I laughed out loud several times on the airplane reading Scott Davis‘ book If My Body is a Temple, Then I was a Megachurch. The book is a good natured look at Scott’s journey to lose 132 pounds in the midst of a successful ministry. Most of the circles that Scott works in are known for having opinions about all kinds of sins…except the sin of gluttony. Scott made the decision that he was tired of being fat…and tired. Scott realized that he needed a major intervention if his life was going to truly count for God’s glory…and not be ended early by complications due to his poor eating habits.
Regardless of whether you are obese or just have a few extra pounds to get rid of, this book is a great tool for everyone to assess what matters most when it comes to their health. Scott shares a lot of great tips for things that he has learned to avoid and areas where he has given himself permission to indulge every once in a while. This book reads like a funny conversation with a good friend…it is not a book that beats you up for eating a cupcake.
I really appreciated Scott’s intentional use of Scripture throughout to point to the fact that God desires for us to use our bodies for His glory and the good of others. I highlighted several things while reading and have pasted those below…
- If my body is a temple, then I was a megachurch, and I’d just as soon be a tiny backwoods congregation.
- I wanted to do the John the Baptist thing. He said of Jesus in John 3:30: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
- He’s got the whole world in his hands, but I took up more than my fair share.
- First Corinthians 19:20 says, “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 knew the truth because I knew God’s Word. But I wouldn’t admit the truth because I loved my addiction more than I loved doing the right thing.
- Nothing changed until my admission became intensely personal.
- I had to get honest with myself and with God and admit my sins. Anything that controls me or comes between God and me is an idol, and the first of God’s Ten Commandments prohibits placing any other gods before Him.
- It’s one thing to admit a problem, but it’s quite another to own it.
- From the very beginning, the enemy of our souls has pursued one basic deception: He wants us to believe that anything other than God will fulfill us. Is it not telling that our first stumbling block in this area—the first thing Satan used to draw out our self-centered desires from deep within us—was food?
- Proverbs 13:3 draws a bullseye on my little dieting heart: “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.”
- If we look past the fleeting pleasure to the consequences, we have a different view.
- Proverbs 18:7 states, “A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.”
- In Ecclesiastes 5:6, Solomon writes, “Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin.”
- I had to learn the hard way that no shortcuts exist when it comes to health.
- A disciplined person has a much greater chance of being a healthy person.
- Inspiration fuels transformation.
- “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me” (Psalm 101:3).
- “You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; you have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress” (Psalm 17:3).
- Abundant life has nothing to do with huge portion sizes. In all things, it helps to be content with what God has for us.