Get the thoughtful, more detached view of other Christians, and make sure older, married people are in the mix rather than too your single friends. When Jesus returns, fasting will be done. For reasons that have everything to do with him, and nothing to do with you, this is the MO of the guy who we have the hardest time understanding. My knee-jerk reaction is: No, you are not ready. I for it will help release them from bondage. I met a man on the dating site 4weeks ago. Sex is reserved for the ocean deeps of marriage, not the safe wading depth of dating. What would you say. He started calling me 'babe' after two weeks. I had not been civil for anyone in my life; he just appeared. But you can start somewhere—slowly, and casually—and trust God to lead you into more. Share your fasting tips or experiences in the comments!.
My wife and I love the beach. She lived near a dozen beautiful beaches outside of Los Angeles until I ripped her away to snowy Minnesota. Part of enjoying the beach, at least in California, is enjoying the sunshine. We have weather like theirs here, too, blue skies, burning sun, light breeze — at least for two or three weeks every year. More than half of enjoying the beach, though, is being able to stand that close to something that big. Something happens deep inside of us when we walk up, let the water splash over our feet, and stare out over endless waves, extending far beyond our imagination can run. And we can safely play there in its wake at Newport Beach, wading carelessly into seemingly infinite power and mystery. He Drew a Line in the Sand How is something that big that safe for us? Because God holds it back with a word. He wanted to give us categories for his bigness and his majesty. And then he drew a line in the sand and told the waves they could go no farther. He set a boundary. To show us that the waves are his, to tell us that he is sovereign, creative, and wise — and that he can be trusted. Gallons of Mystery God does the same kind of work in marriage and dating. As we walk up to the edge of marriage, we draw close to something so much bigger than ourselves. God designed love in marriage, like gallons and gallons of ocean, to show us how unsearchable his love is for us. We could never contain it or know it completely. And because love within a covenant is so large, so intense, so captivating, he established a boundary, a shoreline. He drew a line in the sand for our safety, and to secure our greatest happiness in marriage. Any woman who is not your wife is not your wife. Any man who is not your husband is not your husband. No almost-husbands, not kind-of-wives, no probably-one-day marriages. God intended for one man to be joined with one woman in the promises of marriage, and he intended for us to enjoy marital intimacy and pleasure, especially sexual intimacy and pleasure, only in the context of those promises. Sex is reserved for the ocean deeps of marriage, not the safe wading depth of dating. You may eat of every tree, but one. Satan takes the infinite creativity and generosity of the Father, and makes him sound stingy. Do you hear the manipulation and deception — making freedom look like slavery? Why did God tell them not to eat from the one tree? He was trying to save them. Satan takes the infinite wisdom and love of the Father, and makes him sound overprotective. He makes suicide seem harmless. Satan takes the wisdom and love in good boundaries and makes them look stingy, overprotective, and unnecessary. How Far Is Too Far? Where do we need to draw the line? What are we allowed to do now? How much should we save for marriage? What if you and your boyfriend or girlfriend started by asking a different question? What are we really after in dating or in all of life? What are we trying to secure or enjoy in this relationship? If the honest answer is affection and intimacy, no number of boundaries can guard us completely. Acts of War in Dating We get so defensive about dating — always on guard against evil, always fighting against temptation. But what if the boundaries we keep were really meant to help us fight for something? What if, instead of fence-building, they were acts of war in love? He makes Christian dating sound like slavery. Christ came to us not to enslave us, though, but to liberate us. A life in Christ is a life of freedom. A relationship in Christ — believing in him, following him, submitting to him, obeying him — is a relationship filled with freedom, not slavery or oppression. The boundaries — these spiritual acts of war — are not stealing anything from us.
