"No Matter Your Age, God’s Still Got a Mission for You" by J.D. Greear

 When Daniel was well over 80 years old, he was still living in captivity in Babylon, which by that time had been overthrown by the Medes and the Persians. King Nebuchadnezzar and all the royal family had been killed, and King Darius of the Medes sat on the throne. In order to try to bring some continuity and stability to his government, Darius kept on his court a lot of Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men, including Daniel.

One thing that is consistent about Daniel is that, no matter where he is or what circumstance he is in or how he got there, or how unfair his situation is, Daniel stays positive, upbeat even, believing that even in difficult circumstances, God has a plan. That attitude created new opportunities for Daniel wherever he went.

“Then Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom” (Daniel 6:3 ESV).

I’ve heard it said that attitude determines altitude. At multiple points in his life, when everybody else would have said, “Hey, bud, your life is over,” Daniel said, “I bet God still has something for me yet.” That remained true for Daniel until he was in his 80s!

Let me put the point more bluntly since this has gotten to be counter-cultural today: Older people can still do awesome things. And, Daniel is not the only old person in history to do so:

• At 83, William Gladstone became prime minister of Great Britain for the fourth time.
• At 85, John Wesley still preached with almost undiminished eloquence, up to two to three times a day, closing out a career in which he traveled more than a quarter-million miles on horseback to preach more than 40,000 sermons.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder was 64 when she published her first book, which became the first of seven in the series Little House on the Prairie.
• At 89, Michelangelo painted his “Last Judgment,” which is now one of the most famous paintings in the world.
• Harland Sanders (yes, that’s “Colonel Sanders” to you) was 65 when he opened Kentucky Fried Chicken after getting fired from about a dozen of his previous jobs.
• At age 79, Barbara Hillary, a breast and lung cancer survivor, became the first Black woman to reach both the North Pole and the South Pole.
• Winston Churchill won his first election at age 62 after losing every single election up to that point.

If you consider yourself “seasoned,” don’t let anyone tell you that you’re done. This list only mentions a few of the many people throughout history who found great purpose in the years we’re told we’re supposed to kick back and relax.

You will never reach the age when there is not a good work for you to do for God’s kingdom. Don’t let others tell you that your best days are behind you. Don’t buy the lie that the rest of your life is an extended vacation. God still has something for you yet.

You will never reach the age when there is not a good work for you to do for God’s kingdom.

Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Tim Challies

 I have been reviewing books for a long time now—long enough that some books I reviewed shortly after their release are now being re-released in anniversary editions. Such is the case with Donald Whitney’s Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. First published in 2001, it has now been released in an updated edition for its twentieth anniversary.

Whitney writes downstream of the Puritans who were commonly known as “physicians of the soul,” and says that “in our day, as in [the Puritans’], the timeless process of discerning one’s spiritual health involves questions and tests. My purpose in writing these pages is to act as a physician of the soul, asking questions and suggesting spiritual tests that can, by the help of the Holy Spirit, enable you to self-diagnose your spiritual health.”

The book, now as then, is framed around 10 big questions meant to challenge Christians with the state of their spiritual health and development. They are, in order:

1. Do you thirst for God?
2. Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?
3. Are you more loving?
4. Are you more sensitive to God’s presence?
5. Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
6. Do you delight in the bride of Christ?
7. Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?
8. Do you still grieve over sin?
9. Are you a quicker forgiver?
10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

Having read the book much earlier in my Christian life, I found it both interesting and helpful to go back and consider each of these questions again. My answers are both the same and different. I can see where I have grown, but also see where I need to grow. I can see spiritual health, but also spiritual immaturity. I can see where I have applied the wisdom of this book as I read it more than a decade ago and can see where I failed to apply it.

Through his books, Whitney has often been a physician to my soul. Through this revised edition of a book that meant a lot to me many years ago, he has ministered to me again and challenged me anew. I’m glad I read it the first time and equally glad I read it again. I gladly commend it to you and suggest you consider doing the same.

(The revised edition of Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health releases on July 6.)

Sex Education and the Marriage Bed as a Symbol by Wade Burleson

 "Marriage should be honored by among all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral" (Hebrews 13:4).

U.S. Olympian Gwen Berry caused an uproar last week when she dishonored the American flag and the national anthem by turning her back on them and covering her head. Nobody notices disrespect for just any piece of cloth that has red, white, or blue stains, nor do people care if someone's head is covered when listening to any music. 

But when that piece of red, white, and blue cloth is formed into a flag that symbolizes the United States and when that music is the national anthem of the United States, then there is an expectation by U.S. citizens that people should honor the symbols of the United States because such honor shows respect for the nation.

Symbols have meaning.

Some Christians struggle to explain to other people why they believe sex outside of marriage is wrong.  The best answer to give is that God made sexual union in marriage a symbol of something else. 

God tells us to "honor the marriage bed" and to "flee sexual immorality" because of what those two things symbolize. 

Most people in the United States participate in sexual immorality and the dishonoring of the marriage bed. Even worse, when a person abstains from sex until marriage, that person is often looked upon as weird or abnormal. In our society, immorality is celebrated and abstinence is denigrated. But in reality, the person who honors the marriage bed is the one who is honoring God. We live in an upside-down world. 

Followers of Christ are to be people full of "grace and truth." We are to "speak the truth in love." Many appreciate receiving our love and our grace, but most don't appreciate hearing the truth. Unfortunately, they wrongly think truth-telling isn't loving. 

So, in love and grace for those who see sexual immorality as normal, I'd like to tell the truth about why sex should be reserved for the marriage bed.  We haven't done our children any favors by asking them to make promises of abstinence without ever giving them reasons for those promises. 

Here are two truths about sexual activity as a human being:

1. Waiting for marriage before participating in sex is symbolic of a person's trust in God.
2. Sex outside of covenant marriage is a picture of a person turning their back on God.

Throughout Scripture, God calls those who trust Him "the bride of Christ."  When the Apostle Paul referred to the marriage relationship, He compared it to the union between Christ and His people (Ephesians 5:23). 

The Bible teaches that God designed marriage and created the sexual union in marriage as a symbol of something eternal. Thus, we are called by God to honor the symbol (see Hebrews 13:4). It is similar to our expectation that the flag and national anthem will be honored at the Olympic trials as a sign of love for our country.

The sexual union between a man and a woman in marriage is a beautiful picture of our love for God and the joy of being in union with Christ. The marriage bed symbolizes our ecstasy when we reach the resurrection and see our Groom, face-to-face. Jesus will be our Source of life forever. 

The euphoria and ecstasy of being with Christ in the resurrection are symbolized on earth through the sexual union of the marriage bed. This sexual intimacy in the relationship between a husband and wife is designed by God to only be a picture of the joy of knowing Jesus Christ and being in union with Him for eternity.

There is an easy way to prove that the sexual union between husband and wife is a picture of something else.

When the reality is present, there's no longer need for a picture.
I was a wrangler in Colorado and would alternate taking people to the top of two majestic mountains, Mt. Antero and Mt. Princeton, and prepare breakfast for them. How silly would it have been for the people who went with me to the top of the mountains to sit down smack dab in the middle of a 360 panoramic view of the Rockies and pull out pictures of the views from the top of the mountains and focus on the pictures? It would have been ridiculous. You don't need pictures when you are on top of the mountains and can look at the real thing that the pictures represent.

Jesus said, "During the resurrection (heaven), people will not marry nor will they be given in marriage" (Matthew 22:30).

I've heard some people with great marriages get upset with the fact that they won't be married in heaven. Relax. Your best friend here will be your best friend there. What Jesus is saying is that there is no sexual activity in heaven, no sexual union in marriage in heaven, no procreation in heaven. Just like the angels don't procreate, human beings with the gift of life eternal will not procreate. 

There is no need for the symbol of marriage anymore. There is no marriage or giving in marriage in heaven because there is no need for the symbol or the picture when the reality is present.

The euphoria and ecstasy that the marriage bed symbolizes will be enjoyed through the feelings we have of being united with Christ in a world He's prepared for us in the resurrection. The sexual union within the context of marriage symbolizes our eternal union with Christ.

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Whether you are single, widowed, divorced, never married, or in a bad marriage, the essence of who you are as a person is found in your union with Christ. The flag may be desecrated, but the nation remains. The picture frame may break, or the picture itself may be destroyed, but the reality of what marriage represents cannot be destroyed. Singles, don't let anybody tell you that you are "missing out" by not being married. Look them square in the eye and tell them you have the reality of what their marriage represents. 

You have a union with your covenant God through faith in His Son. When we enjoy Him in this life and rest in Him as our Source of life, we live this life properly and meaningfully.

The story goes of a single woman named Miss Agdala, who asked her celibate Catholic priest how he could refrain from sex, particularly as he was surrounded daily by single, beautiful women. Father Smith answered:

"Women’s bodies are rarely perfect; they soon grow old and sag, and always the contemplation of them even at their best is a poor and boring substitute for walking with God in His House as a friend.”

Miss Agdala made the judgment that her priest's answer proved what she had always maintained about Christianity. "Religion is only a substitute for sex," she said.

Father Smith smiled and countered, “I believe that sex is a substitute for religion and that the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.”

The priest is on to something. Men and women are empty without God. A person living in sexual immorality attempts to fill that emptiness without looking to God as the Source of his life.

Since God designed marriage to be a symbol or picture of the union that people can have with Him, when a person moves into sexual activity outside of marriage, it pictures seeking the pleasures of other idols and turning away from joy that comes from our union with Jesus Christ.

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you” (I Corinthians 6:18-19).

The argument against sexual sins outside of marriage is that you are to be in union with God. If you unite yourself sexually with someone other than your spouse, you symbolize an abandonment of your union with God. 

The sin of sexual activity outside of marriage is spiritual.

Anybody who tries to tell you that sex outside of marriage is not physically pleasurable is lying. The act of sex is always pleasurable; that's why people are addicted to it. What those people who go after sex outside of the marriage bed forget is that sex is but a symbol of something greater.  

The person who looks to sexual activity as a goal has forgotten that there is a God. Only He can feel the empty soul with joy, purpose, and meaning.

Sexual sins are symptoms, not the disease. The disease of the sexual addict is a lack of enjoying a union with God. The symptom of this spiritual disease is to look for sex as the goal. Or, to put it in biblical language, "the sex addict begins to worship the thing created rather than the Creator" (see Romans 1).

“For fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4).

God is not judging people for participating in the act of sex. God created sex. Sex is a beautiful and sacred act.

God judges fornicators and adulterers because the person who pursues sex outside of the context of marriage is not seeking union with God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Again, it’s not the act of sex that is judged. It’s not the enjoyment of the act of sex that is judged. It is the person's worship of the creation rather than the Creator that is being judged.

In time, the beautiful skin of your sexual partner will wrinkle. In time, the ability for sexual intimacy may even fade due to age or illness. In time, you may find that enjoying the symbol God created to remind you of the joy of knowing Him is impossible.

But if you're worshiping the reality and not the symbol, you are a whole human being with a healthy understanding of sexuality.

I think Beth Moore is the one who said, "There is no high like the Most High." The person enjoying their union with God will have no problem honoring the symbol of the marriage bed or abstaining from sex if not married.

It makes zero sense to condemn the world for their sexual immorality. They have no concept that sex is a picture of something greater.  But it makes perfect sense to request taxpayer-funded institutions to refrain from indoctrinating our children and grandchildren with a standard of morality that dishonors the marriage bed. 

Next time someone pressures you to have sex outside the confines of marriage, feel free to say no to that person in this manner:

"I find you attractive. I am sure I would enjoy having sex with you. However, sex is a symbol of my covenant relationship with God. I am united with Him. He has pledged His fidelity to me. He loves me. He cares for me. I am going to wait for sex until marriage because I wish to honor the symbol He has given me of my relationship with Him. To have sex with you now is to symbolically turn my back on my union with Christ as the Source of my life. I will not trample on the symbol God has given me of my union Him. Thank you for understanding my respect and honor of the marriage bed. ."

That is living the life God intended. You will be honoring the marriage bed that God created as a symbol of something spiritual and eternal.