tgandy

This is tough. First of all I would explain the difference between *********** and a healthy sex life if married. Prayer is most important and repenting and asking for forgiveness as *********** is a sin. Talking out the problem and immersing both the viewer and the counselor in scripture and teaching them to channel these desires toward something positive. We can protect ourselves from the temptations of *********** on the internet, pool, beachside or TV by simply turning the channel, xing out of a site or turning your head. Praying Bible verses is also a way to distract yourself from things you really do not need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

*********** is wrong for a various reasons. It dehumanizes a person and makes them an object. People have expectations that are not real. Making love and sex are two different things. Within marriage a man and woman make love and express what they feel for each other. With *********** it is a hipe that is not real. A prostitute is one who receives money for sex. This is wrong. Making love is a beautiful expression of love between a married couple. Buying and selling sex cheapens the very act of love. We are all victims of ***********. We are constantly exposed to it. Commercials, magazine ads etc. all portray the human body in an appealing way and it cheapens the individual.

It is healthy to have a good sexual desire. However, this desire is within the confines of marriage. A man and a woman when married share this special bond that is unique and most fulfilling within the marriage bed. Forbidden **** is not with your marriage partner nor within a marriage. When **** occurs without marriage it needs to be pushed from the mind and removed from your sight.

Jesus says anyone who looks at a woman or man lustfully has already committed adultery in the mind. I do not believe there is a difference between **** and adultery. **** is adultery of the mind. The commandment says "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife..." ******* breaks the Tenth Commandment.

I believe the theme of v. 21 - 26 are the 2 commandments Jesus gave. "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all you mind," and "Love your neighbor as yourself." I would also throw in there "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand."

I feel one cannot worship of partake of Holy Communion while in conflict with friends and neighbors. If we hold something against another we cannot enter into convenant with God. Our hearts hold bitterness and anger. When we come to him we need to be pure of heart thinking only of Him. We must go to the one to which we have the conflict and try to make amends. We can go and be humble to the person and apologize. There may be one to whom the hurt is too deep, but we must try. I believe we should always try. Sometimes nothing will help. But if you go and earnestly and humbly try the intent was there and that is all one can do.

Jesus says that one who calls another a fool does so with a heart that lashes out in anger and venom. This is its way expresses anger toward the man's character which puts one in danger of the fires of hell. It is comparable to murder. If words can kill the spirit, it can "kill" the man. So in this way it is murder in God's sight. If we viewed anger as God does, the world would be a much softer spoken world. We would obey the commandment of "Love your neighbor as yourself"!

As a CLM who preaches quite often I need the Old Testament. Without the OT we do not have the New Testament. It is our roots. It tells us who we are. The book of Revelation refers back to the OT quite frequently. The visions are described exactly like Daniel and Ezekiel. Using the OT we find the prophecies. Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies and He fulfilled the Law. Christian legalism in the church is God as the head. We obey the 10 Commandments by obeying the 2 that Jesus gave. The United Methodist Church has a Basis Order of Worship. One can enter any UMC in the world and find the order of worship basically the same. As one who travels in Missions overseas it is comforting in Africa to find the BOW is the same as my church in NC. We have standards set by the structure of the church. there are rules and guidelines to follow. That makes us uniform to all other churches who have basically the same structure or one similar. Without order or structure the churches would be in chaos. No rules make bad practices.

Loosing one's saltiness is loosing one's witness. If we loose our witness we no longer represent Jesus. Jesus was persecuted for us. He witnessed and he spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven and living right. If we too are persecuted for His name's sake we are on the right pathway. If we hide the light of God we are no longer witnessing in word or deed. Jesus suffering was necessary to show us the way. We too, must proclaim the Great I AM and we will find we too, are persecuted. But, we must be faithful in word and deed and FOR Him. Romans 12:2 tells us not to conform to the things of this world. We need to keep our eyes on the Sparrow by study, prayer and meditation on God and His word.

Jesus uses the parable of "the light of the world" to describe Christians. Why would one become a Christian if they were going to hide it? When you become a Christian you glow, you are happy. This joy is meant to be shared with everybody. Why hide your light? Putting a lamp or candle under a bushel and hiding it dims the light. Your light as a Christian should brighten the darkness and lead the way to another trying to find their way "home".

A Christian who has lost his "saltiness" is one who is conflicted. You cannot serve two gods. You must serve the Father and no other. We need to renew our faith, our witness daily. We must immerse ourselves in the love He first showed us. Not just read the Bible, but study the Bible. Not just pray, but be in prayer. This is not just a Sunday religion it is a life style. We must remain God Strong! I believe it is possible for a Christian to detect things in themselves that would lead to loosing their "saltiness". Not reading the scriptures or praying or the I don't give a care attitude. One can become "spiritually dead". Becoming bogged down in self pity or too absorbed in worldly things also leads to loosing saltiness. Pray! Be in prayer! If a person professes to be a Christian it is obvious by their face and actions. It can be noticed by their actions. People going through the motions of being a Christian are not effective. They lack the zest of one who truly loves the Lord and serves him freely. People have approached me in stores and ask me to pray for them. I always TRY (sometimes I admit it is hard, my plate is full right now) to smile. God will take care of everything much better that I can. I occasionally try to help Him. It really isn't needed and I get the message. I pray and study and meditate on God and nature to bring back what I lost. I don't think we would be human if we didn't sometimes try to do it ourselves. But, I try to remember to place all my cares and problems on the cross and let him take care of them. He can do it.!!!!

Christians are the "salt of the earth" by our prayers, actions and deeds. Christians pray for the sins of all including ourselves. We prostrate ourselves and ask for mercy because He loved us, we in turn love others and want the best for them. I believe that life with Christ is the only way to live. We must bring all we can to Him. This is also why we have yet another day. Another day to bring someone else to believe. Another day to bring someone 'home' with us. God listens and when we pray for others He hears. We also serve as a standard for others. They see our works and our actions and the results. We continue to pray and witness and results are shown to the unbelievers if only by our perserverence. We do not give up. Our faith is in the Father who sustains us. Using the seasoning analogy reminds me of my husband. He was diagnosed with cancer 6 weeks ago. Instead of moaning and groaning we took it as God has a reason. He was unable to preach so I took over his pulpit with permission of our DS using my CLM. With God's help my messages were on faith, trust and a time of all things. God has a reason for everything. The "flavor" of my messages was trust in God. He knows best and will deliver. He knows what my husband needs, he knows what I need and he helped our congregation in growing in their faith. By our actions and works God touched our lives and our church.

To be persecuted for Jesus is an honor. To be ridiculed because you are a Christian is an honor. The greatest man who ever lived and lives in us still was persecuted. We will anticipate our reward in Heaven with the Father. The prophets were persecuted and they await under the altar in Heaven to be freed and to see the evil one done away with forever as their reward. God himself has heard and seen...We will not suffer as the early Christians did, but we also suffer for our faith in other ways. The reward if we walk with Jesus is Heaven. That in itself is reason enough to proclaim the He is Lord!

I believe there is good in everyone. Sometimes it is hard to find, but it is there. Jesus forgave. Why can't we? We all have sinned and fallen short. Yet he forgives us. Sometimes people cannot see beyond their own sins. To be more Christ like, we must study and pray. Above all study. Study the master and his works. Walk in the dust of his sandals.

As Christians we must be constantly striving for more. We want to learn more to have questions answered to know why and how. We want to know what we must do to inherit the Kingdom. We are hungry and thirsty for the Word of God. A lot of people in this world are satisfied and not hungering after God, which brings perfect peace. Jesus is talking about a path that is not of this world. In order to achieve this we must walk in the Way. If we walk with Him our quest will be answered with eternal life. Our life is not of this world, we are just passing through.

A lot of people in this world are content with their material lives. To walk with Jesus one must be constantly striving for more. To be hungry and thirsty for the very Word of God. This puts us at odds with this life because we know we will never have that craving satisfied until we are in Heaven. We will be filled to the brim with all the answers to questions we never knew we had. Life will be a peace unlike anything we could possibly obtain here on earth. The promise Jesus gave us is "we will be filled."

We live in a world where the most aggressive wins. But not all the time. Jesus was saying it is okay to get ahead just watch the way you do it. You are not a weakling if you are compassionate, gentle and humble. Jesus himself had all of those qualities. A lot of the people who want to reach the top claw and trample those in their way. It will be the meek and not the aggressive and the proud who will inherit ..Humility is the personal quality of being free from arrogance and pride . Jesus was like this. He humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples. Jesus served..

Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. Holy sorrow is part of conversion, repentance. We must mourn over sin and suffering of all mankind and be repentant, and to be fully at peace on comforted in Jesus. We must let go of our past, of the things that are not good for us, because there is something better waiting for us. When we mourn it is because of a loss. If we mourn in our emptiness and pain we look to Jesus for that perfect shalome. Christians loose their "bad" past for the awesome future with Jesus. We look forward to the day when we are united with the Father.

The beatitudes consist of two parts; the condition and the response. Blessed or happy are the poor in spirit, the humble and the lowly heart of the poor and their total dependence upon God. These are the people who are spiritually rich. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. These are the one who possess the traits of Jesus himself. I feel Jesus spoke in parable or paradoxes to make the people think and to contrast their lives. The Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians is the spontaneous work of the Holy spirit. These traits Jesus himself possessed and through faith and works we join our lives to his. This is the Beatitudes!

I am excited to begin a new study. I am a Certified Lay Minister and presently occupying my husband's pulpit while he is doing chemo and unwell. We are God Strong and know God will handle this, so we gave him the worry and we trust and listen to the doctor. I have MS, but God is using this and my husband's cancer to his glory and reaching people through us. I am interested in learning why why everything. I need to know why Jesus spoke the way he did, and why he did the things he did. I am learning much with this and other studies. looking forward to getting started. God Bless Shalome

I know my name is in the Book of Life. My fruit, that which I do daily to serve God and my character is what I will take to Heaven. If here on earth we serve God and Him only our characters reflect that. I serve the Saviour daily. My character, I believe reflects that and shows in my deeds.

The final scene of judgment may seem frightening, but if you have lived your life as a Matthew 25 Christian your name will be in the Lamb's Book of Life. When we leave this world we only take our character. That is what we have done for the Kingdom and the person we have become. No one will escape the final judgment. Some people I believe are afraid because they are not sure if they will measure up to what they should be to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Trust and Obey.

The titles King of kings and Lord of Lords is like the Alpha and Omega to me. He is of the highest order, above all. In the world around me, I see him in all creation. I live in a very secluded place. No streetlights, no traffic, no neighbors. I see the beauty in creation all around me. Today one of my dogs brought us home a wild turkey baby. Still with it egg tooth. So, it is only maybe a day old. God created this tiny bird. For some reason my dog brought it to us. We will nurse it back and a neighbor from a mile away will raise it. God is everywhere. He is King and Lord of Lords!

The marriage of the Lamb to his bride is the final union between Jesus Christ and his Church. The prophets thought of Israel as the chosen bride of God. Marriage symbolism runs through the gospels. Marriage, any real marriage must contain four things; love, intimate communion, joy and fidelity. These four things must also be present in a relationship with Christ and the Church. This is encouraging because as Christians this is what we are striving for.

Being a Matthew 25 Christian is being "in the world and not of the world" I am sad to say. I am 60 years old and I have seen many changes in the morality of our society. Many people care only about themselves and what they can get. Jesus care more about his fellow man. He feed the poor, cared for the sick, visited those in prison, and clothed the needy. How many of us do that. The greatest commandment is the love. When we do not do this we care more for this world and we are of it. When we live as Jesus taught, we simply live here and are not of the world.