I added a bowl of broth yesterday and this morning I took a spoonful of peanut butter and now I feel great, I actually feel as if I have eaten a full meal. At this point I will likely have a bowl of broth each day and if my body signifies that my sugar is low I will again have a spoonful of peanut butter. I have no desire to cut this 40 day fast short, but I am ready to eat.

When I finish the 40 days I plan to feast. But when I say feast I don’t mean that I am going to be reckless, I am going to feast of the things that will bring me health and not sickness. I am going to enjoy some of the things that are not the greatest for us, I still plan to eat cake but it will be a treat and not an everyday meal. I may even enjoy donuts on occasion but I won’t have the whole box. I am undecided about soda’s, I haven’t had dark sodas in more than 10 years and I definitely won’t go back to them but I may go back to having Sprite Zero but not as a habit. I will enjoy water more often with meals and throughout the day as I know it is the fuel that we need for our bodies to operate most efficiently.

One of the biggest changes that I will make is to live a fasted lifestyle. Over the past 20 years I have fasted for periods of 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 21 days and 40 days but I have never really stayed on a consistent schedule and I believe that is what is needed to be spiritually and physically my best. I have even contemplated if God calls me to another 40 day fast and I am afraid He will. If I do another one, it could be for Lent in 2013 and I believe I would like to try following the Jewish tradition of fasting 6 days a week and feasting on the Sabbath. In other words for us, I would fast every day of the week and eat the evening meal on Saturday through the evening meal on Sunday and then I would fast again. It would just be a different way of doing things and we will just wait to see if God calls me to do another one. I will be the first to say that this is difficult for many reasons. Number 1, I really love to eat, Number 2, I love the time that I spend with my family including friends and family around the dinner table, and Number 3, it is a real discipline to not eat when everything in you is screaming I want to eat.

I do not think that everyone should undertake a 40 day fast but I do believe that everyone should fast. The time period will just have to be between you and God. The Bible is clear, Jesus expected that His disciples would fast. I get all kinds of excuses as to why people cannot fast. Of course there are some with medical conditions and you cannot fast, find another way to do it. I know there are things that you do that you could discipline yourself to stop that would benefit you spiritually. However, if you are physically able and healthy, fasting will only serve to make you more healthy.

How strong are we really if we are healthy and refuse to give up food for a period of time? Especially when we know the Bible prescribes it.

Ronnie

Last night though we looked at the “fruit of the spirit”. This is different from the Spiritual gifts, however in order to operate in the gifts God has given us we have to be walking in the Spirit, therefore we will manifest fruit, or grow fruit maybe.

Here is what Galatians 5 and Paul has to say, in 22-26, “²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

I had each of the youth to write down the different fruit and then rank on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the strongest, how they felt they ranked in these fruit of the spirit.

The result was that many of them were reluctant to put a 5 in any of the fruit, I encouraged them that it wasn’t a prideful thing to know that you are bearing fruit.

The biggest revelation that came from this experiment what that many and probably most of them scored the lowest on “self-control.” I would venture to say that probably most people reading this struggle in the same fruit, “self-control.”

Here was my question to them and to you. What can you do to get the number to a 5 on self-control, or at least to move up the number scale?

Here are the answers they gave. Fasting, Prayer, Bible Study…They were naming off the Spiritual Disciplines. That’s it, they got it right…

When a person comes to know Christ then you receive the Holy Spirit of God who lives inside of you. There is no need to pray for the Holy Spirit, He is there. However, just because Holy Spirit lives inside of us, that does not mean that we are continually filled with the Holy Spirit, nor does it mean that we walk in the Spirit.

These things are accomplished through Seeking God, by Drawing Close To God, through the Spiritual Disciplines. Those who have ears to hear, listen. God is doing a new thing among us and those who are tuned into God will be the ones God uses during this new move of God.

Pastor Ronnie

It is found in Matthew 9:14-17 (TNIV) and reads as follows.

¹⁴ Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

 ¹⁵ Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

   ¹⁶ “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. ¹⁷ Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

This scripture has always eluded me until this morning. In this passage I know that Jesus is saying that when he ascends into heaven that his disciples will once again fast. At this moment they were feasting because Jesus was still with them. Fasting is a discipline that Gods people have done since early on in the Old Testament and it is carried out through the New Testament.

This is not what had me bound, it was verses 16 and 17, but not anymore.

Wine and oil represent the Holy Spirit throughout the scriptures in many instances and here the new wine represents a new thing that God wants to do and is going to do. As a matter of fact, he is getting ready to send the Holy Spirit into the lives of his disciples. In that day, they would pour wine into something called wineskins.

The material the wineskins were made of had to be new and pliable when new wine was poured into them because the new wine would expand. If the wineskins were old they became hard and would crack when the wine expanded.

Fasting is a tool (a spiritual discipline) that helps us have new room for Holy Spirit to work. God has already given us everything available to us in the spirit but we do not often walk in newness of life because the gunk of this world tends to get in and clog us up. (Not just spiritually but physically as well.

God wants to do a New Thing! In this passage of scripture, as soon as Jesus took His last breath on earth, He was sending the Holy Spirit, a New Thing.

God reminded me this morning that it was during my first 40 day fast that started in February 2010 that Out of the Box Worship Center became a REALITY.

The first meeting we had to discuss the possibility of a second site for 1st Hillsville UMC was in February 2010. I remember the meeting with Pastor Ty and Richard Edwards in O’ Charlies in Bristol at Exit 7 and I wasn’t eating. I remember how great the food looked to this day but now I see how AWESOME the BLESSING OF GOD IS. It is better than physical food, it is greater than our appetite, He is greater than anything in this world.

Wow, this is just what I needed from God this morning. How could I have forgotten? It is because we get so involved in the day-to-day struggles and we neglect to renew our old wineskins (our soul and spirit and our mind). Fasting cleans out the GUNK in our lives.

Pastor Ronnie

This is the first time I have read a book that has challenged the “I need balance between my work and my personal life” statement. This one will make you think and I believe the author is truly on to something. Kelly’s take is that there is no separation between the work and personal life, they are one in the same. I believe that he is right, we spend an enormous amount of our lives working so that we can pay the bills or as part of who we are. I prefer to think of my work as part of who I am and as the mission that God has given me in life.

Kelly says where the mistake is made is  in people who are looking for satisfaction in their lives and not balance. Again, I believe that he is right. I know when things are going great in the work that God has given me to do then things go better in all aspects of my life. We carry our lives from all sectors into all other parts of our life. If things are going great at home, they ultimately go better on the job as well.

The problems come when someone is hiding from one or the other and buries themselves in one to hide or get away from the other. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it. There are helps here for us to name what it is we want in life and tools to help us focus our energies on getting those things. We must learn if we want to be the best at some things we have to let others things go.

Here are a few quotes that I really loved in the book and I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Ronnie

“After years of study, I’ve come to the conclusion that people don’t really need or want balance. People need and want a satisfying experience of life.”

“How do you get a satisfying life? Most of the time, living a life that is deeply satisfying requires a strategy, daily attention, self-awareness, and discipline.”

“Excellence in any field requires that we miss out on other things. If you want to be the best tennis player in the world, you are going to have to sacrifice a great many other things in order to achieve that. Success always has required and always will require sacrifice. If success were easy, it would be common. It is difficult, and that is why it is rare. I don’t think that the whole work-life balance discussion has adequately pointed out that excellence in any field requires sacrifice.”

I picked this one up because of the research I am doing for a series on Sunday evenings on ‘The Unseen World”. I really liked the reviews that I read but I would have to say that I disagree with the reviews. I didn’t like the book right from the start because the author claims to live months on end without sin in his life and in my reading of scripture this doesn’t stand up.

There were some good quotes from the book and I will share a couple of them but over all, it wasn’t anything that I found worth the time. There were other places where I feel the authors theology are also incorrect.

“As much as I would like to promote the “happily ever after” lifestyle, I am reminded that we were born into a war—a war that has already been won.”

“Many say that ignorance is bliss, but God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). I am astonished by how many people (including Christians) are unaware that we do not inhabit, but we cohabit, this planet.”

“Just as enemies fought Joshua in the Promised Land and Nehemiah as he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, so will our enemy fight us when we begin to take the spiritual terrain God has promised to us.”

“Most Christians, however, are completely unaware that the resistance they encounter as they step into God’s promises is actually part of a spirit war. They retreat at the first sign of conflict because they fail to recognize the true source of the battle or the way in which war is waged in the invisible realm.”

“One of the most common ways demonic spirits attack is by giving us thoughts that the Bible describes as flaming arrows (see Ephesians 6:16).”

These are some great thoughts, I just wish the entire book had been so good.

Ronnie

I live a busy, fast paced life and if I eat right and exercise I should be able to accomplish that much more. I have the exercise routine down, running between 30 and 40 miles a week.

I had a dream last night that was really strange but it also made sense. In the dream I was bitten by a snake and it was a real ordeal trying to get to the hospital. God has spoken to me through the dream. It has to do with vision believe it or not.

Today has been one of those days when I had big plans to accomplish several things but instead it has been full of divine appointments designed by God. I wait in anticipation to see what God does, not just in the next 16 days but in 2012. I believe with all my heart that God is up to something BIG.

Ronnie

“David Jeremiah notes, ‘Money is one way we can see who we are. If we try to control our money on our own, we do not trust Him as we should. If we honor Him in giving, it’s a mark of faith and faithfulness.”

I thought this was worth sharing.

Ronnie

I preached three times yesterday and I had plenty of strength to do so for the first two services, I was pretty tired by the time I preached the third time. It seems to me that God is revealing the flow of scripture to me in new and exciting ways. I am reading and understanding things that I have never really grasped. Yesterday I preached from Nehemiah and that is the first time ever. I read the book of Daniel yesterday and though I still do not understand all of it, it made more sense than ever before.

God is revealing lots of things to me about true humility, discipline, and just living the Christian life. We are a spoiled bunch!

Too many Christians are fat and happy. I don’t mean physically fat, I mean satisfied and not concerned. The fact that there are fights in church about the color of the carpet and who is going to use the building and what they have to pay to be married in the church, on and on and on…is evidence that we have lost our way.

We have come into the promised land, we have eaten and been full, we have drunk and been satisfied, we have built fine houses (most way bigger and more than we could ever need or use) (many have been built with money robbed from God, read Malachi) and we have forgotten God.

We live in a time when many and maybe most church members give God an hour on Sunday morning and sometimes more but not enough that it is a sacrifice. Salvation is free but living for God is work, not to gain or keep salvation but to bring about the Kingdom as God has asked us to do.

Do you want to hear from God more than you want food? Follow the Biblical Discipline of fasting just for a couple of days and then make it a lifestyle and that will be a sacrifice.

Ronnie

I have had several people ask me recently if I had ever experienced “bad thoughts” or even “evil thoughts” with no reason or explanation as to why they came. My answer was yes, as a matter of fact, there have been times when I am waiting to preach, I mean just minutes even seconds away from standing up to preach and these thoughts will come out of no where. I typically quote 2 Corinthians 10:5 which says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

The Bible tells us that when we have these thoughts they originate with the evil spirits that exist in the unseen world. They are everywhere, all around us in this world.

OK, so we know where they come from. Jesus quoted scripture to Satan when he tempted him in the wilderness and we must learn to do the same. We must recognize first that evil spirits exist in this world. Then we need to quote the truth to Satan. I usually pray something like this, “Lord I lift this thought up to you, taking it captive so as not to dwell on it, I give it to you.” Amazingly, it usually is done and dealt with. We cannot allow ourselves to dwell on these evil thoughts, this is where demon oppression comes from. If Satan can confuse us enough and get us sidetracked into thinking these thoughts originated with us rather than him, then he has a stronghold.

We demolish, disrupt, destroy, stop Satan in his tracks when we quote truth. 

Ronnie

For the next 4 weeks I am preaching a series “The Unseen World” at 1st United Methodist Church Hillsville located at 225 Fulcher Street @ 630pm on Sunday evenings. You are encouraged to join us.

I believe the greatest lesson that I have learned on this 40 day journey to date is…The Christian world or at least the vast majority in America have either ignored or never heard of the Spiritual Discipline of fasting. There are a lot of problems associated with this.

Problem #1. If you are a Christian and you have never heard of this, it means that you are not studying the scriptures for yourself. I say this because it is painfully obvious if you read the scripture that men and women of God have fasted for more than six thousand years. You will also find that Jesus expected that His followers would fast. You will also find that fasting is just as important and compared or contrasted with prayer and giving of the tithe. Now, there is an obvious problem when it comes to tithing also but that is for another time.

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

II Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

John 5:39 says, “Search the Scriptures diligently (Study) because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.”

These scriptures are a starting place. God has called us to know Him and many of us have professed to know Him and yet we have neglected to know who He is and how He acts in our lives.

Wow

Ronnie

This book is a compilation of lessons learned and tools with ideas to be a better leader. Matter of fact the contents of this book are good for the church world as well as the business world. They are short chapters really meant to read and contemplate rather than just reading through in one sitting. I could recommend this book as one that you have on your shelf (or in your kindle) for those times when you need a jump-start in accomplishing something or when there is an issue looming that you need to know how to handle. It is not one of my favorites and at this time I didn’t gain great value from the book.

I do believe it is timing for me and not the content, the content is good.

Ronnie

I am down 27 pounds which is a faster weight loss than the first time, this is likely due to the fact that I am walking almost every day. I walked 2 miles today for a total of 20 miles for 19 days. I feel great. I admit that I get pretty tired and ready for bed earlier than normal. I could actually go to be easily at 8pm every evening but that just doesn’t happen when the kids are not on a schedule.

A couple of days ago I remembered that someone had suggested years ago when I was fasting to take a spoonful of honey and I tried it, it was amazing the energy it gave me to get through the rest of the afternoon. I am now taking a spoonful every day and feeling even better. Amazing what a spoonful of honey can do. I have heard it said that honey is one of God’s miracle foods and I believe it.

It dawned on yesterday as I was working with one of our college students on some scripture references that a fast is a way of saying, “Here I am God, I’m Listening.” I am listening and I am more attuned to what the Spirit is saying these days. The Bible teaches us over and over that if we want our voice to be heard on high, we need to combine fasting with prayer. I am not saying that God doesn’t hear our prayers without fasting, but I am saying that when we get desperate enough we will resort to desperate measures.

I want to hear from God.

Ronnie

“All the proper doctrine in the world can’t save us from eating away our sensitivity to God’s presence or throwing away years of potential ministry if we wreck our heart’s physical home.”

Misty has started to use my Kindle and while looking at books one evening she ran across this one. As she started to read it she became pretty excited about what she was learning. As she started to share some of what she was reading I was pretty interested and ended up putting some other books aside so that I could read it.

Gary talks a lot about his own personal struggles with food and over eating and that is one things that makes this book such a winner. He admits that he runs a little more so that he can eat a little more of the things he likes that are not good for him. That describes me pretty well also.

The whole idea of the book is that God created us with perfect bodies that work well when treated well and fed well. It is when we eat the wrong things, which is almost everything with processed foods being the norm today. However, there are ways we can combat the wrong foods. They are exercise and eating well, not overeating and not always going for the easy foods.

This book has encouraged me to do a “Biggest Loser” in our church and preach a series of messages on the concepts of Biblical eating and care of our bodies. I can’t wait.

I would give this book 5 stars out of 5.

Ronnie

Here are a few great quotes from the book.

“God gave us souls — and bodies to go with them. To be fully alive, fully human, fully the people God created us to be, we have to care for our bodies, discipline them, and make them our servants in our service to God.”

“Staying in shape require a lot of work and even regular pain, not being in shape requires its own pains and labors.”

“Protecting your health is the same thing as protecting the vehicle through which God wants to change the world.”

“Sin can lead us to become overweight, but being overweight is not, in and of itself, a sin.”

This is a great magazine for anyone working with teens. Here are just a few things I found in the November-December Issue, 2011.

#1 Lots of encouragement for a ministry that often times goes unappreciated.

#2 Inspiration to get back to having one of the best, Bible teaching, mentoring, Youth Ministries around.

#3 Encouragement in handling Crisis Situations that come constantly in the lives of teens.

#4 Great ideas for planning throughout the week for ministry nights and delegation responsibilities.

#5 The great importance of rules in youth ministry, Jesus never said it was easy to be His Disciple.

#6 If you want to tell great faith stories, you have to be willing to risk it all.

#7 Tips on dealing with “churched” kids.

#8 Great insight on the movie “Divided”. (It is a critique on Youth Ministry)

Pastor Ronnie