Not appointed to wrath, but to salvation

1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
1Th 5:11  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

We are not all automatically born to death. The wrath of God leads to eternal death.

Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

We are all automatically born given the chance to choose the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior so we can find salvation in Him who died for us. Not a single person is left without the chance to choose. You might want to bring up the mentally incapacitated or the young, but I'm talking about those who reach the age of maturity according to the Lord whatever that may be for each individual, and those who are not mental handicapped. We all will have the choice.  What about those who never learn of Jesus but live in such a way as they never come in contact with His word? It is God's will that all have the chance, but should there be those who by circumstances do not- just as with little children and the mentally disabled  - then God will judge them according to all the knowledge they do possess. God knows our hearts.

The truth is it doesn't matter whether we are living when our Savior comes again, or if we are dead. If we are HIS, if He is our Savior, we will ALL eventually live with Him.  We truly do need to comfort each other, helping each other to grow in grace and knowledge of God.

2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

We all will have the chance to be His, to choose salvation over eternal death.  By the grace of God we will do this, we will accept our LORD'S gift of salvation.  It won't be forced upon anyone at all.

We know how stupid it is to pass up great opportunities, don't we? We all have regrets for passing up chances to enhance our lives, don't we? We look back and wish we'd done things a little differently and such. If we pass up the chance to choose eternal life by living for our God, by choosing HIS plan of salvation, if we pass that up for any reason at all whatsoever it truly will be the biggest regret for those who realize too late that they passed up such an amazing and very real gift.

By the grace of God we WILL NOT pass up His Gift!
By the grace of God we WILL comfort ourselves together, helping each other grow closer and closer to Jesus, our LORD and SAVIOR.

All by HIS WILL, HIS LOVE, HIS MERCY!

Are you a child of darkness or a child of light?

1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Joh 12:36  While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.

Eph 5:8  For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light

Children of light and children of darkness. It sounds like some good versus evil story doesn't it?  Perhaps it could be, or already is a title of a movie or a book somewhere. It doesn't really matter if there is a fictional movie or book about this, but it does matter that there is a non-fiction book about this very subject. Ultimately good vs. evil is the reality we live in right now.  Good vs. evil is what the Bible is all about. Good vs. evil is a choice we ALL have to make. You, right now are either a child of light or a child of darkness.

You are apart of this story.  There is no getting out of it, no rejecting the script.  No choice- but the choice to choose which side you want to be on. We do get that choice, we just don't get the choice as to whether or not we have to choose. There is no sitting this out.

You are a child of the light or you are a child of the dark.

Unfortunately we live in a day and age where being a child of the dark is something to be desired. Having a bad reputation is no bother at all, in fact it gives you more standing among your peers and such. Being a child of the dark and having a worldly successful life is something people long for. We truly live in a world where we are calling evil - good.

The night is far spent…
The day is at hand…
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness…
And let us put on the armor of light.

The works of darkness surround us on every side. There isn't a single facet of our lives that isn't affected by darkness. The darkness is trying to steal the light from all our lives and in every single way it can.

Cast OFF the works of darkness.  This is an action to be performed. A casting off.  You have to have something on in order to cast it off, right? The works of darkness in all their sneaky subtle ways will try and infiltrate our lives until they become a part of us, so much a part of us we cannot imagine ever living without them.  We will feel the weight of our works of darkness ONLY if we get closer to the light. Light exposes the things that are hidden in darkness, things  clothed by darkness. When something is made up of darkness when light touches it, it can no longer be completely dark, right? There is not a cave, not an ocean deep, not a single place in outer space that cannot be touched by light. Light can be brought to the darkest sea bottom- even remotely, mechanically.  You can sink a light in the deepest hole if you desired. And once that light is near that darkness that perhaps has NEVER been touched by light before, not ever, it will be changed, forever altered. Dispelling the darkness from our lives means being a child of the light. We HAVE to cast off the works of darkness, there is NO doubt about that. If you think for a moment you haven't any works of darkness to cast off then PRAISE GOD! You are truly living wholly, fully in the LIGHT of our Savior!  You are wearing the armor of LIGHT.

We need that armor on us but we have to be willing to cast of the works of darkness that encumber us hindering the armor from fitting to us perfectly.

You are a child of light or a child of darkness and the night is far spent… the day is at hand.

By the grace of God we will be CHILDREN of LIGHT!
Lord help us to cast off the works of darkness that would engulf us and steal all Your light from our lives. Please LORD, by YOUR mercy and grace, through YOUR love, help us, save us, because we cannot save ourselves.

All in YOU, always!

Hope of Salvation

1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

Thief in the night.
How does a thief come in the night?
As a surprise.
It's very rare for any thief to NOT be a surprise. The only way that happens is if people are suspecting a thief and prepare, but as a rule a thief comes in the middle of the night and it's a surprise, not announced.

Our Savior WILL return, but we don't know the day or the hour.

Those who do not believe the LORD is going to return and return with the reward having judged us all- dead and living- we'll be shocked. 

So many people do claim peace and safety all the time, you hear it everywhere. They want peace and safety in a world that is ruled by Satan. They believe there can be peace and safety in this world controlled by the Devil, and they are WRONG.  Our Savior is going to return and people everywhere will be stunned. 

1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Sudden destruction will come upon billions of people because they don't know Jesus as their Savior, they don't want Jesus to be their Savior, they aren't KNOWN by Jesus as being His.

1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

We cannot SLEEP. We cannot be caught off guard. We HAVE to be among those who watch in the night, protecting our eternal life as a guard would protect physical property in an area where they know it's likely for a thief to steal into their houses and rob them.  We are of the DAY. We are children of the LIGHT.  We are NOT children of darkness who cannot see, who cannot know, who will sleep and they will be robbed of their eternal life and it'll be their OWN fault!

1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

We have to have on the breastplate of FAITH.
We have to have on the breastplate of LOVE.
We have to wear the helmet of the HOPE of SALVATION.

The hope has to be REAL in us, REAL to us! Not some haphazard thought of a possible occurrence.  Do you wake up each day hoping today will be the day? Do you even think about Jesus coming ? Is it a thought you keep foremost in your mind?  How would life be different if we did keep that thought in our minds always? Seriously.  Our Savior is going to return! This is a reality and we must live by this reality even as we go about our day to day life. 

Every generation has to live with this as a reality, all the way back to those Apostles who lived after Jesus died, after He ascended to heaven.  They lived with the hope of His return for them and we TOO must live with that same hope.

We must be SOBER- fully aware of the facts we live with.
We must seriously put on these SPIRITUAL items- this is the recognition of our true SPIRITUAL life.
A breastplate or LOVE and FAITH.  Our lives covered with this, our hearts protected by these very spiritual things.
A helmet of that hope of Salvation. It protects our heads, our brains, our thoughts and this is a REALITY!

So many people tell others that they shouldn't live in a fantasy world, and this ISN'T a fantasy world! It's a real SPIRITUAL world that exists that we MUST be a part of if we want to have that HOPE of eternal life with our SPIRIT God.

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

This is TRUTH!

Truth we MUST live by as children of the LIGHT.

The LIGHT our Savior!

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

God's Truth, God's Word Undefiled!

1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

There IS hope.
There IS an eventual life after death.

Those who die in Jesus- God WILL bring with Him, and those who are alive when the Lord comes again cannot stop those who have died in Jesus from living again.

We have hope.

We all have hope, but only in Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR.

We cannot wake ourselves from death's sleep.
And we cannot wake up anyone else from death's sleep.
Yes, back in the days of the apostles there were miracles of bring the dead back to life, but it wasn't a wide scale practice. Not everyone that died was brought back, it was at the Lord's discretion, for His purpose.

Too many people believe their loved ones are already alive and watching them, waiting for them, standing by on another plane of existence able to see everything going on down here on earth.

Some swear that those who they believe are too horrific to gain heaven are suffering in a fire pit, endlessly suffering, always to suffer.  Our God is TOO just to ever arrange things this way, but people have twisted His word to suit their purposes, they've taken His parables and turned them into fact when in truth they are only meant to serve as a tale depicting a situation whose meaning has been veiled and meant truly only for those who really have eyes and want to see the truth of God not blinded by Satan's deceptions that are so perfected they will deceive ALL but God's very elect.

I've spoken on this before and I feel the need to speak on it again because just recently there was a death in my extended family. So many people want to find selfish comfort in believing their loved ones are still alive. I say selfish comfort because they are using this belief to pacify themselves, their grief, when the truth is we are supposed to feel the harshness of death. We are supposed to comprehend that death brings a finale to our lives. That finale is the end of our chance to choose to live for God. No one after death has that choice- to choose salvation in Christ or not to choose it. That choice is gone forever and every death needs to remind us of that fact, because if we aren't reminded of it by death and we pull the fictional snuggle blanket of continuing life right after death, and our loved ones- simply because they were good and we love them, and they are family, must deserve heaven- well, we are going to be in for a huge eternally deadly shock later on.

I'm not belittling anyone's sorrow! It is a very real, very raw process to grieve the loss of a loved one. There is comfort to be found in the knowledge they are sleeping death's sleep.

There is great comfort in this--

Ecc 9:5  For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

The dead know not any thing.

Why in the world do people WANT their deceased loved ones to see all their pain and heartache? Why?! Yet, millions, billions want just that! They want them looking down on them as if our pain and heartaches are so important that our dead loved ones must suffer with us and offer us their unseen comfort while we pretend to feel it because it makes us feel better knowing we're sharing our agonies with someone, someone who loves us and cares for us. I say pretend but the truth is, Satan has GREAT power. We don't want to believe that fact either, but Satan has amazing powers and abilities, and so do his evil angels- those that fell with him from heaven.  These beings exist every bit as much as God exists- we can't believe one without the other. Satan and his angels know everything there is to know about us and he uses it all to deceive us at every opportunity. So if he allows an evil spirit (angel) to make someone feel the invisible comfort from a dead loved one it's all to his delight, all serving HIS purpose to deceive.

The word of God tells us that when Christ comes again the dead that are found in Him will rise.

They will RISE!

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

They will RISE!

So answer me this-  what are they rising from if they're already living in some wonderful existence with God in heaven? Seriously, what could this possibly mean other than the dead in Christ are NOT risen yet, and won't rise until He returns for them.

We are to comfort one another with THESE words, not the words of false belief, not the words of heaven realized immediately after dying, they aren't true!

A friend of mine wrote a wonderful message today and in it she emphasize just how short our time here on earth is and how we need to realize that every breath we take is one breath closer to our end.

There is so much truth in this, realizing that our lives NOW matter. We choose NOW whom we are going to serve- God or Satan. As soon as we die we no longer have that choice, and for most people there is no opportunity to even have a thought before they are suddenly gone. We have to have our house- our lives- in order NOW.  God wants us to be His, to LOVE Him, to know Him and be known by Him and we can do this through HIS word, studying, reading, praying, living a life that makes God a real entity in our existence, a real force. The Holy Spirit will guide us but we have to choose to be led by Him, He'll NEVER force Himself on us, never.

We are given so much LOVING instruction in the word of God, so much! We need to make it real and we need to make it REAL now, not some other time at a later date.

We aren't going to find peace in this world, Jesus didn't come to bring peace to this world- His words, not mine.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

What is the sword He's brought instead of peace?

Eph 6:17  ... and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God

HIS WORD! HIS TRUTH UNDEFILED!

All by HIS GRACE, HIS MERCY, HIS LOVE, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, HIS FORGIVENESS! HIS SANCTIFICATION! HIS HOLINESS!

Study to be quiet & Hope in death

Th 4:11  And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
1Th 4:12  That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.


Strive, labor, study-- to be quiet.

All too often we are caught up in babbling, aren't we? Talking but really saying nothing. Sure it might seem like we are saying an awful lot and probably about a lot of things, but seriously, how often are we talking about God and God's way, about Jesus and His way, about salvation and eternal life? How often? Could someone accuse you of speaking to much about God? We go day in and day out talking to others but unless religion is our actual profession, how much of that talking is about eternal matters? We really do have a lot to say about nothing, don't we? And when I say nothing I mean nothing that is of any real consequence when it is measured to eternity.  When we spend a lot of time not being quiet, and not doing our own business but minding the business of others we have no reason to be minding then we are not doing God's work. God would have us support ourselves as much as we are able to, not relying others to support us as we meddle in their business.  Do some people make a habit, a living out of meddling and mooching? Sure, but that isn't God's way at all, that isn't walking honestly, that isn't  revealing God to those around you, it's revealing something sinister.

Christians aren't truly God's followers if they follow a corrupted path. I can claim to be a Christian, a Christ believer, a Christ follower, but I'm not really one at all if I do not live as Christ commands.  If I live in a manner that if far from Christ's, how can I say I am His? I could, but it'd be a lie.  The truth is God would have us look inward at our own faults before we ever meddle in another's.  God would have us be givers, not takers, not users.  I'm not saying there is never a need to accept the help of others, but that should be the exception to the rule.  I'm also not saying there aren't people who have to be dependent upon others because of physical or mental infirmities, but those who are fully capable of living otherwise yet choose to spend their life purposefully being bothersome, meddlesome, relying on others to provide for them are not following God's will. 

Truly we lack nothing if we strive to do our own business, quietly, humbly, working to provide for ourselves and not to be a burden on others.

1Th 4:13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

We aren't to be ignorant about those who sleep.  He's not talking about sleep-sleep, that much is very obvious. You don't sorrow over someone sleeping. It's another way of saying- dead. Remember Jesus telling His disciples that Lazarus was sleeping? He had to explain that He meant  dead, not sleeping as in a good night's sleep, or a healing sleep.  Paul hear is telling those in Thessalonica that he doesn't want them to be ignorant, he wants them to know the truth about death. Unlike the popular belief today that we go right to the next world-heaven or hell- upon death these people we under the belief that death was just the end, that everything ended there, you were in the grave where you rotted into dust and then were nothing, finished completely, no hope for anything further.  Most of us who have lost loved ones can't stand the thought that death truly means the end of it all- hence the misconception that we immediately switch to another plane of existence.  It's natural not to want to lose someone close to us, it's natural to want to hope for something more for them. But unless we believe there is a life after death of some sort there is absolutely no hope, right?

Listen to what Paul had to say--

1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

There is hope.
There is an eventual life after death.

Those who die in Jesus will God bring with Him, and those who are alive when the Lord comes again cannot stop those who have died in Jesus from living again. 

We have hope.

We all have hope, but only in Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR. We cannot wake ourselves from death's sleep and we cannot wake up anyone else from death's sleep.  Yes, back in the days of the apostles there were miracles of bring the dead back to life, but it wasn't a wide scale practice. Not everyone that died was brought back, it was at the Lord's discretion, for His purpose.

More on this tomorrow all by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!

All in HIS love!

God has called us to holiness

1Th 4:6  That 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.
1Th 4:7  For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

Defrauding someone.  We live in a world where defrauding people is extremely commonplace. In fact we like to pat each other on the back when we get away with cheating someone or cheating the 'system'. We think it's wonderful when we can get ahead 'creatively tweaking' the rules to do so. We've made it an art to be able to get into the system and then sneak around it. Daily you hear about such defrauding and it no longer shocks us.  So many sins no longer shock us. Defrauding someone is a sin and yet we barely flinch at it. Our own government which was originally put in place to protect the every day non-political person from tyranny and such has excused huge corporations for their fraud, they've slapped them on the wrists and sent them to the corner for awhile, but real sweeping punishment is elusive. The government itself is filled with those who defraud others. This is a sad, sad world we live in and those who would follow Christ won't defraud others and they won't approve of others doing so either.

The LORD avenges those who are defrauded, the LORD'S wrath will punish the unrepentant sinner for every sin, even those we have labeled acceptable in today's world.

We are NOT called to uncleanness.  We are not called to be impure in our lives in any way. We ARE called to holiness.

So why then do we fill our lives with so much that is geared towards promoting impurity in us and those around us? Why do we excuse impurity? Why do we call impurity good and harmless? Why? 

Why can't we realize we are called to holiness? Why can't this be real to us?  It's real to some people, but to the majority they wouldn't know where to begin even imagining a call to holiness, true holiness found in Christ and NOT themselves. There are a lot of people who believe they are called to egotistical greatness, and some even seem to obtain the greatness they are striving for, but it's a worldly, unclean greatness and it's far from holy.

We are called to holiness, we are called to be Christ's, to live for Christ who was pure in all things, holy in all things.

1Th 4:8  He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

When we reject the call to holiness, when we despise the truth and the goodness found in a true love for one another, a true love that would never have us defrauding one another- when we do these things we are despising GOD, we are rejecting GOD. We might think we are only behaving on a superficial level that doesn't affect our relationship with God, but the truth is, every time we hurt one another in ANY way we are hurting our God.  God who has given us His HOLY SPIRIT, that Holy Spirit is despised when we shun God's truths and sin willfully, knowingly, desiring to encourage the uncleanness in our lives.  Is it any wonder Satan has control of the majority of people? Too many refuse the truth that is found in our Savior, preferring their own brand of truths that accommodate their many, many sins.

1Th 4:9  But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
1Th 4:10  And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;

We are taught of GOD to LOVE ONE ANOTHER- no one should have to teach us this because GOD has taught us. We cannot stop loving one another at the church door, at the door to the family home, we cannot stop loving one another and loving more and more every day.  We cannot ever get to a point where we can say that's enough, I've loved enough people, I can't love any more.  Maybe your resources and how you reveal that love might disappear, but taking away all material things you can still choose to love someone even if it's only by praying for them, by feeling compassion, by giving a kind word, a tiny smile, by letting your heart feel.

We can never stop loving, but rather we need our love to increase more and more. By the grace of God alone this is possible. Through the Holy Spirit alone are we able to do this. It is CHRIST'S love that we have to give and our Savior has an endless supply of love for those who desire to be loved by Him.

Please LORD, please help us as we live in this sin-sick world. Don't let us become immune to the sinfulness of sin. Don't let us ever call evil good, and good evil. Please LORD help us to love one another more and more, help us Lord to love YOU as you would have us love you in holiness and not uncleanness.

Please Lord help us, save us.

All praise, all glory, all honor unto You LORD, always!

The will of God

1Th 4:1  Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to PLEASE GOD, so ye would abound more and more.
1Th 4:2  For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
1Th 4:3  For this is the WILL OF GOD, even your SANCTIFICATION, that ye should abstain from FORNICATION...

Webster's Definition--

'Fornication
FORNICA'TION, n. [L. fornicatio.]

1. The incontinence or lewdness of unmarried persons, male or female; also, the criminal conversation of a married man with an unmarried woman.

2. Adultery. Mat 5.

3. Incest. 1 Cor 5.

4. Idolatry; a forsaking of the true God, and worshipping of idols. 2 Chr 21. Rev 19.'


1Th 4:4  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
1Th 4:5  Not in the lust of CONSUPISCENCE, even as the Gentiles which know not God

CONSUPISCENCE-

'For Christians, concupiscence refers to what they understand as the orientation, inclination or innate tendency of human beings to long for fleshly appetites, often associated with a desire to do things which are proscribed.'

Pasted from

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ABSTAIN-  meaning do NOT do.

FORNICATION'S various meanings…

Do NOT have sexual contact if you're not married.
Do NOT have sexual contact if married with someone unmarried.
Do NOT have sexual contact with someone who is married, unless you are married to them.
Do NOT have sexual contact with your relatives.
Do NOT commit idolatry.
Do NOT forsake GOD.
Do NOT worship idols- false gods.

What does sexual contact represent?  The PHYSICAL, self-serving, self-pleasure seeking desires, lusts that are very real for people. These physical desires can seem overwhelming, right? Most people have experienced them, most adults know what it means to have sexual desires.

We are told by Paul -

1Co 7:2  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
1Co 7:3  Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
1Co 7:4  The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
1Co 7:5  Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
1Co 7:6  But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.
1Co 7:7  For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
1Co 7:8  I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
1Co 7:9  But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.


To avoid fornication we are to marry.  To avoid getting caught up in  that self-serving, self-pleasure seeking we are to marry.

Why is it wrong to indulge in sexual activity outside of marriage?

Marriage is a symbol of God and His Church- the Bride and the Bridegroom. 

When man was made he was created alone without a counterpart, but then God realized it wasn't good for man to be alone. God wasn't a flesh creature and he wanted the creatures that we were to know a oneness that would truly symbolize the joy in being one with God. Man lost that ability to understand the oneness of God when sin entered the world and self became more important than God, than others. The oneness they now could experience could be pleasurable but nothing on the scale of sinless oneness.  The oneness would be perverted into self-serving, self-pleasing.

God created mankind for a reason, we are HIS, we are to WORSHIP Him, we are HIS, we belong to HIM. Without God we are not whole, we were made only to be whole in GOD.  The Bridegroom and the Bride- two becoming one.

God created man and woman symbolic of God and mankind.

This amazing symbolic oneness is so seldom seen for what it truly is, and is mostly, almost exclusively known for self-gratification- even self-gratification in being able to give pleasure to another making you feel proud of yourself for that ability. Sex became self-serving. When a person truly comprehends the sanctity of sexual contact then and only then can they begin to comprehend why succumbing to the desire for sexual contact outside of an established union made under a covenant before God is so abhorrent to God.

The oneness it symbolizes- the Bridegroom and the Bride- God and His church(His people)- is so incredibly important we can hardly understand. 

When we fornicate it symbolically represents our choosing self over God. We are choosing to separate ourselves from God when we fornicate. But how many people actually realize this? How many people even care as long as their quest for pleasure is being satisfied? So what if it's a symbol, that's all nonsense isn't it? That's all fairy tales and crazy thinking, right? It's become that because Satan doesn't want us to think there is anything more to sex than the pleasure it brings- to give and to get. And he doesn't want us to deny ourselves any pleasure, right?

Why aren't we to fornicate? Because fornicating is truly separating ourselves from God and His love.

Yes, we feel physical desires and in their proper context, in their proper union, in their proper commitment, before God, those desires are good things.

When we are drawn away of our own LUST and that LUST is conceived, the act committed to fully, we sin- we separate ourselves from God.  If we do NOT repent and find forgiveness in our Savior who alone can bridge the gap of that separation, we will only find in the end eternal death.

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

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1Th 4:4  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
1Th 4:5  Not in the lust of CONSUPISCENCE, even as the Gentiles which know not God

We need to know how to possess ourselves in sanctification and honor- living towards the holiness of God as God has revealed to us over and over.

We must not live in the lust of trying to fulfill our flesh desires, and many, many do, day after day they live only to please themselves and their desires in the many, many forms they take.  Those who do NOT worship God, those who do not care to worship God, those who choose to live to self, those who choose to live to false gods will be caught up in the lusts of the flesh.  Don't let people confuse you either- many will seem godly when inside they are rotten to the core- God knows, God knows it all.

The men who were supposed to be the godly men of Jesus' day were told this by Jesus--

Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

They were like whited sepulchres - beautiful on the outside!

But inside they were FULL of dead men's bones!

People will often appear to be godly, but they aren't. We can't judge them though, we just have to realize that God is the judge and know that we have only ourselves to deal with and our own actions before God. The reason I even bring the fact up that there are those who appear godly but aren't is because even those who are supposedly celibate- having no sexual contact with others- could be caught up in something else deadly. It's keeping ourselves from any and all things that would take us from God, that would separate us from God no matter what it is!

Please Lord help us to comprehend, help us to understand all we need to understand. Please Lord let the Holy Spirit guide us into full knowledge of Your truths and lead us Lord, lead us in YOUR way everlasting. Keep us from our selfishness in ALL its forms! Help us to be more and more like You, all through the grace and LOVE of Your Son Jesus Christ our LORD, our SAVIOR!