Below are excerpts from Pastor Stuart's daily scripture meditations. Click the title of the excerpt to read the full article. To receive these articles in your email inbox, please click the link at the top of the page to subscribe.
Is Healthy Spiritual? | September 18, 2017
Yesterday, at VLC, I spoke from my heart about God's desire for us to commit to our health as a part of our spiritual life. I am continually concerned that our choices and lifestyle do not allow us the freedom to live the abundant life that the Lord calls us to. While I know that this message is a very challenging one to hear, the sooner we commit to it, the sooner, we will be on our way to healing and honoring the Lord with our body.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB)
Food For Thought | September 19, 2017
Food... the Bible has a lot to say about it. Food is a key theme in regard to diet, health, family, and community celebration. Like many concepts, the Lord uses the ordinary things of our day to teach us about Himself and His ways. What could be more ordinary than food to instruct us? Here are a few of the many lessons we can learn through food.
God said, “I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food.
Genesis 1:29 (GW)
The Purpose Of Exercise | September 20, 2017
We have been looking at physical health this week as a part of our spirituality. From the beginning of the New Testament times, believers have been confused about the physical body and its importance in the spiritual life. Like every aspect of our lives, our bodies require "stewardship" before the Lord. He has given our bodies and health and asks us to care for it.
Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.”
1 Timothy 4:7, 8 (NLT)
The Gift God Gives Those He Loves | September 22, 2017
In our verse, written thousands of years ago, Solomon shares the vanity of trying to control our lives without proper sleep. We find ourselves rising early and staying up late trying to live the "full" life that cannot be found without God's gift of sleep. This gift is a double miracle, one physical and one spiritual.
In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Psalms 127:2 (NIV)