VIBE Discussion Part 1

I started to share what we had talked about at VIBE on 5.5.13 on the last blog.  If you didn't catch it, or you need a reminder of what was said, you can read up by clicking here.  I didn't get to write last Thursday, or this past Tuesday, so I'm going to try to stuff as much as I can in the next couple days.  We broke up our first discussion of homosexuality (and really, sexuality as a whole) into three parts.  I will write out the first part on this post, and a second and third parts sometime later this week/weekend.

Plan/Design

The first part of our discussion centered on God's original plan.  We asked the question, "How did God design sex to work?"  In order to answer that question we need to go back to the beginning: Adam and Eve. When God looked at Adam He realized that something was missing.  Sure, Adam had a perfect relationship with God, but there was a missing piece.  So God put Adam into a deep sleep, took out a rib (not so much a physiology lesson), and created Eve.  After seeing Eve for the first time, Adam says:

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."

When Adam saw Eve he realizes that she is a part of him, that she was taken from him.  His body and flesh was used to create this person.  And as long as they are apart it's as if a piece of him is missing.Genesis then tells us:

"That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh"

From the beginning God created boundaries: safe sex happens in a committed relationship between one man and one woman.  The boundary isn't God restricting us but telling us how He created us.  Since He is the Creator, He knows our bodies best.

But the fall happened, and now everything is distorted.  How we see and partake in sex is distorted.  And it's not just people who are attracted to the same gender.  Lust, adultery, and premarital sex are all part of that distortion.  We take what God created to be a great thing and sometimes make it into what it was never meant to be.

I would contend that people who are heterosexual struggle with sexual sin as much as those who are homosexual.  It's because the design has been broken by sin, and now we are dealing with the consequences.  God's perfect plan is distorted by us.

That concludes Part 1.  Be sure to check back for Parts 2 and 3.