Diet and exercise

Faith is a lot like a muscle.  A muscle requires two things to flourish: good nourishment and regular exercise.  When well-nourished and exercised regularly muscles get stronger.  Just like our muscles, we nourish our faith through the things we consume--the things we read, see, and listen to.  We exercise our faith through the trials we experience.  Both nourishment and exercise are necessary.  We often cannot control the trials we experience, but we can control how we nourish our faith.  So for the sake of your faith be smart about what you consume.

The blood is the life

23 But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.  Deuteronomy 12:12-25

I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people.  Leviticus 17:10

People try to find life in all sorts of things.  Sometimes it's a shiny new car, a bigger house, or better clothes.  Some people try to find life in the cool new iPad, or a higher salary, or a more important title, or security, or even by having children.  The list goes on and on.  This is not new.  In the ages of the Old Testament there was a common belief in pagan civilization that by drinking the blood of an animal you could attain some of the life of that animal.  One way God set Israel apart is by forbidding them from drinking the blood of animals.

God wants us to find life in Him.  And this is good for us because that's the only place life can be found.  All other avenues lead to death, not life.  So for Israel, God forbade them from drinking the blood of animals.  God was their life.

The Jews in the time of Jesus took this command seriously, so imagine what they thought when Jesus came along and said while teaching in the synagogue,

"Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."  John 6:48-58

To the unaware this appeared to be a direct assault on the commands of God, and yet, in reality it was the explanation of the commands of God.  We are to find our life in Christ and him alone.  There is no life for us outside of Christ.  This is one reason, among many, why the sacrament of Communion is so important to the Christian.  Each time we drink the cup of wine or grape juice, which Christ said is his blood, we agree with Christ and witness that He alone is our life:

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”  27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  Matthew 26:26-28

Do you want true and lasting life?  "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."  (John 6:54)  Partake of Christ.

The smell of smoke

A father tucked his son into bed and opened the window like he always does to let the cool summer breeze in.  "Goodnight, son," he said.  And he gave his son one last kiss before shutting the bedroom door and heading downstairs to his own bed.

Hours later the father awoke to the smell of smoke.  He quickly got up out of his bed and ran over to his bedroom door.  When he grabbed the door knob it was so hot it burned his hand and he had to let go.  Fortunately his bedroom was on the first floor so he ran over to his window, unlatched the locks and opened it.  He kicked the screen off and quickly climbed outside.  He came out in such a hurry he lost his balance and fell into the bushes underneath his window.  He ran a few feet away from the house and looked back.  He saw the flames were coming out of the first floor windows but they hadn't yet reached the second floor where his son's room was.

A couple months prior the father had purchased a fire-escape rope ladder, yet he hadn't put it in his son's room yet or shown him how to use it.  It was sitting in the garage still in its packaging.  The father ran over to the garage window and after grabbing a stick from the flower bed he smashed the glass.  He unlocked the window, opened it and climbed inside.  The smoke in the garage was almost too much to handle but he covered his face with his white t-shirt and quickly found the rope ladder.  After climbing back out of the garage he ran around to the front of the house.

By the time the father made it to the front of the house smoke was already pouring out of his son's open window.  "Son!  Come to the window!!" he screamed up, but there was no response.  In a panic the father pulled the rope ladder out of its packaging.  The ladder had two large hooks on the end of it for hanging on the windowsill.  The father yelled, "Son you need to grab the ladder!  Wake up!"  But still his son did not come to the window.  The man threw the ladder up and tried to reach the window but the hooks hit the siding of the house and fell back to the ground.  The father tried again and one of the two hooks caught the bottom of the window.  "Climb down the ladder!" the father screamed.  "Son!  Climb down, son!  You can do it.  You've got a way out now!  I've made a way for you!  Just climb down!" But there was no response.

That is where my story ends.  So now a question for you:  If you were the father what would you do?

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  Ephesians 2:1-9

63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”   John 6:63-65

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (modified by me)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 
I took the one deemed safe, and why
I'll always mourn the difference.

Who authored the Scriptures?

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
    until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.  Matthew 22:41-46

In this passage Jesus is reasoning with the Pharisees about their expectations of who the Christ would be.  Jesus references Psalm 110:1 which was written by King David.  The Pharisees believed the Christ would be a man--and only a man--from David's lineage (that's why Christ is called "son of David") but Jesus questioned their understanding by showing that David, who lived multiple generations earlier than them, called Christ his Lord.  "The Lord (the Father) said to my Lord (the Son), 'Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.' "  David would not have called Christ his Lord if Christ was merely a man because the title "Lord" infers subjugation and you are not subject to people who live multiple generations after you die.  By calling Christ his Lord David showed he knew the Christ would be a God-man.

How did David have this insight?  Jesus says because David was "in the Spirit" when he wrote those words.  In other words, his words were not his own but they were given to him by the Holy Spirit. Peter provides more insight into this phenomenon as he explains why the apostles' testimony is dependable:

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  2 Peter 1:16-21

What this means is people put pen to paper to write the words we can now read as Scripture, but it was the Spirit who instructed them what to write.

What's the real question?

Choices.  Let's suppose I put two briefcases in front of someone.  Both contain my own money which I want to give away.  One of the cases has one hundred dollars in it.  The other case has one million dollars in it.  I then tell the person that they can choose freely which one they want and it's theirs without condition.  They look at me bewildered but I assure them I'm telling the truth.  Which one would they choose?  This is not a trick question.

I think you will agree everybody in this situation, having complete freedom, would choose the briefcase with one million dollars in it.  The choice is so obvious it is almost absurd.  No one would need to force or compel them to choose that case because the value of one million dollars is so much greater than one hundred dollars that the choice is irresistible even though the person had complete freedom to choose either case.  The issue guiding the person's decision is not whether the person has free will to choose but whether the person can correctly value the contents of each briefcase.

Now I put two different options in front of someone.  They can choose self or choose Christ.  They can live their life and do whatever they want to do or they can live their life and do whatever Christ wants them to do.  But here is what is at stake: if they choose self, they get to do whatever they want in this life but forfeit an eternity with Christ in the next.  If they choose Christ, they get to do whatever Christ wants in this life and get an eternity with Christ in the next.  Which one would they choose?

The same question underlies this choice as with the choice of briefcases.  It's not a question of whether the person has free will (it never has been).  It's a question of does the person correctly value the options?  Does the person understand the value of Christ?  The unbelieving world is unbelieving precisely because they do not and so pursuing their own ambitions and catering to themselves is always more valuable to them than a relationship with Christ.  Yet when someone actually sees the "surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:8)--just like the person who sees the value of the million dollars--they will always choose Christ and they will do so without compromising their free will.

Once you've gotten this far then we can move to the next question, which is how does someone come to see the surpassing value of knowing Christ and why do so many people not see?

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. Philippians 3:7-9