November Newsletter
Greetings all! November is here
already and
Thanksgiving is just around the
corner! All
I can think about is, "how
much protein
am I getting in all that turkey
I am going
to eat?" Ah, who am I kidding!
What
I am REALLY thinking is, "Can’t
wait
for that mince meat and pumpkin
pie!"
Hey, I’m not going to lie about
it! Hey,
ya gotta toss the diet book out
the window
some times! It’s been that way
ever since
I was a kid! I couldn’t wait
for the dessert
table to be laid out. All the
pies, nuts,
and treats! YUM! Some things
never change,
which brings me to our topic
for this month.
The more things change, the more
they stay
the same.
I came across this exercise book
by Steve
Jarrell titled WORKING OUT WITH
WEIGHTS.
It was copyright dated 1978.
I began to peruse
the book with some amusement,
wondering what
funny little exercises I would
find on the
pages of this "ancient"
manuscript.
Keep in mind that I have been
training since
before 1978! As I flipped the
pages, the
smile faded as I began to laugh!
Other than
a section that mentioned the
costs of outfitting
a little home gym, nothing has
changed. Here
is a brief list of some of the
exercises
listed in this old book: Bench
Press, Incline
Bench Press, Flyes, Behind the
Neck Press,
Bent Over Row, Dead lifts, Squats,
Reverse
Curls, Triceps Extensions, Lat
Pull Downs,
Leg Curls, Power Cleans…you get
the idea.
Nothing has changed! Oh, there
have been
a bunch of different machines
that have been
developed since then, but they
all perform
the same exercises that were
done in the
days of yore. These lifts, which
were listed
in this book in 1978 are pretty
much the
same ones that were done thirty
years before
as well. The more things change,
the more
they stay the same. Oh, they
get dressed
up a little differently, presented
as biblical
truth in those "bodybuilding"
magazines,
which by the way, are really
just compiled
to sell supplements and anything
else that
they can come up with and presented
by, AHEM,
"fitness models." Just
a brief
side note here. Do we really
need that? What
does a woman dressed in practically
nothing
have to do with weight training?
Answer?
NOTHING! Sorry, Betty Bimbo will
not cause
me to buy a magazine OR anything
that she
may be selling. In fact, just
the opposite.
As far as I am concerned, this
is insulting
to my intelligence and my wife.
OK, sorry
about that, not really though,
it needed
to be said. Back to the more
things change,
the more they stay the same.
The exercises
that Steve Reeves, Dave Draper
and the other
greats performed are the same
ones that you
and I do today. For instance,
squats builds
leg muscle. It did 50 years ago
and it still
does today. Always will. ‘nuff
said.
We also have a book that is available
to
us which was written thousands
of years ago
and in it is everything you will
ever need:
The Bible. What was true back
then, is true
today. The more things change…Don’t
believe
me? Take a look at the Ten Commandments.
1)You shall have no other gods
before Me,
you shall not make yourself a
carved image
- any likeness of anything that
is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or
that is in the water under the
earth; 2)You
shall not bow down to them nor
serve them.
For I am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children
to the third
and fourth generations of those
who hate
me but showing mercy to thousands,
to those
who love Me and keep My commandments;
3)You
shall not take the name of the
Lord your
God in vain, for the Lord will
not hold him
guiltless who takes His name
in vain; 4)Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy;
5)Honor
your father and mother; 6)You
shall not commit
murder; 7) You shall not commit
adultery;
8) You shall not steal; 9) You
shall not
bear false witness against your
neighbor;
10) You shall not covet your
neighbor’s house,
you shall not covet your neighbor’s
wife,
nor his male servant, nor his
ox, nor his
donkey, nor anything that is
your neighbor’s.
I don’t know about you, but it
is pretty
obvious that what was written
back then still
applies to today. Thumb through
any part
of the Bible and you can find
the answer
you seek. Feel like you are being
persecuted
by someone? Try Psalms 35 &
57. Need
a dose of some wise words? Read
Proverbs.
Or how about feeling like everything
is impossible
and that no matter what, life
is going to
pull you under and your not going
to resurface.
Try my favorite: Mark 10:27 "But
Jesus
looked at them and said, ‘With
men it is
impossible, but not with God;
for with God
all things are possible."
Oftentimes
we try to change situations by
our own efforts
and it just doesn’t work. Oh,
there may be
a momentary relief from a situation,
and
we think that "we"
did it without
God’s help, but it comes back
even worse,
just like it says in Scripture:
"When
an unclean spirit goes out of
a man, he goes
through dry places, seeking rest,
and finds
none. Then he says, ‘I will return
to my
house from which I came.’ And
when he comes,
he finds it empty, swept, and
put in order.
Then he goes and takes with him
seven other
spirits more wicked than himself,
and they
enter and dwell there; and the
last state
of that man is worse than the
first. So shall
it also be with this wicked generation."
Matthew 12: 43-45. We NEED God,
we did back
then and we do now, even more
so today. Everywhere
you turn there is sin and perversion,
especially
in our sport. Now I am not saying
the whole
world is going true south in
a hand basket,
but hey, if they don’t turn to
God…
I believe, now more than ever
that we need
His book, we need His Word. To
live by it,
follow it, obey it apply it.
God’s Word is
eternal, not just for those from
centuries
before but for us today as well.
God knew
us before we were ever born,
He knows what
we need. He gave us the Bible
as a map, so
to speak. Things don’t change
in the Bible.
The Word remains true. The more
things change…
And now our prayer. God, thank
you for your
Words put down on paper so that
we have an
outline to live by. Help us help
others find
the truth in Your Word as we
go about our
daily lives. We pray that as
life closes
in around us at times that we
don’t lose
sight of that Word. In Jesus
name we pray,
Amen!
Until next time all! Go with
God and Lift
that iron!
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