yep

Brother, that was a demon. I think! I have had wired things happen over the years like this, the point is. When you let things happen in yourlife, this well effact you in ways that will seem off the wall, and strange. I anointed and prayed over my bed, and room, and those things stopped, you got to make share that you are not bringing anything in that area that amounts to sin. when I moved out and later married, my husband and I both anointed every room in our house, and make share that we don't bring in filthy things, that might cause us to fall. Spend time reading, and praying, privet time with G-d. That helps the most.

http://bible.cc/hebrews/13-4.htm

I am in total agreement with Peacemaker. The appearance of a “spider”, whether in a dream or seen by your “spiritual eyes” is the presence of a demon. It is being revealed to you by God due to the presence of sin, and the need to readily address the sin which is threatening your balance and healthy relationship with the Lord. When a spider is associated with one’s bed, the sin explicitly has to do with bondage to sexual sin, i.e. masturbation, self adoration, promiscuous sex, anal sex, self-sodomy, or the self-engaged act of idolatry transfixed upon pornography (including Internet porn). The imagery of spiders, Black Widows (demonic succubae), spider webs, nests of Black Widows, one being cocooned in a spider web, spider infestations, baby spiders, mature spiders, cobwebs, and etc. are demonic manifestations associated with sexual sin.

You don't stop sin inorder to get G-d to do good things. You stop sin for your own good, for it masses up so many other parts of your life, and at less with Porn, this area is dangerous and can snow ball into a much bigger proublem for you and who ever G-d brings into your life in the future. I can say as a wife, knowing that this is my husbands struggle, I know and have seen how hard it is for you. My heart goes our to you. But Brother, G-d has shown you that He sees it, and knows that this sin is there and is telling you to deal with it. I gave you some steps to gain the ability to stop doing it, it will be hard, but you will find that G-d is giving you help in many ways.

You are not alone in this, many here are struggling to become overcomers in this area as well. I am not in porn but struggle with lust. I know now how hard it is to fight this, but with Christ, and the support of others you will be able to overcome it.

Resist temptation, for it is better for you inside. This is a start, and will help you beable to learn to over come in other areas of your life, making the fight faster and stronger for you. Brother don't get hung up on the times that you fall, but get back up and start over again. Everytime you ask G-d to forgive you he doesnt remember it again, throughing your sins as far as the east is from the west, never to be rememberd again. That is one of my fav. parts of the word, just learn to get up fast and fight again, don't wallow in the fact that you sined. Just repent and move on. See it is like falling off a bike, just because you did doesnt mean you should stay off, no! you get back on and try again, as many times as it takes. One day you will find that you have got the hang of it, and will be able to teach others to resist it too.

Dearest Sand...

No one can quit sexual addiction (sexual brokenness) on their own accord. It is impossible when attempted that way. It is part of the “Fall”, and ALL fall short of the Glory of God. Many people (men) fail at turning away from this bondage because they attempt to do it alone, and on their own strength. Instead, it must be done in collaboration with Christ and in accountability to another Christian Brother or Sister (usually the same gender), someone in whom you can personally confine in, not an “enabler”, but someone who will tell you the Truth. And the Truth is that “the wages of sin are death”, so continued engagement will ultimately produce an adverse harvest from sowing in this area. This is why the Lord has shown this to you, in order that you may be saved and enter into True Masculinity where your “sense of self” is affirmed in Christ, and the act of “turning in on the self” and the “hell of self” may be vanquished.

Many, many Christian men are secretly held in sexual addiction, bondage to cyber-porn, and sin. So you are not unique or alone in any of this. They think no one knows their secret, but this is not so. Absolutely everything we do on earth behind closed doors is known throughout all Heaven, where everything is entirely exposed.

Once you realize the “gravity” of sexual sin, that it is the worship of “other gods” (the demons, phallic spirits and sphincter spirits), whom are actually spiritually present with you during sinful sexual engagement, and that it is the “practice of the presence of the Demonic Nature”… then you will enter into a greater awareness that your body has not been a “temple” onto the One true God, but given over as a “defiled temple” onto lesser gods (demons). Once you reach this eye-opening realization and its grave seriousness, then you can enter into a “spiritual fumigation plan” with Christ through prayer and supplication. As you begin to do this, then the visual dream imagery will change to where you are destroying and “exterminating” the spiders and there (demonic) strongholds. You will develop a “warrior attitude” in your reclamation and re-proclamation of your body has “Holy Ground” onto Christ. It is a “process” after we receive or Salvation in our Christian walk to apprehend and appropriate the Holy into our lives so that we may be reconciled back to Father God. Just being “Saved” alone will not do this; we must “work” towards becoming “Overcomers” in Christ, “working out our salvation in fear and trembling”.

Check with your Church for Christian Outreach referrals dealing with “sexual brokenness”; there are several. I went through the Desert Stream Ministries program called “Living Waters”, lead by Andy Cominsky (now in Kansas City) for ex-Gays and Lesbians. I know they have developed a parallel program for heterosexual-oriented sexual brokenness. Also, Leanne Payne’s programs are very good at Pastoral Care Ministries, in fact, she birthed the phenomenon via her books “The Broken Image” and “Healing the Christian Soul”. They also have websites as well and many published books that you can purchase at a Christian book store or on line.

The Lord will absolutely do profound things in and through you on this new journey that will astound you, this I personally know, because I’ve already been through it, having once stood where you stand today.

Many Blessings…

-7

Perhaps the reason why your life would be 100% boring without sexual sin is because you have rejected GOD 's work in your life

If you spend the time you have to spare, seeking GOD earnestly and reading His Word...trust me...life becomes anything but boring!

Aberrant Sexuality

http://www.ldolphin.org/Aberrant.html

Aberrant Sexuality
by Lambert Dolphin



Aberrant means straying from the right or normal (natural) way, or deviating from the usual or natural type. The word is from the Latin, ab + errare meaning "to wander, to go astray." For the purposes of our discussion, from a Biblical standpoint what is normal and natural is (1) that which is according to creation, and (2) that which is consistent with the revelation of truth as given to us by God in the Bible. In a fallen world, it is not safe to say that what is common or popular is "normal." A moral consensus by experts in society is invalid if it contradicts the Bible. But we can not take our guidelines from "mother nature" either. Violence is found in nature, and sexual perversion among some of the animals---but these are not features of the creation as God intended it from the beginning. Nature has become corrupted by evil as has man (Rom. 8:19-23). When the Apostle Paul speaks of sexual activity that is contrary to nature, he is referring to behavior that has departed from the Creator's intentions when He made us. (Note: The specific term "contrary to nature" occurs in Romans 1:26 referring to Lesbian conduct, and in the following verse to refer to male homosexual activity.)

There are two different approaches to morality and ethics in society. Both give valid insights and both are helpful. The first approach deals with outward behavior, with conduct that is observable by others. Wrong behavior is behavior which damages God, oneself, or others. A wide variety of forms of harmful conduct are restrained by government, by law, by punishment, and by education. It is well known that these efforts do not solve the problem at the source. Restraint of human evil does make life bearable in a society that would otherwise revert to anarchy and lawlessness in short order. The courts of the land, are supposed to measure outward behavior against fixed moral guidelines and to determine guilt or innocence largely on the basis of objective evidence. Objective evidence does not always deal fairly with motivations for behavior, with mitigating circumstances, with the nuances connected with crimes of passion. Man made laws in today's world typically have little to do God's Law and the lack of justice in today's courts is legend.

The second approach in dealing with harmful or dysfunctional behavior in individuals or in society is to treat wrong or harmful behavior as disease. The cure for such inappropriate behavior is supposed by many today to be therapy or education or re-training of the offender. The liberal minded who reject the Biblical revelation of man's total depravity assume that man is basically good and can be improved by dispelling man's ignorance or by ministering to him understanding and tolerance. From a Biblical point of view it is true that wrong behavior is indeed the fruit on the plant whose root is man's depraved nature and sinfulness. Jeremiah is quite clear about this when he says,

"The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who is able to understand it?" (Jer. 17:9)
The words of Jesus,
"Jesus called the people to him again, and said to them, 'Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.' And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, 'Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?' (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, 'What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.'" (Mark 7:14-23)
The cure for sin prescribed in the Bible is spiritual regeneration and a cleansed interior life. Only out of a renewed spirit comes truly changed behavior that is acceptable in the sight of a Holy God. External fixes are no better than band-aides on cancer. Hopefully, diseases of the soul and spirit can be mollified, corrected or healed by physicians of the soul and by the priests of the Living God.

This author assumes that the first premise is valid. The Bible gives us the absolute moral standard which reflects the very character of God. God is our Creator and Jesus is our judge. Government, courts or law, schools and human institutions need constant reformation as these, too, will be judged by God. Though justice is long-delayed or even subverted during this present life, absolute justice comes eventually to all men. Solomon states this in Ecclesiastes:
"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Eccl. 12:13,14).
This essay emphasizes that the deepest healing of sin and morally dysfunctional behavior takes place when men and women receive the grace of God and avail themselves of the inner cleansing and healing offered by the risen Lord Jesus. Broken sinful men and women can and do become whole persons by the grace of God. Our emphasis is on the second method of dealing with human evil-outlined above---in what ways are we broken people and how is that we can become whole?



Genetic Factors and Sexual Orientation
From time to time scientific papers have claimed to show evidence for genetic factors that account for adultery, prostitution, promiscuity or homosexuality. Should such factors be discovered human beings are not thereby excused for their behavior by any means. God always makes full provision for any individual to live a fulfilling life, pleasing to Him, regardless of inborn predispositions, family life, handicaps or faulty environment. Once we agree that man is totally depraved in the sight of God we may as well begin also to look for defective genes that lead to gossip, pride, irresponsibility, laziness, or a violent temper. Eventually all behavior will then be excusable on biological grounds alone. It is characteristic of modern man not only to deny God but to attempt by all means possible to rationalize or excuse behavior that is clearly wrong-harmful to society and repugnant to God.

It is certainly possible that some personality types are more predisposed to homosexuality, for example. Genetic defects affecting the sexual organs or hormone imbalances are rare. There is no evidence that homosexuality is due to hormonal imbalance, and homosexuality is quite a different condition than transsexuality for instance. A good deal of sexual behavior is clearly learned behavior and governed by habit patterns and associated "brain wiring." Behavioral malfunctions can be transmitted, but not genetically, as far as is known. Dysfunctional, illegal, inappropriate, or immoral sexual behavior must be explained on some other basis than appealing to bad genes.

Jesus Christ gave his life as a sacrifice for all men and for all their sins. The theological statement that Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice means that He took my place and yours and that He identified 100% with our condition in such a way that "he who knew no sin was made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21).



"The Sins Of The Fathers"
"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:5-7).
In some manner (exactly how we do not know) certain moral weaknesses in one generation tend to propagate into subsequent generations. The influence Noah's drunkenness (Gen. 9:20-27) had on his grandson Canaan is an example. Probably it is maladjusted behavior in dysfunctional families which communicates information (mostly unconsciously) causing a particular form of aberrant behavior (such as alcoholism or homosexuality) to spring up one or more generations later. It is well known that involvement in the occult can cause demonic obsession and related moral problems such as incest, for several generations. Unclean demonic spirits can plague those who are promiscuous or involved in pornography, and so on.



Dysfunctional Families
One contemporary psychologist whose lectures have been popular on National Public Television is John Bradshaw. He analyzes dysfunctional families to show all kinds of disordered patterns in the underlying behavior patterns of typical families, describing how these patterns tend to perpetuate themselves in the next generation. He notes that we, in our nation, have experienced 200 years of increasing family dysfunction which is propagated by default until we come to see ourselves as we really are, accept legitimate suffering as part of life, and find personal wholeness. Bradshaw is a former Roman Catholic priest whose views reflect to some degree his Christian heritage. He is interested in helping all manner of persons embark on a path to emotional and spiritual health. It is easy to be critical of Bradshaw's assumptions, teaching, and liberal gnostic-like theology. However his x-rays of the family are often insightful and helpful. Once we acknowledge the deep flaws of original sin in all of us, it is logical to extend these to the home and family. The figure below is taken from one of Bradshaw's books.




Childhood Response Patterns to Life
New born infants are helpless, totally dependent, and do not at first think of themselves as differentiated from their total environment, especially from their mothers. Their emotional tape recorders are running even before they are born. At first a baby does not see itself as separate from even its environment. He or she is an extension of Mother and one with the environment. It is not long until it discovers, however, that it has some control over its immediate environment. Children learn how to avoid pain by modifying their behavior one way or another, and they learn how to get their needs met also. We might even say that some children soon learn to be clever and diabolical. Since all parents treat their kids differently, spoiling them, over-indulging them, losing patience with them, disciplining inconsistently and so on---the principle of avoiding pain and maximizing pleasure plays a part in early childhood experience. It is during this time of life that children learn to "choreograph the flesh." When, as Christian adults, we revert to behaving "in the flesh" we usually lapse into patterns of behavior that have worked for us in the past by trial and error. These are by nature selfish patterns designed to serve our own best interests as we perceive them.

The term "flesh" refers to our sinful inheritance from Adam---it is deceitful, manipulative and contriving. The spirit of the Christian has been redeemed and regenerated, his soul (mind, emotions, and will) is being renewed, however the body has not yet been redeemed and is the seat of many of these desires and passions of the flesh, (Romans 8:10,11).

A commonly quoted verse in Proverbs has been misunderstood by some: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6). Many parents have assumed this verse meant that if children were given lessons in the Bible when they were young, they would come to God eventually, later on in life if not sooner. The passage actually teaches that parents are to understand each child as he or she is---that is to figure out who they are as person---and then train each one of them according to that child's own way. It is such personalized knowing of one's offspring that helps insure against the child's developing a detrimental fleshly response to life early on.

Research in recent years places emphasis on bonding of parent and child. A child should learn experientially at the earliest possible stage that he or she is loved unconditionally, and wanted, and valued. Nothing is more devastating than rejection, real or imagined, especially when we are young and most vulnerable. However in view of the total depravity of mankind resulting from the fall, we ought not to be surprised at the many different ways in which evil can surface in any one of us, regardless of the quality of our upbringing. Though fallen, we bear the image of God our Creator, and we are the supreme objects of His love for us because His Son, our Lord Jesus, has died in our place.

Mothers usually instinctively love, care for, nourish and pay constant attention to their children. This is (sadly) not universally so in our world. Baby boys and baby girls certainly need to sense that mother loves them and treasures them and always will. The Apostle Paul writes, "...woman will find her fulfillment in bearing children, if they (the children) continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty" (1 Timothy 2:15.). If a son ends up in jail, or drunk on skid row, a mother carries this as not only sorrow but as a possible indicator of her own personal failure. If on the other hand, children do well in life, this is a mother's joy and reward. Ideally the father should also begin to show affection for his child as soon as possible after birth and spend much quality time with his son or daughter thereafter. In this way the father gives affirmation from a man's point of view. He also provides a secure male role model of accepting, caring love.



Archetypes
All human beings have certain experiences in common. In the world around us we observe rooted patterns of human behavior that are more than one generation deep. They are more than mere human customs or traditions, they are universal responses to instincts and to the world. Carl Jung called these deep seated response patterns to life, "archetypes." The Greek word tupos (type) means a blow or imprint, such as the impression made by a seal, a stamp, or a die. Arche means beginning. Although the word archetype is not in the New Testament, in psychology it has come to mean strong patterns of response or behavior ingrained in man from of old. Faced we a given stimulus, human beings tend to be influenced in their behavior by archetypes that lie in the subconscious. In Jungian psychology archetypes are given great importance. Jung believed the archetypes had positive and negative aspects, that is, they could be helpful or harmful to us. The archetypes are said to be "numinous" that is, invested with great power, like magnets or force-fields. When as person draws too near to a particular archetype he can be overwhelmed or captured by its field. Some of the contents of an archetype can be brought into consciousness (for example, by coming to understand a variety of mothers and fathers in the real world, and by observing good marriages and bad). In this way our understanding of human behavior patterns and culture does not remain at the primitive stage of childhood where myths and imaginary beings inhabit the world as we first suppose it to be. The goal of Christian discipleship is to know God and thereby to know ourselves. We can not hope to relate to others with a greater depth or wisdom than we have attained first in our intimate knowing of God. This fact is summarized by the two Great Commandments which Jesus taught were at the heart of all of the Law and the Prophets. Carl Jung never gave a clear statement to let us know whether or not he ever became a true Christian. Much of his teaching is gnostic. We must use Jung's insights into the unconscious with care.



Missing Fathers
A small child may not see its father's importance or role in the home as being of the same subjective weight as that of its mother. A major deficiency in the family today is surely the "missing" American father. Fathers who are truly never there (as in the case of single moms raising kids with no man around the house) probably do less harm than fathers who are at home every day but passive, recessive, detached and uninvolved (at least in the perception of the child). This is especially serious on three counts. First, God is a Father---our first dim notions and ideas of what God is like are modeled after the father image, the father archetype we acquired in earliest childhood. It is a father's responsibility to show love, compassion, touching, caring concern for his children from the day they are born, if the child is to find it easy to know the Father-heart of God. It is the father's job not only to provide for his family, but to lead and protect, to set limits and safe boundaries.

At first mother is the most important person in the child's world upon whom the child is most dependent. But the child's psyche is also recording impressions about father, about marriage, and about siblings and other persons in and around the family circle. The most important of these factors: mother, father, and marriage, are imprinted in the child's mind as archetypes. They will be deeply rooted in the child's way of viewing the world, and they are in all of us.



Children need to see from actual experience that mothers and fathers do not have the same, identical priorities in life. They are not carbon copies of one another---men and women are different in emotional priorities as well as in their physical features. Early in life a child realizes that adults come in two sexes. The child then begins to integrate into himself or herself the total masculine/feminine inheritance received from his parents. Ideally a child of either sex should not be afraid to being like his father as well as like his mother while still becoming a distinctively his or her own male or female person.

Women do their best when they are given strong, steady, regular encouragement and loving leadership by their husbands. Women who do not receive this regular assurance from their husbands (or from God if there is no husband present), tend to become insecure, over-protective of their children, and often live their lives unfulfilled and anxious. In such cases, the child may not receive as much affirmation as he or should ought to receive from either a father or a mother. In this way deep-seated needs to be loved and accepted, fears and anxieties of all sorts, even a sense of inadequacy may be transmitted to the child. He or she then may grow up with a great deal of unfulfilment. Persons who grow up starved for love and affection are more vulnerable to exploitation and seduction. Or they may be given to excess striving for approval which they never find.

In the terms popularized by John Bradshaw, we could say that numerous people in today's society live "shame-based" lives. "Toxic shame" is generated in a child when his or her needs are not being met by parents and the child assumes this indicates the child (not the parents) are no good, flawed, damaged and worthless. Some parents are strict in their discipline. They put well-defined boundaries in and around the child, usually to keep the child from ranging too far from principles for wholesome living in later life. Consistent discipline, lovingly applied produces security in a child. Undisciplined children are often insecure and of course may find themselves without any built-in moral restraints later in life.

Too much discipline, or discipline for the wrong reasons is not the right approach anymore than too permissive an upbringing. Our purpose here is only to call attention to discipline as one of the factors that influences our early development for good or for ill.

Some recent psychological studies have shown that lack of adequate early-childhood affirmation from the parent of the opposite sex tends to set the stage for heterosexual promiscuity in later life, or the inability to develop and keep a stable marriage. Until a few years ago it was believed that male homosexuality was predisposed by over-protective mothers who held back their sons or controlled them, preventing them from entering the rough and tumble world of boyhood. Newer studies by Elizabeth Moberly (Ref. 1) , an English psychiatrist, and Leanne Payne (Ref. 2), an American Christian leader and scholar, have shown that the primary predisposing factor in homosexuality is a lack of same-sex affirmation. Leanne Payne points out that both boys and girls need to be "called forth" from identification with their mothers, by their fathers, in order to see themselves as whole, independent men or women.

Men especially can not live out their inner sufficiency of love and affirmation unless they have first received this reservoir from Another. A boyhood situation in which dad is a recessive or non-existent influence may leave a young boy without a positive role model and an innate feeling that if God exists He is hostile and non-affirming. Homosexual males are frequently troubled by same-sex envy or sexual covetousness---because they feel incomplete and are seeking their missing qualities in other males. Joseph Nicolosi's (Ref. 3) research has shown that boys usually begin to bond with their fathers between ages 3 to 5. This bonding requires that the boy sees himself as different in kind from his mother and by nature more like his father. Young girls do not need to make this radical transition---breaking a close bond with mother in order to identify with the world of father and the priorities of masculinity. This is not to argue that father's are unimportant in the raising of girls, there is ample evidence that this is definitely not the case. The whole idea is that masculinity is fragile and is born out a background "sea" of femininity. Hormonally this is the case in fetal development. It is also true in childhood when it becomes time for a boy to move away from mother towards father-an often risky step.




The "mother" is an important archetype as well that real woman who was physical mother to us. The archetype of the "great mother" formed an important plank in Jung's model of human sexuality and of the unconscious. Mother earth, mother nature, the great mother goddess, the virgin mother and the great harlot of the Bible are all positive or negative of this deep influence in life in Jungian theory. It is not our purpose to lend credence to all that Jung believed by any means, in fact we urge caution is attempting to integrating many of his ideas into a Christian world-view. But most of us can think of examples of boys or even men we know who remain under mother's influence and unconscious control well beyond a appropriate age for separation from mother, if there is no father, if father is unapproachable, cold, or indifferent, and/or if mother is controlling, manipulative or possessive.

Human father's are our first models in life of what God is like! The absence of a warm, loving, caring father in the home leaves a vacuum in the child's heart and makes it difficult for the child to establish a close, intimate, trusting relationship with God as Father.

In our discussion of man as created in the image of God, and man as conscious/unconscious we alluded to the possibility that unpleasant, traumatic experiences in life can be repressed into the unconscious where they may lay dormant possibly for years.

In Freudian psychoanalytic theory, these traumas cause fractional portions of the life-energy (called libido) to flow backwards into the conscious and into these "complexes" which become "energy laden" or as Jung would say, "numinous." When blocks, inhibitions and barriers are removed, these complexes tend to surface, like volleyballs submerged in a swimming pool. This is desirable become the previously unavailable repressed energy necessary to maintain the complex now becomes available to consciousness. The content of the "neurosis" can be integrated into one's view of self in a health manner, by God's grace, and this speeds along the individual towards the wholeness which is God's goal for him or for her. The sketch below suggests this view of buried energy centers resulting from traumatic experiences. Though we are not aware of the existence of these complexes until they are near the surface, their existence means we have less available creative energy available for living real life and the influence of the complexes will make themselves felt in our unconscious behavior patterns, usually in a detrimental way.





The Latency Period and Adolescent Influences
Complex and varied emotional factors of early childhood enter into the equations of a child's emerging sexual identity. Most psychologists claim these influences are most important during the first three to six years of life. During the latency period, prior to puberty peer influences (especially in today's world) begin to strongly influence a child's ideas of what it will be like to grow up. Television apparently now puts far more into the brain of the average child than he or she will ever learn in school. Our adult behavior patterns will be the inevitable result of the kind and quality of information we programmed into the computers of our minds---according to the principle of computers, "garbage in equals garbage out." Because of readily available pornography, movies and TV shows full of explicit or at least inferred sexual immorality, because of antichristian sex education programs in the public schools, many youngsters begin to act out aberrant sexuality even before puberty imitating what they suppose "normal" adult behavior will be like.

Puberty varies in age of onset in different parts of the world. Girls usually begin to sexually mature earlier than boys. Biological clocks turn on the increased production of male and female sex hormones at puberty which produce the physical developmental changes in the bodies of young men and women. Freudian psychoanalytic theory believes that children during adolescence pass through an auto-erotic stage of development, followed by perhaps a short season of homo-erotic experimentation. Unless development is arrested, or regresses due to trauma, the third stage of normal psycho-sexual development is the emergence of sexual interest in and attraction for the opposite sex. Rights of passage, such as the Jewish Bar Mitzvah are valuable traditions in marking the transition to adult responsibilities and challenges.

In addition to loving our children and granting them unconditional love and periodic affirmation, all children require moral teaching, training, sex-education, and discipline. They need not understand, and indeed can not understand, why they are being disciplined in every instance. The important thing is for them to learn respect for authority, obedience, and acceptable social and societal behavior. In addition to unconditional love, conditional love is also important for all of us to learn in childhood, because many rewards in life are delayed and postponed, or they come only through hard work and patience. We live in a world where we must work to earn a living and pay our own way. God loves us unconditionally, but that is of little value to us if we do not take steps to grow and learn to please Him by re-ordering our actions and life-styles. Sex education surely is primarily the responsibility of parents and the church beginning at a very early age. By providing good role models, a good home life, and Biblical understanding, Christian parents should diligently seek to help their children find the Lord Jesus at an early age and to grow up to be balanced and whole citizens in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

Unfortunately in today's society most adolescents learn not from godly parents or from church, but from peers, magazines, television and non-family sources. Tragically, in the teen-age years nearly every young person in today's society discovers sexual experience with another person, taking this to be healthy and normal. But, our first sexual experience seems to deeply imprint us, sometimes setting in concrete harmful patterns of sexual behavior that will last for a lifetime. Because sexual activity is pleasureful, it is re-enforced by experience (regardless of whether it is right or wrong-although a guilty conscience can be a deterrent).

Pastor Brian Morgan of Peninsula Bible Church South notes that homosexual behavior, for example, is safer in terms of person-to-person psychological risk, and less demanding compared to relating to the opposite sex. Adult wholeness requires much more self-giving and willingness to relate to another person whose ways of thinking and responding are not those of one's own sex.Freud and others believed that homosexual behavior was a form of arrested development. Until the sexual revolution in the last half of our century, doctors and psychologists dealt with homosexuality as a form of pathological, neurotic behavior. When gay rights became politicized, lobbying efforts by the gay community pressured the American psychoanalytic community into changing its standards to reflect the secular view that homosexual lifestyles were normal. Similar pressures have resulted in many states dropping their old laws prohibiting homosexual acts, sodomy and such. California is among the states where a consenting adults law on the books removes penalties for sexual acts between two adults regardless of sex or type. Secular humanistic groups who deny the existence of God and moral absolutes have dominated the educational system in the past few decades. This situation reflects a widespread breakdown in Biblical values and a sad devaluation of the traditional family unit which as Christians know is the basis for a stable and healthy society. Incest and childhood sexual abuse can do horrendous damage to children. Often the trauma is repressed and even forgotten. The common occurrence of these problems, along with violence, promiscuity and wide-spread divorce shows that our society today is in an advanced stage of breakdown (see Rom. 1:18-32).

Psychological theories often call attention to repressed or buried memories and experiences which can generate neurotic and even psychotic behavior if not dealt with. In addition to sinning against others, we have all been victims. Sometimes victims even blame themselves for what has happened to them. Children may imagine that things went wrong in the family because they were born. Or, they attempt to take on the unresolved conflicts of their parents and make them their own. Carl Jung's view of wholeness (which he called "individuation") supposes that the unconscious is a friend not a foe, and that there is an innate striving for wholeness within man which attempts to resolve buried inner conflict and to reconcile outer reality with inward. Thus, in the right circumstance repressed libido and the emotional content of traumatized areas in the unconscious can surface, become integrated, and be healed in the light of day. Jung, though probably not a Christian, seems to go so far as to recognize that such healing is a work of God's grace.

George Gilder is his classic book, Men and Masculinity(?) (Ref 4) points out that virtually all of the crime, violence, drug dealing, and numerous pressing social problems arise from unmarried adolescent young men. Marriage he notes, is often the only way such men ever learn to be responsible. They are irresponsible and reckless pagans until civilized by the demands of pressures of marriage.



Man as the Temple of God
A careful study of the tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon will show that these buildings are wonderful maps of the interior of man. Nancy Missler (Ref 5) has written a comprehensive analysis of the temple as a guide book to wholeness in Christ.



The Tabernacle of Moses, and the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem were built according to Divine blueprints. They were places of worship where man approached God. Since the Bible insists that man is the true dwelling place of God, the Tabernacle and its furniture is also a picture of "inner space" ---the interior of man.




In Conclusion
Knowing and better understanding ourselves because of the Searchlight working of the Holy Spirit in us is more important than mere conformity to external rules or laws or traditions-even in a godly society. Appropriating the mercy and grace of our God depends upon seeing ourselves as we really are. We must not fail to accept the changes God wishes to work in us to make us over again into men and women who are re-modeled not after the First Adam, but the Second.
"Finally, though I have had to speak at some length about sex, I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the centre of Christian morality is not here. If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither." (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)


Selected References
Why Some Christians Commit Adultery, by John L. Sandford, (Victory House, Tulsa, 1989). Deals with the more deep-seated and serious types of sexual sin and their root causes.

Healing Victims of Sexual Abuse, by Paul Sandford, (Victory House, Tulsa, 1988). Shows how love, acceptance and compassion are central to healing those who have been abused.

The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse, by Daniel B. Allender, (Navpress, Colorado Springs, 1990). Reveals the long terms and often disastrous effects of unresolved sexual abuse in childhood.

The Broken Image and Healing Presence, by Leanne Payne (Crossway Books, Westchester, IL.). Especially helpful in understanding homosexuality and the damage to sexual identity caused by abuse.

Psychogenesis by Elizabeth Moberley, (to be supplied)

Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach, by Joseph Nicolosi, PhD. Jason Aronson, Inc., New York, 1991.

George Gilder, to be supplied.

The Way of Agage, by Nancy Missler, Koinonia House, PO Box D, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83816-0347




QUEST FOR SEXUAL IDENTITY SEMINAR
Held at Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, California, November 20-21, 1987. Individual Tapes, $2.25 each plus $1.00 postage minimum, Entire series of 21 tapes, $49.50, postpaid. Address Orders to: Discovery Tapes, 3505 Middlefield Road; Palo Alto, California 94306.
Plenary Session #1: Male and Female Roles: Biblical Perspectives, Ray Stedman and Male and Female Roles: Psychology and Research by John White M.D.
Plenary Session #2 Biblical Absolutes and Consequences in Society by Ray Stedman and Sexuality: A Bane and a Blessing by John White M.D., (two tapes)
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Arthur Halliday, M.D.
Pornography - Sex Education, by Joanne Masokowski
Single Parenting by Walt and June McCuistion
Separation, Adultery, Divorce and Remarriage, by Doug Goins
The Priceless Value of Life, by Connie David
Choices: Adolescence, Dating and Courtship, by Gary Vanderet
Marriage, by Ron and Anne Marie Ritchie
Aberrant Sexuality, by Lambert Dolphin
Singleness: A Curse, and Excuse, or an Opportunity, by Gay Zimmerman
Am I My Brother's Keeper?, by Paul Winslow
Transformation and Healing, by Greg and Altha Burts
What is the Link Between Worship and Sex?, by Brian Morgan
Replying to False Theologies of Sexuality, by Aahmes E. Overton
Women in the Church, Women at Home, Women at Work, by Elaine Stedman
How to Help a Homosexual Relative or Friend, by Phyllis Thurston, M.D.
The Great Sexual Hoax, by Linda Wermuth Skerbec
The Abusers and the Abused, by John White, M. D.
Managing Sexual Drives Before Marriage, by John Hanneman.



I know that sin is enjoyable for a season, but brother in the end it will bring death, and it will be your own falt. I know that you believe that G-d is the at falt for everything that has ever happened to you, but you do a great deal of this to yourself. The fact is, if you were not going there and used everything at your hands to stop it, you would have a better mind and better relastionships because of it. It is an obnoxious and 100% boring person that says he don't need these help, says that he will not go through any means that he can to concor the sin in his life, the fact is you will not be able to do it on your own, ever! If you would be able to, than you wouldn't need G-d at all would you? When you say these things it is just pride and being enbarissed at needing help. You would rather wallow in that sin, that takes and takes, than to be a giving person. wow! Than don't ever ask him for a wife, for no women needs that kind of a man.







[edit] Hotel pornography campaign
On August 22, 2006 a coalition of conservative groups including the FRC announced they "strongly believe" hotel porn is prosecutable, and that they have issued an "urgent appeal" to the Department of Justice to "immediately investigate" two leading in-room adult movie distributors.[16]

The ad in USA Today says the "DOJ and FBI should immediately investigate whether 'adult' videos being sold in hotels by OnCommand and LodgeNet violate long-established Federal and State laws regarding distribution of obscene material." The ad continues, "Adult hardcore pornography can tragically lead to sex crimes against women and children...Yet sex videos are available in millions of U.S. hotel rooms which we strongly believe are prosecutable."[17][18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Research_Council

As you wish - enjoy the spiders.

The Pornography Plague
by Dr. Phil Stringer (Florida)
"Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." (Proverbs 4:25)

* * *
Matthew 6:22-23 says, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The point of this passage is that much of our lifestyle is determined by how we use our eyes -- what we choose to look at. This is why Proverbs 4:25 (in a passage about keeping your heart right with the Lord) says, "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." II Peter 2:14 warns about people in rebellion towards the Lord having "eyes full of adultery."

The United States has become the pornography capital of the world.

• Every week Americans buy over one million tickets to X-rated theaters.

• Over 400 different pornographic magazines are sold through 20,000 adult bookstores.

• X-rated cable channels are offered on over 400 cable networks. • There are more outlets selling and renting pornographic videos than there are McDonald’s restaurants.

• X-rated videos account for over 14% of the video rental market and 25% of video sales. The pornography industry has become an $8 billion a year industry in the United States.

The main argument given in favor of pornography is that it is a "victimless crime" -- that it does not hurt anyone. However, research done by professors from Indiana University, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Houston was summarized by psychotherapist David A. Scott to give these nine warnings:

• Pornography leads to a devaluation and depreciation of the importance of monogamy, and a lack of confidence in marriage as a viable institution.

• Porn leads to a increased acceptance of premarital and extramarital sexuality, and increased distrust among sexually intimate partners, both married and single.

• Pornography makes people twice as likely to believe that children are a liability and a handicap, especially female children.

• Porn leads to diminished satisfaction with the physical appearance and sexual performance of intimate partners.

• Porn leads to an enhanced sense of importance of sex without emotional involvement.

• Porn creates an appetite for more unusual and bizarre materials such as those depicting sadomasochism and sexual violence.

• Initial repulsion and boredom toward porn is overridden by engaging in increasingly bizarre sex acts with a greater variety of sexual partners. Such behavior is soon perceived as normal.

• Porn leads to insensitivity towards victims of sexual violence. Exposure to porn soon leads to a belief that such materials do not harm even children.

• Porn is used by pedophiles [child molesters] to lower children’s inhibitions to initiate them into specific sexual practices. Adolescents who were sexually molested as children often begin sexually molesting children as young as two or three years of age.

Dr. James Dobson gives these eight warnings about the dangers of pornography:

• Depictions of violence against women are related to violence against women everywhere. The most cursory examination of the material being marketed today makes it clear why that is true. I could not describe the offensiveness of these publications without being pornographic even in this context.

• The use of pornography seems to be addictive and progressive in nature. That is, those who get hooked on sexually explicit material tend to become obsessed by their need. It also interferes with the normal sexual relationship between husbands and wives.

• The river of obscenity which floods our homes has reached the eyes and ears of children! Boys and girls are finding and viewing their parents’ X-rated videos and magazines. They are also being bombarded by vile lyrics in rock music on radio, television, and videos. Their morals are being corrupted by R-rated movies which dangerously link sex and violence. They are being shocked and titillated by obscenity on dial-a-porn phone lines. And on and on it goes. As a direct consequence, psychotherapists are seeing increasing numbers of disturbed young patients who may never enjoy healthy attitudes about sex.

• Pornography is degrading and humiliating to women [who are] deprived of dignity and modesty. Men and boys are the purchasers of this material. The entire female gender has reason to feel used and abused by this industry.

• Pornography is often used by pedophiles to soften children’s defenses against sexual exploitation. They are stripped of innocence and subjected to brutalities that will be remembered for a lifetime.

• Outlets for obscenity are magnets for sex-related crimes. When an adult bookstore moves into a neighborhood, an array of "support services" typically develops around it. Prostitution, narcotics, and street crime proliferate. Ask anyone who lives near a sex shop. You will hear an immediate protest.

• So-called adult bookstores often become cesspools of disease and homosexual activity. In this day of concern over AIDS and other STD’s, it is difficult to understand why local health departments have refused to close down these foul businesses.

• Finally, pornography is damaging to the family in countless ways. We are sexual creatures, and the physical attraction between males and females provides the basis for every dimension of marriage and parenthood. Thus, anything that interjects itself into that relationship must be embraced with great caution.

According to an F.B.I. study, 81% of sex murderers said their biggest sexual interest was pornography (1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography). According to the March, 1995 Psychology of Living, 82% of all child molesters admit to trying out of imitating behavior that they saw depicted in pornography.

The 1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography warned that:

. . . A certain percentage of adolescents whose first sexual experiences are triggered by pornography of violent sex, will develop a fetish, a condition, that will associate violence with sex. We are training rapists and murderers with pornography.

This concern is further explained in the Commission report:

The commission heard testimony in Houston for Dr. Victor Cline, Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah, who also cites the work of Dr. James McGaugh at the University of California, Irvine, on memory. The "research suggests that experiences at times of emotional (or sexual) arousal get locked in the brain by the chemical epinephrine and become virtually impossible to erase. These memories, very vivid and graphic in nature, keep intruding themselves back on he mind’s memory screen serving to stimulate and arouse the viewer," he said. "This may help explain pornography’s addicting effect. These powerfully sexually arousing experiences become vivid memories which the mind ‘replays’ stimulating the child again and again suggesting the need for further stimulation . . . Most evidence suggests that all sexual deviations and their variations are learned behavior. I know of no good evidence anywhere suggesting genetic transmission of sexual pathology."

Medical doctor Elizabeth Holland warns about the relationship between pornography and child molestation:

There exist in our nation . . . those men and women who have been abused, who have been damaged for life by those who feed oh pornography . . . who have a sickness, who need to feed on dirty pictures and pornography, And when touching pictures and fantasizing and looking no longer satisfies these people’s insatiable appetites, they move. And they move to live children. I know because I treat these children.

In his book Exploding the Myths That Could Destroy America Dr. Irwin Lutzer, pastor, makes this statement about the influence of pornography on marriage:

Those who are addicted to pornography soon find that the normal relationship between a man and a woman in marriage loses its appeal. The only way the marriage can be sustained, if at all, is through bizarre forms of sexuality, often against the objections of one of the partners. Even then one must move on to multiple sexual partners to continue the wild goose chase that inevitably ends in the wilderness of guilt, frustration, and emptiness. As John Drakeford wrote in an article entitled "The Sexual Mirage," pornography has "strained the traditional relationship between husband and wife. Pornography presents an unreal view of human sexuality. It is an exaggerated, fantasized view. If a husband or wife see this perspective as the norm, it is going to do a great deal of damage to the sexual relationship."

One-half of all divorces take place because of adultery; often the adultery was encouraged by pornography.

God is very careful to warn His children about moral purity. Matthew 5:27-28 says, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." I Thessalonians 4:3-7 reads:

3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye would abstain from fornication;

4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

6 The no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

Finally, II Timothy 2:22, instructs, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

The importance of moral purity is why the patriarch Job said, "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?"

In addition, to God’s instructions, His judgments are also very evident. It is interesting to note how the 1993 California earthquake hit the pornography industry. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the northern San Fernando Valley. In this valley are the communities of Chatsworth, Northridge, and Canoga Park. There were more than 70 pornography companies in this area. They produce more than 95% of the pornographic videos made in the United States every year. Every one of them was damaged.

Dr. Phil Stringer is Executive Vice President of Landmark Baptist College, Haines City, Florida

http://www.usiap.org/Viewpoints/Family/Mor...aphyPlague.html

OH WOW! OH WOWOWOWOW!

I had a dream a few weeks back - woke me up had me outta that bed quickity smarts!

I know it was a dream elsewise I wouldn't have been able to see it.

I saw myself laying in my bed - and from UNDER the pillow came a big spider - black or brown - you never saw me move so fast in my life. It was some ridiculous hour in the morning. I thought for a moment that what I'd seen was my hair under the pillow peaking out - but then I realised hair doesn't move.

I don't recall how far back it was - so I can't be totally specific about what was going on at the time - but I have an idea.....sand's dream kind of verifies something for me....which is spooky in itself.

I wouldn't however associate it with sexual sin...or anything like that (unless it's withholding from hubby - coz I'm so darned tired!)....what it verifies is far from that sort of thing.

Brother, that is not what the meaning is, G-d doesnt completely ignore everyone like they don't exsist, He just will not act as a spoiling parent and give you free hand outs in anything and everything, for it is just not good for you. Look at the real parents that do this to their kids, the kids are totally out of control. G-d wants you to get yourself incontrol, and use what he gives you to do it, he isn't the kind of Father that would say you don't have to eat your vegs if you don't like them, but he is the kind of Father that is looking for you to keep trying. Some think that just because he doesn't answer and give us what we want that that is him completely ignoreing us, but that isn't so, he isn't capable of not knowing overthing we do. So, ignoring like that doesn't happen with G-d, now when we turn and refuse, he is free to do what he wants, that a great deal of the time, that is not answering us. it comes right down to us not changing for we think we know better than the one that made us, Not! He knows us better than we could ever understand ourselves.
So, change and if you fall, get up and keep trying! That is your job, rather you want to or not!

You know very well that it is not GOD who has been ignoring You - it is You that has been ignoring HIM.

You where once a beleiver in the faith - but you left along with your friends - and now you are afraid of death.

Son - your questions will be answered - all of them - But before you ask anything - watch this video, it will explain to you a lot you thought you knew - it is a real easy video to watch - and it will put thing in perspective for you.

I Annswered my own question last night. I've had gastro - and been sleeping a lot - and dreaming - a dream every sleep. So it gets o 2am last night and I couldn't get back to sleep - baby was fractious - as was 3 year old - seems like the sound of my eyelids shutting os like a steel gate slamming in their ears - they wake

anyway - I was praying for the first time in a couple of days and I asked - why - when I pray I gear nothing? Why when others pray for me - fro rest and sleep etc -= I can't - when I pray and others pray for my kids to get better or to sleep better - the exact opposite happens. EVERYTHING I PRAY FOR - the exact opposite happens. So I tend to stick to the lords prayer and whatever people have asked me to pray for them for. I also asked - is it because when I pray - I can't hear? Because I'm waiting for the answer - the wrong part of me is listening?

Maybe that will help you.

Addictions are hard to break - especially those that bring pleasure. There is no easy answer or way out - you have to do the hard yards.

But know - that even if you try and FAIL - you are a human and God knows that - He made you a human. God knows you've tried....or if you haven't.

It's a double edged sword. You can say all you like - I've tried to quit smoking, drinking, swearing, being grumpy, having a sex addiction, an illicit drug addiction....but ONLY GOD KNOWS IF YOU'VE REALLY TRIED. And sometimes He remains silent because you hae the answer in front of you - you just don't want to look at it....or He wants you to figure it out by yourself - to show you are committed to stopping whatever it is that you are doing wrong.

I'm not judgemental -I'm the last one to be like that. And it's the easiest thing to say - and the hardest thing to do. I fail at almost everything I don't want to do every day. From quitting smoking to not screaming at the kids.

It's a dig down into yourself kind of thing. And it's hard. And speaking of kids - they're killing each other I swear! GTG - if I hear number 2 whine again I'll scream!

Sand...

It all boils down to love. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey My commandments."

That isn't biblical fluff... just some more theological verbage to get through. No. It is the Truth.

Do you love God? Have you truly fallen in desperate love with the Lord?

Sexual sin has a season. It does (believe me I know). But then- the bitter harvest that THUNDER talked about comes and the pain far outlives the short term pleasure. And what's worse, the enemy has bound you up at your wrists and feet- making it impossible to escape without the Lord's help.

Picture a piece of duct tape. Imagine sticking that piece of duct tape to your arm and then immediately ripping it off. IT HURTS LIKE HECK. When we are sexually intimate with someone, we are supposed to stick- and stick hard. God designed it that way. And if we leave a person we've been sexually intimate with for the first time, hearts break. But if we keep sticking that same piece of tape to our arm and ripping it off over and over again (if we have multiple partners whether real or imagined)- eventually both the tape and ourselves stop sticking. We also stop feeling (we don't hurt so much and we don't love so much). If a person goes into a marriage after losing their "stickiness", intimacy is LOST. I believe many failed marriages can be explained by sexual sin prior to and even during marriage.

Lust is love perverted- therefore men cannot be truly intimate with their wives if they are caught up in sexual addiction (they've lost their stickiness). These men hurt their wives by cheating and giving themselves over to other women they have no right to look at (yes- it is cheating because the only person God allows us to look at in a sexual way is our spouses).

There are other consequences. Expectations of sexual addicts are not met because the bar has been set unrealistically high (the average lady doesn't look like what is so available in the media and the average woman isn't turned on 100% of the time (can I be blunt?) like you see in MTV videos. Women married to sexual addicts suffer low self esteem and heartache (she thinks, "What's wrong with me? Is he comparing me to those other women? Why am I not enough? He must not think I am beautiful."). When a marriage is effected by sexual sin- the entire family suffers. The children suffer. Communities suffer (how many pastors have fallen into adultary- rocking churches and whole neighborhoods??). All sin just leads to pain- more pain- and more pain.

But Sand, if you don't love God desperately you are quickSand. You have to lean, pray, trust, and wait on God to help you through this. You have to really want to quit for Him... because you love Him and are humbled by His unfailing love and unmerited grace He's given you.

peacemaker is right. God doesn't give us stuff just because we are angry, or because we think we know what we need.

Don't you think He knows more than you do? Don't you think He might know what's BEST FOR YOU? If you know these truths in your head- then why hasn't heart caught up? Some statistics to humble us!!!:

If the Sun were the size of a bowling ball, the earth would be the size of a pepper corn.

If the Sun were a large grapefruit in Washington D.C., Proxima Centauri (the nearest star) would be a cherry in California.

It takes 5 hours for light from the sun to reach Pluto (light travels at 186,000 miles a second... so basic math that equals 55,800,000 miles).

If you put 4,300 solar systems side by side, you would finally reach the first star (Proxima Centauri).

According to a study by a team of stargazers based at the Australian National University, there are 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (70,000 million million million, or 70 sextillion) stars in the known universe. That is about 10 times more than the grains of sand on earth.

AND HE KNOWS ALL OF THE STARS BY NAME?

The human brain has more than 100 billion neurons- and weighs 3.5 pounds.


If God can create a universe so deep, vast, and wide, and yet send His Son to earth to die a cursed death on a cross for you and me, don't you think you could muster up some trust? Could you at least try? Trust that He is WISE. Trust that He has a plan for you. You cannot bribe God by "doing good". You "do good" because you love Him (if you love Me, you will obey my commandments). He is not moved by our selfishness or our own desires, He is moved by obedience, TRUST, and LOVE.

Love is patient, Love is kind,
It does not envy, it does not boast,
It is not proud, It is not rude,
It is not self-seeking,
It is not easily angered,
It keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil,
but rejoices with the truth.

Love always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.

Love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

L o v e N e v e r F a i l s.
______________________________________

Finally, as sternly as I can say this but still in love... (I've read several of your posts and they all have the same attitude as those on this tread):

You do not deserve God's love. YOU DESERVE WRATH. God is HOLY. He is righteous- and our attempts to earn His favor are as filthy rags (in the original Hebrew it means dirty toilet paper). The reverant fear and awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you understand? He does not have to put up with man- and yet in His patient kindness, He has. He has saved us- snatched us from the FIRE. This is no small matter. You have to humble yourself and realize just what He's done for you before you can truly serve Him. Pray in humility... and ask Him to show you just how significant the cross was and is. You need to respect the Lord... not have the humanistic attitude, "If He does this, then I'll do that" or "I'll serve God to make ME happy". You are the reward for the suffering He endured. NOTHING ELSE. We are called to be servants of Christ- "take up your cross and follow Me". Have you counted the cost? God is not cheap... He is precious. It costs us everything to live for God. We have to have His help to serve Him- to give up the things that so easily entangle us.

I was also struck by the fact that you were posting about your disapproval of your sister's sexual activities in another thread not long ago. Be careful- because the Lord will allow us to fall in the same areas we are judging others in to humble us.

If I was wrong - I appologice, I however felt in my spirit that you went to sunday school as a Kid, beleiving in the faith - but when you grew up (so did the friends you had in sunday school) you left the faith.
I also feel my spirit tells me that you have had christians in your family that has been praying for you - perhaps your grandmother?

If death is not the issue - then why are you afraid of the spider?

I can be wrong - and if I am, I do appologice. - But if I am right, please tell me so that I can praise the Lord - for if I am right, it is the Lord who has spoken thrugh me - but if I am wrong - then it is me that have heard my own thoughts and then I must go to my Lord and ask forgiveness.

But back to the issue: Did you see the video?

i never "left" anything.


no i don't have any friends.


no there are no christians in my family.

What does Tfk stand for? (Am I the only dingus???) LOL!

No, you're not the only dingus, I was wondering the same thing myself. Maybe it's a geographic or age local thing.

Don't know - I can imagine tho.....he's edited the original post so that it isn't there - which reminds me of someone else so to Sand - I reiterate what I said to the other person. Why do this? If you want help, leave it there.