III. 2nd Step: “Replace the secret pictures in the gallery of our mind.”
A. At the heart of most impure thoughts are the secret pictures stored in the back of your mind. We sometimes hold a special place for our first experience and encounters. We have a very special fond memory that we hold dear to our hearts over the years. It is during those time periods of temptations or fleshly promptings that we can easily revive those memories and force on the illicit affair in our past.
1. Many times we are fighting these recollections on our own and all it does is frustrate the situation and cause us to have sense of failure.
2. One way to fight this battle is superimpose pictures of God over these memories. Another words, when these images creep into our mind, we should place the image of Christ being bruised and tortured for our transgressions and iniquities. The word “iniquity” is often refers to moral impurity. We need to bring to remembrance that Jesus died on the cross, so that His blood would wash away our iniquity and setting us free from this bondage.
Read Psalm 51:2 “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” And in Mosiah 26:30, it says, “Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.” In Romans 6:6 it says, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” And in verse 14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
Additional scriptures: 2: Nephi 2:26-27 and Mononi 10:32-33.
A. We need to recall the series of stories of men and women in the scriptures that succumb to own personal lust. Such as the following people:
1. Samson groping around after, he lost his eyesight by having them gorged out after his illicit affair with the harlot Deliah.
2. King David grieving over his divided family and kingdom due to his affair with Bath-sheba.
3. .King David’s son Amon raped his half-sister; in which his lustful thoughts turn into a deep hatred.
A. We should also recall series of people in the scriptures, who have won the battle. We can read about the in Hebrews chapter 11.This chapter in the Bible is sometimes refer to “Hall of Fame.” A good example for us is Joseph fleeing away from the advances of Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39. Another good examples are Nephi, Alma the younger and Mosiah’s sons: Ammon, Aaron, Omner and Himni.
Joseph fleeing away from the advances of Potiphar’s wife.
A. The next picture that one should bring in forefront in one’s mind is Jesus Christ. Picture His arms stretched out and Him embracing you with following saying underneath that picture saying, “I Forgive You!” Contemplate this one gospel truth and take it to heart; that when we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and that He remembers it no more.
A. There was a little girl who told her parish priest that God spoke to her. To humor the child the priest asked her that the next time she talks to God, to ask Him what sins the Bishop committed. A few days went by and the priest saw the little girl and he asked her about speaking to God. The priest asked what did God say about the Bishop’s sins and she boldly told him that God said “I forgot them and I don’t remember them either.
Read Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
And read Alma 13:12 “Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God.”
And in verse 28 it says, “But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;”
B. We need to picture Jesus with His loving arms embracing you and forgiving you all your past sins.
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3rd Step “Make a Covenant with your eyes.”
A. One of the righteous men who ever lived was Job. One of the main key to his righteous living was that he made a covenant with his eyes. Read Job 31:1 “I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?”
A. The crucial key to controlling one’s thoughts is by controlling one’s roving eyes. How does one make this covenant with their eyes?
B. One should purpose in one’s heart to look at the countenance of the person.
1. What does the countenance of an individual show us? It revels what is in heart of that person. It will give us the insight and the direction on how one should pray for that person.
2. The eye of the individual reflects what is inside the person’s heart.
Matthew 6:22-23 “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Proverbs 4:23 & 25 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life…. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.”
3 Nephi 13:22 “The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
Mormon 8:15 “For none can have power to bring it to light save it be given him of God; for God wills that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord”
D&C 4:5 “And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.”
D&C 59:1 “BEHOLD, blessed, saith the Lord, are they who have come up unto this land with an eye single to my glory, according to my commandments”
3. One should keep one’s eyes under the Lord’s control. One needs to train them to see what Lord wants us to see.
The Lord commanded Samuel to go to the house of Jesse to choose the future king of Israel. Samuel was looking at outside and Lord showed him that He was looking what was inside the person’s heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. Isaiah For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
A. When the Lord gazes upon us, He does not view us for what we were, but what we could become through Him.
Isaiah 43:1-2 “BUT now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
Isaiah 43:18-19 “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
B. If one could see God’s thoughts for the person that we are eyeing, we would be able to glimpse His desires for that individual. When one sees these desires, we would want to see them come into being for that person. We need to visualize this person receiving Christ into their heart and witness their transformation into becoming a new individual through Christ’s love.
1. This would incite us to pray for individual instead of lusting after them.
2. This in return will put us at ease when we talk with this person, because we built a godly restraint in our thought life.
3. A good example is Jesus’ experience with the woman who was taken in adultery. Instead of seen her as adulteress; He saw what she would become through grace of God. John 8:1-11
A. When one envision this person as having been made by God, loved by God and that Christ died for them will force us to see them in a spiritual sense and as a child of Our Heavenly Father. It will force us to realize that whatever we do this person; we are doing this to Christ too. We need to remember them vessels of God.
Mosiah 2:17 “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”
D & C 42:38 “For inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me.”
If you would like to know more about Jesus and your purpose in life, please contact the Mormon Missionaries:
In the Buffalo, NY area:
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997-4490
1-585- 403 – 0556
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716-740-0631
In the Wyoming County area in the state of Pennsyjvania:
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Elder Zayne Callahan
Elder Callahan's Mission is the whole wide world of the Internet. If you want to contact him and talk with him; you can reach him on Facebook and he also has a blog. Here are the web connections:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/elder.zayne.callahan
http://elderzaynecallahan.blogspot.com/2011/09/rachels-testimony-expected-logic.html
Elder Callahan's Mission is the whole wide world of the Internet. If you want to contact him and talk with him; you can reach him on Facebook and he also has a blog. Here are the web connections:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/elder.zayne.callahan
http://elderzaynecallahan.blogspot.com/2011/09/rachels-testimony-expected-logic.html
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