The Human Body

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Problem or Opportunity?

When you consider the human body do you see a problem or an opportunity?  When you look at your own body do you see it as exclusively yours to use as you wish or as a part of the plan of God for this world?

In the Bible, in theology and in the example of Jesus the human body is considered essential to spirituality and the plan of God.  The body is not a minor subject in spiritual life.  The body is central to Christian spirituality.

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."  I Cor. 6:19-20

Our body is a permanent documentation of how we have lived and loved.  Our body tells the truth about us for better or for worse.  Every scar we carry registers a story we may or may not want told.

The scars Jesus still carries on His body are the permanent record of His perfect love. 

May our bodies carry proof of our love and our participation in the will of God.

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Original Hacker

Hackers are in the news.  Powerful people are afraid.

When hackers are in the news it means someone's private life has been invaded and is being put on display for all to see. We can hardly wait to see the powerful embarrassed.  Should that be the case? Will the hackers come for us, too?

Those of us who are old enough to be referred to as BC (Before Computers and Cell Phones) can still remember a time when privacy actually existed. Those times are gone forever. I, for one, miss them.

There is a sense, however, in which human privacy was destroyed long ago in the garden of Eden by the original hacker named Satan.  What the original hacker did to Adam and Eve left them so ashamed of their public nakedness they tried making clothes out of leaves and hide from God. Some plan!

A hacker must penetrate into the operating system of a computer and make that system give up its privacy and deeply held secrets.  A Hacker wants to embarrass and control.  That is what Satan, the original Hacker, did to all of humanity when Adam and Eve took a bite out of the original Apple. (Not sure it was an apple, but it fits the computer/hacker metaphor! Sorry Apple you chose the metaphor first.) 

What a relief it is for the Christian to no longer need to fear the original hacker!  Jesus came to destroy his works and set us free from needing to hide who we are or what we have done.  We even have a 'confess our sins' software installed if we do sin!

In a world where the original Hacker still exists and continues to try to shame us, there is very good news for us...

There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

Christians are called to come out of hiding and walk in the light. Jesus defeated the original hacker and He even created a spiritual firewall should the Hacker try to shame us again. 

We may not have privacy in the world, but we can certainly have privacy and peace within our spirit where the original hacker can never enter again.

Bud McCord

Abide International