The Everyday Things – Health and Fitness

"I wrestle solely for the strength and coordination of muscle tone that the body receives while working out, with the ultimate end that of presenting a more useful body as a living sacrifice. This God knows, and even though He chose to allow it to be strained, the motive was for His glory and the faith he honors. Simplicity of heart and freedom from anxiety He expects of us, and he gives us grace to have both."
Through Gates of Splendor, p7

Taking care of your body should be done with the motive of honouring God, and being a good steward of what He has given us. Being fit and healthy will enable us to be more effective in God's work throughout our lives. It can also release us from so many unnecessary health burdens such as obesity, depression and lethargy, which will no doubt hinder us in all we do. Jesus himself would never have survived the flogging he received before crucifixion if he wasn't so physically fit.

I suppose I always struggle with niggling doubts about spending too much time at the gym. And the issue is time. Anything that eats away hours every day could be painfully distracting from your walk with Jesus. Which leads to this – a verse for the gym rat:

"Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."
1 Timothy 4:10

A physically fit body does have value, and should be pursued, but godliness is eternal in nature. There's something of eternal significance with every minute spent in the bible, in prayer, in meditation. However dedicated you are to the gym, be a thousand times more dedicated to Jesus.

Expendable (Part 2)

Following on from a previous note on being expendable for Christ (link) often, it's not our physical life that is required (i.e. martyrdom), but various little portions of our daily life. Finances, work, comfort, hobbies, fitness, luxuries, time... all of these need to be labeled 'expendable'. We give them up as and when required for the cause of Christ.

We'll soon be there

"The joys of heaven will surely compensate for the sorrows of earth. Hush, hush, my doubts! Death is but a narrow stream, and thou shalt soon have forded it. Time, how short – eternity, how long! Death, how brief – immortality, how endless! ... The road is so, so short! I shall soon be there"

Charles H. Spurgeon

Is God outside of time? (Part 3)

"This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time."
2 Timothy 1:9

This is a very interesting verse when you really think about it. 'Before the beginning of time' – before God had created anything, he knew us personally. He also knew the exact unfolding of Genesis 3, that man would sin and fall. He knew that we would need grace and that Jesus Christ would have to die on the cross. Yet he decided to created everything and everyone anyway. Incredible.

Thinking back to my previous posts on time, and the notion that God is not bound by it in any way, it leads to some very personal applications to Jesus' atonement of sin.

Could it be that he didn't die for our sin in a vague and general sense, but he was punished in a precise and exact amount? Did God see, in advance, every day of your life and the sum total of all your sin?

When we say "Jesus died for you" perhaps he really, really did.

Finite Time

"You never get it back... waisted time"

This is a line from the film Benjamin Button which really jumped out at me. It echoes Psalm 144:4

"Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow."

We have a very small and finite amount of time in which we can live on this earth and serve God's purposes. We only get so many opportunities to walk in his plans, trusting and living by faith. Soon our days will be over and all those opportunities will be taken from us. The adventure that might have been slips by. Our life's work ended and recorded as we stand before the judgement seat of God.

We should dread the thought of waisted time – years spent asleep, drifting and spinning our wheels. How many of us have spent 5, 10, 20 years in this condition?

"For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God."

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God."

Romans 14:10-12

Is God outside of time? (Part 2)

I went to a seminar by Michael Ramsden (European director of RZIM Zacharias Trust) at Momentum and asked him if he thought God was outside of time. Interestingly, he was certain that He was, talking about the space-time continuum being part of creation, and that God was external to this.

Apparently Christians have been saying for centuries that time had a finite beginning (rather than something that always existed). And this idea had been ridiculed by secular thinking. Until, of course, the Big Bang theory. This initially scared a lot of scientists because it confirmed Christian thought on time. Many of them rallied against the theory because they didn't want anything that seemed to confirm the biblical account of creation.

Anyway – bible verses – always useful! Michael Ramsden mentioned that there are four verses in the New Testament that talk about God existing before the 'age of time', i.e. before time was actually created. I've done my best to find them:

1 Corinthians 2:7
No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

2 Timothy 1:9
This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

Titus 1:2
a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.

Jude 1:25
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Is God outside of Time? (Part 1)

This is one of my more random thoughts. Definitely not a major theological issue. More "sam-ology" than theology, but one which fascinates me.

"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day."
2 Peter 3:8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End."
Revelation 22:13

"I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done"
Isaiah 46:9-12

"the One ... who inhabits eternity"
Isaiah 57:15

Could it be that God is completely separate from time? Is it possible that He isn't on a timeline; that he views future events with the exact same precision and clarity as He would view present and past events? Here's and illustration of what I mean...


view large

We're on the timeline in 2009. We can make vague predictions about what might happen in the future, but really, we haven't got a clue. We can also remember past events in our lifetime. We have records of history which give us some sort of a view of things that occurred further back.

But if God isn't bound by this timeline, like we are, then maybe He can see any future point in time exactly as He sees the present day. Over 25% of the Bible is prophecy, referring to future events. And the prophecies occur with stunning accuracy.

One view would be that God moulds and shapes events to fulfill His previous prophecies. The other would be that He knew from the beginning the exact unfolding of events. He knew before the creation of the Earth every thought in your head, every inclination of your heart, the movement of every atom in the universe.

This would make a lot of sense for a Sovereign God. He's totally in control, and views everything – past, present and future – with a perfect clarity.

Nothing is more surprising than the passing of time.

People are always surprised at how quickly time flys by; and to the extent that 'time' almost seems unnatural. You look back at an old photo, and you can't believe that it was ten years ago.

I read a CS Lewis quote that said it's like a fish constantly being surprised by the wetness of water. The only possible reason for this constant, repetitive surprise is that it was never meant to be part of our existence. It's like a massive clue that we were created for eternity. We weren't meant to age, or have our bodies slowly ravaged by the toils of life.

"He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

I love this verse. In the first instance it states that we have this innate sense of eternity, and in the second it declares that we're simply unable to comprehend how the universe came into existence. Seems to have massive implications on theories like evolution and the big bang. It's simply beyond our intelligence to understand, no matter how factual we present our theories.

Nothing lasts forever, except you and me.

Biffy Clyro

We're all heading in the same direction: we're all going in the ground. I've just finished reading the biography of John Wesley (John Wesley: A Biography by Stephen Tomkins). As you read his bio, it's like you're burning through years of his life as you turn each page. And the obvious conclusion is death.

It took me about a week to read that book, to read his life's story. You leave with the distinct impression that life is short, even though he lived to almost 90. It's like you blink, and you're 10 years older. Blink again and I'll be old. When life is gone, we may realise that much of our lives was a waste of time.

The thing that blew me away about John Wesley was his incredible day-to-day diligence. He sustained it throughout his entire life and achieved a phenomenal amount. Has to be said that the way he treated his wife was inexcusable, and quite shocking (if the bio paints him fairly). Thank God for grace. But then it's nice to know Wesley was human. Must have sucked for Molly though!