You're Invited

Short Version:

We're having a casual get together, next Wednesday night (May 6) at our home at 8:00 p.m.

We'll be sitting down with three newlywed couples, who truly desired to honor God's Word in regard to sexual stuff during the time they dated, and the time when they were engaged.

I just said, "sexual stuff" so that's proof...this thing will be casual. Don't expect any powerpoint slides.

Girls/guys/parents are welcome to attend.

These verses (and many others) were ones that brought deep conviction and hope to the couples we'll be learning from as they made the journey from single to married...

1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

Now in the Amplified Version ...

Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Ephesians 5:3
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.

1 Timothy 5:1b-2
Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

Aaron and I will facilitate a laid back discussion between these couples, asking them questions about how the Lord guided them, with scripture to safeguard their hearts and lives against sexual sin before they were married. We'll ask them things like, "How did these verses shape your relationship with each other before you were married?"

These couple's approaches were different, since of course, these couples are different, but it's been a huge blessing for us as parents, to watch people date and do the engagement thing free from a lot of the sexual junk that plagues most dating relationships (ours included).

I think this will be a night of great hope as we hear their struggles, their testimonies, and MOST IMPORTANTLY the fruit of living with those verses in mind while they were dating and engaged.

None of these people are claiming to be perfect, but I believe their hearts and their stories will fill us all with hope that God is doing a beautiful thing in the lives of couples as they pursue purity in dating and engagement. I have been blessed to see the gospel lived out in the way that these couples have loved one another, loved the body and loved the Lord.

Long Version....

What this night will NOT be about is trying to convince people that sexual stuff prior to marriage is sinful. We believe purity should be the goal in all areas of our lives, so of course we believe that sexual stuff before marriage is...sin. We are always asking God to help us understand and honor marriage better. We want to see marriage the way God does. We believe all this sexual poo prior to marriage is one way, we devalue marriage.

For more on these sort of topics, you can read these previous posts:

Introduction to the topic

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3 from dating worksheet we do in Her Hands. The comments under these two sections are worth reading.

Post 4 from dating retreat last Spring.

Aaron and I are NOT claiming to be the authority on dating. What a joke. But, I don't apologize for having our own convictions and thoughts as we work through these verses with fear and trembling. Not only do we have our own dating relationship to pick apart, look through, and GRIEVE...we're also parents. We would be foolish NOT to be thinking through these ideas, since one day, we will walk with our sons down this road.

You don't have to share our exact convictions on how these verses should be lived out. But let me warn you...we DO have convictions about these verses and the way they are lived out. We may not be completely right. We're humans. We're still learning.

We won't say we're the only ones right on this dating stuff. We won't say we know the best way to do this. We won't say we're right and others are wrong.

We WILL say that our desire is to figure out how to shepherd hearts towards loving God, and honoring Him as they go from single to married. We also are pretty passionate about wanting those same things for our sweet boys one day too.

We WILL continue to throw out scripture and say, "Let's think through what God is saying here, knowing that He wants good for us, He loves us, and wants to protect us from the evil around us."

No matter what, I think these are great things...wonderful things actually, that need to be thought through. We are called to CAREFULLY find out what pleases the Lord. We're called to live purposefully. We're called to think through everything in our lives that our world and our culture throws at us, and we're commanded to use scripture as the foundation for all of our questions and conclusions.

If you're coming on Wednesday night, then I believe the Lord needs to have already convicted your soul on this matter of sexual purity in dating/engagement. We're not doing any teaching on dating this evening, and this certainly will NOT be a debate. We're simply saying, if God has already spoken to you through His Word about purity, your desire is to pursue it and honor God as you go from single to married, but you need hope...you have questions...you are struggling...you want to know if "waiting on the Lord" in this area is worth it...then this evening is for you.

If you have a teen, and you're back and forth between what the standards for sexual purity should be for your child, and you need to be encouraged that maybe you're not a lunatic, that God really can bring two people together without a bunch of sexual yuck being involved, then I think you'll leave inspired and your faith in the Lord renewed.

This will not be a night about legalism.

We pray that this evening's discussion is centered around bringing honor to the Lord in the way that singles love one another, and engaged couples wait on the Lord with purity in mind.

I pray we all get to see some real-life examples of people seeking to live out the beauty of God's Word, to heed it's warnings, and to fear the Lord in the area of sexual purity. The safeguards these couples put in place to protect their hearts from sin, and keep their eyes on the Lord, are different, but their hearts were the same. They wanted to heed scripture's warning in regard to sexual purity. I believe ANY time God does something as lovely as what I've seen in these couple's lives, that we can ALL learn from it.

_____________________________________________________________

Anyone is welcome to come listen.

If you're coming, I need to know.

If there's more interest than I'm anticipating there will be, we may have to find a different location.

Either leave a comment to tell me you're coming or email me at hendrickcrew@gmail.com