Galatians 5:16

[spiritoverflesh]

The goodness of God to a man of evil life is not intended to encourage him to continue in his sin, but it is meant to woo and win him away from it.

Charles Spurgeon

[spiritoverflesh]

[spiritoverflesh]

"Why I Decided to Sell Everything I Owned"

[guidedthroughmountains-deactiva]

God doesn’t want religious duty. He doesn’t want a distracted, half-hearted “Fine I will read a chapter……now are You happy!? attitude. God wants His Word to be a delight to us, so much so that we meditate on it day and night.

Francis Chan  (via littlethingsaboutgod)

[spiritoverflesh]

Hebrews 12:1-2 () 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. #Bible

[holyriotsoldier]

[spiritoverflesh]

John 4:6-7 NKJV

Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

Jesus got tired? He got thirsty, too? We love to imagine Him with holy lungs that never shorten His breath but picture Him gasping for air after a long journey. That sounds about right. It seems cool to assume He had super saliva glands that flow like rivers of fresh, crisp water. He didn't. His mouth got dry.

Sound familiar?

As I read those verses I picture a huffing and puffing exhausted Jesus experiencing the natural effects of being mortal. I so appreciate verses like this that remind us of a God, comfortable in the fullness of all holiness, laying it aside to become a lowly human being. The only appropriate response seems to be a greater appreciation of the cross.

[spiritoverflesh]

Jesus was perfect and without sin yet He acted in anger. In conjunction to Ephesians 4:26a, which reads “Be angry and sin not,” this episode at the temple was a perfect example of righteous anger. Holy anger.

See John 2:13-17

Because the temple of God is such a sanctified place — a place with the sole purpose of consecration, of offerings, of worship and communion with the Father, it warranted THAT type of response from Jesus when He saw the utter disrespect and misuse of God’s house. It was meant to be holy and instead it was used for purposes they found more suitable.

Jesus made a whip and threw tables. The same sweet Jesus who sat little children on his lap and never hated a single soul. He got ticked. So if our body is also called the temple of God, how does Jesus respond when we use our instrument of holiness for an instrument of sin?

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who  is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." -1 Corinthians 6:19,20

They acted like they owned the place. We act like we own ourself.

[spiritoverflesh]

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

1 Peter 3:18

[savedbygracebibledevotionals]

Hebrews 12:2

[spiritoverflesh]

This was my first blog entry ever. It's cool to look back and see where I was in my walk with God 2 years ago.

[christianhipstermusic]

Eagle Rock Gospel Singers – What Paul Did

[spiritoverflesh]

Eagle Rock Gospel Singers / What Paul Did

[spiritoverflesh]

The more God loves you, and the more you love God, the more expensive will you find it to sin. An ordinary sinner sins cheaply: the child of God sins very dearly.

Charles Spurgeon

[spiritoverflesh]

Do we forget that we are called to be holy and not happy? It’s even a command. "But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…Be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:15-16) 

We reduce Christianity to things we don’t do instead of things we do to conform ourselves to Christ. We live in a world that can manipulate us into the allure of pleasure — so much so that we blend right in with the culture. We go to church and we pray like we’ve done all that it takes to be a Christian. Meanwhile, we watch the same movies the world does, we go the same places the world does and we talk the way the world does. We’ve been desensitized.

"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children; not conforming yourselves to the former lusts; as in your ignorance;" -1 Peter 1:13-14

Our standards and God’s standards are light years apart. Instead of dancing along that line of ‘lost & saved’ let’s purpose only to please God. Instead of seeing how much enjoyment we can squeeze out of this world while still keeping the label of a Christian, let’s erase the line and go all in on what pleases the Father. You can’t go wrong there.  

[spiritoverflesh]

The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks.

Matthew Henry

[spiritoverflesh]

For the  death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the  life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Romans 6:10-13 NKJV

[spiritoverflesh]

The Brilliance