He's Got This

And they were utterly astounded,  for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. Mark 6:51-5

When was the last time you were amazed?  

If you read the Gospel of Mark it won't take too long to discover that people who follow Jesus are constantly “amazed” or “astounded” at the things that Jesus does.  Thirteen times in that Gospel the disciples and others are amazed, astounded or astonished at what Jesus says and does.  This is not out of the ordinary.  In fact, it would do us well to be more in awe of the Lord than we routinely are. 

What is curious about their astonishment, however, is that before Jesus acts in His amazing ways, the disciples are all too often in a tizzy.  They have no idea how something will happen.  The Lord of the Universe is with them, yet they fail to trust in His absolute provision and plan.  They have no idea how they are to feed the multitude…twice!  In both Mark 6 and Mark 8 all they see is the need of the crowd.  In both cases they are worried, because they don’t possess the means to feed the thousands who have come to hear Jesus. 

Neither time does one of the disciples say to another, “Don’t worry…the Master’s got this.” 

Neither time does Andrew say to Peter, “Pete, I don’t know how He’s going to do it, but I know that He will.” 

Neither time does even one of the disciples verbally speak about their trust in Jesus’ sovereign provision.

Why?  They walk with Jesus, talk with Jesus, minister with Jesus, eat with Jesus, yet they fail to trust that He has everything under control.  Are we so different?

How much time and effort do you spend worrying and fretting about your life?  Does it occur to us, when we are looking at tough times, that the harder the circumstance, the bigger the opportunity that Jesus has to astound and amaze us?

He’s got this!  Jesus is in control.  He’s never surprised.  He’s never worried.  He’s got us. 

Praise Him today for His abundant provision, amazing faithfulness and astounding love that He has showered upon you.  Then go tell someone, so that they might be astonished at our Great God!

Brackets, couches and sledgehammers

How bad do you want to watch March Madness?

Can you top this?

So I invited my buddy over to watch some of the early games on Thursday.  I was super-excited, not only because we could enjoy some games together, but also because after about 3 years of planning, researching and saving, we finally had a new couch delivered Thursday morning.  Perfect!  Good friend, great basketball, new couch, kick-back and enjoy!

Right?

Wrong.

The delivery guys arrive with the couch.  They take one look at the basement steps (our family room is in the basement) and they say, "Is this the only way down there?"  Bad news.  The couch won't fit down the steps!!!

Are you kidding me?

So they leave the couch in the middle of the living room.  Long story short...when I got home with my buddy and another friend, we pushed, pulled, tugged, and lugged that couch in every way possible and still that thing wouldn't go.  Finally, one of the guys asked..."How bad do you want this couch downstairs?"  (Understand that by this point we have turned on the Tournament and can hear the play by play from the family room!)

This is what we have hoped for.  We bought this couch for the family room.  It has no other place in the house.  It was made for TV (Tournament) watching!  It must get down the stairs.

So you know what we did?

We took a sledgehammer to the basement steps.  That's right!  Demolition, baby.  We busted out the step next to the landing. We brought in the couch again.  We set the couch on the landing.  We pivoted that couch and-- joy of joys-- we got that sucker down the steps!!!

Red couch in front of flat screen watching the brackets fill in...priceless.

But here's the thing.  That couch was made for that room, but in order to get it there, we had to literally cut out a step.

You were made for--crafted intricately for-- relationship with Jesus.  What do you need to cut out in order to bring you closer to Him?  Is there something in your way?

Don't let anything stand between you and Jesus!

Unwinding the Spell of Want, Part 3

The word for fast in Hebrew literally means to cover the mouth.  Therefore, a fast has to do with limiting your food intake in some way.  You may choose to remove other things (cell phones, devices, video games, TV watching, limiting online time, etc.) from your life as a way to have more time to draw nearer to God, but technically, a fast has to do with depriving the body of food in some way.

Types of Fasting

There are many ways you may choose to fast. Following is a short list:

Total fast: You drink only water for a specified time period.  If you need to, you may drink fruit juice mixed with water, or some broth.

Partial fast:

o  Remove one or two meals from your day and invest that time seeking the Lord.

o  Remove items from your diet.  This could mean you have three meals a day, but you refrain from luxury foods like meat, dairy, sugars, desserts, or caffeine. 

o  Daniel Fast: This was the fast that the Lord lead me to engage in.  Found in the book of Daniel, I drank only water during the day and ate vegetables and fruits for dinner with the family.  A very good resource for this type of fast can be found at http://www.vega-licious.com/things-you-need-to-know-about-the-daniel-fast/.

Let’s not get legalistic here!  This is between you and God.  If you are not sure about how to fast, ask Him.  Remember, fasting is a powerful way of growing in your intimacy with Jesus.  Fasting is not a way for you to earn a merit badge from the Almighty!

What You Can Expect When Fasting

If you choose a total or partial fast which greatly reduces your food intake, you can anticipate some of the following physical issues (I'm not a medical professional.  I'm simply speaking from experience):

Detox: Over the first couple of days your body will begin to expel toxins from its system.  You may experience headaches and backaches. This is normal and it should pass by day 6-7.

Bad Breath: You will notice a coating on your tongue and bad breath.  This is normal. Just brush your teeth and keep drinking water. Don't chew gum, as it doing so will trick you're body into being hungry.

Hunger pains: You are re-training your body and putting it into submission to your Spirit.  Your body will ask for food.  When it does, drink more water.

Faintness: With less caloric intake than usual, you may experience dizziness from time to time.  Don’t get up too quickly!  Take care of yourself.

Trouble focusing: No, fasting does not cause onset of ADHD, however, you may notice that it takes longer to do mental calculations or you may have trouble concentrating.  Again, this is normal.  Simply refocus and take care of yourself.

Tips for Fasting

1.   Drink lots of water.  You cannot drink too much water.  It is crucial that you stay hydrated, especially as you begin your fast. 

a.    A good rule of thumb is to drink half of your body weight in ounces per day.  For instance, if you weigh 180 lbs., then you should drink at least 90 oz. of water each day.

b.   I found room temperature water to be the best for my system.  Ice water is too shocking to a system without food.  Also, some recommend using filtered or even distilled water.  I used water from the kitchen tap.  See what works for you.

2.   Don’t drink coffee or tea.  Caffeine stimulates your nervous system when you are trying to give your body rest.  If you need a hot beverage, try hot water with a slice of lemon. Ahhh...refreshing!

3.   Don’t chew gum or use breath mints, as these will stimulate your appetite.

4.   Take walks.

5.   Conserve your strength and take care of yourself.

6.   Journal your experience.  What is God saying to you, teaching you?

7.   Obey whatever God speaks to you through his Word and prayer.

Devotional Activities to Accompany Fasting

Remember that fasting isn’t about being hungry and acting as if we are doing God a favor.  Fasting is a path to greater intimacy with God that must be coupled with Bible reading and prayer.  Read your Bible during this time.  God will speak to you through His Word in amazing and clear ways because as you fast, you are more spiritually sensitive to His leading.  You may choose to read through the Psalms and Proverbs, or through the Gospels.  Helpful Bible plans can be accessed at www.bible.com/reading-plans. 

Pray.  Seek the Lord.  Talk to Him often.  Keep a prayer journal.  Pray about a specific issues in your life or the lives of loved ones and record how God moves in those situations.  

Remember, this is precious time that you are given to devote to you Heavenly Father.  If you fast, but don't invest in seeking the Lord through Bible reading and prayer, then you'll just be a hungry, grumpy person with a headache.  Don't only deprive your body--feed your soul!  

Breaking Your Fast

End your fast gradually.  Do not eat solid foods immediately after a total fast.  Drink fruit juices, vegetable juices, broths and soft, easily digestible fruits and vegetables.  Stay away from meat for a while.  You may consider trying several small meals or snacks throughout the day.  Give your body time to get up and running again.  Don’t overdo.  Slowly reintroduce meat, poultry or fish at one meal per day until you feel you can handle more.

Some Final Thoughts

In his blog, my friend Dr. John Armstrong writes:

“We must never allow any experience to be our sole guide. Experience is the doorway through which we enter into the presence of God for ourselves. We must not just “think” about God, or develop a reasonable theology of God. We must even do more than read the Bible, as valuable as Bible reading is for us all. We must hunger to know the divine author. The point is this – get at the knowledge of God for yourself. Become a continuous learner and seek the Truth until you know the divine Logos for yourself. This happens through both hearing and responding to the written revelation of God but also through Christian experience of that living truth. These are merely two sides of the same coin” (ACT3 Weekly Blog, March 3, 2014).

We must hunger to know the divine author. Amen! 

May your fast lead you once again to the throne of grace. 

May you be filled to overflowing with His Presence.

May you hunger for God.

Blessings!

Unwinding the Spell of Want, Part 2

So there I was in January-- listening to so many voices and trying so hard to keep all the plates spinning.  I knew that Jesus was inviting me to rest...to rest in Him in a way I had not previously known.  Jesus was inviting me to explore Him through fasting.  I had only ever fasted a couple days-- back in college!  Fasting was not a practice that I had ever seriously considered taking on, not that I was opposed to it, but more from the standpoint that I didn't see how it could fit into my life.  After all, I'm not some monk on a Greek island monastery, or a prophet in the wilderness.  I'm a regular guy.  I'm a father of 4 active children, a husband, a pastor of a (maybe too) busy church.  I just couldn't see how fasting could fit into my life.  

In any event, I knew that Jesus was calling me to it.  I couldn't shake the thought...and it thrilled me.  So I began preparing by reading.  As I read, I discovered that some Christians say that fasting is not an activity that followers of Jesus should participate in.  They say that since Jesus is resurrected, and the Kingdom of God has come, we are to rejoice and follow our King, which does not include fasting.  While I understand this view, I do not accept it for the simple reason that Jesus, Himself, seems to endorse the practice.  In Matthew 6:1, 16-18, Jesus teaches:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven… And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Jesus solemnly warns that a fast, as well as giving and praying, must be done with pure motives and a right heart.  We fast for an audience of one, not to build the perception that we are super-Christians.  When our hearts are right, fasting draws us closer to the Lord.  After the warning, Jesus gives clear instructions about fasting.  Notice he says “when you fast, not “if you fast.” When you fast, don’t make a show of it.  Wash you face and do it for your Father in secret.  Jesus assumes that his followers will fast, though this activity is never recorded in the Gospels while Jesus is with them on the earth. 

Later in Matthew 9:14-17 we read:

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

When questioned why his disciples don’t fast like other Jews, Jesus declares that while He, the Bridegroom, is with them they rejoice and don’t fast, but when he is taken away, they will fast. What is Jesus talking about? What is the timeframe? His disciples will certainly feast after the resurrection, and the Holy Spirit will come and abide within them at Pentecost, but they will not feast with Jesus until the consummation when the Kingdom of God comes finally, totally and fully.  Believers fast in faith, knowing that Jesus has come, is raised and will come again.  We fast because the world is not yet right.  We fast because we know His goodness and yearn—hunger—for His presence. 

John Piper in his excellent book on fasting entitled, A Hunger for God, ends his exposition of this text from Matthew 9 by saying:

Is fasting Christian? It is if it comes from confidence in Christ and is sustained by the power of Christ and aims at the glory of Christ. Over every Christian fast should be written the words, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8). In fasting, as well as in all other privations, every loss is for the sake of “gaining Christ.” But this does not mean that we seek to gain a Christ we do not have. Nor does it mean that our progress depends on ourselves. Four verses later Paul makes plain the dynamics of the entire Christian life—including fasting: “I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”

        This is the essence of Christian fasting: We ache and yearn—and fast—to know more and more of all that God is for us in Jesus. But only because he has already laid hold of us and is drawing us ever forward and upward in “all the fullness of God.”

        My prayer for the Christian church is that God might awaken in us a new hunger for himself—a new fasting. Not because we haven’t tasted the new wine of Christ’s presence, but because we have tasted it and long, with a deep and joyful aching of soul, to know more of his presence and power in our midst (pages 48-49).

Amen! I wanted to "know more of his presence and power!" Fasting lead me deeper into Christ.

Next time...the nuts and bolts of Christian fasting.

Unwinding the Spell of Want, Part 1

At the risk of sounding a little wacky to some of you...I need to share with you a life-changing part of my journey with Jesus over the past couple months.

After the first of the year, the Lord very clearly directed me to fast for 40 days.  I just knew I had to do it, but I had never done anything close to this before.  Honestly, I was fearful...as in terrified.

How would I prepare? 

What would fasting look like for our young family who has dinner together as often as we can? 

How would I get things done? 

What kind of fast would I do?

Where would God lead me?

What would He lead me to do?  

These questions, and more, flooded my mind.  Through all the questions, I knew one thing was very clear—I needed to fast and focus on God’s Word and His will for me.  There are so many voices that vie for our attention, but there is only one Voice that we need to hear…the voice of Jesus.

If you are a follower of Jesus and sense a hunger for God deep in your soul, if you need to unwind the spell of want in your life, then the next few blog posts will be for you.  I want to tell you about my experience of Jesus through fasting, and hopefully, you will be inspired to seek the face of God through fasting and prayer.  There is nothing like it.  

Over the next few posts, I will give a Biblical basis for Christian fasting, as well as some helps for fasting, itself.  

May we grow in our hunger for God!

The tyranny of want

We are refreshing the kitchen. Wallpaper stripped. Walls repaired and sealed. Repainted in "sunrise" and "sunflower." Yeah...it's bright. As most home improvement projects go, there is always more that we want to do before the money runs out. We would like to install new counter tops, sink, faucet and disposal. We would like to update the undercounter lighting. We would like to have a new kitchen table and chairs. The list goes on and on. There are many things we want, but only so much we can actually have...or is there?

After all, we have good and available credit. Enough to cover the wants in the kitchen. If we wanted to incur debt and do the kitchen the way we really want it to be, then so be it. That would be our choice and no one could tell us any different. It may not be fiscally healthy for us to run a couple thousand dollars in debt, but it would be our choice.

Want is the tyranny of our existence. Preference is our governor. Choice is the absolute in a culture where absolutes are viewed too often as heretical and hateful. 

Want...preference...choice.

One of my sons lately discovered the Amazon app on the iPad. In the course of one hour he asked me if he could buy a bass guitar, a 4-pack of smoke grenades and a Samurai sword! When I told him "no" each time he said, "but I want it!"

Unfettered want is tyranny to the soul. Unfettered want...

 Robs me of my humanity. We were made to know the contentment that comes from a relationship with God. We were made to rest in His presence and indulge in His joy, peace and hope. To be truly human is to rest in the life-giving relationships that God has given to us, but when we indulge in want we jeopardize those relationships. We obey want at the expense of relationship. In fact, want can kill relationship. If want is my ultimate driver, and I want a new spouse, a new relationship, a new thrill or just to be happy, then I will drop my stale, old, unpleasing relationship (that may have great potential to be good and bring great satisfaction with a little work) like a greased pig.

 Only expands my appetite for more. Appetites are bottomless pits of want. We think that by feeding an appetite we will sate it. Feeding an appetite isn't like pouring concrete into a hole, it's more like pouring a milkshake into a colander. It gets fed, but in time you'll need to feed it again.

 Tempts me to be god. Eve wanted the fruit. She wanted to be wise. She wanted to be like God. Her want led her to disobey the Word and will of God. Her want supplanted God's Word and will. Her word and her will became the supreme authority for her. When we obey our want instead of truth, we find ourselves slipping toward self-liberating tyranny.  There is only one God, and I ain't Him! Neither are you.

Want some peace for your soul?  Give your wants a rest.
"I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

We were meant to live...

So I am a pastor. which means I get to teach the Bible to people every week.  I love what I do.  

Lately I've been contemplating the beginning of our Story-- the Book of Genesis.  This book is so about you and me.  I find myself in its pages a lot!  One of the huge things that I've seen so clearly over the last couple of days is God's original intention and plan for us...the people he created.  We were made not only by him, but we were made for him.  For relationship.  For friendship.  For total and complete intimacy with God! That was God's plan for us.

I ran across this quote from Martin Luther that I can't stop thinking about: "And so when Adam had been created in such a way that he was, as it were, intoxicated with rejoicing toward God and was delighted also with all the other creatures, there is now created a new tree for the distinguishing of good and evil, so that Adam might have a definite way to express his worship and reverence toward God."

Intoxicated with rejoicing toward God...

WOW! I don't know about you, but I want that to be me.  I want to be gloriously intoxicated with joy toward the One who desires to be in relationship with me.  I want to be filled to overflowing with joy toward him.

If you know much about this big Story, you know that we messed it up pretty quickly.  Our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and our relationship with Him was utterly, yet not finally, broken.  

The amazing thing is that God still pursues us.  God extends his embrace to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus forgives, heals, restores, renews and gloriously fills us with joy.  Pursue his embrace and be filled-- intoxicated-- with him