52 Day Fasting and Praying…Almost Half Way Up!

 We just completed two weeks “In the Valley”.  If you missed the Louie Gigleo videos, please click here: HOPE When Life Hurts Most Part 1 and here: Hope When Life Hurts Most Part 2  (for this one you will have to click through about 4 times to watch it all). But we are now coming around the side of the wall to the next gate…the Dung Gate.  Ladies (and perhaps, gentlemen), I’ve lived down near this gate probably all my life in one way or another.  I asked each of you in class yesterday to start thinking this week of the picture of a HUGE dump truck in the parking lot.  We are all shoveling our piles of “dung” up on that truck.  On Sunday we will drive that truck collectively to the Dung Heap and we’ll be done with the digging…the dung will be heaped on the pile of constantly burning rubble but we will be back in the nice, clean camp with half a wall built!

 As the daughter of the garbage man…I used to giggle when people would ask my dad how business was going.  With his twinkle in his eye, and his classic crinkle that slightly twitched  by his eye whenever he was going to give you a joke, he would reply, “Business is always picking up – even when we are down in the dumps!”  In the case of cleaning out our camp and rebuilding a wall however, we won’t be picking anything up, even if we are down in the dump.  No bringing any of the dung back in the camp, ok?  In fact, this week as you dig, don’t study the clumps of junk you are piling up on the truck.  Don’t sort through the rubble that God is asking you to clear away, looking to see if there is something you want to keep.  Trust me.  Stuff that has been buried in the dung pile doesn’t clean up well!  Just let the Lord start FRESH in your life from here on out!

The Old Gate – Getting Down to Bedrock

Well ladies, we’ve completed a week!  Give yourself a little pat on the back!  This last week was about getting down to the bedrock.  We came through the Sheep Gate, or perhaps we came in through the Fish Gate, but we are inside the city through what JESUS has done for us.

This last week, as we let the Holy Spirit examine us, we started to realize that there were some things we needed to heap up on the wheelbarrow to drive down to the Dung Gate in a couple of weeks.  Our whole week may have been spent letting the Holy Spirit point out the messes.  Perhaps some of the messes in our marriages or our kids lives have been compounded by our own messy condition.  So this past week was a week of brokenness and repentance.

Today we looked at The Old Gate.  This is where we begin to realize that we have a choice.  We can either let Jesus do the digging and scraping in our lives so we get down to the root of our “stuff”, or we circle around and go out the Old Gate.  The Old Gate represents the death of our “Old Man”.  In some cases, our Old Man has been driving us for a long time.  Oh, we met the Shepherd, and we have our ticket to get into heaven, but we haven’t done one bit of work on dying to self.  We are still in bondage to our old habits and our sins of choice.

This coming week is the week of choice.  We say to ourselves, “Now that I’m in this fast, and God is knocking down the last bit of rubble, will I stick in there even if the going gets even messier?  Or will I turn to that Old Gate and go back out?”  In Nehemiah 6, the enemy was telling them to retreat.  But Nehemiah prayed one of my favorite prayers!  He groaned out to the Lord, “Strengthen my hands”.  (Nehemiah 6:9)  Ladies, DO NOT QUIT!  Keep letting the Holy Spirit dig!  Keep scooping up the rubble.  The GAPS ARE CLOSING!  PRAY!  Just like Nehemiah, let prayer be your FIRST RESPONSE!  When the dust clears, you will see that there has actually been a lot of progress.  Put on your respirator and safety goggles.  It’s getting messy because we are getting down to bedrock.  Remember that JESUS is our CAPSTONE.  Just keep digging!

Find the Ancient Boundary Stone Daniel Fast Call to the Wall

Well ladies,

Today (Sunday), we talked about the Ancient Boundary Stone.  Proverbs 22:28 tells us, “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers.”  A boundary stone was a stone that designated where the boundaries were.  These stones were to show everyone whose property began and ended at a certain point.  Since we are looking at the “Old Gate” this week, we saw that it is tempting to give up on the Christian life and just go right back to our old ways.  But if we will instead, dig down to the foundation, find those ancient boundary stones and let Jesus Christ be our focus, we will continue on with HIS rebuilding in our lives.  The Old Gate was not one that Christ rebuilds.  Instead, The Holy Spirit KILLS the deeds of our flesh through regeneration.  Christ starts doing a NEW THING in our lives.

When someone moves an ancient boundary stone, they decide to abide by their own set of rules and this then leads to bondage.  Bondage leads to sin and sin leads to more bondage.  It is only Jesus Christ that can set us free from this cycle!  1 Peter 2:8 says, “A stone that causes men to stumble and rock that makes them fall.  They stumble because they disobey the message – which is also what they were destined for”.

For some, Jesus becomes a stumbling block and they choose to reject Him altogether.  God says, “I am laying a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall.  But anyone that trusts in Him (Jesus) will never be disgraced.” (Romans 9:33)

So how do we go back to the Ancient Boundary Stone?  We look to JESUS.  He was before the world was made.  Jesus was always the “Plan” for our redemption.  There was no “Ooops” moment for God.  God knew we would sin; He knew we would need a savior; He had the plan for salvation all along; Jesus is that salvation.

This week, determine that you are not going to circle back out the Old Gate.  Instead, dig down till you hit the bedrock of Jesus Christ.  Start to think about Him. Read scripture and write on your cards the verses that speak to you.  The assignment is to look for Scriptures that tell you that YOU ARE IN CHRIST JESUS.  Look for how HE IS WITH YOU.  Look for verses that you can meditate on where He is your focus.

Keep digging, ladies.  This week we are digging to find that Ancient Boundary Stone…King Jesus!

True Confessions in the Daniel Fast Call to the Wall

We are closing in on a week of fasting…how’s it going for you?  I have to give you true confessions.  I blew it yesterday.  I hate it that I have to say that because for some of you, you may think it is impossible to sustain this fast for 52 days if the leader can’t even do it.  I had a couple of POTATO chips – I’m not undermining that this is BAD, but admitting openly that we can all try to wrap something up in a little bit of CHRISTIAN word semantics and wham, we’ve already fallen before we even blink.

Yesterday was a tough fasting day for me all the way around.  We are doing a renovation in our house, in the second busiest room of my house (the Laundry Room).  Last night was the first night of our “C-group” (i.e. youth group) for the year, and I had about 35 teenagers coming with a house that was filling with dust from the breaking-through-the-wall-project we were doing.  So to say I was STRESSED, is an understatement.

Couple all of that with a lack of a PLAN for what I could eat, would eat, would make to eat yesterday and I was a train wreck by the time the kids arrived.  I had not made myself any dinner and had made all the “non-fasters” in my house a new crock-pot type of chili.  Because it was a new recipe, I did need to legitimately “taste” it once because it called for a LOT of chili powder and I had visions of using the fire extinguisher on the teens and my husband.  So I had about three TINY licks of the spoon as I doctored that dish throughout the day.  Not gonna lie, it seemed delicious by the time it was finished, but I did not have a bowl of it.

Day Two in the Call to the Wall – Drink some WATER!

Can I just take a minute to say, “WAY TO GO!”? For some of you, today may have been the hardest day of your life. If you have never fasted before, day two or three is usually the hardest day in a fast. It is starting to really sink in that you are depriving yourself from your normal eating, and it’s not as fun as it was with the adrenalin of the first day in your system.

My advice? DRINK SOME WATER! Seriously, one of my biggest fasting mistakes is that I get so absorbed in my daily activities that I forget to drink enough water. My brain is so focused on maintaining a fast – in whatever form that is taking shape, that I am not telling myself to DO something, like drink water.  Oh, and have some LONG sips of Living Water!  Remember, the spiritual aspect of a fast is the most important point.

Another piece of wisdom here is to get enough sleep. I know that sounds so simplistic that it seems foolish to even say it. But in all seriousness, you need to take some extra care of the physical side of your life and water and sleep are a big part of that!  Let yourself REST in the Lord.  Rest in knowing that HE cares even more about the mess you are fasting over than you do!  Rest in knowing He has a plan of exactly how to fix our messes and that He trades our little heaps of ashes for something beautiful.

So with those little kernels of advice, I will leave you with a few verses to munch on tonight:

How to prepare for the Daniel Fast Call to the Wall

Hey Neighbors,

I have a great sense of excitement growing. September 16th is only a few days away and I am filled with such a sense of anticipation for what we are going to see God do in our lives as we do this Daniel Fast Call to the Wall prayer and fasting project together! Have you been surveying your own little pile of mess in your backyard? I know I have. Mine encompasses some kid issues, some personal things I am asking Him to overcome and then of course, big things for my church and my country. Here is a little “packing list” of sorts for those of you that are just jumping in to this call to let God help you rebuild the ruins that are surrounding you.

Put on your old clothes, it’s gonna get messy!

God woke me up this morning.  It’s Saturday and I really wanted to sleep in, but He was whispering to me that I needed to write you a letter in the form of a blogpost.  So here I am, sitting at my computer trying to get the jumble of thoughts down on a page for you.  If you are reading this, it is likely that you are being chosen to go on the 52 day adventure of a Daniel fast.  God has been combining a couple of stories which are all interconnected and has been telling me to call for an Ezra/Daniel fast.

Ezra was trying to get the exiles through the desert to Jerusalem.  He headed out the door with a few thousand people, all loaded down with treasure that was going to be put back into the temple.  Refusing all outside help, he tromped out toward the desert and started on a God-adventure, only to promptly be faced with the hot, dry winds of desert sand.  It was about that moment that he suddenly realized, “I am not cut out for this adventure, yet now I can’t turn back!  So he did the only thing he could do…he prayed!  He stopped the caravan and called for a fast.  He openly admitted to God that he had no idea how to get this big job done and all the people shook their heads vigorously up and down in agreement with him as they fasted right along with him.  Moral of that part of the story?  God may be calling you to attempt something that seems bigger and more impossible than you realize at this moment.  Maybe you just realized it.  Here’s my pearls of advice:  Stop, drop and PRAY!

Praying for Pastors

Maybe it’s because when I was growing up my best friend was the pastor’s daughter. Or maybe it’s because my sister and her husband are missionaries. But I’ve discovered that people in ministry…(ready to gasp?) are real people just like you and me.

Now before you click to the next website in disgust that I just stated the obvious, hang in with me a minute. For those very same two reasons, I am writing this blog post to ask you to really PRAY for your pastor. I don’t mean the quick little, “and bless the pastor too, good night, Lord” kind of prayer. I am talking about sitting down and praying in earnest for your pastor.

This is what I know about pastors. They are crazy busy. It is an incredible misconception that they “only work on Sunday”. They are actually working almost around the clock. I can’t even tell you how many times I was at my friend’s house and people would show up on their doorstep at all hours of the day and night and NEED HELP! My pastor never turned anybody away no matter what time it was.

Prayer Snacks

Prayer Snacks are the yummiest treat I have ever had!  In fact, they almost taste like manna!  Every once in a while an idea strikes me that is so amazing it just has to have been inspired by God…Prayer snacks are one of those ideas.  Recently I finished the book by Eric and Leslie Ludy called Wrestling Prayer.This book is one that I will revisit several more times.  In the book, they describe how they gave up all forms of entertainment in order to pray more.  Pretty radical, right?  Well last week I asked the Lord what He would like me to give up to pray more.  I had a dilemma because I already don’t watch TV so what could I really give up?  I know, some of you are thinking I should have asked if I should give up the Internet…but really, that isn’t an option for me with the ministries I’m involved in.  So what was left?

The Inspiring Story of a Fellow Runner in a Foreign Land

Kisses From Katie

I‘m going to share a link to one of my FAVORITE blogs. It is Katie Davis’ blog, a 22 year old who lives in Uganda where she takes care of her 13 “children” (orphaned and abandoned girls that she has taken in). Her love for the Lord and radical devotion to serving Him is so inspirational and encouraging! I can’t say enough good things about her… She is a modern day Amy Carmichael or Elizabeth Elliot! Just read her blog and I promise that you will be inspired!