Overcoming Lust and a Circumcission of the Heart

[Frankj]

You are clearly in danger. A big part of spiritual warfare has been a war of words, a war of thoughts. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

I don't care how old you are, or how special you think you are. You should choose your next words carefully or say nothing at all.

Other than casting judgment, that makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[Manonfire63]

Other than casting judgment, that makes absolutely no sense to me.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Be careful with your words. The goal is the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God, your thoughts, they are aligned. You hear from God as well.

You have stated some bad things.

 

[Frankj]

I have said nothing that cannot be reconciled with Biblical standards.

You might want to look at the standards you are using to judge others, casting judgment on others is bringing judgment on yourself (at least if you consider the words of Jesus).

Do not judge me before first judging yourself.

 

[Manonfire63]

I have said nothing that cannot be reconciled with Biblical standards.

You might want to look at the standards you are using to judge others, casting judgment on others is bringing judgment on yourself (at least if you consider the words of Jesus).

Do not judge me before first judging yourself.

Some people have a Fruit. A Fruit is what someone produces. A Communist, or other ideologue, he may have been doing and saying particular things. He had a fruit.

You have had a fruit.

In Christianity, there is a standard. Christianity is pass and fail. Someone is in the darkness or the light of the Lord. Some of your comments were not meeting the standard given the topic in the OP. Jesus chastises and rebukes those he loves. (Hebrews 12:6)(Revelations 3:19)

Judgement may be like judging someone unto to death. Judgement may be like a Judge in a courtroom. Judge not lest ye be judged? Someone was about to be stoned to death. Do you feel I am stoning you?

The bottom line is that some of your remarks smacked of a non-Christian ideology of feminism and were inappropriate.

 

[Manonfire63]

Question: How much Opera is good or bad?

Music is an art. Art may be like a tool. A tool is neither good nor bad. Someone could find a limestone rock. Said rock could be used as a hammer. It could be used as an instrument of war. It could be used as an executioners instrument. A rock has many uses. Who is using it and towards what?

God is a creator. Satan was a liar and a thief. It may be that God gift certain gifts to his followers. Rock and Roll music stems from Black Gospel and Blues music. It may be that people who were outside of God, followers of Satan, stole certain things that were awesome from believers, and then they had a wild party till all the juice was gone. That may have been Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll in the 1970's.

When looking at Opera, it is similar. Bizet came from a particular philosophical group of people. Given someone cares to study the topic, they may be able to find somethings where Bizet was upsetting more traditional classical composers. Around the 1850's or so, all the way up to and through the the first world war, to today, the aristocracy of Europe was very interesting in the Occult.

 

[Manonfire63]

You might want to look at the standards you are using to judge others, casting judgment on others is bringing judgment on yourself (at least if you consider the words of Jesus).

Do not judge me before first judging yourself.

This was a thread about Overcoming Lust. You started espousing feminism like you have an agenda. You didn't add anything. You suddenly felt the feminist white knight, and needed to use this opportunity and platform to brigand the conversation. What was most important to you after reading the OP? "What about women?" You asked. That was inappropriate coming from you, and the way it came.

Stop. You are making yourself look the fool, and dishonoring yourself with this.

Marxist Betty Friedan Feminism is not consistent with the Bible. You have displaying values and FRUIT, that is not meeting the standard. What is fruit?

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7:16-20)

The topic is Overcoming Lust. Unless you have something constructive to add, you should cease responding.

You have been rebuked, and chastised. Someone who doesn't understand the difference between judgement, someone is given the death penalty, and being rebuked and chastised, he doesn't know God. (Hebrews 12:6)

 

[Lamb]

This was a thread about Overcoming Lust. You started espousing feminism like you have an agenda. You didn't add anything. You suddenly felt the feminist white knight, and needed to use this opportunity and platform to brigand the conversation. What was most important to you after reading the OP? "What about women?" You asked. That was inappropriate coming from you, and the way it came.

Stop. You are making yourself look the fool, and dishonoring yourself with this.

Marxist Betty Friedan Feminism is not consistent with the Bible. You have displaying values and FRUIT, that is not meeting the standard. What is fruit?

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7:16-20)

The topic is Overcoming Lust. Unless you have something constructive to add, you should cease responding.

You have been rebuked, and chastised. Someone who doesn't understand the difference between judgement, someone is given the death penalty, and being rebuked and chastised, he doesn't know God. (Hebrews 12:6)

Please don't flame others by saying he looks like a fool and he doesn't know God. Stick to the topic only and not the person.

 

[BruceLeiter]

This discussion interests me. Since I was a boy, I lusted after girls, since I was an unbeliever until I was 16. Lust was strong in me and became an unexamined idol in my adulthood. Since I have always read the Bible cover to cover, I came across Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:27-28):

Mat 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
Mat 5:28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

God convicted me of my sinful lust. You said that appreciation of beauty is not wrong. Well, I could have tried to reject my lust completely, but women's beauty was everywhere.

Instead, I found that as soon as I saw a beautiful woman, if I sent my thoughts heavenward and praised God for his creative power in making that person's body, it took my focus away from my selfish pleasure and onto God and released me from my idolatry. After a while, it became automatic for me to divert my attention mentally from the woman to God, so that God has always become the center of my desires and thoughts.

 

[Manonfire63]

The Song of Songs is in the Bible as a representation of God's love for Israel and the Church.

A man may need to be "In God." God's plan is God's Kingdom. One way a man loves God is by "Doing." He is a Doer. He works to build the Kingdom of God.

The understanding I have related here come from doing, being in God, and as a part of sanctification.

When I was a young man, I lusted after women. I thought of them wrong.

Is she married? I don't let my mind go there. Is she in God's plan for me? If no.....most likely no.....I don't let my mind drift there. I can look at a woman and appreciate her beauty, and not be shy about it. I am not thinking about using her outside of marriage. There was a shift in perception. It is not wrong to think about sex either. Where does a man's mind dwell?

 

[BruceLeiter]

Perhaps, I can shed some biblical light on this discussion, @Frankj and @Manonfire63. God made Adam and Eve equal in status before him in Genesis 1:27.

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

However, he also gave their relationship between each other different roles or functions.

Gen 2:18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Gen 2:23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

Thus, God gave Adam the role of the servant-leader, not dominant "king," as a number of New Testament verses confirm, while Eve was to be a "helper fit" for Adam. For example,

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her....

The more men serve their wives' needs, the more God will lift them up as the "buck-stops-here" leader in marriage, though they must discuss all decisions (Ephesians 5:21).

 

[Manonfire63]

God made Adam and Eve equal in status before him in Genesis 1:27.

Eve came from Adam.

• I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. (1 Timothy 2:14)

To lead, someone may need to serve. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church; however, when stated "Adam and Eve were equal in Status," that implies more of a Talmudic Lilith, and that is false. (Given you care to know more about this, ask politely.)

• But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

A young man who was growing up in a Christian household, he may have needed some special guidance and mentorship towards understanding how to a man in Christ. That mentorship has often not been in Churches, and it is not in the Public School System. In a Christian Society, where we are building the Kingdom of God, young men may need a particular education.

Around age 13 or so, a young man was learning to look at girls. How did he look at them? The World, in which Christians are to reject, it is full of traps, and was setting all men up for failure with God. The world hates The Lord Jesus Christ. Christians should hate and reject the world, and choose God.

 

[Manonfire63]

Given a man is in a marriage with a woman, he works to love is wife. He works to think of her and only her. Given he had lusts prior to marriage, those lustful and sinful thought may have followed him into marriage. He was not satisfied. He may have been in an Ego Contest with his buddies from school or other men in general. He drops the ego, and he works to be happy with what he has. He works to love his wife, and not think about other women in sexual ways. It is not a sin for a man to desire his wife.

God knows all your thoughts. Given a man was fantasizing about his wife's friends.....God knows this. Those thoughts would be a sin, and those sinful thoughts were separating man from God. God should be in a man's thoughts. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Also.....you have tease her to please her.

Given a man started having some bad thoughts, he just shakes them off. A thought may be like a seed. Someone thinks about something too much, a bad thought may have taken root. Given a man has bad thoughts, he shakes them off.....like a woman shaking out her hair. Thoughts are clean.

 

[Manonfire63]

God sees everything. Sex is a gift from God to be shared in marriage with the opposite sex partner. Doubt and Fear kill faith. Faith may be a state where there is no doubt or fear.

It is pretty normal for a young man to be shy or anxious about marriage things. In a marriage, man and woman may be able to learn things about God and creation. There are a lot of interesting allegories between Faith and Marriage. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

It is not wrong for a young man to be curious. That can be taken too far, and be a slippery slope.

 

[BruceLeiter]

God sees everything. Sex is a gift from God to be shared in marriage with the opposite sex partner. Doubt and Fear kill faith. Faith may be a state where there is no doubt or fear.

It is pretty normal for a young man to be shy or anxious about marriage things. In a marriage, man and woman may be able to learn things about God and creation. There are a lot of interesting allegories between Faith and Marriage. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

It is not wrong for a young man to be curious. That can be taken too far, and be a slippery slope.

I agree with all you say, but the second part of my post shows the different roles or functions the equal-in-status partners must do. The male is to be the servant-leader. What does mean? It means that he must serve her as Christ served the church in self-sacrifice by satisfying her needs by actively listening and communicating with her, hugging and kissing her a lot because she often needs to be reassured of his love, and fulfilling her sexual needs. These needs I discovered and sought to fulfill during the 56 years of my marriage with my late wife. As the male serves his female in marriage, God lifts him up to lead the family in God's direction with the important decisions.

 

[Manonfire63]

I agree with all you say, but the second part of my post shows the different roles or functions the equal-in-status partners must do. The male is to be the servant-leader. What does mean? It means that he must serve her as Christ served the church in self-sacrifice by satisfying her needs by actively listening and communicating with her, hugging and kissing her a lot because she often needs to be reassured of his love, and fulfilling her sexual needs. These needs I discovered and sought to fulfill during the 56 years of my marriage with my late wife. As the male serves his female in marriage, God lifts him up to lead the family in God's direction with the important decisions.

Also, you are about to be a "Nice guy," and completely oblivious to creation and how men and women desire each other.


Personally, given I was building a school for young men, they would not be "nice guys." I would teach them how to be gentleman. They don't get along with weirdos.

 

[Edward429451]

Judgement may be like judging someone unto to death. Judgement may be like a Judge in a courtroom. Judge not lest ye be judged? Someone was about to be stoned to death. Do you feel I am stoning you?

The bottom line is that some of your remarks smacked of a non-Christian ideology of feminism and were inappropriate.

I don't think you even understand what he has been saying. No questions to clarify or anything, just judgment. Do you not like people or something? At first I thought it was just females that you are against, but now I'm seeing it goes deeper.

 

[BruceLeiter]

Also, you are about to be a "Nice guy," and completely oblivious to creation and how men and women desire each other.


Personally, given I was building a school for young men, they would not be "nice guys." I would teach them how to be gentleman. They don't get along with weirdos.

No, I'm not. I'm just paraphasing what Paul says in Ephesians 5. If we trust in Jesus, his resurrection power can help us control our desires until marriage and keep them within that context.