My Commitment. My Stand! God's Way, Not Man's!

Its been a while now since I last blogged. But, thanks be to the Lord for a few godly encouragements from my awesome life group members and the launching of the J4 blog, which prompted me to publish this post of which the topic I hold a firm stand. It is none other than, the controversial, exciting and hair raising topic of: Relationships and Dating.

Now, I personally know that I am not ready for a serious relationship at all. Yes, being 18 and being around a culture that promotes and encourages dating as a norm, it can be very tempting to just go along with the flow and be accepted by fellow peers. But hey, who ever said making a stand was easy? Especially a stand for God? Jesus was crucified, Peter was crucified upside down, the apostle Paul was beheaded, and a whole list of godly men were stoned, flogged and persecuted just because they made a stand. Furthermore, Matt 5:13 calls us to be salt and light, to be set apart, and Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to the patterns of this world.

But first, let me show you what the world has done to the image of love, relationships and dating. It has done nothing but present a perverted version of what was once an amazing gift from God. Gone were they days of commitment, gone were the days of virtue and out the window goes godliness. Now, what we have is the self-centered, short-termed and immoral practice of "Recreational Dating", which is dating where both individuals have no interest of commitment or marriage and it is just solely to satisfy fleshly pleasures. Boys now think they can be a man and play the games of REAL MEN while not assuming responsibility of it! All they want now is the kiss kiss touch touch urge to merge nonsense......

Here are the few reasons why I choose to stay clear from relationship for now:

1. I am not physically, mentally, financially and most importantly spiritually capable of leading another. I believe intimacy comes at the cost of commitment and if I am not ready to commit myself to that relationship, then I have no right to be even thinking of another. Come on, I'm only 18, there is so much more I have to learn from the Lord and grow in maturity in Him.
2. I do not want to allow myself to easily fall into sexual sin and desires of the flesh for youthful lust is so dangerous. We could so easily commit adultery at any point! When I say adultery, I'm referring to the Matt 5:28 definition which states whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Let us compare two verses, Eph 6:11 which says we may take our stand against the devil and 1Cor 6;18 which says flee from sexual immorality. See that how much more dangerous sexual immorality and lust is? Even when the devil comes, we stand and he flees. But when it comes to sexual immorality, we are told to flee! Let us do our best to achieve:
3. Marriage is sacred! It is so sacred that God uses marriage to symbolize the uniting of His son and His church. The bible calls the church the bride of Christ (Rev 21:2). If God has described it to be such a sacred occasion, let us not rush into a relationship, but seek God always for preparation.
4. Eph 5:25 says: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. How far did Christ go for His church? All the way to the point of death. This means if I were to get into a relationship, and if I want to be Christlike in it, I must be able to lay down my life for my spouse, to stand at the door to protect her from whatever that comes!
5. Matthew 6:33 encourages us that if we seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, all these things shall be added unto us. I'm sure when God said "ALL THESE THINGS", I'm sure that includes a perfect spouse made just for each and every one of us individually. After all, if marriage is so sacred, a spouse would probably be one of God's top priorities in a list of things to give us. So let us stop worrying and seeking and thinking we know best and try to play God, but rather, trust and obey!
6. Why bother spending so much time, effort, and money, calling and texting someone to share your problems with, hoping they can help just because they are you boy/girl friend, where we have an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient prayer-answering God whos promises will endure! Why not turn to Him and lean on Him, and He will make straight your path? (Prov 3:5)
7. What right do I have to waste my parent's hard earned money on another person's daughter? What right do I have to take another man's daughter/son? I mean, I would be pretty pissed off if someone just came into my house without permission and took all my Gundam. I'm not saying I sexually made those Gundams, but still, they are something I treasure.

I know some of you are probably thinking 'Wow, Paul has officially gone crazy'. But we are talking about the standards of the Most High, the King of Kings, the Almighty, Sinless and Blameless, Pure Light and we can just go on and on. Therefore, this is not just what I am saying, this is what God commands us to keep. Your problem now will not be with men, but with God and His Word.

Finally, I CANNOT find in the Bible teachings that endorse the kind of recreational dating that the world practices today. It teaches us to date and dump based on compatibility and when something goes wrong, change the person you are "with". Imagine if God did that to us. We would have been "dumped" the first time we sin! Let us all pursue godliness in relationships together and be:

and women