spiphywarfare

Category: Spiritual

  • Confession is a Good Thing

    It was embarrassing, but today I’m thankful for my confession to you. Without it I would have not bothered to keep trying to meet my goal, because most likely no one would have remembered my declaration of not giving up without me reminding them.

    It was a little difficult to get in exercise of any sort during the month of February. I set some personal goals to achieve before summer, and working out regularly and pushing myself will help get me there. So Monday I decided to get back trying to complete stinky week 4 day 1 of C25K doing the running intervals at 5mph. I did about as well as expected for someone who had a month off from regular exercise. In my frustration I told myself I have to get on the treadmill six days a week until I could do it. Tuesday I managed to walk. An entire one mile. In installments. Some days are like that I suppose.

    Ah, Wednesday, my lovely, lovely Wednesday. I love you Wednesday. On Wednesday, I did it!

    :::record scratch:::

    Whaaaat? How? I had to do a little pushing through, but I was not feeling like I was going to die. I even checked to make sure I had pressed five and not four on the treadmill panel.

    Had a little help from Toby Mac

    Eye On It

    Unstoppable

    Burn For You

    When I finished the last running interval, I felt powerful, invincible, and like I could conquer anything.

    Then this played during the cool down interval

    He Reigns

    It is not me who is powerful, invincible, and conqueror.

    I never ever again want to see, hear, type, read “week 4 day 1.”

    I will not be making any new running goals. I do want to run the City Lights 5k faster than I did last year– God willing. That shouldn’t be too hard as it was my first one, and I was slow as molasses at the North Pole. It may have been actually warmer at the North Pole that day. It was so cold the organizers asked if we were really going to run or did we just want our shirt.

    A Little Faster

    Making Progress

    This article was first published on March 13, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.

  • God, Waffles, and Timing

    God, Waffles, and Timing

    The weather kept my family home this Sunday morning. Since I didn’t get to make them Saturday breakfast, I was making some blueberry whole-wheat waffles and bacon for the little ones plus an egg for myself. I usually end up with twelve waffles, and knowing how much better they are right off the waffle-iron, I told the kids to stop the game they were playing if they wanted some yummy waffles. They kept on playing.

    Blueberry Whole Wheat Waffles with Bacon and Eggs

    Figuring they’d be playing a bit longer, I went ahead and dove off into an attempt to make the last waffles, the fried egg I was making, and the bacon all finish at the same time. Not an easy feat uninterrupted. Wouldn’t you know, shortly after I started, I hear a little voice say, “I’m ready for my waffles Daddy.” Caught up as I was, I replied, “You’re going to have to wait a little bit now.”

    She still got to eat waffles and boy, were they good. The butter wouldn’t quite melt all the way and the waffles had softened a bit as they sat in condensation their warmth had created. They were not quite as good as they could have been with perfectly melted butter and crispy edges in just the right places. As she stood there watching me and waiting, I thought of how we relate to God.

    So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isa 55:11 NKJV

    God tells us plainly that His word shall accomplish what He pleases. How often do we miss His perfectly timed opportunities for us because we are too busy doing what we want to do? He will do what He pleases whether we choose to submit to His timing or not. I know in my life I’ve spent time doing what I wanted to and doing what I thought was best instead of submitting to His will. True to His word, He went on accomplishing what He pleased. I finally gave in and submitted myself to God’s will.

    The blessings experienced since then are real and I am thankful for each and every one. At the same time, I know how much better it would be if I submitted myself according to His schedule and trusted His timing. My children didn’t know why I offered them waffles right when I did, and we often don’t see the why of God’s timing. If we just take His gifts when offered, they are going to be at the peak of their perfection.

    This article was first published on March 2, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.

  • Blessed Assurance

    Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

    Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!

    Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

    Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

    Refrain: This is my story, this is my song,

    Praising my Savior all the day long;

    This is my story, this is my song,

    Praising my Savior all the day long.

    Perfect submission, perfect delight,

    Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

    Angels, descending, bring from above

    Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

    Perfect submission, all is at rest,

    I in my Savior am happy and blest,

    Watching and waiting, looking above,

    Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

    by Frances J. Crosby

    I grew up in church.  Thank you, Mom and Dad.  I have a treasure-trove of hymns in my head that come to mind at just the right time.  The bolded words? My favorites.

    This article was first published on February 6, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.

  • Original Sin

    she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  Gen. 3:6 KJV

    Sin was introduced when Eve, after listening to the serpent, decided to violate God’s command. I find it interesting that the original sin took place in the act of eating.

    The first act of disobedience to our Creator was to open our mouths and eat a food that would hurt us. How easy it was for sin to enter the new creation with an act of eating. How easy it was for me to continue this sin/act combination for many years in my own personal life! Time after time I’d eat bad, unhealthy foods knowing that it was destroying my health.

    The crush of life and distractions to get things done, whether school or work, made it so easy to tell myself and others that “As soon as I ____, I am going to have to start a diet.” It never really hit me until later that I already had a diet; it was just that I had a diet and lifestyle that was destroying my health. That realization made me stop and get serious about something I had always professed. “The Bible is the inerrant Word of God.” If I really wanted to hold true to that statement, then I had to seriously consider 1 Corinthians 6:19,20:

    6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 6:20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

    Was I glorifying God with my body? The picture on the left in this post made the answer pretty apparent. It also made it apparent that I couldn’t be truly obedient to God until I gave him everything.

    This article was first published on January 25, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.

  • Pat Robertson vs. God on Low-Carb Diets

    “What happens is you build up the clinkers. You get swollen joints, you get gout.”

    “Sooner or later, it violates the principles that God set down.”

    The video with those quotes from Pat Robertson was jumped on with lightning speed all over the net. Unfortunately, it was jumped on most quickly by secular sources while it seems religious leaders have been silent or reserved.

    I’m no religious leader but I felt it necessary to respond to Mr. Robertson’s comments on low-carb diets. First, as a Christian, one of the most significant aspects of Christ to me was that He seemed to have His biggest issues with organized religion and its leaders. Christ asked those leaders how they could speak of anything good when they were the “offspring of vipers.” Now, I’m not able to see the heart of men, including that of Pat Robertson. I am however, able to apply the common sense that God gave all of us to determine right from wrong. As a religious leader he is obligated to speak the truth and is held to a higher standard.

    In light of that, I must point out that the Bible is replete with information on diet and health. One of the earliest ones goes all the way back to Noah.

    Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
    ~Genesis 9:3

    Common sense won’t allow the reconciliation of the statement that low-carb “violates the principles that God set down” and the verse quoted above. In fact, that verse alone seems to call on mankind to eat naturally. A way of eating that involves meats (if it moves) and vegetables. Principles found in low carb diets, paleo diets, and any other “diet” that brings you back into a healthy state. What it doesn’t support is a diet full of lab grown low carb foods and diets foods that infuse our bodies with GMO bacterial waste which has been benzylated, hydrolysed, methylated, and then debenzylated (from the aspartame patent).

    This article was first published on October 21, 2013 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.