Day 7’s blog was about how day 6 was messed up.

I’ve made commitments for parts of the 100 days:

• moving for a minimum of 30 minutes
• write a blog a day
• Read the Bible in 90 days
• T-Tapp Moves for 50 days
• Fasting PG and higher Movies & TV for 30 days
• Fasting for Food – 21 days – especially Fast Food

I’ve done this for 7, going on 8 days – and I am amazed at what hold these things have on me!

• Oh, let’s just run in and get a soda
• Let’s stop and pick up a cone
• Let’s get a peppermint chocolate shake before their gone!
• Let’s go sit at a restaurant and talk(not fast food, but eating out)
• Let’s go watch a movie(instead of sitting and talking AT HOME)
• I’m too tired to do (a 2 minute) T- Tapp(the pull of the recliner/couch)
• I’ll read “People”, newspaper, email, bills, and run out of time to read my Bible.

Is it worth it?

Fast food – we figure we’ve spent an average of $400 a month.  That’s down from the almost $1000 we spent at our very worst(while food rotted in the refrigerator). But that’s a good start on groceries for many families!  What could we do with $400 a month?

Moving – Yes, I have FMS/CFS.  Yes, I have Periformis Syndrome. Yes, I have IT band issues. Yes, I have had 3 ankle surgeries with another indicated.  Yes, I have a whole person to lose before my poor legs and back are relieved of abnormal pressure.  But, I do move to go to the bathroom – why not move 2 minutes in a HoeDown, or 8 minutes in a MOREChair workout, or 15 Minutes in a MORE workout?(see T-Tapp) What changes could happen by just moving?

Bible Reading – what am I going to lose by giving up current events? What can I gain by washing my mind with scriptures?

Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is

• love,
• joy,
• peace,
• longsuffering,
• gentleness,
• goodness,
• faith,
• Meekness,
• temperance:

against such there is no law.

Temperance:/ˈtɛmpərəns, ˈtɛmprəns/ –noun

1. moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control.

2. habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, esp. in the use of alcoholic liquors.

3. total abstinence from alcoholic liquors.

Ok – one fruit is described as:

moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control.

Self Control.  That is what other versions translate this word as. And the rest of the definition of temperance is:

habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, esp. in the use of alcoholic liquors.

I don’t use alcoholic liquors much – so, that part, I have down.

The HABITUAL moderation in the INDULGENCE of a NATURAL appetite or passion.

1 Cor 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

Whether I like it or not, I am in a RACE.

Heb 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And, God asks a very specific question:

Jer 12:5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

RUN WITH FOOTMEN? I’M NOT EVEN WALKING WITH FOOTMEN! I need a plan – I need a training plan!

1 Cor 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

Temperate in all things.  Self-Control.  FOR AN INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN!

Paul also wrote this about striving for the mastery:

Phil 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

1 Cor 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

1 Cor 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Here are some words from Paul’s last days:

2 Tim 4:7-8 I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

It isn’t about fasting fast food – it’s about bringing my body under the control of my spirit. It’s about bringing my spirit under the Lordship of the Holy Spirit.  It’s about hiding God’s word in my heart that I might not sin against Him!  It’s about pressing on, for an Incorruptible Crown.

There are many, many blessings to obeying God’s laws.  I’m finishing up Exodus, and into Leviticus, and from this point, at 50 years old, with the science we have now..wow, those were very good laws!  Follow those laws now, and you will be far away from all the sickness and disease that flows in our country!  You will be healthy, wealthy and wise,  just by bringing yourself under the Lordship, and wisdom of Jesus Christ, shown throughout the Word of God.

This brings me to a verse, that was my saving verse in boot camp. First, a story.  God gave me a scholarship to Ohio State University for art and music.  BUT, I had such a low self esteem, I felt HE was wrong, and I joined the Navy instead.  On the third day of boot camp, I fell during a run.  I hit my tailbone, and snapped back damaging some other discs, and hitting my head.  I spent a week, paralyzed from the waist down, in the boot camp hospital.  The diagnosis was 5 slipped discs, and two fused discs now, in my neck.

When the swelling went down, and I could walk again, I begged my boot camp Petty Officer to let me back into the unit, rather than be set back the week I’d been in sick bay.  This was UNHEARD OF, but she said yes.  I had to complete PT every morning and every evening – am run, pm pt, am pt, pm run and so on and so forth.

In the midst of this, I repented. I knew, I KNEW that this was a direct result of my disobedience.  And the Lord reminded me of a song I’d sung in a Christian youth ministry:

They that wait upon the Lord

Shall renew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings as eagles,

They shall walk and not be weary,

They shall run and not faint.

Teach me Lord, Teach me Lord to wait.

When we got to the last weeks of training, I had passed my PT, and I had encouraged others with this verse.  Therefore, I was chosen to paint the symbolic unit cinder block on the wall outside the barracks door. On that block I put Isaiah 40:31:

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.

Even though I’d messed up going  into the Navy, by leaning on the Lord, it was worth it – and to be able to paint His word on a US government building was the crowning glory!

When I look at my wimpy list, I have to think of Sarai – promised a son in her VERY old age.  She laughed.

Gen 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD?

Who am I leaning on to bring my flesh and spirit under subjection? In whom am I putting my faith? Apparently, in my flesh, and that’s no good.  Jer 32 really puts into perspective where my faith should focus.

I need to wait upon the Lord – He’ll renew my strength!

I need to hide the word in my heart – it will keep me from sin!

I need to run the race set before me – because there is an eternal crown waiting for me…just because I finished! Here is how one earns the crown, how one runs the race:

James 1:12 Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

It will be worth it all, enduring temptation to be ready to run with the horsemen – and here is a song to enjoy – as a prayer for today!

In His hands and under His wings,

~Christi

1. 100 days challenge – moving – check
2. 100 days challenge- blog – check
3. 90 days Bible Reading – catching up!
4. 50 days T-Tapp – check
5. 21 days Fasting for Food – check.