Hey Bloggers, we're giving away copies of Gary Thomas' new book Every Body Matters: Strengthening Your Body to Strengthen Your Soul to bloggers for review.
Every Body Matters explores how becoming proactive about our physical health can lead to "a fortified soul" that's better able to serve and love others. Thomas includes ways to fight health-related temptation, and how we can pursue transormation from "heads without bodies" into whole-bodied servants of God.
I've included an excerpt from Every Body Matters below about "faithful fitness" so you can get a better feel for Thomas' approach. If you're interested in reviewing Every Body Matters on your blog, please sign up below!
How to Participate in the Every Body Matters Blog Tour
- Sign up below by Thursday, Dec. 1. If your blog is selected, we will ship a copy of Every Body Matters to you.
- Please post your review on your blog during the week of 1/16 or 1/23. Leave a comment here with a link to your review, because we're interested in your thoughts on the book!
- In your post, please mention that Zondervan provided you with the book free of charge, for the purpose of review.
- Finally, publish your review on another book website such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or LibraryThing.
(DON'T SEE A SIGNUP FORM? Go here.)
An Excerpt from Every Body Matters
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If swimming laps or doing Pilates won't substitute for regular study, prayer, and spiritual devotions, but taking off the shackles of laziness, overeating, and the physical debilitation brought about by ignoring our physical fitness can set our souls on a course of pursuing God with a renewed vigor, earnestness, and delight.
Christianity Today columnist Carolyn Arends writes of feeling convicted about "spiritualizing" her inclination toward avoiding physical fitness by focusing on "soul things" instead of "body things." A wake-up call provided by her parents' bout with ill health led to a significant life change, after which Carolyn concludes the following:
Jesus called us to love God with our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Just as his words disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed, they call the overactive to stillness and activate the overly still. They restore the soul to those who overemphasize the body, and redeem the body for those who focus only on the soul…
For your own health and vitality, your own spirituality, your own family, and your own personal satisfaction — will you consider [the idea of 'faithful fitness']? Not as a diet. Not as a fad. But as a life change, birthed as a spiritual exercise, a part of your worship, a new way of surrendering to God's presence in your life…
I pointed out to [my son] once how, though exercise and staying in shape require a lot of work and even regular pain, not being in shape requires its own pains and labors. If I'm going to hurt in this fallen world — and everyone of us will — I'd rather hurt and be sore getting in shape than hurt and be sore because my body isn't fit.
By God's design, we are a people with souls who desperately yearn for intimacy with God — people whose souls reside in bodies that can hinder or help this pursuit. Which will it be?
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Learn more about Every Body Matters.
Find more resources by Gary Thomas at www.garythomas.com.
- Adam Forrest, Zondervan Internet Team
(This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's opinions are their own, and are shared for information purposes only. To receive new blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)
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