God's Way is Still Best

In Titus 2, we see a prescription for good spiritual health, and moral purity is an essential component:

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age...  The world has plenty on its menu for the believer in Jesus Christ, and we have to be so careful to keep our hearts and our minds pure before God.   The enemy will tempt us with the pleasures of sin for a season, and if we allow Him to have a foothold, then we can become desensitized to thoughts and practices that violate God's principles.   The way of the world is insufficient for a fulfilling life, and if we pursue a path that runs contrary to His standards, then we become vulnerable to a life of brokenness.    His ways are best - for the individual and for the culture.
1st Thessalonians chapter 4 addresses the important issue of purity:
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor...7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

By the way, as you know, that is not the culturally correct message; but it's God's Word!!
Coming up, some material for mature audiences:

When la met, we were discussing Tim Tebow's withdrawal from a speaking engagement at First Baptist Church of Dallas in April.  Pastor Robert Jeffress nailed the issues at hand, according to Todd Starnes of Fox News:

“To me, the real issue here is the controversy this has generated,” Jeffress said. “It’s amazing that a church that believes faith alone in Christ is what saves a person and that sex should be between a man and a woman in a marriage relationship – that somehow those beliefs are considered hate speech? That is historic Christian doctrine for the past 2,000 years.”

So did Tebow cave in to pressure from gay activists?

“People are going to have to make up their own mind about that,” Jeffress said. “The Bible hasn’t changed. Culture has changed and that’s why our beliefs are now considered hate speech.”

And, just because there are sizable elements of society that don't believe God's truth, that doesn't mean His ways are not the best for people to live.  Just ask Sean Lowe - who's that, you might ask?

Well, Sean is the latest prize in the ABC hit series, "The Bachelor".  He has taken a vocal stance of a "born again virgin" - he has now chosen to remain celibate until he is married.

According to Jim Denison, Sean's decision has drawn enormous criticism.  For instance, former Bachelorette Jillian Harris asks, "How can you really know if you have met the person if you don't have sex with them?"  She continues: "What happens if he doesn't meet the right person—he just won't have sex until he does?  This is crazy, as it's a huge part of a healthy relationship."

Clearly, our culture sides with Harris, Denison says.   According to a recent study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 80 percent of unmarried "born-again" young adults (ages 18-29) say that they have been sexually active, only slightly less than the general population of unmarried adults.

To quote Dr. Phil, how's our unbiblical approach to sex working for us?

The U.S. leads the industrialized world in teenage pregnancy—one in three girls in America becomes pregnant before the age of 20, 81 percent out of wedlock.  More than 40 percent of all births in our country take place outside of marriage.  Pornography makes more money in America than Apple, Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Google, and Netflix—combined.  America ranks first in the world in divorce rate.  In 1960, 72 percent of American adults were married; in 2011, the number had fallen to 51 percent.

Denison quotes C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:  "God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine.  Now God designed the human machine to run on himself...Terrific energy is expended—civilizations are built up—excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong.  Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin.  In fact, the machine conks.  It seems to start up all right and run a few yards, and then it breaks down.  They are trying to run it on the wrong juice.  That is what Satan has done to us humans."

So here is a young man, like Tim Tebow, who has made a commitment to purity.   Sean Lowe has been taken to task; but even though he may endure criticism, He has chosen God's way, believing His way is best.   As Lewis says, we were designed to live in a certain way, in alignment with God - when we keep His laws, we experience His fruit.   And, a commitment to purity is one of many ways in which we operate in that synchronicity with God.