again,not one word from you displaying any desire to follow after and obey the Holy spirit.I love to go canoeing and take in nature. FLESH is the sinful nature and the last time I checked sex(and normal sexual desire) are God-given,natural,and not sinful. It's only when men/women have sex outside of marriage or commit adultery do they use sex in a sinful way.
Having sex,by yourself to release sexual tension is not a sin and the Bible does not anywhere describe it as sin.
See if this helps.
Greek thinking clearly separated the spiritual from the physical or natural. The spiritual was clearly superior to the latter. In contrast Jewish and subsequent NT writers followed more along Jewish teaching of being an integrated soul/spirit entity, which is easily understood from a Christian perspective by having to account for the incarnation.
We remain mortal, subject to limitations and finally death. We can chose to live independently of relationship with God, making all our own decisions. It is not until the resurrection that we acquire new bodies fit for living in a renewed earth. It is our living independently of God that is called 'flesh' in Paul's letters, not that we live in a mortal body.
Your 'flesh and blood' comment. That was written in the context of Paul teaching about the resurrection and our new bodies. He was teaching that our current bodies are not fully fit for the new order we will live in then. Consequently we will need new bodies, just as Jesus had post resurrection. Do note that we need a body to live in eternity. We will not be in some kind of 'spiritual' mode, which is how pagans, especially the Greeks saw the afterlife. Since earth is our home a renewed Eden necessitates bodies to live in it.
John
NZ
Well,I guess my tastebuds enjoying a good piece of chocolate cake,or feeling the cool silky water of a good swim is not "following after or obeying the Holy Spirit".
I would advise not pulling your theology out of thin air.
it is if the holy Spirit tells me not to do so .. . i guess we must clarify where you are coming from.. do you know what it is to "hear" his voice and "follow him"
your theology is carnal and i am getting the feeling you have no idea what im referring to when i say Obey the Holy Spirit .
I see more of an incomplete comprehension of some real terms and issues rather than a healthy holiness in your statements.
John
NZ
Somehow at this point we should be building a throne that you could sit on and WE(who really don't know the Spirit) can come to you so YOU can tell us what the Holy Spirit says about all things. YOU are a mere man sir,humble yourself.
"i find it increasingly astounding how many claiming faith in Jesus ,seem to struggle with the concept of "hearing" his voice and obeying him ."
A mirror would help you here.
***You probably won't listen to all this,it's tiresome to try so with this I'm bugging out.
1st part is humanistic carnal reasoning...it denies spirituality.does any one care to seek god and ask lord "not my but thy will be done?"I do not have a problem with the act of Masturbation per se. The goal of masturbation is simply to send an electrical current through our nervous system to a very hard to access place in the brain known as the 'pleasure center'. BTW, everything we feel, we feel it only in the brain, sometimes the electrical current causes us to feel pain when received by other receptors in our brain to let us know areas of our body that have been damaged and actions and repairs are needed.
A few decades ago, I saw a documentary where doctors did a study on people whose skull was cracked by some accident or a fight, by which the pleasure center of our brain becomes accessible to doctors whom will repair the damage. But before closing this exposed 'pleasure' region of the brain, with the patients permission, to send an electrical current to the physical pleasure region of their brain. The patients really liked it a lot, and the patients pleaded for more and more, and it had nothing to do with their sex organs, it was the electrical pulses that creates this pleasure of sex. It was a small electrical current acting on that region of the brain that caused the same physical pleasure as also caused by sexual activity between two people.
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Adam and Eve had fifty something Children, their DNA was perfect. Well, who did they have sex with, they married each other, which we call - 'Incest'. Yes, incest was legal then, and was acceptable up to the time of Moses. God banned incest with the issuance of the Mosaic Covenant.
Why did God Ban incest? Because of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. The human genome periodically make mistakes in the Human DNA, and incest fixes these errors in the offspring causing diseases such as Hemophilia, Tay-Sachs Disease, Malaria, and many more 'errors' get fixed into the Human Genome when siblings inter-marry.
1st part is humanistic carnal reasoning...it denies spirituality.does any one care to seek god and ask lord "not my but thy will be done?"
2nd part is off topic but stil humanistic.science is not a substitute for the wisdom of god, but is being used to justify obedience to the flesh OVER obedience to the Holy SPIRIT all to often
funny you should raise the addict card.Hello Michael, and I read your declarations wherein you pooh-poohed my opinions, and you did that very well.
A Pooh-Pooh sophistical argument is a reply to an argument that does not refute the argument, but instead ignores it. It's a refusal to enter into a serious discussion or attempt to show an argument is wrong for definite reasons. Pooh Poohing does not refute an argument, it dismisses it in a cavalier manner of superiority, hoping other hearers or readers will follow suit. This type of sophistical argument is similar to what every consumer hopes for, getting something for nothing.
What do you say to a Heroin or cocaine addict, tell them to just stop doing it? Obey God. And you and they will just get frustrated by your demand to stop doing the addiction.
The Power of sin is in the Law. Tell a child never to put beans in his ears. and tell him this constantly, and sooner or later that kid will have beans in his ears. This is the very nature of us humans.
As Paul writes: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is in the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
My purpose for what I wrote was to demystify the act of masturbation, guilt keep minds focused on the sin, and people tend to go where they are looking, more so when rewarded with a pleasure.
Hey, let's bring back the great days of David whom God loved, and his son Solomon, They both had many wives and concubines. Yes, give me that old time religion, let's sing- if it is good enough for David and Solomon, it is good enough for me.
As for me, I walk with God daily. He is my true love.
And remember - the Power of sin is in the law, for it focuses our mind continuously on sin.
However, I am not under the old Mosaic Covenant, I am under the Covenant of Jesus Christ. And as Paul wrote, when there is a change of Covenant, there is a change of Law.
Here are the Laws I abide by:
1. Love God with all my heart and soul, and love my neighbor as myself. And my Neighbor is anyone who crosses my path.
2. Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment, I freely forgive those whom sin against me, I try to bless those whom offend me - and this is a hard one, but I do it anyway.
3. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, by which we receive, the Holy Spirit that dwells in me, guides me, I'm an open book to God, and I seek Him daily and walk with Him.
That's it! And I do not get involved in other peoples sexuality, but I would lead them to God if possible.
And I show mercy to all, as best I could do. But I make mistakes to.
This is a subject that I don't like to share, but if I wish to ovecome my sins, I need to. It has been said that confession is good for the soul, but repentance is even better in my opinion. I repented yet I still make bad choices. Is it because I am weak or getting something out of it? Or is it not a sin and I am over exaggerating things?
the true God has made the male and the female genitalia with the design and (the) possibility of sexual self-satisfaction in case of inability of one or another human to abstain from irresistible sex when it has no chance/way to be satisfied with its own mate, so from this viewpoint in such cases the sexual self-satisfaction is not a sin of itself, but at the same time it is not advisable, or how can you say to someone e.g.: "go to touch"?!, it is a resource in case of eventual impossibility of abstinence when such a human has no chance/way to be satisfied with its own mate
Blessings
this is carnal reasoning ..flesh justifying flesh . a man made doctrine .does not give glory to God nor promote obedience to him an any for and has no scriptural basis .
does not lay down ones own life (wants desires ambitions ) seeks to serve self . does not take up the cross .
i just meant that the true God made the human genitalia so, because He foresaw an eventual situation under sin in future that certain people may not abstain from sexual self-satisfaction in case they have no chance/way to be with their own mates, not that He wanted to pamper the sin thus, but He just left some better means to such people so that if some of them have too powerful sex drive and fail to restrain it in such circumstances the same be able to release the tension without causing affliction/harm to another, otherwise the true God would allow there to be greater tortures for such people and sexual violence towards their neighbors, because they would also encroach sexually upon others against their will (much more) in case He has omitted to provide this, however the sexual devilish spirits should be removed/cast out from the affected/possessed humans, otherwise many people may (continue to) suffer from sexual problems, so that is why the sexual self-satisfaction is nohow advisable
Blessings
some of what you say makes sense based on scripture ..but some has no scriptural basis at all . remember i make the assumption that we ere are ,on the most part ,christian already posting here . so i speak harshly because as Christians we have no excuse to let sin reign in our mortal bodies . it happens but it is a state of unbelief because what the lord Jesus has done for us has set us free .. free to walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit , thus when we choose to use that freedom to go back and become enslaved again to the flesh we do not do so as the prisoners we once were to it , we do so as freemen in Christ .. we do so by will ,displaying whom we love more . we must therefore simply not justify it ,but bring it to God and repent .and go back to living in the spirit to do the will of the Holy Spirit over the will of the flesh .