Fasting Challenge

For most of my life, I regarded fasting (Abstaining from something, usually food, for a certain period of time, for spiritual purposes) as something that only super-religious people did. For the rest of us, it was optional.


(Yes, that's right. Even though I'm a pastor, I've never actually considered myself among the "super religious.)


It's only recently that I've discovered that Jesus placed fasting on the same level as financial stewardship and prayer.  

What would happen in our church if we cut out financial stewardship? Prayer? So why do we so seldom practice fasting, thus robbing ourselves of God’s blessings?

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 6:16-18

This year, I'm inviting - even challenging - our church to join me in a four-week season of fasting as we prepare for Easter.

The good news is that fasting doesn't have to be "all or nothing." You can choose to fast for a day, for one meal a day, or just to fast from one particular kind of food for the next four weeks. It's really between you and God!

But I'm convinced of this: If you'll join me in this season of fasting, God will bless you, and our church, in ways we can only imagine.

Click HERE to download "A Guide to Fasting" I wrote to help you get started.  

 By the way, I'm fasting from sugar and caffeine throughout Lent, as well as some other partial fasts along the way. Please let me know if you're joining me, and how you're doing. 

The "F Word"

I really thought I was beyond being shocked by pop culture, but this week it happened again. I learned that two of the top 10 songs on the Billboard Pop Music chart have "the F word" in their title.

Now, I knew that this word has been used in lots of pop music for quite a while. My first memory of it was on the Woodstock album, with Country Joe and the Fish. But the "fish" cheer was, at the time, so unusual, so daring, so risqué that everyone who knew about it was talking about it. (If you don't know what I mean, I'll just say that the entire crowd at Woodstock, led by the band, was chanting a word, and the word wasn't "fish.") I'll confess now that my friends and I would play that cut of the Woodstock album over and over while wearing headphones in the library during study hall. Teenage rebellion!

Today, it wouldn't get a moment's notice.

My eyes began to be opened this summer when a song called "I Wan't to be a Billionaire" by Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars was at the top of the pop charts. It's a happy sounding ditty in which the artist daydreams about how great it would be to be a billionaire on the cover of Forbes magazine, singing "I want to be a billionaire, so freakin' bad..."  Since I've got teenagers, I must have heard this song a hundred times on the radio, and although I don't agree with the idea that money will make you happy, I really like the music and would find myself singing along. That is, until I saw the video which hadn't been edited for broadcast.  That's right - in the video the artist sings in a light, lilting voice, "I want to be a billionaire, so F*&%-ing bad..."  I admit it. I was floored. More than that, I was deeply offended.

Why was I offended?

• I felt I'd been deceived. A beautiful song on the radio led me to believe that it was ok for my kids to be listening to the same song on YouTube. Beware! Even if you're listening to what your kids are listening to on the radio, you may not be hearing what they're hearing with the same music on YouTube.
• The song was ruined for me. Now, whenever I hear it, even the broadcast version, in my head I hear the vulgarity. 
• The word itself is offensive.

Which really brings me to my point. Why is "the F word" offensive? It's because "the F word" vulgarizes something that God made sacred.

• It takes the act of love-making, a magnificent gift given by God to express love between a husband and wife, and turns it into a curse. 
• It reduces sexual love to something base, ordinary, and purely physical.
• It takes the act that God uses to create new life, to create human beings in his own image, and makes drags it into the gutter.

When people use "the F word," it's almost always used as verbal violence. "F you!" Or, it takes something sacred and uses it for emphasis "No F-ing way!" It takes something beautiful and makes it a description of something ugly "He's so F-ed up." And, of course, even when it's used to describe actual sexual intercourse, it's almost never used to describe the loving, covenental relationship between a husband and wife.

While I don't like it, I kind of understand when people use "the excrement word" to express exasperation, anger, and emotions that are simply hard to express with polite language. What's distressing is that this and other "curse words" have become so prevalent in music, movies, and even daily life.

But "the F word" shows more than any other how far our society has moved away from God, and a God-centered view of the world, life, and human sexuality.

God's Word teaches us "You must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."  Colossians 3:8 (NIV)

Yes, it really matters.

CPR

Today is Ash Wednesday, and throughout the world, Christians of many branches of Christ's church are observing this unique day in the Christian calendar.  It is a day of penitence, and fasting.  It is, quite frankly, a

rather gloomy day.  In fact, all of Lent seems to be somehow depressing.  Like most Christians, I prefer the celebratory times like Christmas and Easter.

So why do we have Lent?  Why all of this emphasis on Sin, sacrifice, and suffering?

Because, every once in a while, all of us need some CPR to keep us from dying. But not the kind of CPR you may have learned from the Red Cross.

C = Confession. During these 40 days leading up to Easter, it's helpful to take some time to take an honest look at our lives. If you're like me (and you know you are), you'll find that you've made some serious mistakes over the past year. You've messed up. You've let people down. You've let God down.

Confession is simply the act of coming clean with God. "God, here are the things I did that I know were wrong. Here are the good things I didn't do, and I know I should."

P = Pardon. This is the best part! God promises that if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins. Actually, there is a bit of "Red Cross" here. It's the cross of Jesus Christ, stained red by his blood. Jesus paid the price for our sin when he died on the cross. So, if the act of confession made you feel like there was a terrible load on your shoulder, the fact of pardon should make you feel light as air!

It's like pulling up to a toll booth. You owe five dollars to go across a bridge. Problem is, you don't have five dollars, so you're stuck. But, when you get to the booth the toll collector says, "Go on through. The guy ahead of you paid your toll." Since someone else paid it, you don't have to.  Jesus paid for our sins against God. How cool is that!

R = Re-creation. Not only does God forgive our past when we confess our sins, he also starts a life-long process of re-creating us - of helping us to become the person we were always meant to be.

When King David, in the Bible, confessed his sins of adultery and murder (pretty rough stuff, right?), he prayed, ""Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

A few years ago I was at a craft show and watched a potter, working at her wheel. I stood there for almost an hour, watching her work raw lumps of clay into beautiful pots. I was somewhat cruelly pleased at one point when a pot that she had about half finished collapsed into itself on the wheel, becoming once again an ugly lump of earth.  Now, here's the point.  What did she do with that faulty pot?  Did she throw it away?  No.  She carefully pushed it all together, and began to refashion the clay.   Same clay, new pot, re-formed, re-created to do her will.

How wonderful it is when we do allow the Lord to shape our lives.  For as we confess, and are pardoned, and are re-shaped, we move from being tough, squat, ugly pots, full of lumps and impurities; to being pots of beauty and grace, which God is proud to use in places of highest honor in the heavenly kingdom.

Today, we have an opportunity to come clean before our Lord.  Let's be honest in confession, rejoice in God's pardon, and open ourselves to re-creation, into new life with our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Power of Forgiveness

If you live near Dunellen, you've probably heard about the knife fight last Sunday that involved youth from our town and Bound Brook. I wish every one of the kids could hear this man's story...

FORGIVEN

A Football Game Gives Hope

Last Sunday my sermon was on "Loving Like Jesus Loves Me." This video shows an incredible true story in which the football team from a Christian high school does that. I was in tears. Thanks to the several members of First Presbyterian who sent me this link after hearing Sunday's message.

The story is below, but for the full impact, you've gotta watch the video.

Inmate Football

    There was an unusual high school football game played in Grapevine,   Texas.  The game was between Grapevine   Faith Academy and the  Gainesville    State School .  Faith is a Christian school and Gainesville State School is located within a maximum security correction facility.

Gainesville State School has 14 players. They play every game on the  road.. Their record was 0-8. They've only scored twice. Their 14 players  are teenagers who have been convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to robbery. Most had families who had disowned them.  They wore  outdated, used shoulder pads and helmets. Faith Academy was 7-2. They  had 70 players, 11 coaches, and the latest equipment.

Chris Hogan, the head coach at Faith Academy , knew the Gainesville team  would have no fans and it would be no contest, so he thought, "What if half of our fans and half of our cheerleaders, for one night only,  cheered for the other team?"  He sent out an email to the faithful asking them to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send,"  Hogan wrote. "You're just as valuable as any other person on the   planet."

Some folks were confused and thought he was nuts. One player said,  "Coach, why are we doing this?" Hogan said, "Imagine you don't have a home life, no one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that everyone pretty much had given up on you. Now, imagine what it would  feel like and mean to you for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

The idea took root. On the night of the game, imagine the surprise of  those 14 players when they took the field and there was a banner the  cheerleaders had made for them to crash through. The visitors' stands were full. The cheerleaders were leading cheers for them. The fans were  calling them by their names. Isaiah, the quarterback-middle linebacker said, "I never in my life thought I would hear parents cheering to  tackle and hit their kid. Most of the time, when we come out, people are  afraid of us. You can see it in their eyes, but these people are yelling  for us. They knew our names."

Faith won the game, and after the game the teams gathered at the 50-yard  line to pray. That's when Isaiah, the teenage convict-quarterback surprised everybody and asked if he could pray.   he prayed, "Lord, I  don't know what just happened so I don't know how or who to say thank  you to, but I never knew there were so many people in the world who cared about us."  On the way back to the bus, under guard, each one of  the players was handed a burger, fries, a coke, candy, a Bible , and an  encouraging letter from the players from Faith Academy .

What an incredible act of Christian witness and kindness and goodness  that was.  Proverbs 11:17 says, "Your own soul is nourished when you are  kind." Proverbs 3:27 says, "Do not withhold good when it is in your  power to act."

Be kind to someone this week. Be kind to every person you meet. You might be amazed at what God will do with asimple act of kindness.