{"id":3908,"date":"2019-09-04T17:55:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T17:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:21:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:21:29","slug":"the-full-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2019\/09\/04\/the-full-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Full Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tyndale.com\/\/p\/every-mans-bible-nlt\/9781414381084\">Article from the <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tyndale.com\/\/p\/every-mans-bible-nlt\/9781414381084\">Every Man&#8217;s Bible<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &#8220;Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God\u2019s people.&nbsp;Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes\u2014these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.&nbsp;You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.&#8221; Ephesians 5:3-5, NLT<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EVER SINCE GOD gave the Ten Commandments, some have been tempted to think he enjoys making people miserable and taking away their happiness by denying them earthly pleasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/alex-woods-30834-unsplash-sized.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3909\" width=\"442\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/alex-woods-30834-unsplash-sized.jpg 630w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/alex-woods-30834-unsplash-sized-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is, God wants to give us something much better. But in order for us to receive it, we need to clear some room in our lives. Often, that means getting rid of sins or bad habits that are using up the space God wants to claim. Instead of filling our lives with sexual immorality, impurity, greed, and obscene stories (Ephesians 5:3-4), God wants us to be full of thankfulness. Instead of drunkenness (5:18), God wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suppose you\u2019re walking along the beach and find an old treasure chest. But when you pry it open, it\u2019s full of sand, not gold coins. Now suppose someone else comes along and offers to give you as much gold as you can fit into the chest. Sounds great, right? Except for one problem: The chest is already full. In order to accept the gold, you\u2019d have to dump out the sand. You\u2019d need to make as much room as possible for the more valuable treasure. Unless you get rid of the sand, the chest will never hold anything of value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/ben-white-138093-unsplash-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3910\" width=\"417\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/ben-white-138093-unsplash-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/ben-white-138093-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/ben-white-138093-unsplash-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/ben-white-138093-unsplash-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/ben-white-138093-unsplash-2048x1367.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 417px) 100vw, 417px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The same goes for the sins in our lives\u2014the sand in the treasure chest. They may provide temporary pleasure, but they won\u2019t deliver lasting fulfillment. Sexual promiscuity may provide an immediate thrill, but the long-term results are catastrophic\u2014it will never provide real happiness. On the other hand, true love for another person and for God can fill us up to overflowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drunkenness provides a temporary giddiness or forgetfulness, but it\u2019s nothing like the true peace and joy that come from knowing and loving God. It\u2019s our choice. We can fill up our lives with whatever silly or sinful things we choose, or we can let God fill us up with the things that will bring ultimate fulfillment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperturn-view.com\/?pid=Mjc27196&amp;v=1.6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paperturn-view.com\/?pid=Mjc27196&amp;v=1.6&amp;get_=dbcover&amp;h=300\" alt=\"EveryMans NLT Proverbs\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Look Inside the <em>Every Man&#8217;s Bible<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article from the Every Man&#8217;s Bible &#8220;Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God\u2019s people.&nbsp;Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes\u2014these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.&nbsp;You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,15,44,45,52],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5769,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions\/5769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- LIVE: wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com/nlt//wp-json/wp/v2/posts/3908 -->