1. An Invitation to Wholeness
Avenue Vineyard
June 05, 2016

2. “I am the light of the world
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

3. “15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:15-18

4. Money, Sex, and Power

5. “It is vanity to seek riches that shall perish and to put one’s hope in them. It is vanity also to aspire to honours and to climb to high degree. It is vanity to follow the lust of the flesh.” Thomas à Kempis (15th Cent.)

6. “Sexuality and spirituality are not enemies but friends
“Sexuality and spirituality are not enemies but friends.” Donald Goergen

7. “8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” Galatians 6:8

8. “…what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? 5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority…” Psalm 8:4-6

9. “So God created human beings in his own image
“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

10. Gary Thomas
“How could you possibly love God? He is spirit, and you are encased in flesh and bones. He is eternal, and you are trapped in time. He is all holy, perfect, sinless, and you—like me—are steeped in sin. It is far less of a leap for a man to love a women or for a women to love a man that it is for either of us to love God.”

11. “25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame
“25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” Genesis 2:25

12. “do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready
“do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!” Song of Solomon 3:5; 5:8; 8:4

13. "Lord give me chastity and continence, but not yet." St. Augustine

14. William Gouge
“One of the most proper and essential acts of marriage.” He advised married couples to engage in sex “with good will and delight, willingly, readily, and cheerfully.”

15. C.S. Lewis
“…suppose you came to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop or a bit of bacon, should you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?”