The evidence for Jesus' resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live. —Wolfhart Pannenberg, German theologian (1928—)
Only an encounter with the living God, Jesus, can change your life.
“Everyone should be abstinent,” Bristol Palin said during a February 16th Fox news interview, just two months after the 18 year-old daughter of Alaska’s Republican governor gave birth to a 7-lb. 7 oz. baby boy. But abstinence is “not realistic at all,” she added.
Unfortunately, federal studies have shown that abstinence-only education has done little to curb teen-pregnancy rates, despite the nearly $1 billion in federal funding that such programs have received since 2000. More than a third of all births in the U.S. are to single women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is a sad reality that many Americans know that they should reserve sex for marriage, but do not have the self-control to make this a practice in their lives. Even an effort to provide more educational effort to the importance of abstinence has not helped much. Why? Because, information and knowledge do not transform the human heart. Only Jesus Christ can change a person to live like Him.
Would God give us holy standards for living, such as abstinence, with the expectation to obey them, and not provide a way to do it? That would be quite cruel. Instead, God did provide a way for us to change. We change by receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Jesus transforms our hearts by filling us with His Holy Spirit and renewing our minds with the truth of His Holy Scriptures.
Jesus is the agent of change.
1 comment:
I really appreciate this post. I grew up not knowing Jesus and was told by my widowed mother it was ok to have pre-marital sex, as long as I didn't 'get in trouble'. I then proceeded to become a single mother twice over.
Pre-marital sex is not only permissible, but promoted in our society. It's heart breaking to see young women chasing the physical affections of men to fill the emptiness in their hearts. I speak from experience when I say it's a trap. Young women conform to society sexually, then get pregnant, are dumped by their sexual partners and shunned by society as 'bad girls'.
God is the only way to fill the emptiness. That ache in humanity's heart is a yearning to know the divine, and all other attempts to 'fix' this emptiness is futile. Matthew 6:33 sums this up: Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Peace!
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