Monks and Nuns: Biblical Ways of Being Single?

I've had humorous discussions before with my sisters and mother about starting a nunnery after the lack of quality guys in my area (which, I admit, never came to fruition after both my sisters got engaged/married)---but in all serious, I have thought over the concept of women and men dedicating their lives wholly to God.

I am not a Catholic, so it would be impossible theologically for me to accept all of the views of Catholicism if I ever even considered the process of becoming a nun, but I'm curious as to what your position about nuns and monks is.

As some of you will reiterate, I'm sure, the apostle Paul understood that God called most of us to marry (those with the physical desire to do so) in order to avoid immorality, while he called others to celibacy. ("Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."1 Cor. 7:8-9). This echoes Christ's statement in Matthew 19: 12 as he discusses marriage with the Pharisees, where he states, "...there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."

Paul's passage in accordance with Christ's words seem to indicate to me that chosen lifetime singleness should only be a step made when a man or woman is able to completely cut themselves off from physical (passionate) desire for a spouse. All other men and women, it would seem, who cannot entirely suppress such a desire entirely (which seems to be the majority of the population, since God created us with that innately) are not 'called to be eunuchs'.

There are certainly some very admirable Catholic monks and nuns (Mother Theresa and Brother Lawrence, as some of many numerous examples) who have built legacies and saved thousands through their dedication to God as single people. However, although some of these felt that personally their ministry would be more effective through singleness, and perhaps considered themselves 'eunuchs', there is also the controversial Scripture in 1 Timothy which disagrees with the Catholic church's institutionalism of singles in ministry (nuns and monks).

1 Timothy 4:1-5 states, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

In some sense, the Catholic church appears to be doing just that: forbidding men and women to marry in order to serve God in supposedly more righteousness and purity. However, as I mentioned earlier, I think only certain men and women are called to a life of singleness, while others would serve God more appropriately (and in more holiness) by being married. To pin such a burden of singleness on hundreds of men and women whose deepest desire is to serve God---but who must give up a natural desire they were not meant to simply because they believe they would serve God better--appears inaccurate to me.

So,

Do you consider monks and nuns as correct biblical interpretations of singleness?

If so, what Scripture or knowledge do you consider coincides with your view?

One of the ways I thought of improving happiness besides positivity is treating my health correctly. Things I've gleaned over the years have increased my knowledge of general health---including taking more control over my eating habits and exercising.

Some of the ways I'm looking to improve my general health is eating less meat (except for lean meats, like grilled chicken and turkey) and also being able to run a mile without stopping. Over the next four weeks, I'll be running and cross training on run-rest days to improve my stamina.

I feel kind of like a health nut, but really all I'm doing is lessening the amount of time I'm spending sedentary (except for schoolwork) and making some meal changes.

Here's to accomplishing some goals and getting started over spring break!

Once Saved, Always Saved?

My personal opinions about the 'once saved, always saved' debate are included below from a recent Facebook argument.

"I agree that a person can be saved no matter what things are happening around them, but on the other hand, it's also true that if you don't have very strong Scriptural backing or an understanding of God's truths, rather than the world's, it can lead you down false paths, and ultimately, break the faith you had. The Holy Spirit is there to guide us, but when Christians deliberately choose to ignore Him either purposefully or with gradual acceptance of the world's word, then it can destroy the previous communion you had with Christ or just deplete your trust in Scripture. So I wouldn't say having the Holy Spirit guarantees you from falling away, especially if you choose to start ignoring Him (that's why God continually tells us in the NT to be on our guard against Satan and things which can damage our faith---1 Cor. 16:13, 1 Peter 5:8-9)..."

"I think we basically agree with one another about the grace of Christ, the importance of Scripture, and how near we are to God, but I suppose the question I was addressing was 'once your saved your saved'. I don't agree with that concept, because there are instances in the Bible when a Christian (with the Holy Spirit) fell away, such as Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:3 indicates they lied to the Holy Spirit within him). Passages like Heb. 6:4-6 also make the indication that there can be those who 'share' in the Holy Spirit but ultimately reject Christ. In Rev. 3:1-6, Christ speaks to the believers in Sardis about dying spiritually; only some will overcome and be written in the Book of Life. There are other passages about God commanding us to overcome the world (through our lifetime of faith) and only THEN will we be written in the Book of Life (Rev. 3:21). Yes, I agree with grace and a lifetime of learned holiness; but I do not agree with being saved your entire lifetime. Only God can determine someone's heart at their death, but if they were a Christian and deliberately chose to reject Christ, I agree with Heb. 6:4-6...."

Fellow FBooker: "Hebrews 10:14, John 10:27-30, John 6:39-40, John 17:12, Rom. 8:29-30, Jeremiah 32:40, 1 Pet. 1:3-5, Rom. 11:29 to start."

Me:"I'd like to briefly discuss some of the verses you provided. All of the New Testament verses do talk about God's promise for eternal salvation to those who have been saved. However, in each of these verses, there is no indication that we cannot willingly reject such things God gives us. As I said earlier, a gift can be provided (such as eternal salvation), but we do not have to accept or keep it. Hebrews 10:14: This verse in context signifies those who are currently being 'made holy'. If you are rejecting Christ, would you consider you are currently 'being made holy'? Thus this nullifies the 'perfect forever' portion.John 10:27-30 is also a very popular verse for once saved/always saved. However, notice the beginning of the verse: It says that the sheep FOLLOW Christ's voice. Thus, if you are actively following Christ, Christ promises nothing can snatch you away (this does not agree with if you abandoned him/did not follow him). John 6: 39-40 says that everyone who believes in Christ will be raised up. If you have rejected Christ and claim you do not believe in him, you no longer are seen as 'believing' in him and have lost that promise. John 17:12, in context, is Christ speaking about his disciples and Judas (the one doomed to destruction), not us as Christians. Romans 8:28-30 talks about those who LOVE Christ being predestined. If you say you are rejecting Christ and hate him, that is indicating that you were not predestined in the first place/or you rejected his calling. Jeremiah 32:40 is talking about the people of Israel in context, not Christians. 1 Pet. 1:3-5 discusses how through faith we are shielded, with an imperishable inheritance. If we reject Christ, obviously we are rejecting our faith in Christ as well; thus, we no longer have share in the inheritance. Rom. 11:29 says God's gifts and call are irrevocable---this implies that, consistent with God, he never changes his call and his purposes for us, but it provides no indication that you can reject that calling. It is only saying that the calling itself will never change. I would be confused why God, as a just God, would allow people in to inheritances, perfection, and heaven who actively chose to reject him later on in their life, even if they were Christians earlier on in life. Does that seem like justice to you?"

This link provides more about the issue: http://www.anointedlinks.com/once_saved.html

The stars were so spectacular tonight they made me want to cry.

How glorious the world is, even when it's sleeping.

Sometimes my heart longs for adventure. I don't ask for it. I suppose it's just part of my nature. In those times when I look at my bank account and realize I cannot travel a state away, let alone an entire continent, I think positively of the future.

Whether it's five or ten more years, I WILL travel the world, scrounging up whatever extras I have to do so.

That idea makes me smile.

I have learned what it is to feel meager and meek; when I can do nothing but rely on Christ for my hope and happiness, and there, trust that he will bring me through.

For happiness, I've found, is not so much a thing from within us as a thing from up above; without his providence and grace, we miss out on true joy.

Beauty and the Beast

"Without copartner? so to add what wants/In female sex, the more to draw his love,/And render me more equal, and perhaps,/A thing not undesirable..."---Paradise Lost

Since the beginning of time, women have sought affirmation. Somehow, between the first bite of the forbidden fruit and the years that passed since that fateful day, we turn our eyes to the hope that in one moment, we will be fulfilled in our desire to be appreciated and acknowledged. We will be seen as Beautiful.

Culture has sickened us with extensions and colored contacts and diet pills for women too thin and left starving for something more than food already. Sin-fallen men, displaced themselves in their own clockwork mechanisms of lust and lost communication, have made us almost always confused and sometimes bitter. We princesses, who wore tiaras and fluffy pink skirts in our times of innocent childhood, have left behind the hope of becoming queens.

We each deal with our disillusionment in different ways. For some, we shut our hearts to the outside world in hopes that it will fade away from us. The people we trusted to provide us with security in ourselves have long since disappointed us, and we clam up and shut down, hoping that by never being vulnerable, we will be indestructible as well.

Some of us grow harsh and annoyed. We point fingers at society for stealing our childhood ambition to be carried off on a white charger by a confident knight. We blame the abuse in our families, the carelessness of our boyfriends, the anger of our fathers, for our wilted femininity. Like a flower in northern regions which has grown thick and thorny to deal with the snows, we react with harsh indifference to suggestions for softness, and become the brave knights of our dreams instead of depending on one to appear.

Yet, whether we feel weak and insular, or strong, yet lifelessly dependent on our own often mistaken choices, we are all women. We feel within us the lost cry of our citizenship in Eden, and on the winter evenings when we gaze out the window during another long February 14, we wonder if all would be solved with a Love of our own. Then, reminded by ourselves of the cruelty of that dream before, we crush it down once more, hoping by doing so it will finally disappear.

We cannot keep denying our hope. It will always return to us, haunting us with memories and dreams of what could be. To slaughter it may be to kill our vulnerability and the hurt that may follow, but it is also killing the joy we could have had if we would have taken its hand and let it lead us through both pleasure and trial."The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before," C.S. Lewis wrote, "That's the deal."

The Christian life is wrought with such claims. We must take upon the burden of God's commands to learn the truth of them (Matt. 11:29-30). We must be pruned of our sins by God before we produce more in our Christian walk with him (John 15:1-2). We must discard the old self we owned before Christ to accurately 'fill' ourselves with his newness (Mark 2:22). Hebrews 12:11 reminds us, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

How, then, could we, who for half of our lives have depended upon scorning the stakes in the ground of our heart, look at them instead as guideposts that point us to the truth?

This desire that we feel for admiration and affirmation has followed us wherever we went; yet, every time we supposed we could get it from some source, we have been cruelly deceived. It was how the Serpent convinced Eve to take the first bite, and we have been lead into the same trap. "If you are with him, you will be appreciated." "If you dress this way, you will be noticed by them." "If you shut yourself out from the world, you will finally be satisfied by yourself." It leads us to obsession, depression, bitterness and loneliness; for in everything we seek, we are eventually handed back a blank document.

What is the solution to the dream we desire? What could ever satisfy our hunger?

The spiritual answer would say Christ could; but reality is so much more convoluted than a trite reply like that. We must see why the depth of his presence could fulfill the emptiness that has consumed us for so long.

We must first recognize our worth. To know our own worth is to recognize that the lies society and our lives have paid out to us are wrong. "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price."(1 Cor. 6:19-20) We were worth enough to God for him to send the Holy Spirit---Christ himself--- to not only pay for our sin-bent souls as a perfectly righteous man himself (Romans 5:7-8), but to make 'his home within us'(John 14:16-17, 23).

If God, who knows our sinfulness yet still chooses to provide us with such a great gift, thinks of us that highly, how could we suppose our worth is anything less?

So we are still queens, though we often don't believe such a thing could be true. Our worth, then, is not tied up in the things that the earth tells us, but in Christ. Apart from that worth, we cannot find satisfaction---our womanhood has been wrapped around our identity in God since the beginning of the world (Genesis 1:27). It was Eve's mistake to think that somehow, her faulty humanity could, by itself, gain entrance into self-godhood (Genesis 3:4).

When we wield such knowledge, we aren't afraid of the world's image of ourselves. As an old hymn says, "Our hope is built on nothing less/Than Jesus' blood and righteousness." Our joy, our completion, our satisfaction is not fractured in the mirror of disillusionment, but instead, rests deeply enough upon the promise of worth in Christ's eyes that it is immovable in the eyes of others. We are finally allowed to realize that this aspect of desire we formerly considered painful is only our womanhood's cry toward running into the arms of he who holds our identity and beauty.

"Who says/Who says you're not perfect?/Who says you're not worth it?"---Selena Gomez