Skip to main content

Two Kinds of Sweat

Did you know there are two kinds of sweat glands? There are! If you look it up on Wikipedia, you'll find there are the eccrine glands which are pretty much all over your body, and the apocrine glands which are in specific places on your body (like your armpits). 

Eccrine glands help regulate body temp. 

Apocrine glands "produce an odorless oily, opaque secretion which then gains its characteristic odor from bacterial decomposition."

Why am I even talking about this?! Well, I read the following verses this morning and my mind went there. Read what Paul wrote in Colossians 2:9-10 (CSB) and I'll try to explain my thinking.

For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 

Think about it, we swim but the water we swim in never enters our body (unless we open our mouths and swallow it). But we sweat when we swim. Why? 

Sweat helps regulate our body temperature.

Sweat is actually good for what ails us.

Those who are in Christ have been filled with all the fullness of Christ (His Holy Spirit). He protects us from being infiltrated by what surrounds us (unless we open our mouths and swallow it). 

Holy Spirit fruit comes out of those who are in Christ. Holy Spirit fruit has nine characteristics: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. These come out of us like sweat comes out of our eccrine glands. This fruit is good for us. 

The fragrance of Christ follows us when we sweat Holy Spirit fruit. 

Warning! The sweat of our sinful fruit may not stink at first, but its stink will soon follow us around like a bad odor. This is a personal stink we don't even smell, but you can be very sure those around us do.

I'm so thankful for the gift of Holy Spirit who is in all those of us who are in Christ. I'm praying I (and you) will keep our mouths shut. May we stop swallowing the sinfulness around us as truth (stop believing the lies of the Enemy), so we will sweat more and more Holy Spirit fruit and less and less stinky sinful fruit.

Digging Deeper: John 14:18-20; John 15:5; Galatians 5: 19-23; Ephesians 2:1-10; Ephesians 3:16-21


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2 Peter 1:2 - May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

I've been away, but I've not been idle. I've been healing and learning. Healing from all the grief our family has experienced in these last few years, and learning from the LORD during the healing process. No! I didn't quit life, but I did spend most of my time in our Heavenly Father's lap surrounded by His love and comfort. The problem was, I was a hot mess whenever I crawled out and tried to get back to living life as usual. Believe me when I tell you I've cried a lot of tears, but God was there to capture each one and continued to love and comfort me. He was also there to pick up the pieces when I unexplectedly boiled over like oatmeal. Believe me, it was just as messy and just as hard to clean up.  Please don't misunderstand, it wasn't because the people in my life weren't there for me, but many of them were grieving too. Each death brought more grief, bringing me to a place where I finally realized I needed someone to help me see my way forward....
2 comments
Read more

1 Corinthians 12:27 - Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.

Okay, call me crazy, but this is where my mind is today.  Everyone of us who has confessed with our mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in our hearts God raised Jesus from the dead, are saved (Romans 10:9). All believers are IN Christ. We are IN Him, He is IN us, and He is IN the Father. You can check it out for yourself in John 14:20. Every believer is IN Christ. Thinking about being IN Christ and a part of His body got me thinking about how a body is filled with cells. Well, you know me, I had to do a Bing search and find out what I could about the anatomy of a human cell and its function. This is what I found: "The human cell is the basic unit of life that can replicate itself." There are trillions of cells in one human body and they don't all have the same purpose or function within the body. But no matter what the purpose or function, every cell must replicate. No exceptions! Okay, translate that into us being cells in the body of Christ. We are not all th...
Post a Comment
Read more

James 4:2b - You do not have because you do not ask.

  Prayer is having a conversation with our Heavenly Father. Talking to Him is giving Him our time and attention. It's acknowledging Him as our Father, our Creator, our Provider, our Protector, and the Lover of our souls. One way Father speaks to us is through His written word, the Bible, and He doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the subject of asking. Nope! He clearly tells us to ask, and when we ask we will receive (Matthew 7:7). And then in today's verse, He tells us we don't have because we don't ask.  So why don't we ask?  I spent all week pondering that question. Short answer? Lack of confidence. Yep! I'm pretty sure that's why I don't ask as often as I should. And I especially have trouble asking for myself. Anyone else? My lack of confidence breaks down into three categories.  A lack of confidence in His desire to give me what I want. Which is totally silly! I know He delights in giving good things to His children, and He would neve...
Post a Comment
Read more