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September 2021

More Important

DSCF2175This morning God used three seemingly unrelated things—a passage of Scripture, the Google home page, and a poem to communicate this message to me:

“Your physical health is important, but your spiritual health is more important.”

First, I read 2 Corinthians 4 where Paul says,

“God ... made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (vs. 6-7, NIV)

And I heard:

This body of ours, that consumes so much of our time, money, attention and concern is but a clay jar—made from dust and returning to dust, no matter what we do. We are so consumed with our jar and how it compares to the jars of those around us. We find identity in our jars. We think our jar is who we are. But Paul says there’s more to us than our jar—we are our heart.

Next, I opened the Google homepage to find the day’s Google doodle featuring a picture of Christopher Reeve—honoring him on his birthday. In my mind, when I think of Christopher Reeve I think of Superman. As an actor he played the Screen Shot 2021-09-25 at 10.35.25 AM
character(s) of Clark Kent and Superman and he looked the part—handsome, stately, healthy, muscular and strong. But sadly, in 1995 Reeve’s clay pot broke. He fell off a horse, crushed his spinal cord and was paralyzed for the rest of his life. After his accident he lived on for a few years serving as a great humanitarian and an inspiration to many.

And I heard:

This vessel (body) of ours is fragile—like pottery. We may appear great (like Superman or a supermodel) and we may think we are great, but in reality, we are fragile, frail and easily destroyed. A fall off a horse, a drop of contaminated water or a virus-laden micro-particle can be our end. But, we are more than our bodies.

Then I read Robert Frost’s poem, “Leaves Compared with Flowers” and this stanza jumped out at me:

A tree’s leaves may be ever so good,

So may its bark, so may its wood;

But unless you put the right thing to its root

It never will show much flower or fruit.

And I heard:

We are so much more than our bark or our leaves. It doesn’t matter how good our vessel if it is bereft of flowers and fruit. They resonate from the root and when the leaves have fallen and trunk lies rotting, the fruit lives on. We must pay attention to our root (hearts).

And God said:

My son, pay attention to what I say;
    turn your ear to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
    keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
    and health to one’s whole body.
Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:20-23, NIV)

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes ... on Jesus.  

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18, & Hebrews 12:2, NIV)

“Your physical health is important, but your spiritual health is more important.”


Happy

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I don’t know how you can be happy without Christ. Can the railway train be happy without the rails, the eye without light, the lungs without air, the heart without love? — E. Stanley Jones

Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee. ― Augustine of Hippo

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8, NLT)


One More Day

Harold Hill: You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering. ― Meredith Willson, The Music Man


Thankful for today, one more day. Here's a great song I came across this morning. So good, so fun.

 


Theme Song

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When it comes to Jesus Christ, there are no apologies upon my lips, for there are none in my heart. My song about Jesus Christ is not a species of whistling in the dark to keep up my courage. I sing with my total being—with my mind, my emotion, my will—with the consent of all my being. I sing because I can’t help it. If I held my peace, the stones—the hard, bare facts of life—would cry out. … You can only sing when you have something to sing about. My “something” is a Someone. My theme song is Jesus Christ. — E. Stanley Jones


Promotion

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God’s system of promotion does not follow the pattern of this age. … Which kind of promotion do we seek? One who knows the “right” people can attain to considerable eminence down here. But the man who lets God promote him is spared all that fever. God may set him in a high place to the chagrin of some of his contemporaries. If he never gets a newspaper headline he will lose no sleep over it, for any place is a “large place” if it is God’s place. — Vance Havner

No one on earth—from east or west, or even from the wilderness—should raise a defiant fist. It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall. (Psalms 75:6-7, NLT)

Humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. (1 Peter 5:6, NLT)

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11, NLT)


But God

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No plottings of men, no combinations of circumstances can defeat the man who has God as his helper. Here is the secret of many a life, conspired against by ill health, poverty, evil men, foes in the household, the world, the flesh and the devil, but victorious anyway—God was with him. - Vance Havner
Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. (Acts 7:9-10, NIV)
 
For the resolutions of the just depend rather on the grace of God than on their own wisdom; and in Him they always put their trust, whatever they take in hand. For man proposes, but God disposes; neither is the way of man in his own hands. — Thomas à Kempis
 
God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6, NLT)
 
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. (Psalm 37:23, KJV)