God, Sex, and Prayer: Don't Be So Heavenly-minded that You're No Earthly Good, Part 2 (TPMD Bus 2 -

TODAY'S POEM: "In The Early Hours" by Deborah Ann Belka

VERSE: 1 Corinthians 7:6-9: "But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." (Commentary from Matthew Henry's Commentary)

QUOTE: "I must take time to come into God's presence, to feel my weakness and my need, and to renew my fellowship with Him." --Andrew Murray

TOPIC: God, Sex, and Prayer: Don't Be So Heavenly-minded that You're No Earthly Good

We talked yesterday about how some people feel that in order for them to be spiritual, in order for them to pray and maintain a relationship with God, they cannot engage in the everyday things of life. That kind of spirit is nothing new.

In ancient times, there were groups of people known as ascetics who had a similiar mentality. An "ascetic" is "a person who practices severe self-discipline and abstention." According to the New Advent Dictionary, "Early Christians adopted it to signify the practice of spiritual things, or spiritual exercises performed for the purpose of acquiring the habits of virtue." People who chose the lifestyle of asceticism withdrew from worldly pleasures in order to pursue religious and spiritual goals....

DEVOTIONAL: "Ask of Me (Part 1)" from E.M. Bounds

Pray, Think, Do! God Bless You!

MUSIC: "What if His People Prayed?" by Casting Crowns