BEING FAITHFUL

Sticking to it! The worthwhile habits. The productive disciplines of exercise, art, singing, blogging, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are worthwhile habits. Are they a faithful discipline? None of the above are anything more than what came to me as I grew up and later tried to improve.

My father was an Evangelist. An Evangelist, according to the Bible, is a person especially gifted by God to “preach the gospel” of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was “called” to be an Apostle. He wrote, “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; …By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain…how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” I Corinthians 15:1-4. 

 

The Apostle traveled extensively preaching the Gospel. This same message was my father’s. So, singing for me started when he and my musically accomplished mother started their eight children singing together on the platform at their Bible Conference in Maine. This was also my father’s time to perfect his evangelistic message of the gospel.

 

So, because our young singing family needed an alto, I became that fill in.

Every story is a long one, but my father and mother had a burden. Encourage families to read the Bible together every day together aloud.

 

The growing family, now ten of us, (how this began is an amazing story) started traveling, singing hymns together, with my mother on the piano and the rest of us chiming in with tenor, melody, alto and bass. The number of churches in the US and Canada we traveled to will always be an unknown. There were clubs, schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries in addition to Churches of any denomination that would receive us. My father being his own advance man.

 

My desire to sing and speak, to help my parents and siblings “preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ” developed as I grew. The art and writing came as I later cared for my husband and three sons. When I married Eric, his career took off when the Navy hired him as a Logistics Manager for simulated warfare. I had hours at home to study and write while our children were in school: I studied the Bible. When did the art develop? All I know is that I enjoyed it, and I could. How does faithfulness grow? It is a personal matter. It is between God and you. Are your gifts from God? Every gift is from above. “Every good gift and every perfect gift are from above, and come down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17.

 

What is a perfect gift? It may be the best you can do with what God has given you in your head, heart, and imagination. Being conscious of where it came from…from above. 

EXERCISE IS NOT A WASTE OF TIME

 Yes, our bodies are wonderfully created, but…HOW MUCH WORK DOES IT TAKE…to maintain your wonderfully made body? "I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows right well." Psalm 139:14.

The more that we discover today about a human body’s makeup (according to biologists), the more we do not know. How to create life? Unknown. Where is the mind? Inspiration? Creativity? Where does the breath in our lungs come from? Unknown. The soul? Do we have one? "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7. Your breath and your soul come from God. I have a soul…and a mind and a fearfully and wonderfully created Spirit, and Body:  "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." I Thessalonians 5:23.

We have wonderfully made bodies. We sometimes take them for granted. At the age of eighty-one I am finding that exercise is not a waste of time. In a previous Blog I described in brief a lower abdomen pain that slowly developed until I realized something was very wrong.

It has turned out that after a bicycle accident about two years ago, slowly I realized that I “dropped the ball.” and took the demanding work of past exercise (biking, aerobics, walking) as guarantee for a lifetime of freedom from pain. Not so.

Feeling lost (after two CT Scans and many other tests,) the pain was still a mystery. Prayer, study of Scripture and faith in God’s goodness to answer my prayer, began to emerge. When a friend, who knew my pain, came across a video about exercise for “Lower Pelvic Prolapse” the symptoms were mine. I began immediately to follow the instructions for strengthening my core and lower abdomen. So instead of worsening pain, my body began to strengthen. Exercise is not a waste of time. Given the right conditions often the body heals itself Exercise strengthens weak muscles.

Now, with a couple of weeks of core strengthening, the pain is beginning to fade. My job? Keep it up for the rest of my life: God enabling me.

It’s hard to begin exercise (again). What is dreary and dreaded at first will become exciting when the results, the healing starts. I will report back as this journey progresses.

Keep going…just do it.