Week 28 Sunday
Week 28 Sunday
The Unity of Body and Soul
Romans 6:13; 12:1; 1 Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 10:5-7
We have been taking up one by one the places where there have been divisions, trying to see the possibility of bringing unity, and hence, power, into the total life. We now come to the division between the body and the soul.
The body has been looked upon as the enemy of the soul. It must be suppressed, sometimes mutilated, and finally laid aside with a sigh of relief for the freedom. Of someone it was said, “He seemed to be ashamed that he inhabited his body.” Religion has often intensified this war between soul and body.
But not so in Jesus. There is not one word in the Gospels of this morbid idea concerning the body. Jesus accepted his body as he accepted his soul, as gifts from God: “you prepared a body for me” (Heb. 10:5 CEB). His body and his soul were attuned. He did not neglect his body, or pamper it, or suppress it; he offered it as the vehicle of God’s will and purpose. And he kept it fit for God. There is no mention of his ever having been sick. Tired, yes, but never ill.
He, and not anemic saints, must be our pattern for the way we are to act toward our bodies. Just enough food to keep us fit and a little less than that which would keep us fat. Why carry excess luggage anyway? We may sometimes become ill, but we have no business to be more ill than we should be. For many of our ills are self-induced. They come from wrong mental attitudes. Just enough sleep to make us fresh, and a little less than that which would make us lazy. Enough exercise for fitness, with an eye on the fact that too much attention to sport may drain higher interests.
We must keep our bodies fit like a well-tuned violin, and then the music of God will come from every fiber of our being.
O Christ, we thank you that your body and your soul were not at cross purposes, so the ages bend low to catch the rhythm of that harmony. Help us to be the same. Amen.
Week 28 Monday
This Is My Body
Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 9:27; 1 Timothy 5:22
One of the most astonishing things Jesus ever said was this: “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matt. 26:26). He offered his body for humanity to feed upon. It is an astonishing offer.
I would not dim the idea of the atonement in these words. That idea is there, and we are grateful. But is this idea not there too: that he offered to feed us on the way he treated his body, the way he made his bodily appetites subserve the purposes of the kingdom, the way he sublimated his sex impulses, and the way he kept pure in act and in thought? In short, does he not offer to us his whole bodily victory? Feed upon that fact, he says. And we do.
If we can say the same thing to others, then we are really knowing victory. Are we able to feed people at the place of our victories, which we have in and through our bodies? Can we say to tempted and harassed people, “Take, eat of this victory I am gaining with my bodily appetites”? If so, we are in line of the succession of his spirit. We are an extension of the incarnation.
So when tempted today to indulge our passions in thought or in deed, we shall say: “No, this cannot be. For, if I do that, my lips will be sealed when people come to me to feed upon the fact of my victory. I shall have nothing to set before them. I cannot offer them the possibility of feeding upon my soul, unless I can offer the possibility of feeding upon my bodily triumphs. They go together. I shall keep myself pure today, by feeding upon Jesus’ victory, that some might feed upon mine. I cannot offer to people to feed upon the bitterness of my defeat. It must be victory.”
O Christ of the pure body, make me like that. May no impure thought or deed this day incapacitate me for offering at eventide my victory to tempted souls. Keep me pure at the place of earth contacts. Amen.
Week 28 Tuesday
This Is My Blood
Leviticus 17:14; Matthew 26:27-29; John 6:53-56
Jesus said another astounding thing: “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood” (Matt. 26:27-28). Again we repeat that the idea and the fact of the atonement are in those words. But is not this idea also there? He was beginning a new bloodstream, a new heredity of a higher race; now we can have the source of our blood heredity, not in the tainted, contaminated past of which we are the unwilling inheritors, but in a new, pure, untainted source of inherited life.
My ancestry may be a poor, contaminated, streaky human line; whose isn’t? So be it! But now I step into a new line from a new Ancestor. I am not a victim of the past; I begin a new line, in Jesus! “Christ is in my very blood,” said a joyous Indian to me one day. Why not? More—he is my very blood! He becomes Life of my life, Blood of my blood when I assimilate him in obedience and trust.
But this has another side to it. You and I must be able to say the same thing to others: “This is my blood; drink it. You will find coursing within my blood a new victory and a new purity; drink of that victory and of that newness.” If this be so, then we must let no impurity, no disease get within our bloodstream. It must be kept pure and healthy, so that the present and future generations may inherit from us a new heredity.
So when tempted today, you must say, “No, that would make me unfit at eventide to say to anyone, ‘Drink of my life and of my new line.’ No, for their sakes I sanctify myself—yea, my very blood—that I may be able to feed, not poison, this and coming generations.’’
“Christ is in my very blood.”
Is He?
Then rejoice—and give it!
O Christ, I thank you that you offer to me your blood and that I belong to that new heredity. Help me to be worthy of such a line. And help me to hold within me the dignity of the life to which I belong. May a new humble pride possess me. Amen.
Week 28 Wednesday
Bodily Sickness: What Attitude?
Matthew 10:8; Mark 7:34; Luke 13:16; John 11:33
Our victory should extend to our bodies. Our bodies should be as fit as possible. I say “as possible,’’ for some are handicapped with a poor physical frame. Even so, it can be made better, perhaps well.
First of all, get rid of the idea that your sickness is God-sent. It isn’t. God is fighting against disease. Christ never said sickness was the will of God; Jesus cured sickness. The kingdom of God is an offensive against everything that cripples life, including disease.
A well-known doctor was right in saying, “If you believe that it is the will of God that you should be anything but well and healthy, that your sickness is God-sent, then obviously, however much you may develop the spiritual life, its power does not get through to the physical: you have put out the clutch.”
The British Medical Journal says that “there is not a tissue of the human body wholly removed from the influence of spirit.” If so, we must let the power of our spiritual lives pour into the physical. “If the Spirit . . . dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also” (Rom. 8:11). Other things being equal, the Christian should be healthier than those who are not Christian, for we have tapped a source of power for the body.
The greatest source of power for physical health is the absence of inward clash and strife in the spirit. Many people would be well physically if they were spiritually.
Hold, then, to these two things—your sickness is not the will of God, and it may depend on the state of your soul. Of course it may not. But if it does, the first step to physical health is to get rid of all inward clashes and complexes.
O Christ of the healthy soul and body, make us like that. May we pass on to our bodies no weariness of soul. May we be as healthy as you will us to be. Amen.
Week 28 Thursday
Are You Tired?
Job 10:1; Isaiah 5:27; 40:31; Matthew 11:28
An African proverb says, “Don’t be tired tomorrow.” Many of us are, for we pass on mental states to the body.
A famous physician, who has cured thousands in her sanitarium, says that nature balances up the accounts about every twenty-four hours. That is, if you are tired and will give nature twenty-four hours of rest, it will throw off the fatigue toxins within that time. She says that you do not lay up fatigue toxins for weeks and months. If you did, you would not be tired, you would be dead. Beyond the twenty-four hours, the tiredness is in the mind. Up to that time, there is a physical basis for the tiredness, after that it is mental and spiritual. She therefore pooh-poohs the idea of lying up for weeks and months for bodily rest. Twenty-four hours will do the trick, provided the soul is adjusted and harmonious. It is amazing what the body can stand if the soul is unified. Most people wear out not from overwork, but from under-being.
“How do you do it?” asked a colleague as we started on a speaking tour.
“Well,” I replied, “there are two ways to do it. One is the way the railway engines get their water in India: they stop at the station, take time off, and thus get their water tanks filled. The other is the way the engines get water in America; they scoop it up as they run.”
“All right,” she said, “I’ll do it. I’ll scoop it up; I’ll take the power and victory of Christ as I go along.” She did, and it worked.
Say to yourself, not merely as you fall asleep at night, but again and again throughout the day, “I can do all things in [Christ] who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). Its balm will soothe your nerves and will quicken every fiber of your being.
O you who went through the strain of the day without strain, give us that inward sense of your healing quiet upon our spirits, that we may be ready for anything. Amen.
Week 28 Friday
How Does God Heal?
Exodus 23:25; Psalm 105:3; Proverbs 17:22; Matthew 8:7; 9:12
The healing of God does not flow in one channel only. God heals in many ways, by physicians, surgeons, climate, mental suggestion, the direct touch of the Spirit upon our bodies, and common sense.
By “common sense” I mean that, while God gives grace to undertake greater tasks than we are normally fitted for, nevertheless God may be saying to us through a sickness: “Lighten up. You are carrying too heavy a load.” You cannot do everything, and it may be that by doing less you can do the worthwhile thing better.
There is the positive duty of sometimes refusing to do good. If we find that we have “too much on our plate,” then we must take less, take only as much as we can digest. We must go to the limit of our strength, but then we must watch our margins and not go beyond them. Common sense told me years ago that, given the kind of work I do, if I were to get exercise, I should have to get it at night just before going to bed, for it was the one time I was sure of. I found that it not only gave me exercise, but it took the blood out of my brain, distributed it through the system, and my mind thus relaxed and went off to sleep at once. Whereas, if I lay there with brain congested, it continued active and sleepless.
Common sense will tell us many other things about the physical bodies we live with, and we must obey that common sense. It is one of God’s methods of healing. It is not a spectacular method, but often God comes along some very lowly, dusty roads to us. And we must not despise God’s coming because it occurs along a lowly road.
O Christ, you called your disciples aside to rest from the many things and the many people. Help us not to despise this call of yours, as you call us to your side for rest, and perhaps for letting go of many things that we may do one thing well. Amen.
Week 28 Saturday
How Does God Heal? (continued)
Matthew 4:18; 12:9-13; Acts 4:14; James 5:14-15
Christian people have often brought discredit on Christian healing by choosing one way alone, perhaps healing by prayer, and treating lightly or rejecting other methods. This is a mistake. Nor should doctors despise the method of prayer, but lay hold on it and use it.
For God sometimes touches the body directly through prayer. When asked to pray for a lady who was in the last stages of tuberculosis, I replied that I could not pray for her physical healing unless she were willing for Christ to heal her soul. I am not sure I was right in demanding that condition, for Jesus did not make such a demand in his healing. Anyway, she was more than ready to meet that demand and did, so I prayed for her healing. In two months, she had gained twenty pounds.
A girl had a cancer on her tongue; the cancer had been cut out and burned out ten times. Just after she had given herself to Christ, and as we were still in prayer, I had an intuition that God would heal her. I leaned over and asked if she didn’t believe God would heal her.
“Why, he has,” she said in glad astonishment. And he had!
I called in a doctor who had known the case in the hospital, and telling him nothing that had happened, asked him to examine her. After examination, he turned to us and said, “She’s well.”
“What would you say, doctor, if we told you that God had healed her?” we asked.
“Well,” he said very thoughtfully, “I couldn’t say anything against it.”
But science should go further: it should say something in favor of prayer, and use it. And Christians in turn should look on the ways of healing through science as God’s ways, and use them. For God wills health.
O Christ, whose seamless robe is by our beds of pain, we pray you to help us to touch it in faith and rise into health. Amen.