Sexual Impurity

In the 23rd day of the 6 month the Word of the Lord came to me(just being silly here) via the bible application on my smart phone. I downloaded the bible application that allows you to listen to the Word instead of having to read it and I took advantage of this opportunity on my long drive from Dallas to Ft Worth each morning. I started in genesis and progressed through each chapter. At this particular time I was in Deuteronomy and since I had not had my morning coffee, I was asking the Lord for wisdom to understand these books. A lot of the things in there were hard to swallow and I really wanted to know the importance of why God set up the laws the way He did. On this particular morning I was listening to Deuteronomy chapter 23 and these verses stood out to me:

9"When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.
10"If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, 11but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.
12"You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. 13And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. 14Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

God lines up the divine order in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy showing how things should function socially and communally in order for His people to have favor and a relationship with Him. All these things are a shadow of what’s to be fulfilled in the New Testament. When someone became impure or unclean they were to leave camp for a period of time and not return until they were cleansed. Was it to isolate them to make them feel ashamed and unwanted? "Look Phillips leaving the camp again, must have had another wet dream" No! I don’t think that’s the case but rather for the very reason we see in vs 14 because God would walk among them and cannot be around anything impure and man's seed carries with it the curse inherited from the fall. It’s about Him and His glory.

I’ve been wrestling with the idea of sexual immorality lately and why this particular sin seems to plague many men and women with extreme strongholds and consequences. How you hear devastating stories about failed marriages, pastors falling into child molestation, sex trafficking and the dark stories go on and on… but when caught they always say “I never thought I would be where I am now”….. what happened?

I’ve heard and believe that sexual sin takes you down a path you don’t want to go and keeps you there longer than you want to stay. But why sexual sin vs other types of sin? Well I believe the old testament reference here and our boy Paul answers this question for us in 1 Corinthians 6:

15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." 17But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

So this issue here is not as much about the sin but where it takes place! God does not walk among the camp like He did in the Old Testament because now as a Saint in Christ His Spirit dwells within us! However He is the same God and cannot be in the presence of what is impure and defiled. I believe, sexual sin done in the body where His Spirit is to dwell within us, is so devastating b/c it removes us from His presence (fellowship not Presence for He is everywhere and David says where can I flee from your presence). Am I saying we lose our salvation? Of course not, but we lose His presence, power and that nearness we need to overcome, “14Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy” God is our deliverer. He lives within us to defeat our enemies before us and we must be filled with the Spirit daily. Is sexual sin so destructive and one of the enemies best weapons because it removes the power we need in order to be delivered from the very thing we are striving to defeat? If you don’t have any money and continue to spend, you will continue to get into more and more debt. The same principle can be applied here. If we overcome sin through Jesus and if sexual sin against our body removes His presence, then do you see how this will quickly become a long dark road?

How did they get to enter back into the camp? By cleansing themselves through the washing of the water.

We’ve had that in baptism but it takes a lifelong process of confession and repentance to walk in victory and freedom. We plea the blood of the cross in humility as our Father accepts us with open arms… Don't hide from confession and repentance under the deception that “you can handle it” outside of the camp…Jesus is your sympathetic High Priest.

A Fatherless America

One of the most difficult parts of being a camp counselor were the Saturday afternoons in June that inevitably brought a goodbye to the kids with whom I had just spent two weeks. As one camper, Matt, boarded the bus to return home, he looked back at me and said, "Jason, thanks for changing my life."   I will never forget those words. I didn't do anything spectacular or provide any special treatment.  I was just as much a learner as I was a counselor and leader. I was simply available.   The new group of kids that would cycle through every two weeks for five sessions was another reason to offer all I could in hopes that they would be positively impacted.

Not all the kids who came to camp were blessed with a good family life or secure lifestyle.  Many of the kids during the first session were only able to come because of the generous scholarships the camp offered underprivileged children. Carey, an interesting camper who came from a foster home, was full of surprises.  At the age of eleven, his voice seemed to shake the foundations of our sturdy gym and his energy matched the Energizer Bunny.  Not a day went by that Carey did not get into some mischief or trouble.  Carey tested my patience constantly by challenging my requests.  This erratic behavior Carey was displaying is expected from a child who is not raised in a healthy stable environment with consistent discipline from a father motivated by unconditional love.  Studies have shown that children who grow up in single parent homes, particularly without fathers physically and/or emotionally present, are more likely to abuse alcohol or drugs, struggle with identity issues and psychiatric problems and are at a dramatically greater risk of suicide as David Brent points out in his study of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders. He says that “teens living in single-parent families are not only more likely to commit suicide but also more likely to suffer from psychological disorders, when compared to teens living in intact families.”

Unfortunately these issues do not only affect foster children or kids who grow up in poverty, but permeate all socioeconomic levels and cultures.  I had another camper named Marcel, who was an emotionally neglected teenager from a wealthy, French family. His behavior resembled Carey in that he wanted sought to fight me on everything I asked. Early on, I resolved in my heart that despite his disobedience, I would continue to pursue him so that he knew he was valuable regardless of how hard he tried to push me away.  After many challenges, long conversations, and moments of resistance, I believe Marcel finally felt loved.  He hugged me tightly on the last day of camp and with tears streaming down his face, said he didn’t want to leave.  I wondered how the defiant teenager I had met two weeks ago could be so unraveled about having to leave now.  I looked around and saw parents hugging kids, kids cheerfully explaining everything that happened during their stay at camp and my heart broke for Marcel. Nobody was there to pick him up.  His parents were oceans away and he would return home only to stay with his aunt.  So what had shifted in Marcel’s heart?

In August, I traveled to Uganda with a team to work with those affected by the rebel-led war. We visited one particular village that had been heavily assaulted by the rebels.  They killed many adults and left behind over 400 orphans.  The orphans were either taken in by relatives or now cared for by older siblings. An elder of the village shared with us the need for assistance because they could not care for all of the orphans.  Since the orphans were not receiving direct parental attention, they were beginning to become a problem in the village by stealing and acting destructively. Without proper guidance and left to their own devices, they were making poor choices and heading toward a bleak future.    

What I have observed from being a camp counselor, traveling overseas, and even mentoring a young man from south Dallas who grew up in poverty with a single mom, is that kids are in dire need of love and attention, most of all from their parents. When these basic needs are not met, they will turn to something, or someone, to artificially meet these needs which most often leads to a lifestyle of broken hearts and bad decisions.  I believe the best and most important platform to meet these needs should be within the family unit.  If I, being a complete stranger, am able to make an impact on someone else’s child within such a short amount of time, how much more would the unconditional love of a parent dramatically and positively affect a child?  If my generation lives with this reality in mind, the choices of who we choose to marry and how we choose to parent our children becomes of utmost importance. 

Early in their adolescent years, we have the duty to begin to teach and model for our children the role they will someday have to raise and nurture children responsibly.  Should we continue to live in ignorance or in denial of this issue; the effects of a fatherless America will continue to leave behind a wake of broken relationships, pain, drug and alcohol abuse, and confused identities.  My hope is that we wake up to the gravity of our choices and ability to shape the future through the lives of our kids and embrace this role with ferocious tenacity to win back our youth. 

I recently witnessed the powerful impact of choosing to invest in the life of a child in a short documentary about a family who adopted eight children from around the world.  One of their adopted sons is from Bangalore, India and was born without arms.  He said that being born with such a physical deformity is seen as a curse in India and if he had not been adopted he would have been neglected to the point of death.  Another adopted son, also without arms, has learned to play the cello, guitar, bass and piano with his feet.  In an article in Washington Times, the mother said “Both boys are very sensitive to the needs of the less accepted members of society or those with special needs, primarily because they realize they were given the gift of a second chance; that they are where they are today because someone accepted them unconditionally and believed in them.”  I believe that the gift of family and unconditional acceptance, as demonstrated here, is an empowering life-changing tool that will create world changers with the drive and passion to positively impact future generations. 

Adoption Link