before you fast

On Sunday, Michael Small did a great job laying out what the Bible says about fasting, and how we are called to do so throughout our lifetime by God.  As a church, we are embarking on a period of time when we will be fasting together and yet separately in different ways as God calls us.  Before we get there, though, I think there are somethings you should understand before going on a fast.  I will give you a quick list of things up front, because this will likely be a long post.  I do not want you to miss some important notes, because you know you will not read the whole thing.  So please, read the bullet points and feel free to pass on the rest if you must, but don't miss these things.

• Before you fast, you should know your body limits.  Consult a doctor if you must.  If you are a diabetic or hypoglycemic or whatever, a whole fast is not a prudent choice.


• One type of fast is not more holy than another type of fast.


• Fasting is a private issue.  It can be entered into corporately, but the decision to do so and the loss you feel throughout are private matters.  It's not something to brag about, and it's not your business to ask someone else why they are not fasting.  You are not the food police.


• Make sure it is God calling you to your fast and not someone else.  But you said the church was going on a fast, so our church is calling me to one.  Here's an inside secret: the last time a group of elders and church leaders did a fast, I didn't, because God wasn't asking me to do it.  I felt no peace about it.  So please, consult God.

It's a matter of faith

When you enter into a fast, you are placing your faith in God to sustain you.  Whether you're going without food, caffeine, technology, or whatever else, you are asking God to fill that void and expecting that He will do so.  It is also a matter of obedience.  When God asks you to do something, big or small, you do it.  Well, you should do it.  So when He calls you to fast, you fast. Simple as that.

But not everyone can fast in the same way.  God created your body, and that is the framework in which He has called you to obedience.  Do not tell God that you will do something He has not called you to, and you are expecting Him to take care of you.  That is called testing God, and the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy - and Jesus reaffirms this when speaking to the Devil in Luke 4 - that you are not to put God to the test.  What does that mean?  It means you put expectations on Him to follow your will and come through for you like a miracle worker.  It means you put Him in the precarious position of performing at your command.  1 Corinthians 10:9 says not to test Christ, or you may end up destroyed by serpents like the others.  This is in reference to an old faith act of picking up a snake, as Paul did, and not dying if the venomous snake bit you.  Likely some Christians said, "look, we're going to do this to prove God, and He will keep us safe."  I'm guessing He didn't call them to do it, didn't promise protection, and they got to meet Him earlier than expected.  Do not test God by saying, "I will go on a whole fast for 40 days, and God must sustain me," if He's not calling you to it.  Especially don't do it if you have health reasons that you know should keep you from doing it.  Seek Him and be wise.  Bravado does not equal faith.

It's a matter of obedience

Jesus fasted for 40 days on nothing but water.  God could call you to that, I suppose.  I'm actually grateful He has never asked me to do that.  But Daniel fasted for 10 days, and his fast basically consisted of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts.  He still was able to take in the necessary amount of daily calories and protein his body needed.  He just wasn't eating meat or dairy.  Nothing with a face or a mother.  Was his fast less holy than yours if you go on a whole fast (water only)?  Certainly not.  He carried out the fast God had called him to do.  But mine is more holy, because I am giving up everything but water.  It's a bigger sacrifice.  It is a big sacrifice, but God's looking for obedience.  1 Samuel 15:22 tells us that to obey is better than to sacrifice. So if God's leading you to fast a particular way, and you go another way so you can get more out of it, you're missing the point.

It's a private matter

Here's a really sticky issue related to fasting.  Some people get all fussy and pharisaical about other people's following God.  Let's look at the passage that usually gets people all worked up and see what it says and means.



People will often say that when you go on a fast, you can't tell anyone about it, because Jesus said not to do that.  He did not.  He said that when you fast, you can't put on a big show of how miserable you are.  Don't let people know how bad it is for you.  Don't tweet, "I really want this donut, but I can't.  #fastinginfaith."  Don't brag about it.  It is okay, however, to let others know that you are fasting and to pray for you.  Daniel's fast wasn't private.  He told the head guard what he wanted to do, he entered into it with a group of friends, and they fasted for ten days with everyone else knowing what they were doing.  Was he not rewarded for it?  Did he not excel and grow stronger than his friends that didn't take a stand?  Was he not commended for his faith by God in the Bible?

Privacy is key in keeping your struggle with fasting to yourself, and it also plays another role.  Let's keep looking at Daniel.  Was there any record of Daniel circling the room - a room filled with Jewish young men who all had the same dietary laws to follow - and saying, "Hey, why aren't you doing this with me?  Don't you have faith?"  Of course there's not.  He's not the food and fasting police, and neither are you.  What if God didn't give someone else peace about fasting?  Should they do it because a lot of other people are?  Should they do it because the call has been given by men?  Absolutely not.  Let God call you to what He will call you.  As you prepare to fast, and as you are fasting, let yourself be so focused on God that you don't have time to notice what someone else is or is not doing.  Worry about God and you.

But when you fast

You really should fast at some point in your lifetime.  It was an assumed.  Jesus said, "and when you fast," because it was an understood that you would at some point.  If God never calls you to fast from anything ever, you're probably not tuned into the right channel.  Seek God, be willing to follow Him, and WHEN He makes the call, give up what needs giving up and let Him be sufficient enough for you.

changing behaviors without actually changing

Did you know you can change your behaviors, even over an extended period of time, without actually changing who you are?  It's quite simple, really.  All you have to do is create a system in which sticking with your old behaviors is either impossible or very costly to you.  You will forcibly change your actions.  I signed up for Gym-Pact in January, because it held me accountable to going to the gym.  I had to work out three times a week, or I would have to pay $5 for each workout I missed.  I only missed one from January to June.  But I only had to workout for thirty minutes, so by the end of it, I would show up to the gym, sign in right away, work out a little bit, and as soon as my phone said I had been there half an hour, I went back to my car and left.  I was shooting for the lowest requirement.

When June came around, I realized I would be out of town for a lot and unable to check in at my gym.  I had the mission trip, the post mission trip recovery, my brother's wedding, and a couple other reasons to be out of town.  I didn't want to get charged, so I took a break from Gym-Pact.  I collected my reward money and closed out my account, because I couldn't meet my pact.  Oh, but I would still work out when I could wherever I could.  I would run.  I would exercise at home, in hotel rooms, and at the gym as I could.  That's what I said.  But I hadn't changed at all.  I was following a system that was set up to keep me from failing, and once the training wheels were taken off, I realized I hadn't really learned to ride the bike after all.  So on a side note there, I just signed up again, with RunKeeper, to workout four days a week this time.  I'll try to run twice and go to the gym twice.  Whatever I do, I'll workout all four times, because I'm cheap, and I also don't want to get in trouble with my wife.

Your spiritual life is the same way.  You can set up systems to keep you from failing God, but if you never seek Him and allow Him to change who you are, you will always go back to your previous lifestyle.  You can cancel the internet, or you can set up X3 Watch, and you can ensure that you won't be able to look at pornography without paying a steep immediate price.  But if you don't let God change who you are, when the safety walls come down, you'll go right back to it.  I've seen it happen.  It is a very good thing to set up barriers between yourself and your sins of choice.  I highly recommend it.  I also recommend an accountability partner who will make sure you don't go around the barriers.  But what I really recommend is getting into God's Word, pouring yourself out to Him, and letting Him change who you are on the inside.  Romans 12:2 says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  The only renewal station is at the foot of the cross.  So get there.

feeling dumb when you read the Bible

Reading the Bible is important for every Christian.  We're told to read, study, and meditate on it.  And as a pastor, I think it's my job to not just read it and know it, but it's also my job to to encourage and enable you to do it.  So this year in youth group, I'm going out of my way to make sure people are reading the Bible.  The leaders are all set up with their DeliberatePeople journals.  They explained it to the students and handed them out to them, as well.  A lot of parents came Sunday night and received one.  We're all going to be reading the same part of the Bible all year, and I think that's great.

But there's a catch.  If you haven't read the Bible much before, you probably aren't familiar with a common occurrence: feeling dumb when you read it.  Sometimes you read something in the Bible, and you're left wondering what it was talking about.  And then you wonder if everyone else gets it, and you're the only one that has trouble.  That's going to happen to a lot of people in and around our youth group this year, maybe for the first time.  Maybe it happened yesterday for the first time.  Here's what we read from Proverbs:



 

Say what?  I think it means that you should be careful to not fall for someone buttering you up and then taking advantage of you, but I'm not sure.  Maybe you read it and weren't sure, either.  It's okay.  You're not as stupid as you thought. Sometimes it's just confusing, but don't let that stop you from reading.

why I'm going old school

I like using my phone for everything.  When I go on mission trips, retreats, family vacations, or wherever, I can bring my one slim phone and leave behind my camera, video camera, Bible, and computer.  I have access to all of that stuff on one device.  At first, it was new and shiny to me, and I thought it was great.  Then last year around this time, I started doing my devotions exclusively on my phone.  It was easy.  It was always around.  I never forgot it at work.  I even got pop up reminders to read my Bible from the YouVersion app, which was pretty cool.  So I could never say, "I forgot to read my Bible today."  I had to consciously choose to miss it, and yes, sometimes I did.

But the thing about my phone is I get a lot of notifications, and I find them distracting.  I'm told when it's my turn to play a game, when someone tweets at me, when someone texts me, or obviously when someone's calling me.  I find this distracting.  I would usually not leave my Bible app to tend to those things, but then it would be on my mind.  My attention was split between what I was doing and responding, so I'd read faster and spend less time in thought.  I noticed, so I quit reading on my phone primarily.  But I still used YouVersion's plans to remind me and tell me what to read.  And there was my phone.  Now I wasn't looking at it, but it made sounds, it buzzed, it flashed lights at me.  I had put down the phone, but I still knew someone wanted me to do something, and my attention was torn.

So I'm done.  I'm going old school.  No, I'm not pulling out my old KJV.  But I'm going read the same Bible for the next three years, and I'm going to wear it out.  I'm going to highlight it.  I'm going to write in it.  I'll have a little binder with my reading plan and paper to write longer notes.   I'll keep my phone off or in a different room, so it can no longer distract me, and I'll get more out of it then when I rush it.  I'm not saying that it's wrong to use a phone app to read your Bible, assuming you can handle it.  But I can't handle the distractions.  I'm weak in this area.  Would it be a greater show of strength to overcome my weakness or to acknowledge my weakness and avoid situations that enable failure?  I'm going to try to avoid the possibility of failing.

So why three years?  Because it's going to be a kid's Bible, and I'm going to give it to Jakob.  He'll be able to read by then, and he'll be able to see that I don't just tell him to read the Bible.  I read it, too.  Then I'll take a teen study Bible and do it again, and I'll give it to him when he's ready.  And then I'll take a study Bible and do it again, and I'll give it to him when he graduates from high school.  For the rest of Jakob's life, I want him to see that I'm reading the Bible, not possibly reading it or playing games or surfing the web.  My Christian life is personal, but it's not just about me.  It never was, but it is less so now more than ever.  I'm leading my son, and I want to more intentionally beat down a clear path for him to follow.  I want him to be able follow me as I follow Christ.

the boy who told the truth

It's not easy to do the right thing when it seems everyone else isn't.  In the Bible, we see that out of all the Jews taken in the Babylonian Exile, only 3 refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's statue.  In Washington, we see that only one man is willing to stand up and...just kidding.  I have no desire to write about politics ever.

Last week, I got to help run a youth camp program in Muskegon with my friends Amy and Todd.  It was a new experience for me, and it was really fun.  One kid stood out to me on two separate occasions.  One was good, one was not.  On Wednesday, he and I had a run in when he openly disrespected me.  Up to that point, he had been pretty respectful and was enjoying himself.  So we had some words, most of which came from me, and we parted ways.  We were fine, though, and he continued coming the rest of the week.  That was the first time he stood out to me, and to be honest, it made the next time even more surprising.

On Friday, something happened.  I noticed that a group of older guys was sitting off to the side, refusing to engage with the rest of the group.  Amy knew why, but I hadn't heard yet.  This middle school guy had been hanging around them the whole week, trying to be accepted into their group.  He wanted to be cool to them and followed them around a lot.  They actually accepted him into their little circle and let him in on a secret: they had been doing bad things that week: destructive things.  They were bragging about it.  Now he had a choice to make.  Did he want to be cool or let someone know?  I think that most kids - and frankly, most adults - would have kept their mouths shut.  You know, because snitches get stitches.  But not this kid.  He went and told Amy what had happened, because it needed to be done.  He chose the uncool way out, and on Friday, he was out of the group.

After I had all the details, I went and found him, and we had some more words, with most of them coming from me again.  If I pulled him aside to express disappointed in the way he behaved earlier in the week, I was going to be sure to pull him aside and tell him how impressed with him and proud of him I was this time.  And that's something you should do.  If you don't take time to praise the good things and right decisions someone makes, you should probably bite your tongue and not criticize or correct them, either.

specks and logs and judging others

We are all probably familiar with the verses that talk about removing the log from your own eye before worrying about the speck in someone else's eye.  Right?  Because when someone points out an area of concern in our lives, it's a pretty quick retort to throw out there. There's that and the often misused, "judge not, lest ye be judged."  People love the King James Version when they're trying to convict others with the Bible, I suppose.  These happen to be back-to-back in the Bible, found in Matthew 7, and I want to take a minute to look at how they actually apply to our lives.  First, let's read the verses:

"“1 Judge not, that you be not judged. 2  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

Judge not.  You can't judge me.  Who are you to say that what I'm doing is sin?  The first two statements are accurate, but that last one is a misapplication.  Saying that something is a sin is not judging.  It is reiterating what God has already written, and He's also commanded us as Christians to hold each other accountable to following what He's written, so we should slow our high and mighty roll before throwing it out inaccurately.  So what does it really mean?  To judge someone means to pass judgement.  Get it?  It's a little redundant, but people still miss it.  If I were to say, "Having sex outside of marriage is a sin," I wouldn't be judging anything or anyone.  I'd be stating a Biblical fact.  Now, if I were to say, "If you are having sex outside of marriage, God should not bless you in any way, and you should not be forgiven and get to go to Heaven," I'd be adjudicating a sentence for your sin.  That's judging.  Now I'm taking God's place as Judge, and I am by actions asking God to hold me to the same standards of judgment I'm using.  So first, remember that there's a difference between identifying what the Bible has clearly called sin and passing judgment or condemnation for the sinner.

Now, about those specks and logs.  My brother and I were recently tweeting back and forth about this, because we're really hip and use twitter.  If someone were to say to you, "Hey, you really shouldn't be getting drunk like that," you might be tempted to throw out, "Why don't you worry about the log in your eye before worrying about the speck in mine?"  We've heard it a lot, especially recently, and it rubs us the wrong way like a cat being grabbed by the tail and pet backwards straight up his back.  It just bugs me.  You know why?  Because it is true that I need to worry about the sin in my life, but you're not supposed to compare yourself to me.  You're supposed to emulate Jesus.  So you should never let the log in my eye or anyone else's eye keep you from pulling the speck out of yours.  If someone points out a sin in my life, I would hope I'd be humble enough to bite my tongue, look at myself, and address the issue.  I want to grieve my sin just like Jesus does.  I want to hate my sin so much that even the specks bother me.  You know why?  Because if the only sins I were ever guilty of were specks, it would still require Jesus' blood to pay my penalty and give me life in Heaven.

If we are ever to grow as Christians, we're going to need each other to hold us accountable.  Iron sharpens iron.  Iron doesn't tell iron not to judge it.  It accepts the friction and grows as a result.  We need to grow thicker skin and stop pretending to be offended when someone points out our sin.  Let's stop deflecting and just clean the specks and the logs out of our eyes, so we can see Jesus more clearly in our lives.

 

Sunday gives me the funniest quotes

We all know that kids say the best stuff.  Why?  Because they're unfiltered.  I get to spend time with elementary students on many Sunday mornings, and I hang out with teenagers on Sunday nights.  I always seem to have something funny to share with Sarah, and it's usually something a kid said.  This weekend was no exception.  I taught elementary, and although I didn't teach, I was at youth group.  Here are the two top quotes from this weekend that caught me off guard and made me laugh.

Josh, 5th grade

Me: Does anyone know any gross Bible stories?
Josh:  Adam and Eve in the garden
Me:  You think that was a gross story?
Josh:  Yeah, they were naked.  That's nasty.

Carter, 8th grade

"What's that cologne you wear?  It's the one that you have a bottle of on your desk.  Cause you smell like an angel."  Yup, he was talking to me.

 

If I remember, I'll continue to share these, but I almost never blog what I say I'll blog, so I'm making no promises.