One thing that everyone agrees on is that this is not good for our country. A baby is a big responsibility, one that is too big for today’s teenagers to handle, especially unmarried teenage girls who, if they keep their babies, will have to raise the child without the assistance of a father.

Experts disagree, however, over what has caused the spike in teen pregnancies. Some criticize abstinence-only programs that do not teach teenagers how to use contraception, but many conservative organizations argue that the most common form of sex education focuses on contraceptives and that the new numbers serve as evidence that it is failing.

The Bible’s position on premarital sex is clear. In 1 Corinthians 6:18, Paul writes, “Flee from sexual immorality.” The word that he uses, also translated “fornication,” is rendered from the Greek porneia, which refers to every form of sexual intercourse outside of marriage. This definition includes homosexuality, adultery, and premarital sex. Using the same word in another passage, Paul listed sexual immorality among sins committed by the unrighteous who will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-11; cf. Gal. 5:19-21).

The Bible teaches that a sexual relationship is something that is good and important in a marriage relationship (Prov. 5:15-20; 1 Cor. 7:5; Heb. 13:4). Sex in itself is not evil, but sex is prohibited outside of the marriage relationship. One of the reasons God has made this prohibition is because a sexual relationship is a big responsibility. Teenagers are not ready for this kind of intimacy, let alone the burdens of childrearing. Children deserve better, and God’s word promotes the best environment for them: a home with a father and a mother.

The truth is that when teenagers are brought up under biblical standards, they are less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, pregnancies are less frequent, and many do wait until marriage before having sex. Sure, many Christian teens make mistakes, but even many of these come back to the Lord and renew their commitment to purity afterwards. God’s word has the answer to problems like teen pregnancy. The world may not be sharing it, and that is disappointing, but the saddest fact is that the church is not sharing it, and that is a shame.

Published in Seeking Things Above and at Truth and Repose.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti wasn’t Canadian, but he did have a pessimistic outlook on fall, as his poem, “Autumn Song,” demonstrates:

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

Something tells me Rossetti was writing about more than the change in the seasons.  Perhaps he penned these words in the autumn of his life.  Life, it seemed, was over, making death “a comely thing.”

Job took a different approach to this period of his life.  While defending himself to his friends, those “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2), he said, “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent” (Job 29:2-4).  The word “prime” can also be translated “my autumn days.”  Evidently, Job’s sorrows came upon him in the period of his life when he was ready to harvest the fruits of all his labors.  He was wealthy in possessions, family, and friends.  Of course, we know that all of this was cut short by Satan’s evil schemes, but Job incidentally makes an important point in his perspective on old age.  Life can be good at the fall of the leaf, as long as a person has lived his life so as to have something to harvest in that time.

Life is a gift at any age, but our days are short.  Job described it as a “breath” (Job 7:7).  And James famously asked, “What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (Jas. 4:14).  If we are not careful, we’ll take our lives for granted and become bitter about the struggles we have to endure.  Endure the trials, but don’t forget the blessings.  Life is good, especially when the friendship of God is on your tent.  That’s true at any age, whether it’s winter, spring, summer, or fall.

Posted at Truth and Repose.

What is true of the presidential debates applies to any question, whether it involves movies, music, philosophy, or fashion.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  People read the world around them through the lens of the attitudes and convictions that lie deep within them.

Knowing the importance of inward factors, Paul reminded the Ephesians of the lessons they had been taught when they became Christians:

But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Something radical had occurred in their conversion—something as deliberate and noticeable as changing clothes.  They had put off the “old self,” those worldly passions that kept them enslaved to sin, and had put on the “new self,” which was molded after God himself in “true righteousness and holiness.”

Paul knew that in addition to the conversion experience Christians must continue to grow.  That is why he encouraged his readers to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds.”  This “spirit” is the “spirit that directs the mind,” the inner man who exercises control over his entire being.  This is to be renewed continuously.  It is significant that the action related to the conversion experience—“put on” and “put off”—are in the aorist tense, which denotes activity occurring at a specific time in the past.  Over against this is the verb “be renewed,” which is in the present tense, denoting continuous action.  The believer must devote himself to the study of God’s word, meditation, prayer, and an appreciation of righteous role models so that his inward man stays fresh and new.  As Paul said in another place, “Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).

Why is it that every church contains two basic types of members?  Every church, whether it is thriving or struggling has enthusiastic contributors and members who struggle.  How can two radically different perspectives coexist in the same congregation?  The difference lies within.

Most of the time, spiritual failure occurs under the hood.  Many spiritual problems could be resolved by learning what Paul taught the Ephesians: that there is no life in Christ without inner renewal.

Published at Truth and Repose.

Maybe the church should argue that he’s suing the wrong defendant.  This is obviously a charismatic group where manic behavior is interpreted as the Spirit’s presence.  How could the church be held responsible for something that God did?  And who is this man to judge God for making him fall down and bump his head?

This fundamental problem has always haunted charismatic groups.  They specialize in highly subjective experiences interpreted as miracles endowed by the Spirit.  These experiences cannot be scientifically documented or authenticated.  Their proof is their sincerity: “I know what happened.  Are you calling me a liar?”  But these so-called miracles often clash with other “holy occurrences” and inspired truth.  Somebody’s not being honest.

In Lakeland, Florida, this summer Todd Bentley of Fresh Fire Ministries held a four month long revival meeting.  People came from all over the southeast, hoping that Bentley had a connection with God and that he could heal their diseases.  He ran from one person to the next, yelling, “Bam!  Bam!  Bam!”  Covered in tattoos and facial piercings he looked more like a circus sideshow act than a preacher.  Several charismatic leaders were disconcerted by his rough manner.  On one occasion he dropkicked a cancer patient in the stomach, bringing him to his knees.

Bentley is taking some time off now after it was revealed that he had an extramarital affair with a member of his staff.  Most of his charismatic counterparts are calling him a charlatan.  But if his miracles were not real, who is to say that any of them are?

God put his revealed will in written form 2,000 years ago so that we would not have to rely upon spiritual gifts for direction in life.  There are no modern-day miracles.  The Bible teaches that these gifts were meant to be temporary from the beginning (cf. 1 Cor. 13:10-13), but believers don’t have to go to the Bible to see that today’s charismatic movement is false.  All they have to do is open the newspapers and read about them.

This past week the Washington Post reported on a new study revealing a link between Alzheimer’s disease and loneliness. Elderly people with few or no friends are more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as people who reported that they are not lonely, the study shows. This will be helpful in fighting Alzheimer’s, but it’s not news that being alone can wreck your health. Ten years ago the World Health Organization suggested that solitude affecting millions of people was one of the most serious and immediate public health concerns.

Columnist Gary Kawamura believes that the iPod phenomenon is the result of a fear of being alone. People are uncomfortable with silence. So many young people are coping by living to a steady soundtrack that flows from a pair of ear buds plugged into their heads. But music is a poor substitute for a friend. The fact that people have been killed by walking into traffic while listening to their iPods attests to this.

Christ recognized our need for companionship. Mark told us he appointed twelve apostles “so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach” (3:14, emphasis added). They weren’t just the couriers of his message. These men were his friends. The Lord also frequented the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, whom he “loved” ([bible]John. 11:5[/bible]).

God could have conceived of a gospel that saves us individually. But instead he adds believers to the church (Acts 2:41, 47). Among other things, the Scriptures define this institution as a family (Eph. 2:19) (1 Tim. 3:15)(1 Pet. 2:5). Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ. This means that God thought of everything when it came to saving our souls. Not only did he conceive of a way to make us righteous through the blood of his Son, Jesus, but he also met our need for companionship by creating the church.

Churches everywhere need to be battling loneliness by reaching out to those who have been rejected by society and embracing those who have been wounded by isolation. Too often, Christians who have been at one congregation for a long time form cliques. There’s nothing wrong with having close friends, but we should never neglect the rest of our spiritual family. Let loneliness have its place in the world. Love and brotherhood should keep it out of the church.

I know that a lot of my regular readers were his regular readers, so I thought this would be an appropriate announcement. Drop by Occam’s RazR and leave Ike a comment; let him know you’re glad to be reading him again.

Over the last several decades, America has been trading its Christian values for secularism and worldly pursuits. The results are devastating. We no longer possess the restraint that is necessary for freedom to function in a way that benefits those who enjoy it. Freedom demands responsibility, and we have acted very irresponsibly.

Throughout the Iraq War, George W. Bush has reminded us of the need for people to be free. Freedom was one of the arguments given for invading Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a ruthless tyrant who needed to be removed. His power was suppressing the freedom of the Iraqis, causing great suffering. The United States stormed Iraq, removed Saddam, and set up a democracy, but people are still dying. They are free; why are they still suffering?

In a press conference in 2004, the President said, “I believe that freedom is the deepest need of every human soul.” While this conviction was founded on good intentions, it’s wrong. Freedom is not the deepest need of every human soul. That distinction belongs to God. He is our greatest need; only he can satisfy our deepest longings. We were created by him for his glory (Isa. 43:7). We have been wired to search for God in the hope that we might feel our way toward him and find him (Acts 17:26-27). The fear of the Lord is the only thing that makes man whole (Ecc. 12:13). If the Iraq War has taught us anything, it is that nothing, not even freedom, can replace our need to serve and worship our Creator.

The problem is, you cannot invade a country and force its inhabitants to submit to Jesus Christ. It’s been tried before, with horrific results. The human heart, by design, cannot be forced into bending against its will. The rest of the body can be beaten into submission, but not the heart. The heart must choose its own course.

When a nation chooses the way of morality and Christian virtue, it is ready for freedom. Its people may exercise their natural human rights–life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–without self-destructing.

It’s painful to watch America jettison her morals and abuse freedom as a license for sin. Perhaps God will be gracious and give us enough time to realize that righteousness exalts nations, not freedom (Prov. 14:34).