these are the scriptures that came forth in our meeting time, from the Holy Spirit's teaching of the Body during the week. Enjoy the Lord as you meditate on them...
John 12:24
2 Cor. 5:15...
Gal. 2:20...
John 20:29
Heb. 13:9...
Phil. 4:11...
John 15:4...
Colossians 3
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Fasting: be good to your guts
smoothies are good, keep you able to work, and you're still "empty".
beer was invented by dudes who fasted for a long time every year. Monks. you know how monks get so chubby?
in fact, beer lore is littered with monks. Now, for all of you coming out of the party lifestyle, steer clear of the beer! have a smoothie.
Also, they didn't have cars back then, so a beer for lunch and a nap and then you're back to illuminating some text... or something...
beer isn't a good thing to drink if you're fasting because you get drunk.
but smoothies, especially homemade ones, are really good. I just wanted to show you that liquid refreshment has long been considered cool for fasting... we good? good.
I like a smoothie because it has a lot of good stuff in it, and tastes good and i make them myself, but i still feel empty and notice that i'm not eating...
But if you can go on water alone for the first 2-4 days of total "hunger sickness", you're gonna shut down and get "light". That's a kinda dangerous state. Your guts have slowed to almost a stop and you're gonna need to restart them gently.
no one does this.
I know a dear man who restarted after a long fast with a plate of beef and noodles.
hospital stay. really.
tore up.
so please, please be good to your body and if you're gonna shut down and really get a serious fast on, consider the pipes, eh? start back up slow with broth, then soup, a fruit meal, and then on to the main stuff...
If you fast for more than a week, you should spend at least 2 days restarting yourself gently. This is hard and almost never works because we are so HUNGRY after a fast. Wow. hungry...
One time i ate a ton of oreos after a fast...
that's a mistake. My guts were fine, but my system was shocked.
i attribute bad habits for the five years following to the way i mishandled the re-entry off that one fast, so please pay attention to good sound health advice when you fast...
i am not a medical professional. please don't treat me like one... if you don't know how to fast, try not eating for a while and see if that helps. For medical considerations, check with a doctor. just be good to your guts, eh?
beer was invented by dudes who fasted for a long time every year. Monks. you know how monks get so chubby?
in fact, beer lore is littered with monks. Now, for all of you coming out of the party lifestyle, steer clear of the beer! have a smoothie.
Also, they didn't have cars back then, so a beer for lunch and a nap and then you're back to illuminating some text... or something...
beer isn't a good thing to drink if you're fasting because you get drunk.
but smoothies, especially homemade ones, are really good. I just wanted to show you that liquid refreshment has long been considered cool for fasting... we good? good.
I like a smoothie because it has a lot of good stuff in it, and tastes good and i make them myself, but i still feel empty and notice that i'm not eating...
But if you can go on water alone for the first 2-4 days of total "hunger sickness", you're gonna shut down and get "light". That's a kinda dangerous state. Your guts have slowed to almost a stop and you're gonna need to restart them gently.
no one does this.
I know a dear man who restarted after a long fast with a plate of beef and noodles.
hospital stay. really.
tore up.
so please, please be good to your body and if you're gonna shut down and really get a serious fast on, consider the pipes, eh? start back up slow with broth, then soup, a fruit meal, and then on to the main stuff...
If you fast for more than a week, you should spend at least 2 days restarting yourself gently. This is hard and almost never works because we are so HUNGRY after a fast. Wow. hungry...
One time i ate a ton of oreos after a fast...
that's a mistake. My guts were fine, but my system was shocked.
i attribute bad habits for the five years following to the way i mishandled the re-entry off that one fast, so please pay attention to good sound health advice when you fast...
i am not a medical professional. please don't treat me like one... if you don't know how to fast, try not eating for a while and see if that helps. For medical considerations, check with a doctor. just be good to your guts, eh?
Fasting: too secretive?
You know how Jesus says that we should keep stuff we do (like alms and prayers and fasting) short, sweet and secret? well, i wonder sometimes if we've gotten a little bit "shut down" about all that.
I mean, when i was young in the Lord, I attended a church among which people fasted and prayed often... that is, until a teaching on that passage (matthew 6) arose from the leadership and got us all bound up.
That teaching was, in a nutshell, that if we glory in anything on earth, we lose jewels from our crowns. It was based in large part on an interpretation of Matt. 6 in light of some "prophet" person's "visions" of jewels popping out of hovering spiritual crowns. Anyone know about that? Late eighties?
Sooo... everyone locked it down. Got secret... and that is gooood, except that...
FASTING IS HARD TO HIDE.
I mean, get real. Nobody who fasts for 20 days is going to be able to keep that a secret and be a real, truthful person. sheesh.
I mean, the real church eats together daily. Someone stops eating and the jig is up--they're obviously trying to get better than the rest of us...
then the pathetic insecurities of a worldly-minded past life arise in so far too many of us... self-condemnation arises out of comparison: "Should I be fasting, too?" "I'm just not as good as them" and subtly the Body gets divided...
I believe (personally) that fasting is something that God grants us to enjoy with Him, as His Spirit leads us by the spirit, into the Life, who is Jesus Himself. Think about the way I said that. It's important. it flies in the face of a lot of stuff that would hold you back from...
...not from fasting, but from JESUS, Himself...
yes, fasting is never the question, but whether or not God has loved you today, in the Beloved. Whether one fasts or eats, they do it in the Love of God in Christ Jesus, right?
Oh. not always? How so?
Oh. because a lot of people live by duty-bound slogging and self-measuring? Oh. How disappointing.
Well, let me tell you all this: the reason Jesus died on the cross, among all the other stuff, was so we could have the life that He has. So we could enjoy sonship with Father God like He did, and be led by the Spirit of God. Sheesh. this is so totally what the Bible is totally talking about
all
the
time.
yet our flesh and the devil conspire in this swill of the world to topple us from that sure place, and get our minds all bound up in all kinds of stuff...
So if someone is fasting, RELAX. Look at Jesus! is the spirit telling you, or leading you to fast, or to desire to fast? Does your heart of worship and love for Jesus lead you to want to fast? then pray about it and try it out.
get some practical advice, though... that helps, too... or don't. (but do)
and remember that the text of matthew 6 deals primarliy with the intent of the heart--in order to be seen by men.
you just can't avoid being seen by men. Fasting shows up. go ahead. go 20. go 40. it'll only kill that part of you that you need dead, anyway--as long as it's done in submission to the Spirit of God, initiated by Him.
Not familiar with that kind of thing? You may have some good news ahead of you. Get in touch wth the Spirit of God. Until He says so, don't sweat fasting. It's not commanded. Getting in touch is. Loving is. Forgiving is. Believing/Trusting is...
How many sad souls fast without trusting? without loving? in unforgiveness? and check their box and pin their badges on and go on to worse than oblivion?
I mean, when i was young in the Lord, I attended a church among which people fasted and prayed often... that is, until a teaching on that passage (matthew 6) arose from the leadership and got us all bound up.
That teaching was, in a nutshell, that if we glory in anything on earth, we lose jewels from our crowns. It was based in large part on an interpretation of Matt. 6 in light of some "prophet" person's "visions" of jewels popping out of hovering spiritual crowns. Anyone know about that? Late eighties?
Sooo... everyone locked it down. Got secret... and that is gooood, except that...
FASTING IS HARD TO HIDE.
I mean, get real. Nobody who fasts for 20 days is going to be able to keep that a secret and be a real, truthful person. sheesh.
I mean, the real church eats together daily. Someone stops eating and the jig is up--they're obviously trying to get better than the rest of us...
then the pathetic insecurities of a worldly-minded past life arise in so far too many of us... self-condemnation arises out of comparison: "Should I be fasting, too?" "I'm just not as good as them" and subtly the Body gets divided...
I believe (personally) that fasting is something that God grants us to enjoy with Him, as His Spirit leads us by the spirit, into the Life, who is Jesus Himself. Think about the way I said that. It's important. it flies in the face of a lot of stuff that would hold you back from...
...not from fasting, but from JESUS, Himself...
yes, fasting is never the question, but whether or not God has loved you today, in the Beloved. Whether one fasts or eats, they do it in the Love of God in Christ Jesus, right?
Oh. not always? How so?
Oh. because a lot of people live by duty-bound slogging and self-measuring? Oh. How disappointing.
Well, let me tell you all this: the reason Jesus died on the cross, among all the other stuff, was so we could have the life that He has. So we could enjoy sonship with Father God like He did, and be led by the Spirit of God. Sheesh. this is so totally what the Bible is totally talking about
all
the
time.
yet our flesh and the devil conspire in this swill of the world to topple us from that sure place, and get our minds all bound up in all kinds of stuff...
So if someone is fasting, RELAX. Look at Jesus! is the spirit telling you, or leading you to fast, or to desire to fast? Does your heart of worship and love for Jesus lead you to want to fast? then pray about it and try it out.
get some practical advice, though... that helps, too... or don't. (but do)
and remember that the text of matthew 6 deals primarliy with the intent of the heart--in order to be seen by men.
you just can't avoid being seen by men. Fasting shows up. go ahead. go 20. go 40. it'll only kill that part of you that you need dead, anyway--as long as it's done in submission to the Spirit of God, initiated by Him.
Not familiar with that kind of thing? You may have some good news ahead of you. Get in touch wth the Spirit of God. Until He says so, don't sweat fasting. It's not commanded. Getting in touch is. Loving is. Forgiving is. Believing/Trusting is...
How many sad souls fast without trusting? without loving? in unforgiveness? and check their box and pin their badges on and go on to worse than oblivion?
Thursday, July 10, 2008
fasting: Acts 13
Acts 13 has some fasting in it... Look at how they weren't in a worship service, but engaged in ministry "...to the Lord..." The Church flows in the Spirit... Peter on the roof, John on patmos... "in the Spirit..." Jude says to pray in the Spirit, building up our most holy faith...
Get into this.
Get into this.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
busy days...
people.
that's what's going on lately.
people.
every day. and i mean it in a good way. seriously.
we are people. we have people.
at the house...
we have a family of four on the first floor... we have the church life abounding around us, daily... we have God giving revelations and dreams to people all the time and the times of focusing on scripture that those bring... focusing on the Word, who is Jesus--authoritatively and reliably attested to in the inspired scriptures...
there is so much going on. and it is sooooo gooooood... thank you God.
that's what's going on lately.
people.
every day. and i mean it in a good way. seriously.
we are people. we have people.
at the house...
we have a family of four on the first floor... we have the church life abounding around us, daily... we have God giving revelations and dreams to people all the time and the times of focusing on scripture that those bring... focusing on the Word, who is Jesus--authoritatively and reliably attested to in the inspired scriptures...
there is so much going on. and it is sooooo gooooood... thank you God.
things are busy...
things are very very busy around the house here... from the multiform goodnesses of sunday morning meeting, wednesday night special prayer, thursday night men's and women's bible studies, to the daily give and take of living together... things are good and busy...
this week, our dear friends Eric and Aimee Byman and their two children are staying on the first floor, and brother Mark Weaver is living on the third floor, sharing a room with Sam...
I hope to get the upstairs freed up to house 6 people at a time, with a more regular daily bible study and prayer life around here...
things are good. and busy.
this week, our dear friends Eric and Aimee Byman and their two children are staying on the first floor, and brother Mark Weaver is living on the third floor, sharing a room with Sam...
I hope to get the upstairs freed up to house 6 people at a time, with a more regular daily bible study and prayer life around here...
things are good. and busy.
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