:::Purity:::

Uh oh... the big P word:)
Purity.

Facts first::
-noun
1. The condition or quality of being pure
2. Freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes.
3. Freedom from any mixture or modifying addition.
4. Freedom from sin or guilt of envy; innocence;
5. Pysical chastity; virginity
6. Freedom from foreign or inappropriate elements
7. The chroma, saturation, or degree of freedom from white of a given color
8. Cleanness or spotlessness.

I'm at a point in my life where the definition of purity seems to be in more of a gray area than it ever has been before. In the past 6 months, even during my time at YWAM, doubts of what purity means, looks like, or should be, have come up in my mind and warred greatly within my heart and against my conscience.

The question was asked to me by one of my best friends in early December while we were in the middle of a heated argument, and it has stuck with me since.

What is purity?

Go to Dictonary.com and you'll find the definitions I gave above. And no doubt, those definitions are very intense and heavy. There isn't too much room for question within those definitions: Clean, spotless, virginity, FREEDOM.
Gosh that word Freedom pops up everywhere.... as it should! Everybody wants to be free. But it's the question of free FOR what, and free FROM what.

Ahhh.... this topic will be for another blog I suppose:) Back to my thoughts about purity.

I recently started a new job working at the front desk of a hotel... so far... I LOVE it. It's so fun and I love people and I think customer service is so great so I'm enjoying it very much. However, there is a huge flatscreen TV on the opposite side of the lobby from me and it is highly encouraged for us to leave the TV playing News Channels.... which, I dunno if you've watched the news lately... but it is DEPRESSING. Kids are abducted left and right, families murdered, Swine-flu deaths, Craiglists killers... ahh. It's so sad. The world needs Jesus. :(

But anyways, one of the heated discussions they recently had on HLN news was the debate of Sexual purity. Bristow Palin, daughter of Governor Sarah Palin, made quite an appearance on the news this past week. One of the big scandals during the Presidential election was the fact that Sarah Palin's oldest daughter, Bristow, was pregnant out of wedlock. Well now, she has a four month old son named Skip with her boyfriend and she wanted to be an advocate for abstinence. Of course, the media tore her apart. They asked if she thinks she has a right to say anything about abstinence, especially in light of the hipocrisy of her present situation. She said regardless of what she's done, she knows that Abstinence is the best way to go because it guarantees the chances of not having an STD or unwanted pregnancy.

They invited three "experts" to come discuss this topic on the news station, and what one woman said just completely broke my heart.
"Asking teenagers to practice abstinence is unrealistic. More than 95% of teenagers are already sexually active, and so based on those statistics, abstinence basically no longer exists so we should no longer be teaching it to our young adults... there's no need!! Abstinence is no longer anything to be thought about, it is an extremely unrealistic method that is practically impossible for our teenagers, and therefore we should be promoting methods of safe sex to avoid STD's and unwanted pregnancies."

And... my hearts breaks. :( I can't believe I live in a time where the media makes bold statements like "Abstinence is nearly impossible and therefore is no longer relevant to this generation."
What are we, animals?? So what decides right vs. wrong? Mass percentage of a population? So, when the majority of a group of people give in to their lustful desires and throw values such as self-control, self-worth, and dignity out the window, we just have to go along with them and we change whats right and wrong? Since when has right and wrong been subjective? Since we are we allowing the media, or majority of people, determine whats right and wrong when it comes to premarital sex? Has our generation become so dilluted to evil, to sin, to the world, that we no longer have a conscience?

I just wanted to scream at the TV... "HELLO!! DO YOU REALIZE THAT THE REASON WHY THE 95% OF TEENAGERS ARE ALREADY SEXUALLY ACTIVE IS BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU GUYS ARE PROMOTING!!! Every TV show, every movie, every COMMERCIAL, every magazine, every News Programs, advertises some type of fornication; a couple living together before they get married, multiple sex partners, personal sexual preference. You can have what you want, WHEN you want it, how you want it, no matter what it costs!! If it feels good, do it. Forget about values. Forget responsibility. And most of all, don't you dare judge me. I live in the land of the free, and I'm free to do as I please. If I think its right and I feel OK about it, it's right. HELLO MEDIA. Congratulations, you get the blame for this one."

One of the bonuses of my new job is that I have a lot of down time... to read:)
Right now, I'm re-reading one of my favorite books of all time by Elisabeth Elliot called "Passion & Purity."
Oh my GOSH it's really wrecking my heart. The rest of the blog will be some quotes I get from the book.... if you haven't read it yet you should. I long to be back at this place, desiring Jesus above all other fleshly desires. I hope these quotes mess with your heart as much as they did with mine.... and leave you longing for the extraordinary life with Jesus.

"Somehow, we've gotten the idea that we can forget all the regulations and get away with it. Times have changed, we say. We're 'Liberated' at last from our inhibitions. We have Sex and the Single Girl now. We have freedom. We can, in fact, "have it all and not get hooked.' Women can be predators if they want to, as well as men. Men aren't men unless they've proved it by seducing as any women as possible-or as many men, for we may now choose according to "sexual preference." We can go to bed with those of the opposite sex or those of our own. It doesn't matter. A mere question of taste, and we all have a "right" to our tastes. Everybody's equal. Everybody is free. Nobody is hung up anymore or needs to deny himself anything. In fact, nobody ought to deny himself anything he wants badly-- it's dangerous. It's unhealthy. It's sick. If it feels good and you don't do it, you're paranoid. If it doesn't feel good and you do it, you're a masochist."

"What do women want today? What do men want? I mean, deep down. what do they really want? If "times" have changed, have human longings changed, too? How about principles? Have Christian principles changed?
I say no to the last three question, an emphatic no. I am convinced that the human heart hungers for constancy. In forfeiting the sanctity of sex by casual, nondiscriminatory "making out" and "sleeping around," we forfeit something we cannot well do without. There is dullness, monotony, sheer boredom in all of life when virginity and purity are no longer protected and prized. By trying to grab fulfillment everywhere, we find it nowhere."

"Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have no begun to understand, let alone to accept, His lordship. The Cross, as it enteres the love life, will reveal the heart's truth."

"One morning I was reading the story of Jesus' feeding of the 5000. The disciples could find only five loaves of bread and two fishes. "Let me have them," said Jesus. He asked for all. He took them, said the blessing, and broke them before He gave them out. I remembered what a chapel speaker, Ruth Stull of Peru, had said: "If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad."

"The Lord told King David to set up an altar on the threshing floor that belonged to Araunah the Jebusite. When the king asked Araunah if he might buy it, Araunah begged him to take it, as a gift, along with his oxen for an offereing and the threshing sledges for fuel. "No," said King David, "... I will not offer to the Lord my God whole-offerings that have cost me nothing..."
Lord, I said, here's my heart."

"There are over a million pregnancies per year among unmarried girls under twenty... What they want they take, any way they can get it.... It would be foolish to deny that there are some pleasures along that road. There is plenty of what people call fun. There are thrills, gratifications, "experiences." -- A road may seem straightforward to a man, yet may end as the way to death. Even in laughter the heart may grieve, and mirth may end in sorrow. -- There is another way: to love what God commands and desire what He promises. It can't be found except through prayer and obedience. It cuts quite across the other way, takes us where things are not at the mercy of changing fashions and opinions. It is a place where a man's heart may safely rest-- and a womans' heart, too."

"Waiting silently is the hardest thing of all... But the things that we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about, at least until we have talked them over thoroughly with God."


"If the yearnings went away, what would we have to offer up to the Lord? Aren't they given to us to offer? It is the control of passion, not it's eradication, that is needed. How would we learn to submit to the authority of Christ if we have nothing to submit?"

"If you love someone, there are many things you will do for that person because you love him -- not because it's what you'd prefer if love did not enter the picture. The fact is, love has entered the picture. Therefore, in your heart, you can be very honest when you tell prefer to do what He wants, because, more than your own pleasure, you want His."

"When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him. If I can say yes to that questioncan't I say yes to pleasing Him? Can't I say yes even if it means a sacrifice? A little quiet reflection will remind me that yes to God ALWAYS leads in the end to joy. We can absolutely bank on that."

"Jesus loves me, this I know -- not because He does just what I'd like, but because the Bible tells me so. Calvary proves it. He loved me and gave Himself for me."

"The effect of my troubles depends not on the nature of the troubles themselves but on how I receive them. I can receive them with both hands in faith and acceptance, or I can rebel and reject. What they produce if I rebel and reject will be something very different froma mature character, something nobody is going to like.
Look at the choices
rebellion - if this is the will of God for me now, He doesn't love me.
rejection - if this is what God is giving me, I won't have any part of it.
faith - God knows exactly what He's doing.
acceptance - Heloves me; He plans good things for me; I'll take it."

"The words "full of joy here and now" depend ont he words "taken in the right spirit." You cant have one without the other. Take ina spirit of trust, een loneliness contributes to the maturing of character, even the endurance of separation and silence and theat hardest thing of all, uncertainty, can build in us a steady hope."