One night I had a dream. I was walking along a road and suddenly before me was a great wall. In the wall was a large wooden door. Standing beside the door, was an angel. As I got closer, I noticed the angel was not vibrant, as we have read angels to be, but saddened. I approached the angel and asked, “What is wrong?”
The angel looked up with sadness in his eyes and answered, “Today is our day of mourning.”
Perplexed, I then asked, “What are you in mourning for?”
The angel pointed to the door and responded, “Take a look inside.”
The door opened and stretched as far as the horizon, was a field of tombstones. I looked back at the angel as asked, “Who's buried here?”
The angel solemnly answered, “These are people that have been murdered and their descendants that would have been born had they lived.” He then points to an area, “Over there are doctors. They would have found the cures for all diseases. . . Aids, Cancer, MS, Heart disease, because of these doctors, all diseases would have been wiped off the face of the earth. Over there are economists. They would have figured out the best way to keep the world from a global depression, they would have eradicated poverty. Over there are agriculturalists, they would have discovered ways to feed all the people. All of these buried here were created by our Father in heaven to make the world a better place to live in, until His Son returns.”
I looked at the angel with disgust and asked, “Who is responsible for all this death.”
The angel whispered, “Government sponsored genocide.”
“Ah, this is the result of Hitler's holocaust,” I responded.
The angel shook his head and answered softly, “No, it wasn't him.”
“So this is from Stalin?” I asked.
Again the angel shook his head. I then started guessing various dictators, each person I listed was met with a shake of the head.
Exasperated, I finally shouted, “Who is responsible for this!?”
The angel sadly moved aside. It was then in my horror that I saw who was responsible. Behind the angel was a plaque. Written on the plaque was this: January 22, 1973.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Not So Fast
One day, I was meeting with a good friend of mine for lunch. My friend is a vegetarian so we went to Subway to get our meal. I was exceptionally hungry that day and I ordered a foot long sub with double meat and a whole lot of extra goodies. I included a large drink, a bag of chips, and a cookie. We began to discuss the topics of our upcoming messages. I spread my mini banquet before me and he asks me what I was going to be teaching on. Without hesitating, I answered, “I'm going to talk about fasting.”
True fasting is something that is a foreign concept to most Christians. I took an informal poll (meaning I asked about 6 or 7 people, most at the bowling alley – my favorite polling place) and I asked about fasting. How do you understand fasting? After getting perplexed stares from beer bellied bowlers, I realized I needed to change my polling place, so I asked about twenty Christians what their take on fasting is. Some understood that it was something that the Jews did. Some thought it was something the Muslims did during December. Others felt it was something that Christians did, only on Fridays during lent, and then it was just giving up meat and substituting fish. Almost all felt that it wasn't something that Christians needed to do, outside of Lent, even then it was substituting fish for meat.
Fasting is defined as: To abstain from food, beyond the usual time; to omit to take the usual meals, for a time; as, to fast a day or a week. (Webster's Dictionary). Fasting is giving up the food. It is not giving up a certain food and substituting a different food in it's place. The purpose of fasting is to bring us closer to God. We do that by spending the time with God that we would normally be doing eating. Thus, substituting food is not fasting, since the time spent is still eating and not being devoted to God.
Christians are expected to spend some time in fast. "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18 NIV) Notice, there are two things here: 1. Jesus said, “When you fast” not “if you fast”. When you fast denotes that there will be a time that you will fast. 2. Don't make it obvious that you are fasting. Don't go around with a sense of smugness during your lunch break and announce to everyone in the break room that you are fasting and can't be with them. Fast in secret, it's between you and God.
The purpose of fasting is to bring us closer to God. When we fast, the time normally used for eating, should be used for communing with God. All throughout the Bible, fasting was accompanied with prayer. Jesus when he spoke about fasting, did so after his discourse on prayer. When fasting, we should also be in prayer. What purpose does it do to fast and spend that time doing other things, then it just becomes a glorified cheap diet. Use the time to seek out God's will.
Fasting is to bring us closer to God's will for us. It is not getting God's attention so we can show how “holy and righteous” we are so he will grant us our desires. It is to bring us into God's will for us, and for us to have a clearer understanding of His almighty plans for us. Fasting should never be used as “spiritual blackmail” to God. We must never take the attitude that when we fast, we are getting God to do our bidding and He will have to grant us our desires. It's never been about that, nor should it ever be used in that manner. It is about us getting closer to God's desires.
Fasting should have a purpose behind it. Fasting just to fast is nice, yet it should be accompanied with a purpose. Why are you choosing to fast? To fast because that's what the whole church is doing, is wrong. I know some denominations around this time are promoting a forty days of prayer and fasting. So people fast just because the church said so. Throughout the Bible, people fasted for a reason. Some fasted because a great tragedy has struck, others fasted to get guidance from God, others still fasted for repentance (either theirs or the nations), yet others still fasted for mourning reasons. Each purpose was to bring the person or nation back into God's will.
When you decide to fast, do it to bring you closer to God. Don't do it because you're told to do it. Do it with a purpose and because you want to fast, because you want to be closer to God's will. If fasting is done for the wrong reasons, then not so fast.
True fasting is something that is a foreign concept to most Christians. I took an informal poll (meaning I asked about 6 or 7 people, most at the bowling alley – my favorite polling place) and I asked about fasting. How do you understand fasting? After getting perplexed stares from beer bellied bowlers, I realized I needed to change my polling place, so I asked about twenty Christians what their take on fasting is. Some understood that it was something that the Jews did. Some thought it was something the Muslims did during December. Others felt it was something that Christians did, only on Fridays during lent, and then it was just giving up meat and substituting fish. Almost all felt that it wasn't something that Christians needed to do, outside of Lent, even then it was substituting fish for meat.
Fasting is defined as: To abstain from food, beyond the usual time; to omit to take the usual meals, for a time; as, to fast a day or a week. (Webster's Dictionary). Fasting is giving up the food. It is not giving up a certain food and substituting a different food in it's place. The purpose of fasting is to bring us closer to God. We do that by spending the time with God that we would normally be doing eating. Thus, substituting food is not fasting, since the time spent is still eating and not being devoted to God.
Christians are expected to spend some time in fast. "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18 NIV) Notice, there are two things here: 1. Jesus said, “When you fast” not “if you fast”. When you fast denotes that there will be a time that you will fast. 2. Don't make it obvious that you are fasting. Don't go around with a sense of smugness during your lunch break and announce to everyone in the break room that you are fasting and can't be with them. Fast in secret, it's between you and God.
The purpose of fasting is to bring us closer to God. When we fast, the time normally used for eating, should be used for communing with God. All throughout the Bible, fasting was accompanied with prayer. Jesus when he spoke about fasting, did so after his discourse on prayer. When fasting, we should also be in prayer. What purpose does it do to fast and spend that time doing other things, then it just becomes a glorified cheap diet. Use the time to seek out God's will.
Fasting is to bring us closer to God's will for us. It is not getting God's attention so we can show how “holy and righteous” we are so he will grant us our desires. It is to bring us into God's will for us, and for us to have a clearer understanding of His almighty plans for us. Fasting should never be used as “spiritual blackmail” to God. We must never take the attitude that when we fast, we are getting God to do our bidding and He will have to grant us our desires. It's never been about that, nor should it ever be used in that manner. It is about us getting closer to God's desires.
Fasting should have a purpose behind it. Fasting just to fast is nice, yet it should be accompanied with a purpose. Why are you choosing to fast? To fast because that's what the whole church is doing, is wrong. I know some denominations around this time are promoting a forty days of prayer and fasting. So people fast just because the church said so. Throughout the Bible, people fasted for a reason. Some fasted because a great tragedy has struck, others fasted to get guidance from God, others still fasted for repentance (either theirs or the nations), yet others still fasted for mourning reasons. Each purpose was to bring the person or nation back into God's will.
When you decide to fast, do it to bring you closer to God. Don't do it because you're told to do it. Do it with a purpose and because you want to fast, because you want to be closer to God's will. If fasting is done for the wrong reasons, then not so fast.
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