Michael DiMarco - Almost Sex. 9 Signs You Are About to Go Too Far (or already have)

Almost Sex

Almost Sex

9 Signs You Are
About to Go Too Far
(or already have)

Michael DiMarco
with Hayley DiMarco

2009 by Hungry

Planet Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287,
Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

DiMarco, Michael.

Almost sex : 9 signs youre about to go too far (or already have) / Michael Di

Marco, with Hayley DiMarco.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8007-3378-0 (pbk.)

1. Teenage boys--Religious life. 2. Teenage

boys--Conduct of life. 3. Teenage boys--Sexual behavior. 4. Sex--Religious aspects--Christianity. I. DiMarco, Hayley.

II. Title.

BV4541.3.D56 2009

248.8 32dc22

2009011553

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked Message is taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agents, Orange, California.

Portions of this book have been adapted from material in Technical Virgin (Revell, 2006).

Creative direction: Hungry Planet
Interior design: Sarah Lowrey Brammeier

Almost sex is like saying youre almost obese, almost guilty, or almost conceited. If you think youre almost, you already are.

~ Michael DiMarco

CONTENTS

You Signed an Abstinence Pledge That
Doesnt List Specifics

Sign #2 Professional
Wrestler

Sign #4 Don Juan
DiMarco

Your Masturbation and Porn Habits
Help Keep You Pure

Sign #7 The Great
Depression

Youve Gone Too Far So You Think
You Might as Well Keep Going

So look at you,
holding a book about sex.

Well, not sex but almost sex. You could be reading this book for a wide variety of reasons. Maybe one of your parents gave you this book, or maybe your youth group is doing a study. Or maybe youve been crushing on this girl and you just want to know how far is too far so you dont mess things up. It doesnt really matter what your reason is for reading this book; what matters is while youre here, what are you gonna get out of it? And that leads us to my reasons for writing this book.

1. Tons of books on dating and purity have been written for girls (my wife, Hayley, has written some of the best of them!), but hardly any talk to guys alone. Its time to change that.

2. Christian guys need to talk honestly and openly about sex. If we dont, were more likely to do what were not talking about. And thats, um, sex.

3. I wanted to write a book that I would have read when I was younger, single, and almost sexual. Because clearly from my intro, I crossed the almost line more than a few times. This is a book thats honest about a hard topic but thats easy and maybe even fun to read.

4. Lastly, most Christian guys who have sex before marriage are good guys who find themselves going too far, then deciding, Well, at this point I might as well go all the way. I hope you got this book in your hands before that happened to you.

If youre not honest about where youve been, then it will be really hard to figure out where you are going.

How far have you gone? Have you tested the waters and decided that they are good? Do you believe that abstaining from sex is Gods will for your life, so you do anything but full-on sex? Almost Sex is for any guy who craves female attention but just doesnt know where to draw the line. You want more, you really do, but the questions are how much more and when? Can almost sex and your faith coexist in your life? Whats your criteria for purityvirginity till marriage? And what really constitutes virginity?

For the purposes of this book well assume that you really want to please God and that your sex life isnt out of control; its just something you want to know more about from Gods perspective. And so know that this isnt a book that will condemn you for what youve done. But it will hold you to a higher standard, a godly standard. And it will ask you to start to think seriously about your sexual experimentation and how far is too far.