Was reading an article on discipline today. I had just come from hearing a recorded program on health and ways to strengthen the immune system within the body. In this recent news on body health are the ways to know what causes things like sickness or flues as fungus in the body: peanuts, corn, and wine. ( also like some vaccines)So it was worth waiting to watch to learn what steps to take when you have issues within your own body, what not to eat or drink and how to pray about it! Discipline is so needed in regard to just living life on this earth! And today, you can be bombarded with many fast foods commercials, as well as those fast cars or durable trucks and fast methods to acquiring drugs from your pharmacy (delivered to your door), but rarely does one hear how they should be disciplined to know what God speaks about it all!
While viewing one such recorded program early this morning, I remembered this one player who was so sought out in that field of basketball. This goes back to the twentieth century and the 1980's! To play in the national basketball one had to be suited for producing wins no doubt. But this young man, even though selected as the 12th pick as "the hopeful" to make a real difference for the team to the Washington Bullets, yet he proved no help to them. This young man was predicted to go all the way for the team but in truth his life was undisciplined. He was noted for having no discipline when he ate anything he wanted nor what he ate nor gave any thought to exercise. Of all that could be noted of this player who many were expecting great wins with, showed up revealing at that time he had eaten his way out of the NBA. Overweight at his rookie training camp, he earned some undesirable nicknames.
It is the Apostle Paul who told young Pastor Timothy, (1 Timothy 4:7-8)"But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."
Now,
exercise is important for producing good benefits in condition of the heart and
to strengthen one’s core to keep up with work in the workplace, home details as to cleaning and to food preparation, plus that which would also all children's activities, and to life in
general. One must make it a rule to keep active and on the alert for that which
is good for the right kinds of food with actual life in it and not some dead food that is considered
junk and only destroys one’s health. Another obvious thing I have learned is that many of the elderly have to learn how to get up should they should fall whether indoors or outdoors. And yes, there are many written articles, talk shows, medical health benefits to show the elderly how to get up from that fallen position, but you also need to know which would benefit you in the long run.One such thing is like glutathione for your cells ( you know for energy).
A good way
to find the way to good health, and those benefits is found in that discipline to be immersed in the
word of God! It is God’s word that is the foundation of our lives. In the
Scriptures, God reveals Himself and His will for us. If we want to know and
enjoy God, the place to begin is God’s word.
Apart from the Bible, we cannot know what God is like. He is our Father, has love for us and really wants to give us His wisdom for this life. For you and I, we can see some aspects of God in nature and the creation, but we would never look at an oak tree or a butterfly and know that God is holy, sovereign or loving. We could never know what Jesus did to redeem us by hiking through the Grand Canyon. Not that I would consider hiking Grand Canyon, but for us, we have been on some pathways here in the area we reside. And although not as rocky nor as mountainous, still one must be capable to stay on the pathway and jump out of the way of that fast moving golf cart headed to the golf course. Knowing Jesus is knowing Him Who is well disciplined. He obeyed the Father all the way to the Cross at Calvary. So too, Health is important to us if we desire to live long lives, for we must know the difference from what is franken-food to our body and what is actually good to our body to thrive and live long on the earth.
Yes, we must be
awakened to truth, and that is in God who never changes. His spiritual truth
remains the same: yesterday, today and forever in Christ Jesus!
Here’s what Scripture says about itself: "Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts." - Jeremiah 15:16. To eat God's words means we take them in, hear them consistently by either reading them or hearing them and speaking them out after that hearing them. And when we do this, they become a joy and delight to our hearts. So we should be the delighted. We should have a joy in our hearts understanding His words guard us in our thinking. In that shaping our thinking to match His, we should consider Psalm 1.
In that Psalm, there are two forces that will shape our thinking: either the world or God’s word: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2) For you and I, we can either follow the counsel of the world or the counsel of the Word. Psalm 1 tells us that we should make God’s word our delight and meditate on it consistently – day and night.
That word "blessed" in verse 1 is happy and expresses itself in the sense of joy and satisfaction in one's state or circumstances. And it is often the result of blessing that comes from a trust in the LORD when obedience is found.
1 John 5:3 For this is love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Was thinking of Jesus speaking to the religious: "you are like your father the devil." What He actually said was this: John 8:42-44 "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but he sent Me. 43 "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
It is never the ethnic nor family pedigree that makes one acceptable to God but honoring God by believing in and loving Jesus Christ. Some people are just out for that "fifteen minutes of fame" not looking for the long haul of life. And one certainly does not gain long life unless he is in Christ Jesus.
When it comes to spiritual disciplines for the Christian life, the first thing we should seek to incorporate into our lives is regular meditation on Scripture. Like the food we eat for life, energy and rest, we also meditate on God’s word as to dwell on it, to roll it over in our minds in order to apply it to our lives.
It is like trying those new foods out and reverting to a bag of chips when the taste of the new and the vivid dark color of the food is all green will not satisfy the "old man" in his eating habits. And yes the flesh creature would rather watch TV than read the word of God. Flesh creature will always be that spiritual underachiever, living so far below the potential that God has placed within them. Discipline is required for just about everything that has to do with living in this world. That applies to when you go to sleep at night to when you arise at the first morning light!
Now that
discipline in 1 Timothy 4 is an interesting word. In the Greek the word gymnaso
appears. It means to train or to exercise naked. Or in athletic terms, as it
was in Paul’s day, was to take off that shirt to work out. That was a stripping
off the unnecessary to move through a routine so exercise would be a benefit to
them for those Olympic games.
As being disciplined to right eating of food for the body: like not eating candy, no drinking wine with that meal, leaving off dessert and taking an extra few laps around your neighborhood will peel off some that fat on the body. So, too, you and I must do the same in the spiritual realm. We must strip away all the garments of pretense as we meet with the Lord each day in prayer, in that Bible study and in fellowship. We must come before Him with an open and honest heart, not telling God what we think, an opinion but truly sharing our hearts, those hurts, fears and tears but truly sharing every problem we might hold in our heart.
Disciplined today might not bring you that NBA contract to your life, but stripped to being a truly productive living being will always include that encouraging and enriching workout with God the Lord, so that we need not try to be someone we are not! To be the real in God, it must be about the truth of God Who will take us from where we are and bring us to a place of strength, peace and power as we come to Him day after day for nourishment that is of benefit and life to us. We will come to satisfaction in Him when we continually humble ourselves to the speaking that we require some help with what goes into our mouths for our God is faithful and He will be there to help!
It is He, Who makes us spiritually strong when and if we are the willing to be faithful to hard work of saying no to the flesh and yes to the spirit man. It is saying no to wrong types of food and saying no to the wrong types of things our eyes focus on that brings the wrong thing into our lives. We are to say yes to the spirit of doing right things that are the necessary as in spending quality time with Him who planned for us, purposed to set us apart and to develop a deep and genuine walk with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Yeah, it is not the NBA, but He is all I need to accomplish life on earth. He is Greater, Majesty on High....the Great I AM! He is all that I (or you) need in that love of His, a grace with much mercy and peace. It is all about living for Him, and living in such a way others will notice. And if they know not my name, they will know His because that is how we live for Him, to make Him known, that in Him we live, move, and have our being in Him. It is all the right moves and actions from the Father of whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Light be in my life (your life) concerning diet, that new way of eating, that new routine for exercise and that all important time with Him the Lord of glory. Thank you Lord for the light that reveals those dark things that must be stripped away to run the race YOU have set before us. Today WE run in His name and to His glory, we are thoroughly determined to be set in being disciplined. Yes, Amen to discipline!
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