if it happens that the soul is attached or inclined to a thing inordinately, that one should move himself, putting forth all his strength, to come to the contrary of what he is wrongly drawn to.

Trying to do the Lord's work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.

Once we acknowledge that God is the main character, only then can we even begin to get to that place where we're no longer tempted to let our emotions drive us.

As we become scarred and desensitized to what is right and wrong, good and evil, life-giving and life-draining, we lose sight of our first love. We move away from God one degree at a time.

You can't build a foundation of sin now for a life of purity later.

We all throw away perfectly wonderful lives because our foolish, sinful appetites take us places we should not go.

Many people feel so pressured by the expectations of others that it causes them to be frustrated, miserable and confused about what they should do. But there is a way to live a simple, joy-filled, peaceful life, and the key is learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit, not the traditions or expectations of man.

the promise of pleasures so alluring that we may devote our lives to their pursuit, and then the haunting realization that these pleasures ultimately do not satisfy.

Be careful," warned Nietzsche, "lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon." I

You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

battle going on and, as Galatians 5:16 and 25 says, "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh," and "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.