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Lost and Found – Fitness?

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The New York Times: At its core, the secret to a healthy fitness routine is simple: Find ways to move. There are limitless options these days, but the best exercise is whatever you enjoy enough to keep doing it.…Exercise to ease pain. Take a walk. Get your butt in shape. Find the right balance. Exercise to help boost your mood. Improve your sleep.

PBS NewsHour: It’s been well known for many decades that exercise provides many benefits to our health. But a new scientific consortium is revealing new insights into just how profound exercise can be for the human body.

Covenant Health: A new year is a chance for a fresh start and a great time to set goals for healthier habits. 2025 can be the year your fitness resolutions last a lifetime.…Here are a few pointers: 1. Reframe Fitness Resolutions as Intentions. 2. Embrace “Micro-Habits”. 3. Focus on Attitude Rather Than Outcomes. 4. Choose Self-Compassion Over Self-Criticism. 5. Anchor Resolutions in Gratitude.

When it comes to a new year resolution involving fitness many people groan, and moan rolling over to hit the snooze button. It has been said that we shouldn’t go on a diet. Instead we should choose to make the way we eat a new lifestyle. Truth be known physical truth often points to greater spiritual truth. Interestingly the language used for physical fitness can also apply to spiritual fitness. The Apostle Paul stated in 1 Tim. 4:8 For physical training is of some value (useful for a little), but godliness (spiritual training) is useful and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life which is to come. AMPC

Notice that he says physical training is of some value. How you are physically can often affect how you are spiritually. Jude, a half-brother, of Jesus provides us with a few things we can utilize to improve our spiritual fitness. What are some ways we can begin?

Evaluation and Assessment: Jude 1:19 It is these who are [agitators] setting up distinctions and causing divisions—merely sensual [creatures, carnal, worldly-minded people], devoid of the [Holy] Spirit and destitute of any higher spiritual life. Evaluate how you have grown spiritually (NOT how you have failed). Can you recognize the activity of the Holy Spirit in your life? Ask yourself have you achieved a higher spiritual life? Sunday before last I handed out a checklist to recognize some of the characteristics of the Holy Spirit’s activity in your life. (If you need me to send you a copy email me)

Build Yourself Up Spiritually: Jude 1:20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit;…Jude and the Apostle Paul both had private, regular, committed times to praying in the Spirit. (1 Cor. 14:18) Have you been baptized in the Spirit? Have you received a prayer language? (1 Cor. 14:14-15) If you have prayed for it without a manifestation simply begin thanking Him that it is already there (and keep thanking Him).

Commit to Loving Like Jesus: Jude 1:21 Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God;…Let’s all make a fresh commitment to guard everything we say and do in Jesus’ Love. Ask yourself, Am I seeing others the way Jesus sees them? Have I asked? Have you thanked Him for the difficult people in your life that are helping you to become more like Jesus? Are you utilizing those times to lean into the difficulties and become more like Jesus?

Commit to Sharing Your Faith in Public: Jude 1:3 Beloved, my whole concern was to write to you in regard to our common salvation. [But] I found it necessary and was impelled to write you and urgently appeal to and exhort [you] to contend for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints [the faith which is that sum of Christian belief which was delivered verbally to the holy people of God]. Commend for the faith by simply being available to share the good news with everyone you meet. Jude adds, Jude 1:23 [Strive to] save others, snatching [them] out of [the] fire; on others take pity…

Let us be those who look for what’s lost and find it. Pray the Lord will reveal to you those who are lost and need to be found by Jesus. Pray He will make you sensitive to those who are lost without knowing Jesus and those who have simply fallen away from following Him. Let us make Revelation 7:9 our vision: After this I looked and a vast host appeared which no one could count, [gathered out] of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the Lamb; they were attired in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. AMPC

3 Times A Year

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Three times a year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed (Dt. 16:16 AMPC)

Tomorrow night we are going to celebrate Pentecost which is a holiday, or holy day celebrated by Jews and Christians every year. The Church holiday bases their date of Sunday, May 31 on the Gregorian calendar, whereas the Jewish date of Friday-Saturday, May 29-30 is based on God’s calendar. I say God’s calendar because if we believe the Word of the Lord to be true – from “Kiver to Kiver” (Cover to Cover) – then we also believe that God gave these feasts and festivals to His people for a purpose. Now when I say, His people, I am referring both to Jew, and those who have been ingrafted into the Fig Tree that Israel is through the righteousness of Abraham. We have become the circumcised of the heart and God’s Law has been written upon our hearts. The question is, How does all of this apply to the modern day saint in the 21st century?

Recently I was convicted by the revelation that in two out of the three feasts something significant happened. (I could make an argument for all three but I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that an argument could be made that Jesus was actually born during the Feast of Tabernacles based on several prophecies regarding Jesus being Immanuel – “the God Who Tabernacles or Dwells with His people“) We know that Jesus was crucified during Passover, and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost. It is my opinion that Jesus will return during the Feast of Tabernacles. Again this would take a great deal of time to explain but I’ll leave you with a little tidbit of information to consider: Why did the Jews lay down palm branches when Jesus was entering Jerusalem? (Palm branches were specifically used during the Feast of Tabernacles). My answer would be, that the Jews associated the Palm Branches with Tabernacles, or Sukkot, and with the coming of the Messiah. My conviction expanded into the realization that if God told His people that they had to gather on these three significant holidays, and on two of the three holidays Jesus appeared, then it would behoove us believers to also gather on the three holidays for Inspection (Passover, and Ridding ourselves of the yeast, or leaven of sin); for Dedication and Consecration (Pentecost was an offering of the very best of their first fruits from harvest); and lastly, for Preparation (Tabernacles was preceded by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in which the people sought to draw near to God, repent of sin, and prepare for God drawing near to them). Thus, by the Grace of God, and His Spirit our church will celebrate these three readying ourselves for Christ’s Return.

If we are practicing all three then we too will be prepared when the Trumpet Blasts sound from the Heavens and the saints are gathered to meet Him in the air. May the Spirit of Revelation set us free from the powerful delusion that has come upon the mainstream church that does not love the Truth, or know (ginosko) Him. Lord willing I will see you tomorrow night for our Pentecost meal.