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About the Book
"Where Do We Go From Here" by Kenneth W. Hagin Jr. explores the steps Christians can take to grow spiritually and deepen their relationship with God. The book offers practical guidance on topics such as overcoming challenges, developing faith, and finding purpose in life. Hagin Jr. challenges readers to move forward in their faith journey and experience the abundant life that God promises.
Hannah More
Beyond any doubt, Hannah More was the most influential female member of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the African Slave Trade. She was educated at Bristol, an important slave-trading town, and began to publish her writing in the 1760s, while she was still a teenager. Her first play, The Inflexible Captive, was staged at Bath in 1775. Later in the 1770s, and for much of the 1780s, she spent time in London and made the acquaintance of many important political and society figures, including Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Elizabeth Montagu. Her play Percy was produced by David Garrick in 1777, and Fatal Falsehood was staged in 1779, but she came to regard the theatre as morally wrong, especially after the death of her mentors; Garrick and Johnson. She turned to religious writing, beginning with her Sacred Dramas in 1782. In 1784-5, she 'discovered' Ann Yearsley, the so-called 'poetical milkmaid of Bristol', whose poems More helped to publish, although the two later fell out.
In the 1780s, More widened her circle to include religious and philanthropic figures, including John Newton, Beilby Porteus and William Wilberforce. In the summer of 1786, she spent time with Sir Charles and Lady Margaret Middleton at the their home in Teston in Kent. Among their guests were the local vicar James Ramsay and a young Thomas Clarkson, both of whom were central to the early abolition campaign. More and Clarkson met again in Bristol in 1787, while he was on his fact-finding mission to the city, but they did not become close. However, in the same year More met Wilberforce, and their friendship was to become a deep and lasting one. More contributed much to the running of the newly-founded Abolition Society including, in February 1788, her publication of Slavery, a Poem which has been recognised as one of the more important slavery poems of the abolition period. Her relationship with members of the society, especially Wilberforce, was close. For example, she spent the summer of 1789 holidaying with Wilberforce in the Peak District - planning for the abolition campaign, at that time at its height, formed a great deal of their conversation.
By the mid-1790s, More had become closely involved with the 'Clapham Sect' of evangelical Christians, many of whom were involved in the abolition campaign. The group centred on Henry Thornton's home in Clapham and included Wilberforce, James Stephen, and Zachary Macaulay, among others. Throughout the 1790s, she wrote a number of religious tracts, known as the Cheap Repository Tracts, that eventually led to the formation of the Religious Tracts Society. Several of the Tracts oppose slavery and the slave trade, in particular, the poem The Sorrows of Yamba; or, The Negro Woman's Lamentation, which appeared in November 1795 and which was co-authored with Eaglesfield Smith. However, the tracts have also been noted for their encouragement of social quietism in an age of revolution. She continued to oppose slavery throughout her life, but at the time of the Abolition Bill of 1807, her health did not permit her to take as active a role in the movement as she had done in the late 1780s, although she maintained a correspondence with Wilberforce and others. In her later life, she dedicated much time to religious writing. Nevertheless, her most popular work was a novel, Coelebs in Search of a Wife, which appeared in two volumes in 1809 (and which ran to nine editions in 1809 alone). In the 1820s she grew gradually less well, and decreased - but did not entirely halt - the amount of writing she produced. On her death in 1833, she left more than ĂÂŁ30,000 to charities and religious societies (equivalent to about ĂÂŁ2,000,000 or $3,000,000 in 2004).
© Brycchan Carey 2004
Do You Exercise for the Wrong Reasons
âWhen I run, I feel Godâs pleasure.â Such were the memorable words of Olympic sprinter and Christian missionary Eric Liddell (1902â1945), at least through the lens of Chariots of Fire , the 1981 Oscar-winning film that told his story. Perhaps youâve heard his inspiring line in terms of life calling. In what vocation  do you feel Godâs pleasure? What role or occupation does it seem he made you to fulfill? However, with the last generation of research in view, it might be interesting to introduce Liddell to the fairly recent discovery of endorphins, and ask how much they played a part in his feeling Godâs pleasure as a runner. My experience as a very amateur runner is that you donât have to be a pro to âfeel Godâs pleasureâ in, and because of, intense bodily exertion. God made endorphins to help us feel his joy. Godâs Grace in Exercise God made us to move, and to do so vigorously. And he wired our brains to reward and reinforce it. Regular human movement has been assumed throughout history, but the innovations and seeming progress of modern life have made a sedentary lifestyle more typical than ever before. Weâve never needed to state the obvious about exercise as much as we do today â not just for earthly health, but for the sake of spiritual soundness and strength. âEndorphins are a gift from God, put there by him to lead us to himself.â The word endorphins  is simply a shortened form of the phrase âendogenous morphine.â In other words, these are morphine-like chemicals that originate within our bodies. They âinhibit the transmission of pain signals; they may also produce a feeling of euphoria.â And they are a gift from God, put there by him to lead us to himself. It wasnât until as recently as 1974 that two independent groups first discovered and documented this long-undiscovered divine kindness tucked quietly inside the human brain. Endorphins, and their effect of bodily pleasure, subconsciously incline humans toward certain activities, like raucous laughter or spicy foods. But in particular, the most notable and discussed is âvigorous aerobic exercise.â As John Piper cites in When I Donât Desire God , Either brief periods of intense training or prolonged aerobic workouts raise levels of chemicals in the brain, such as endorphins, adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine, that produce feelings of pleasure. (203) And the holy pursuit of pleasure is an unblushing Christian concern throughout the pages of Scripture, and most pointedly so in the words of Christ himself. For Joy in God Have you seriously considered how physical  exertion can be a means, among others, of your spiritual  health and joy? God made our bodies with an enigmatic connection to our souls. How God stirs our souls in worship and Bible meditation often has tangible and unpredictable effects in our bodies. And what we eat and drink, and how we sleep, in our physical bodies affects our level of contentment in the soul. According to professor David Murray, âExercise and proper rest patterns generate about a 20 percent energy increase in an average day, while exercising three to five times a week is about as effective as anti-depressants for mild to moderate depressionâ ( Reset , 79). âGlorifying God with our bodies is not mainly about what we donât do.â God not only means for us to enjoy the long-term benefits of regular bodily exertion, but also the immediate effects that bolster and energize our emotions that day. And having our souls happy in God (with whatever little supplement we can get from exercise) is the premier way to fight and defeat the alluring lies of sin. Author and pastor Gary Thomas testifies, âUnderstanding my body as an instrument of service to God is giving me renewed motivation to take better care of it in the face of my cravings and lazinessâ ( Every Body Matters , 20). For Love of Others But regular bodily exertion not only can assist our personal pursuit of joy in God, and fight against joy-destroying sin, but also ready us to move beyond self-focus and have our hearts primed to meet the needs of others. The beneficiary of exercise that is truly Christian is not just me, but my family, my neighbors, my church, my coworkers, and anyone else God puts in my life to bless in word and deed. As Piper explains elsewhere, Today, my main motive for exercise is purity and productivity. By purity, I mean being a more loving person (as Jesus said, âlove your neighbor,â Matthew 22:39). By productivity, I mean getting a lot done (as Paul said, âabounding in the work of the Lord,â 1 Corinthians 15:58). . . . In short, I have one life to live for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15). I donât want to waste it. My approach is not mainly to lengthen it, but to maximize purity and productivity now. Precisely because âwe are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in themâ (Ephesians 2:10), we want to cultivate our bodies so that they are a help, rather than a hindrance, in the cause of love. We want our bodies to be an aid, not a net neutral, in readying us to sacrifice our own comforts to do good for others, at home and around the world. For Godâs Own Joy Yet exercise not only can contribute to the matrix of our joy, and in doing so help ready us to meet the needs of others, but what goes unsaid far too often is that glorifying God with our bodies is not mainly about what we donât do . Itâs easy to focus on the many unrighteous acts from which we should abstain, but glorifying him in our bodies is first and foremost a positive pursuit and opportunity. And, as in the parable of the talents, our bodies are gifts from him to grow and develop, not bury and let languish. âThe biblical take on exercise is not âLife is short; let your body go,â but, âHarness the body God gave you.ââ God is not opposed to our bodily existence; neither is he uninterested. He is for the body.  âThe body is . . . for the Lord, and the Lord for the bodyâ (1 Corinthians 6:13). And not only is he for the body  in this age, but also in the age to come. The very next verse reads, âGod raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his powerâ (1 Corinthians 6:14). The creative brilliance and glory of Godâs design in the human body will not be discarded at Christâs second coming. Our future is embodied. Faithful Christian theology does not diminish the importance of our bodies, but heightens it â from Godâs creative design, to his ongoing affirmation, to his promise to raise them, to his calling to use them. Feel His Pleasure The biblical take on exercise is not âLife is short; let your body go.â Rather, with Godâs revealed truth ringing in our ears, we say, âLife is too short to not harness the body God gave me.â Our assignment in this age is a vapor. We are âa mist that appears for a little time and then vanishesâ (James 4:14). Too much is at stake, and our days are too few, to limp our way through by not leveraging our bodies (as weâre able) as the gifts from God they are. Join me in learning what itâs like to feel the pleasure of God.
