A while back, I moderated a short-lived group on Facebook called “CrossQuest,” where I invited others to ask tough questions about God, faith, and everything in between. One question I posed to the group was:
CrossQuestion: can you make love and/or have sex with a Gospel song playing in the background?
The responses I got from the question can be found here : http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/143497142342502/permalink/379619952063552/
And they ranged from people saying yes to people saying “heck to the naw.” For it was impossible for some, maybe most to think about bumping and grinding to “Something About the Name Jesus.” Here is the message God gave to me back then, and it still has some relevance today.
How often have we caught ourselves trying to rationalize or justify the things we do wrong? How often have we found ourselves doing things that we subconsciously know we shouldn’t be doing, yet found a way to make what we are doing make rational sense to ourselves? It would appear that as people, we know that there are things that God would be pleased with and things that He wouldn’t, so by socialization and rationalization, we decide that God can only be a part of our lives in particular chunks, whereas in other areas, He cannot or should not exist.
Take the issue of sex and Gospel music, for instance. We all have been taught that sex is a dirty thing, that having it is such a horrible, horrible thing to do outside of marriage, something that’s done behind closed doors, something that has to be kept in the dark, something that no one should know that we do (whether we’re married or not). We’ve gotten so good at keeping it a secret, in fact, that we feel that we should keep it a secret from God Himself, even though He knows everything we do anyway. So the thought of playing a smooth Gospel track in the background, grinding to a “Jesus Joint,” seems appalling, sacrilegious, demented, disgusting, and just plain wrong, EVEN THOUGH God sanctioned sex as something that married couples should have and enjoy. So, if sex is such a dirty thing outside of marriage, something that we shouldn’t do, why do we ignore the voice of God when we decide to do the wrong things?
We are good at ignoring God when we want to, choosing to serve God only when it appeases us, when it is a benefit to us, when it makes us feel great and that our purpose is being served. But we also fully know how to shut that voice off, to ignore the voice of God when He is telling us to back out. Some people call it, “He’s not through with me yet.” Others call it, “The devil made me do it.” Some say, “Well, preachers do it, so why shouldn’t I?” Others say, “I simply do not care.” Atheists have proclaimed that, “The Bible has too many holes in it.” Saints have said, “Well, I know all I need to know.” Scientists believe, “I’ll believe it when I can see it.” And mere mortals have said, “I just want what I want, and I’m gonna do what I gotta do to get what I want.” Regardless of where some of us fit, all those excuses are our ways of trying to place what God has instilled in us (the Holy Spirit) and tried our very best to rationalize it, break it down to mere mortal understanding and justification so that we can continue doing what we want to do, even if it hurts us in the long run.
Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and that’s the bottom line. There are no ways around it, no loopholes to jump through. And the beauty of it is that God has given us a conscience that tells us what is right and wrong. But when we allow our mortal minds to try to circumvent what God has placed in us, we place ourselves in situations when we ignore God and, without even really knowing it, submit ourselves to Satan and his powers by speaking justification and rationalization, two of Satan’s most powerful messages here on Earth. When we know that we’re LIVING in sin, the only way we can get sleep at night is by justifying and rationalizing why we do what we do, and even though we know it’s wrong, if we can make sense of why we do it (and find other people who can make sense of it, too), then we don’t mind being bound by Satan and being his ambassadors, letting the world know, “It’s okay to have premarital sex, it’s okay to smoke a little dope, it’s okay to drink until we pass out, it’s okay that we lie, it’s okay that we gossip, it’s okay that we cheat, it’s okay that we steal, it’s okay that we sleep with people outside our marriage, it’s okay that we club-hop, it’s okay if we (fill in the blank). God’s not through with us yet.” And just like that, we go on doing what we do, because we simply turned God off.
The bigger issue we as a people face is this: how long will we live our lives based on the rationale of man before we realize that the rationale of man is not sufficient enough for us to live the fulfilled lives that God has promised we can live by serving Him? For too long, we have allowed Satan to keep us bound by speaking death over ourselves and enjoying the so-called benefits of living double standards. For too long, we have allowed ourselves to remain in states of defeat because someone told us that it’s okay if we succumb to our human nature. For too long, we have stayed in the background, watching the wrong thing take place in our own backyards and said nothing, not standing for what we believe in for fear of what may happen if we actually do speak up. For too long, we have lain our religions down so that we can do what we have to do, rather than keeping our Crosses in the ground and saying that God will fight our battles for us and rejoicing in that. For too long, we have allowed the temptations and enticements of this world to bring us to our knees, and rather than praying when we get there, we crash to the ground, and as we lay prostrate, rather than getting in the presence of God to pick us back up, we stay right where we are, settling for the rationalization of man than the divination of God because we are comfortable, right where we are.
Now is the time to rise up out of the mediocrity. Now is the time to stop settling for what man has to offer us and reaching for what God has already given us freely. Let’s stop pretending that we don’t hear the voice of God and stand on His Word. Let us hold one another up in love and truth and tell the devil, “No, not anymore.” Let us stop trying to use our mortal minds to understand the divinity and begin allowing the Spirit to guide us into the things we should do and should not do. And let us always remember, regardless of what we actually think in our minds sometimes, GOD IS ALWAYS WATCHING US.
As God Speaks To Me 
It seems we automatically block out God from some things in our lives that are “shameful, disgusting, etc”, not just in the sex case. When I was practising praying without interrupting it, (not ceasing) and was doing pretty well, something happened: I had to go to the toilet to do my necessities. It sounds funny now, but I panicked at the time. Go to the bathroom while I pray and continue to pray while the work gets done, I flush and wash my hands? It sounded absurd! But I did it anyway, and it felt REALLY awkward. I guess I’d feel the same thing if I sex with Gospel music playing in the background.
Hey MTP!
First, thanks for taking time to read the post and comment, your thoughts are always a delight to ponder on. Two comments on what you wrote. First, the things that we as people of this day find shameful or disgusting changes as the time progresses, and as society adapts to the changes in trends and fads. As a result, what we may find disgusting today may not be disgusting tomorrow. And what we don’t find disgusting today, we might end up believing is utterly repulsive tomorrow. And if we don’t have a standard that transcends the fickle trends of society, we may find ourselves thinking that the things God has created for good is actually bad (Acts 10:9-16, Isaiah 5:20, John 3:19).
Secondly, when it comes to worship, I, too, felt like God could only exist in parts and chunks of my daily walk, that he couldn’t exist everywhere, in all aspects of my life. So when you talk about feeling awkward about talking to God while doing the “do” in the bathroom, I completely agree with you. But what God has shown to me as of late is that my worship to God is not limited to just pure worship. I actually worship God in everything that I do, for He is always with me wherever I go. If the Spirit of God dwells within me, and I adhere to His guiding hands as He orders my steps, then everything I do, even going to the bathroom, is worship in some kind of way. It may not be the conventional definition of worship. But then again, Jesus was not the conventional type to begin with.
Hit me back! 😀
Yes, there are lots of moments that are tagged as “mine” for being very “personal and gross” – at least nowadays and to my culture, like you said. (I don’t think people who live in tribes think the same as me.)
That’s a very big issue to think about: things we find are bad but were made good by God. It could be part of another post! Lots of times, in “my” moments, I only call upon God when I need help with something – like if I’m hurting, especially, so if it’s okay to call upon Him in times of trouble even if it’s in the bathroom, why not worship in there too, right?
More into the actual post, would listening to Gospel music while having sex make it any more pure and good in God’s sight? No! Like you said, right is right and wrong is wrong. There’s no in-between. If you’re having sex outside of marriage or with someone the same sex of you and so on, it doesn’t mater how loud the Hillsong song is playing in the background – it’s not right! So how about the opposite: would listening to Gospel music while having sex it make it repulsive, “not right” and unholy? No! Or, at least it shouldn’t. But I guess to most people it is.
Society has put its way inside our minds and it has gone deeper than we realise. Even what’s moral and not moral is twisted by it.