Good Health

Here is an insightful journal post from Bro Bob Jennings, a dear friend of mine who has pancreatic cancer. Please keep him in your prayers, but also, gain the value of the things the Lord is teaching Him during his fleeting days here "under the sun" as Ecclesiastes tells us.

---------------------------

Good Health

Posted on August 30, 2010 by jjennings

Acts 4:10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead–by this name this man stands here before you in good health.

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

Good health, apart from the welfare of the soul, is a supreme blessing. If you are in bad health, you can scarcely enjoy any material blessings – a fine house means so little. If you are in bad health, service for God can be hindered – Trophimus was left at Miletus sick, 2 Tim. 4.20. Peter’s mother-in-law was healed and was able to serve again, Mat. 8.15. It is astonishing that so much attention is given to car maintenance and house maintenance, but often the body is neglected and abused.

Our bodies are very important, very close to home. The devil knows that and told God that Job would compromise if his health were stripped, Job 2.5. Demons, even religious demons, want to destroy the body, Col. 2.23. The medical industry is enormous. In about any society it is big. The medicine man or witch doctor is the big man in primitive tribes. God speaks loudly to the non-Christian through his body, Rom. 1.24. That applies for the Christians too, 1 Cor. 11.30. The fact that all are returned to dust is a powerful sermon as to the awfulness of sin. For the non-Christian, God will put body and soul in hell, Mat. 10.28.

For the Christian, though our body is dust, yet, what a mercy, what a full salvation it is that the Lord has redeemed our body too, Rom. 8.23. Our bodies are even now called members of Christ, 1 Cor. 6.15. They are the temple of Christ, 6.19. The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body, 6.13. We are called to continually present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice, Rom 12.1.

It is a blessing to die in a ripe old age, Gen. 25.8. But our times are in God’s hand, Psa. 31.15. So we press on and work with what we have and seek to glorify God in our body, whether by life or by death, 1 Cor. 6.20, Php. 1.20.