Oh Friends, the ole fella’s struggling today. It took me over half an hour to find a Bit that I could get my head around. Nothing I checked seemed to make sense. I guess it’s a form of writer’s block. And worse yet, all my pleas to heaven that time was running out on me, didn’t provide relief any quicker. But our God is a good God, so I had no doubts of eventually finding a suitable Bit, or of Him eventually guiding me to whatever message He wanted to convey today. It was all really a matter of timing. And though I know from loads of experience that He’s never late, I still got caught up in the time element. Oh ye of little faith eh! (smile) Anyway, it seems that today’s topic is exercise. Now Friends, there are basically two kinds of exercise; that of the spirit and that of the body. In this part of Bruh Paul’s message to his young protégé, Timothy, he’s informing him in the basics of being a good minister of Christ. He’s already warned him of the lies and the evils of the apostates, those who once embraced the faith, but then, for whatever reason, turned around and rejected it, and were now fallen under the spell of ‘seducing (deceiving) spirits and doctrines of devils.’ (1 Tim.4:1-5) Then he continues: ‘If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained (carefully followed).’ (1 Tim.4:6) Meaning, that as he instructs his congregation in the Word, he’s instructing himself too, for preaching good doctrine is an essential step in becoming a good minister of Christ. He would also be faithfully conforming to the truth of the gospel that Bruh Paul’s taught him. ‘But refuse (reject) profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.’ (1 Tim.4:7) Yes, my people, he’s to avoid false, fabricated doctrines because they have no worthwhile substance and only promote ungodliness. The same advice applies to us today Friends, possibly with even greater urgency, since there’s so much more false, worthless stuff in our world today than in Bruh Paul’s time. I have to chuckle here mih breddren because the scholars compare them to the ‘silly, flighty soap-operas of today.’ What sacrilege to the soap-opera fanatics eh! Then Timothy must also endeavour to be holy and pious, which doesn’t come automatically, or even easily, but require much diligence ‘in prayer, Bible Study, obedience, fellowshipping with other believers, and Christian service.’ Now if that isn’t a hard row to hoe, my Friends, I don’t know what is! But as believers, especially ministers, it is necessary to aspire and work seriously towards those goals. ‘For bodily exercise profiteth little.’ Don’t tell that to today’s fitness freaks! They’ll also consider it sacrilege, blasphemy towards their Holy Grail of physical fitness. Nothing’s wrong with physical fitness, we all need to be in good physical shape to live healthy lives, but in today’s world it’s become too idolized. It’s become one of the idols of the flesh. Like dieting, it’s now a world wide phenomenon, the basis for crooked money making schemes, with oodles of promises, but nowhere near the rewards promised. And with the spread of the obesity epidemic that’s now terrorizing the Western World, mainly because of the junk food we eat and our lazy, couch potato habits, the smart evil-doers are profiting handsomely from our unsatisfactory lifestyle. Ah mih people, it’s the same sort of false, fabricated myths, with unscientific claims that Bruh Paul warned Timothy of, just in a different area of our lives. But the truth is when we pay too much attention to those falsehoods, then we are actually moving away from the godliness we’re supposed to embrace. And there’s so much falsehood that runs our modern world, it isn’t funny. We’re always in search of a cure instead of listening to the old folks, that’ prevention is better than cure.’ And it certainly is my people. We especially see the discrepancies in the fitness, food, medical and pharmaceutical industries. Everybody’s looking for a cure for something, when preventing the illness would be much simpler. Unfortunately though, in our greedy, capitalistic society, the simple approach won’t generate as much profit, capitalism’s god. Just look at cancer. Money is wasted by the billions to find a cure for the numerous kinds of cancer that’s devastating us in this modern, highly scientific and technological time. Cancer was never that widespread before, so why is it burgeoning now? The answer is too simple to admit; all the carcinogenic, cancer-causing stuff we put in our food and water and release in the atmosphere. And everyday we introduce some new, untested or not tested-enough compound to the three essential elements of our lives. So what do we expect eh? But no, the food has to look good and have a long shelf life, while the poisonous effluent from our factories has to be released somewhere, so why not our water and air. Ah Friends, the main priority in our society, instead of being God, all flows right back to the root of all evil, the LOVE OF MONEY! It’s sad but true, the capitalist’s god, money, rules our world like never before. And with the latest talk about global economies and global villages, the power of money will get even stronger. Oh my people, the only way to counter this evil effect is by exercising ourselves unto godliness, which we’ll get in to tomorrow, God willing. And as I keep saying, I don’t see why he won’t be willing since we’re only trying to spread His Word and right some of the many wrongs in our beautiful world. Till tomorrow then, Much LOVE!...healthiness…is next to godliness…
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