Thoughts in the Midst of a 21 Day Fast

Why do people fast? For health reasons, to lose weight, or for spiritual reasons, Right now I am finished with the second week of a 21 day fast. I am doing a "Daniel Fast" which means no caffeine, no meat, no dairy, no tea, sugars, nothing artificial. I am basically eating veggies and fruit and drinking water. Can I say it's been easy in many ways, partly because my wife is doing a GREAT job of buying and preparing foods that are tasty! Secondly, I have done all of my other fasts without food, and some by eating smoothies. Fasting is not about some sort of "rabbit's foot" or rubbing a magic lamp so God will bless me. It's about drawing closer to God and doing away with distractions and spending lots of time in prayer. Frankly things around me (others lives) have really become very hard. People are ending up in the hospital, people losing their jobs, marriages that are struggling and family situations of others at near breaking point. It is causing me to be more prayerful that's for sure. I am believing God for some very specific things but they are not about me but about Him. That's right, I so want God to receive the Glory and Honor and Praise for anything that happens because of this time. Our entire Staff fasted together for 10 days and our Senior Pastor did a 21 day fast before we all started. A couple other staff people are still fasting for the full 21 like I am. The best and least that happens is that we all draw closer to God than when we started. That God may do something significant for our church and others would be a total blessing. I really hope that when I am done I hunger and thirst more for God than I do a glass of iced tea, or a hot cup of Mocha, or a steak. After fasting completely from food for 40 days, the first temptation the devil tried to get Jesus to give in to was food. "tell this rock to turn into bread". Jesus wanted to eat I am sure of that, but Jesus' reply was scripture, "man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Doing the will of His Father was more fulfilling than filling his belly! Can the same be said of us? I realize through this time how much certain foods had me addicted and since my body is to be a holy temple of God I need to make sure pure and healthy foods go in.
What about you? What are you willing to do in order to hunger and thirst after God more than you are doing today? Is there something more important? That's an idol. Could you give up watching the Superbowl if it meant you could use that time instead on your knees listening to Him and drawing closer to Him? I pray that true follower of God's (not just believer's of His) would be willing to abandon anything in order to draw closer to God. James 4:8.

Walk in the Spirit - My Focus Verse for 2012

Galatians 5:25 says "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (NIV) the (NLT) "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.". (Message) "Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we don not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives."

This is my focus verse for 2012. Walking and living by the Spirit of the living God. I want to break this down just for a minute than get practical. There is a pre-supposed phrase here, "Since we are living by the Spirit.." What exactly does it mean to live by the Spirit? Yes, Jesus lives in us, but He also promised that when he left for Heaven, that He would not leave us as orphans all alone but it was actually good that He was leaving. Here is a short Biblical list of the purposes of the Holy Spirit.

Counselor - John 14:26
Truth Giver - John 16:13/I Corinthians 2:10
Strength - Romans 8:26
Fruits given by the Spirit - Galatians 5:22
Seal - Ephesians 1:13
Word of God/Sword of the Spirit - Ephesians 6:17

This is a short list, and of course there are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit but that's a whole blog on it's own. My point is this, when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, and now indwells in every believer at the moment of salvation, we act much like a faucet. We determine if we are going to open up and live under the power/influence/leading of the Holy Spirit or of the leading of our own power or even the world's. We say yes or no all of the time to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We need to be aware of His promptings all of the time. He wants to lead in our lives but we say yes or no. So many people are just too busy/noise filled to know this is even going on. When we learn enough scriptures and practice them we are walking in the Spirit. When we see someone in need and choose to sacrifice instead of being selfish we are walking in the Spirit. We either gratify ourselves or God. (Galatians 5:16;I Thessalonians 5:19) I liken living in the Spirit to have a special antenna, it is up and circling all over to point to an opportunity to share Christ verbally or serve someone, or speak up, encourage or exhort. When I am sensitive to this I am ALWAYS amazed at what happened. Are you? Don't miss out on this HUGE part of the Christ life. My goal this year is to continue to be open and obedient, courageous and let the Spirit have His way in my life. How about you?

The Year of Jubilee

2011 is over in just a few more hours and as most of us will look back for awhile and then look forward with hope and anticipation. When looking backward, a good majority of people will have regrets. It's normal, it may have been those pounds that didn't come off, or the bank account didn't grow like we'd hoped, or maybe the people we'd hoped to finally connect with on a consistent basis, we just couldn't find the right time for. Then there are some people who will look back and are very happy about the way the year turned out. Maybe that's you, and you practiced the disciplines that were necessary to lose that weight, found ways to save money in order that your savings account is now in a healthier place, you connected with that friend or family member and you stuck to it and now you've celebrated.
Some things we plan for and they happen, and some things we don't follow through on and they don't happen. Then there is God's favor, which contrary to some TV evangelists, is a mystery that we cannot make happen by sending in a donation and getting some specially blessed prayer clothe. Much of God is a mystery and accepting that is just a good idea! This past year for me was all about God's blessing. For the last several years I sought God for a verse, and a theme for each coming year. And He as answered. Corny as they sound here are some of them that my good friend Tim and I came up with.
"It will be heaven in 07'"
"It will be great in 08'"
"It will be divine in 09'"

Tim and I have formed a kind of pact with one another that we would be there for each other no matter what. Sort of like men who fought in foxholes on the front-lines and heard bullets next to their ears. So as we shared our deep desires, prayers and hopes and we would take time to pray and fast. Sometimes these fasts would last several days, even more. We were foxhole brothers. I stood by him and he did the same! Lots of listening and some hard conversations, but that's they way it should be.

Onto 2011. A Bible verse I really put to memory and meditated on was Psalm 37:4
"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." All commands in the Bible come with a promise, in this case delight yourself in God, (the command), He will give you the desires of your heart,(the promise). God took it further and communicated to me that this year would be a "Year of Jubilee" I wasn't sure what that meant, but I shared it with Tim and we committed it to God and prayed like crazy. God showed up!! Many, many people I know saw God do some amazing things. Not everyone for sure, in fact for some it was the opposite. But I know that for many it was an amazing year. As I said, God is mostly a mystery and I cannot really explain how I heard from God but I KNOW I did. Here is a short list of my Jubilee blessings and of some that others experienced.

* I moved from Florida to North Carolina to serve as Life Groups Pastor at Southbrook Church. I had been out of full time ministry while God chiseled away some things in my life and character.
* I got married to Karyn whom I love with all my heart, we are best friends and basically waited on God for His perfect timing. We waited 6 plus years. That's a long time, but she is worth it and so is what we have now! We are so happy and amazed!
* My youngest daughter graduated from college with two majors and did so with high honors and worked a job as a Debate Coach at Whitney Young High School in Chicago.
* My oldest daughter and her husband left N.E.Georgia for the Mile High City of Denver without knowing anyone, trekked out there to pursue Graduate School. They have had a hard year but it has brought them closer to each other and to God and though they wished their current circumstances were different, when it's all said and done, they will have seen how good this hard time will have been for them. I am so proud of them both!
* Tim left full time church ministry to be launched in a National Marriage Ministry. This was something he had been praying for several years!
* My friend Alma got a great job after being in a job that was not using her true talents and gifts. Her sister, who was not able to get pregnant, along with her husband got to adopt a boy and within just a few months after that they got pregnant. So instead of no babies, her and her husband now have two.
* My wife's son got his graduate degree from a prestigious program near Boston and he won Teacher of the Year honors in the school district he teaches at in Florida.
* My wife's daughter took a courageous step and left the company she worked for several years to follow her passion by starting a Flower Company and it's thriving.

The list really could go on for quite awhile and these are just a few highlights. Whatever happens in 2012 I know that God will still be a mystery, but by faith we can take our hopes and dreams to Him and that practicing disciplines is also a great way to bring about the results and desires we have. But I also know that every good and perfect gift comes from God. He longs for us to delight in Him and He longs to give us the desires of our hearts. It's just that sometimes we must wait on His timing and be willing to trust Him completely if He says no! Only God knows how hard I trusted Him for what I had prayed for and I know that the intimacy and honesty we gained in our relationship with one another is not replaceable. Not even close! Happy New Year to you, and thank you God, I will take great care of all you have blessed me with. And by the way, this year's verse is Galatians 5:25 - look it up!

A Simple Christmas that is FULL!

Merry Christmas to you all! I am sitting here with Karyn, we have the fire going and we are listening to Christmas music. I love Christmas music but too much of a good thing is not good and starting tomorrow I will be done with it. Karyn and I did give presents to others, our kids, and so on but not to each other. We have the money mind you, it's just that there wasn't anything we wanted or needed. And the cool thing about it is, we are good with it. Seriously, it's so cool. To be very honest, we both are just so incredibly glad that we are together and after years of waiting on God to give a blessing for our marriage, we are overwhelmed by His goodness. That's where the focus has been all week and all day so far! God's goodness. There is this hymn I remember after I first converted to true Christianity, and the chorus went something like, "Count your blessings name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings and see what God has done."
I hope you got some cool gifts and gave even better ones, but seriously, I challenge you that before you go to bed tonight (exhausted I am sure) take time to list on a pad of paper as many things as you can that are blessings in your life. It may be things, positions, accomplishments, people and well you know... I love being around thankful/grateful people versus those who can find anything or anyone to complain about. Sure, grateful people may seem a bit corny, but that's because they are sincerely thankful and they can't keep it in. This Christmas I can tell you that I have a long list of reasons to be thankful and grateful. Heck, the fact that you are reading this far means that you are one of those reasons!!! Merry Christmas!

What an Offer

Every week I get the Sunday Charlotte Observer, and at this time of the year it is twice the weight because it is filled with advertising. I have to wade through it all to find the newspaper I want to read. We got rid of cable TV many months ago and now I do not have to watch all of the infomercials touting the latest and greatest products. The pitchmen they use are amazing (there is probably a school for this), they really are hyped up aren't they?

So let me get to the point of this blog - several years ago one of the high school students we had in our church called me asking for a favor. In a class at her school they were writing comparative religions papers and her Jewish friend chose Christianity. Our student was stumped by some of the questions her friend was asking, and her call was to see if I would be willing to sit with the two of them at my house and answer these questions about Christianity. A couple days later (and having bathed this in prayer), the doorbell rang, I opened the door, and here was our student, then her friend, and then her Mom followed in after them. It quickly became apparent that the Mom didn't want me to try and convert her daughter in the midst of the conversation.
The questions were good ones, I think I answered them well and honestly, and used the Old and New Testaments, as well as outside historical writings to help explain Christianity. When we were all done the Mom spoke up. In essence what she said was this;
"You truly are sincere and enthusiastically believe in your religion and that is commendable, but why must you tell others about your beliefs all of the time?"
Good question I thought to myself, and at the same time I was asking God for help. Here is what I said; "if you find a new product you love like a detergent or phone, do you keep it to yourself or do you tell your friends about it?" She said "of course I tell them"; I then told her that I had searched many years earlier for what I thought was the best belief system involving God that made the most sense, seemed to be the most truthful and I jumped in. I told her that my life had changed so much because of this that I couldn't possibly keep it to myself. And that's still true today.
Here is the offer as simple as I can state it, are you ready?

1. God made us for a love relationship with Him, but in order for it to be the right kind of love, He gave us a choice instead of making us robots.

2. Our choice has been to have life on our own terms, that in many ways please us but displease Him, it's what we call sin, it's an archery term used a long time ago to signal a missed bullseye. If you missed it, the scorer would yell "Sin". The Bible says that we all have missed the mark, we have gone our own way. The result is death, both physical and spiritual. To prove my point that we were born with a sin nature (just go peek inside a toddler room), though no one taught them selfishness, if they see something some other toddler has has they go and just take it away.

3. God hated that we separated ourselves from Him so He sent His perfect/sinless Son Jesus to take our place. He willingly went in our place even though we were the ones who deserved it. Now that's love!!!

4. For everyone who puts their trust in what Jesus did for them, He forgives COMPLETELY! The Bible says God removes our sin from Him as far as the East is from the West and He sees it no more!

5. When we die, we get to spend eternity thanking Him for this gift of what we call salvation, freedom! Because we will want to, and not because we will have to. We even get to do some of that now when we sing praise songs and hymns, at home, at a church or with others in a small group.

6. None of us knows when we will die, but it will happen, the decision we must make while we are living is what to do with this gift of God. We can't make it after we die, the prayers of others will not help us once we are dead. Our good deeds and nice personalities will not help one bit, even the amount of money we give away won't help us either. Forgiveness with God cannot be earned. It's what separates Christianity from all of the other religions. God works His way toward us, instead of us trying to work our way toward Him! It all comes down to an honest and sincere belief about God. If we really get it, it can't help but change our life. Our actions are just the result and not the method!

As we enter Christmas, a holiday that every country in the world celebrates and has for over 2000 years, know this, we all are responsible for what we do with God's great gift of Jesus. You may get some great presents and give some away, but I know for sure that NOTHING will compare or outlast this simple, expensive, but free gift. What will you do with it?

Things that are Obvious and not so.

You may know that I recently went to Haiti with other Pastors and lay leaders from Southbrook Church where I serve as Life Groups Pastor. We had a two-fold purpose, to encourage and equip Pastors at a 2 day conference and to support our Pastor as he spoke at a 3 Night Crusade. This trip was really hard work. Why? Because of the obvious spiritual battles there. Demon possession was out in the open, as well extreme poverty and a lot of hopelessness. As we were driven around Port Au Prince, all I could see was extreme poverty and a lot of hopelessness. Dirty water, sewage rivers right in front of houses that were at best tents, tattered, and butted up against each other with literally no space between. It was crowded, the air was smoggy and the roads were not nearly wide enough for 3 cars wide let alone the 5-6 that somehow managed to pass each other without lines, lights or traffic cops. You get the picture, well you'd have to go there to do that. The Presidential White House was the symbol of Haiti for me, no one had done anything to repair it, it lay broken for all to see.

Over in Haiti they are used to people being possessed and therefore knew how to exorcise demons, they would come right out in the open, taunting us. Here in the States it's not near as obvious, what is anti-God can actually seem subtle and that's the danger. Spiritual warfare is here, that's for sure, it's just subtle. It shows up in apathy, in-difference and being sucked into the vortex of media. I got rid of cable because, frankly what shouldn't be funny was. It was worldliness seeping into my pores and I was becoming okay with it. When I was in Haiti I could smell, see and hear the spiritual forces that battled me and other followers. Here in the good ol' USA, I can recognize the warfare, but I am afraid far too many people who call themselves Christians, who go to church, give and serve, don't even recognize it. What seemed so obvious in Haiti is the same dark forces battling us here, it's just that methods that our enemies use to disengage us from God and move us toward worldliness and eventually evil are different and maybe even subtle.

In I Peter 5:8 we are told that the devil prowls around like a hungry lion seeking someone to devour. Lions are smart, they don't waste their energy running around going after the strongest and fastest prey, they wait and find the sick and injured animals and then have them for a snack. Satan will not necessarily go after the strongest believer, but he will go after the one who has let their guard down and let the world seep in. It shows up in not spending time in God's word and skipping church or Life Group here and there, watching TV shows and reading gossip magazines. Verse 9 is key, "Resist him, stand firm and he must flee." Under the canopy and power of Jesus' name, the devil has to leave. Many times I say aloud, "in the name of Jesus, the victor and exalted one, be gone Satan, you must leave this place." I believe it, do you? Finally in Ephesians 6:10-18 we are given very specific instructions and weapons in this battle. Several times we are instructed to put on the FULL armor of God, meaning, don't forget any, wear them all. "For we wrestle/our battle is not against an obvious foe, but against rulers, authorities and principalities of this dark and evil world." There it is!!!! It was not meant only for the early church 2000 years ago as they were getting started. It's real and here and recognizable. Be aware and alert! I felt it, saw it and heard it in Haiti, don't let this lesson be lost on you, the devil is prowling around and he does have the keys right now! But they will be snatched away when Jesus comes again and Satan will be vanquished forever, in the mean time he is doing his best to disrupt and destroy!

What if Your Life Ended Up in the Bible?

One of the thoughts I've had for a couple years but never put down in writing is this; those who ended up being in the Bible never knew they would be. We know that most messed up, and some triumphed, but God chose to use their lives to influence ours and millions of others over the years since they were recorded. Now I know that nothing can be added to or taken away from the scriptures, I am not suggesting this at all. But go along with me for a minute.

What if some parts of your life, okay like the really hard parts, the testing of your faith parts ended up being recorded? What would be written about you? Would it inspire people? Would your thoughts, actions, attitudes and words cause others to follow God, follow God more closely, or even choose God because of your life? There is a lot that can be said here, but for the sake of one of my shortest blogs ever....

Let's you and I live our lives as if everything about us, good, bad and in between were going to end up being read by millions for years and years to come. One prayer I pray most days goes like this,

"Lord, may everything I say, think or do, bring honor and glory to You."