We all reach a certain age of awareness. There is no particular set age for it. Sometimes, it comes unbeckoned in many different cases. It won't be the elephant in the room type experience. It is like age itself. It sneaks up on you over time. We go through a continuous cycle of change—some for the good and some for the bad. The first awareness comes when we are young and still brand new. We quickly discover that to get attention, a good old-fashioned temper tantrum renders impressive results. We find that screaming like a wounded animal always gets the quickest response. We all have our personal and unique delivery system as we blurt out gibberish. It is a baby's brand and style of speaking in tongues. It must be somewhat spiritual since we always say "Hallelujah" or Thank you, God" when the screaming stops. We claim our independence and our rage in different ways. For example, the true mark of a child's rebellion is telling our parents "no." We cannot ponder the consequences of doing such a thing, so we do it. It is that urgency to tell someone off regardless of their position of authority or the pecking order of controlled chaos. But we outgrow all of that, don't we? The short answer is no, we don't. We still take temper tantrums. When is the last time you cursed or threw something across the room? We have given these emotional outbursts names and placed them in categories. Road rage, a middle finger salute, cussing someone until they are black and blue. The categories of expression are endless. However, do not worry; man has created a pill to help us suppress those things. Things have changed over the years. Webster would have non-stop anxiety attacks if you could see how we have twisted words and their definitions. The phrase I just mentioned is a good example. People used to have "nervous breakdowns". We must have cured that one since you never hear that expression nowadays. Now we have panic or anxiety attacks. When I was a kid, you used to ask your grandparents, "How are you feeling today"? Their typical response, if they were feeling well, would be, "I feel rather gay today, and you?" Or if they saw you do something less than intelligent, they would often remark, "That boy has lost his ball in some high weeds."The whole point is that we are children growing old, as I pointed out some time ago in a poem I wrote called "Tears". May your later years be greater than your former! Whatever your dreams are, it’s not too late. Keep pursuing them with great zeal and anticipation. J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan includes the quote, "Even though you want to try to, never grow up".

According to my knowledge of the Word of God, lust is a sin in the simplest way of understanding what it is according to the Word of God. It's part of the Sin Nature or the Old man's ways because it's ungodly and sinful to lust after a woman or women in your heart. But it can be worse than that it can lead to several ways of undressing women in your mind. For instance, if a man is over-fantasizing, dreaming, reminiscing, and many other things to please his sexual craving for sex. Lust can lead to just more than having these things in the mind but also seeking to fulfill them by finding and sleeping with women or watching these things. Watching or having anything outside of marriage is lust and is a sin. You’re not supposed to marry just to do that because it's seeking fulfillment of desire and marrying what you're idolizing. You marry them with the idea that your cravings will be met timely and often as needed. That is an abomination in the sight of God. You can not live in sin and be comfortable living in sexual immorality. Do not misunderstand that sex is a sin, but having sex in your heart or with someone outside of marriage is a sin. Sex is only for a man and a woman who are evenly yoked as believers under a covenant with God. This is how we know sex is a gift or a blessing from God and is pleasing in His sight. Salsanblues a Reddit user stated: "Feeling attraction is not sinful. Feeling sexual desire is not sinful... None of these things are sinful on their own, they are part of God's design. Lust, in its most basic, is the objectification of another person for your selfish pleasure. It's a one-sided sexual act/fantasy that you CHOOSE, which is outside of the consent of the other party. They keep teaching men that they are no better than animals and that acknowledging attraction or sexual interest is lust. It's not. Then they tell women that it's their responsibility to prevent the men around them from lusting and that their bodies insight lust. (My comment "A woman is responsible for her appearance aka modesty and speaks.) Which is reducing women to the sum of their body parts instead of seeing them as whole people, worthy of respect and sisters in Christ. When you see a super attractive woman in the street, or on the bus, just living life, it's fine to acknowledge that she's attractive. But lust is when you stop caring about her as a person, see her body as something to consume, and use her for your pleasure regardless of her consent.

Guys - I want to get to know you more, serve you better. Will be doing a workshop next 📆 Friday afternoon or Saturday AM. 💬 What topic would most benefit you? 1. Renewing the mind 2. building healthy friendships 3. figuring out root cause of lust 4. Time management 5. Sleep, dopamine, food - how it all works. 6. Comment below any other topic you’d like to discuss! Most commented topic, or liked topic wins… 👌🏻

1. How do we become free from Lust? First, you must acknowledge who you are as a person currently speaking to those who have not been born again. Jesus makes it very clear that unless a man is born again he shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Any man who worked iniquity God the Son does not know nor the Father will acknowledge. Those the Son does not know will be judged according to their sins by God the Father. How does someone stop sinning and working iniquity in the sight of God? First, you must deny yourself and pick up your cross. You must ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things of Jesus and come to the point of being dead to sin. Ask Jesus to put to death your old man aka the Sin Nature and be raised from the dead being free from all sin. Living sinless both in this life and preserved blameless in the next. How does one have a relationship with Jesus? The relationship starts with hearing the gospel and then accepting the Holy Spirit to teach and lead you. The Holy Spirit will direct you to the Cross and you will learn of Jesus. God will cause you to do His will. You can not be set free by your efforts. It is Christ that does a service for you. How? He is the Lamb that is the sacrifice, The High Priest, and the one that can Reconcile you with the Father. The Only One that Abides in the Father and Father in Him. 2. How do we live free from Lust? Once you are dead to sin you will no longer be bound to sin. You will live freely and be able to do all things God will cause you to at all times. God the Father and Son will come in and rein in you. But you have to stop believing in self-will and rely completely on Jesus. We are to rest in the finished work of the Cross that Jesus died on for our sins so that we may have eternal life through Him. 3. How do we teach others to live free from Lust? We teach others once we have been born again and learned the teaching of Jesus. A relationship must be established. A process must happen before one can be born again. Lust is not the root it is the fruit that is produced from the sin nature which is part of the old man. You can only die once to sin and be born again living free from sin once.

The Word of God has many methods of how we are to teach the Message. For example: 1 Corinthians 6 9 - “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,” 10 - “Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” 18 - “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” 15 - “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.”/ 19 - “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” 11 - “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 17 - “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” In these 7 verses in 1 Cor. 6, we can see a process that must happen to one who first comes to hear the gospel. First, you are a sinner, understand who will not inherit the kingdom of God, flee from sin, what your body is to God, why you must not have any sin, and now you're dead to sin. You are now a member of the body of Christ and preserved until the day of the Lord. You must go through the process and teachings, so you can be set free from sin. Your teacher is the Holy Spirit! Jesus is not inside of sinners but those who have been washed, sanctified, and justified. A trinity will be established in you and God will remember your sins no more. You are now a child who is tender-hearted, obedient, clean, and holy. The process does not take a lifetime it is a process that God will cause you to start and finish. Your victory is in His hands and He will deliver you. It is at His appointed time so please remember that lust is not the important thing. It is sin that makes you a slave so you will naturally fall towards the things of this world. Sin is death and God has set the captive free and gives life. He takes away the sin of the world and we become his children through Christ alone.