The Temple

He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.  C.S. Lewis

I have a confession.  I like food that isn’t good for me.  There, I said it.  I love sugar, chocolate, steak, sour cream, potato chips, M&M’s and Reeses peanut butter cups.  This is by no means a comprehensive list.  This is just the tip of the iceberg. 

The question I asked myself yesterday was this; if God created my body as a temple why am I abusing the temple He created.  This is not something I am proud of by any means so I am making a change in my life. 

I was reading last week about something by Rick Warren.  He has written a book along with Dr. Oz and several other nationally known physicians called “The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life”.  The reason he wrote the book was one Sunday he was baptizing 827 adults and he calculated that he lifted more than 145,000 pounds.  He also realized that he was overweight so he confessed to his congregation that he had been a poor steward of his health and a terrible example.  He then asked his congregation to join him in getting healthy.  Over 12,000 members signed up and they collectively lost over 250,000 pounds. 

So you guessed it; I bought the book.  It is based on five components or the 5 F’s; Food, Fitness, Focus, Faith, & Friends.  I can’t tell you yet what the book entails because I just received it in the mail yesterday, but my commitment to God is to dedicate my body to Him for His purpose.  The thing is I can’t work for His Kingdom if I am tired, out of shape, carrying more weight than I should and not living a healthy lifestyle.

My motto has always been, “I don’t run unless someone is chasing me”.  There was a song sung by George Jones many years ago called “The Race Is On”.  The lyrics to the chorus are:

Now the race is on and here comes pride up the backstretch
Heartaches are going to the inside
My tears are holding back
They're trying not to fall
My heart's out of the running
True love's scratched for another's sake
The race is on and it looks like heartaches
And the winner loses all

Written by Don Rollins

Doesn’t that describe where health in America is going?  If we are the winner of the race for food we lose all.  It may affect our heart, cause diabetes, our feet and legs may fail us and we may even lose our life. 

I want to change so I am saying it to all of you.  Instead of passing by that CD set I bought to get in shape I am committing to picking it up, tearing off the plastic wrapper and actually using it to get in shape. You will be my accountability partners.  I promise I won’t turn this into the “Daily Devotional Diet” but I will from time to time let you know how I am doing and even when I fail because a chocolate chip cookie called my name.  If God gives me life, breath and all things, I need to take care of what he gave me.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, You created me in Your image but I haven’t done a good job of taking care of what you created.  I want to do this for my health but the main reason is for You.  I will not be able to work for Your Kingdom if I lack energy because I don’t take care of my health.  Thank you for your enduring patience with a sinner like me.         

Scripture: But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king.”

So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king’s delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants.” So he consented with them in this matter, and tested them ten days.

And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.  Daniel 1:8-15

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:  “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;  for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’  Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 17:22-31