I have been burdened to write the following post over the last week. I started to write it last night but I am glad I waited as today's time at church and bible fellowship added a little extra seasoning to the marinade. In this post I want to discuss life change in two important areas yet I want to be clear on the order and importance of the two. The two areas are Spiritual and Physical.
I recently made a change in my health, starting my first 24 day challenge in early January. Since then, I have been so excited to share my success and the products with everyone I know and even with strangers. I have been convicted that this excitement and energy should carry over to the best life change offered to anyone.
Spiritual Change
As a Christian, my life has been changed by a gracious and loving Savior. I am a sinner and on my own merits I do not deserve to be saved by His Grace. But God sent His only Son to this earth to die for my sins and therefore if ANYONE believes in Him they too can receive His free gift of everlasting life. Wow, what a goldmine that is. I keep hearing this verse in my spirit this week:
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Today at church we saw several baptisms and the people being baptized gave such a strong answer to the question have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. It was awesome to hear the excitement and conviction in their response. We are called to share the Good News with a world that so desperately needs to hear the message that God loves them and that they can have a relationship with Him. This is a calling that too often we as Christians take lightly and maybe even take for granted.
My prayer is that I will always have a passion to share this message with the world around me and that people will see His love through me.
Physical Change
The change in my health has been awesome. Losing 30+ lbs since January has me very excited and I feel like I have a new lease on life. I am also developing eating habits that I have resisted my entire life. It is almost as if there is a new me. My eyes are now open to the unhealthy habits in my life and I am more keenly aware of the unhealthy culture we live in. We went to the zoo over Spring Break and knowing that despite losing the weight I had lost I was still obese, I realized that the majority of people at the zoo were not only obese, but morbidly obese. This really made me think about our culture and the large amounts of fast food and sugar that we consume.
The byproduct of our American diet and lack of exercise is having an obese population. An obese population is an unhealthy one and contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney and liver ailments and more. Losing weight has made me also realize that eating right and exercising is a matter of stewardship. I can better accomplish my tasks as a christian, a husband, a father,and an employee because I have more energy and focus. We has a people can do better and must determine to make better decisions in what we eat and how we live. We only have one body and how we feed our body and train our body has a direct correlation on our overall effectiveness.
If you have read this whole thing I hope it has been meaningful to you. I am burdened to share both these aspects of life change with those that need it. If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus then please give me a call and I will set aside time to meet with you and share what a relationship with Christ is all about. If you are a Christian but have never been fired up to spread the Gospel to others and now you think you need to rededicate your life to Christ and pursue a real relationship then let's talk. Maybe you are a Christian but life has you running in circles and your health is out of whack, call me and we can discuss a program to help you get healthy and fit.
I am so thankful for the gift of life and the each of you. Our lives are not meant to be lived alone and it is the friends that me make and the relationships we develop that give us the opportunity to share the love that Jesus has for us with each other.
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