A man was visiting his grandmother, who though aged, retained much of the regal beauty of her youth, which by all accounts had been stunning. During the visit he noticed a birthday card addressed to his grandmother from the director of the local mortuary. He commented on how nice of Mr. Spotsylvania to send a card. His grandmother shrugged and said, “He only wants me for my body!”
After a brief chuckle it dawned on me that most entertainment is body centered. People pay fortunes to keep their bodies in Hollywood form. Old men and women have tummy tucks, various enhancements, implants with enough Styrofoam to support take-out from Starbucks. They want someone else’s body.
After a little thought, the spiritual smidgeon of me took over and I recalled that even God is interested in our bodies! If, as the old song stated, the lucky old Sun just rolls around heaven all day, God must really have it made, as He created the Sun. Why would He want my body? Well, consider Paul’s take on this:
Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
The underlying idea here is that God wants you to know that He can make better use of your body than you can on your own. Left to our own ideas we may destroy our body through misusing many good things, abusing the nutritional goodies, marking our body with heathen emblems, or living in worship of our body or that of a more beautiful person.
The following verse in Romans 12 assures us that a body surrendered to God for His purpose will have a renewed mind, a mind that grasps that our Creator designed us for specific roles in life and true fulfillment comes when these roles are wholly given over to Christ to use via the indwelling Holy Spirit.
To use our bodies for the various forms of debauchery promoted today is unreasonable, as the long term effects of modern “self” lifestyles are destructive to mind, spirit and body.
The thought just shot through the old gray matter that by comparison, did Mother Theresa make wiser use of her body, than say, Arnold Schwarzenegger?
The next time you are sitting in church and listening to the preacher talk about Jesus, keep in mind that Jesus really is very interested in using your body, even if it’s wrinkled, to carry on His work in this world!
Copyright © 2015 Larry Lilly
Click Oral Deckard for very good IT work
After a brief chuckle it dawned on me that most entertainment is body centered. People pay fortunes to keep their bodies in Hollywood form. Old men and women have tummy tucks, various enhancements, implants with enough Styrofoam to support take-out from Starbucks. They want someone else’s body.
After a little thought, the spiritual smidgeon of me took over and I recalled that even God is interested in our bodies! If, as the old song stated, the lucky old Sun just rolls around heaven all day, God must really have it made, as He created the Sun. Why would He want my body? Well, consider Paul’s take on this:
Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
The underlying idea here is that God wants you to know that He can make better use of your body than you can on your own. Left to our own ideas we may destroy our body through misusing many good things, abusing the nutritional goodies, marking our body with heathen emblems, or living in worship of our body or that of a more beautiful person.
The following verse in Romans 12 assures us that a body surrendered to God for His purpose will have a renewed mind, a mind that grasps that our Creator designed us for specific roles in life and true fulfillment comes when these roles are wholly given over to Christ to use via the indwelling Holy Spirit.
To use our bodies for the various forms of debauchery promoted today is unreasonable, as the long term effects of modern “self” lifestyles are destructive to mind, spirit and body.
The thought just shot through the old gray matter that by comparison, did Mother Theresa make wiser use of her body, than say, Arnold Schwarzenegger?
The next time you are sitting in church and listening to the preacher talk about Jesus, keep in mind that Jesus really is very interested in using your body, even if it’s wrinkled, to carry on His work in this world!
Copyright © 2015 Larry Lilly
Click Oral Deckard for very good IT work
RSS Feed