Never Take Another Puff – Day 21

“Your circulation has substantially improved. Walking has become easier. Your chronic cough, if any, has likely disappeared. Your overall lung function has improved up to thirty percent.”

A part of me still can’t quite believe that I’ve managed to quit smoking for three weeks now. When I question myself as to why I still doubt it, an instinctive response is that I will surely smoke again, that this “smoke-free” period will come to an end, that I’m not strong enough to quit for good etc etc. Such is the strong mental grip nicotine addiction has on you that these irrational thoughts and fears seem so real and inevitable… until you reaffirm to yourself that NO ONE or SITUATION can ever make you light up another cigarette ever again.

Quitting smoking has got to be one of the greatest things I’ve ever accomplished, the pride and satisfaction is hard to describe or explain. In some ways it’s like you’re travelling back in time to right the wrongs that caused you to pick up this stupid habit in the first place, be it your mindset or the people you chose to surround yourself with at that time. The flip side is that the future seems so much brighter, for instance, if you told me previously that I would be running the distance of a marathon every week for my cardio I would have said you’re crazy!

Yeah, I’m definitely happy and proud that I’m now an EX-smoker. Period.

The Three Tabernacles

This is the second message following last week’s opening message in our study on the topic “The Building of God”.

Scripture Reading: Exo. 25:8-9; 40:34; John 1:14; 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Rev. 21:3; 22

The three tabernacles – the type of the tabernacle, the reality of the tabernacle, and the consummation of the tabernacle – reveal the goal of God’s economy to have a corporate people to be His dwelling place for His expression and representation in eternity.

We went through the type of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, together with all the furniture (the two altars, laver, showbread table, lampstand, the Ark) and their respective significance.

We then saw that the incarnated Christ was the reality of the tabernacle in the New Testament. Through His death and resurrection the individual Christ was enlarged to be the corporate Christ, the church, composed of the New Testament believers as the temple, the house of God, the Body of Christ.

Ultimately, the consummation of the tabernacle as the conclusion of the complete Bible is the New Jerusalem.

Throughout the week we covered the two Life-Study messages on Psalm 84 which is the secret revelation of the enjoyment of Christ as the fulfillment of the type of the tabernacle so that we may be incorporated into Him to become the reality and consummation of the tabernacle. Wow, quite a mouthful.. Anyhow, the portion I enjoyed the most is as follows:

“Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / They will yet be praising You. Selah. / Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion… For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand; / I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God / Than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” (Psa. 84:4-5, 10)

Leg Week – Day 2

Leg Press up to 220kg now, still a lot more in the tank.

Squats feel ok at 70kg, a bit wobbly at 90kg, aim for 100kg by the end of this week.

Cardio: 9 more miles since Monday for a total of 16 miles so far this week. Managed to go 30 mins @ 5.5mph non-stop yesterday, another PR for me.

Left wrist has not healed, so looks like Leg Week might extend for another week.

Reading the Bible – 2

This week’s lesson (continued from last week’s) started with an overview of the Old and New Testament and the different sections that the books are divided into therein. Then we delved into :

How to Read the Bible
Since the Bible is the word of God, its nature is divine and spiritual. We must read it with every part of our being.

A. First, Reading It with Understanding
“Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45)

B. Then Reading It with Wisdom
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom…” (Col. 3:16)

“God…the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:17)

Ephesians 1:17 shows us that wisdom is joined to our spirit. This wisdom is not what we have naturally but what we obtain through prayer. Such wisdom in our spirit is deeper and higher than the understanding in our mind. We understand the letter of the Bible with the understanding in our mind, and we apprehend the truth in the Bible by the wisdom in our spirit.

My personal experience on this will have to be the charge for us to Always Rejoice, Unceasingly Pray, In Everything Give Thanks. Though we might understand the letter with our mind, it is only by the wisdom in our spirit may we apprehend the truth of this part of Scripture as it is illogical to our natural thinking.

C. Finally, Receiving It with our Spirit
“And receive…the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit” (Eph. 6:17-18)

After we understand the text and receive the truth therein, we still must exercise our spirit to turn what we have understood and realised into prayer that it may be assimilated in our spirit, becoming our life supply and the basis of our spiritual experience.

D. Pray-reading
I confess I need more practice in terms of pray-reading ie that act of taking the Bible text as prayer and pray-read with it.

Leg Week

I injured my left wrist working out last week. It’s still smarting today so I’ve decided to dedicate this entire week to catch up on my lower body workouts, especially squats. Given the poor start to my new routine, who knows, I might just take the rest of this month to catch up on my legs and then start off the new routine in September. We’ll see how it goes.

Cardio : 7 miles (2 sessions)

Did a combination of LISS+HIIT in the 1st session and HIIT in the 2nd session. Felt pretty good, managed to go 25mins on 5.5mph, a personal best for me, I know it’s weak but for a heavy smoker (ex-smoker I should say!) who couldn’t even go 5 mins in January, I’m pretty happy.

3 x 6 x Leg Press (120kg, 160kg, 180kg)
2 x 5 x Squats (40kg)

I felt like a complete idiot squatting 40kg but my outer left thigh is still smarting from last week and besides, better to hit perfect form before increasing the weight.

Never Take Another Puff – Day 14

“Your brain and body have now physically adjusted to again functioning without nicotine and the more than 3,500 chemical particles and 500 gases present in each and every puff.” (from whyquit.com)

It’s been 2 weeks since my last cigarette. I was hoping there would be no cravings by now but sadly that’s not the case. Actually, some of the craving episodes have been quite severe but so far, the Ricola Mountain Breeze lozenges have been doing the trick, thankfully.

The city I live in, Kuching, has been enveloped with a worsening haze the past week. The condition is due largely to irresponsible burning to clear land for crops by palm oil companies throughout the state of Sarawak as well as in parts of Indonesia on Borneo island.

When I drive around the city, the thick haze reminds me of the lungs of a smoker like myself, polluted and congested. I cannot help but draw a parallel with the tobacco companies and the similar effects of the haze and smoking cigarettes.

Why are the irresponsible acts of burning which caused the haze allowed by the authorities? Similarly, why are tobacco companies allowed to peddle their harmful products to the general public? Rhetorical questions aside, while cries of outrage over the haze have been forthcoming, I cannot but quietly contemplate why there has been relative silence over the continual and widespread presence of an even deadlier force in the form of cigarette/tobacco manufacturers and their addictive products.

Indeed, maybe I’m the quintessential ex-smoker who becomes the staunchest opposer to an addiction which had enslaven me for close to 15 years, but why shouldn’t I? Smoking kills, and we should take bolder steps to ensure that our future generation does not fall prey to this subtle yet deadliest of killers in years to come.

The Vision of the Building of God

This week marks the beginning of a new book we’re pursuing in our morning revival (daily Bible reading). We are pursuing the crystallization study of “The Building of God” by Witness Lee and the first week’s message is entitled “The Vision of the Building of God”.

Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16; Rev. 21:2-3.

What I enjoyed this week was the vision of God’s building as contained in the story of Jacob’s dream at Bethel (Genesis 28). Here we are presented a picture of a structure (the ladder) which reaches heaven, bringing God to man on earth and man to God. Cross-reference this with another structure in Genesis which was supposed to reach the heavens, the Tower of Babel, and we have an interesting comparision between God’s building and that of the enemy’s.

We have the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream in the New Testament’s Book of John:

“And He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51).

Christ as the Son of Man, with His humanity, is the ladder set up on the earth and leading to heaven, keeping heaven open to earth and joining earth to heaven for the house of God, Bethel.

The building of God is the processed Triune God wrought into us so that under His continual dispensing we become His enlargement, expansion and corporate expression.

Though we’re merely vessels of clay, God’s intention is for us to be transformed into precious stones which are worthy of being the materials used in His building. Jacob poured oil (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) upon the stone (a symbol of the transformed man) that it might be the house of God.

Shoulders & Legs – Week 1

Had a bad workout today, maybe due to the fact that I was combining shoulders & legs for the very first time, and I was doing ATG squats again after a long break.

Workout Time : 1.5 hours (two sessions)

3 x 5 x Squats (60kg, 90kg, 60kg)
5 x 5 x Leg Presses (80kg, 120kg, 150kg, 150kg, 120kg)
2 x 10 x Leg Extensions (55kg)

3 x 8 x Front DB Raise (25lbs)
3 x 6 x Arnold Press (25lbs)

Cardio: 3 miles

Again, a sub-par performance overall. Will stick to the new routine by lifting night-time on Monday, Wednesday & Saturday next week and see whether there’s any improvement.

Finally broke through my 2.5 months weight-loss plateau today!!

Reading the Bible – 1

Prayer is likened to breathing, and Bible reading, to eating. Both ought to be practiced daily by every believer.

The Origin of the Bible
“All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16)

The Content of the Bible
The two main aspects of the content of the Bible are truth and life. Truth brings us revelation and knowledge of all the realities in the universe. Life is God coming to be our life that we may be regenerated, grow, be transformed, and be conformed into the image of Christ, who expresses God, that we may become the expression of God.

The Function of the Bible
The first function of the Bible is to testify concerning Christ. Christ is the subject and content of the Bible, and the Bible is the explanation and expression of Christ.

“As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word, that by it you may grow unto salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2)

“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4)

Other functions include becoming the nourishing milk to newly regenerated spiritual babes and spiritual food which nourishes us that we may grow and become mature.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psa. 119:105)

The word of God in the Bible not only shines inwardly over our hearts and spirits to give us wisdom and revelation, but it also gives light outwardly to our steps and pathways so that we would not be lost.

Back & Bis – Week 1

OK, will log my weight sessions for 8 weeks and evaluate at the end of same.

Workout duration: 1 hour

Weights:
3 x 8 x One-arm DB row (60lbs)
3 x 10 x DB Alternate Bicep Curl (30lbs)
3 x 10 x One-arm DB Preacher Curl (30lbs) – had to assist left arm during the last few reps

Need to find alternative exercises for back as pull-up bar, cable pull-down & rowing machines are still being repaired. Left arm was surprisingly weak today, don’t know why. Still prefer to train biceps with EZ-bar. Anyway, thought I will just quit since I wasn’t having a good day, will need to address this next week.

Cardio: 3 miles in 35mins (20 mins@5.5mph)

I think it’s better to separate cardio sessions from weight sessions as I found myself unable to concentrate today and as a result, performance was below average.

Edit: Went back to gym after work and added another 2 miles of jogging, now at least I feel better about today.