by natalie horne
Body, mind and soul. They are undeniably interconnected and their conditions are dependent on one another. A healthy body is not a requirement for faith and intimacy with God, but I’ve found in my experience that when I care for the basic needs of my body, my spiritual life flourishes. What we eat, whether or not we exercise, and what we do in our free time can all help or hinder our relationship with the Lord. I can say with confidence from a God-given place of wholeness in Christ, there is a very real tie between my physical wellness and the state of my soul.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
dying daily to self-centeredness.
Pride keeps us far from humility.
Self-condemnation keeps us far from grace.
Both are equally self-centered.
Since I began studying the book of Daniel with my small group this year, I’ve come to realize that I am an incredibly prideful and selfish person. Not only do I engage in self-centered self-glorification, but also quite a bit of self-condemnation, which includes negative self-talk and those “I’m not [insert what you wish you were] enough” feelings.
Not so ironically, this idea showed up in two places this week: first, in my homework for the Beth Moore study we’re going through; and second, in the text of Brennan Mannings book, “The Signature of Jesus,” which I just started reading.
Perhaps God is trying to teach me something this week?
Let’s look at the most important text—God’s Word—to uncover some of His truth…
You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low (2 Samuel 22:28)
…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. (Psalm 25:9)
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. (Daniel 4:37)
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10)
For the proud (all of us, at times): “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” (Romans 12:3)
For the self-condemning (all of us, at times): “I [Jesus] am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14)
After all of my reading and researching, I find myself right at the foot of the cross. The Lord asks us to humbly receive His gifts that make us strong, and his grace that forgives our weakness. John Piper says,
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
Satisfaction in the Lord is neither thinking too highly of ourselves (pride), nor thinking too low of ourselves (self-condemnation). God hates pride, and when we engage in pride we take glory away from God. But God also hates self-condemnation, because when we are filled with self-hate, we refuse His gift of grace—we say to Jesus, “That whole death on the cross thing you did just wasn’t good enough for all that I’ve done. I can’t accept it.”
Let’s live lives at the foot of His cross, dying daily to our selfish pride and self-hating thoughts. Let’s humbly give glory to the Lord in all things, and also embrace His deep love for us, that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and deeply known by our loving Father.
I have a confession. I drink a lot of coffee.
Thanks to the influence of my fiance Brian and roommate Becca, I have grown to really love coffee and drink it every day. I will always be true to my love for tea, but coffee is definitely a current favorite. It’s more than just an energy-booster, and more of a treat for the soul. Nothing is quite as soothing as a hot beverage on a cool morning, or an iced one on a hot summer afternoon.
With my increased consumption, I started wondering, Is this good for my body? And of course, in true Natalie fashion, I had to research it. What I found was immensely encouraging, so coffee-drinkers, read up! Now you can be armed with knowledge to combat those naysayers who say its a bad habit :)
The Ultimate Superdrink
By Beth Janes
From the SELF Magazine August 2009 Issue
- Benefit your bean. It’s a no-brainer! Lifelong caffeinated-coffee fans may be less prone to develop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Coffee’s antioxidants may tamp down cell damage linked to Parkinson’s. And caffeine blocks inflammation in the brain, which is associated with Alzheimer’s.
- Sip for your smile. Caffeinated java has antibacterial and antiadhesive powers, so it may keep cavity-causing bacteria from eating your enamel. And drinking a cup daily has been shown to slash oral cancer risk by half. Also, compounds found in coffee may limit cancer cell growth and DNA damage.
- Brew for your breasts. Coffee’s a bosom buddy! Premenopausal women who downed four cups of regular coffee per day experienced a 38 percent reduction in their breast cancer risk, a study in The Journal of Nutrition finds. Coffee unleashes phytoestrogens and flavonoids that may stifle tumor growth. But drink up: Those who had less than 4 cups didn’t benefit.
- Stop stones. Gallstones grow when mucus inside your gallbladder traps cholesterol crystals. Xanthine, found in caffeine, may reduce mucus and risk for deposits. Two or more cups daily may help.
- Save your skin. Two to five cups of regular coffee daily may help lower your risk for nonmelanoma skin cancer by up to 17 percent. Caffeine may spur skin to kill precancerous cells, and it also inhibits tumor growth.
- Dodge diabetes. People who sip 3 to 4 cups of regular or decaf coffee a day are 30 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Chlorogenic acid may help prevent insulin resistance, a harbinger of the disease.
When we fear failure more than we love life, when we are dominated by thoughts of what we might have been rather than by thoughts of what we might become, when we are haunted by the disparity between our ideal self and our real self, when we are tormented by guilt, shame, remorse, and self-condemnation, we deny our faith in the God of love.
Brennan Manning
living in babylon.
Hey friends,
I just wrote my first post on the Wonderfully Made Blog! The link above will take you to the site, or you can read it below.
Enjoy!
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We are all living in a modern-day Babylon, tried and tempted each day with the appealing pleasures of the world surrounding us. Do we serve our own desires, or do we pursue the will of our Creator and Redeemer? Do we bow down to the gods of our culture, or stay true to the One True God? Today I want to talk about standing firm in our faith while living in a culture that entices us with complete overindulgence and self-absorption.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been studying the book of Daniel with my small group, via the genius DVDs of Beth Moore. If you’ve never done one of her studies, I highly recommend it! Silly as she can be, she is one smart woman who knows her scripture!
The story of Daniel takes place in ancient Babylon, a city with a culture that is not unlike our American way of life. Babylon valued youth, beauty and wealth, and lived by the motto, “I am, and there is none besides me” (Isaiah 47:8). Each week as we study the book verse by verse, we continually see the battle Daniel and his friends—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago—are fighting to remain culturally relevant without becoming spiritually irrelevant. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
As we’ve been immersing ourself in the scripture and praying for wisdom in our study, I can’t help but realize that my life right now is much like Daniel’s—and yours probably is too! I live in a city that is not my home, surrounded by people who worship different gods—like money, appearance, success, popularity, and of course, self.
In many ways, north county San Diego feels like the New Age capital of the world. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good yoga class; but yoga is the way of life here. So many of the people I interact with and love in this city believe in the power within the self to make anything happen, and pursue total balance and control: control of the body, breath and mind. That sounds great, doesn’t it? Of course I’d love to create my own “perfect” world to live in and control everything in it. But that’s not real! We are not gods over our own lives; only the Lord is sovereign. Sure, we can live that way for a while, steeped deeply in the Babylonian mindset, “I am and there is none besides me,” but we will end up disappointed.
My home is with Christ and my God is the only One who satisfies, redeems and delivers, but it’s easy and tempting to think otherwise when the other options are so enticing and self-gratifying. My challenge is the same as Daniel’s: how do I stay true to my God and live with intergrity and humility when the culture around me is so overindulgent and self-serving?
Yesterday we studied Daniel 3, which is the story of The Fiery Furnace. During his reign over Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzer built a 90ft gold statue of himself and demanded that whenever his people heard the sound of “the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music” they were required to fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Anyone who disobeyed faced death by the fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego saw the furnace blazing, felt the heat and smelled the smoke, but they refused to bow down and worship:
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18).
In the end, God saves them and his name is made more famous. While living in an idol-worshiping, self-absorbed culture, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego made God’s name KNOWN.
Our purpose—just like theirs was—is not to make our name greater, but to make Him known. “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).
I hope that is the mark I can leave on this city. May I become less and He become greater.
Amen.
Highlights from a spectacular wedding weekend. Congrats to the Pommers!
