Sex in the Sanctuary Read Online Free PDF Page A

for her original gospel plays and praise dance teams, Hope was seated in the area reserved for special guests, second row center. It offered a perfect place to see and hear the choir and guest speakers, and it gave her two to three uninterrupted hours to stare at and appreciate God’s gift. That was what she considered Shawn to be—a gift from God with her name on it.
    The message that night was entitled “Having by Asking.” The preacher’s text was taken from the Book of James where he, a half-brother of Jesus, was explaining that sometimes people didn’t have what they desired simply because they didn’t ask for it or they asked for the wrong reasons. Hope went home, got on her knees and asked God for Shawn to be her husband. Then she got up, crossed the room to her desk, grabbed her Bible and plopped on the bed. She asked God for a sign, a confirmation that He’d heard her prayer and thatthe answer was yes. She closed her eyes, opened the book, placed a finger on the page, opened her eyes and read the words beneath her finger. “Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. Matthew 19:6.” The Bible fell out of Hope’s hands. She was taken aback, couldn’t believe where her finger had landed. But a clearer message could not have been received. She felt God Himself had spoken.
    The next day, Hope felt a confidence and freedom with Shawn she’d never known before. Although she felt that sex before marriage was a sin, she became more and more amorous in her affections toward her husband-to-be. Not one to complain, Shawn embraced this new and improved Hope as a sign that finally she believed he loved her and in return, just maybe, she’d let him hit it.
    Hope hadn’t planned it to happen. But after the Friday night services were over she, Shawn and another couple had gone out for a late dinner. This couple had just gotten engaged. Hope was elated for them. Hearing this news on the heels of her revelation that Shawn was to be her husband was further proof the season of marriage was here and her turn was coming. Shawn had given her thigh a little squeeze, and Hope squeezed right back, running her hand down to his knee and back up the inside of his thigh just beneath his manhood. She remembered almost touching it and jerking her hand away as if she’d touched a hot oven. At that very moment she thought of one of her grandmother’s sayings, “If you keep playing with fire, you gon’ get burnt.”
    They’d gone back to his place, a two-bedroom apartment not far from the university campus they both attended. Shawn put on a Babyface CD. “I just love this song,” he whispered as he gathered Hope in his arms and began a sensual slow dance across the living room floor.
    To this day, Hope didn’t remember exactly what happenednext. It was like one minute they were dancing and the next minute she was in his bed, naked. It wasn’t the first time she and Shawn had fooled around, but she’d never taken all of her clothes off before. Lying next to him as he slowly outlined her body with the tips of his fingers, she recited in her mind the Scripture she’d read just days before. There was little resistance when he began kissing her mouth, eyes, ears, breast, and just a slight hesitation as he continued to tease her with his tongue down her stomach, hips, thighs…She covered her eyes then and was surprised to feel the weight of his physique when he covered her body with his own while placing his hand behind her knee and raising her leg in a slow, languid motion. She could feel him pressing against her and took her hands from her eyes, wrapping them around his strong muscled back and hugging him tightly. She didn’t remember a word being spoken, but she knew this time would be different. Shawn must have sensed it, too, because he continued gently, almost reverently, as if to make a hasty move might break the mood and change the atmosphere and Hope’s