CHAPTER 3

I Have A Body
(The House of The Soul)

Your body is a marvelous living organism made up of billions and billions of tiny living cells. There are many more cells in your body than there are people in the world! These are the building blocks of the body, and each cell, though very minute, is an enormously complex world. Today scientists are able to use high-powered electron microscopes to get even a closer look at the wonders of the cell. As one scientist has said, "It would be mind-boggling for the early cell biologists to see this. They had no idea the cell was so chock-full of things. The cell has turned out to be a MICRO-UNIVERSE" (National Geographic, Sept. 1976, p. 358).

The Bible declares that the life of the flesh is in the ______________ (Leviticus 17:11). The blood brings life-giving oxygen and nourishment to every part of the body! There are about ten pints of blood in the average adult today. This blood is circulated through 60,000 miles of tubing reaching to every part of the body. This tubing could be stretched round the world more than seven times (if all the veins, arteries, and capillaries were laid end to end).

The most efficient pump in the world is responsible to keep this blood circulating throughout the body. The heart beats 70 to 75 times per minute (as an average). Every day the heart pumps 5,000 to 6,000 quarts of blood. In a lifespan of 70 years the heart would pump about 35 million gallons of blood. Moreover, the heart never seems to get tired and never takes a rest. Under normal conditions it works continuously for seventy-five years or longer (depending on how long the person lives). Suppose you allowed your washing machine to run ALL THE TIME. How long do you suppose it would last?

The bones are the structural steel and the reinforced concrete of the human body. They support the body the way a steel framework supports a skyscraper, and they protect its vital organs the way a cast-concrete roof protects a building’s occupants.  An adult has over 200 separate bones. Also within the bones there is an amazing blood manufacturing factory. Blood cells are made inside the bones. In less time than it takes to count to two hundred, my bones can make more than 100 million new cells for my blood.

There are more than 600 muscles in my body, and these along with many perfectly designed tendons and joints, enable man to move his arms, legs and body with amazing coordination. For a baseball player to catch a fly ball in the outfield may not seem very difficult (with a little practice), but it actually takes amazing coordination of many body parts working together. Do you think that scientists could build a machine or a robot that could do this?

The body also contains a wonderful waste removal system and a fluid purifying system. The kidneys, for example, are the most amazing purifying system in the world. In the course of a day they filter about 185 quarts of water from the blood, purifying it and returning it to circulation.

The average head contains about 120,000 hairs. Who do you suppose keeps an exact count (Matthew 10:30)? ___________________

The nervous system may be likened to a highly organized postal system or telephone system, carrying messages to and from the brain. Nerve impulses can move at a speed of nearly 350 feet per second. They can zip up from a person’s feet and back again more than 30 times in one second.

The nervous system is all connected to the most complex computer in the world--the brain. This three-pound brain coordinates its huge traffic of messages so well that an electronic computer designed to perform as efficiently would occupy a space as big as a skyscraper! Believing that the brain merely evolved by chance, apart from any intelligent design, over millions of years, is as foolish as believing that the world's biggest computer accidentally fell together without being put together by an intelligent mind.

The human body is the world’s most incredible piece of machinery. It manufactures, improves and repairs itself. The average person can get along without his gall bladder, spleen, tonsils and appendix. He can dispense with one lung, one kidney, two-fifths of his liver, part of his brain, most of his stomach, both eyes, ears, arms and legs--and still live! How would your car do with so many missing parts? Most cars reach the junk yard in about ten or fifteen years, and we do not use our cars nearly as much as we use our bodies. Yet, the human body is able to continue functioning in some cases for nearly 100 years!

The body helps to bring us in contact with the world around us. Vivid reports pour into our brains through our eyes, ears, skin, nose and mouth, describing in detail the variety of things on earth. We experience the world around us through our sense organs. They are channels through which we receive continuous information about sounds, smells, tastes (the tongue has 3000 tastebuds), textures (whether something is hard or soft, rough or smooth, etc.) and temperature.

One of the most amazing senses is that of sight. Certainly the eye is one of the great marvels of God’s creation. The eyeball is a little camera. Its smallness is part of its perfection. This spheroid camera focuses itself automatically, according to the distance of the picture that it wants to focus upon. It turns itself in the direction of the view required. Indeed the eyes are two cameras finished to one standard so that the mind can read their two pictures as one. Should danger threaten the eye, in a flash its skin shutters close, protecting the transparent window!  Many details could also be given to show that the senses of hearing, smelling, tasting and touching are also incredibly designed systems.

The more we study the human body, the more we must agree with the words of David in Psalm 139:14: "I will ______________ (thank) thee; for I am __________________ (in a way that ought to produce great awe and wonder and reverence) and _____________________ (marvelously) ____________ (made, not evolved): marvellous (wonderful) are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well."

One of the most wonderful things about the body is how well it works together. All the parts of the body function together, helping and needing each other. My lungs take air into the body. My brain, muscles and bones help my lungs. In order to move my bones I need help. My muscles help my bones move. My brain thinks and sends messages to all the parts of me. My brain needs oxygen which it gets from my blood. My bones, muscles, brain, lungs, heart, nerves, and stomach all help each other. How does this help us to better understand the church (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)?
________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

To be healthy and to survive in this world, the body needs certain things. What are some of the things the body needs (Matthew 6:25; James 2:15-16)? ________________________________________________ What are some other things that the body needs? Who knows exactly what our body needs and what we need (Matthew 6:32)? ___________________________________________

The body is the house of the soul (see the previous chapter). I am more than just blood and bones and brains. I am a real person living in a real body. Someday the believer will die and will be A_______________ from the body and P________________ with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). On the resurrection day, the believer will receive a new body that will last throughout eternity. This body will be INCORRUPTIBLE (it will never decay or wear down or grow old) and IMMORTAL (it will never die) according to 1 Corinthians 15:52-53. Will unbelievers also have a body that they will live in throughout eternity (Matthew 5:29-30; 10:28; John 5:28-29)? ________

The soul lives in the body, but if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who else lives in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19)? ___________________________________ Was this also true of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 2:21)? ______  In 1 Corinthians 6:20 believers are commanded to G________________ God in their B_________ (compare Philippians 1:20).

What are some things that we can do with or to our bodies that dishonor God? What are some of the ways we can glorify God in our bodies?

In Romans 12:1 and Romans 6:13 believers are commanded to present their bodies and the members of their bodies to the Lord for His use. How can the following bodily members be used for God and for His glory?

Hands     ______________________________________________________________________
Feet        ______________________________________________________________________
Eyes       ______________________________________________________________________
Ears        ______________________________________________________________________
Mouth     ______________________________________________________________________
Tongue   ______________________________________________________________________
Muscles  ______________________________________________________________________
Brain      ______________________________________________________________________

The Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, certainly knows what it is like to live in a body. When He came into the world there was a ____________ prepared for Him (Hebrews 10:5). He became a man and had a human body like ours, except He never used His body to sin. Remember, the body is not really responsible for sin. It is the person who lives in the body who is guilty (see Ezekiel 18:4). We can never say, "My tongue lied!" or "My hand stole the money!" or "My eyes lusted!" The members just obeyed the person who gave them orders to lie, steal and lust!

We should never forget that the Lord’s body was sacrificed on the cross: "who His own self bore our sins in His own __________ on the tree" (or cross--see 1 Peter 2:24). How does the communion service remind us of this wonderful sacrifice (Matthew 26:26; 1 Corinthians 11:24)?

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