Lust is a root from which many weeds spread

From Spiritdaily.com
April 26, 2007

Is there something stubborn in your life that you can't rid? Are you mysteriously plagued? Are you "blocked" on the way to sanctity?

The answer may be in lust -- not just sexual lust, but lust in many "mysterious" manifestations.

While we think of it sexually, lust means overly wanting anything. It means concentrating on the worldly. It means letting the self and its flesh rule -- blocking the spirit.

Lust is the intensity of carnality, and it can cause many effects that we usually don't associate with it.

Lust is a root from which many weeds spread.

Many things stem from this cardinal sin -- especially anger. As long as we lust, we will not be able to rid our souls of the anger that constrains us from loving each other the way Jesus directed. When we lack love, we get mad (witness Virginia Tech).

Lust feeds anger and anger feeds lust, in a cycle that is vicious. When we have lust, it takes up space that should be filled with love. It crowds love out of the picture!

Lust is self-consumption. Lust focuses on self. Lust puts self above God. Lust is carnal. Lust is worldly. Lust binds us to the earth. Lust over-attaches us. Lust is what causes the devastation in relationships. Lust is the flesh winning over the spirit. Lust is greed. Lust is materialism. Lust is competition. Lust is criticality. Call it a "root-demon" because there is the stain of Satan as long as we have desires that are uncontrolled or bad habits that we do not correct.

There is "lust" for recognition. There is lust for material things. There is lust for food. There is lust for sex. There is blood-lust. We crave, we hunger, we covet, we yearn, and from this comes anger and deeper sin.

We should crave and hunger and crave for God alone.

Lust means an uncontrolled desire and on earth we see that the key to happiness often resides in discipline.

If you have problems loving others, or in finding peace, ask the Holy Spirit to shine His Light into your soul and reveal any lust that needs to be cast out. You may be amazed at what happens! Isolate the lust, confess it to a priest, and then work tirelessly at removing it from your thought process. The results will transform you. They will be miraculous.

Instead of lusting for everything to go "right" -- according to your plan -- offer any suffering for your sanctification. This is very powerful! Don't let your will interfere with your holiness. Adopt God's Will, remove carnality, and you will find the harmony of being.

What is your being? Who are you? What is in your heart? You can not ask yourself more important questions.

For what is in your heart will determine where you go first in the afterlife.

When you die you will go to where you soul fits.

Is it full of lusts and dark? It will feel most comfortable in a place of darkness. Is it gray? It will gravitate toward grayness. Or is it white and free of lust and ready to meld into God's Light?

Choose lustrous -- not lust!

When we die, we will not feel comfortable remaining in the Presence of God unless our souls are white.

This means that it is important for us each day to say, "Lord, where do I need to be corrected? Please correct me where that need is."

Only through His Light will we know where we have gray areas.

Often, they are not what we expect. When we die, we will see shortcomings that we never recognized as shortcomings unless we pray now on earth for revelation of where the shortcoming are.

We will die with the same bad habits and so should purge these these beforehand.

Sanctify! You will go where your soul melds. Fear not the initial sting of the "bleach." If you are wearing dirty clothes, or even have a spot, you will not want to go to a wedding, and the same is true at death with a blotch on the spirit and entrance into Heaven.

Through prayer, through true conversion (changing the soul), and through the Eucharist (coupled with Confession) do we find permanent correction which leads to permanent happiness.

"Podcasting for Purity" - What is Truth?

Living as a True Knight means living as a True Man of God. One of the most important, if not the most important principles that we must do to live lives of Heroic Honor, Virtue and Integrity in an Impure World is to live a life of Truth. But what is Truth?

Visit "Podcasting for Purity" to listen to this weeks episode!

PureHeart Podcast debuts!

Cyndi Kane of TwoEdgeTalk.com and Kenneth Henderson of TrueKnights.org discuss how we can live God's will and Proclaim the Splendor of God's Truth for Sexuality and expose the Lies of Satan!

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Reflection on the Mass Readings: Sunday April 15, 2007

This Sunday's Gospel: John 20:19-31 The Risen Lord's Message of Healing and Forgiveness!

The Risen Christ fulfilled His promise to his disciples when He said in John 14:16-17 that He would send the Holy Spirit by breathing that very same Holy Spirit upon them. This life-bringing, truth-revealing, sin-convicting, comfort-giving Spirit is also a Spirit of mercy and forgiveness. Just as we receive God's forgiveness for our sins, so we are exhorted and given the grace to forgive those who sin against us. If we refuse to forgive others, we will miss the great blessing of freedom that God offers to us freely. With forgiveness comes freedom, He want's us to experience the emotional healing that comes only from working through our anger and hurt by releasing it to God.

It is by the Holy Spirit of God that our addictions, emotional scars and hurts can be healed and our painful past redeemed. Yet, many of us doubt the promise of Christ, just as Thomas did. He refused to believe in Jesus' resurrection until he saw and felt the risen Christ with his own eyes and hands. When we struggle with addictions and emotional scars, we often experience doubts. We have a very hard time believing that God is at work in our life when we don't see immediate changes or miraculous results. Recovering from any addiction or healing past hurts can be a painstaking process without much to show for it at first. Even when evidence of God's power is not immediate, we must persevere in faith, then we will experience the peace that comes from trusting God with our present struggles and our unknown future.* The apostle Saint Paul, summed this whole process up in Hebrews 12:1-14 when he said:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us ² while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. ³ Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. ⁵ You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; ⁶ for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges." ⁷ Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards. ⁹ Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not (then) submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness.¹¹ At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. ¹² So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. ¹³ Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. ¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

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I have resumed "Podcasting for Purity."

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