07252022_LbT_Health

The speaker discusses the uncertainty of life and questions about being on the right path. They mention a recent church retreat and the importance of applying what they learned in real life. However, their plans were derailed when they contracted COVID-19, causing them to forget what they learned and focus on their physical recovery. They reflect on the fragility of health and the doubts that can creep in during illness. They eventually recover and realize the importance of not taking health for granted. They also discuss the excuses they made for not restarting their podcast and the need for a solid Christian community to keep their spiritual interpretations in check. They emphasize the importance of actively participating in church and living in God's will. In life there are plot twists, unexpected moments, reasons you question, and a variety of other factors in life which make you wonder, am I really on the right path? Is what I am doing what I was supposed to be doing? Is my quality of life, is my lifestyle healthy? And in this podcast today, on Living by Thriving, we're going to be talking about health in general. For context, it has been around four months since the last episode, life has definitely been interesting since the last post, so there's not really going to be a formalized structure to this, it's just going to be a recap, just a brief summary of what's been going on, basically what's on my mind, just a more free-flowing type of style as I still attempt to figure out what is the most ideal, the best way to go through this podcast, or even if there is a best way, maybe it's just best to go with the flow per se. So the last episode I recorded was around March 2022, I believe, or February, one of those two months, and it's four months since then. I remember recording an episode in February around three or four days before the war in Europe occurred, and so that was an interesting time to contemplate and reflect upon my thoughts for what was going to happen in the future and how the world has changed in these past four months, but also not just global events, but also what's happened in my life recently. So I guess we have to rewind a bit to June, late May. Alright, see, my mind's a little bit over the place already. As you can tell, it's a little bit free-flow, but that's okay. So late May, I went to a church retreat, and the retreat name is the same name as this podcast, well, kind of. This podcast's name is Living by Thriving, and the name of the church retreat is just Thrive. And so the purpose of the retreat was to find God's purpose for work, and to apply that into your office job, or into whatever work or ministry you're involved in. And so that was an interesting time, just getting to meet more young adults around the area, just spending some time in nature, away from technology, because cell reception was relatively poor over there, and that was a good thing, because you really don't have that much time to spend on the screen. So I was enjoying the retreat, I was going through just basically understanding God's role and purpose for my life and work, understanding that work by itself is a good thing and a blessing from God, regardless of what you do, as long as what you do is not a detriment to God's kingdom. And so those words stuck with me, and as is the case with every retreat that I go to at the Christian retreat, it's a very simple resolve. Let's make it count this time. Let's not forget about it in a week or two. Some people refer to this as the spiritual high, other people may refer to it as just the letdown, because there is no remembrance in a week or in a few days. But I resolved that this time would be different. This time, I would apply what I learned in the office and beyond for the weeks and months to come, not just for a few days. But, sometimes plans get derailed, and in this case, my plans got derailed because I got infected with COVID-19 after the retreat. It was the first time I had knowingly been infected with the virus. It was possible I had an asymptomatic case in the years prior, the 2020s or the 2021s, per se. But this was the first time I actually had symptoms, and the first time I tested positive. And so, having that post-retreat high, or spiritual high, to go and apply what I learned in real life quickly dissipated. It kind of faded away. I was thinking after the retreat, I know what I'm going to talk about for the podcast, I know what I'm going to do for this and that. And then, my physical health was essentially taken away for a brief respite of time, a brief moment. Around two and a half to three weeks of a nasty sore throat, rough cough, basically a bunch of terrible symptoms that can still classify you in the mild category. And so, during that time, I quickly just forgot about what I learned during the retreat. Again, it's easy to forget if you don't apply it quickly, but also trying to recover from the illness, it's easy to just move on, to try to get some rest, try to recover. Just forgetting slowly about what I learned, and just going back to work virtually and then eventually in person again, and just forgetting about the lessons that were learned. It's something that I believe many people go through, I don't want to say everybody, but many people go through the post-retreat slump. And in this case, it was exasperated by the illness. So during that illness, struggling with a high fever as well, I'm just lying in bed, watching some TV or some movies, and just taking medication, and just enduring through the symptoms. And it just occurred to me that health, physical health, is fragile, especially in the pandemic, but even before that, health is not a guarantee. There are very few things in life that are guaranteed besides the present, the moment you have right now. Besides that, what is your guarantee? What is your purpose? What is your foundation for your values, for your morals, for your choices, for whatever justification you use for your decisions? What guarantee do you have that that justification or that position is correct? What authority do you place your values on so that if you lose what you cherish, you still can have joy? And even me being a Christian, thinking that my worldview, my belief is the right one, with the slightest inkling of trouble in physical illness, sometimes the doubts creep in. It creeps in subtly. Is this really the best ideology worldview for my life? Well, of course it is, even though I push back against it, I go back and forth with it in my head. Not spending enough time in prayer, more time just thinking about it, just contemplating about it, not reading as much scripture as I could, not spending as much time in the word as I should be when recovering, just going through a very comfortable recovery lifestyle, as comfortable as it can be with bad symptoms. And thus, although getting physically healthier, perhaps getting spiritually and mentally more ill. And so, after around three weeks or so, I finally did end up recovering from COVID-19. Praise the Lord. No obvious long-term symptoms, never lost taste or smell. And so, slowly, I reintegrated back into the real world lifestyle, in quotes, after the negative test. Going out to see movies, going out to see friends again, just the things that I took for granted. And, again, it's easy for me even now to assume that health is for granted. Forgetting that nothing in life is guaranteed apart from God and the gifts he's given to us. And the guarantee of the present is fleeting. Forgetting that. Because it's easy to get caught up in the moment. It's easy to focus on satisfying not just physical health, but just pleasure in general. And forgetting about the spiritual decay that may be rotting you away without you even realizing it until it's too late, or until you've lost a substantial portion of time, the investment that no matter how much you work and how much you try, you cannot gain back. Once time is gone, it's gone. And so, I thought that I should restart the podcast when I felt better, more physically in tune with the, quote-unquote, rigors of recording these, even though it's just hitting the record button and speaking into a microphone. Not the toughest job in the world. But excuses start to creep in. Oh, I'll do this next week. I'll do this some other time. I'll publish the first episode soon, because as of recording now, I still haven't even published the first episode. There's just a couple episodes in backlog. I keep saying, well, maybe I'll publish it after this episode, maybe the next episode. But, as of now, it still hasn't been published yet. And so, as you can see, excuses, no matter how valid they are, eventually can win you over. If you're thinking about excuses, if you're dwelling on it, you can justify almost anything if you take it to the extreme. Because in your head, in your isolation, your thinking can become distorted and it can become twisted if it's not properly offset by God's Word, and also offset by a solid Christian community to make sure your scriptural interpretations don't go bonkers. They don't go into haywire territory. Because you're isolated and because you think your interpretation is a new divine revelation from God that somehow He didn't tell anyone else for thousands of years, but He told you. He told you only. Because that's how cults start. That's how heretical doctrine gets spread. And so it's vital that Christians actively participate in Christian community, a.k.a. church. It's not, if you don't go to church, you're not a Christian, but if you don't go to church and you call yourself a Christian your spiritual health is just spiritual food. What I mean by that is what you consume is on the level of a spiritual infant. You're drinking the spiritual baby formula, and so that's good and all, but you'll never be able to eat the spiritual meat drink the spiritual wine, or consume any spiritually mature food because that's just the state you're going to be in. You'll live a very, very mundane life. Maybe you do make something good or something impressive out of it, but you definitely aren't living in God's will and thus you aren't living the way that God intends for you to live and thus you're missing out on some of God's blessings. And so, again, I'll be jumping back and forth here, I don't have an outline for this, just speaking what's on my mind. I restarted going to something on Tuesdays near the Dallas area, it's called Porch Tuesdays hosted by Watermark Church. They were doing a study over frequently asked questions about God, or FAQ. The first question was, how do we know if we're living in God's will? And one of the things that the speaker addressed is that there's two types of God's will. The known will and the unknown will of God. And so the known will of God is basically something that's commanded in scripture, like the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not murder, for example. If you're murdering somebody, you're clearly not acting in accordance with God's will for your life. But then there's also the unknown will of God, which is basically more intricate decisions, the ones you really pray about, that you really want the answer to. And it can be easy to ask for God's blessings and some unknown will for my life, or your life, but neglect God's known will, His commandments. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, thus, will live within us forever and ever. It is very easy to mix up the order of this, and thus, it becomes unhealthy. It definitely is unhealthy when all we're asking God in prayer is for things, or requests. We don't spend time thanking Him and praising Him. Praise, just in general, for God's character, His awesome nature, His unfathomable power. That alone, without circumstance, is worthy of praise. His love, His grace, His mercy. That is praiseworthy. Some neglect to do this. I know I forget to do this too often. That's unhealthy. Another thing, thankfulness. Praise and thanksgiving are similar, but not the same. Thanksgiving is circumstance-based. For example, if you got a new job, or you got promoted, or you got a new position, or you passed that exam, or some good thing happened to you, maybe you won the lottery, for all I know, that's definitely a cause for thanksgiving. Give thanks to God for His blessings on your life, for good physical health, for good relationships with family, with friends, with a strong community, or whatever you can fill in the blank for your life, which you can give thanks for. Your house or apartment, your furniture, your material possessions that God has blessed you with, your ability to be able to give, to have the means to have charity. All these things are worthy of thanksgiving. And yet, so often what we do, because I'm guilty of this, what we do is we skip those two. Go straight to intercession. Oh God, oh Lord, I pray that you give me this. I really, really want this, Lord. I really want this job, Lord. Can you give it to me, please? I'll do this and that. But maybe it's not that obvious. Maybe we say it more subtly, just in our requests. Merely by omission, we become unhealthy spiritually. Merely by not saying praise or thanksgiving, we become spiritually unhealthy. And skipping this one day is relatively bad enough, but we make it into a habit, into a pattern where our prayers are just intercession prayers. Prayers for requests. And not all of these prayers are bad, mind me, mind you. These are not bad things to ask for, but they need to be asked for in proper context and with the proper perspective of God's will. God loves us. God wants the best for us in His will, but that may not be what we think is the best in our will. And so God always answers prayer. But the answer may be no. And if the answer is no, are we willing to accept it? If we are, then that's great. That means our spiritual relationship with God is thus healthy. But if we reject that and make our relationship with God circumstance-based only, is that really a relationship at all? Think about it. When you have friends or family and all you ever do is ask them for things and they give it to you. But then one time they forget to give it to you or they give you the wrong thing or they give you something you didn't need or you didn't like and then you become mad at them and don't talk to them for a long time. Is that relationship healthy or unhealthy? I would definitely say it's unhealthy at the minimum. What if you never talk to somebody except when you want something from them? Ever. Is that really a relationship? Is that really a healthy, authentic, genuine relationship? Or is it just you speaking to a genie? Speaking to someone who you want to grant your wishes and that's it. Never listening to what the other party has to say. In this case, in the spiritual walk, listening to what God has to say. Again, no one is guilt-free in this matter. I know myself, my prayers tend to jump straight to the intercession. But I know that that is unhealthy as well. I realize that now at least. And so, do question. Do pray, of course. Pray fervently. Pray honestly. Do you really have a relationship with God? Or is your relationship with God just like a genie in a bottle? We must not confuse ourselves and delude ourselves into thinking we are in the faith if we actually are not. That would be a complete tragedy to live your life thinking that you belong to God when in fact you don't. And I'm not saying anyone listening to this is in that position. But if you find yourself drifting away from God and find it easy to be lazy about your faith all of the time, not seeing any growth in months to years, that doesn't mean you're not saved. But maybe it does. Maybe that means you don't actually have a relationship with God. You're just in it for the good things. And I can connect that into prosperity gospel teaching which is basically, you do good things, God rewards you with good things all the time. And then when people do good things and then they don't receive good things in return, they question their faith. And they wonder why God would do that to them. Where in actual scriptural teaching God wants what is best for us but that may not be what we think is best for us. Maybe he says no because it's for our good. And maybe he says no because it's for someone else's good who is not in the kingdom now but will be someday. You see, this perspective where we zoom out from our own selfish worldview and realize that God transcends space and time that is a healthy perspective. Because we know that we have no reasonable cause to be selfish. No reasonable cause at all. We don't know what God is doing sometimes. But do we have faith to trust he's doing the right thing? Do we have faith to trust that God is faithful? When we cast aside poor theologies and bad arguments and bad reasonings that point to the selfish heart and we look towards Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith that means our faith is healthier. And I talked a little bit about time earlier in this podcast but I want to bring it up again because another thing I had to contemplate about recently is how much time I waste staring at screens. And by screens I mean you can mean television video games YouTube slash social media you fill in the blanks. I know for myself what I waste a lot of time in doing is I waste time following current events too closely. And so I like to stay involved in the loop whenever you see news or whenever you see some major headline going on. I enjoy following it minute by minute hour by hour because some stories are gripping even if they're bad because you just don't know what's going to happen next sometimes. It's the grim reality of the world but sometimes like a train that's on fire that's about to crash or some other catastrophe you just can't take your eyes off of it. And so that's one thing I know I waste a lot of time on that can be exasperated by social media like Twitter which gets the news to you quickly in fact faster than any mainstream media outlet the news headlines will break on Twitter minutes if not hours before you see it in the nightly news. And so I enjoy following that and it's not wrong to be involved excuse me to be aware of what's going on but this to an extreme does not produce enough good for the kingdom and I realize that. It's difficult to break the habit but bad habits do need to be broken. Another thing that I spent too much time on at least more in the past was following professional sports aka Dallas sports teams even if they won championships every single year which is far from the reality that would still be a waste of time if I invested too much into it if I made that my life if I made that my god that's too much of a waste. And just add the fact that most Dallas sports teams if not all of them in the past decade have not won a title and only one has won a title since 2000 I just have to question I'm putting in all this time for something that doesn't really provide even temporary satisfaction so is it really worth it? And the answer of course is no. It's not wrong to follow pro sports don't get me wrong I still plan to buy tickets to go to games I still plan to watch them from time to time but I can't make it my god I can't make it my idol I can't make following current events my idol either I can't make anything good my idol because the enemy the devil is very clever he doesn't try well at least sometimes he doesn't try to give you the worst thing he tries to give you quote unquote good things as your idol and when that becomes your idol it's just as bad as if it's anything else that's not on those lines apart from god so again it's very important to be aware of the devil's tricks and be aware that these idolatrous practices which are extremely normalized in society is spiritually and perhaps mentally and perhaps even physically unhealthy people get stressed if they follow news too closely stress leads to poor health down the line health, like anything else needs to be maintained you can't just say I'm healthy today so I'll be healthy forever that's not a true statement I think everyone knows that someone doesn't someone doesn't stay in physical shape they don't eat well they don't have regular exercise they don't dive from time to time etc then their health will decrease over time it's just natural just like in a similar way for our spiritual health if we don't consistently read the word consistently spend time in prayer then our spiritual health will decrease it's not a warning it's not a threat just a fact and so we may wonder to ourselves well I've read for some people I've read the scriptures many times in my life I've read through them too like in a year but less than a year I prayed many times in my life as well so what's the big deal? I'm doing what's right I'm checking off the boxes well you may be checking off some boxes for sure but again you can't view Christianity it's just a checkmark list to accomplish one thing after another it's a relationship again any close friend you will talk to them on a regular basis if you don't talk to them on a regular basis then you're an acquaintance nothing wrong with having people who are acquaintances but you better hope that God isn't just an acquaintance ponder upon that for a moment let's not make God a secondary figure a tertiary figure etc. God deserves the only place in our lives and thus when he takes the only priority in our lives thus everything good from God follows in our lives but we tend to mix it up we put other things in front of God or equal to God or close to God maybe not first but second third I can put 66% of the time into God and 33% of the time into the things I like apart from God when we fail to realize that it's all God we serve God by definition, God should be the highest and thus the only authority in our lives and if he is the only authority in our lives that doesn't mean we do nothing outside of the church quite the opposite that means we obey God's will his known will for our lives and thus we are set free from the chains of sin and the chains of spiritual death to truly live isn't that amazing? isn't that healthy? it's so easy to mix up a lot of times we think we are wise or strong or powerful in a variety of aspects of life but truth be told we're not as strong as we think we are our weaknesses can catch up to us quickly and thus it's a greater supernatural and spiritual miracle that God uses our weaknesses for his glory but apart from God our weaknesses will drag us down and when we think we have got it all under control we are thus departing from God's known will we have to be careful and I use this word a lot but it is important because we can't live life recklessly we can't live life on a template the Holy Spirit lives within us as believers and if we are in tune with the Spirit we are in tune with God's will thus he, the Holy Spirit will tell us whether to go reach out to this person witness to them evangelize to them directly he may say wait now's not the best time just be friends to them just talk to them just build that relationship with them so that you're not just a stranger trying to peddle the latest get out of suffering free card but you actually care for them you actually demonstrate Christ's love for them in that way by being their friend maybe they're lonely maybe they don't have many friends maybe they do have many quote unquote friends but they're really just acquaintances not true friends maybe you're the only person in a non-believer's life that they can reliably count on to talk to that means something that means more than something actually that can mean everything in the end because when the Holy Spirit does tell you it's time to go it's time to tell the gospel to tell the gospel preach the gospel to them maybe again maybe for the first time you've built up that trust that camaraderie they know you're being authentic you know they have been authentic thus it's no longer a sales pitch it's actual truth not just from your brain and your mind and not just from your heart either because you know that could be corrupted because the Holy Spirit is speaking through you and Lord willing your speech guided by God will eventually lead to people's convergence because you speak to them not to gain brownie points in Heaven and not to just say oh yeah I did what I needed to do just cause but because you truly love God and thus you truly love one another it can be unhealthy to never not it can be it is unhealthy, excuse me to never ever preach the gospel just kicking it down the can to a future time because eventually there will be a day where it's too late you wish, you regret you would have said the gospel earlier but there's also the other end of the coin where you preach the gospel every single time you talk to somebody and you never build a relationship with them so they think it's just a sales pitch now again if God is calling you to preach the gospel to someone every single time you see them maybe just because they have a natural interest in maybe debate or maybe naturally interested in hearing they're spiritually hungry they want to hear more and more that's great but the Holy Spirit will keep you in tune with whether you should speak or whether you should stay silent whether you should talk about this or talk about that if you're close to God if you're obeying God's known will I'm confident that even if we misspeak even if we say the wrong things accidentally we mess up if we are in tune with the Holy Spirit then even our mistakes will be used for His glory and even the things we mess up will not end the relationship will not end chances to sharing the gospel the healthy outlook on this matter is knowing that it's in God's control and that all we need to do is be obedient and thus faithful that's all we need to do God controls the outcome but we must obey if we don't obey and it's in God's will for someone to be saved then God will use somebody else and that person will lead so and so to salvation and although you disobeyed God's will was still done but you could have obeyed you could have been the one used by God to lead someone to His kingdom and thus you missed out on the blessing of God the joy of seeing a friend or a family member convert just because you chose to disobey don't make that mistake that doesn't mean you have to be the one to convert somebody far from it but you need to be faithful you need to obey you need to remain true to what God has commanded us to do whether we like His commands or not and it's the ones we like to obey that are easy to tell others to do it's the ones we don't like to do that suddenly become more quiet oh, yeah, do this yeah, don't do that oh, oh yeah don't do that either don't waste all that time on social media yeah, huh, yeah, don't do that ha ha see the difference in perspective? see how that changes? and fill in the blank for whatever you're struggling with it doesn't have to be social media you know what it is God knows what it is and keeping sins on our minds and acting upon them without proper confession and thus repentance is, of course, spiritually unhealthy again, for a healthy relationship with God we need to be honest with Him because He knows what we've done already He knows things about ourselves we don't even know and so to think to delude ourselves with delusion that we could possibly hide some sin or hide some mistake or flaw or embarrassing moment or whatever from God is lunacy utter delusion so instead of trying to cover up our sins before God let's be open about it and confess them openly to God in prayer He already knows so don't hide it this may be more difficult for some people but I also highly, highly recommend you also confess your sins to someone you trust maybe that's a pastor maybe that's your best Christian friend who may be more spiritually mature than you regardless of if they're older or younger than you but they may be more spiritually mature regardless someone you can trust who's a Christian that you can confess your sins to not that they forgive your sins of course but because it's healthy that way because now you have another person praying for you as well the prayer of a righteous man heals H-E-A-L-S not H-E-E-L-S H-E-A-L-S heals prayer is powerful active regular consistent unceasing prayer is powerful don't believe the narrative set up that prayer is as useless as a thought as a passing glance to someone who is not a Christian or a religious person that makes sense because if you don't believe in God then you think that the prayers are just thoughts going to nowhere but to those who do believe in God or claim to believe in God you should know that prayer is powerful and prayer will thus lead not only to better spiritual health but also to invigorated action because we'll listen to God in our prayers that he will tell us to do this or do that or stay silent for a moment and continue to grow closer to him through prayer whatever reason or way he talks to you communicates to you through the written word or through the still quiet voice of the spirit regardless it's healthier you grow closer to God and once you are rested or once you are convicted you thus spring to action a mere thought won't do that a mere thought will just fade away prayer is not equivalent to a thought it only becomes equivalent to a thought if you believe it is if you believe that prayer is ineffective useless a mere waste of time your words and your thoughts become a self-fulfilling prophecy thus your prayers will become a waste of time and useless because you do not have faith that they will be fulfilled by God Christianity requires and demands faith it is not something that you can just see the ending of completely so let's not delude ourselves in thinking we don't need faith and faithful prayer to be Christian again any of those thoughts are lies seeds sown by the devil we must be aware of those we must be willing to purge them health use it or lose it some may say you either have it now and lose it later or you lose it now but at least you live but good health true health life bringing health, spiritual health from God that health is eternal it's not something you squander or waste away it's something you preserve something you guard something you cherish with all your heart, soul, mind and strength that relationship with God that healthy, authentic relationship and as you continue on health you'll notice that health and time are very much interconnected with each other because how you spend your time determines how you spend your life and since time is life's currency you better hope you spend it well I sure hope I do spend my life well there will come a day it's a guarantee in scripture there will come a day when, if you are a Christian your good works will be placed through a trial by fire if the fire burns up the good works you'll still make it to heaven but only as through fire however, if the fire does not burn up your good works then you will receive a reward this is given with the proper context that any good work done without reliance on God is just a futile attempt to earn our way into heaven and that won't work all good works authentic good works are possible because of God without God we wouldn't be able to do these good works we would view it as good in our minds in our eyes but our human standards would thus naturally lead to some sort of weak point or some sort of flaw but through God and through His glory and His power He alone has dictated that our good works succeed to glorify Him now sure Christians, excuse me, non-Christians non-believers may be able to do good charitable works good philanthropic works that still do glorify God but it doesn't affect their salvation by flipping it from negative to positive it still will be in the negative good works is one of those terms which gets a lot of people talking because it's linked to salvation one way or another either that it is necessary or that it isn't necessary but remember, as Christians we are supposed to do good works, let's not get lazy spiritual laziness is a sign of poor spiritual health it is very easy to be lazy hence the definition of lazy and laziness we must not fall into that trap as believers we are to do good works to glorify our Heavenly Father again as we connect the points of good works and good spiritual health and the way we spend our time and the way we spend our lives we must remember that time we put into God's kingdom is not wasted it's exactly the opposite again, the enemy likes to twist these points but remember that's not the case thus even though our entrance into Heaven, quote unquote cannot be gained merely by doing good works but through an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ Jesus the one we claim we have an authentic relationship with still commands us to do good works to glorify God I think that's important enough to mention twice and for non-believers in the end they will face the great white throne judgment and they will see that their names are not written in the book of life and thus they will be tossed away from God's presence forever and ever it's a terrible tragedy for believers if we know this truth and we do nothing about it let's just stay silent let's not remain silent forever there is a time to be silent and there is a time to speak to paraphrase Ecclesiastes but we note both parts not just the one we like to hear we must not forget that this life is short and that the cause of why we do all these things as believers is for God's glory we may be consumed by fear and we know that fear does lie to us and we also know that some fear can be godly but we must not be swayed to and fro by every single wind of doctrine every single claim to fear something or not fear something else we fear the Lord we have that deep reverence for God we fear Him but we fear Him properly then we don't have anything else to fear then our worries and our everyday concerns the things we treat as most important in our everyday lives suddenly, they're not so important after all the things we gun for, the things we long for the things we pray about the things that we hope for many times is just secondary to what God really wants for us it may be too self-centered may be too immediate in the now instead of viewing the eternity the eternal picture we have to re-evaluate our lives I know I have to it's not easy it's not easy at all we know that Christianity is not an easy lifestyle either and thankfully we know that even though it's not easy it's so worth it because of the love of God and because of His grace and compassion and mercy for us and that He has given us a free gift of eternal life something that we could never truly 100% repay Him for yet we can still live lives of grateful and thankful obedience as a result of having been given this priceless gift a gift we did not deserve a gift we did not earn a gift we could not work for or earn on our own it's such good news and everyone who is alive today has the chance to accept the Lord does not prefer that anyone should perish but that all who believe have eternal life everyone, even the non-believers listening, even those who claim to be Christian but aren't even the actual Christians lest we forget that we're not somehow better than non-believers just because we have the Christian label but only through God sanctifying us through His supernatural wonders and might does He thus glorify us and thus we attribute any good thing that may come from our lives because of God it's not because we're just special by definition, it's because God has made us special into His special calling and that anything we do the responsibility for that is God's and the glory for that is God's and any non-believer who accepts Christ can also receive these blessings and honor and glory as well there's no barrier there's no you need to be like this or do these things in order to merit your salvation or be worthy of it, no accept the free gift He's offering anyone can it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what you've done in the past it can all be washed away it can all be washed away, amen to that it's such good news and the door is open the door will close someday but the door is open now and so to those who are not Christians who are listening I do invite you right now right now to accept His gift His free gift of eternal life His free gift of salvation He loves us He loves you even though He knows all the things you did wrong in the past all the things you may be doing wrong now and all the things you and I will do wrong in the future He is still willing to overlook all of it He is still willing to forgive all of it He is still willing to forgive you and me if all that we do is place our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation it's as simple as ABC admit we are sinners a.k.a. someone who has disobeyed God and went against His will and thus committed evil things and thus believed sin that plagued humanity with sin so thus we admit we are sinners but we believe in Jesus we believe that what He said is true that He, the second Adam is the one who can forgive all our sin because He came to earth He committed no sin yet He died on a cross to shed His holy and precious blood to wash away our sin He was buried for three days and then resurrected from the dead to prove He has conquered the grave and that what He said and His claims are thus true and believable and worthy and then we must confess we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus we believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead notice the two parts we believe in our hearts not just in the head, the heart that Jesus raised from the dead His resurrection is true and thus because we believe it in our hearts we thus confess it with our mouths and we say it not just to those who believe but those who don't believe as well that is thus the sign and the fruit the natural fruit, the verbal fruit of our salvation A B C that simple admit, believe, confess and thus as well with believing and confessing there is a transformation in our lives something called repentance we repent our minds are changed we no longer think of the things of the world as right or justifiable or those means those ends, excuse me, are worth the means now our minds are changed we see it from God's perspective wow, what I've been doing is terrible I've been sinning against God I may not have even realized it or I realized it but I tried to suppress it but now I realize my actions are evil, my actions are bad I'm not a good person I have sinned against God Oh Lord, won't you forgive me? you might pray, or some other way you might pray to God and thus that repentance leads to a true change, because your mind is changed, thus your actions follow and if one doesn't match the other then true repentance did not occur but again it's the mind that changes first and when the mind changes, actions naturally follow and to be saved, some people say you have to pray a certain prayer or you have to pray a certain thing but just pray to God in your own words just follow that outline if you want but pray authentically don't just follow a pattern don't just repeat the words I'm saying because I said it actually look into it for yourself actually pray it if you mean it talk to God He loves you He loves you so much He loves you more than I can describe He loves you more than I can fathom He loves me more than I can fathom this is good news this is what we need to hear when we see in life we see things going wrong we see things spiraling out of control perhaps we see good things that have utility we see things we don't want to see whether good or bad the good news of Jesus Christ the good news of Jesus Christ pervades through generations and through circumstances through all the highs and lows of humanity His truth shines brighter than any false religion and any other worldview or ideology and thus as Christians whether you're a new believer or whether you've believed your entire life we have hope we have a purpose we have a future so let's live as if we actually believe it and thus live healthy in a healthy way so that was an interesting way I guess just to connect my disjointed maybe scatterbrained thoughts about health so perhaps I didn't cover everything if I missed something I'll pick it up in a future episode if I remember it but those are basically the same points the time is valuable health is fragile Christ is King and His salvation is a free gift for anybody again this podcast is targeted towards Christians but anyone's welcome to listen to it of course those who are non-believers will not understand perhaps all the references said or even if they do they won't believe it but you're still welcome to listen it's just to keep in mind that this podcast is targeted for Christian believers thus you may hear assumptions that I make or statements you might call biased or whatever but it's from my world view, from my perspective my Christian perspective thus the Christian perspective has biases you may say that the worldly perspective or secular perspective does not have and I'm fine with it that's just a disclaimer that in case you listen to it, that's just my worldview, so that's what you'll hear but for believers who are listening, again be encouraged even if you are spiritually sick right now even if you are feeling ill even if you're feeling you're too far gone, you're feeling that you're just not in the right place you may have moved but God's still there He is still there He can restore you He can heal you in ways I can't that no human being can even if you don't think it's immediate, even if you don't see it He can and He will heal you. He is faithful He is true If you don't believe it if you think your prayers are going unanswered I encourage you talk to someone talk to any Christian or believer whom you trust Christians or listening who do believe and are feeling and are realizing that God does answer our prayers and He is with us and do have joy. Be willing to answer the questions Be willing to embrace vulnerability from others. Let's not cast them aside and not fall into the pitfall of thinking we are higher than we actually are. As I mentioned earlier we are not as strong as we think we are We are totally dependent on Christ Christ loves us and Christ has blessed us but without Christ our lives would be purposeless and we would not be any quote unquote better than non-believers Let's not view life like that Let's not view other people like that Don't view them with a superiority-inferiority complex. We are all created in God's image. We don't know who is saved and who isn't saved who will be saved who isn't saved yet. We don't know any of those things So again, don't judge the book by its cover Don't be afraid of feeling and receiving opposition to the faith Be willing to practice patience, humility, be willing to accept that it may not be fair that you may have to say sorry or say things you don't want to say in order to keep the peace among brethren and sisters in Christ as well You may need to let go of points or realize that some non-believer, they may be in the wrong and they may say things that offend you but you don't sever it that relationship unless they sever it themselves You may grow further apart with a non-believer but if they ever return to you you gotta keep the door open Only if they slam the door shut is it time to move on Only if they say they'll never open it again is it time to proceed Even if they say the door is closed they may open it again someday Be open to that Be open to God leading people back into a place that you think you'll never talk to again Be open into seeing God lead people away from your life that you think you'll be close to for years to come Don't be surprised when God does things that are unexpected and that you don't want or that you don't think will happen Man plans things in his heart and man plans things that seem good but God laughs So, again live in such a way that when people around you see the way you live they give glory to God That is the best and healthiest way to live And I'll say it one more time to summarize a point a couple minutes ago It doesn't mean if a non-believer is hostile that you always have to engage them like every other day or once a week or whatever, but you leave the door open in case they become less hostile You remain friends if at all possible You do whatever is possible Anything within your capacity that you might win some souls, that you might save those to Christ because God is using you to do that Just be careful not to close the door on someone before God says it's shut There will be surprises on the last day Some people who you think are the strongest, most devout believers in Christ you will see them being cast out Some who you think have no chance possible to enter the kingdom of God you will see enter The first will be last and the last will be first So when we love God and love others as we would love ourselves we remember this we keep this in mind as we interact with both believers and non-believers to those we like to those we don't like to those we are closest to and those we are further apart from that everyone is created in God's image that we must treat them the way that we want to be treated and that we want Christ to treat us Whatever stick or whatever metric we use to judge someone will thus be used against ourselves So judge rightly act rightly speak rightly live rightly Even when we stumble, even when we fall even when we mess up God's grace is sufficient for us His power is made perfect in our weaknesses So we continue to trust Him through this journey of life through the ups and downs, through the unexpected moments that are to come through the triumph and tragedy We know God will never leave us nor forsake us So let's continue to trust Him, brothers and sisters in Christ Even through good and bad times He is faithful and He will always be faithful forever and ever Amen