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PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY When it comes to the living water, some preachers invest far more time in muddying it than in simply GIVING it to thirsty souls. Far too many believers quench the Holy Spirit and completely miss out on practical Christianity by straining technical gnats and ending up with nothing but a dry, mechanical, dead religion. Some people have serious brain damage, in my opinion, and they really need to spend a lot of time in prayer, asking God to FIX THEIR MESSED-UP MINDS. They chop the word of God to pieces with their so-called "rightly dividing," because their own minds have been chopped to pieces by the world, the flesh and the devil . . . and the brethren. They might know the "letter" of the law, but they wouldn't know the SPIRIT of the law, if they fell into it. For instance, I heard someone preaching today on the whole armor of God, and, although much of what the man said was good, his overly technical approach completely destroyed the message. He left his listeners with the impression that the whole armor of God is something that one routinely puts on every morning. That might not sound too bad until you realize how this application diminishes the greater truth that the whole armor of God is something that you put on early in your Christian life and then strengthen and adjust daily without ever removing it. It's a character thing where one builds and strengthens himself in the Lord consistently, not a little morning routine that you squeeze in between your coffee and feeding the cat. I can hear some of them now: "Alrighty . . . Got my armor on and all ready for the day!" LOL . . . Satan will have them mopped up before they get through the first red light. One thing the man said was that you fail when you leave your breastplate of righteousness at home. Seriously? Why would you leave it at home? Better yet, HOW COULD you leave it at home, if you have really made it a part of your character and being? Would that not be akin to leaving your heart or lungs at home? How is that even possible? I say it's only possible when one's righteousness is FAKE, only a religious show that he puts on and off at will. Does anyone seriously think that's what Paul had in mind in Ephesians 6? No, Paul was speaking of a practical Christianity where a man grows in the Lord and equips himself for spiritual warfare by becoming a strong soldier of Jesus Christ. Such a man CAN'T leave his breastplate at home, because he NEVER REMOVED IT! It's part of the new man (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10), and it grows stronger each and every day, if the man is growing like he's supposed to be growing. No serious believer removes his righteousness at night, so there's no need to put it on every morning in some cutesy little routine. We read the word of God and pray in order to grow stronger and become even more righteous, but we are not machines with switches that must be routinely turned off and on in order to work properly. We are living beings through which God the Holy Spirit lives and breathes, UNLESS WE QUENCH HIM WITH DRY, DEAD RELIGION. True Christianity is very practical and spiritual, unless we kill it with our own foolishness.