I don't fast as often as I should, but when I do I sense God's presence, or the need for God's presence that much more. It's frustrating feeling hungry and not having something to satisfy it, but I think that's the point. When we fast we experience what Jesus wanted us to feel when he says in Mark 2 that his disciples would fast after he was gone. Jesus wanted us to sense a feeling of emptiness, rather a hunger for his presence - or being with him, when he's gone. Well, now that he's gone, and we await his return, how often do we fast? And what does that look like?
I've heard and read about all sorts of types of fasts, but each one I try fails to compare to the sense of pain I get in my stomach when I know that I need sustenance to satisfy what my body needs. Our bodies need food and water to survive. That's perhaps one of the few facts that is non-negotiable in the world. God created our bodies to "need" sustenance. The feeling that is associated with in our minds, or at least in my mind, is to "crave" food. Not only do I need food, I crave it! I long after it when my stomach is empty. My mind can rarely get off the topic until my stomach stops hurting. That's how much I need it. That's how much we need God. We rarely stop to practice the discipline of fasting, and so it's anything but ironic that we would rarely sense of how much we NEED food, and thus it's equivalent: GOD. This morning, as I fasted, I filled that time with God's word. Take Ezekiel for example.
And he (God) said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. (Ezekiel 3:1-3, emphasis added)
God tells Ezekiel to eat the scroll, he did, and it was sweet as honey. God tells us to fill ourselves with his word. We get sustenance from digesting Scripture. I don't mean simply reading for five minutes and moving on. There is a reason why passages such as Joshua 1:8 and Deuteronomy 6 say that we should meditate on it day and night.
I was reading this morning in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Spangler and Tverberg about the practice of kavanah. Kavanah is a Hebrew word used within the Jewish culture to distinguish the art of directionally channeling our focus in whatever we do to experience the presence of God. It's us doing our part, but always relying on God's active presence. When we focus on kavanah things or events during our day that were once ordinary become exciting and meaningful! Any moment of any day can be a fearful moment in which God's presence explodes in a joyous presentation of his love, mercy and grace. More so this doesn't have to be self-focused. While God may choose to reveal himself to us as we're intimately seeking him, he may also reveal something to someone else, giving us the opportunity to love someone with the extravagant love of Christ! Fasting can be a catalyst to kavanah, sensing God's presence, taking us into the deep longing for God that we were created for. Our souls desperately need to experience the craving for our Creator as our stomachs crave food. We crave, knowingly or not, the inexpressible and inexplorable riches of God's love that only the Holy Spirit can show us! Oh how I long for that! How I long to be taken deeply into the heart of God's law and the spirit of his kingdom! If we only stopped more often to practice the art of fasting that we may find how much we truly need God.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
This Easter...
So I was driving to church the other day, which I usually take the back roads in from the north. I got to a particular corner a couple of blocks away from church and did my usual roll through when something hit me! (no it wasn't my car)...it was a thought. "Wait, isn't there a stop sign at that corner?" I wasn't speaking to anyone but myself, and it was an actual question (I'm not crazy!). As I looked back, there it was...a stop sign...regular sized and all...with red and white boarders...and the word "STOP" right in the middle. "Huh...I bet I've rolled through that sign every time without thinking about it..."
As I thought more about the incident God revealed something to me. I felt him say in my heart "Seth, I hope that this Easter season is not like that stop sign..." My heart dropped as I thought about all the people this year who may casually roll through the season without ever taking the time to examine their hearts within the gospel. So often many of us, myself included (even as a pastor!) have and can roll through moments in life without ever stopping to look around and check for real danger. Perhaps many of us have been lucky rolling through every day stop signs...but what if God really wants to get our attention this year? What if we roll through Easter without stopping to reflect on our hearts and the deep meaning of what Easter represents?
Easter isn't just a celebration. It's not just good time with family and friends. It's not even just going to church and feeling spiritual because we attended a service on Easter. Easter isn't just Christ dying on a cross (Good Friday) and then raising to life (Easter Sunday). So why celebrate Easter? Why should you stop this year reflect? There are plenty of reasons but here are three...
1. That we are desperate sinners in NEED of God! Seems strange right? In a world where the philosophy of self-sufficiency rules why would ever admit that we actually have NEED of something? A great point, and one that many may never get past. But each of us, in the deep corners of heart, know that we are imperfect. We all recognize right from wrong...and we know that we've done wrong. We see it and feel it. We may not feel it deeply all the time because we have the tendency to only view our sin partially. 1 John 1:10 says "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." Yet isn't it true that sometimes, often times, we ask God for forgiveness without ever really owning up to our sin. We broadly and generically say "God forgive me" thinking that God already knows all my sin so that phrase should cover it. Since when is forgiveness something that we've reduced to a generic phrase? God wants to hear the depth of heart, to know that we know what we did and how it specifically grieved him. Further he wants to know that we plan to change our behavior, and that we need his help to do it. Forgiveness isn't something that we simply "accept" from God because he offers it. We desperate NEED it! We need only the gift of mercy and grace that God can give!
David Platt in Radical write "And salvation now consists of a deep wrestling in our souls with the sinfulness of our hearts, the depth of our depravity, and the desperation of our need for his grace. Jesus is no longer one to be accepted or invited in but one who is infinitely worthy of our immediate and total surrender." We are desperate sinners who need to wrestle deeply with the sin in our hearts and to plead God to forgive them. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (ESV). What a great promise! But let's not take it lightly. Let's not brush over our sin and say a generic phrase. Let's get real with our sin and confess it fully before the LORD. There is a great warning in Hebrews 9:27, "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment..." That's enough reason enough to begin consideration of why not to "roll" through Easter this year.
2. Easter celebrates the atonement that Christ paid. In Romans 3:25 Scripture says that Jesus was put forth as a "propitiation" - what does that mean? It means this...that Christ exhausted all of God's wrath on the cross...he exhausted the eternal punishment that every single person of all time deserved. Jesus before he was betrayed over to be crucified was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying...to the point that he felt the physical burden he was about to carry and he said to his disciples "...'my soul is very sorrowful, even to death'...and going a little further he fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will'" (Matthew 26:38-39). Many martyrs throughout history have sung their way up to the stake where they would be burned. So why was Jesus in so much torment? Jesus wasn't afraid of the nails...nor dying from exhaustion on the cross from having to lift his chest via pressure on the nails just in order to breath each breath. In the garden Jesus felt the physical and spiritual burden of an entire worlds' sin that was about to bore in his body on the cross. In the event of the crucifixion God's wrath was exhausted, spent, done, gone, let go...all in Christ's death...in his body. Not yours or mine...but his body. He took our sin and did away with it. Easter celebrates that God took it upon himself to be the JUST and the JUSTIFIER.
3. Finally, Easter celebrates HOPE. His resurrection from the dead and subsequent going into heaven gives us hope that if we have died with Christ in his body that we will live forever more in heaven in God's presence should we ever die here on earth (which is pretty likely!). We no longer live in light of death...but hope in new life...the guarantee of never-ending time in the presence of the perfect Creator! It also gives us hope to life a new life now! We can take off the old us and put on a new...as Christ has removed our hearts of stone and gives us new hearts...eager to do as he asks. We have died to sin and thus have the power to no longer live in sin any longer (Romans 6:1). Satisfaction in this world...buying things...receiving entertainment, physical stimulation - none of it matters. The only satisfaction for the person with forgiveness of sins is in doing God's will.
Ephesians 2:8-10 sums up well what we've been talking about. We have not received forgiveness of sins via works. We cannot earn God's forgiveness. It's his choice to give it to us. And he gave it in the gift of his Son. Jesus Christ died the perfect death for our sins and we don't simply "accept" his forgiveness willy nilly, we desperately need it! When we receive God's forgiveness it motivates us to live in God's good and holy works, which is what he intended from the beginning (Genesis 1-2).
That's what we're celebrating. We're celebrating our redemption...our forgiveness of sins in the form of the gift of grace in Jesus Christ. He died so that we wouldn't have to. And we should respond. So let's choose to stop at the stop sign this year, and reflect on the great gift which God has given us. Let's reflect this year that we may avoid the disaster of the possible crash and burn when we have no more chances to get our hearts right with God.
Blessings to you this Easter season as you wrestle through the gift of God's grace and what He's asking of you.
Seth
As I thought more about the incident God revealed something to me. I felt him say in my heart "Seth, I hope that this Easter season is not like that stop sign..." My heart dropped as I thought about all the people this year who may casually roll through the season without ever taking the time to examine their hearts within the gospel. So often many of us, myself included (even as a pastor!) have and can roll through moments in life without ever stopping to look around and check for real danger. Perhaps many of us have been lucky rolling through every day stop signs...but what if God really wants to get our attention this year? What if we roll through Easter without stopping to reflect on our hearts and the deep meaning of what Easter represents?
Easter isn't just a celebration. It's not just good time with family and friends. It's not even just going to church and feeling spiritual because we attended a service on Easter. Easter isn't just Christ dying on a cross (Good Friday) and then raising to life (Easter Sunday). So why celebrate Easter? Why should you stop this year reflect? There are plenty of reasons but here are three...
1. That we are desperate sinners in NEED of God! Seems strange right? In a world where the philosophy of self-sufficiency rules why would ever admit that we actually have NEED of something? A great point, and one that many may never get past. But each of us, in the deep corners of heart, know that we are imperfect. We all recognize right from wrong...and we know that we've done wrong. We see it and feel it. We may not feel it deeply all the time because we have the tendency to only view our sin partially. 1 John 1:10 says "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." Yet isn't it true that sometimes, often times, we ask God for forgiveness without ever really owning up to our sin. We broadly and generically say "God forgive me" thinking that God already knows all my sin so that phrase should cover it. Since when is forgiveness something that we've reduced to a generic phrase? God wants to hear the depth of heart, to know that we know what we did and how it specifically grieved him. Further he wants to know that we plan to change our behavior, and that we need his help to do it. Forgiveness isn't something that we simply "accept" from God because he offers it. We desperate NEED it! We need only the gift of mercy and grace that God can give!
David Platt in Radical write "And salvation now consists of a deep wrestling in our souls with the sinfulness of our hearts, the depth of our depravity, and the desperation of our need for his grace. Jesus is no longer one to be accepted or invited in but one who is infinitely worthy of our immediate and total surrender." We are desperate sinners who need to wrestle deeply with the sin in our hearts and to plead God to forgive them. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (ESV). What a great promise! But let's not take it lightly. Let's not brush over our sin and say a generic phrase. Let's get real with our sin and confess it fully before the LORD. There is a great warning in Hebrews 9:27, "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment..." That's enough reason enough to begin consideration of why not to "roll" through Easter this year.
2. Easter celebrates the atonement that Christ paid. In Romans 3:25 Scripture says that Jesus was put forth as a "propitiation" - what does that mean? It means this...that Christ exhausted all of God's wrath on the cross...he exhausted the eternal punishment that every single person of all time deserved. Jesus before he was betrayed over to be crucified was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying...to the point that he felt the physical burden he was about to carry and he said to his disciples "...'my soul is very sorrowful, even to death'...and going a little further he fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will'" (Matthew 26:38-39). Many martyrs throughout history have sung their way up to the stake where they would be burned. So why was Jesus in so much torment? Jesus wasn't afraid of the nails...nor dying from exhaustion on the cross from having to lift his chest via pressure on the nails just in order to breath each breath. In the garden Jesus felt the physical and spiritual burden of an entire worlds' sin that was about to bore in his body on the cross. In the event of the crucifixion God's wrath was exhausted, spent, done, gone, let go...all in Christ's death...in his body. Not yours or mine...but his body. He took our sin and did away with it. Easter celebrates that God took it upon himself to be the JUST and the JUSTIFIER.
3. Finally, Easter celebrates HOPE. His resurrection from the dead and subsequent going into heaven gives us hope that if we have died with Christ in his body that we will live forever more in heaven in God's presence should we ever die here on earth (which is pretty likely!). We no longer live in light of death...but hope in new life...the guarantee of never-ending time in the presence of the perfect Creator! It also gives us hope to life a new life now! We can take off the old us and put on a new...as Christ has removed our hearts of stone and gives us new hearts...eager to do as he asks. We have died to sin and thus have the power to no longer live in sin any longer (Romans 6:1). Satisfaction in this world...buying things...receiving entertainment, physical stimulation - none of it matters. The only satisfaction for the person with forgiveness of sins is in doing God's will.
Ephesians 2:8-10 sums up well what we've been talking about. We have not received forgiveness of sins via works. We cannot earn God's forgiveness. It's his choice to give it to us. And he gave it in the gift of his Son. Jesus Christ died the perfect death for our sins and we don't simply "accept" his forgiveness willy nilly, we desperately need it! When we receive God's forgiveness it motivates us to live in God's good and holy works, which is what he intended from the beginning (Genesis 1-2).
That's what we're celebrating. We're celebrating our redemption...our forgiveness of sins in the form of the gift of grace in Jesus Christ. He died so that we wouldn't have to. And we should respond. So let's choose to stop at the stop sign this year, and reflect on the great gift which God has given us. Let's reflect this year that we may avoid the disaster of the possible crash and burn when we have no more chances to get our hearts right with God.
Blessings to you this Easter season as you wrestle through the gift of God's grace and what He's asking of you.
Seth
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