You see, there is after all a good side to be an Ethiopian immigrant. You get to celebrate two Christmas holidays a year. Yep!

Today is Christmas in Ethiopia! So, for all of you Ethiopians who celebrate Christmas today, Very Merry Christmas to you and yours!

As Christians, I believe we should celebrate Christmas every day, the day God gave “His Son” to save us, sinners.

The Bible says,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16NASB

Amen!

Yes, we celebrate this Gift of God every day!

In the video attached with blog, I am continuing on the topic I’ve started two weeks ago regarding one particular question: What should married Christian couples do when they face sexual challenges/problems in their marriages?

It’s becoming very common to see today young married couples having sexual problems mainly because of Erectile Dysfunction.

The wife tries everything that she thinks will help her husband. The more the wife tries to wear different lingerie to help him desire to be intimate with her, the more he avoids her. Sometimes the husband gives some bogus reasons to sleep in a different bedroom and leave his marital bed.

What is the solution for this problem? Why is a young man as young as 29 or 32 struggling with erectile dysfunction? Of course there could be hormonal or/and physical problems but why is this problem becoming too common today?

As Christians, when we face challenges in our lives, we first seek the counsel of the word of God so we can understand our problems and maybe seek and find a solution.

These days, any secular doctor easily writes a prescription for Viagra or they simply say, “You know, watching porn helps lots of couples. Did you try that?”

Hmm!

What if, the young man replies to his doctor saying, “Well, I am 27 years old? I lived with porn since I was 7 years old. I watched every porn video you can think of. So do you think porn will help me solve my problem now?”

With all the busyness and the pressure many doctors are put into, to see ten patients within ten minutes, writing a Viagra prescription might be an easy thing to do.

Most men these days don’t even “waste” their time trying to see their primary care physicians. Since Viagra is available illegally today, without a doctor’s prescription, they go looking for Viagra. “In Ethiopia too?” Yes, very much so!

But the question is, “Is Viagra for everyone?”

Okay, let’s leave that question to the prescribing physicians while we move to the next question: What does the Bible say about this?

The word of God has no answer or suggestions for any problem related to our sexual organs because the commanding officer of all our body organs is found in our hearts and minds. So, the word of God always targets our hearts and minds.

Listen,

“Be careful what you think,
because your thoughts run your life.” Proverbs 4:23NCV

Wow! Did you read that?

So whatever we let our ears hear and our eyes see makes up the whole total of our views and understandings in life, including our sexuality. That means, Christian married couples should first find out their views and outlooks about their marriages and sexual lives and see if those views match the views of the word of God.

We’ve seen in the last two videos especially on the first one that the Author of this life is God and the Author of marriage is God too. Marriage is not one of human inventions but God’s. As God is the Author of our lives, so is He of our sexual nature. And the word of God is not silent about this part of our lives. It talks about it.

For example, look at this passage:

“Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” 1 Corinthians 7:1-5ESV

The operating word in the second sentence is “But.”

Do you know what that “But” say? It says, “God created you to be sexual and He created a right place for you to be sexual. That place is called a covenantal one-flesh relationship between one man and one woman called Marriage. If you refuse or avoid this relationship that God created for you and you for it, you will end up in sexually immoral lifestyle – a lifestyle God didn’t create you for. Since you are not created for sexual immorality, you will automatically destroy your life by embracing it. But if you embrace marriage, you make your life beautiful, free from sexual immorality and you lengthen your life by entering into this covenantal relationship called marriage.”

The word of God shows us not only the right place to be sexual but also how to keep self far from sexually immoral lifestyle (even as married people).

By the way, sexually immoral lifestyle includes any and all sexual activities done outside of the marriage covenant (any sexual activity that dishonors a husband or a wife or both in a marriage covenant is also considered as a sexually immoral lifestyle).

So, from the above passage of the word of God, we can understand that marriage prevents a person from getting entangled in a sexually immoral lifestyle. Notice, it does not say, “Marriage is a medicine for sexual addiction, porn addiction and a sexually immoral lifestyle.”

Unfortunately many young Christian men today come to a marriage thinking that marrying a virgin woman will help them to break free from any sort of sexual addictions.

Well, the truth is marriage or women are not created to be a medicine to heal any sickness. Porn addiction and/or sexual addiction might be an emotional or physical sickness that needs treatment. (This is also true to both men and women.)

Do you see how the word of God teaches about marriage and sexuality? It is completely different from this dark world or our own innate knowledge.

As Christians, we should always be students of the Bible because only the Bible tells us the truth about us, including about our sexuality. The truth we know from the word of God will set us free from any form of lifestyle that destroys our lives.

Jesus says,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6NASB, and He says,

“If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32NASB

Amen!

Yes! Before young people learn the biblical truth about their nature, how can they lead a life that glorifies God? They can’t!

Remember, God is for us, God is for His people. What does that mean? It means,

“The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.” Psalm 34:10NASB

Isn’t sexual pleasure one of the good things of this life? Yes, it is!

Then we need to ask, “Is God against our sexual pleasure?” And the answer is an emphatic, “No, He is not!” When we refuse to learn from His word, the devil steps in and offers us every kind of sexuality which forfeits and hijacks the sexual pleasure God created for us.

The truth we know will fashion our views and understandings by uprooting and correcting our false and wrong long-held views. Then our biblical views form our convictions. Then our convictions mark our lives/marriages. So, as Christians, whatever challenge we face in life/marriage, it is always good for us to go back to the basics to see if we have biblical convictions. ///