Bible

Exercising the Spirit

/ Chris / Leave a comment

I love to exercise! I love the invigorating feeling of complete relaxation after an exhausting bike ride, or jog. I love the feeling of burning muscle after I benched more than I am used to. I love exercise. There is nothing that feels so good as taking a shower, after you worked hard all day–or played a strenuous sport, and then just sitting down in a comfortable chair and just chill-axing.

I hate exercise. I hate the complete exhaustion of a bike ride. The completely wiped-out feeling of a hard basketball game. The last push-up that I can barely do. I hate nothing less then exercise.

Now you are probably thoroughly confused. I am sure you are thinking, “Well, does he like exercise or not?”

But you know what the difference between the two last scenarios is? I love exercise after I have done it. I hate it during the intense moment, the last push-up or the longest hill on my bike ride. I hate pain. We all do. I hate stress. We all do. But afterwords, I LOVE it. I just love it. My muscles begin to relax, and the feeling is splendid. It makes me go, “Ah!” It refreshes me for the rest of the day, and, in fact, many times, it gets me ready to serve God. I do not know if it is the exercise itself, or the relaxing feeling afterword, or both, but in any case it exhilarates me for God.

I guess maybe it de-stresses me and therefore I can serve God better. I must admit, I do not always want to serve God, but after a good workout and a shower maybe, I am ready to face the trials. It helps that while I am exercising that it is one of my only, alone times with God. I can pray, sing, memorize, etc. etc.

Now, the reason I say all this is, not to discourage anybody who does not enjoy exercise, but to compare it to spiritual exercise.

And remember, spiritual exercise is better than physical . . . 1 Timothy 4:8

“For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

I find that reading my Bible everyday is very similar to say, jogging/biking.

It is definitely not the first thing that comes to my mind when I wake up…at least not most of the time–there are a few days now and then that I think “Ah, I shall go read my Bible first thing.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not this high pious preacher’s boy. But then again, what is wrong with being spiritual?–Of course, if ‘spiritual’ is defined by, reading your Bible everyday and sharing deep holy thoughts, than I am far from spiritual.

BUT, if spiritual is defined as needing to rely on my daily devotions with God, or striving to be holy as Christ was holy, and yet being very, very, far from perfect, or where I’d like to be, than yes, I am spiritual.

Anyways, back to reading the Bible being like exercise.

I do not always enjoy the reading of the Bible while I am reading it. I mean, come on, when’s the last time you read Isaiah? I don’t understand more than half of the book, and there are sixty-six chapters!

But usually after I have read the whole thing, or gotten through the intense verses that made my head spin, then I sit back and say, “Hey! That was a good passage!”

Or let’s take praying for example. Prayer is one thing that I actually enjoy sometimes. But then sometimes, I groan and say a short prayer. And usually, after a few short prayers, I begin to feel more encouraged and keep on praying. But that is only the conversational type of prayer—the type that I just talk to God about all my problems, and praise Him, and all that cool stuff.

But, oh my, I do not like the kind of prayer where I pray for missionaries over seas, or where this person as a certain problem or struggle. And you know what, that is the true spiritual exercise prayer. The other kind is like drinking water, where you feel refreshed. But praying for other people is the kind that takes real effort. And the kind Satan hates the most, because those people need special strength from God. Ohhh, my I cannot stress the importance of praying for missionaries, or for people who randomly pop up in your mind. Believe me, I know.

And then there is memorizing scripture. I DO NOT enjoy it, and yet I love it. I love the fact of knowing the verses, but I hate the process. This is the spiritual exercise that you can compare to benching, the hard, muscle-building exercise.

But there again, it feels great afterword. Just like exercise.

C.D.

A Simple Story

/ Chris / 1 Comment

Well, so, this is just a little story I thought I would share with all of you.

It is not a story of magnificence, nor one of life threatening situation. It is not a story with a hero or a villain. It is not a story set in another world.

It is a story set in another time, and another place. It is a story of God pulling through for a young lad.

It was not very important, but it was frustrating, for the young lad. You see, this young lad was about…mm, 9 or so. He grew up a PK.

What is a ‘PK’? It is a ‘Preacher’s Kid’, or a ‘Pastor’s Kid’. What is the significance of being a PK? Well, to tell the truth, it varies for every PK. Each has a different life. Some have hard, troubling lives. Others have easy, popular lives. And some, have middle lives, not to bad, not extremely swell. I think this particular PK could fall in all three of those categories.

Something you must remember before we go on. Every PK is, normal. They make mistakes too. They are human, in need of God’s grace.

Back to the story.

This lad not only grew up a PK, but he also grew up a CK, now a CK is less known. In fact, I do not think I have heard Ck ever used before, so I shall explain to you what a CK is.

A CK is a ‘Contractors Kid’ or, ‘Carpenters Kid’. And an interesting fact is, Jesus was also a CK. But like PK’s, CK’s are not perfect either.

This young lad of about 9 had a special Bible that his father had given to him when he was younger, about 7, I believe.

Now this Bible was very Important to–uh, Caleb, we shall call the lad Caleb. Caleb Dale Washington. Not only was the Bible special but the things inside were special. Now I know that the artifacts inside a Bible should not be more important then the Bible itself, though I am not saying they were, but you must understand that Caleb grew up in a country where you could just go buy another Bible at the local bookshop. We shall call Caleb’s local book shop Town Medicine, for you could also pick up medicine there. (The bookshop was not the only place to buy Bibles, there were many other places to buy Bibles, but we shall omit them for sake of time.) But, this bookshop does not pertain to the story I am telling.

As I was saying, this Bible was an all around important Bible, both because his father had given it to him, and because of the pictures and drawings he had inside it.

But one day, to the horror and astonishment of Caleb, the Bible disappeared!! What should he do? Caleb immediately shifted into search and rescue mode.

He looked all over his house, but he could not find this Bible–anywhere.

It was not long before Caleb became a very sad lad. His mother tried and tried to find the Bible, but it had disappeared. Vanished. Caleb tried to think very hard. “Where could of it gone to? Where did I lay it down?” He thought.

Over time, Caleb began to forget about his Bible. He stopped looking for it every time his family went to church, and Caleb became positively angry at God for taking away something so special. He tried to tell himself it was just a Bible and the things inside were, merely things….but, they were, merely..special, things.

Little did little Caleb know that God was teaching him many different lessons. He was teaching Caleb, Patience. He was also teaching Caleb that He [God] is more important then ‘things’.

Caleb would pray that his Bible would come back. But he never expected it to. He began to blame his poor brothers and sisters for ‘stealing’ it. But of course, they had not.

His mother would ask around at different churches when they would visit, to see if maybe Caleb had left it there on a prior visit, but it never was there.

And then one day, when Caleb was older his family decided they were going to move. Caleb did not want to. He did not want to leave his friends, but God was telling his family to move, to a far far away land.

So now they had to pack up and move. But before they could pack up, they had to sort through their boxes and sift out what they did not need.

And as they were working their way through the boxes in storage closets and such like, they came across a box that belonged to Caleb. What was inside it? he opened it up–and there were a few random odds and ends that he had to sort through and get rid of the stuff he did not want, or need.

But then, as he pulled out the things, his hand pulled out a green thick book. And there, in his hand was a–Bible. The Bible,  the one that had caused him so much turmoil! The one that God ‘supposedly’ had taken away unjustly.

So, this was one of God’s reasons for the move? He wanted to prove himself to Caleb. And it was not God’s fault, nor anyone else’s. The Bible had merely been misplaced. And how, when and who did it remains a mystery to this day. But it was an obvious mistake.

Caleb also found many other long lost possessions because of that move. And little did young Caleb know, but that move would change his life–forever. And a change, for the good.

C.D.