charisbarak

The purpose of the eye for eye regulation was to get people to show restraint. When administered by a court, it was to not inflict on the guilty more than what he inflicted on another--to make the person harmed, whole. It seemed to be a judicial matter, but can show us we must practice restraint on our anger and pay back with love!!

Letting your YES be YES and your NO be NO is simply telling the plain truth, not bending the truth to allow for different meanings. If we all would do that it would change the world. People would be more honest and transparent. Credibility would not be a question then.

Love them, encourage them, be a good friend and pray pray pray! Same as above, only help them to see God can and will forgive them if they ask, repent and desire to live godly lives--in His will from that day forth! Pray pray pray!

No, the person who has divorced for any other reason is an adulter--but like other sin, it can be repented of/forgiven/lived out in God's will in the new marriage. NO! Stay married & live in God's will! Yes! Ask for forgiveness/repent/lived in God's will in the new marriage!

The disciples reacted strongly because they saw that marriage was very hard and that there was no "escape hatch!" They may have misunderstood it, or were not taught the original teachings on marriage--they had become accustomed to men at that time being able to get out of a marriage easily.

No, the Mosaic law did not command divorce. It was allowed because of the hardness of their hearts. God's orginal intention was that a man & a woman would marry for life.

No, any couple so joined together is one flesh. This is by natural law. 100%!

He really didn't agree with either of them. Jesus' exception, if they absolutely had to divorce, was for marital infidelity. Deut. 24 speaks of anything indecent about the woman. It is pretty close to what Jesus proposed.

Very serious--it is sin!! Agape love helps us to see others as God sees them, wanting the very best for them. Men are to look upon women as sisters!!

The counsel you gave & reiterated by Elwood O'Dell is perfect. I would encourage him that he can be healed, to get into counseling, safeguard his home, office & car & get rid of things that cause him to fall. Get into the Word, instead, daily---memorize scripture. Feed yourself this rather than those negative things. Don't be where you may fall. Say no & turn off the tv or the internet. At the beach---swim!

*********** increases the ****. Once **** is there--so is sin. Going to prositues is also giving in to ****/sin. Victims--the man--scarred for life the women--scarred for life/sometimes losing their very lives the wives having to deal with this sin & healing the children of this marriage--who also might fall prey to *********** if it is around the house society in general

God given sexual desires are good under marriage only. It seeks to totally unite the husband and wife and to bring forth children. The difference is marriage!! No marriage--no sex!!

The point adultery & **** are the same is the same selfish desire for something that does not belong to you. The difference--**** is the beginning of the fulfillment of adultery. Jesus said you've committed adultery if you **** after someone. Your mindset is one of acceptance of adultery--you've gone too far by then.

The overarching theme of all these verses is love. We need to love others as we love ourselves. These are heart problems. We need the Holy Spirit to clean us up on the inside & keep our accounts clean with God & our brothers & sisters. We don't show love when we sin against them. Shalom

The point is, do not let much time go by before you reconcile with your brothers & sisters. When judgement day comes you will be judged for those things you didn't take care of before. Settling is to make right those things that are not right. It means sometimes apologizing, asking for forgivenss, anything to bring peace & harmony back to the relationship. We should settle because God commands us to. As much as lies in us, we are to make peace with our brothers & sisters.

We are not worshipping God with a clean heart if we know someone has something against us. The appropriate action to take is to initiate reconciliation with our brother or sister. We are to do whatever we can to heal the relationship. We are to go as far as possible in the reconciliation process. If we humbly approach the person and they don't want to be reconciled, then you leave it with God. There are no situations you shouldn't try to resolve if you can. Ask God for His leading. Sometimes there are broken relationships & the other person is not alive. You do what you can with the help of the Lord & let Him heal you. What I thought was interesting, is that our pastor, our last communion day, while we were in prayer before receiving communion, he was confronted by God about a relationship he had to mend. So he shared with us that he was not going to take communion with us for that reason. After that service, he made a call to try to mend that relationship with the person God had laid on his heart. Wow! That really spoke to me about how important those relationships are to God & should be to us as well.

Our heart is the same--if we can call someone a fool we could, with that heart attitude, kill someone. In God's eyes there are no degrees of sin--sin is sin. I know I have to keep aware of what comes out of my mouth--the awareness of the sin of my thought life is disturbing. (judging, upset with people, etc.) I don't want to sin. I ask for the Spirit to empower me to live in God's love.

There are those tendencies in the church today. People want to just look at the love God has for us, not his holiness. Christian legalism in a church are rules that must be obeyed by all. Things done in a church have to be one strict way--not open to new forms. There in no freedom in Christ there. It looks like a club.

By letting our good deeds shine & praising God, we are becoming more like Jesus, and Jesus was persecuted for who he is. Persecution comes to Christians--the world does not like Jesus or His own. If we are hiding our light, we are not giving glory to God--we are disobeying. Glory is what we want to give to God--our lives will usually show this. Then comes the persecution--people can see the difference in us. Jesus' suffering was necessary. It was a foretaste of the Christian life--the anger of those who are Satan's will be taken out on God's own people. Yes, it is inevitable that suffering will come if we wholly give ourselves to God and live as salt & light for Him. Rom. 12:2 We are not to be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds--so God can use us as His salt & light. The more like Jesus we become, the more the chance of our suffering for Him.

The dangers of not letting your light shine are that you would get burned or lose the light completely keeping it so close to yourself--refusing the let it shine is selfish & disobeying God. Breathing in that smoke would be hazardous to your health--when you should be breathing out your testimony to the world. Joy would certainly be missing from your life and you would make it easier for yourself to compromise with Satan--king of the darkness!

Christians who have lost their saltiness, usually don't have time for the things of God. They have blended into the world and it is hard to tell the difference. With prayer, one could detect this themselves. They could become accountable to a practicing Christian & ask their opinion. The secular people would love you--and you would fit right into their lives with them. Christians would probably not have seen you in church for quite a while, and Christian friendships would not be alive & well. You would appear happy, perhaps, but we know you're not!! Yes, the Holy Spirit could resaltify you. Confess your sins & live wholly for God! Repent!!

Christians are the salt of the earth--the preserver of "life"/conscience of the peoples. We refuse to be mixed the the world & lose our saltiness. May our tang continue to make a difference! Christians are the salt of the earth by seasoning--we bring out a "flavor of life" by being living witnesses of Jesus Christ. We know Jesus makes life worth living & are not afraid to say so!

We rejoice in persecution because Jesus was persecuted. We know we are in God's perfect will. Our eyes are on God & not on ourselves & our feelings. We are communing with God, The blessing for the persecuted is because they will not deny Christ--even unto death. We need to be praying for our brothers & sisters all around the world who are living in countries & experiencing the worst kind of persecution. A side line: the number believers are growing rapidly in these countries because of the spiritual maturity of the believers who are being persecuted right now and their witness to the unsaved.

Those with pure hearts--who have confessed their sins and have a right relationship with God daily, can see, know & discern God, because this is part of our relationship with Him. Those who choose to sin--as a life style--may not even be saved. If our relationship with God is clogged by unconfessed sin, we won't see Him. He is too holy. God alone gives us clean/pure hearts--he gives us new hearts. We need to work on keeping our relationship open to Him and allowing Him to continually cleanse us.

An intense desire for righteousness will keep us away from the moral decay that is going on around us on the tv, movies, advertisements, any activity that takes us away from serving God. It will not make us very popular with the crowd. God wants us to be right-thinking. In other words, we need study Jeus' life and desire for the right, the clean, the pure & live for Him only--let Him change our heart. Our thirst for righteousness will be filled.