You can't do it!

“How easily religious people slip into the trap of trying to live the Christian life in their own strength! This can happen even after we have begun in Christ. Like the Ephesians, we can leave our 'first love' even while we continue to be zealous about doing right. After all, we want to be productive. We want to please our Lord. We want to be strong, holy people. But without realizing it, we can begin to neglect fellowship with Jesus. Then we begin to substitute fleshly efforts for true spiritual vitality. We have learned how to talk and act, and soon we are 'doing the motions' regularly but neglecting true spirituality. We may hide our lack of heartfelt love behind religious masks. We give the appearance that things are going well, but we are caught in the trap of self-righteousness.”—John Coblentz in The Victorious Life, page 42

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Yep. Too easy to slip into self-righteousness...
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