When researching the word “adultery” in the scriptures a person will normally see that the word is associated with sex outside the union of marriage. Other scriptures that do not specifically refer to adultery against marriage, speak in a more general sense as to the nature of some people, as the reference, “adulterous people”, such as what is found in Jeremiah 9:2 and Mosiah 1:13. In reading these references, one wonders if God speaks of these people as all having sexual affairs. Since that does not show a sensible application of the word “adulterous”, then God must be applying that word to mean something else. So what does he mean?
We know that sexual adultery corrupts marriages and in turn, families. It is the affect of the act carried into a marriage or relationship that causes the corruption. As easily as the children suffer the sins of the parents without having committed the sin themselves, so shall the sin of adultery bear onto the members of the family in the same way.
What then can be the definition of adultery in order to understand its application in life and spirit?
Everyone deals with shortcomings about their self-esteem or self-image. How they perform at work, at home, in relationships, in their personal or public performances, whether they feel worthy or unworthy. At one time or another, if not repeatedly, everyone has some issue with their self-esteem, but in this struggle, has there been any concern about self-esteem versus faith?
When it comes to faith, it is a matter where each person must take account of themselves and evaluate the nature and degree of their self-esteem and then see how this affects their faith.
Faith is the expression and act of love, devotion and obedience to God and for him. It is the trust in his will and trust that he will help and bless. Faith is also the expression of oneself to God, the who and what we are. In this expression of oneself comes the value of oneself. This personal value is the gift that we, as sons and daughters of God, give to God.
IN the scriptures God speaks about the value of how we give a gift where he said, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (1 Cor 2.9:7). Gods speaks of the value of the heart and mind in things that we give to him and to others. Giving our faith grudgingly, is not faith at all. To exercise the commandments of God because you believe you have to, what value is this to God and his kingdom?
The end goal. Is commitment all about the end goal? I found that commitment is not about end goals, I found that commitment always comes before the end goal, especially if faith is the a goal. If a person wants to have good faith in God, to establish a relationship with God that works and is faithful, then commitment to faith must occur first, else the end goal of faith cannot occur.
Commitment, in itself, does not automatically denote or become faith. Commitment is a “trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose” toward something or in something. Once the object (faith) is chosen to pursue and achieve, then commitment will be “the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action”. Once this is established, then faith, being “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” is exercised. The binding of oneself, intellectually and emotionally to the act of faith causes faith to be true and does not end up as just a word or lip service.
Let’s take a life example. A boss makes promises that he will do this or that, saying that to do those things are required and needed. Those things are good to hear, even if they are things that you had hoped for at work, but the results, or fruits of his labor proves otherwise. The things promised never manifest and in fact the old status quo remains or the things done were so inadequate, they proved as useful as doing nothing. The result for you is disappointment and discouragement. The problem with all the promises and things said, even if they were great to hear, was the absence of commitment. The failure to bind oneself to the course of action, to be sincere and steadfast.
When someone looks at the world of Christianity, there are diverse beliefs about God and the scriptures. It is no different in regard to the range of beliefs about how God answers prayers. I could write a book about it, but my purpose here is to address only a concern about how prayers are answered.
It can be hard for a floundering member of this Church when he/she doubts the doctrines taught by the apostles and prophet, then go out, investigate and compare the doctrines and beliefs of other Christian denominations, especially in terms of how God answers prayers, leading themselves to think that another church or another Christian denomination or group knows more about prayers and God. This usually happens through accounts given by other Christians of how their prayers were answered.
I have heard and read personal accounts of prayers answered from a range of people, both in and out of this Church. I have heard accounts of the results from prayers that range from the mundane to the impressive. From all of that, I heard other Christians claim that God’s Spirit is therefore always within them, as they explain about their answered prayers, believing wholeheartedly that God is working in their life and guiding them. With all the differing accounts, especially from people outside the Church, how can a member discern if what was said is true and prevent getting pulled into the deluge of false claims about God and his Holy Spirit?
The scriptures say that we are to provide a sacrifice to heavenly Father and this can be done in many ways, such as what was said in Romans 12: 1 or Ephesians 5: 2.
The word of God speaks of self-sacrifice, one where we are to subjugate ourselves to the ways of God and to put aside the ways of the world. Some of these “self-sacrifices” refer to placing ourselves into a humbled state, a contrite spiritual state which subjects ourselves to his Spirit (Psalms 51:17), which is also seen in one of the most well known scriptural verses, “..he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it ( Matt. 10:39).”
It is clear that God is telling us to forsake mortal tendencies of life and embark onto a spiritual path and way, but how many really do this as they claim faith in God and his Spirit?
Indulgence or sacrifice?
The battle between being spiritual, the offering of oneself to God, or submitting ourselves to indulgences of the flesh and of the world. How easy it is for anyone of us to loose ourselves in indulgences, big and small and not even think of what we are really doing. Simple things, coffee, chocolate, junk food, cakes, or even drink (speaking generally), this is to name a few.
Think about it. When you fast for two meals, do you not desire to drink and eat? To have that treat, that potato chip, cup of hot chocolate or that slice of pizza? That is an example of the human nature, that of the natural man or woman, the carnal mind and heart, wanting things of the flesh and the world, but when you refuse those desires to continue the fast, then you are spiritual, submitting oneself as a sacrifice to heavenly Father.
Now let us seriously consider as to whether the everyday thing is an indulgence or sacrifice. What things are you doing in your life that would be counted as an indulgence? Having need to eat that chocolate every day, or have that tea every morning, or that need for something that is gained from the world or from the flesh, the pleasures.
It is so easy to get into ideas of “self-pampering”, or “I deserve this” or “treat myself”, etc. These philosophies are taught by many “self-help” gurus that claim this is increasing personal power. How easy the corruption of God’s principles and practices can occur so subtlety and quickly because they appeal to the very thing we all have, that is the “ego” which is where pride resides.
God knew that unless we act in “self-sacrifice” we would be caught up by the world and the flesh, locked into the carnal mind and end up with a heart of stone, spiritually speaking. Self-sacrifice assists us to humble ourselves and develop a contrite spirit, not to submit ourselves to indulgences, but to submit ourselves to the Spirit, which are spiritual things.
The important thing is to learn when things are not an indulgence and when they are. Making excuses to indulgence, even justify it as “free will or choice” is a selfish act because it serves no one but yourself. Athletes know the importance of self-sacrifice when it comes to performance. True they do it to perform better, it is for themselves, but the manner which it is done is the same. They do not indulgence in things that will hamper their “discipline”.
When God said that our bodies must be like a temple, that means we are to develop and maintain our physical nature unto God. Keep healthy, exercise and every so often, subjugate the body to a fast and to spiritual ways and things. Overcoming the things of the flesh is what opens us up to the Spirit, because by subjugating the flesh and the natural man or woman within, putting aside indulgences and excuses to indulge, shifts the body mind and soul into a spiritual focus and all good spiritual focuses are of God, which invites the Spirit. As athletes do this to perform, we can do the same, spiritually speaking for our faith unto God.
So what would it be for your faith, indulgence of sacrifice?
It is unfortunate that so many preachers and teachers of the scriptures exist today, where almost all of them are false, having none of God within them and none of God’s Spirit with them, teaching doctrines favoured by men. Test the spirits of those who speak is crucial to protecting faith. There is no justification to allow false teachings to take hold within your mind and heart, not for any reason, because false teachings are sinful. False teachings are contrived by the carnal mind and the carnal mind will always be an enmity to God. False teachings or false doctrines are not of faith, and this means that anything not of faith is sin. This is how serious false doctrines and teachings are to true faith.
When faced with the countless preachers and teachers out there that profess belief systems and doctrines, how can you ensure that your faith is protected and not infected by these falsehoods? The answer is to test the spirit of those words.
Testing the spirit is not solely by comparing word for word in the Bible, as so many other Christians profess to do. This is not the way Paul the Apostle taught. He made it clear that the letter of the word killeth, only the spirit gives life. This says that to compare the letter of the word for the letter of the word will get nothing in return but darkness and misunderstanding, but to compare the spirit of the word, which words are spirit and they are life, will get truth. This means to learn and exercise spiritual discernment, just as Paul the Apostle teaches. When a person learns the gospel by the revelation of Jesus Christ, he will learn the spiritual meaning and application. Then and only then can a person test the spirits because then it is comparing spiritual with spiritual.
When a person is able to compare rightly, then he/she is “rightly dividing the word“, which gives the power to test the spirits of others and their words, to spiritually discern if they speak God’s word or not. If not, what is said is rejected or treated as “of the world”.
Until that time that you learn to rightly divide the word and spiritually discern, keep one’s faith a distance from preachers, teachers or presenters (famous or not). Staying at a spiritual distance until you work out with God what is true. Never give any person’s words justification, such as “they are just giving provoking thought, or trying to progress, or they are just beginners in a beginner church, etc. Such justifications in your heart and mind weaken faith because sin is justified and God cannot accept sin in any degree. A good Christian, a good Saint speaks respectfully to false speakers, but at no time accepts falsehoods or false doctrines and stands strong in the faith, which can only occur when living the true doctrines of the gospel.
(Note, the words in italics are words matching scriptural passages in the King James Bible)
The new YouTube channel named “Mormon Messages” is online. It has quality videos, excellent messages and teachings. It is good to see the Church is taking advantage of media sources as YouTube. Here is a presentation of hope, to have hope, to endure with hope, to live with hope. When listening to this message, it shows me that unless we have hope, faith will falter.
Hope is not just having a manner of faith that all will be OK in the face of despair, but hope applies to every part of life and faith. Hope is to have the intent that things will be fulfilled and I can see in this, that hope to receive spiritual guidance from the Holy Ghost is that very thing, or hope that you will receive a true spiritual testimony, or to receive further spiritual testimony and understanding of the gospel.
To some these things are easy, to others they need to make the effort, but when there is a loss of hope, a different kind of despair occurs and I will call it the faith of despair, which is despair in faith. Without hope a person will fall from faith and loose their connection with God. Sort of makes one wonder if that is what happened to members who left the Church?
Here is the video on hope from the Lord’s apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbsU3b2srQA
I was alerted to this video by a friend who received it by e-mail. I located it on YouTube entitled, “How would you introduce Christ to a room full of people???“. As I watched it, I found the timing of this interesting since I posted a blog article about this very thing – “God’s Work, Always in Faith“. I spoke of how God does his work and anything he promotes will never be to appease or please the vanity of people, or even use such things to promote himself, his gospel, his salvation and be assured that any fanfare that appears in the name of Jesus Christ is not of him neither can it be for him.
This video portrayed the exact thing I was speaking about in the recent article about God’s work. I ask you to watch this video, it is a short one. The performance is by Steve Harvey, a actor and comedian who stood on stage to speak about Jesus Christ. Look at this video before you read on.
You really should to to their website. At the bottom of the web page is an audio player and their lyrics are really good, especially the “little old lady with a fractured femur”.
This easily happens in the world, where sinful behaviour and acts are justified. Acts as lying, sometimes called “white lies”, deceitfulness justified by the word “crafty”, manipulation justified in the idea of “it was just business, not personal”, or any other sin that man in the world commits and the millions of rationalizations the world attaches to it. These are the obvious justifications of sin, the evil of the world and of the flesh. Why then am I speaking about something that appears to be obvious to even the world? It is because I am using their bad example to show the practice of justifying sin in the name of Christian-hood.
Have I caught your interest?
I have seen this all too often, where justification of wickedness, sin or wrong is done in the name of “good will” toward others. Even using the examples of Jesus Christ to justify this idle philosophy. I use the word “idle” because it is a choice and act that forsakes righteousness and in the absence of righteousness, there is no Christianity as Jesus taught it and showed example by it.
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When researching the word “adultery” in the scriptures a person will normally see that the word is associated with sex outside the union of marriage. Other scriptures that do not specifically refer to adultery against marriage, speak in a more general sense as to the nature of some people, as the reference, “adulterous people”, such as what is found in Jeremiah 9:2 and Mosiah 1:13. In reading these references, one wonders if God speaks of these people as all having sexual affairs. Since that does not show a sensible application of the word “adulterous”, then God must be applying that word to mean something else. So what does he mean?
