What Martial Arts Taught Me About The Gospel Of Jesus Christ: Spiritual Lessons From The Dojo by Glyn Norman
This is an important book for me. It is the first “Christian Martial Arts” book I have ever read. What Martial Arts Taught Me About The Gospel Of Jesus Christ - Spiritual Lessons From The Dojo is the work of an Englishman living in America who is a pastor and a martial artist. The book provides insight on Glyn Norman’s philosophy of martial arts and Christian life and he uses the knowledge and experience gained from his own training to help others in their own lives.
The book is 48 pages in length, softcover, and divided into 6 sections with additional pages of a free sample chapter of his book, If God Had A Fridge, Your Picture Would Be On It - Self Image: How Seeing Yourself As God Sees You Changes Everything.
Here's a look at the contents:
1. Introduction
2. Know When To Tap Out
3. The Importance Of Discipline
4. Be Aware - Evil Is Out There
5. With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
6. The Power In Perseverance
I believe Pastor Glyn succinctly sums up his main goal for this book in this quote from the first page of the Introduction: “Perhaps because both Christianity and martial arts were so new to me, I quickly saw parallels between the two ‘pursuits’ and this book is an attempt to explain how some of the elements of martial arts relate very neatly to the practices of Christianity.”
Introduction
In the Introduction we get the story of how at the age of 20, Glyn Norman became a Christian and a martial artist. He began his journey with the art of Jiu-Jitsu and his instructor was "a very down-to-earth police sergeant". The style and training he was involved in had no connection to Eastern Mysticism - no meditation, chanting, humming "Om", or any other practices others may commonly experience in martial arts training. He goes on to write, "My hope is that out of this small book you will gain some insights which will enable you to live out your Christianity with more of a warrior spirit, with determination, and with utter dedication to the one who died for you."
Know When To Tap Out
This second section starts out with the beginnings of Pastor Glyn's Jiu-Jitsu training during his first time in the dojo and a valuable lesson about pain. He recounts how he learned so much and had a great time that first evening, but…
"There was one key element that they forgot to teach me though - how to 'tap out'."
After being placed in a painful wrist-lock and crying out in pain, the confusion was finally straightened out and he received and explanation about 'tapping out' that saved him a lot of pain in the ensuing years. This practical experience from the dojo is a valuable life lesson for us in our daily lives. The question is posed "How many of us fail to tap out, either because we don't know it is an option, or we are simply too proud to admit the pain we are in?" Pastor Glyn goes on to give us some very good advice, but you'll have to read the book for that!
Next, he goes on to relate his experience of becoming a Christian at the age of 20 years of age thanks to the witnessing by a friend named John from the table tennis club they both played in. They had many conversations, often after practice, where John would patiently and intelligently answer Glyn's questions which led to John inviting him to attend church. After four weeks of attending services, and all four weeks hearing sermons specifically speaking to issues that were troubling him, he had reached a crisis point and decided to tap out to God. He writes about praying "a prayer where I gave my heart to Jesus and told him that I wanted to live his way rather than my way."
Pastor Glyn continues by explaining for the non-Christian how they can make the same choice he did, sharing the text from Matthew 11:28-30. Finally, he ends with this question: "Will you be honest enough, humble enough to take the hand of Jesus that is reached out to you?"
The Importance Of Discipline
In the third section, we get to read about two learning experiences from the author's life; one as a young martial artist and the next from years later while serving as a pastor. We benefit from his sharing of lessons in the necessity of discipline. He elaborates on discipline and how it needs to be combined with passion as well as explaining about the discipline of action and the discipline of reaction. Further, Pastor Glyn continues with a comparison and contrast of reaction and response and advises us that training in biblical character helps us to respond in a better way than sheer reaction.
Next, we are asked to consider some key disciplines from the Christian life, as follows:
• Prayer
• Bible Reading
• Christian Community
• Serving
"Prayer is the lifeline of the Christian" says Pastor Glyn. He explains about this needful activity for all servants of Jesus, with several scripture references and provides the reader with a simple pattern to follow based on the acronym ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication).
His most important point: "Remember, prayer is an act of communing with God. It is about communication. It is about relationship with the Father. Use these steps to help you obtain that but don't feel you must adhere to any rigid rules. Also, don't forget that communication is a two-way street, which means you have to listen as well. You may not hear at first but with practice you begin feel God speaking to your heart."
With regard to Bible reading, we are told that the Bible has been given to us as a training manual, and we ignore it at our peril.
"Apart from the person of Jesus Christ, the clearest way in which God has chosen to reveal himself to humanity is through the Bible."
"In many ways, the world sings to us a siren song of warped values and priorities, and it is only by clinging to the mast of God's truth that we can avoid the peril of those rocks."
As there are many ways to approach the study of the Bible, several resources are given to us as suggestions of where and how to start. First, we can choose to follow the acronym SOAP (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). Or, we can choose from eight different online resources of varying duration to get us started on our own journey through the Scriptures.
• The One Year Bible (1 Year)
• Life Application Study Bible Devotion (1 Year)
• Prayer (3 weeks)
• The Gospels (30 days)
• Psalms and Proverbs in 31 Days (31 days)
• Thirty-One Days of Healing & Recovery (31 days)
• Re-Think Life: 40 Day Devotional (40 days)
• The Essential 100 (100 days)
Concerning Christian Community, Pastor Glyn reminds us that "the Christian life was not designed to be a solitary pursuit. We are supposed to be part of a faith community..." Personally, I can remember the past in church services singing about being a part of "The Family Of God" and being advised not to forsake the fellowship of the brethren. The importance of belonging to a church family and further a small group of one kind or another is explained to the reader and we are warned about the spiritual issues that can result from avoiding such membership.
In the last part on Serving, we are taught that "a key marker of maturity in a growing disciple is their willingness to serve; to offer their skills and abilities to something greater than themselves." Explanations and scripture references are given for a good understanding of how to live and have a servant's heart.
"The Bible is very clear that God opposes the proud and that humility is a virtue to be cultivated. Serving others is a great way to do this."
Then Pastor Glyn explains about spiritual gifts and that we all have them and how to find out what they are so that we can use them to help others and glorify God. He gives a few suggested online resources as well as books on how to approach this subject.
"A church functioning at its best is a bit like an orchestra. Each person fulfills their unique role, and together they create a symphony of service which blesses others and honors God."
Be Aware - Evil Is Out There
Here in section four, Pastor Glyn tells us about two situations from his life in which he had to call upon his martial arts training. "Once to help someone else, and once to defend myself against an attack." In the first situation, he decided to get involved. For the second situation, he had no choice.
"As a Christian we will be faced with both types of situations. Sometimes we will actively seek out evil, or the effects of evil, and sometimes we will just come across it."
In the first account, he saved a girl from abduction by a man who had her in a wrist-grab and was dragging her down the sidewalk. The second time he was assaulted by a large, drunken bodybuilder. In both cases he was successful and came out unscathed. However, what he is teaching us through these two encounters is that:
“While external evils are real, and must be resisted, it is the evil in our own hearts that we must face first.”
“Once we have have worked at purifying our own hearts, then we are better placed to combat the external evils that surround us.”
Pastor Glyn goes on to give us “a brief, and by no means exclusive list” of evils that surround us:
• Materialism/Greed
• Consumer Mentality
• Sexual Immorality
He warns us about the temptations, unhealthy and unhelpful attitudes, and traps that are to be found in these three very real and very dangerous bottomless pits of sin. There is good advice and words of wisdom here that anyone can take advantage of to protect themselves from many potential problems.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Section five is a lesson in self-control. The control we learn in training martial arts techniques and the physical and emotional self-control that springs from that have direct application to the scriptural self-control we are to exhibit in our lives as Christians.
Pastor Glyn writes about a result of his training in Tae Kwon Do, “We learned to exercise self-control in practice, but we also learned to exercise it in real life. You certainly become more cautious about getting involved in a fight when you know the damage you ca do.”
Several passages from the Bible are given for our edification and instruction concerning our practice of self-control:
• Galatians 5:22-23
• Proverbs 16:32
• Proverbs 25:28
• 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
• Titus 2:1-6
• Titus 2:11-13
• 2 Peter 1:5-7
We are challenged by God in our mentality as martial artists as well as our mentality in our daily walk as Christians, called to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. (2 Timothy 2:3)
“The challenge for us as Christians, as well as martial artists, is to lead self-controlled lives. Just as we take pride in our ability to control our body, and unleash amazing force if required, we should work equally hard at controlling our temper, our responses and our reactions, so that they can be self-controlled and pleasing to God.”
The Power In Perseverance
The final section, number six, is a brief but good lesson in what I call “stickativity”.
“The Christian life is not easy. The challenge to pick up your cross daily is not a gentle invitation, but a call to a life radically devoted to Jesus Christ.”
The scripture reference given to us comes from the famous passage about the armor of God in the sixth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you my be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:12-13)
What good and Godly and timely advice given to us in these dangerous and exciting times that we live!
My thoughts on this book
Thanks for checking out the blog. God bless you, have a great day, and remember - whenever you train, train with all your heart!
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