-- Sunday, 7/24/11 -- LUST IS A FOUR LETTER WORD - Matthew 5:27-28
J.R. & Bonnie Ricks
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Friends, I need your help… I’ve been receiving notes from folks the past week or so that the text in the devotionals is very small and, therefore, difficult to read. I’ve been trying to fix the problem, but to no avail. Can you help me – in one or both ways as follows:
1. Let me know if your devotionals have (within the last week or two) arrived containing very small text, so I’ll know how widespread the problem is, and
2. If you’re a techie, give me any suggestions you might have on how to fix the problem.
Sorry for the technical problem – I’ve very “technologically challenged”, so this has me bumfuzzled!
Thanks in advance!
God bless,
Bonnie
LUST IS A FOUR LETTER WORD – Matthew 5:27-28
"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus said that if a person lusts after another person, the person doing the lusting has committed adultery. The physical act is not necessary. This does not mean noticing someone of the opposite sex and thinking that they're attractive. This does not mean having a physical attraction for someone that you're in love with, but to whom you are not yet married. This means having sexual fantasies about someone to whom you are not married, whether you are married or single, and whether the other person is married or single. This means allowing your lust to direct your thoughts and desires toward someone who is not appropriate for you. It's that simple.
Let's carry that a little bit further… because hormones will eventually carry things a lot further. If a person – man or woman - dwells on sexual fantasies about another person, sooner or later those two people most likely will end up in bed together… and that is NOT where God intends for them to be.
God created sex to be a blessing within the boundaries of marriage. He created it to be wonderful. He made hormones and physical sensations that would heighten both our desire and our enjoyment. He designed a physical act that would bring not only intense physical pleasure, but incredible emotional pleasure and a total sense of oneness between a man and a woman. He made it very good. What we have done with this beautiful creation is to twist it to our own desires, using this gift in ways that our Lord never intended. As a result, we have millions of people sleeping with each other merely to satisfy raging hormones, and then feeling unsettled, unsatisfied, agonizingly guilty and very much alone.
Remember, there is no honor among thieves. When you sleep with someone to whom you are not married, you are both robbing each other of something very precious. And no matter how you justify it within your own mind, you can never fully trust each other again.
Make a commitment today to recognize sex as the awesome, breathtaking gift that it is and to keep it within the sanctity of marriage.
All Bible quotes contained in these devotionals are from the New International Version 1984 (NIV1984), unless otherwise specified.
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