So...I did ‘this thing’.

Yep....I joined a gym and started working out a few weeks ago, even paying extra for a trainer to work with me two days a week. I promise not to become a ‘fitness evangelist’ now and start posting selfies of my progress as I document my ‘journey’. I will tell you though what prompted me making this decision and why I even posted the photo of me here today.

While I have pretty well been blessed with ‘good health’ most of my life, I would never suggest I am in ‘good shape’. And growing older along with adding extra pounds has begun to catch up with me, and this was made that much more clear to me as I try to keep up with two young grandsons who are not getting any smaller nor slowing down. I truly needed to be keeping better care of my ‘temple’, not only for the Lord’s sake, but I’d like to be around for a good bit of these boy’s lives; hence the decision to venture in to this ‘world of fitness’.  The Bible does say 'bodily exercise profits little', but it still profits. ;-)

And about the photo I posted today....lol...both my wife and my daughters were elated and genuinely thrilled when they heard what I did when I joined the gym. But then, the girls were mortified...to learn I was going to my workouts wearing ‘cargo shorts’ (with a belt) and some old raggy t-shirts. They insisted on a ‘workout wardrobe’ for Father’s day gifts. So I humored them and had Kathy snap this photo of me to send for their approval. They seemed very impressed from their feedback I received, even though I just threw the cap on backwards to be silly.

Why am I even sharing this with you today since I have no intentions of keeping up with the photos and rambling on about my new fitness regime? Well, I had an ‘Ah-ha moment’ the other day while finishing up with my time on the treadmill. I was reflecting back over my ‘progress’ from the past four weeks and realized what a remarkable difference it makes having a trainer working alongside me, not only to educate me, but motivate me as well...and yes, even ‘push me’ to where I hurt. Apparently this ‘no pain, no gain’ is a ‘thing’ as well.

On the days when I was working out alone, without the trainer, it was easy to maybe not finish up all the reps on a particular exercise I was doing. Certainly what I had done already was ‘good enough’, and besides...I was ‘hurting’. But there was no ‘slacking’ when this muscle-bound fitness expert was ‘in my head’ telling me...”Come on Tony, you can do this!...those grandsons need you to have strong arms to toss them in the air!”

And then it hit me. It was as if I could hear the Lord whisper into my heart: “That is how grace is supposed to operate...it pushes you and empowers you to do...what you didn’t think you were capable of doing on your own.” Grace is that ‘trainer’ that enables and encourages you to ‘stand and suffer’, even during the fiery tests that we go through ...which are designed to refine us and purify us.

Then there were more comparisons. Having a trainer is ‘costing’ me something extra on top of the membership fee (which is quite reasonable to be honest). I know we always want to remind ourselves that ‘salvation is a free gift’, and yet, Jesus talks often about what this walk will ‘cost us’ and we would do well to sit down and ‘count that cost’. Simply ‘saying Lord, Lord’ is not going to get the job done. (Matt. 7:21; Luke 6:46; Heb. 5:9)

And then there is the part about ‘suffering’.

Yep...I won’t lie: my body is reeling from this recent decision I made as I have painfully discovered muscles throughout my body I never knew existed. But if you have ever worked out in any form or fashion, then you know that this ‘suffering’ is ...different; it’s a ‘good kind of suffering’ some might say. And I bet you have read in your own Bible that we ‘believers’ have been ‘called to suffer’ as well: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind...” (1 Pet. 4:1)

I’m pretty sure this is where much confusion has entered in to our theology where we mistake one kind of suffering for something else. I mentioned this the other day...that untold numbers of sincere believers have simply ‘suffered due to a lack of knowledge’. (Hosea 4:6). Do you remember when Jesus told that man He healed to ‘go and sin no more or something worse will happen to you’? (John 5:14). I have to wonder how many people are hurting today...NOT...because God ‘wants them to hurt’ or has ‘called them to hurt’ ...all for the cause of the gospel, but have actually experienced the consequences for ongoing sins they continue to commit.

And the confusion comes in if/when we’ve have been taught: “Oh, but you will always continue to sin because you are a ‘sinner saved by grace’ and Jesus took all your punishment for ‘past, present, and future sins’, and ‘God no longer punishes His children when they sin’.

Friends, you may not want to call it ‘punishment’, but God does; and He said it won’t be ‘joyful, but painful’ (Heb. 12:5-11). Being ‘chastened’ by God, or even reaping the consequences of our sins (Eph. 5:6) is not the kind of suffering God called us to endure. If it brings us to repentance, so be it, as that is what ‘chastening and judgments’ are designed to do. (1 Cor. 5:5). But this is not the kind of suffering that God called us to, nor does He take pleasure when we suffer in that manner. You might go revisit what Paul told the Corinthians why many among them were ‘weak, sick, and even dead’. (1 Cor. 11:29-32)

But make no mistake about it...should you choose to repent, surrender, and then follow Jesus, there will be suffering involved. But this kind of suffering takes place when we ‘put to death’ this old flesh nature, a.k.a. our ‘old man’. We were not commanded to ‘dial him down, or put him on a leash or in a cage, maybe even hide him in the attic when the preacher or other believers come by. We were told to ‘put him to death’. And ‘flesh’ hates it when we follow Jesus with all our heart because he knows he too, is going to a cross to die. That is exactly what the Holy Spirit leads us to do. (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5,9; Phil. 2:5-8)

If you are not putting that old man to death, then you are not following Jesus. (Rom. 8:14)

If that old ‘anger’ or ‘lust’ or ‘greed’ or ‘sarcasm’ or ‘pride’ is still rising up on a regular basis, then you are not following Jesus, because if you were, you will be walking just as He walked. (1 John 2:6)

And once again, this is where ‘grace’ comes in- to “teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts so we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age.” (Titus 2:11-12)

Grace is that ‘trainer’ in your head who tells you when temptation comes to ‘stand and resists against the wiles of the devil’. (James 4:7; Eph. 6:10). He didn’t tell us to ‘ignore’ the devil, but to ‘resists’ him. And yes, there is some suffering in that process for sure. But we are also reminded (those verses I had you write out the other day)...that because Jesus Himself “suffered when He was tempted, He is able and willing to help us in our time of suffering” (Heb. 2:18). Hello Grace!

And what are we exhorted to do in that time of testing and we are up against an enemy who is mightier than us? We are to come with boldness and confidence before His throne in our time of need to receive...’mercy and grace’. (Heb. 4:16)

Now...go read 1 Pet. 5:9-10 again...as we are told that during this time of ‘resisting’...knowing that our brothers around the world are suffering in the same manner...that...”after we have suffered a while...that the God of all grace will then come and establish, strengthen and perfect us.”

No Pain; No Gain. And grace is standing by for you to tap into, provided you are humble enough to admit you need it and then ask for it.

This is how we ‘grow in the Lord’ as we are ‘conformed to His image’ (Rom. 8:29). Anything less, is nothing more than a ‘form of godliness that denies the power’. (2 Tim. 3:5)

How silly and pathetic we must look to the world - to claim the Spirit of God dwells within us, yet we still continue to ‘live and look like the world’. We ‘say we love Him yet by our actions we deny Him’. (Tit. 1:16; Matt. 7:20; John 13:34-35)

Why I would even go as far to say we look more pathetic than a 64 year old man who shows up at a fancy gym to workout wearing cargo shorts held up by a leather belt, even though he wore it with good intentions. (not wanting to traumatize anyone working out behind me) ;-)

So when I say we are ‘saved by grace alone, through faith’ (Eph. 2:8), I am absolutely convinced a truer statement could not have been uttered. And as much as I need this trainer to get me back in to a healthier condition, I need grace all that much more to stand and endure these fiery test, despite the suffering my flesh may endure in the process. But remember – “he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God”. (1 Pet. 4:1-2) It is, after all, those who ‘do the will of God’ who will inherit the kingdom. (Matt. 7:21)

‘...and those who endure till the end...will he saved.’ (Matt. 24:13)