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Christian Health/Fitness Quotes I

April 27, 2011

1. Charles Spurgeon on Deuteronomy 28:3b – “Blessed shalt thou be in the field”:

We go to the field to labor as father Adam did; and since the curse fell on the soil through the sin of Adam the first, it is a great comfort to find a blessing through Adam the second. We go to the field for exercise, and we are happy in the belief that the Lord will bless that exercise, and give us health, which we will use to His glory.

—Faith’s Check Book: A Devotional, 52

2. John A. Broadus on “The Maintenance of Physical Health”:

Again, to be a good channel of God’s message the preacher should give careful attention to his health. . . . The long hours in the study should be balanced by a careful diet and regular exercise.

—On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, 16

3. George Swinnock on Our Duty:

Thy duty is to exercise thyself to godliness in thy recreations; the Christian in his walking, as well as in his working, must be furthering his eternal weal. . . . I am confident that it is thy duty to keep thy body in the best plight and health, vigour, and liveliness that thou canst, for thy soul’s sake.

—Works of George Swinnock, 288-89

4. John Piper on Jonathan Edwards:

He maintained the rigor of his study schedule only with strict attention to diet and exercise. . . . In addition to watching his diet so as to maximize his mental powers, he also took heed to his need for exercise.

—God’s Passion for His Glory, 56

5. Jerry Bridges on “Honor God With Your Body”

Some are abusing their bodies through a constant lack of needed rest and recreation; others are allowing their bodies to become soft and flabby through no exercise at all. Both groups need to learn godly self-control of their bodies.

—The Practice of Godliness, 136

6. P. Johnson and L. Morris on Stewardship:

Some achieve high levels of fitness because they worship their bodies; others do so primarily to achieve the acclaim of man, and the rewards of this world. The condition of heart that promotes these purposes is certainly not pleasing or honoring to God.

—Physical Fitness and the Christian: Exercising Stewardship, 15

See also Christian Health/Fitness Quotes II, posted 3/7/13

See I Will Praise Thee for a motivating presentation of why we should glorify God in our bodies

See Maintain Your Body Wisely for a detailed explanation of what Scripture teaches about how we should serve God through maintaining our bodies wisely

In Discipleship, Health, Quotes

On Praying Continually

April 26, 2011

An unknown author writes concerning praying without ceasing:

Are there not endless opportunities during every day of “lifting up holy hands”—or at least holy hearts—in prayer to our Father? Do we seize the opportunity, as we open our eyes upon each new day, of praising and blessing our Redeemer? Every day is an Easter day to the Christian. We can pray as we dress. Without a reminder we shall often forget. Stick a piece of stamp-paper in the corner of your lookingglass [sic], bearing the words, “Pray without ceasing.” Try it. We can pray as we go from one duty to another. We can often pray at our work. The washing and the writing, the mending and the minding, the cooking and the cleaning will be done all the better for it.
Do not children, both young and old, work better and play better when some loved one is watching? Will it not help us ever to remember that the Lord Jesus is always with us, watching? Aye, and helping. The very consciousness of His eye upon us will be the consciousness of His power within us.

The Kneeling Christian, 94-95

In Prayer, Quotes

"The Holy Trinity"

April 24, 2011

Handley C. G. Moule’s words about ”God is love—1 John 4:8, 16“:

     “God is Love” [1 John 4:16]. Is the text then, after all, out of tune with the title? “God is Love.” The words are, as we have said, sublimely simple; yes, they are level to the heart of the little child. But then, they are sublimely simple. When we ponder them, there is a radiant depth in each, clear but unfathomable. Who can spell out all that is hidden in God? Who can analyze to all its depths what in regard of Him, is meant by LOVE? Who can see all the splendor shining from that link of life between them, “God is Love”? For it tells us that the Eternal does not only know what love means, nor only feel it as an emotion coming over Him. He is Love; it is His Essence, it is His Nature, it is His Life. Before all thoughts of loving action going out from Him stands here this radiant truth that Love lives and breathes forever in Him, as it were His very Self.
     Now is not this almost a confession already of the glory of the Holy Trinity? For the faith of the Trinity is but the faith that the inner Life of the Godhead is no awful Solitude, but a blissful Society which yet is One. It says that there is a glorious sphere within the “One Eternal” for mutual Affection, infinite in measure, absolute in tenderness and joy. It tells us that at the heart and at the head of the universe of being there lives, and wills, and acts, not a remote Unit, but a gracious Unity, within whose bright Essence, “dark with excess of bright,” Love is always meeting Love. And it bids therefore, not the little child only but the life-worn man, conscious of sin, of sorrow, of the grave, look upwards towards the Infinite with a certainty, deep as existence, that He can indeed be trusted and be loved, for He is Love.

So God the Father, God the Son,
     And God the Spirit we adore,
A sea of life and love unknown,
     Without a bottom or a shore.

Thoughts for Sundays, 239-40, bold words were in italics in the original

In Quotes

"Tested Through His Faithfulness to Chasten and Deliver"

April 22, 2011

The book of Judges may be understood as having the theme, “Tested through His faithfulness to chasten and deliver” (MCBC SS Notes, Summer 2009). Judges records how God’s people experienced a repeated cycle of failure, chastening, and deliverance. God showed His covenant faithfulness to them by subjecting them to testing and delivering them when they responded correctly to it. Through His loyal dealings with them, He restored them to a right relationship with Himself.

The life of Samson vividly displays the theme of Judges. Four chapters present two periods in his life: early life (13:2-25) and later life (14:1-16:31). These chapters are a remarkable record of divine involvement in his life:

Before his birth (13:2-23) – divine initiative; appearances of the preincarnate Christ; answered prayer of his father; revelation of his God-ordained life’s work
The Lord blessed him (13:24); we do not read of anything negative about his life to this point!
His marriage was of the Lord (14:4)
Four references to the Spirit’s activity in his life: 13:25; 14:6; 14:19; 15:14
First prayer (15:18-19) – gave God the glory; regarded himself as His servant; showed dependence on Him
Knew that he was a Nazarite to God from his mother’s womb (16:17)
The Lord departed from him (16:20)
Second prayer (16:28)

In spite of the great divine involvement in his life, Samson failed to be faithful to His God in numerous ways: went against parental advice; ate unclean food and gave it to his parents; married a Philistine woman; consorted with a harlot; loved a Philistine woman; sought his own vengeance (15:3, 7; 16:28). Interestingly, in the midst of his obvious problems with women, it seems that there may be evidence that he had some sense of marital fidelity (15:1-3).

In spite of Samson’s tragic unfaithfulness to Him, the Lord was faithful to Samson as he was tested through His faithfulness to chasten and deliver him. He was approved by his faith in our God (Heb. 11:32)! We read of him among the great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1). Ultimately, Samson was blessed, approved, and is in heaven because of God’s choice!

Reading of the failures of Samson (as well as of every other judge that we read about in the book of Judges) fosters in us an anticipation of the perfect Judge:

These periods of peace, however, did not last, and after Gideon’s time there was no more rest for the people. As a result the Book of Judges encourages the reader to look forward to a permanent solution to the problem of sin and to ask, “When will the Lord raise up a deliverer who will give Israel more than temporary rest from her troubles?” Thus Judges prepares the reader for the Deliverer, the One Jephthah called “the Lord the Judge” (11:27), our Savior Jesus Christ. God’s people will face the problems of compromise, sin, disunity, and bondage, but God in faithfulness still provides deliverance. And our hope for a complete solution rests on the return of our Lord (Robert D. Bell).

As we await the coming of the Lord the Judge, we should live godly as He tests us through His faithfulness to chasten and deliver us:

Each generation has a God-given role to fulfill—this ‘Judges’ stage was to conquer the Promised Land and dwell as lights amidst a perverse world—as part of its loving God mandate. Let’s beg Him to graciously allow His Messiah to judge us and deliver us so that we can return to a right relationship to His Word (MCBC SS notes, Summer 2009).

In Discipleship, Quotes

Problematic Christian Music

April 21, 2011

Scripture teaches that music plays an essential role in Christian worship (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). God demands that we worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24; cf. Phil. 4:8). The words in some Christian songs are problematic because they do not handle the Scripture accurately.

Two such songs are Jesus, Rose of Sharon, and The Lily of the Valley. These songs are based on the same Scripture passage: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters” (Song 2:1-2). Both songs are problematic because the expressions the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of Valley both refer to a girl:

Here the beloved spoke of herself as a rose of Sharon . . . The Hebrew word for rose is [habasselet]. In Isaiah 35:1, its only other occurrence in the Old Testament, it is translated “crocus,” which may be the meaning here. It was a common meadow flower. The lily too was a common flower mentioned often in the Song of Songs (2:1-2, 16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2-3; 7:2). Though in her humility she likened herself to common flowers of the field, her statement (2:1) reflects a significant contrast with her earlier self-consciousness (1:5-6). Her improvement probably was because of her lover’s praising her (1:9-10, 15). (BKC: OT, 1014; bold in original)

I am the rose of Sharon. The bride is still speaking. It is difficult to determine which flower the bride refers to. . . . Crocus appears to be the best translation. . . . As the lily among thistles. The bridegroom speaks. In her humility the bride may think of herself only as a beautiful but humble crocus; he regards her as a lily among thistles. So far as lilies surpass thistles, so far does she surpass other maidens. (The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 598; bold in original)

Should we, therefore, continue to sing these songs that express beautiful sentiments about Jesus but do so with plainly problematic use of Bible wording?

In Music, Quotes

Martyn on Humility and Prayer

April 20, 2011

John Sargent in his biography of Henry Martyn, missionary to India, records the following from a letter by Martyn to his sister concerning his dealings with himself about his own pride:

The pride which I see dwelling in my own heart, producing there the most obstinate hardness, I can truly say my soul abhors. I see it to be unreasonable, I feel it to be tormenting. When I sometimes offer up supplications, with strong crying to God, to bring down my spirit unto the dust, I endeavour calmly to contemplate the infinite majesty of the most high God, and my own meanness and wickedness. Or else I quietly tell the Lord, who knows the heart, that I would give him all the glory of everything, if I could. But the most effectual way I have ever found, is to lead away my thoughts from myself and my own concerns, by praying for all my friends; for the Church, the world, the nation; and, especially by beseeching that God would glorify his own great name, by converting all nations to the obedience of faith; also by praying that he would put more abundant honour on those Christians whom He seems to have honoured especially, and whom we see to be manifestly our superiors. This is at least a positive act of humility, and it is certain that not only will a good principle produce a good act, but the act will increase the principle.

The Life and Letters of Henry Martyn, 70-71

These words encourage me to avail myself more of the great value of intercessory prayer.

In Quotes

Scholarly Comments on the One Who Forgives

April 17, 2011

This post compiles some scholarly comments about Jesus as the One who forgives our sins:

The Pharisees’ attitude is probably like that expressed in [Luke] 5:21: ‘Who can forgive sins but God?’ In Luke-Acts, the right of Jesus to judge and thus forgive sins is one of Luke’s major claims, which shows one must deal with Jesus in order to be accepted by God (Luke 24:47; Acts 10:42; 17:31; on the Son of Man’s authority, see Luke 22:69; Acts 7:55-56). Here is raw eschatological authority, and the Pharisees know it. It is not the claim of a mere prophet. —Comments on Luke 7:49 by Darrell L. Bock, Luke 1:1-9:50 in BECNT, 707; bold added.

The term [Son of Man] is eschatological in Daniel; Jesus uses it in the same way in Matt. 24:30 and 26:64, and this is done also in the Revelation passages. But this Judge at the great consummation cannot be the judge only then, his work must reach back through the entire process of redemption, the consummation of which is the final judgment. [In Luke 5:24,] Jesus very properly thus expands the title and applies it to his person in the days of his humiliation. . . . Authority . . . to remit sins ‘on the earth’ during the era of grace comports with ‘the Son of man.’ To bring to us and to make our own this remission Jesus had to come on his great mission as ‘the Son of man.’ —Comments on Luke 5:24 by R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel, 303; bold added.

The resurrected Jesus is announced to be the Judge-designate. . . . Without this point, we might be tempted to think of the resurrection as something tremendous that happened to him but which has no relation to us at all. Without this statement that the resurrected Lord is the Judge-designate, we might believe the story of Easter and comment, ‘Terrific! But after all, that was Jesus. What has that got to do with us?’ Verse 42 [of Acts 10] answers this question by linking our destiny to that of Jesus, for it tells us that Jesus is every man’s Judge. This statement says that the man whom God designated to judge us is the man executed on Golgotha and raised on Easter. If, then, our destiny depends on the verdict of this Judge, we must recognize that the story of Jesus is the story of the one who will be the arbiter of our status before God. Suddenly for each individual, the story of Jesus is transformed from a piece of interesting ancient history to the disclosure of ‘where my destiny hangs.’ This change makes the story of Jesus real news. But it still does not show why this is good news; it could just as well be bad news. . . . These words [v. 43] transform the information about Jesus into the good news for all mankind. According to this early sketch of the gospel, the good news consists of the headline that the Judge forgives those who believe on his name. That is, he forgives those who believe he is really the Judge. Here is the heart of the good news in this sermon: The Judge forgives. —Leander E. Keck, Mandate to Witness: Studies in the Book of Acts, 68-69; bold added.

Here [Acts 10:43] Peter underscores that it is faith in the Jesus he has just described that brings the forgiveness. So the way of salvation is through the judge of the living and the dead, by appealing to him to forgive sin, which leads into the way of peace through the gospel (v. 35). —Comments on Acts 10:42-43 by Darrell L. Bock, Acts, 400; bold added.

In agreement with Keck and Bock, Schnabel regards Acts 10:43 as an ”exhortation to turn in faith to this judge in order to receive [the] forgiveness of sins.” Eckhard J. Schnabel, Jesus and the Twelve, vol. 1 of Early Christian Mission, 713; bold added.

What do you think about these scholarly comments? Do you agree with their saying that Jesus is the Judge who forgives sin?

In Gospel, Interpretation, Quotes

"The Temple of the Body"

April 10, 2011

Jowett’s remarks on Romans 12:1-9:

The Lord wants my body. He needs its members as ministers of righteousness. He would work in the world through my brain, and eyes, and ears, and lips, and hands, and feet.

And the Lord wants my body as “a living sacrifice.” He asks for it when it is thoroughly alive! We so often deny the Lord our bodies until they are infirm and sickly, and sometimes we do not offer them to Him until they are quite “worn out.” It is infinitely better to offer them even then than never to offer them at all. But it is best of all to offer our bodies to our Lord when they are strong, and vigorous, and serviceable, and when they can be used in the strenuous places of the field.

And so let me appoint a daily consecration service, and let me every morning present my body “a living sacrifice” unto God. Let me regard it as a most holy possession, and let me keep it clean. Let me recoil from all abuse of it – from all gluttony, and intemperance, and “riotous living.” Let me look upon my body as a church, and let the service of consecration continue all day long. “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?”

John Henry Jowett, My Daily Meditation, November 5

In Discipleship, Quotes

"The Sacrament of Living"

April 9, 2011

The “layman” need never think of his humbler task as being inferior to that of his minister. Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act. All he does is good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For such a man, living itself will be sacramental and the whole world a sanctuary. His entire life will be a priestly ministration. As he performs his never-so-simple task, he will hear the voice of the seraphim saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”

A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, 127

In Quotes

Flavel on Providence

April 5, 2011

John Flavel’s remarks on God’s providential care for His own deserve our sober contemplation:

     How woeful your case had been if the Lord had not mercifully saved you from many thousand temptations that have assaulted you! I tell you, you cannot estimate the mercies you possess by means of such providences. Are your names sweet, and your consciences peaceful, two mercies as dear to you as your two eyes? Why surely you owe them, if not wholly yet in great measure, to the aids and assistances Providence has given you all along the way you have passed through the dangerous tempting world to this day.
     Walk therefore suitably to this obligation of Providence also. And see that you thankfully own it. Do not impute your escapes from sin to accidents, or to your own watchfulness or wisdom.
     See also that you do not tempt Providence on the other hand, by an irregular reliance upon its care over you, without taking all due care of yourselves. ‘Keep yourselves in the love of God’ (Jude 21); ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence’ (Prov. 4.23). Though Providence keep you, yet it is in the way of your duty.
     Thus you see what care Providence has had over your souls in preventing the spiritual dangers and miseries that otherwise would have befallen you in the way of temptations (The Mystery of Providence, 93-94).

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Pet. 2:9). Let us praise the Lord for His providential care for us and be diligent to be godly by His grace.

In Discipleship, Quotes

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