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It means setting your thoughts on pure or holy things, whatever would be acceptable by God, not setting your thoughts on what the flesh would like. This is done by surrendering oneself to Christ. You allow the Holy Spirit to work in you. The more you walk with Christ, reading His Word, spending time in prayer, allowing your day to be filled with Christ also, it comes easier to set your mind on things of the spirit. You know the law,and when you have accepted the law you know what is right and wrong, you know what is from God or pleasing to Him, and what is from the world. If you still do not know then block all else out and pray to Him and ask Him, your conscience will reveal to you what you need to know. It certainly would not be deliberate as that would be open mindedly defiant to God. When you first convert to Christ your wrongful actions I beleive would be habit, but the longer you walk with Christ your old habits would seize. The Holy Spirit plays a HUGE role in this, the Holy Spirit grows in you the more you submit yourself to Him. I do not beleive it is a force of will, God does not force anything on you. All is free and what comes from God is good.

If being obedient to the law would save us then God would not have had to send His Son in the flesh to the job He was sent to do. The weak link is that we cannot save ourselves, we can have all the laws and rules in place, follow all to the end, but the law only opens our minds eyes and heart to the truth of what is right and wrong. We do need to be obedient to the law, to Gods Word, and in doing so we come to repentance and submission to Christ. Accepting Christ is the only way to be saved.

I think the I is himself but also refering to mankind also.

What comes forth from ones mouth is from the heart, it is deceitful, impure, distasteful if one is depraved. If one is depraved then one has rejected God. In Romans 1 vs 28 " And even as they did not like to retain God in thier knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting,"and so I beleive NO His goodness does not show through. It means that one has chosen to walk their own way with out God and with out Him you get none of His blessings, instead you will feel His wrath. I think that mankind has their own scale on good and bad. If one helps the weak or poor or gives to the church trie to live by the commandments then mankind is basically good, but we miss the most important part, JESUS! The bible tells us over and over that we are from a sinful nature and we all fall short of Christ. If we reject Christ then we reject God, 1st John 2 vs 23 says,"No one who denies the Son has the Father, who ever acknowledges the Son has the Father." When walking with Christ then what comes from the heart is good, kind words and love His goodness shines thru.

The law pronounces Gods word, the commandments, keeping them holy and true. The law is weak thru the flesh, it tells us right from wrong but cannot save us. Now because there is a law sin has come alive, but the law does not make us sin it just explains right from wrong, the only one who can save us is Jesus.

We need to know the law so that we can correct our ways, if not we would still be coveting certainly not following Christ. The flesh would respond just the opposite for it is living in a sinful way, the evil that would be in one would be directing them to sin more, making their desire even stronger. One does not like to be told what to do, one wants to be in control of oneself not submitting to the law, but that person does not realise that they HAVE submitted to satan, that he is directing them, Jesus asks us to submit to Him and He will look after us guide us teach us, He is up front with us, where as satan lies to us letting us think we are in control but when we are in a sinful nature he is in control of us. We need to be alert and continually seeking the Lord.

I beieve it means the time before we were followers of Christ, born again as they say, living a life without Christ so we were living for ourselves and most likely in sin of some kind, living without spirit but those with Christ are in flesh but with spirit.

Jesus is described as Holy, harmless, undefiled, seperate from sinners, and has become higher then the heavens above. Jesus is different because He is pure Holy, not needing to offer up sacrifices, as He did that one sacrifice, Himself, for all. Knowing that Jesus died for me and is alive and is forever present in my life gives me confidence beyond measure.We are so blessed. PSALM 34 VS 8 " TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD, BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO TAKES REFUGE IN HIM."

Jesus is able to save "completly" because He is God, He was man also but sinless thus dying for us He is the altimate sacrifice ,He does not need to go to the Throne and pleed His case as the other priests did. Priests were to take our confessions to God, but we now have Jesus and He is our mediator.

It is the hope that we believe in. Life everlasting with Christ is our surety and the guarantee is thru Gods Word and Jesus guaranted this surety with His own blood in the New Covenant.

PSALM 91 "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty, I will say to the Lord, :He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom, I trust."When I pray this I feel like He has embraced me, this is one of many verses where the writer has used the word refuge, and each time it gives me a security of protection. PSALM 34 "VS 8 Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. God does not lie, He finishes what He has set out to do, He is the same today as He was 2000 plus years ago, He is true to His Word that is why I take hold of this Hope. Christian hope is real we believe in it, where as hoping for somthing is a question of whether or not it will come about ," I hope tomorrow the sun will shine so I can cut my grass". I think of an anchor of a ship and its weight to settle to the oceans floor to take hold of something to hold the ship still, the same as my hope is anchored in Gods Word once anchored He will not let go. Isn`t He awesome!

To wait upon the Lord is a life long experence, and is awsome. It has taught me patience and my faith has truly grown. My feet are well planted and I stand firm in faith,and truth. Some prayers have taken years to see the answers, but God came thru, in His time. There has been times when my faith has been challenged by friends and family, but when you live it and walk it Jesus shines thru. I think you can walk with assurance, not worrying about everthing. If one puts their faith in God He will give you the strength, and endurance you will need to follow Him, but that does not give us salvation, that is why we come to the heavenly throne where our High Priest is, we look to His mercy and it is because of Christs atonement that we recieve the grace of God. Our salvation is a gift from God if we accept Christ. THANKS BE THE LORD!

No I do not think so. You either are a slave to Christ or to sin. There is no being apart or independent freedom. Oh one may take time off from worship, or church or bible reading, or studying Gods Word, but you are not free to do as you would like, after all if you are following Christ you do not want to free to do the other as it is wrong. What is there you cannot do with Christ that you would need to be free of Him, other then sin!I personally do not long for this freedom or hesitate to make my allegiance known, but untill you surrender to Christ you want to be in control aand making it known whom you serve will alienate you from the world.

The dodtrine in which we follow we do so wholeheartedly. It is a unique expression, pattern a message of what Christ did for us.We should honor this doctrine since it is a gift from God. We should avoid false doctrines, any thing that goes against what Jesus has said, or what is written the Bible.

What ever one chooses to follow, that is what one becomes a slave to. To follow is to obey since you will do what ever it asks or tells you to do. When one does righteous acts to God it is showing that you are His, that you are willing, obeying His command, the same if you do bad things you are showing that you are listening to satan, that you are his slave. You break that bondage buy giving it over to Christ. When you listen to your heart you become obedient to God, for He knows your heart and for its obedience it leads you to righteousness.

I could offer myself to sin as easy as to what I listen to, watch on tv, read, look at, allow the tongue run free, or actions with the body, or even think. I could cleanse myself before coming to the Heavenly throne, or fill my ears with music pleasing to God, keeping my eyes clean of sin by what I choose to watch on tv, and communicating with Him thru out the day. We can sin unconsciously because we were born into sin, we are not perfect as Christ is. Do not give our bodies to sin but instead to Christ, use our tongues for praising and our hands for good. For these changes to take place we first have to come to God and repent, seek Christ and surrender to Him. In doing these things we start walking with Him, listening and obeying Him. The more we give to Him, as in giving ourselves the more He gives to us, fills us with what we need to do His will.

If we allow sin to reign over us then we are being obedient to it. We listen to it, we let it grow in us over whelm us, lead us and this is what satan lives for, the falling away from Christ. We cannot be obedient to two masters.

It means that I have come to accept this truth, to trust in it. No, this is what we have been taught but we were given the choice to accept or not, and so in believing in the Word, we believe in this to be true. We who believe this to be true will walk a straighter path with courage and strength, some will even be bold because we know that we being in Christ and Christ being in us we are free of sin and the hold sin had on us.

When Jesus was raised from the dead His work was finished, He surpassed satan and sits at the Fathers right side. When we die to Christ we are giving our bodies back to Him, so that He who is in you is greater than he who walks this world. When we are with Christ we are protected from satan and his ways, ,we are no longer a slave to sin. Sin has no grip or hold on us. When we know this and understand it, "that sin has lost its hold" we walk bolder and stronger with Christ, we strive to be like Jesus,we know that He went thru and conquered what we go thru so I think that makes it a little easier to turn from temptations when they arise.

Well I read that Paul is talking a figurative death to us, the death of our old ways, to sin, but of Christ death is actual and historical. The death is of Jesus and it becomes our own when we take those steps to baptism because we are surrendering ourselves to Him. Coming alive in Christ and dead to our sinful ways. I do not believe this is theological mumbo jumbo, I believe these are words inspired by the Holy Spirit thru Paul given to us to read, study and meditate on. Reality is Jesus died for all, we who turn to follow do give up our ways to Him and our sins are washed away forever. We do have a new life style to live out as we follow our Leader. We are truly blessed!

I think when we do the act of baptism we are taking the first steps of surrender to Christ, that He is taking our sins to the cross and all that is being "Buried", we are being set free, free to live a life with Him. Christ was raised from the dead is what we are when we are washed with the water, lifted up from the submersion which ever way one is baptised we too are dead to sin, so we must walk in newness of life.

Baptism is a showing of ones faith. In taking the action of baptising we are showing our death to sin and our life to Christ. The movement with water whether submersion or touching of droplits is a symbolic jester of us being washed of our old life of sin, and breathing in the new life of Christ. As Jesus died for sins, yet not His ,and then He was raised ,so we are dead to sin and are given a newness of life to live also in Christ.

Once we have been baptized into Christ we are under His headship. When we take that acceptance of Christ our sins are dead and we too are made new in Christ. We must make sure that we do not fall back into our old ways but stay true and strong to Christ. Having died with Christ I believe means we have surrendered to Him, our sins have been washed away so that we can live our lives with Him, we too will end up with eternal life.

Apostasy is one who has accepted Christ then completly walked away from Him, giving up on all they have learned, and turned against Christ. Falling away from the truth. I think that it is that they have rejected Christ and they would be putting Christ back on the cross for themselves, so if God has turned His ears away from them there is no way we could restore them back to Christian faith and practice, after all it is Christ who works in us that does the work, not us. That is why in Hebrews 3 vs 13 we are told too: "but exort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." I believe Jesus is telling us when we are learning of His Word to reach out to others also so that we can get understanding and grow from it, so that we may plant ourselves on firm ground and become strong so that in time of trouble we will be able to stand firm with Christ and not give in to satan. This is a world of good and bad and there is no seperating us. We have sin all around us and learn to live our best as followers of Christ. The Lord tells us to stay true to His Word to the end and we will be saved. Thanks be to God!

I believe that the words written so long ago have the same meaning today as they did in the past. Some like to think not. I think the author is talking of apostasy of Christ not of a sin, like stealing an apple or candy. According to his writings which come from the spirit of God tells us that once we have accepted Christ and have tasted heaven, if we fall away we can not repent again as we would be crucifying Jesus all over again. I as a modern day spirit filled follower of Christ find those words hard to accept,I do except them, as I believe they are true, just hard to believe as Jesus is so loving and forgiving it is hard to believe that if one who threw God aside then came back whenever and truly tried to repent that God will close His ear to them. I know what the bible says and I ask for understanding and guidence with this. This is a question that has been asked a few times of me and of course they do not like what the word says and then question Gods love. How blessed we are who walk in Christs` Word! I think the writer was trying to teach us not to take Gods` love for granite. God has given us away to salvation, a free gift one we do not deserve, but do not abuse it!