Vaiden Rochelle

Jesus' disciples reacted negatively to His teaching because they were Jews who had been taught it was all right to divorce. Jesus's words shocked them. They didn't misunderstand His teaching at all.

No, the Mosaic Law did not command divorce. It allowed it because of the "hardness of man's heart." It could have allowed divorce to prevent the husband from abusing his wife and children. Also, since God has given man free will to do what we want, He allowed divorce. OF course this doesn't mean He approved of divorce then or now. God's original intention for marriage was to love one another always and treat one another with respect and tolerance.

No, people do not need to be Christians to be joined as one flesh. The joining of one flesh is accomplished by natural law, but the religious ceremony is the sacred vow before God that there is only one flesh now. 100% of all who enter into a first marriage have been joined together by God.

These are very hard questions to answer because they affect us directly "where we live." Therefore, we must go back to Matt. 19: 4-12 and ask God to show what He wants us to do if we are ever faced with this situation. For those who have been hurt in bad marriages and are still hurting, some people choose to live separate lives without divorce because of what Jesus has said here. It's not an ideal situation, but it happens.

The spirit of our age is not only accepting and approving of ****; this spirit of **** itself is unleashed upon this world. It's even been said of America that "money and sex are our gods." Now, back to the question: According to Jesus' words, how seriously are we to take ****? First, we must understand that all actions spring from thoughts and thoughts from the heart. **** begins in our hearts and thoughts; therefore, we must eradicate these thoughts before they give way to actions. **** is just as bad as the action itself. For example, I raise daylilies. Not long ago, I dug up a clump to separate, and several leaves were unintentionally separated from the roots. I wasn't concerned because I knew that when I potted the roots, the leaves would spring up soon. It's the same with **** or any other negative thinking. To kill the desire, we must be aware that it is evil, ask for God's forgiveness, begin to be watchful for more evil to creep into our thoughts, banish those thoughts in the name of Jesus, ask the Holy Spirit to help us keep a pure thought life, and walk by faith and complete immersion in God's Word and will. Keeping **** away is one of the hardest things to do. This can only be done with the help of the Holy Spirit and a pure heart.

*********** demeans all people who have anything to do with it. First, it demeans the ones being photographed because they are naked. Adam and Eve became shameful due to their nakedness in the garden when they ate the forbidden fruit. Their eyes were opened, and they saw their nakedness and were shamed. Even God made clothes for them. That means that He wants us covered. Why? Because our sexualy desires are great for procreation purposes. However, outside of marriage, it is fornication. Second, *********** is addictive. Typically, it's the male gender who have the higher sex drive, so they will continue to look at the pictures of the women and eventually acquire an insatiable appetite for what they see. Third, it's an expensive business and a waste of time. The magazines alone are expensive over time, and as far as the people in them go, the men will never really see them in real life. Also, *********** indicates that all women like all sexual acts and will do all sexual acts as presented in those pages or online. Then, it's possible that husbands will become frustrated and upset when their wives won't do all of those acts. Will they then look for someone who will? Nothing good can ever come out of visiting prostitutes. Disease abounds, blackmail is possible, money is gone, and if caught, so is someone's reputation followed by the loss of a wife and family. Also, the prostitutes lose because of disease, abuse, emotional abuse, and possibly jail time. Anyone who is associated with this business of *********** and prostitutes is a victim.

God-given sexual desire is sexual desire for ones husband or wife. Forbidden **** is sexual desire for someone other than one's spouse.

Jesus is showing that all actions originate in the mind or heart. We are to be pure in thought as well as in our actions. **** breaks the tenth Commandment because no one is to covet his neighbor's wife.

The overarching theme of Jesus' teaching here is that we are to be loving (this is salt) toward everyone who hurts us even though it is the hardest thing to do. We are to forgive them and mean it from the heart. We are not to let their behavior rob us of our joy because actually it is the enemy doing all of the negative things to us. It is the evil spirit they have allowed to enter into them that is attacking us. Therefore, it is so important to be on watch so that the spirit of getting even or holding grudges, or hate doesn't enter into us. After all, we don't battle people, we are at war with the spirit of the air, the enemy. Our job is to love them; Jesus' job is to judge them.

This is a situation I have been dealing with for a very long time. Only God has kept me together, and He has helped me a lot. First, it's important for someone who loves God and wants to do His will to go to Him and ask for Him to show him or her if they are at fault. Then, ask God for forgiveness if he or she is at fault. After that, it is important to go to the one or ones and ask for forgiveness. It's also important to realize that not all people are forgiving, even if they proclaim they are Christians. However, God looks at the heart. If your heart is sincerely repentant, God will forgive you even if no one else does. It is okay to worship God then, and He will comfort you. There are no situations we shouldn't try to resolve; however, there are situations we can't resolve, though we who try are not usually to blame. It is important to pray about how to talk to the person about the situation before hand, though.

Our actions stem from the feelings we have. Jesus wants us to have pure hearts so that we will have honorable actions. For example, the roots of a weed can be equated with our thoughts. The plant springing from the roots are comparable to the acts emerging from the roots. It's all the same thing: roots and the plant it produces. Yes, this means that murder is no worse than an angry insult in God's eyes. We would act differently if we actually believed that angry attitudes toward others are viewed by God as murder by allowing the Holy Spirit to check us for those thoughts. Then, we should ask for forgiveness for having them, and ask God to help us eradicate those thoughts from our lives. Also, we must realize that God loves those people who hurt us, but He doesn't condone their erroneous behavior. We must also remember that in the Christian's job description, our job is to love people, not judge them. This doesn't mean we won't recognize them by their fruits though. We should pray for them to change into loving people whenever they are putting forth sinful "fruit."

Whenever we do not witness to others about Jesus or give Him praise when directed by the Holy Spirit or do for others according to the Holy Spirit, we are hiding our light under a bowl. Not only does this grieve the Holy Spirit, but it hurts us, too because we are denying our love for God.

This parable means that whenever we have a problem with someone, we should talk it over with that person before it becomes so bad that neither side will want to address it. Once no one addresses it, it is a mountain that can't be easily removed. Only hurt feelings are left unresolved. Here's my question: What do you do when the other party involved won't try to see my side of the problem?

A person who has lost his or her saltiness can have these symptoms: Apathetic attitude toward the difficulties others are experiencing, only sharing God's word with those who ask about Him as opposed to taking advantage of opportunities that God gives to witness to others about Him, and condoning the wrong that people do to others by remaining silent. It is possible to detect these symptoms in ourselves because when we have the Holy Spirit living within us, He will tell us that we are not obeying God in these matters. Secular people notice that Christians who are "de-saltified" have stopped saying things that support God and His glory, they aren't participating in many of the things of God, and they are not as loving toward the "unloving" as they once were. Yes, it's possible to "resaltify" my life. This is done by talking sincerely with God about what happened in the first place. It involves honesty on the de-saltified Christian's part and the willingness to listen to God and to be determined to walk closer to Him. Also, to ask for forgiveness.

Whenever we are faced with difficult situations, we are to call upon God, and He will hear our cries. Only through Him are we sustained. God cares for His own, and He is the preservation. Christians are the "salt of the earth" using the seasoning analogy by displaying a Christlike behavior in all that we say and do in all situations. In order to maintain this seasoning, we must be in a healthy relationship with God since we will draw our strength and wisdom from Him.

Why should we rejoice when we are persecuted? We should do this because we will be sharing in what Jesus went through while living here on Earth with us. What keeps this from being some kind of sick masochism or finding pleasure in pain? This won't be related to masochism because our goals will be different. We don't want to suffer, but if we must suffer to do what God needs us to do, then He will give us strength to endure it. Why is the blessing "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" appropriate for the persecuted? Jesus suffered and died for us, and He is seated at the right hand of God. All those who suffer for Christ's sake will not be treated any less.

People with a pure heart see, know, and discern God because we belong to God. We have fellowship with Him. The Holy Spirit lives within us because we love God and have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Chronic sinners can't see God because the Holy Spirit doesn't live within them. We can obtain the pure or clean heart that Jesus describes by genuinely loving God and the things of God and live daily for Him. Also, we must listen to hear His voice, read his word daily, talk to him, and want a sincere life with Him. Everything that isn't Christlike will prevent us from having a clean heart. Everytime we fall short or stumble, we must ask for forgiveness from God and mean it. Then, we must accept our forgiveness and go on living as we should for Him.

Often, the people in the world do not have compassion for others or living things. They, as Paul H. pointed out, are the pushy and arrogant, and all they will gain is this world as they live in it; not when they die. Humility is important to Christlikeness because we should be compassionate toward others as Christ is to us. We should love others as we love ourselves as taught in the Bible.

It is necessary to be aware of your spiritual poverty before you can become a Christian because you need to recognize that you have sin in your life that needs to be forgiven and cast out by Jesus. The kind of mourning necessary for a person to become a Christian is the one where that person is sincerely sorry for his or her sin and wants nothing more to do with sin itself. This also the common experience of Christians.

The first part in each Beatitude addresses the people who possess and act upon Christlike qualities. The second part is the promise that Jesus says each person will receive because of these actions. Jesus made each Beatitude a paradox because he wanted to stress the fact that we Christians are not to live like the world. He wants to show us that when we act like Him, that reflection will be rewarded by Him. The relationship between the Beatitudes to the Fruit of the Spirit is extremely similar. The both point to the fact that we as Christians should follow this path in order to imitate Christ.

Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon because Onesimus was still a slave. Only this time, Onesimus and Philemon can work together for God since Onesimus was a new Christian. They can be like "iron sharpening iron." It is necessary for Paul to do this because Onesimus was still technically Philemon's property and also so that Philemon could see the change in Onesimus. Onesimus needed to see that it is the inward transformation that God is interested in. No matter what situation he faced, he needed to know that God was with him.