Chapter 19: Myth—Sexuality Doesn’t Matter

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Really? Exert control over our sin? For a moment, it seemed like a

totally ridiculous idea to me a few nights ago. I have struggled to change many habits over my life. While I have succeeded for the most part, not one habit change has ever been easy for me. Now, here I am presenting the issue perhaps for you of having to face changing a sexual habit with eternal and

mortal soul consequences that you have been engaged in for a very long time. This could be homosexuality, lesbianism, fornication, adultery, etc. Before I got too far in my thoughts, God reminded me of His Word in 4th Maccabees of which I wrote to you about earlier. You can go back to that

discussion if you’ve forgotten [p219]. The essence of His teaching is that we can exert control over sin by first knowing Him and what He calls sin.

Reason, being the ultimate virtue of wisdom, will allow you to rule over your emotions. In order to obtain this skill, you first have to surrender

to God. Go back to the discussion on “How to exercise control over sin with reason” if you need to review the teaching [p231]. It’s as simple as ABCD.

# Attribute Spiritual Translation and Meaning A Salvation Surrender of 100% of your heart to God Almighty.

B Surrender Respect for God and His righteousness and laws.

C Respect Wisdom or the fear of God unto true obedience. D Wisdom Control by reason over sin crouched at your door.

Another spiritual irony is that you cannot control sin unless you first obtain wisdom from God since reason is the tool you will use to control sin and it is the highest virtue of wisdom [4 Maccabees 1]. Control over sin is

the result of giving your heart to Him. Don’t expect to exert control over sin without getting to know Him. You can’t control what you do not know. And many don’t care about sin, because they simply don’t care about Him.

Yet people can exert some control over sin and most routinely do! Remember, God has placed in our minds and hearts His laws. People who just listen to the Spirit inside them are a law unto themselves in God’s eyes, but many people ignore what God has put inside of us. Yet, a full surrender