YBIC

Scripture teaches that unless he wants to stand guilty before God as an adulterer, he must first repent and second flee from it. Perhaps the biggest help in fleeing would be get rid of temptations around you, establish an accountablility partner and come before God for help.

Everything is wrong! It goes against God's design and is outside of the boundries he set. It devalues men and women, damages marriage relationships and takes advange of the young and needy. Prostitution is wrong because it also is out side of God's boundries which are confined to marriage. I believe we are all victims because everyone bears the burden as a society, and society bears the consequences of families torn by divorce, crime and disorder.

God given sexual desire within the boundries of marriage is good and natural. Outside of these boundries, sexual desire and **** are forbidden. It is not gray, but black and white.

I believe the spirit of the law, as Jesus states is that **** is adultery in the heart. In God's eyes there is no difference between the two. The lustful desire is coveting, and coveting your neighbor violates the 10th commandment.

I believe the over arching theme is that if we are to be about loving our neighbor as our self we will need our interior to be right, that is being broken and contrite. If it is, I will be more likely to follow the command to love my neighbor as my self, especially when I approach them quickly to reconcile any wrong doing.

I believe the point is that the bar of justice before our heavenly father will bring exacting judgement and harsh punishment, therefore I should not wait another moment to face it. Rather I should hurry to reconcile with the person(s) I have wronged. Our adversary, the person I have wronged. Settling entails acting quickly (highest priority), doing so face to face, and doing so before we face the judge. Why? because 1) it brings reconciliation with our adversary, 2) we are working on making our interior right, 3) it follows the spirt of the Law - Be reconciled to your brother.

The exterior may appear fine, but the interior is not right and we know the Lord desires a broken and contrite heart and despises an exterior that give the appearance all is well. When someone has offended us and asks forgiveness the Lord has asked us to forgive them so he may forgive us. Go to the person you have offended, confess your wrong, make restitution and ask for forgiveness. First weI need to approach them in humility, confessing my wrong and asking forgiveness. If they reject me, the desires of my heart have been made known to them. I can not change how they will react, it may take some time for them to internalize this. In the interim I need to remain humble and I can pray for them. We should always try. If rejected we need to remain humble and pray for healing and in time a change of heart. There may be situations we can not resolve, but the Spirit can work in another person's heart to bring resolve.

The mean spirit and desire to cause harm to a person is the same. Rather than attacking a persons physical being, the focus of the same anger is at tearing down their emotional well being. In Jesus eyes, any anger focused on attacking and tearing down God's creation is murder. I believe in God's eye any sin, even the smallest in man's eyes, is sufficient to cause a separation with God. We would work to find ways to express our feelings including anger in a way that is not destructive of another persons well being. That would mean spending some time understanding the person and expressing why we feel anger toward them in a constructive manner.

I would have to say that far more preaching and teaching as a whole appears to be devoted to the New Testement. Not always at the "abolishing" of the OT but certainly at the expense of sharing the perspective and contrast the OT offers. As a follower of Jesus it is tempting to spend time studying in the NT at the expense of fully appreciating the law & prophesy and the richness they add to the fulfillment of the NT. I believe Christian leagalism often places emphasis on man's rules and regulations for the purpose of protecting the organized church. The emphsis often turns to measuring each other against these standards and looses sight of the real purpose of sharing the life saving message of the Gospel with those that do not know Jesus. A church without no moral standards and no obedience is now open to man's interpretation and relativism. It leads to questioning moral standards and allowing for individual and situational interpretation. The result is the bar is lower, or disappears completely, and obedience is soon lacking.

I believe v.13-16 relate to v.10-12 in that "salt of the earth" and "light of the world" describe the righteousness for which disciples are persecuted. If we indeed are the saltiness and the light in the darkness we can expect persecution to follow. Hiding our light can affect the glory of God, when those that observe our actions and deeds, do not see the light and therefore do not know that the glory for our actions belongs to the Lord. The fact that glory and suffering go hand in hand should not surprise us. First of all we are told to expect it in v.10-12. Secondly we should not be so surprised that Satan and his angels would not use any thing at their disposal to bring about suffering, if they believe it will take away the salt's flavor and extinguish the light. Absolutely, Jesus suffering was necessary as it allowed him to show perfect obedience and ultimately power over death. In a small way I believe our suffering for righteousness is also necessary as it allows us to take up the cross and bear witness to all around us. In Romans we are challenged to no longer conform to world, but live a transformed life of truth. That transformed life will be one of saltiness and adding light to the darkness. It will be a witness to those who do not know Jesus and it will bring persecution from those who do not want others to know Jesus.

Think about how dark it was at night in those times. Today, we can't even see the stars on a clear night because of all the light reflecting all around us in the modern world. As dark as night was, it was critical that the light given by any one lamp provide lumination in the darkness around it, how absurd it must have sounded to put a bowl over that lamp. Why would you do that? It defeated the purpose of the lamp! Likewise if I do not allow my light to shine in an equally dark (spiritually dark) world today I am in great danger of blending in with the darkness around me. Not only am I in danger, but all those who might see my light are also in danger because it does not light their way.

Symptoms of "loss of saltiness" for a Christian include, spending little time in study and fellowship with brothers & sisters in the faith; not being in the Word on a regular and consistent basis; not having daily conversation wtih the Father; difficulty distinguishing from a person of the world by appearance, words and actionsnot showing fruits of the spirit; and in general not identifieable as a Christian to those you come in contact with. If you are looking, yes I believe it is possible for a believer to detect symptoms in self. Two clear measures are your prayer life and time in scripture. They are the first to show symptoms. Secular people will notice the "de-saltified" Christian and make comments like - You are beginning to fit in with the crowd, you are not so rigid and unwavering in your beliefs, you've joined the main stream, you are fun to be with now that you are more tolerant. Brothers and sisters in the faith may notice you are distancing yourself from the body, you are trying to justify your actions, you are not actively speaking out against evil. If identified early I believe it is possible if you strengthen time in the Word, prayer, praise and regular fellowship with believers. The longer time passes it is almost like the leaching of NaCl from the salt mixture, it is difficult to impossible to replace.

Because when you are persecuted, you know you have been seen and heard. At that point you are doing something just as the prophets, something that also brought them persecution. What a joy to be counted in that company! In my mind, there is no pleasure in the pain of persecution. Nothing draws me to the pain. I only find pleasure in being counted among the prohets and ultimately will find pleasure in the fulfillment of the promise when I receive my rewards in heaven. I believe it is the greatest because when you put everything including you life on the line for Jesus, there is no greater blessing than the kingdom of heaven.

This can only happen because God has washed a man's heart and cleansed it. As we seek devotion and obedience we are blessed with the ability to know, see and discern God. When chronic sin fills a life, that person's heart is flawed and only God can purify and cleanse it. Until then, the separation that exists as a result prevents intamacy with God and does not allow discernment. My heart needs to be focused, actively seeking purity and prefering a close intimate relationship with my Father.

The world is at odds with the intense desire for righteousness because it does not understand it and reacts by labeling those who do as "phobic", narrow minded and old fashioned. I think the sort of righteousness that Jesus is talking about is heart change that brings intense hunger and thirst for a closer relationship with him. We are promised that intense hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled by the Holy Spirit.