Healthy Living - Body, soul and spirit!

Written by Donna-Rae Cartwright


Healthy Living

A healthy lifestyle is holistic. You cannot look at justrepparttar physical side of healthy living and negate our responsibility to nurturerepparttar 126995 spiritual side, and vice versa.

God created us as physical and spiritual beings. He created us as physical when He made us fromrepparttar 126996 dust ofrepparttar 126997 earth and gave us bodies, breathing life into us. He created us as mortal, finite beings - but He also created us as spiritual beings, to live or die eternally.

So because God created us to live in tension with ourselves, balancingrepparttar 126998 spiritual andrepparttar 126999 physical, healthy living is to look after both areas of our life, to live a holistic lifestyle. More often than not we hear teaching onrepparttar 127000 nurturing of our spiritual lives, discipleship – what it means to live a truly Christian life as a disciple of Jesus, and so on, but not very often do we hear teaching on looking after our physical bodies.

It is my belief that if we take just as much care of our physical bodies –repparttar 127001 way we dress,repparttar 127002 way we eat, exercise and rest – as we do of our spiritual state, we will set a precedent amongst non-believers. They will see Christ inrepparttar 127003 way we live our lives.

So that is what this article is about –repparttar 127004 physical side of healthy living, looking after our bodies. However please realise that although this is what I am focusing on, I am in no way ignoringrepparttar 127005 spiritual.

Some time ago, I felt challenged to a healthy lifestyle. A scripture He gave me was Hebrews 3:4-11. I know you have probably only ever heard this passage inrepparttar 127006 context of spiritual rest, but there are a few key principles that I want to draw out in regards to healthy living.

“(For every house is built by someone; butrepparttar 127007 builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify torepparttar 127008 things that would be spoken later. Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a Son, and we are His house if we hold firmrepparttar 127009 confidence andrepparttar 127010 pride that belong to Hope.

Therefore, asrepparttar 127011 Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as inrepparttar 127012 rebellion, as onrepparttar 127013 day of testing inrepparttar 127014 wilderness, where your ancestors put me torepparttar 127015 test, though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.’ As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (NRSV)

Principle 1: DO NOT STRIVE (v4) God isrepparttar 127016 builder, not us. He isrepparttar 127017 one who makes everything happen. Striving doesn’t help anyone – or anything – least of all you. Life,repparttar 127018 ministry etc, doesn’t depend on us. God is more concerned about us than He is aboutrepparttar 127019 work. He has many vessels through which He can work. It is folly to think that we arerepparttar 127020 only person who can dorepparttar 127021 task. DO NOT STRIVE. IT DOES NOT DEPEND ON US. GOD IS THE BUILDER.

Principle 2: WE ARE THE HOUSE OF GOD (v6) Our bodies arerepparttar 127022 temple ofrepparttar 127023 Holy Spirit. We need to take care of them. If we don’t we will not be good for anything because we will run ourselves intorepparttar 127024 ground. We need to respect God by taking care ofrepparttar 127025 body He has given us by: - - EATING HEALTHILY - EXERCISE regularly - Getting enough REST

Christ and Culture (Part 1)

Written by Aleck Cartwright


Christ and Culture Part 1

The conflict between Christ and culture is not new and neither is it rare. It is a daily occurrence asrepparttar boundaries are blurred andrepparttar 126994 culture develops. Christians have been viewed more often than not as subversive because of a belief that they are destined for more than just a human destiny. Many times they have paid a high price for it and continue to do so, fromrepparttar 126995 early Christian martyrs of Rome to those who refuse to bend their beliefs torepparttar 126996 desires of a communist state. In many nations ofrepparttar 126997 modern worldrepparttar 126998 underground church is still being persecuted.

Such cases are disturbing but expected. In many nations there are overt and covert attempts to silence religion, that is out of favour, from being expressed in public institutions. Religious views are being marginalised and reduced to impotent fairy tales better suited to children's bedrooms before a good night kiss, or perhaps some trivial, private and quiet hobby like stamp collecting. Religion is seen as an activity not befitting an intelligent public-spirited adult. Religion is seen as a past-time not a lifestyle. The issue is very much current as well as historical. To tackle question of Christ and culture we should clearly define Christ and culture.

Christ asrepparttar 126999 Son of God points us away fromrepparttar 127000 many values man tends to prioritise and torepparttar 127001 one God who is truly good. Yet atrepparttar 127002 same time, Jesus is a mediator between God and man, in Jesus we see God's love for man as well as man's love for God. Christ in us is a joining ofrepparttar 127003 two. This duality in Christ leads us to a corresponding duality of expression of Christ in us.

Our faith has both a vertical dimension (directed to Godrepparttar 127004 Father through Christ in us) and a horizontal dimension (directed through Christ in us to our neighbour). Any adequate address of Christ and culture needs to emphasise both that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, above and beyondrepparttar 127005 world and haterepparttar 127006 world, in that we find no cause for identity in it, and atrepparttar 127007 same time God in fact gave His life forrepparttar 127008 world as a result of His love for mankind, and enjoins us to dorepparttar 127009 same.

We haterepparttar 127010 sin but loverepparttar 127011 sinner. Culture comprises of language, habits, ideas, beliefs, customs, social organisation, inherited artefacts, technical processes, and values.

So what happens when Christ and culture collide? How are we to deal with Christ and culture in daily life. Here are a few ideas of how Christians have often dealt with this issue.

1. Christ is against culture The most radical answer is that Christ is against culture. God isrepparttar 127012 sole authority forrepparttar 127013 Christian, presenting Christ and culture as an either/or choice. If we follow Christ we must reject any loyalty to culture.

Do not loverepparttar 127014 world or anything inrepparttar 127015 world. If anyone lovesrepparttar 127016 world,repparttar 127017 love ofrepparttar 127018 Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).

Some would argue thatrepparttar 127019 prince of this world is Satan therefore to choose culture is to choose loyalty torepparttar 127020 devil.

All state obligations are againstrepparttar 127021 conscience of a Christian -repparttar 127022 oath of allegiance, taxes, law proceedings and military service. Christians in this view are encouraged to separate themselves fromrepparttar 127023 culture, either individually as Tolstoy did, or corporately asrepparttar 127024 Mennonites have done, as a monastic community.

The integrity of those adhering to this option is shown firstly, in their willingness to suffer martyrdom in some cases under evil governments, and secondly, inrepparttar 127025 social reforms they provoke.

The problem with this option is that it is impossible to separate oneself from culture as it permeates our thinking and language, in fact it is as much around us as it is in our heads. Though it may be possible to keep some evil aspects of culture out of our communities by separatism, we cannot rid ourselves of our own predisposition to sin.

Ifrepparttar 127026 Amish live apart from state institutions or from mainstream technology and consumerism, all they succeed in doing is creating sub-cultures that while they may be counterculture, never attain to acultural status. The fact that a monastic lifestyle often required many rules and forms of discipline is proof enough ofrepparttar 127027 inherent tendency of man to fall into old patterns of sin. Because of this, separatist groups tend to adhere to grades of holiness that can only be maintained through works. Claiming thatrepparttar 127028 monastic life lead to greater holiness is why Luther said that it was not only unnecessary but, if it was chosen for this reason, it would become an institution ofrepparttar 127029 devil!

Separatism also only emphasises Christ's role in drawing us away from culture (the vertical dimension) but ignores God's role in our continued relationship with culture (the horizontal dimension). If Tolstoy was right, a Christian should pay no taxes, something that Jesus Christ said we should do. Jesus also tells us to love our neighbours, who are forrepparttar 127030 most, part found in mainstream culture where practical works of love have to be culturally relevant torepparttar 127031 people who need God's love to understand it as such.

Christ even seems to reject separatism inrepparttar 127032 parable ofrepparttar 127033 Good Samaritan. The Samaritan crossed cultural norms to help whereasrepparttar 127034 priest and Levite forrepparttar 127035 sake of holiness kept themselves apart from him. The Samaritan is held up as our moral guide inrepparttar 127036 story.

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