I remember, as many others will relate, my young years. I was lean and fast, strong and durable (to a degree) and as others, I was full of myself. I thought I knew all that I needed to know and was always ready with some sort of answer for everything, whether it was correct or not. I believe, in those days, there was way too little “thinking” on my part at the same time, though, I felt so very alive! I did a lot of stuff out of youthful exuberance that could have cost me dearly, had anything gone wrong. My point is how youthful and how alive I felt when I was young. I know there are many who are able to relate to this and have felt the same things that I did. I must say, it was excruciatingly wonderful to feel that way.
I remember as a child when I would run, it was so fast that in my mind I could almost fly, IF I could get just a few more steps faster. Of course, we all know that could never have taken place but in my mind all things were possible. Such is the thinking of most children, and as parents we wish to preserve those ideas for the days when that feeling is faded and almost non-existent. For when we become adults, those feelings could uplift us and preserve us against the cynicism of a deluded world. So in thinking of these things, remembering how wonderful it felt, why are we not able to be that way again, regardless of age?
Somewhere in my mind, I feel we have missed the boat all together and I feel that it happened, when we lost our innocence. You know, when we began to understand how the “real” world works, what gravity and resistance is all about. As a child, I never once worried about how I would land, if I actually did fly! At that time, I did not know what “inertia” was and I know I never had any sort of wheels to accommodate it. Can you imagine the end result, when “wishful thinking” would collide with real world of knowledge? Road-rash! Grass-burn!! OUCH!
Evidently, this is more on the minds of many, than anyone of us could imagine. We have entered into the “Be Youthful Again” days, where people spend countless hours in the gym, lifting weights, running on treadmills, stair-steps, or it could be the morning and evening 5 mile run. Oddly enough, it is the desire to preserve our youth, to re-emerge as the child we once were. To once again, run so fast we can almost fly! Evidently, that still has not happened to anyone and the chances are slim…it ever will.
Along with all this, we now see more face-lifts, tummy-tucks and oddly enough, butt-lifts as well, among so many other things (steroids). Sadly though, although these things are good for your body but they have not reduced the incidence of heart attacks, the existence of diabetes and many other things that are possible as we age. One thing for sure, it has not stopped death.
“Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah” (Psalm 39:4-5).
Ooops! Sorry…that one just sort of slipped in there!
Think on this slowly and carefully…
We have this flabby bag of fluids and bones for MAYBE 70-80 years, according to the Bible. Are we supposed to spend our time in the gym, endeavoring to regain our youth, or not? Are we able to back-up the timetable God set out for us in the beginning? Evidently, the verse above is leading us to believe something different. Is it not obvious to all that our bodies and our time here on earth are according to the perfect will of God? What choices do we have?
In other words, are we able to extend our lives in any manner, whether in the gym or not? Can we live longer because of exercise and modern medicine, or is it all just baloney? We know that our bodies are the “temple of the Lord” and that we must care for them. We are NOT to use them in a manner that would offend the Lord God Almighty! We have these bodies as a gift from God, so the question is, why do we use them in manner that would destroy them?
Our bodies are so susceptible to viruses, bacteria, it is understandable, that these things are the center of our problems, almost on a daily basis. And this is to include broken bones as well, but the central problem is with the “fluid” part of our bodies. These include the common cold, to the flu, to almost every other disease known to mankind and this my friends, is a medical fact. Why would you think, there is such a massive use of medicines? We pass viruses back and forth with speed and ease or are you not aware of STD’s or even AIDS?
We leak fluids all the time, when we sneeze or cough, or evacuating waste material. We ingest fluids and we evacuate fluids continually, just talking one to another, we share fluids. Think about it. We even share the fluids of the things around us, in our homes, in the forests, the backyard. Endeavoring to maintain a healthy balance in our bodies would akin to balancing the earth on the edge of a razorblade. A daunting task at best!
“Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:21).
Hmm…an interesting passage, right? “Our vile bodies.” It couldn’t be any better described than that. And yet it implies we will one day have a glorious body like HIS. Now that is something to look forward to. I don’t care who you are. Can you imagine for a moment, no more fluids to contaminate, no more failure, no more tiredness, no more fatigue, no more sickness and especially…no more death?
So then the question is this: Why do we have all these contaminates to begin with, why all the diseases that plague these fluid- filled bodies of ours? Which then goes farther down the road to: Why do we have starvation and death? The answer is always easier than the question in this manner…SIN.
“I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:19-23, emphasis added).
Again, I am going to say, the answer is easier to understand than the question. There it is, in wonderful black and white, “the wages of SIN…is death!” Some people think, “Well, I can get around that, I just won’t SIN anymore,” so they enter into a convent or something similar but they miss the point. Just one SIN can be enough. Besides that, we are all born with “Original SIN” thanks to Adam and Eve.
“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34-35, emphasis added).
And of course we all know that SIN is in every person and death comes for all people in their due time, according to the perfect will of Almighty God. How is it then that we have turned things around in such an awful manner as we see today? The Bible has been around for better than three thousand years and its truths still speak for themselves because they are God-breathed. How is it then, we have not learned a single thing? We are too busy with everything else in our lives, than to take time and learn from the Word of God. If we spent as much time in the Bible, as we do in front of the TV or at the gym, we might be far better off than we are!
Here’s a perfect example: If men and women spent more time in the Bible than absorbed in their own desires we would not be debating homosexual “marriages” of which we all know there is no such a thing, as a “marriage” with same sex people! God designed “marriage” as a “covenant” between a man and a woman. Thus, if they remain faithful to each other, disease will not enter our lives and destroy our “covenant” before God Almighty.
Evidently, man has decided that God does not know better, therefore we continue to fall farther and farther into the pit of SIN and degradation. And we as people have CHOSEN to do so! In it’s most simple of words, we have chosen SIN over righteousness! And now people want to know why we have all this disease and there is no cure for it?
Medically speaking and this is truth, we already know how to CURE every single medical problem ever encountered by man: We must DIE! So now that we know this truth, then comes the next question by the majority: Is there life after death? A ludicrous question at best, because each and every one of us already knows there is life after death. We CHOOSE not to accept that fact, because then the Bible would be correct that a God is in existence, that HE is righteous and perfect and HE is the ultimate authority!
Man wants to be GOD! So now we see the REAL problem in the world! Man will never be anything but a man and nothing more! Therein lies the only answer left:Whom do we wish to follow…a righteous and perfect God…or ourselves (satan actually)? That ONE choice makes all the difference!
These bodies that we have were made with an expiration date. It’s then a choice we must make. Do we want a glorified body…or the same old body we have always had…because this body dies! Since we already know (this is in each of us) that there is a SPIRIT inside each of us, where will we be after our body dies? Where will our SPIRIT go? We also know that our bodies function because of this SPIRIT…it is that part of us, that makes us who we are, experiences everything while in this body and then afterwards…after the body dies.
There is nothing forgotten by our SPIRIT, we like to say OUR MIND…when actually we are referring to our SPIRIT. Therefore, when the body dies, the SPIRIT move on. The question is then, to where? That my friends, is the point of the Bible─Gods Holy Word to you and me and it says you MUST make a CHOICE…Jesus Christ…or that other stupid guy, Satan! That is the ONLY “free will” decision you get to make! Understand this. It follows you into eternity!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).