Romans 14:17 The kingdom of God is in ... righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Aren't we joyful each time we remember how God delivered us from the life we once pursued?
I love the word of God, for to me it is freedom from sins of my own flesh. It is freedom from hating other people, and freedom from trying to beat others, and from wrath against others. It is freedom from the pursuit of greatness. It is freedom from many fleshly lusts.
I see each portion of the WORD of God as freedom, freedom from my own fleshly works, and freedom from sins.
So to me there is great joy in scripture.
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Romans 14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
The way of life for us as we are on this earth is to turn from those things that trouble us and follow after those things that make for peace ... and things which allow us to edify each other.
This is a wonderful way to go.
We no longer have to fret over the many things this world considers important. It is truly peaceful to come to the understanding this world will never be righteous. No matter what we do we cannot cause them to be righteous. It is peaceful to just let them alone, walk away. Leave them to God. If HE wills, HE will reach them. God reached us didn't HE?
Deliberately pursue those things that cause us to be peaceful ... and those things which allow us to build the church in faith in God.
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Romans 14:23 whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
If you think it to be wrong to do something, then you should not do that thing. Certainly if our basis for considering it wrong is scripture, then we should not do such.
II Timothy 3:16 ... All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
II Timothy 3:16 ... All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Do you have faith that you can commit fornication? I certainly hope not!
The scriptures do not put us in bondage but rather the scriptures are liberty from sins of the flesh for when we see scripture and belong to God and truly want to do the will of God, God makes those scriptures even stronger in our hearts.
Therefore: Concerning fornication ...
I Corinthians 6:9-11 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
15-20 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
In the USA today, it seems to me that men and women go about looking for fornication, seeking it.
I've had more than one man inside the churches try to get me to commit fornication. One man who did this told me God knows we need sex. He was a deacon in the Baptist Church. He had a wife. I took Bible and read I Corinthians 6 to him and he left my house and I don't think I ever saw him again. There are many evil doers inside the churches and many are pastors.
The scriptures free us from their sins.
God set up HIS way to avoid fornication.
I Corinthians 7:1-5 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
Is it really true that all need sex?
I Corinthians 7:32-38 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.
Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.
So then he that giveth in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth not in marriage doeth better.
Paul also explains that those who do marry will have trouble in the flesh. v 28
15-20 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
In the USA today, it seems to me that men and women go about looking for fornication, seeking it.
I've had more than one man inside the churches try to get me to commit fornication. One man who did this told me God knows we need sex. He was a deacon in the Baptist Church. He had a wife. I took Bible and read I Corinthians 6 to him and he left my house and I don't think I ever saw him again. There are many evil doers inside the churches and many are pastors.
The scriptures free us from their sins.
God set up HIS way to avoid fornication.
I Corinthians 7:1-5 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
Is it really true that all need sex?
I Corinthians 7:32-38 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.
Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.
So then he that giveth in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth not in marriage doeth better.
Paul also explains that those who do marry will have trouble in the flesh. v 28
Paul did not marry. Peter did marry and had children. (We know Peter married because in the Bible we read of Peter's mother-in-law. Also Peter was an elder in the church and to be an elder you had to have children and rule well over your household. This is one requirement for elder/bishop in Bible. Titus 1:6)
But to be a Christian and to go about committing fornication is a very serious matter for yourself and for others.
Love works no ill toward another. Fornication often works ill toward many people.
Above all, the scripture shows us those who commit fornication will not inherit the kingdom of God. I Cor. 6
The scriptures give us freedom from sin for by the HOLY scriptures we know the will of God.
If God has revealed HIMSELF to us causing us to be born again, God enlightens us to the Word of God. God just put it in my heart that to divorce and remarry is wrong in most cases. Then I saw the scripture confirming that which God put in my heart.
Once we are enlightened and know the truth, to go another way from that truth is to sin willfully and there is no way back when this happens.
Hebrews 10:26-31 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
For we know HIM that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto ME, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge HIS people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 6:4-8 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put HIM to an open shame.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
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So we do not have faith to sin but rather by faith we depart from sin.
By the WORD of God and knowing the Word of God we enter into a freedom from that sin which we once committed.
I do not want to live in hatred toward neighbors. I choose instead to suffer myself to be "defrauded", allowing them to do things which affect me without objecting to them as I once did.
God makes ways for us to escape when we want to escape our own fleshly preferences and desires.
One of my main problems today is electronically produced sound coming through the walls of my house from neighbor's sound equipment. Fortunately there are some things which help. I had recently purchased noise reduction headphones which really help with this problem. Our houses are not constructed today to keep sound out, in most cases.
If we want to avoid works of our own flesh ... such as striking out at people who do things to which we object, then God will help us to go a "peaceful" way, if we want to go a "peaceful" way.
Often sin is caused by not wanting to do otherwise.
But when we belong to God, we do not want to sin and if we know Galatians 5, we know what sin is.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance (to vary: debate, argue), emulations (trying to outdo another), wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
I do not want to sin. Therefore I rejoice in the scripture for by them we can recognize righteous ways of God and avoid those things that are unrighteous.
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Returning to Romans 14:23 ... whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
I certainly have faith to watch things like TV news or to see headlines of current news on Internet, but I also know that when I do such I put myself in a path to be needlessly troubled. So most often I do not watch these happenings.
Fleshly curiosity often drags us into trouble.
Yet I am free to watch if I choose to do so.
There I have "faith" to watch.
I am free to drink wine if I choose to do so but I do not find it to benefit me. In fact, if I do drink alcoholic beverages I feel worse, not better.
To be drunken is a sin of the flesh. To drink wine is not a sin unless you believe it to be a sin for you.
Therefore Paul warns:
Romans 14:20-23 For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
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We do not boast of our freedom in Christ but rather we try to walk charitably toward the other person, not offending him unnecessarily by that which our faith allows.
If sin is occurring that is another matter. We try to deal with such when the door opens to deal with the issue.
But even in that we must deal by faith in God.
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Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
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Romans 16:17-18 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
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