SPEAKER_00: Matt Bowles, our guest speaker, sure gave us a lot to think about last Sunday with his message, Training for Our Hope.
SPEAKER_00: For today's daily walk, I'm simply going to share some personal insights from last Sunday, and hopefully something here will resonate with you as well.
SPEAKER_00: Early in the message, Matt said that anything that pulls us away from Christ, even if it sounds religious, is bad.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, that hurt.
SPEAKER_00: I have totally overscheduled myself in the past with things that were good, but not necessarily the best activities to occupy my time.
SPEAKER_00: How am I going to practice important spiritual disciplines if I'm filling every minute of every day with other activities, even though they are good activities?
SPEAKER_00: In John 15, where Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches, and remain in me as I also remain in you.
SPEAKER_00: You simply can't do that unless you leave enough margin for spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: Another thing Matt did was to present several myths that we sometimes accept as truth, sadly.
SPEAKER_00: One of those myths was that provision is the same as presence.
SPEAKER_00: For this, he used the example of a father who provides the means for his son or daughter to excel in a certain sport, often spending thousands of dollars to make it happen.
SPEAKER_00: But what this child is missing is presence, meaning the father's presence as the primary faith trainer in the home.
SPEAKER_00: Are we more concerned about our kids excelling in sports or some other extracurricular activity than excelling in their walk with Christ?
SPEAKER_00: It's a hard-hitting question, but it needed to be asked.
SPEAKER_00: Matt Bull's primary text last Sunday came from 1 Timothy 4, of which I'm going to close with one verse, 8, which says that physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
SPEAKER_00: This has been Dan Stevens with your Daily Walk.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me and have a great day.