Beyond His death and resurrection and ascension, the present work of Jesus Christ is twofold. It is to be an advocate above—a risen Savior with high priestly office at the throne of God; and the ministry of preparing a place for His people in the house of His Father and our Father, as well.
Now it must be said that sin necessitates a separation of body and soul. While it is proper to say that man is made for the earth, it is actually necessary to say that man’s body is made for the earth. It was his body that was taken from the dust of the ground, for man became a living soul when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The image of God was not in the body of the man, but in the spirit that made him man. The body is simply the instrument through which the soul manifests itself down here—that is all.1
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God is not ever mad at your body, keep that in mind. The Lord isn’t angry with your body, because your body is just a poor horse you ride until it crumbles under you and you go off to heaven.
There is nothing in your body that can do wrong. Your body is a neutral thing, and it is only your spirit that rules your body and can lead it wrong.2
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It is wrong to place our physical necessities on one side and put praying and singing and giving and Bible reading and testifying on the other side.
How can we say, “This is spiritual” and “This is secular”?
We actually try to walk a tightrope in between… the secular and the spiritual, apologizing to God when we must turn aside for a little while to do something “secular.”3
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The Lord is the Lord of our bread, the Lord of our eating, the Lord of our bathing, the Lord of our sleeping, the Lord of our dressing, the Lord of our working. When we work we need not say, “Now, Lord, I have to work today, so I’ll see You tonight.”
Our Lord is with us, sanctifying everything we do—provided it is honest and good…. If your job is decent and respectable, the Lord is going to bless it, and if the Lord is in you, He will be in your labor as well.4
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The whole modern notion embodied in our common phrase “soul winning” could stand a good overhauling in the light of the broader teachings of the Scriptures.5
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Every redeemed soul is born out of the same spiritual life as every other redeemed soul and partakes of the divine nature in exactly the same manner.6
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Apart from God Himself, the nearest thing to God is a human soul.7
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The most godlike thing in the universe is the soul of man.8
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The soul of man does not change fundamentally, no matter how external conditions may change. The aborigine in his hut, the college professor in his study, the truck driver in the bedlam of city traffic have all the same basic needs: to be rid of their sins, to obtain eternal life and to be brought into communion with God. Civilized noises and activities are surface phenomena, a temporary rash on the epidermis of the human race. To attribute sound values to them and then to try to bring religion into harmony with them is to commit a moral blunder so huge as to stagger the imagination, and one for which we shall surely be paying long after this frenetic extravaganza we call civilization has ended in tragedy and everlasting grief.9