Hi Alex, and welcome back! I've often thought of you and prayed for you since you left. I will most definitely continue to pray for you. It's good to have you here again.
I can relate to your struggles, as I think most men can. Realize and understand you were made this way, and it's gonna take a lot to unmake you this way. Because Jesus overcame, He has enabled you to overcome also, just be patient. It's gonna take judgment to make you righteous, but better now than later.
Here are some words from Ray which I sincerely hope will encourage and strengthen you.
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http://www.bible-truths.com/lake16-D4.htmAnd so Jesus, Who knew the temptations of the flesh (the "temptations," not the "lusts"). Jesus was tempted, but never lusted. Once you "lust," you have already "SINNED." Jesus went right to the heart of the problem of spiritual morality and spiritual conversion:
"You have heard that it was said by them of old time, you shall not commit adultery..."
And there are many men who have been obedient to this part of the commandment.
"But I say unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5:27-28).
So what is a man to do? No viral man has the ability to NOT LUST after pretty women (and as Billy Crystal would have us know, sometimes not so pretty women). It is as natural as a knee-jerk, and if you women hear a different story from your husbands, know that they are lying through their teeth. All men lust after women. But it's a sin. Why is it a sin? Because Jesus said so. (And other reasons I don't have time to go into now). It's a sin and men are powerless to overcome it. What are we to do? Not even marriage will totally solve the spiritual aspect of this problem. But there is a way to conquer this and all sins.
Jesus never sinned. Why not? Why didn't Jesus sin? I have said before: Because His Father wouldn't let Him sin, and because His Father inspired Jesus through His Holy Spirit to turn from the temptation every time. Jesus' motivation to not sin was much greater than His temptation to sin, and the stronger motivator (the love of God's Spirit in Him) always won out. This is how Jesus "overcame the world." Now then, is this powerful motivator available to us? Yes, thank God, it is:
"But you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you..." (Acts 1:
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And so, when a man who is tempted to spend more time looking at a woman than he should, looking at her to lust after her, the Spirit of God will give him power to turn away. God won't make you or force you to turn away, but He will give you the power to turn away, and then you have to do the turning. And should you fail to turn away before you actually lust after her, then you must "pluck out your eye. No not your literal, physical, organ of the body, but the lustful eye of your heart.
No man's physical eyes has ever lusted after anything. All lust comes from the heart, the carnal mind, and that part of the carnal mind must be "plucked out," or "cut off." But you must be the one who does the plucking and cutting or God will intervene and "cast your whole body into Gehenna fire" in a later Judgment where this spiritual fire is called "The Lake of Fire."
We can either volunteer to stop sinning now, in this life, or God will volunteer us to stop sinning later, in the resurrection to Judgment. Yes, of course, it will be God in us regardless of which Judgment we find ourselves.
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http://www.bible-truths.com/lake13.htmlTHE SPIRITUAL SYMBOL OF THE SAND
I have already stated a dozen times or so in this paper that we must all "follow Christ." Peter puts it this way:
"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an EXAMPLE, that we should FOLLOW HIS STEPS: Who did NO SIN, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously: Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto RIGHTEOUSNESS: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now RETURNED unto the Shepherd and Bishop [overseer] of your souls"
Notice that we are all to follow His steps. But Jesus "did NO SIN," and we ALL sin. There is the giant difference. We have to KEEP WALKING in His steps until we STOP SINNING. But the point to be made here is, that we must and WILL "follow His steps."
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G.Driggs