"Turn left. Turn left.."

Bible reading today took me through the section of Leviticus chapters 17 and 18 which very carefully spell out the simple truth that the Israelites were not supposed to have sexual relations with anyone other than their wife. Seems so simple, but it goes on and on saying things like this:

6 " 'No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.

7 " 'Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.

8 " 'Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.

9 " 'Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

10 " 'Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you. And it goes on to make it abundantly clear - just about every possible type of relationship is mentioned, including men lying with men. All forbidden. So basic.

Now, if you put that together with the words of Jesus who later told us, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart," then we have a real problem. Because our society seems bent on including sexual relations of all types in our entertainment these days. So do we, as men and women of God, even realize when we are guilty of transgressing these commands any more? I don't watch a lot of rubbish - we tossed the TV when our kids came along, and we wouldn't even watch R rated movies on the DVD player until both kids moved out - but we have slowly added a few of the spicier selections to our library as time goes on. Why? I don't know! But every once in a while it is good to step back, examine the standard which God set for us, and then look at where we have drifted.

I am a big fan of GPS. I liked it when it first became public and all you had were numbers. Similar to Loran-C, the predecessor of the modern GPS - you had numbers on a screen and then you had to have a chart and a ruler or plotting tool. You took the numbers, found them on a scale on the edge of the chart - one on the vertical edge and one one the horizontal edge - and then drew a line to the point at which the lines crossed. That was your exact location. But without the chart, the numbers were useless, so as GPS devices advanced, the maps were built into the devices. Pretty soon you could just look at the screen and see landmarks right next to (or all around) a little dot which represented your location. And then units began to be available which could record your track, and which could give you directions to a new point.

So not only did the device show you where you were, but it would show you where you had been, and where you needed to go. Today, it seems like most of us have a GPS in our car, boat, airplane. I even have a hand-held GPS which I use when I hike around finding stashed goodies as I Geocache. And every time I use any one of these devices, I marvel at the simple way that we can now navigate with such accuracy: we know where we are in relationship to the physical world around us.

So it should be with our spiritual journey - we need to know where we are in relationship to the things of the Spirit. That means that every once in a while we need to know where the landmarks are so we can make that comparison with where we have traveled, or where we may have drifted.

1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

Wow - I think I may have just blown by a landmark, and it seems I have missed a turn somewhere along the way.