Happy Leap Day!

If you were to ask the average guy on the street how many days there are in a year, he’d probably say that there are 365. He’d be wrong. There are actually 365.25 days in a year (well, to be exact it's 365.242199 which translates into 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds...so let's just say that 365.25 is close enough), and that’s why we have Leap Year every four years.

From Julius Caesar to Pope Gregory, attempts were made to rectify the calendar. Eventually Leap Year was devised, and now we adjust our calendars every four years by adding an extra day in February.
 
Thinking about today’s date made me think of those who were born on February 29 and the joke many of them have about how old they are. (Since their birth date only comes around every four years, they joke that they’re only a quarter as old as their peers.) Still, I suppose birthdays really are extra special to Leap Year babies.
 
All this Leap Year talk is leading to this thought to consider: Time, as important and crucial as it is to our lives, is only temporary. It’s a creation just like most everything else. And while we must “redeem the time because the days are evil,” let us not lose sight of eternity. It’s so easy to get sidetracked by temporal things that we forget what matters most.

I'm praying for you as we continue our 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting...and part of what I'm praying is that God would reorder our priorities to embrace the things that last forever and minimize the hold that temporal things have on our lives.

A Thought from One of My Spiritual Heroes

“I have but one passion; it is He, He only.”

Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, 1700-1760

"They won't listen." You sure about that?

Are you a “glass is half-full” or a “glass is half-empty” kind of person? The difference is not in what you see but in how you see it. Such perspective plays a huge role in how we view our witnessing opportunities.

As I look into Clarksville and Montgomery County, I see a community that is 86% unchurched. Almost 9-out-of-10 people in this county have no meaningful relationship with any house of worship of any faith. And it’s easy to assume, “They won’t listen.”

Look on the jail booking log sometime and you’ll see people right here in Montgomery County who’ve been arrested for domestic abuse and drug possession (often with the intent to sell) and prostitution and murder and theft and disorderly conduct. And it’s easy to assume, “They won’t listen.”

Go to public places, hang out with real people, listen to what they talk about, hear how they talk, and you might be surprised how little people think about God. So it’s easy to assume, “They won’t listen.”

But consider this—we can sit around lamenting that they won’t listen…or we can act as if they need to hear!

This reminds me of the shoe manufacturer who years ago decided to open the Congo market, so they sent two salesmen to the undeveloped territory. One salesman cabled back: “Prospect here nil. No one wears shoes.” The other salesman reported enthusiastically, “Market potential terrific! Everyone is barefooted.”

“…lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest” (John 4:35).

...death still stinks

It's no secret that C.S. Lewis has been one of the most influential figures in my Christian life; I quote him all the time. Think on these words by Lewis on this Sunday morning...and take them with you when you gather for worship today.

"He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death."

Ever walked up on a dead animal in the woods? Death has a distinctive smell; and regardless of how many olfactory-associated adjectives we can use, death still stinks. Unfortunately, though, some of us have lived with the stench of death so long that we've gotten used to the smell. God, on the other hand, hasn't.

I'm praying for you as we journey with our Lord and with one another through these 40 Days of Fasting & Prayer for spiritual breakthrough...

"Lord, preach to me first...before I preach to them."

Contemplating an insightful quote by Pete Scazzero this morning:
"To change people's lives deeply through the Word, the preacher's life has to be transformed first by that Word."

Saturday is like batting practice before the ballgame for a preacher. Pray for your pastor today as he surrenders himself to God's voice in preparation for "game time" tomorrow.

Complete Abandon to God in Prayer

I came across a quote some time back that convicted my heart. It was something that Catholic monk/mystic Thomas Merton wrote years ago: “What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own kind of answer to our prayer?”

I want to encourage you to abandon yourself to God when you pray. It's not the mere act of saying a prayer that is powerful but our genuine trust in God when we pray.

I'm not generally a big fan of written prayers, per se; but there's one written by Charles de Foucauld (pr. foo-koe), also known as Brother Charles of Jesus, that captures the kind of complete abandonment to God when we pray that I'm talking about:

Father, I abandon myself into Your hands.
Do with me what You will.
Whatever You do, I thank You.
I am ready for all,
I accept all.
Let only Your will be done in me, and in all Your creatures,
I ask no more than this, O Lord.

Into Your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to You with all the love of my heart,
For I love You, Lord, and so need to give myself,
To surrender myself into Your hands,
Without reserve and with boundless confidence,
For You are my Father.

I'm praying for you as we journey together through these 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough...

“Linsanity!”

By now you’ve probably heard of Jeremy Lin, an Asian-American pro basketball player from Harvard who was undrafted and cut twice from NBA teams, who has been taking the pro sports world by storm lately. Until about a month ago, he was only a backup to the backup to the backup…for the New York Knicks.

After Lin outscored Kobe Bryant (Lin’s 38 points to Bryant’s 34 points) and led the Knicks to victory over the Lakers on February 10, Bryant observed, “Players playing that well don’t usually come out of nowhere. It seems like they come out of nowhere, but if you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. It probably just went unnoticed.” The buzzword in New York lately is “Linsanity!”

Jeremy Lin is also a committed Christian and wants to become a pastor someday. After games Lin quietly thanks “Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, for giving me this opportunity.” His behavior and demeanor despite incredible odds exudes humility and a Christlike spirit.

Something Lin said in a 2010 interview (long before “Linsanity!”) makes me like this guy even more. This is the attitude that every believer should have about everything, and Jeremy Lin says it best: “I’m not working hard and practicing day in and day out so that I can please other people. My audience is God….The right way to play is not for others and not for myself, but for God.”

As we continue with our 40 days of fasting and prayer for spiritual breakthrough, let’s check our motives for why we do what we do…

I’m praying for you!

What Hee Haw Can Teach Us About Holiness

At last night's PG-13 MAN CHURCH (ordinarily we encourage males of all ages to be there), we focused on the plague of pornography. Although there's nothing funny about sin's talons sunk deep into men's (and many women's) hearts, I was reminded of a skit from the old Hee Haw show that makes a great point when it comes to pornography (or any sin).

Doc Campbell is confronted by a patient who says he broke his arm in two places. The doc replies, "Well then, stay out of them places!"

That's not bad advice. We can't continually put ourselves in sin's way and not be affected by temptation. We need to take the good doc's advice and "stay out of them places."

2 Timothy 2:22--"Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."

Somethin' to Chew On Today

In all your work for God, make sure you're doing the work of God...

My Monday Morning Musing

A Greek philosopher wanted to illustrate to his students that they must not only have knowledge but also a life changed by the truths he gave them. He said, “Sheep do not vomit up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten. They inwardly digest their food so that they can outwardly produce wool and milk. Likewise, do not show theorems to the unlearned, but rather show the actions produced by the theorems after they have been digested.”

As we continue our 40 Days of Fasting & Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough, I trust that we are allowing God to teach us some things. But let's digest what He gives us! Let's allow the Holy Spirit freedom to apply to our daily lives whatever God reveals to us. Learning something new is one thing; living it is quite another.

"Prove yourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves" (James 1:22).

Before you say, "Did you hear about...?"

Michael Crichton on Gossip...sort of, well not really but read on anyway!

Several years ago I read a book by Michael Crichton (known especially for Jurassic Park) entitled State of Fear. It’s a fictional look at a global disaster caused by eco-terrorists. In classic Crichton fashion, that book freaked me out! It might be my favorite Crichton novel.

Crichton was meticulous in his research, which is one reason that I like to read his stuff. To prepare for State of Fear, he researched global disasters. Of special interest to Crichton was what happened at Chernobyl, one of the worst man-made disasters in history. He was surprised, though, to discover that the fearful legend of Chernobyl didn’t line up with actual facts.

Crichton gave a speech in 2005 in which he shared some of what he had learned. His research shows just how powerful false information can be:

“Chernobyl was a tragic event, but nothing remotely close to the global catastrophe I imagined. About 50 people had died in Chernobyl, roughly the number of Americans that die every day in traffic accidents. I don’t mean to be gruesome, but it was a setback for me. You can’t write a novel about a global disaster in which only 50 people die….

“What I had been led to believe about Chernobyl was not merely wrong—it was astonishingly wrong….

“The initial reports in 1986 claimed 2,000 dead and an unknown number of future deaths and deformities occurring in a wide swath extending from Sweden to the Black Sea. As the years passed, the size of the disaster increased: by 2000, the BBC and New York Times estimated 15,000–30,000 dead, and so on…

“Now, to report that 15,000–30,000 people have died, when the actual number is 56, represents a big error….

“But, of course, you think, We’re talking about radiation: what about long-term consequences? Unfortunately here the media reports are even less accurate.

Pointing to a chart, he said that there were “estimates as high as 3.5 million, or 500,000 deaths, when the actual number of delayed deaths is less than 4,000. That’s the number of Americans who die of adverse drug reactions every six weeks. Again, a huge error.

“But most troubling of all, according to the U.N. report in 2005, is that ‘the largest public health problem created by the accident’ is the ‘damaging psychological impact [due] to a lack of accurate information…[manifesting] as negative self-assessments of health, belief in a shortened life expectancy, lack of initiative, and dependency on assistance from the state.’

“In other words, the greatest damage to the people of Chernobyl was caused by bad information. These people weren’t blighted by radiation so much as by terrifying but false information. We ought to ponder, for a minute, exactly what that implies. We demand strict controls on radiation because it is such a health hazard. But Chernobyl suggests that false information can be a health hazard as damaging as radiation. I am not saying radiation is not a threat. I am not saying Chernobyl was not a genuinely serious event.

“But thousands of Ukrainians who didn’t die were made invalids out of fear. They were told to be afraid. They were told they were going to die when they weren’t. They were told their children would be deformed when they weren’t. They were told they couldn’t have children when they could. They were authoritatively promised a future of cancer, deformities, pain and decay. It’s no wonder they responded as they did.”

If you’ve read my blog regularly, you know that I’ve given attention for a few days to the plight of gossip. Perhaps one of the greatest needs among believers today is to guard our tongues. Disseminating false information (or even factual information shared for the purpose of hurting someone else’s reputation) can be crippling…and has no place among Christians.

Ask God today for a “gossip audit.” Ask Him to reveal any areas in which you’ve been careless with your words (or in listening to someone else’s). Perhaps meditate on Matthew 12:34-37 and/or James 3:2-12…

"Why Tell a Lie When the Truth Will Do Just as Much Damage?" HUH?

Proverbs 26:20-23
20 For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.
21 Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.
22 The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the body.
23 Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart.

Gossip has been defined as “telling facts, rumors, or behind-the-scenes information about other persons, especially of an intimate or personal nature.” In other words, it’s information that may very well be true but that can damage a person’s reputation.

Jim Cymbala talks about in his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire that “it’s not crack cocaine, government oppression, or even lack of funds” that destroys churches. “It’s gossip and slander that grieves the Holy Spirit.”

And by the way, listening to gossip is as bad as telling it. Proverbs 17:4—“An evildoer listens to wicked lips; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.” In fact, Proverbs 20:19 goes as far as to say, “He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with a gossip.” Wow!

Let me share with you two words that will serve as helpful acronyms when it comes to gossip. First is the word “DEAF.” Think about it this way:

“Before I Listen to Gossip,” I must...
Define my boundaries
Examine my own heart
Ask uncomfortable questions
Forget what I’ve heard

Make up your mind now to be “DEAF” to gossip.

Next is the word “THINK.” Decide now, “Before I Gossip” I will ask if it is…
True?
Helpful?
Inspiring?
Necessary?
Kind?

If what I “need” to tell doesn’t pass this litmus test, then I need to keep quiet.

Finally, the late Leonard Ravenhill said it well and his words are fitting for our 40-day emphasis on fasting and prayer for spiritual breakthrough: “We never pray for folk we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray!”

Gossip: America's Favorite Pastime?

In January of 2006, Australian scientists discovered the cause of a mysterious disease that had killed thousands of Tasmanian Devils on the island state of Tasmania. The scientists initially believed a virus caused the deaths; however, their research ultimately uncovered a rare, fatal cancer. They named it Devil Facial Tumor Disease, or DFTD.


What is strange, according to cytogeneticist Anne-Marie Pearse, is that the abnormalities in the chromosomes of the cancer cells were the same in every tumor. That means the disease began in the mouth of a single, sick devil. That individual facilitated the spread of DFTD by biting its neighbors when squabbling for food, which, according to Pearse, is a natural devil behavior: "Devils jaw-wrestle and bite each other a lot, usually in the face and around the mouth, and bits of tumor break off one devil and stick in the wounds of another."


Over the course of several years, infected devils continued to inflict deadly wounds with their mouths. Consequently, DFTD spread at an alarming rate, ultimately wiping out over 40 percent of the devil population.


A similar fate threatens the Church if its members persist in the devilish behavior of wounding their neighbors with their mouths. During these forty days of fasting and prayer for spiritual breakthrough, let us examine our own lives to see if the sin of gossip is holding back God's best from us...

Fight the Good Fight of Faith!

If you're taking this prayer & fasting seriously, then my guess is you've already experienced spiritual warfare...and I don't mean mere food cravings. I mean the kind of battle where you feel like some medieval-like warrior fighting for your life against dark forces!

We came into this expecting a fight, and a fight is just what we're getting! But don't get discouraged or distracted in the battle. The stakes are too high just because the goin' gets tough. So stand strong and stay true!

Remember the words of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18--

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit...

By the way, sometimes we lose a battle...but that doesn't mean that we've lost the war! Keep on "fight[ing] the good fight of faith!" (1 Timothy 6:12).

May the following inspire you! [Warning: these are battle scenes from movies and may be graphic...guy-kind-of-stuff]

This Is Love...

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:16).

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15).

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves
me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him" (John 14:21).

"Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him'" (John 14:23).

"This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3).

"And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard
from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love" (2 John 6).

"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold..." (Matthew 24:12).

"But I have this against you, that you have left your first love..." (Revelation 2:4).

Be inspired on this Valentine's Day to stay true to your First True Love!

Short & Sweet

The length of my sermons comes up in conversations from time to time, and I’m usually good-natured about it. Sometimes, though, I think I’ve met the guy who told his pastor, “That sermon was certainly food for thought…but we prefer fast food.” Or how about the pastor who got up in the pulpit one Sunday morning and apologized for the Band-aid on his face? He said “I was thinking about my sermon while shaving and cut my face.” Afterward he found a note in collection plate, “Next time, think about your face and cut the sermon.”

I suppose the same discussion about length could sometimes be said about my blog posts. That’s why this one’s going to be short:

“Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God.” -- John Piper

"Lord, let it be..."

I Am a Man of Unclean Lips, and I Live Among a People of Unclean Lips

As we pray and fast for spiritual breakthrough, don’t forget to pray for our nation. The United States was undeniably founded upon Judeo-Christian principles…yet we have forsaken God as a nation. We desperately need a mighty move of God in America.

Contrary to what many people think, I don’t believe such a spiritual awakening will ever be the result of elections. Who we elect is important—no doubt—and we need to vote our values. But elections don’t so much dictate the pulse of our nation as they reveal it.

Recently our president has attempted to erase the freedom of religious conscience by mandating that religious organizations had to provide “all [federally] approved forms of contraception” (including abortion-causing drugs) to their employees through their insurance coverage, even when such coverage violates their fundamental religious beliefs. Yesterday, he tweaked the mandate by saying that religious organizations could refuse to offer such coverage but the insurance companies would still have the burden to provide the contraception anyway. That sounds like a shell game to me, but…

Along those same lines, treating abortion like a simple surgical procedure and liberalizing the “morning after pill” are signs of the times and should cause believers great distress. Blurring the lines of sexuality is another problem plaguing our nation. The church has largely stuck its head in the sand and remained silent on sexual sins like fornication, adultery, and homosexuality…and we will have a hefty price to pay as a result. While our nation heartily debates redefining marriage to include homosexuals, the case for heterosexual-only marriage has been hollowed out by rampant infidelity and divorce. We need spiritual awakening!

We don’t like to admit it, but our nation’s economy largely runs on greed. I’m all for capitalism; I want you to know that. But c’mon…it doesn’t take a Harvard MBA to see that something is fundamentally wrong with our nation’s economy. It’s broken…just like our nation’s moral compass! And, while I’m here, socialism is not the answer! What’s happening in America in regard to Wall Street are knee-jerk reactions and ideological engineering that strip individuals of their dignity and incentive to reward irresponsible and reckless behavior. We need a spiritual awakening that touches every facet of our society, our economy included!

Oh that we could see a massive groundswell of repentance among God’s people that would lead to spiritual awakening across America that would return us to our spiritual roots! Isaiah’s words are on target this morning: “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…” (Isaiah 6:5). We must embrace corporate acknowledgement and repentance of sin!

Will you take time today to pray for spiritual awakening in our nation?

A Lesson Learned from a Travel-Sized Tube of Toothpaste

This week I was in Miami as a Trustee for the North American Mission Board. Before I left town I did the whole routine of buying the tiny TSA-approved toiletries, including a tiny tube of toothpaste. When I used it for the first time, I honestly thought to myself, "This is like me far too often."

First, it was puffed up like it was full of toothpaste...yet I had to squeeze it a couple of seconds before I got anything out because it was mostly just full of air. How often does God find me full of hot air and lacking substance?

Then I couldn't help but think how the only way to get anything out of a tube of toothpaste is to squeeze it. That might not sound terribly profound, but here was my thought: Do I freely give of myself or does God have to squeeze "it" out of me (whatever "it" is)?

And talking about squeezing the toothpaste out of the tube, have you ever noticed that it seems like you can always squeeze just a little bit more out even when you think the tube is empty? I know enough about myself to know that I sometimes tell God that I'm all tapped out...that there's just nothing more. Yet when God squeezes me, I realize I still have something more to give. Why can't I give my all without being forced to do so?

Before you assume that I've fallen off my rocker because I'm now hearing God speak from Crest, consider that Proverbs 6:6 tells us to look at ants for a life lesson. It's not without biblical precedent to observe truth in the context of daily life. And with our current church-wide emphasis on fasting and prayer for spiritual breakthrough, God reminded me of some things about myself that I don't really like to admit...all from a tiny tube of toothpaste.

I'm praying for you!

I'm So Hungry!

Whenever we fast from food, the chief struggle (or at least this is true for me) is the pangs of hunger. If we're not careful, we'll forget to pray for focusing on our hunger.

When I think of Moses or Daniel or Jesus or the early Christians fasting, I can't help but believe that they were plagued with hunger like we are. But the real question is, "Were they hungry because they fasted or did they fast because they were hungry?"

"Fast because they were hungry?!? You sure you said that right?"

Herein is the key to prayer, fasting, and the power of God. What are we most hungry for when we fast? Food or God? I think that one of the values of fasting, beyond the humility that such self-denial can bring, is the discovery that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). We discover that we need God more than we need our next meal. So, ideally, we should fast because we're hungry...hungry for God.

One of my favorite stories in the life of Jesus is found in John 4 when Jesus and His disciples had gone to Samaria. He sent His disciples on into town to buy food while He stayed behind (little did they know but Jesus had an divine appointment with a Samaritan woman at the well). When the disciples returned, they urged Jesus to eat.

Jesus replied, "I have food to eat that you do not know about" (32). Obviously the disciples were puzzled by Jesus' words, so He clarified His statement by saying, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work" (34). Those words seriously humble me. Could I honestly make such a statement? Yet fasting reminds us that we need God more than anything.

So the next time you're fasting from food and the hunger hits your hard, say (maybe even out loud?), "I'm so hungry...for God!" Be encouraged...spiritual breakthrough is coming!

Have It My Way?

So there I was on a day recently when I was fasting...sitting at a stop light...with a Burger King to my left. The smell of burgers on the grill was killing me. My insides already felt like they were gnawing their way out. I was so hungry.


When I looked to to my left, immediately my eyes fell on Burger King's famous phrase emblazoned on the side of their building for all the world to see: "Have It Your Way!" And in that instant, I knew that phrase to be true. I could have it my way.


Yet I made a vow to fast at least one day a week during these 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer, and I intend to keep my promise. While I honestly don't understand all the spiritual dynamics of fasting, I do believe that the power of fasting is undeniable. But when I saw that phrase, "Have It Your Way!" I knew that I could choose the easy way and do whatever my body craved...or I could direct that physical hunger toward my spiritual hunger for God.


Perhaps I just seriously over-spiritualized a harmless slogan...but it was a spiritually dark statement to me in that moment. I literally sensed our enemy whisper to my heart, "You don't have to do this...Jesus never commanded you to fast...[and this is the clincher]...no one would know if you slipped in there and ate a burger or two." I literally had this discussion in my car! "I can have it my way...but I don't want my way! I want God's way!"


We know these words from the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Inherent in those few words is an implied surrender of our wills to our Lord's. It's one way of saying, "I want God's way!"


May we be encouraged as we continue our "40 Days of Prayer and Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough"!

I'm Serious!

James Packer had a good insight to fasting in a book he wrote 25 years ago entitled, Your Father Loves You:

“In Scripture we see several purposes for fasting. It’s part of the discipline of self-control; it’s a way of sharing that we depend on God alone and draw all our strength and resources from him; it’s a way of focusing totally on Him when seeking his guidance and help, and of showing that you really are in earnest in your quest; it’s also, at times, an expression of sorrow and deep repentance, something that a person or community will do in order to acknowledge failure before God and seek his mercy.”

I like Packer’s statement because it essentially describes fasting as saying, “I’m serious…”

Warren Wiersbe also said something that fits our current emphasis on fasting: "Too many Christians obey God only because of pressure on the outside and not power on the inside."

May God breathe wind into your sails today!

Those Who Do Not Learn from History are Doomed to Repeat It

In 1863, President Lincoln designated April 30th as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. Here's a portion of his proclamation on that occasion:

“It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, who owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by a history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. The awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has grown, but we have forgotten God.”

Could the same not be said about our nation today? And have those same attitudes of affluence and independence not impacted 21st-century churches in America? Even further, do our own lives not far-too-often resemble the country that President Lincoln was describing?

As you fast during this season of prayer & fasting, think beyond your own life and your own church to envision how far God wants to reach through a people completely dependent upon Him. Might He be able to use us to change a nation?

All I Want, All I Need

May the sentiment of this song resonate in our hearts today...

In Fasting, What You Give Up Is Not as Important As What You Take Up

Hey guys, this is Morgan! My dad is letting me guest blog for him today so that I can tell my story of fasting. Recently one of my best friends and I decided that we would fast from food for a day, and I have to admit that I was kind of nervous. She felt God telling her to fast and I also felt the need to do so. We decided to do it on the same day for support and so that we could be each other’s accountability partner. We did it and survived.

I learned some valuable lessons through my experience. One of the most important is that in fasting, what a person gives up is not as important as what that person takes up.

I’m being really transparent here (even at the cost of embarrassing myself)…but as I struggled through my hunger, I thought the purpose of fasting was to learn how not to be hungry when you fast. Whenever I would usually be eating, I prayed the whole time…which was odd to me because I’m not accustomed to praying for 30 minutes straight. My constant prayer during that whole period of time was that God would help me not to be hungry.

Not until I told my dad what I had been praying did I learn that fasting is not about not being hungry but about being hungry for God. I was praying for God to take away my hunger; I should have been praying for God to redirect my hunger toward Him.

I’m still new to this whole fasting thing, but I’m discovering that there’s a negative side to fasting and a positive side to fasting. Negatively, I give up something. Positively, though, I give my attention to something else (or, rather, Someone else).

I’m looking forward to next time…and I’m going to remember that fasting is not about what I give up as much as it is what I take up. And I’m taking up a prayer for God to do something amazing in my life and through His church!

P.S. Some students might think it’s hard to fast during school. No one wants to be “that kid” sitting at the table ignoring everyone, sitting there with head down and praying the whole time. What my friend and I did (and you could do also) was tell Administration what you are participating in. They were very supportive and let us go down to the gym locker room where it was quiet. Anybody can do this, not just adults!

Jesus Never Commanded Fasting

Jesus never commanded fasting. Does that surprise you? Be careful not to assume, though, that He was somehow uninterested in fasting. In fact, He assumed that His followers would fast when He said, “When you fast…”

Keep the following in mind, though. We don’t fast to score points with God or earn His favor. Fasting never changes God; it changes us. Determining to fast in itself is a step in the right direction, because it says, “I need to reprioritize my spiritual life.” The pangs of fasting are reminders to pray and that our deeper hunger must be for God. Fasting has a way of stripping away our pride by showing us how weak we really are.

I imagine the process of fasting producing a similar effect in us as someone refinishing a piece of furniture. Before the item can reach its full potential, layers of old paint or finish have to be removed. (If you’ve ever refinished an old chest, you know that there can be many layers of paint to deal with!) And how do you remove the old layers of finish? Sand paper, perhaps?

Ever felt God’s sand paper rubbing on your life? It’s not the most pleasant thing you’ll ever go through…but God never brings such discomfort into our lives without the finished product in view. We can trust Him on that! But He won’t do in us what He wants as long as we’re still covered in layers of pride and self and sinful habits and…

Even though we are journeying together across these 40 days, each of us is taking a deeply personal journey—just God and ourselves—as well. Trust God through the pain and inconvenience…trust Him that the finished work is going to be so worth it!

Matthew 6:16-18 NLT
"And when you fast, don't make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you."

Don't Be a Hypocrite

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18 NLT)

Fasting is an intensely private matter between an individual and God. That’s not to say, though, that a group of believers can’t collectively fast. Esther called upon her uncle Mordecai to rally their people to an absolute fast (no food or drink) for three days when Haman’s murder plot against the Jews was discovered (Esther 4:16). The church of Antioch fasted and prayed as a group before the first “official” Christian missionaries went out from among them (Acts 13:1-3). That other people know we’re fasting is not the issue. That our fasting could be an attempt to impress other people is the issue. It’s always a matter of the heart.

When Jesus spoke of fasting in the Sermon on the Mount, He was referring to a common practice among Pharisees to make themselves look unkempt on the days they were fasting. This was a subtle attempt to solicit the praise of people for their (supposed) deep devotion. And considering that the Pharisees fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12), their appearance was a common sight.

Jesus said that if we practice our righteousness (whether it’s prayer, giving, or fasting) to be seen by others, then their praise is all the reward that we’ll receive. On the other hand, fasting that is private and sincere never goes unnoticed by our Heavenly Father.

Be encouraged today as you seek the Lord with prayer and fasting...

And the Journey Begins...

Today the church I pastor, Hilldale Baptist Church, begins a 40-day challenge of prayer and fasting. As we embark upon this journey toward spiritual breakthrough, I want to spend a few days addressing a few of the basics.

I can’t help but think about how fasting is connected to prayer and the power of God in that fasting ties prayer and God’s power together. It serves like an umbilical cord between the two, a conduit through which we communicate and commune with God and He with us. If you think about it, we can talk about prayer without mentioning fasting and we can talk about the power of God without addressing fasting…but how can we talk about fasting without including prayer and the power of God?

Daniel 9:3 is a good example of the earnest appeal that fasting epitomizes in our prayers. The prophet wrote, “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting...”

I sometimes think of fasting like the experiment I conducted as a kid with a magnifying glass, sunshine, and a leaf. Did you ever do that? The sun shines all around us, but a magnifying glass can magnify and intensify sunlight into a laser that can burn a hole in a leaf! That’s what fasting does to our prayers, if our fasting is genuine. Prayer coupled with fasting can “burn a hole” in the walls that stifle our spiritual lives…that’s spiritual breakthrough!

I encourage you to take this season of prayer and fasting seriously. Let this be a time of unusual intensity in your prayer life and pursuit of God’s holiness. Don’t rob yourself of what God wants to bring about in your life and our church.

I really believe spiritual breakthrough is coming…