Intimate Bonding

You wouldn't expect the subject of intimacy to come up in a discussion of wallpaper - but then, maybe you've never been in a conversation with me. I have a friend who's a painter and wallpaperer. One day he was helping out at our office. He was trying to scrape some old wallpaper - actually ugly wallpaper - off this sheet rock wall. It was basically a simple job. Until part of the sheet rock came off with the wallpaper, leaving some holes. It was frustrating because my friend just couldn't separate them. My handyman friend held out that chunk of sheet rock, inseparably stuck to that wallpaper and said, "This is what we call an intimate bond."

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about "Intimate Bonding."

That's what our Creator had in mind when He created sex as one of His great gifts to us. Our Word for today from the Word of God is Mark 10:6-9. "...God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate."

God says, "I've created sex to be powerful glue between a man and a woman - between one man and one woman, bonded to each other by a lifetime commitment." Now you can have sex outside of that permanent bond of marriage - but you can't stop it from bonding you almost inseparably to every sexual partner you have. It's permanent emotional adhesive, designed to be used only in a permanent love relationship.

Even the most meaningless sexual involvement creates a lasting, intimate bond. That's why 1 Corinthians 6:16 tells us that "he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body. For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.'" That's the same words God used to describe married love!

Now our society has devalued sex, but that doesn't weaken its inescapable bonding power. And outside of the marriage boundaries set by the Inventor of sex, it can easily get ruined. You may be devaluing this great gift from God with every knowing it, by sex without lifetime commitment.

When you're making love, you're making memories - memories that will later flash back in your marriage bed and poison what was supposed to be a unique intimacy. You're playing with something that makes a person always part of you. And like a piece of tape that's been stuck to too many things too many times, you can reduce your ability to bond - to give and receive lifetime love.

Sex outside the boundaries of marriage is also a tragic, expensive abuse of the glue of sexual love. You're introducing another person in this intimate, unbreakable bond through the act of adultery - and sentencing yourself to a devastating emotional schizophrenia.

If you've played with God's powerful bonding gift of sex, there is hope for a new beginning. In God's own words, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." It's only because of what Jesus did on the cross that God can promise you a total spiritual shower that will make you clean and begin to restore what sin has taken.

I can still see that wallpaper and that sheet rock, merged into one - by a powerful bond. It's what God created sex to be for a man and woman who are lovers for life, reserved for each other. When it's right, it's so beautiful. When it's wrong, it tears up so much. Don't ever forget what a very intimate bond it is.