Intimacy without commitment, like icing without cake, can be sweet, but it ends up making us sick.
Dating now is a lot like going shopping when you don't have any money. Even if you find the right thing, you can't do anything about it.
A lot of us have developed a diet mentality toward lust. We really want to cut back on lust because we know its not healthy and it makes us feel bad. But like some rich, calorie-laden chocolate dessert, lust is just too tasty to resist completely. Surely God will understand if we break our diet and nibble a little lust now and then.
God gave people 2 ears and 1 mouth because He wants us to listen twice as much as we talk.
The right thing at the wrong tme is the wrong thing.
You are so amazed by grace, you're not picking a fight with anyone, you're just crying tears of amazement that should lead to a heart for lost people, that God does indeed save, when he doesn't have to save anybody.
When we define our happiness by some point in the future, it will never arrive. We'll keep waiting until tomorrow. If we allow impatience to govern us, we will miss the gift of the moment. We'll arrive at that point in time we expected to provide fulfillment and find it lacking.
When God knows you're ready for the responsibility of commitment, He'll reveal the right person under the right circumstances.
When you let God be God you can let humans be humans. When we place God in His rightful place in our lives, we don't struggle so much when human relationships let us down.
If you ant to feel deeply, you have to think deeply. Too often we separate the two. We assume that if we want to feel deeply, then we need to sit around and, well, feel. But emotion built on emotion is empty. True emotion- emotion that is reliable and does not lead us astray- is always a response to reality, to truth.
Many couples have made commitments to sexual purity, but instead of adopting a lifestyle that supports this commitment, they continue relationships that encourage physical expression and place themselves in dangerous settings. The path you take with your feet should never contradict the conviction of your heart.
Living to glorify God means doing everything... for Him, His way, to point to His greatness and to reflect His goodness.
We want to stay on the straight and narrow path and serve God, yet we continue a practice that often pulls us in the wrong direction.
I've come to see that you can limit God is different ways. You can limit Him by thinking he can never work in spectacular ways. But you can also limit Him by thinking that only the spectacular is meaningful." - from "Dug Down Deep
Romance says, ' I want it now!'. Wisdom urges patience
Romantic love is the kite that catches the wind and tenaciously heads for the sky; wisdom is the string that tugs downward, holding it back
Women need to remember that if nature has made them plain, grace can make them beautiful, and if nature has made them beautiful, good deeds can add to their beauty. Grace will make you beautiful and will attract truly godly men to you. Make godliness and inward beauty your priority.
We express true love in obedience to God and service to others- not reckless or selfish behavior- and we choose these behaviors.
I'm looking for someone who will light candles, not just curse the darkness.
Our hearts lie. Something can 'feel' right and be completely wrong.
True love isn't expressed in passionately whispered words an intimate kiss or a embrace; before two people are married, love is expressed in self-control, patience, even words left unsaid.
I'm not saying dating is sinful, and I'm not saying a guy and a girl should never spend time alone together. I'm saying let's wait until we can be purposeful, so there's a reason behind our relationship, and we're not just stirring up passion for the sake of a good time.
Lord, help me to appreciate this woman/man without elevating her/him above you in my heart. Help me to remember that nobody can ever take your place in my life. You are my strength, my hope, my joy, and my ultimate reward. Bring me back to reality, God. Give me an undivided heart.
You get up and you preach a sermon and people walk away thinking what a great guy - and that's a failure as a pastor. Our job is to proclaim Christ.
But remember, continuing a wrong relationship only increases the pain when it finally does end.
God will make right all that is wrong, He will take away the lingering effect of sin and what's not right in our lives. He knows how painful life in this world can be.
True purity, however, is a direction, a persistent, determined pursuit of righteousness. This direction starts in the heart, and we express it in a lifestyle that flees opportunities for compromise.
The technology for a clothing printer exists but is not packaged in a form that would be suitable for consumer use. With the future potential of printing technology, an at-home clothing printer is a definite possibility. Our challenge was to define the experience.
Don’t concern yourself with being right in others’ eyes. And don’t secretly hope that their lives will fall apart so that your opinion will be vindicated. Instead, concentrate on obeying God in your own life and, when possible, helping others to obey Him as well. You don’t have to prove others wrong to continue on the course you know God has shown you.
The thing about relationships is, when you are in the middle of one, they consume your focus.
A defining reality for me is what Scripture teaches in Hebrews 12, that God is our father, and that a sign that he loves us is that he disciplines us, he takes us through hardship to build character in us that could not be shaped apart from difficulty.
During courtship, guarding each other's purity and refraining from intimacy are the acts of lovemaking.
The right thing at a wrong time is a wrong thing.
We can each rest in the knowledge that God is sovereign over our life's situation. No matter where we are today or what mistakes we've made in the past, He has given us everything we need to glorify Him right now.
When you dress and behave in a way that is designed primarily to arouse sexual desire in men, you are committing pornography with your life.
The world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play, and as we watch, the world says, “This is love.” God takes us to the foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says, “This is love.
Just because something is good doesn't mean we should pursue it right now. We have to remember that the right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.
What we say we believe makes very little difference until we act on our belief
I am a sucker for romance and I love girls and that is a terrible combination, because romance has the ability to overwhelm your perspective.
Every relationship for a Christian is an opportunity to love another person like God has loved us.
I've come to learn that theology matters. It matters not because we want to impress people, but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong.
The most romantic things a man can do for a woman are the little things that let her know that she's on his mind and in his heart.
Courtship is a commitment - it's a promise not to play games with another person's heart.
If you want to grow, find men who provoke you.
The joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment.
The doctrine of Scripture teaches us about the authority of God's Word. Scripture must be the final rule of faith and practice for our lives. Not our feelings or emotions. Not signs or prophetic words or hunches.
Wisdom in relationships involves a selfless desire to do what's best for the other person.
Sex is not the problem [Lust is]
Every relationship for a Christian is an opportunity to love another person like God has loved us. To lay down our desires and do what's in his or her best interest. To care for him or her even when there's nothing in it for us. To want that person's purity and holiness because it pleases God and protects him or her.
If you're not ready to get married, don't grab at a relationship. Patiently wait for the right time to start one that can eventually lead to marriage. If you're ready for marriage and you're in a relationship, don't let impatience cause you to rush. Take your time. Enjoy where God has the two of you right now.
Having a girlfriend was no longer my greatest need. Knowing and obeying Him was . I wanted to please Him in my relationships even if it meant looking radical and foolish to other people - even if it meant kissing dating goodbye.
Just because lips have met doesn't mean hearts have joined. And just because two bodies are drawn to each other doesn't mean two people are right for each other. A physical relationship does not equal love.
The common error today is to bring God so close that we strip Him of His "godness." We think we have him figured out. So God becomes our pal, our buddy, our Divine Butler." from "Dug Down Deep
Terms don't define our lives; our lives define our terms.
Purity doesn't happen by accident; it requires obedience to God.
If you're not ready to consider marriage or you're not truly interested in marrying a specific person, it's selfish and potentially harmful to encourage that person to need you or ask him or her to gratify you emotionally or physically.
I won't stick around to see how much temptation I can take. God is not impressed with my ability to stand up to sin. He is more impressed by the obedience I show when I run from it.
One of my defining beliefs is that Jesus Christ has taken all of my guilt before God, and that he has been raised from the dead. That gives incredible hope and meaning to every day of my life - that nothing done in this world is wasted when it's done for him and his glory, and that there will be a day of justice and reward for the entire world.
