Encounter Grace – Overcoming Guilty Desire

Encounter Grace Course

Grace overcomes all feelings of guilt and condemnation.

What does the Commandment  – Thou Shalt Not Covet,  actually mean?

This Commandment is a very Hot Potatoe in today’s Political Correctness influenced culture, and as such few have the courage to discuss it, and those who do so often use it to make people feel guilty. But, we are going to look at it in the light of Grace.

This Commandment is exemplified in Exodus 20:17,

“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house,

You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife,

or his male or female servant, (employee)

his ox or donkey, (vehicle)

or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”

Can you see why nobody dares to discuss this Scripture anymore? This Commandment clashes badly with the current PC enticement to “Free Love”, and “If it feels good, do it”,  and “if you desire your friend’s wife then go for it, you are finding yourself.”

The problem that we all face with this Commandment is that we find that we cannot fulfill it, we just can’t keep it no matter how hard we try. Maybe we are thinking, “My Brother-in-Law has a better car than I do, so I just want one.” Of course the desire for more money, and especially for the wealth displayed by the rich, possibly affects most of us at least occasionally. We constantly look a the beautiful homes, cars, and yachts of the super rich, and are envious of their lavish lifestyles, aren’t we?

Various religions try to create a remedy for our soul’s passion for the wrong things.

Prayer Beads, special diets with restricted types of foods,

Incense, Offerings to the Gods, repeated confessions of wrongdoing,

Meditation techniques, Mantras,

abstinence from alcohol,

certain types of hallucinatory drugs, repetitious Prayers,

and so on, all to NO avail.

The Commandment exposes our proclivity to desire what others have,

and we struggle with the guilt and condemnation caused by it.

What is the remedy for our Soul? Grace.

The Grace of Jesus raises your heart above the desire for someone else’s wife or husband, or anything else that your friend or relative has. This is not a matter of willpower or New Years Resolutions, because Grace powerfully removes the desire. If we cannot remove the desire, no amount of religious rules will work for us, for we will eventually succumb to the desire.

Martin Luther discovered this when he realized that no amount of self-flagellation was curing him of guilty desire.

Let us contrast this with the PC advocates of free love and sexual liberation, which is increasing in popularity in various “Lifestyle Resorts” around the world. These Resorts promise the satisfaction of every desire, no guilt, no feelings of remorse, for couples only. But alas, envious desire raises it’s ugly head again, as the male partner announces that he has fallen in love with another woman, who is disillusioned with the “free love movement”, and wants to explore a commitment to real love.

In Romans 8:1 Paul states,

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

This is only possible if you open your heart to the Grace of Jesus.

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How to receive Grace and Peace.

Grace Vs Political Correctness

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