Because the human mind has two compartments, the practical and the ideal, people are able to live comfortably with their dreamy, romantic conception of Jesus while paying no attention whatsoever to His words. It is this neat division between the fanciful and the real that enables countless thousands of persons to say “Lord, Lord” in all sincerity while living every moment in flat defiance of His authority.
It is important that we allow the Bible to speak to us so that when people give us counsel that contradicts truth, we will be able to instantly discern their advice as false. In a world that has become averse to absolutes, we must remember that God’s Word is truth. It is not watered down or out of fashion. We must keep it close to our hearts if we are going to engage self-discipline and be trees planted by streams of water.
Only Christ can free us from the prison of legalism, and then only if we are willing to be freed.
Here’s how you know if you’ve created God in your own image: he agrees with you on everything.
Why do we say, “That’s true for you but not for me,” when we’re talking about morality or religion, but we never even think of such nonsense when we’re talking to a stockbroker about our money or a doctor about our health?
One of the Enemy’s most effective strategies is to get you to focus on what you don’t have, what you used to have, or what someone else has that you wish you had. He does this to keep you from looking around and asking, “God, what can You do through what I have?”
Speaking of our tendency to imitate, I find that my own mind seems remarkably malleable, impressed by whatever I read or see modeled around me. A steady diet of cynical political commentary always makes me more negative. Being with friends who gossip can make me more careless about how I speak. None of us is so mature that we cannot be influenced. The question is: Who or what do we want to shape our lives? Even the culture around us will try to ‘disciple’ us if we have not placed ourselves under the transforming influence of Jesus Christ.
Error indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest being thus exposed, it should be at once detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced…more true than the truth itself.
Darkness is a moral state where you hide things, have secrets, and give the enemy ground to traffic in your life.
Given an opportunity, shame will mask itself as your best friend, and it will convince you that it is only there to help you.