Fasting, and other thoughts.

Lately, I've enjoyed taking notes in church with my laptop. This past week, the sermon was on fasting. The pastor was teaching from Matthew 6:16-18. Just so you know what I'm talking about, I'll just put them up here.

"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."

Now, I'd like to have a whole lesson here on these verses, basically saying the same things that my pastor did. In fact, I got quite a ways into a lesson before I realized that's not what this blog is for. This is not a blog for others, where I can give lessons like someone trying to be a pastor or religious teacher. This is for me, so I can just examine myself and my faith. If, by side effect, you can relate to what I say, then cool. But this is a place where I can try to work out my own faith.

So that's what I'll try to do.

Fasting is not really something which has been a big part of my life. The few times I actually fasted, most of the time it was because others were doing it as well. I don't recall times where I actually fasted with the true objective of just spending time with God.

When I was growing up, fasting wasn't really a subject that was discussed. That may be because it's just not something we did much, or that it was seen as a last resort when everything else failed. I don't really know. In the churches that I've been a part of, I don't remember it being a big priority. I can remember many sermons on the preceding verses about not doing good works or tithing wanting people to notice. But not many sermons were spent on fasting. Now, I wonder why it wasn't discussed more.

Listening to what the pastor had to say, fasting is a very beautiful gesture of love. It says to God, "I need you more than I need food; more than life itself." And you know what? It's true. I do need God more than life itself. God is the source of my life; the source of everything I need. He gave me the greatest gift I could ever have - even when I was still a sworn enemy of His, he embraced me and adopted me into his family. That is so amazing!

I must confess that times when I fasted, I wanted to tell people about it; often I did. But I've got some things to think about now. If I did that now -- why? Why would I want people to know that I'm fasting? To make myself look better? Shouldn't I be wanting to make God look better, instead of me? That whole "may you increase and me decrease" thing, right?

Remembering that God is here with me through life, that he sees all and knows all, I can gain quite a different perspective. Bringing glory to God turns into something that's not just some abstract concept. It's like making my father proud, only this Father loves me even more than my dad ever could. It's hard to believe that's even possible. God's love is so much bigger and pure than I could possibly understand. I suppose it's one of those things that I'll never fully understand until Heaven. For now I can try to understand, but mostly I can just enjoy it.

Although remembering that God is here with me every step of my life is very convicting as well. I think of my sin. I sin such horrible sins when I think I'm alone, I know he would be ashamed. I mean, think of what you do and think about when nobody's around. Now think of the person closest to you, (your father/mother/sister/spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend) standing right beside you, and the thoughts you're thinking are not just in your head - you're speaking them out loud. How do you think they would feel? Makes you think, huh?

Makes me appreciate how God has paid for my sin. But also makes me want to stop sinning by any means. I don't want to keep hurting someone who loves me so much.

It seems that all the time God is preparing me to be a husband. The love of a husband and wife is modeled after God's love for us. As I learn more about the love of God, I'm learning how to live out that love towards my future wife. Even though I know I'm not ready for marriage, I eagerly await the day when God puts us together.

Well, that's all the musing I have today. To be honest, my brain is starting to hurt from all the thinking I'm doing. ;) So ta-ta for now.

Convicting Musings

This week I have been convicted of something. It was brought up in a video I watched on making decisions, and was reiterated in yesterday's sermon. It was kind of a two-point thing.

1. As a redeemed child of God, He is with me always. So I am a beacon of Him. I am a living example of who God is. At least, I should be. As a Christian, what I do reflects on God. So my character and actions should reflect God. It's a simple concept, yet it always seems I have to be reminded of it.

2. Whatever I do, I should do it as if I'm doing it for God. What does that mean? It means that whatever I do, I should do it my absolute best that I can. This is something that I've heard my entire life, being a son of a pastor and being surrounded by the church. But I don't think I've really taken it to heart. I don't think I realized that it's not easy.

Here's a concept that every Christian has heard, or as least should hear: the Christian life is not easy. Nor should it be. As Christians, we are called to be different than the world. That's not easy at all. It's easy to blend in, to do what everyone else does and to fade into the background. But we are called to be different. That means many things. One of those things is to look so different to the world that we kind of stand out. Not to be like the pharisees, who flaunted their righteous acts before men and got their full "reward" from the praise of other men. But by definition, following after God means that we are on a totally different direction than the rest of the world. Now, I don't really know all what that entails, I'm still trying to figure that out. I'll probably be trying to figure that out until I'm with the Lord in heaven. But my point is, we are called to be different, and that's not easy.

One way we are called to be different is to do things as unto God. Being surrounded by churches (and in particular church musicians), I often hear a phrase that goes something like this: "We're not professionals, so what we do won't be as good, but we'll try our best." While this argument has some logic to it, I have kind of a problem with this. Many don't realize just how good they can do things when they really work at it. Like with musicians, many don't realize that their potential is so much more than they think it is.

Take the example of a runner, running a race. They're running really hard throughout the entire race and think they don't have any energy left. They think they can't possibly go any further. But somehow they tap into some special energy reserve and push forward near the end for that final sprint to the end. It's like that for us Christians. But think about it for a minute. The "energy reserves" that we tap into is the very power of the One who CREATED THE UNIVERSE! How much more can we do when we have God on our side?

So we should really tap into that power that God has for us as much as we can. Doing so, we can glorify Him. We can truly boast in our Lord who gives us these talents, gifts, power, etc. because we actually USE them to their highest potential. Wouldn't that honor Him so much and give Him so much glory? So why not do it? Why not do the very best we can in whatever we do?

Well, we might be lazy and not want to work as hard as it takes. We simply might not realize that we can do so much more with the power of God on our side. Whatever the reason, we really need to lay those reasons aside. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil. 4:13)

Now, don't think I'm lecturing you. I have the same problems with this stuff that you might. I, for one, have rarely, if ever, really tapped into the power of God. To be honest, I've been lazy. I didn't want to do the hard things, live the hard life. Like many, I want my life to be comfortable and do as little work as possible and "enjoy life", so to speak. But I've missed out on the wonderfulness that is working hard for something I really want. Now that I have something in mind that I really want, I have to hunker down and work hard to achieve it. But I'm being constantly reminded of how hard I'm actually going to have to work at it.

The same goes for my Christian walk. I'm being reminded regularly that I am called to be transformed into the image of Christ. That's not an easy thing, by a long shot. But I have God to help me. And with God to help me, how can I fail?

Studying the Bible tonight, I was once again struck by how much God loves us by providing the Messiah as propitiation for our sin.

("But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished -- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." -Rom. 3:21-26)

And it was not just anyone He chose to take the sacrifice for our sin, it was HIS SON! I can't begin to imagine sacrificing a child for payment of SOMEONE ELSE'S debt.

And yet, He didn't stop there! He raised the Messiah from the dead, defeating death completely, so that not only does sin not enslave us any longer, but death holds nothing for us!

("I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?" -Hosea 13:14)

God is so amazing!