August Newsletter
Here we are rolling into August
and another
lawn care inspired newsletter.
My wife and
I were discussing caring for
the lawn and
how it's not good to water when
the sun is
at its peak hours. If we water
the lawn when
the sun is out, the water on
the blades of
grass act like tiny magnifying
glasses and
actually end up burning the lawn.
Val pointed
out that God always makes conditions
right,
even when He waters our lawn.
When the rain
falls and brings renewing water
to the earth,
it is usually cloudy and overcast.
No hot
sun to burn up the greenery.
He knows what
He is doing even if we do not,
or cannot
understand. Circumstances around
us may seem
like the greatest catastrophy
we have ever
experienced, yet we somehow come
through
and when we look back we can
see that it
was all part of God's plan. We
were made
stronger, learned a lesson, moved
in a different
direction or in some way helped
another less
fortunate by what we experienced.
Has that
ever happened to you? You go
through something
truamatic and just cannot figure
out why
it has happened to you. Years
may go by and
someone comes into your life.
That experience
you had years ago comes to the
forefront
and serves to help this person;
perhaps bringing
them to the Lord. You see, it
was always
part of God's plan. Believe me,
this is no
coincidence. Just look at 2 Corinthians
1:3-4
"Blessed be the God and
Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies
and God of all comfort, who comforts
us in
all our tribulation, that we
may be able
to comfort those who are in any
trouble,
with the comfort with which we
ourselves
are comforted by God."
Yes, conditions have to be right;
God plans
it that way. We may not understand,
we may
get angry with Him when things
go awry, and
sometimes, people turn away from
Him. However,
all works for the greater good
of the Lord
and God works all things for
the good of
those who love Him.
"And we know that all things
work together
for good to those who love God,
to those
who are the called according
to His purpose."
Romans 8:28
Now I know that this example
is Hollywood
but take the movie Signs starring
Mel Gibson.
He was a minister whose wife
was tragically
killed in an accident, his son
had asthma
and his daughter had the quirky
habit of
taking a sip of water from a
glass and then
would leave the glass around
the house half
full. Some of his wife's final
words were
for her husband to "see"
and for
Gibson's brother to "swing
away."
Both things made no sense to
him at the time,
but at the climax of the movie,
God's plan
was revealed. His son's asthma
saved the
boy's life when poison gas was
sprayed into
his face. Because of his asthma
attack, he
didn't breath in the poison and
die. Gibson's
brother, a former minor league
baseball star
had his homerun record bat displayed
on the
wall and used it to beat the
alien. Those
glasses of water left all around
the house?
Lethal to the alien! Gibson's
wife's directive
to "see" enabled him
to put it
all together. God used the dying
wife to
deliver these messages to Gibson.
Although
he didn't understand any of it
at the time.
The conditions were right; everything
came
together at the right time to
save his family.
And remember:
"Many are the afflictions
of the righteous
but the Lord delivers him out
of them all.".
Psalm 33:19
Now, bodybuilding is the same
in a sense.
Conditions have to be right to
achieve muscle
growth. We need to eat right,
get good sleep,
and exercise with enough intensity
and progressive
resistance so that our bodies
will respond
and adapt on a continuous basis.
Have you
ever tried to do some heavy bench
pressing
with very little sleep? Just
can't do it.
Or how about some 20 rep squats
with poor
food intake; not gonna happen.
Neither will
you grow curling 5 pound dumbbells
for 40
reps. It just will not create
an environment
for maximum musclular stimulation
necessary
to create growth. Let's also
consider trying
yo put on some mass. You cannot
do add mass
by taking in 1,500 calories a
day. If you
want to get bigger and stronger,
you have
to put on a little extra weight.
Not get
big and obese, but expect to
lose sight of
those abs for a while. You will
find, as
I did, that you are able to work
out a little
harder, move more weight and
in turn grow.
The conditions are right! Let's
look at getting
ready for a bodybuilding contest.
Can you
enter a contest 40 pounds overweight
with
no tan? Well, you can but I bet
I can predict
the outcome! Conditions have
to be right
if you hope to enter and do well.
You have
to diet down to get rid of the
body fat.
You have to acquire a good deep
tan to accentuate
the muscles. So to get the best
out of our
bodies that the Lord had granted
us we need
to eat right, get good sleep
and train hard
and prepare. These things will
create the
proper conditions to grow and
get in shape.
Just wanted to add this as an
afterthought
with all the talk about seeding
the lawn
and watering. Take a peak at
Psalm 72:6
"He shall come down like
rain upon the
grass before mowing, like showers
that water
the earth ."
When the conditions are right
and Jesus returns,
will you be ready?
And now our prayer. Dear Lord,
we pray for
wisdom to see the bigger picture,
your picture,
when things seem out of sorts.
Help us remember
that it is Your will be done
and forgive
us when we fall short as we so
often do.
Thank you dear Lord for sending
Your Son
down to earth to die in our place.
Oh how
we are not worthy! But we thank
you for the
greatest gift that could ever
be given! In
Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Until next time all! Go with
God and Lift
that iron
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