The Eternal (BENEFITS) Of Living Righteously

There are ENORMOUS benefits to LIVING RIGHTEOUSLY, here are just a FEW, BUT know that it is through CHRIST JESUS' blood that gives us ACCESS to these benefits.  So you MUST be a BELIEVER and be OBEDIENT to His Word.  Here is the list:

WHAT DOES LIVING RIGHTEOUSLY MEAN?

James 1:19-20New International Version (NIV)

Listening and Doing

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

James 1:22-27New International Version (NIV)

Doers-Not Only Hears

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Matthew 25:31-46 New International Version (NIV)

The Sheep and the Goats

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Colossians 3:5 New International Version (NIV)

Not Carnality but Christ

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Galatians 5:5-26 New International Version (NIV)

Walking In The Spirit

5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Benefits of Living Righteous

Psalm 84:11 New International Version (NIV)

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Psalm 34:10 New International Version (NIV)

10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Proverbs 13:21 New International Version (NIV)

21 Trouble pursues the sinner, but the righteous are rewarded with good things.

Psalm 58:11 New International Version (NIV)

11 Then people will say,“Surely the righteous still are rewarded;surely there is a God who judges the earth.”

Make Your Choice Life or Death...

(DEMONS ARE DEFEATED)

1 JOHN 3:1-9

1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,[a]we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

COMMENTARY

THE CHILDREN OF GOD (DEMONS ARE DEFEATED)

Jesus Christ, through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead defeated Satan and his demonic forces. The Holy spirit lives inside of us when we belong to God. In Him we also have the power to defeat any influences of demons in our lives. God has provided us with resources that we can use daily to fight against spiritual enemies. Those include: · The name of Jesus (Luke 10:17) 17The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." · Watchfulness (1Peter 5:8) 8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. · Prayer (John 15:7) 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. · The whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) 10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
If you are concerned about demonic activity, pray for wisdom and discernment and seek the counsel of a pastor or other mature Christians. Christians do not need to fear Satan or his demons: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord” (Romans 8: 37-39).

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Are You Addicted Sexually Part 2

From: Book Every Man's Battle

Fred's (Co-Author) Testimony: A Thunderbolt

Having "athlete's foot of the mind" was how I felt.  I vividly remember my internal struggles between the consequences of the my sin and the pleasure of my sin.  I remember when those consequences finally got to the point where they weren't worth the pleasure of the sin.  But did I qualify as an "addict"?  When I read one author's description of a four-step addiction cycle-preoccupation, ritualization, compulsive sexual behavior, then despair I knew I'd lived that pattern.  I was certain that what I'd experienced, and what these other men had experienced, was addiction.  But a thunderbolt hit me when the author outlined the three levels of addiction (keep in mind this wasn't a Christian book):
Level 1: Contains behavior that are regarded as normal, acceptable, or tolerable.  Examples include masturbation, homosexuality, and prostitution.
Level 2: Behaviors that are clearly victimizing and for which legal sanctions are enforced.  These are generally seen as nuisance offenses, such as exhibititionism or voyeurism.
Level 3: Behaviors that have grave consequences for the victims and legal consequences for the addicts, such as incest, child molestation or rape
Did you read that list closely?  Did you notice that the examples of Level 1 include not just masturbation, which most men practice at times but also homosexuality and prostitution? By definition above, maybe we aren't addicts after all.  But if we aren't addicts, what are we?

From Steve (Co-Author) Fractional Addiction
Before we answer that question, let's think again about those "three levels of addiction" as described above.  From our Christian perspective, let's insert another level at the bottom of the addiction scale.  If we categorized being totally pure and holy as the zero level, all Christian men we know would fall somewhere between Level 0 and Level 1.  If your're one of the many men in this area, it probably isn't at all helpful to label you as an "addict" or to imply that victory will take years of therapy.  Instead, victory can be measured in weeks, as we'll describe later. (Please get the book if you want to read more) Your "addictive" behaviors are not rooted in some deep, dark, shadowy mental maze as they are in Levels 1, 2, and 3.  Rather, they're based on pleasure highs.  Men receive a chemical high from sexually charged images a hormone called epinephrine is secreted into the bloodstream, which locks into the memory whatever stimulus is present at the time of the emotional excitement.  I've counseled men who became emotionally and sexually stimulated just from entertaining thoughts of sexual activity.  A guy dead set on purchasing Hustler at his local 7-Eleven is sexually stimulated long before he even steps into convenience store.  His stimulation began in his thought process, which triggered his nervous system, which secreted epinephrine into the bloodstream.  From my counseling experience, I believe it's often true that those men living at Level 1 or worse have deep psychological problems that will take years to work through.  But relatively few men live there.  Our contention is a vast majority of men stuck in sexual sin are living between Level 0 and Level 1.  We can call this a "fractional addiction" since it represents living at a level that's a fraction between zero and one.

2 Corinthians 12:21
21 I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
Ephesians 5:1-5

 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Are You Addicted Sexually? Part 1

Take This Test

Here's a little test you can take.  You don't need a pencil: you just need to be honest with yourself.  Answer yes or no to the following questions.

1. Do you lock on when an attractive woman comes near your?
2. Do you masturbate to images of other women?
3. Have you found your wife to be less sexually satisfying?
4. Are you holding a grudge against your wife--a grudge that gives you a sense of entitlement?
5. Do you seek out sexually arousing articles or photo spreads in newspapers or magazines?
6. Do you have a private place or secret compartment that you keep hidden from your wife?
7. Do you look forward to going away on a business trip?
8. Do you have behaviors that you can't share with your wife?
9. Do you frequent porn-related sites on the Internet?
10. Do you watch R-rated movies, sexy videos, or steamy VH1 channel for gratification
11. Do you video tape you and your wife having sex then later go and watch to masturbate?

If you've answered yes to any of these questions, your're sexually addicted this what the Bible say's about this type of behavior.

Matthew 5:28New International Version (NIV)

28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Mark 7:21-23New International Version (NIV)

21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Acts 15:29New International Version (NIV)

29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

Romans 13:12-13New International Version (NIV)

12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.