BenGen2

Alright... pastor Joshua covered 'Dating' on the 2nd day of BenGen..so here goes :)

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Numbers 36:6
⁶This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, "Let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father's tribe.'

The choice lies with the lady! *winks* Well, the choice can lie with YOU. You, the child of the Most High God. You can marry who you think best for you! =) Then again, within the family of their father's tribe. i.e. do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. So there's the boundary. Be of good cheer! For you HAVE choices! =)

Proverbs 6
²³For the commandment is a lamp, And the law a light; Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, ²⁴To keep you from the evil woman, From the flattering tongue of a seductress.
²⁵Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, Nor let her allure you with her eyelids.
²⁶For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread;And an adulteress^[c] will prey upon his precious life. ²⁷Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?
²⁸Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?
²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.
³⁰People do not despise a thief If he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.
³¹Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold; He may have to give up all the substance of his house. ³²Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding;
He who does so destroys his own soul.

Yup, and he goes again to warn us on the dangers of adultery. Definitely destructive. Common-sensical right?

Well, the main bulk of the message was on the Samaritan woman and her encounter with Jesus. Though she thought she did not need Him, she actually did! Cos Jesus is the true living water who could quench her thirst for love. Jesus went out of the way to meet her needs:

John 4
³He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. ⁴But He needed to go through Samaria.⁵So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
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¹⁰Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, "Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
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¹³Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

From verse 5, Sychar means "to be intoxicated with wine". Jesus went out of his way and came to Samaria to intoxicate this Samaritan woman (a picture of the Gentile church, that's us!) with His love! (wine = fruit of the Spirit, peace, joy, love, a picture of His intimacy with us) In verse 10, Jesus plainly tells her that it is He who would be the one to quench her thirst for love forever. For she had had 5 husbands and the one she was living with now was not her husband. Searching and searching for true love, but finding none. Isn't God good? For as we look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we get so intoxicated by the love He pours out for us. =) So that we have security in Christ. Wonderful.

Well, pastor closed the sermon by touching on the immoral woman in Proverbs 9:

¹⁷"Stolen water is sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
¹⁸But he does not know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of hell.

Solomon said that we should 'drink from our own cistern'. In the same way, the 'stolen water' here refers to stolen love, stolen intimacy. Water stolen from other's cisterns. i.e. committing adultery. 'Bread eaten in secret' does refer to the act of adultery as well. Yes, stolen water may be sweet, food eaten in secret may be delicious, but that act of adultery and the short-lived highs it may bring will definitely bring one onto a path of destruction. For the dead are there and that the guests of the immoral woman are in the depths of hell. Food for thought?