70's Spiritual Weight Loss

I couldn't resist posting this article from Tim Challie's blog that reviews a classic 70's spoof of a book. It made me laugh many times.

Help Lord--The Devil Wants Me Fat!

Last year I posted a few pictures from the old 70’s classic Soul Winning Made Easy by C.S. Lovett. Recently I came across another of his books, one titled Help Lord—The Devil Wants Me Fat! The book teaches how the devil is able to influence your eating, how to deal with your appetite and how to deprogram yourself from bad eating habits. It is an odd mixture of good and bad, useful information and outright legalism (not to mention poor medical advice).

I enjoy these books as a bit of a guilty pleasure, I’m sure. They’re old, they’re retro and somehow quite amusing.

Here’s how this one starts:

Lovett largely blames overeating and obesity on Satanic activity.

Here’s a great picture of a very Caucasian Adam and Eve. Adam is totally ripped.

One of the best parts of Lovett’s books is that he always has lots of photographs of himself performing the programs he’s come up with (again, see Soul Winning Made Easy). Here he is meditating upon Jesus to see if it’s God’s will for him to undertake a fast.

The heart of the book is a fast. And this isn’t a fast for wimps—it’s 10 days of nothing but water (and heespecially recommends it for pregnant women and says it will cure morning sickness). The purpose of this fast is to take complete control of the flesh. Lovett suggests that for two days you will be hungry but after that your hunger will fade and you’ll be just fine. In fact, you’ll have an increase in energy and certainly an increase in relationship with the Lord.

One strange thing about this fast is that he tells you to spend meal times away from your family. While your family is eating dinner, you are to spend time in prayer and Bible reading.

Here he is enjoying breakfast (or dinner or lunch).

And here he is demonstrating how to tell Satan to go away:

After the conclusion of the fast he introduces a whole section about New Age-style visualization. He says that in order to become thin you have to project an image of yourself at your desired weight into order to develop the faith to actually make it happen.

And then he closes out the diet portion of the book with a section about nutrition, stating that you’ll have to learn to always say “no” to fats and oils, sugars and refined carbohydrates.

The final section of the book talks about evangelism because your fabulous new body, he says, can be a fabulous provoker of conversation. As people declare how good you look, you are to take the opportunity of that conversation to share the gospel. And I guess that takes us full-circle, back to Soul Winning Made Easy.

blog musings

So I've been reflecting on whether I should further extend my hiatus from the blog-o-sphere which has been steadily occurring over the past few months or if I should try to get back into sharing my heart, thoughts and convictions with renewed vigor. The problem I continue to face in consistently writing on here boils down to a greater struggle that currently encompasses most areas of my life- living with holy passion that moves me to action. I initially started blogging to share my life with friends and family while I was abroad in Australia but then picked it up again as a form of recording and sharing what the Lord has been teaching me. It began to serve as a tool to post theological resources or posts that I've come across in my reading, to meditate on scripture and life applications of scripture and to hopefully encourage others to grow and deepen their knowledge and intimacy with Christ. Additionally, it has been a helpful source of personal narrative for me to look back on and recall what the Lord has done in my heart and life at certain points. Blogging has definitely been a beneficial practice for me and besides all that, I enjoy writing and sharing!

As I stated above, my current inconsistency has a lot to do with my lack of zeal in life over the past few months. It's been a struggle to remain in the Word and prayer everyday and to choose to do these things out of obedience alone when I am not emotionally desiring to do them. I know this is the greatest obstacle to my spiritual growth and zeal right now and it needs to be submitted under the authority of the Lord. I've been seeing more and more how rebellious my heart is- marriage can display that pretty quickly! All in all, regardless of my circumstantial struggles with questioning my career path, time consuming work/studies and learning what life looks like post-college and newly married, my source has to be Christ and I know this. Our pastor gave a good illustration at church last week. He asked who of us believes that we need to exercise and eat right in order to be healthy. Most everyone put up their hands. Then he asked us who really does these things- many hands dropped. He maintained that if we say we believe something but we don't actually follow through on that belief by action, then we don't really believe it. In the context of what it looks like to follow Christ, I know that I must seek Him and find Him through prayer and reading the Word. And to neglect these things is to believe that I really don't need them in order to live my life. The state of my heart and lack of zeal for the Lord I am currently battling is direct evidence that I need these things in my life everyday. And not in a legalistic, salvation-earning type of way, but in the way that shows that I believe what the Bible tells me and it moves me to live according to it, regardless of my feelings and comfort.

This is a long way of saying that its time for Jody to get back into the game, to live out my convictions, to follow the Lord by simply seeking Him, to look to Christ for a renewed mind, heart and spirit. He promises that if we seek Him we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13) and that He has the power to restore to us the joy of our salvation and grant a willing spirit within us (Psalm 52).

As for blogging, I'm hoping to pick it up again as I pursue the disciplines of following Christ and find greater inspiration than I can muster up in and of myself. We'll see how quickly that will happen but for now, returning to the joy that I once found in Christ is the thing of most importance.

What does it mean to "accept Jesus"?

“You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” 1 Thessalonians 1:9

You and I are not integrated, unified, whole persons. Our hearts are multi-divided. There is a board room in every heart. Big table. Leather chairs. Coffee. Bottled water. Whiteboard. A committee sits around the table. There is the social self, the private self, the work self, the sexual self, the recreational self, the religious self, and others. The committee is arguing and debating and voting. Constantly agitated and upset. Rarely can they come to a unanimous, wholehearted decision. We tell ourselves we’re this way because we’re so busy with so many responsibilities. The truth is, we’re just divided, unfocused, hesitant, unfree.

That kind of person can “accept Jesus” in either of two ways. One way is to invite him onto the committee. Give him a vote too. But then he becomes just one more complication. The other way to “accept Jesus” is to say to him, “My life isn’t working. Please come in and fire my committee, every last one of them. I hand myself over to you. Please run my whole life for me.” That is not complication; that is salvation.

“Accepting Jesus” is not just adding Jesus. It is also subtracting the idols.

A post from Ray Ortlund at Christ is Deeper Still

blog neglector

Yes, I've been neglecting my blog as of late, and no, I don't have much of an excuse for it besides the fact that I tried to redo the template, messed it up, lost my previous one, and then got fed up with trying to fix it. Good excuse? Nah, I didn't think so either.

The good news is that I have fresh inspiration to fix my blog template, make it look sweeter than ever before, and get back into blogging. (i think posting my intentions on here will make it harder for me to procrastinate on this one!) Stay tuned...

Highway of Heroes

A fellow Canadian blogger shared this post. Watch the videos to understand why it moved me to tears.

From Challies Dot Com

Every now and again I like to give you a snippet of Canadiana in a series I call "It's a Fact, eh?" Let me do so again today.

Yesterday I had to drive down to Buffalo to pick up my sister and my niece who are up here for a short visit. I pulled onto the highway and, as I did so, noticed that parked on the overpass was a pair of firetrucks and a few police cars. Lining the bridge facing east was a crowd of people, holding flags and standing solemnly. As I joined traffic I noticed that on the bridge ahead of me was another crowd, much the same as the last one--firefighters, police officers, citizens, flags. I remembered then that somewhere behind me, driving out of Toronto and toward Brantford, was a convoy carrying one of Canada's fallen soldiers. Trooper Larry Rudd Rudd was based with the Royal Canadian Dragoons and was recently killed by an explosion, becoming the 146th member of the Canadian military to die in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. And yesterday morning he was driven back to his hometown.

The Highway of Heroes is a new Canadian tradition and one that is grassroots to its core. Just a few years old, the tradition has picked up steam in the past few months.

When a soldier loses his life in service overseas, his body is sent back to Canada in a flag-draped casket, arriving at Trenton Air Force Base. The family of the fallen soldier waits here and, as the body is taken from the plane, stands through a short ceremony. The body is then taken to the Centre for Forensic Sciences in Toronto, some 100 miles distant. And this is where a fascinating little tradition cropped up. Average citizens, with some members of emergency services, began to stand on the overpasses en route as the bodies were driven along the highway--100 miles' worth of overpasses. What started as just a few people on a few bridges quickly grew into a new tradition with hundreds or even thousands of people participating.

This video tribute to the soldiers raised awareness not only of the war in Afghanistan, but also the new tradition that had arisen around it.

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Even Americans have noticed this phenomenon, as evidenced by this report by NBC:

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As a result of this new movement, a position convinced Ontario's government to rename that section of highway leading from Trenton to Ontario. As of September 2007 it is officially known as The Highway of Heroes.

And though Rudd was driven down the official stretch of the Highway of Heroes a couple of days ago, yesterday was the day he was taken to a funeral home in his home town. Even along a different stretch of highway, all the way through Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton and Brantford, Canadians came out to pay tribute. I found it very stirring to drive along and to see all those people waiting, paying their respects to one of our nation's heroes.

Recently the east coast band The Trews penned a tribute to the soldiers in a song called, not surprisingly, "Highway of Heroes." (listen to it here)

The day I shipped out,
They numbered a dozen.
Upon my return,
Were a hundred or so.
From the coast and the prairies,
I bet they keep coming.
Add one more name from Ontario.

Chorus:
Carry me home down The Highway of Heroes.
People above with their flags flying low.
Carry me softly, down The Highway of Heroes.
True Patriot Love, there was never more.

I served with distinction,
No visions of glory.
I served without question of personal gain.
Seek no justification, it's not part of my story.
And it offers no comfort to the ones who remain.

I took up my vocation,
I was called by my nation.
Without hesitation,
My answer I gave.
Now I am not wondering,
The things that I might have been.
I'm no consolation, to the forgotten brave.

To understand the importance of the Highway of Heroes you have to understand that Canadians are not known for their patriotism. A relatively quiet and humble nation, Canadians do not have an equivalent to a song like "Proud to Be an American." We do not have the equivlent to the chant of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" Yes, most Canadians have some sense of patriotism, of national pride, but it is usually quite subdued. It also bears mention that few Canadians support the war in Afghanistan. Most see it as an American war and one that we have little business being involved in. And yet Canadians are still eager to support the troops and to honor them for their willingness to put their lives on the line in their duty to the nation.

Somehow the whole Highways of Heroes phenomenon seems strange to me, it seems un-Canadian; it is just so unusual, so unexpected. And yet I am glad for it; I'm proud of it. I don't know that I've ever been more proud to be Canadian as I was as I drove along yesterday, seeing those flags draped and all those people standing at respectful attention.

coffee at starbucks

Just an fyi:
If your morning routine includes heading to Starbucks before 10:30 a.m. (this may not apply to the college peeps whose day usually begins around 11 or 12...) :) It's free pastry day with the purchase of a brewed or iced beverage at Starbucks if you get there before 10:30 and use this coupon.

Enjoy the freebie!