ONE THING

During this week I have been preparing for next week’s prayer and fasting week and I have had a scripture rolling around in my head that I wasn’t really sure what to do with. The verse is in Isaiah 43:18-19. It reads, “¹⁸ "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. ¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

There is a lot in this verse – let’s break it down. The rest of the chapter before these verses is the Lord telling the children of Israel who He is and how much He cares for them. God follows this declaration of who He is with this incredible statement – Forget the former things. In other words, what has happened in the past is in the past, it is time to leave it, move on and forget it.

What a powerful verse that is, and yet how incredibly difficult it is to achieve too. How many of us live with our minds on things that have happened to us in the past? How many of us ‘dwell’ on things that have happened to us in the past? How many of us hold on to our past hurts and fears like they are our favorite teddy bear – no-one can pry our fingers off of them? How many of us need to hear these words from the LORD? I believe that as we enter this season of fasting we need to hear these words – FORGET THE FORMER THINGS, DO NOT DWELL ON THE PAST.

As we begin our fast I want to challenge myself and all of us to forget the things that have happened to us in the past. I know that many of us have been hurt by the church, and by leaders and people in the church. I have walked on both sides of that line in my past – I have been hurt, and to my shame I have caused hurt. If you know of a situation where you have caused hurt or pain to a brother or sister then please take time to repent and seek forgiveness. If you are holding on to hurts from the past that have been inflicted on you, then I want to encourage you to take a step and LET THOSE HURTS GO. This does not excuse hurts from the past, but it releases us to move forward. We hold on to our pain and it not only stifles our walk with God but it also cripples our relationship with anyone we perceive to have hurt us in the past.

In this verse in Isaiah God says “FORGET THE FORMER THINGS”. The greatest news in this comes in verse 19. The reason we need to forget the former things is because God says this, “See, I am doing a new thing!” God wants to do a new thing in you and through you. God wants to do a new thing at Mt Oak. If you quickly mentally asked “why ?” , or internally said, “No He doesn’t” then I want you to seriously consider if you have forgotten the former things. This verse doesn’t command us to forget the bad former things, it commands us to forget all the former things, good and bad.

I am doing a new thing! Those must be among the most exciting words in the bible – a creator God, the Almighty declares “I am doing a new thing!” I believe that as we forget the former things and ask God to show us the “new thing” He is doing then we will be amazed at where the Lord wants to lead us personally and lead us collectively as Mt Oak.

What is the NEW THING you would like to see God do in your life? What is the NEW THING you would like to see God do in Mt Oak? In the New Testament, Jesus told a story of a rich young ruler – in Luke 18: 18-29 – and in this story the young man asks what he needs to do to get into heaven, especially since he had kept the law from a young age. Jesus answers him with these words, “You still lack one thing.” Jesus then goes on to highlight the area of the young man’s life where he had not let go – where he had not forgotten the things that were behind. The young man was rich, he had everything he needed, and he knew it. Jesus tells him that the ONE THING he lacks is complete trust on the Lord – he trusted in his stuff.

What is the ONE THING that Jesus would tell me if I were in that situation. I doubt it would be wealth, but I am sure there is ONE THING. What ONE THING would Jesus say that you lack? What ONE THING would Jesus say you are holding on to from the past? What ONE THING do you need to “FORGET” and move on from?

This week, maybe we need to just listen for ONE THING. Maybe we need to FORGET SOME FORMER THINGS.

Lord, show me the ONE THING that I lack, and the FORMER THINGS that I need to FORGET.

Maybe you are in a place where you do not lack ONE THING, but you need to hold on to ONE THING. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, “¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But ONE THING I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

The apostle Paul takes these two ideas of forgetting what is behind and holding on to ONE THING. He sets the example for us to stop living in the past, stop comparing the present with the past, stop comparing people in our lives today with people who used to be in our lives, stop living in times gone by and forgetting what happened then, forgetting the good things and the bad things for ONE reason. The reason we forget the former things is so that we can fix our eyes on the GOAL – we can fix our eyes on the NEW THING the Lord is doing, we can focus everything within us to strain towards the GOAL to win the prize.

As we enter this week of fasting, let’s take this exhortation seriously.

Forget the things from the past

Desire the NEW THING God wants to do

Focus your life towards the GOAL to win the prize.

Let God be your ONE THING.

Seeking God's Face - Will You Surrender?

It's Tuesday, only a few days before we embark on a special journey. Only a few days before we have the opportunity to put ourselves in a place where change can occur. A place where  real change can come. But it takes just one thing. It takes our willingness to submit.This incoming week of prayer and fasting will be much more difficult for most of us than we think.

For many of us we have thought about the physical difficulties that we will face as we deny ourselves food, or certain foods, or technology or whatever it is we believe God is asking us to give up.

I wonder how many of us have considered the cost that next week will bring on who we are. I wonder how many of us have thought that next week might just be the time when we deconstruct our dysfunctional relationship with the Lord or with our friends, spouse, family, and then wait as He lovingly reconstructs us to e the person that God wants us to be.

I wonder if we think that we are just going to spend time telling God the things that we want or feel we need, or have we grasped the enormity of the possibility that we will simply put ourselves in the presence of the living almighty God of the universe, and He may wna to make some adjustments.

Will we be willing to change? Will we be willing to allow Him to break us? "But what will people think or me if they really find out what I am like?" "Will people still want to be in the same church or small group as me when they learn that I am not the person I portray myself to be?" "How can people follow me if they learn the sort of terrible things that I do when I don't think I can be seen or will get caught?"

I believe that this week is a critical point in the life of our church. It is a time when we can allow the Holy Spirit to sweep through his house and clean away long held positions and fears and replace them with passion and love. It is a time when the Holy Spirit can take a tired and weary people who have become tired in rebuilding the walls and strengthen their hands and reignite the fire in their hearts to continue the work that the Lord has set before us.

I believe that this incoming week could be a week that is looked back on as a 'red letter week' in the history of Mt Oak. This week could be a week when we truly humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and His righteousness. This week could be the beginning of something great.

Or it could be just another week, except one where our stomachs growl more frequently.

You decide.

Fasting is Fun

As we get ready for the start of our fast I wanted to write what will hopefully be an encouragement to all who are considering joining us on our fast but yet have that hesitancy that is distracting them. Let's be honest, undertaking a week of denying yourself food, or any comfort for that matter will not be easy. I wonder who said life was going to be easy anyway? James said, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds ...". Now I know what you are thinking, but these trials are self inflicted. We could endure the trials of our faith being challenged by a co-worker, or the trials of being different in our family for Jesus' sake. But when we are inflicting the trials on ourselves it is a little different.

I read an article in the January edition of Charisma (click here) which was very encouraging. The article (if you didnt follow the link) was entitled 'Start the New Year with Extraordinary Prayer' and describes a 21 day fast that one church is undertaking, but the length of time of the fast doesn't matter - you don't get more brownie points in heaven the longer you go without food. The key thing is the attitude you take into the fast and the way you spend your time when you are on the fast.


The piece that struck me was the reason they gave as to why they fasted at the beginning of the year. They were three-fold:

1. You set the course for the rest of the year by how you start the year. If you begin the year with prayer and fasting then you set the rest of the year up to be successfully dedicated to the Lord. Just like praying at the beginning of the day often sets the rest of the day up and covers anything that may occur, so fasting at the beginning of the year sets up the whole year. Maybe we should carry that on into other areas of life - like giving God the first part of the day, giving God the first part of the week (Sunday), giving God the first part of our income (offerings and tithes), giving God the first consideration in every decision we make.
2. Blessings will occur because you set aside time at the start of the year to fast and pray. 
3. Fasting at the beginning of the year sets us in line with Matthew 6:33, "Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." So if we seek Him FIRST then we should be expectant for ALL THESE THINGS to be added.

Wow! some simple truths that when we are reminded of them should change our attitude of a fast from something to be endured to something to be anticipated and enjoyed.

Let Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done O Lord.

I Can't Poo! and other unwanted physical reactions to fasting

As we prepare our hearts for the upcoming time of fasting, we also need to prepare our bodies and understand that when we have an extended period without food then there are some common physical reactions that we can expect.

I think the first thing that must be stated is that fasting from food is not for everyone. There are certain medical issues where the regulation of blood sugar levels is critical and anyone who has an ongoing medical condition or a medical condition which requires regular medications is best advised to contact their doctor about whether or not fasting is appropriate for them, and if it is, how many meals per day should they miss.

For those of us who have no medical reason not to fast, the biggest obstacle is mental. We don't fast because we don't want to fast. We have never missed a meal without buckling over in two with pangs of hunger (slight exaggeration, but you get the picture). Well, there are some physical reactions that can be anticipated when we deprive our bodies of food and I thought I would give you some practical tips today.

Preparation not constipation - when your body takes food in, it passes through your digestive system visiting various interesting and fun places like the stomach, the duodenum, the colon and finally - well you know what comes next. When the input of food ceases there is nothing coming along the pipes to keep the flow going and motion stops - quite literally. With a prolonged fast there is a possibility that constipation can set in. To avoid this then a few days before the fast prepare your body by adding fruit to your diet, or roughage - salad, bran muffins etc. Preparation is the key. Don't panic if you get to day three and realize that your morning constitution has undergone some reforms with a filibuster in place. Once you begin to eat again, everything will get back on track.

For the caffeine addicts - when you start your fast and you drink your last cup of morning coffee, you will probably experience a headache at some point during the 1st or 2nd day. This is sadly a normal occurrence as your body is craving the caffeine you so regularly feed it. Rest assured that like the constipation, this too will pass.

Hunger pangs - as described in yesterday's blog, there will be hunger pangs and this is mostly because you have a habit of eating at certain times during the day. Your body doesn't necessarily need to have food, it is just programmed to have food. Most of us have plenty of fat reserves to last us through a lot more days of not eating than the 6 we will be undertaking. Some of us even have a little additional stored up from the winter - that's because some of us are smarter than the average bear! When you get hungry, drink a glass of water. When you get hungry, take time to pray. After a day or so the hunger pangs will decrease and even disappear altogether.

Unpleasant social issues - coldness, bad breath, more intense body odor, aches and pains (usually in longer fasts than ours) and changes in sleeping/dreaming patterns have all been identified as potential physical reactions to fasting. Some of these only occur with long term (21 day or 40 day) fasts but you may experience some of them in the 6 days of our fast.

More information is found on this Campus Crusade for Christ International site and you might want to check it out - http://www.ccci.org/growth/growing-closer-to-god/how-to-fast/10-expected-physical-effects.aspx

If You Liquidise a Happy Meal, Does It Still Count?

So, yesterday we looked at an interesting piece of American history where the President actually decreed that there should be a National Day set aside for prayer and fasting - of course, the President was Abraham Lincoln, but who is he compared to the geniuses we have had in office recently? But no politics here, this post is about the practice of fasting - what do you actually do when you undertake a fast?

Essentially a fast is a relatively simple spiritual discipline which is not merely suggested in the bible but is expected. Jesus said in Matthew 6:16, "When you fast ..." and then he goes on to instruct us not to let our faces betray our internal hunger pains by running around looking pitiful because we haven't eaten breakfast.

The simplicity of fasting is this - we set aside a period of time in which we decide that we will deny our bodies the cravings that it has, in particular food, and focus our minds, souls and spirits on seeking the Lord. We have chosen to set aside 6 days for fasting - well, beginning after church on Sunday January 10th until after our special evenign celebration on Friday January 15th. So for that entire time, I want to encourage as many people in our church to decide that they will abstain from food and will only consume liquids.

I remember a number of years ago when my previous church was in the middle of a week long fast, there was a rumor going around that one of the guys had figured out that since we were fasting solid food and consuming water, a liquid, then maybe it would be ok if he put a steak in a blender and liquefied it. If you could get it up a straw then really, would it count against you in your fast?

Now please let common sense prevail, but I would encourage you to set your mind to only consuming liquids - primarily water, but other possibilities are fruit juices but really you should avoid any tea or coffee or any drink with caffeine in it.

But won't I be hungry? How will I cope in work without having something to eat all day? Well, the simple answer is, yes, you will be hungry, at least for the first two days, but not because you have to eat, but more because you are conditioned to eat - three squares a day. We most commonly eat not out of hunger, but out of habit. We eat lunch at the same time every day, even before we have any pains of hunger, we check our watch and determine it is time to eat. After a couple of days of ignoring those demands from your body, you will break the habit of eating and actually often begin to not feel hungry anymore. I know this is hard to believe, but it really does happen. The fasts that I have done that have been the least hunger driven were the ones where I only drank water and didn't drink anything else, no hot chocolate, or coffee or soup or broth - just water.

On another savory note, before you begin a fast, it is a good idea to eat a lot of fruit the day before so your morning constitution can clear the way so to speak. Once you begin your fast you will have nothing in your system to push along any digesting or completely digested food and there is a risk of constipation. The best way to cure this is to avoid it happening in the first place with a little preparation and planning of roughage and fruit the day before.

The most important thing about fasting is not the lack of food intake, but it is what you do with the time that you would normally have spent on preparation and even eating the meal. You have just instantly freed up a couple of hours in your day in which you can take some time to pray and seek God's face.

This can even be more difficult for some than going without food. For a fast to be an effective spiritual discipline we need to take time to seek the Lord. Most people can spend some time in prayer when they have a list of things that they can bring to God and ask Him to fix, heal, stop, start, whatever it is, it is always easier to pray when you have your list ready. But what about coming to God just to hang out with God? What about seeking Him just for the sake of seeking Him? That will be the subject of tomorrow's posting.

Posting about Fasting For a While

We announced yesterday in church that we will be holding a week of prayer and fasting at Mt Oak from Sunday January 10th to Friday January 15th. I thought I would share some insights and thoughts into fasting over the next week or so.

I thought we would start with some history:

Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day

Washington, D.C. March 30, 1863

Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast

day was observed.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own 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 all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that 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? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. 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!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Is it Just Me or is Anyone Else Wrecked?

Today marked the end of one very long and busy semester for me. Sixteen weeks ago I embarked on a journey with 31 gifted young students, all eager to learn everything they could about the subject I am supposed to be an expert in. I spent over 30 hours a week teaching this fine young group all the skills I could transfer. At the end of it all, they all successfully completed their examinations and wil progress to the next stage of their career preparation. They won, and I did as well.

At the same time, I continued to work in the clinic for some 12 hours a week or so putting my skills to the test and helping people regain their function back. There have been a number of wins during the past few months.

As if this wasn't enough to keep me busy, I continued to try to serve my church as best I could with every ounce of leadership that remained. We did some things that we have never done before - like starting and leading a small group, the brunch and the outreach at Applebees - epic wins, and we did a lot of things that we have always done, most of them wins.

With all of this potential chaos going on it was possible that my most favorite treasures could be left out - my girls, all three of them. While there were times when all the busy-ness of the previous activities took over, I tried my best to work hard to giving them as much of my best as I could. Sadly, I didn't always win, but I tried to win every week.

So now, it is Christmas break - and what do I want? Some rest, lots of time with my girls, a chance to re-charge my batteries, time to read my bible, time to read some new books and some more time with my girls.

Let the active rest begin.