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Thanks, everyone, for the grace and the wise words.

As I prayerfully consider all the input here, in combination with my seeking of the Lord in His Word....here are some current "takeaways" for myself:

- it's probably not beneficial to try to speculate/determine if RZ was truly saved or not
- true believers must always live in the proper fear of the Lord
- the response to fearing the Lord (and His holiness and ultimate judgment) should not be to try to "stop sinning" by our own will-power/self, which is a natural reaction to fearing the wrath God; but rather, the proper fear of God should cause us to confess before the Lord and all principalities our utter inadequacy to restrain from sin as fallen human beings, and our subsequent need for the Lord to be our strength (1 Cor. 10:13) and our continuous salvation/protection from sin (1 John 3:6a). Only Christ is able to keep us pure/holy!
- for men, sexual sin is THE predominant lifelong battle and temptation, and we must admit this (the title of the famous book/program "every man's battle" is indeed an appropriate and accurate statement)
- the sexual sin/failure of anyone in the church hurts the entire Body (1 Thess. 4:6)
- as the Body, we ought to always be mindful to encourage and spur each other on ("more and more") in our walk with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:1, 10)
- as modeled especially by the Apostle Paul, believers ought to always be in prayer for one another (prayer is a spontaneous response to true love for someone, and perhaps the most valuable thing we can do on behalf of another)
- may the Lord have mercy on me and on us all


All glory and praise be to the One who has never and will never fail.