A Study on Love: Part XXXVII

I hope you like the new logo. My wife did this one, with me adding the word bubble and text. Outside of that, it was all her. Anyway, if you want to guess the famous couple, go ahead and try. My workout today will consist of some cardio if I am lucky and the workout below. Being that it is a Thursday, it is tough to say if I will be able to get into the gym and workout. But I can at least do the workout below at home.

Get Killer Abs: Everybody wants defined abs. Good thing there are so many different abdominal exercises to choose from — you'll never get bored as you work your way toward washboard abs!

Here are three versions of the plank, a move that works the lower back, chest, and shoulders in addition to the rectus abdominis.

Basic Plank (beginner): Start in a push-up position, but keep your hands directly under your shoulders instead of outside your chest. Legs are extended straight behind you, with feet together. You are balancing on your palms and the balls of your feet. Hold this position for as long as you can, working your way up to 1 minute. It's a lot harder than it sounds!

Plank Twists (intermediate): Start in plank position. Maintaining this position, exhale and rotate your torso by bringing your right knee in toward your left armpit. Return to the starting position, then repeat, bringing the left knee toward the right armpit. Plank twists work not only the rectus abdominis but also the internal obliques.

Extended Plank (advanced): Start in a basic plank position, but instead of placing your hands under your shoulders, bring your hands together and place them on the floor in front of you (about 3 inches in front of your head). This variation places much greater emphasis and intensity on the rectus abdominis because you're not able to use your arms as pillars to support your body weight.

John 11:32-44
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"

But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

-I love this passage. Not because of the easiest memory verse (that would be John 11:35 "Jesus wept."), but because it really shows how much Jesus loves me. Jesus wept when he didn't have to weep. He wept because he loved. And in 1st John 4:8 it says that God is love. It also says it in verse 16. If you live in love, you live in God and God lives in you. Jesus was the full expression of love. He died for me. He died because he loves me. I have to die for others to express my love. And I don't necessarily mean a physical death, although that could be the ultimate expression of my love for others. No, I mean a metaphorical death. Dieing to self to help others is the death I am talking about and I really do not do it enough. That is a strong expression of love is serving others, putting everyone else's needs before my own. It's not easy. It really isn't all that attractive, either. But that is the calling. Johnny Out.