. We won't commit murder or steal but we will have sex. Sex is OK, its acceptable, its the norm, it feels good.

Does God pick and choose what He will forgive us for since we pick and chose what parts of the Bible we will obey and what we wont? Did Jesus die on the cross to redeem us from most of our sins, but not the really bad ones? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

I choose to abstain from sex until I am married because I know the consequences of doing so. Also because the Bible says so. I figured if I am going to say I follow Christ, I might as well go at it whole heartedly and not half way. My life is its own testimony of the amazing power of God so if He can rescue me from my own pit of despair, surely I can honor Him and His commandments because not doing that is what got me in trouble in the first place.

The Bible is real. It's God's word, His written truth for us to take as the absolute truth. Sure there are plenty of things that we may not agree with like not having sex before marriage but it pleases Him for us to still honor Him and His commands. Being a follower of Christ doesn't mean life will be easy and there are certainly lots of things that we would rather still do before we came to Him for forgiveness. But at the end of the day, we were forgiven for ALL of our sins because our God is not a buffet style, I will take this but leave that kinda God. We shouldn't be that way either.