The battle of the signs!

Posted on by Tom

Last week, I took a trip to the Tops grocery store at the Panorama Plaza shopping center that’s near us and I happened to glance over at the Alpha and Omega Christian bookstore, also located at the plaza and right next to a GNC (General Nutrition Center) store, and the notion popped into my head to add a little something below the A&O sign in response to the GNC sign.

Many people nowadays are absolutely consumed with diet and fitness, as if they’re trying to stave off their inevitable demise. I mean, there’s people who spend a fortune at GNC every week on vitamins, protein powders, etc. Gyms are popping up everywhere and have become the temples of this new religion of staving off mortality. A healthy diet and some exercise are great, but if you haven’t trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone and walk with Him daily, you’re just NOT “living well” and you have no real hope. The ol’ body’s gonna peter out eventually; it’s a forgone conclusion no matter how many reps you do or how many alfalfa sprout smoothies you drink.

“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” – 1 Timothy 4:8

Postscript One: Please, no irate letters! I’m not a huge fan of quasi-(c)hristian bookstores, which peddle a LOT of heterodoxy. This particular store stocks quite a few books from TBN prosperity gospel types and also has a Catholic section. But at least they do sell Bibles and “some” books from solid evangelical writers.

Postscript Two: Yup, my version of photoshop is pretty basic!

26 thoughts on “The battle of the signs!”

  1. Excellent insight. Love this: “A healthy diet and some exercise are great, but if you haven’t trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone and walk with Him daily, you’re just NOT “living well” and you have no real hope.”

    Thanks for your faithful articles. Always helpful.

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    1. Glad you were able to recharge your batteries! I had a busy weekend, too, although I’m sure it wasn’t anything like yours. I was happy to hang out in my cubicle today and do my routine.

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  4. Today looking in the mirror I noticed I’m aging. Reminded me that your point is true, we are aging and one day will die. All these gyms, crossfit and GNC has its place for health but as you preached it, you’re right “if you haven’t trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone and walk with Him daily, you’re just NOT “living well” and you have no real hope.”

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    1. Thanks! It’s interesting to see it from a 63 year perspective. Back when I was a young kid in the 60s, there were no gyms/fitness centers in Rochester except for the single YMCA downtown. Now? 200? 300? I have no idea but they’re one of the few new businesses opening in this economically depressed area.

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      4. I imagine a sizable percentage of these fitness clubs’ memberships are people who join (especially around Jan. 1st) but then fizzle out shortly afterwards.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. “but if you haven’t trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone and walk with Him daily, you’re just NOT “living well” and you have no real hope.”
    What planet do you live on Tom?
    America has the most fat and obese people in the industrialised world, not all of the gym junkies are atheists or not of your Christian faith and I wonder how you decided that as a fact, and if God could wave his wand and make them lose weight I would like to see that.
    Maybe you should concentrate more on facts and the positives, such as they are at least attempting to do something about their weight issues to extend what is a real life on planet Earth, this is your problem not theirs.
    “For bodily exercise profits a little,”
    I do not attend a gym however I exercise regularly, and you are writing complete rubbish. Why do you not consult an expert before you comment, is it that you and your followers are overweight and unfit and have done nothing about it but leave it up to God to decide if you get a disease or die prematurely. Maybe you just do not agree with the science.

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    1. Thanks. Actually, I have recently written EXTENSIVELY on the benefits of good diet and exercise. See here, here, and here.

      My point was that salvation in Jesus Christ is FAR more important than physical health.

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  7. It’s kinda sad, you look at what unbelievers place all their efforts , time and money into and it will all be worthless at the end. It will count for nothing. Botox, gym, plastic surgery, healthy foods from the Aztecs etc…as you perfectly stated Tom “but if you haven’t trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone and walk with Him daily, you’re just NOT “living well” and you have no real hope.”

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    1. Thanks, Crissy. Yes, it’s been amazing to watch this social mania that’s developed over the last couple of decades with regards to fitness and diet. It has some positives, certainly, but it’s all ridiculously dwarfed by the issue of the condition of one’s soul.

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