Undivided Occupancy
They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Gal. 5: 24.
We are commanded to
crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. How shall we do it? Shall we inflict pain on the body? No; but put to death the temptation to sin. The corrupt thought is
to be expelled. Every thought is to be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. . . . The love of God must reign supreme; Christ must occupy an undivided throne. Our
bodies are to be regarded as His purchased possession. The members of the body are to become the instruments of righteousness.
There are two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan. To one of these kingdoms each one of us belongs. In His wonderful
prayer for His disciples, Christ said, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
world" (John 17: 15- 18).
It is not God's will that we should seclude ourselves from the world. But while in the world we should sanctify ourselves to God. We should not pattern after the
world. We are to be in the world, as a corrective influence, as salt that retains its savor. Among an unholy, impure, idolatrous generation, we are to be pure and holy,
showing that the grace of Christ has power to restore in man the divine likeness. We are to exert a saving influence upon the world. . . .
The world has become a lazar house of sin, a mass of corruption. . . . We are not to practice its ways or follow its customs. Continually we are to resist its lax
principles. . . .
The blessing of grace is given to men that the heavenly universe and the fallen world may see as they could not otherwise, the perfection of Christ's character. The
Great Physician came to our world to show men and women that through His grace they may so live that in the great day of God they can receive the precious
testimony, "Ye are complete in him" (Col. 2: 10).
From God's Amazing Grace - Page 96