Should we have a specific time to come to the Lord to confess?
We do not go to the Lord with a certain purpose; we go because we love Him and want to be with Him. Sometimes our grandchildren living nearby stop in to see us. If they behave well, we have learned they are after something. As soon as they get the cookie or piece of gum they have come for, they take off. Such behavior is like our coming to the Lord with a purpose.
He wants us to come out of love for Him. It would please us so much if our grandchildren came to visit us just because they loved us, not for any other purpose. So it is with the Lord. Early in the morning He would have us contact Him. In our need and out of love for Him, we go to Him. Then, in His presence, because He is light, we see our faults, spontaneously make confession, and are cleansed by the blood. To go to the Lord with the purpose of confessing, on the other hand, may result in several minutes of frustration.
Some of us have seen the need for physical exercise and have started jogging, or playing tennis, volleyball, or softball. As you have said, the trend of this age is with sports. Can you help us have the proper attitude toward taking care of our body and yet, on the other hand, be preserved from the world of sports?
In this crooked, perverse generation, sports and entertainment lead many people into sin and are, in fact, their means of fulfilling their lusts. We need to follow the principle of avoiding the appearance of evil (1 Thes. 5:22).
Your question indicates that you love the Lord and are seeking after Him. As Christians we are not under the law, but under the Lord Himself. Thus, when you would go out to participate in some sport, first ask Him, “Lord, will You go with me?” The Lord may say, “I don’t like that. I won’t go there with you.”
If that is the case, how are you going to get the needful exercise for your body? You may think that young people will not exercise if they cannot be in games. It all depends on your love for the Lord. As a young man I played on the school team. One day, after I was saved, the ball came to me, but I could not kick it. No one outwardly restrained me, but I could not exercise my foot to kick the ball. That was the end of my participation in that sport. Nonetheless, over the years I have surely gotten plenty of exercise. Even now I spend an hour or so a day in exercise, walking, sweeping the yard, watering the plants, and cleaning. Without exercise I cannot sleep well; I need to be exhausted of my preoccupations through exercise.
If you love the Lord, He will lead you as to the kind of exercise you should have.
I would like to give you some examples of death and resurrection in the Word. As we said in the previous message, the spices of the compound ointment (Exo. 30:23-25) are the constituents of the Word as well as of the Spirit. What is the difference between the teachings in the Bible and the ethical teachings of Confucius? Both contain corrections and adjustments, but in the Bible those corrections and adjustments contain a killing element. Both this killing factor and the element of resurrection are the main constituents of the Bible.
Let us illustrate how this killing factor works. Suppose you come home from work tired out, and as soon as you step into the house, something provokes you to be annoyed with your wife. You do not say anything because you have made a commitment to take a nap before you do anything else. After your short nap you read the Word for thirty minutes or so. When that is over, your annoyance will be gone. Even if you try to stay annoyed, you will fail! What has happened? Whatever you read in the Word has killed your annoyance. You may even find yourself going to your wife to apologize for not greeting her when you got home. The killing has brought in resurrection; that is why you now feel happy. The holy Word includes the Lord’s presence. It both kills you and supplies you with the Lord Himself. The resulting sense of joy, of the Lord, of the Spirit, of strength, and of nourishment, is resurrection. This illustration shows how the two constituents operate in us when we are faithful to get into the Word.
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