Today i had a serious debate with some friends over 2 very sensitive topics for members of any religion. The first topic was the sex issue and the church. We debated whether or not the church should teach its members about the risks, and/or benefits of unsafe and safe sex. Should the church be the forum for which people are able to be educated about sex. And if it is does that mean that the church is promoting premarital sex to people? My personal belief is yes, if the church is going to discuss sex at all it needs to stop discussing sex within the bounds of marriage only. Now I'm not saying that the church should openly say that it is discussing sex both inside and outside of marriage, but once a person is married he or she will already be practicing safe sex. I believe The church needs to educate its people on the dangers of certain taboos that have been culturally accepted about sex, that have been scientifically disproven. In my opinion these issues cannot be left up to the home because so many young people are the result of this same lack of adequate sexual education. I think that if we truly love our fellow church members especially the youth that we will be willing to educate them, and not assume that if we only say abstinence then they will listen, but we will do like the Lord himself and lay out all the facts and allow our young people to make the best decisions, and hope that the Holy Spirit will guide through this decision.

The second discussion was on the role of the church in disciplining sins of its members. Now, this takes an entirely different turn of events. First of all, I don't believe that the church has a right to judge people. Now of course a leader must lead by example right? But I believe that just like someone needs 70 * 7 chances to grieve the Holy Spirit, that if a member of the church is caught in the act of adultery, that we should speak to that person, be like Jesus, and say "Go and sin no more" and this should be said to that person more than once before they are "disciplined" as my friend said, however I believe that in this case "discipline" and "judged" are synonymous with each other. There exists several biblical references that according to my friend points to the fact that if someone is found committing a sin that before any action is taken against that person, the person must be approached by the members of the church. If a man is found to be gambling and is the leader of a church, should he be stripped of his title right after one person talks to him? Or should he be given a chance to redeem himself? And make things better for him and his family? And if he continues to follow in the path of his sin, then maybe the church board can decide that he should be forced to give up his leadership position. I think that the church is so quick to throw stones at people, and so hard to forgive. We do the opposite of what Jesus did, and that no matter how you sugar coat it is WRONG. Man cannot judge man, because when he does, his imperfect mind creates as a friend of mine said in this discussion "greater and lesser sin" That is crap! There is no such thing in God's eyes! And if we are to try to follow the example of Jesus then we need to stop being the judge, and start being the counselor that helps the person instead of the one who throws them into jail. I think that sometimes we see only what we want to see in a situation, and maybe I am the same way, but I guess that's the way life goes huh? You win some, you lose some, but in the end its all about you and God, so why can't we let God do his judging since he always knows exactly what discipline we deserve? If we love someone we need to lead them in the right path, not condemn them for a mistake. If we just speak to them, we need to continue to do so, don't be so quick to strip them of their positions in church because you never know how far away from the Lord they could've become, and by kicking them out you can be pushing them even further away. And is that the message of the gospel? Because if it is I think I need to reconsider this whole thing, because the example set by Jesus, and the ones set by us today are two completely different things. If man was allowed to judge David would never have been allowed to be King for so long, and though he fell several times he was a man close to God's own heart. Moses who saw and spoke to God was a man who was transformed, and even after all the miraculous events of his life, still there were times when he went astray. We need to see that God will always do the just thing, and we should leave the judgement up to him, and I know everyone is going to say that how are we going to have a Youth leader who is not married and pregnant speaking to our young people about purity and stuff, but while man looks out the outward appearance God looks at the heart. And this young woman can still be an example for these young people. She can tell them about the dangers of sex, and relationships that don't put God first. If the church stopped thinking "what kind if example would he or she be?" and started thinking "what kind of example am i" no one would have to worry about this young lady leading the young people astray, because she would only serve to be an example to them, and it might become easier for some of them to approach her about their own problems. But no one who is expelled from school wants to still come and tutor people within the school, c'mon lets be real here.

Well is 5:55 am and I think its time for worship, so until later world just think about the fact that God was once one of us, and how differently he did everything.