With the imminent release of 50 Shades of Gray (which I have not read, will not see, am not interested in) and the buzz around it… and the celebration of love this weekend called Valentines Day… and the series of sermons on the fruit of the Spirit focusing on Love… I thought it would be appropriate to provide some resources on how to think through the world’s definition of love and sex… and God’s definition.

RESOURCES

Purity is Possible: How to Live Free of the Fantasy Trap (Helen Thorne): One in five Christian women use pornography. One in three visitors to a porn site is a woman. Many, many more women read explicit books like Fifty Shades of Grey. Even more than that write their own pornography – not on paper for publication, but in their heads for their own use. Helen Thorne knows all this because she’s done it. But no one talks about it. Our churches are silent on it. There are very few books about it. It is the unspoken struggle of thousands of Christian women – perhaps you, and probably someone you know.

Hide or Seek: When Men Get Real with God About Sex (John Freeman): Discover how the gospel speaks in practical terms to the most private areas of your life and how God offers the freedom you desire. Hide or Seek is easy-to-read, full of real-life stories, and points you to the hope for change that many men have given up on finding. Don t settle for the cycle.

ARTICLES

No Grey Area (Kevin DeYoung): There is nothing gray about whether a follower of Christ should see 50 Shades of Grey. This is a black and white issue. Don’t go. Don’t watch it. Don’t read it. Don’t rent it.

How 50 Shades of Gray Harms Women and Jesus Saves Them (Owen Strachan): In the Bible, an abusive male sexual predator is an abomination. In secular culture, an abusive male sexual predator is a celebrity. The difference could not be more stark.

Fifty Shades of Nay: Sin is a Needle, Not a Toy (Marshall Segal): In a society that downplays the evil of evil, and even glamorizes it, we need to be regularly reminded of the danger of sin. Like a child that discovers a needle on the street and thinks it’s a toy, we can be dangerously naïve about what’s happening in our American entertainment.

50 Shades of Porn (Tim Challies): Women, you need to be aware because the pornographers are coming after you. Yes, you.

7 Lessons From 50 Shades of Gray (Tim Challies): On one level, this is just another in a long line of films with a storyline that portrays sex and relationships in ways far removed from God’s design. But it is so much more than that. I believe that 50 Shades of Grey can serve as a kind of cultural barometer that alerts us to the colossal changes that have been occurring in recent years, and to the consequences they bring.

Romantic Love is Not Enough (Dave Dunham): Romantic love is a wonderful gift from God, but all of our relational needs cannot be met in one relationship. We need more than romantic love to be happy.

You Can Say No to Porn (John Piper)