Final Day

What a great time this has been of seeking the Lord TOGETHER with all of you and many others. I believe God has done some amazing things in our hearts and lives. I trust change has been wrought in our souls that will go far, far beyond this week and a half. For me, my hunger for God has increased. My flesh has been crucified afresh - which is always a good thing. Intercession has gone up and I believe increase is around the corner. I've definitely simply enjoyed spending more time basking in His presence. I also am very excited to see how God has knit hearts together in an even deeper ways as we've drawn near to Him - together. My body is weary, but my spirit is soaring. I believe God is pleased with this sacrificial fast before Him.

Devotion

During worship Sunday morning, God spoke the word “devotion” to me – I felt it was a word I needed to understand better so that I could live it out with fullness.

I looked it up – most dictionaries assign it these 3 meanings:

a. Love, affection, and dedication to [a person, ideal, or activity].

b. Religious ardor, zeal, or piety

c. Religious activities or studies usually pertaining to Christianity; often used in the plural for written texts related to religious life.

This is definitely a word associated with Christianity, but in its primary definition it is also commonly used as a synonym for love. Love songs and poetry frequently use this word. What makes devotion such a strong word in the English language? Its connotations – related words such as love, veneration, idolatry, worship, loyalty, commitment, and allegiance bring to our minds a set of extremes and superlatives. Devotion is not a common word, not is it a lukewarm emotion. One definition I found contained the words “selfless affection.” Feeling so strongly committed to a something or someone that you consider them to be more important than yourself is a powerful emotion. Another definition said devotion was “marked by dedicated loyalty.”

To what or to whom are we devoted? What parts of our lives deserve our devotion? Many of us catch ourselves devoting the best of our time, energy, attention, and affection to things that, whether or not they are good, are not God. Here’s where we see the related word “idolatry” at work in us.

Probably the most common use of this word in our daily lives is in the term frequently used to spend time alone with God. “Did you have your devotions today?” “What have you been learning through that new devotional book I gave you?” “During your devotions, will you pray for me to get rid of this cold?” The question God started asking me today is “How many of these adjectives and related words describe your time with me?” Are my “devotions” more important than my comfort? Do they come before my empty stomach, my growing to-do list, or my excitement to find out what happens at the end of the novel I’m reading? Are they full of love, worship, and affection, or are they cold and business-like? If my husband set aside time “to be with me,” but we sat on opposite sides of the table and talked only of scheduling, household tasks, financial goals, and the weather, I would not feel loved or important to him. When I have devotions, am I dedicated and committed to the task at hand, or am I easily distracted, failing to focus on what God is saying? Do I honor God’s direction to communicate with him often, or do I fail to be loyal and committed to our relationship, allowing communication to grow sparse and shallow?

Of all of the things in my life to which I must be devoted, God has convicted me for not making my time with Him the first priority. Our Father is more worthy to receive such unguarded and unfettered affection than any other person or thing in my life, and I want my time with Him to reflect the picture painted by the word “devotion.”

Bring Light and Good Health

Sorry to miss posting yesterday. I'll try and catch up on this study out of Isaiah 58 with a few phrases out of verse 8. It says, "Then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily." Talk about some great fruit that can result in a life style of fasting! Through fasting, our spiritual ears are quickened to hear the voice of God. So many times people run for cousel too often while failing to wait on the Lord through prayer and fasting. He is able to come and give us the direction we need. May there be great light illuminating our path as we finish this time of fasting!
Then Isaiah speaks of how healing can come through God's chosen fast. I know many are engaging in a "Daniel Fast" where they are abstaining from sweets and meats. Daniel, when in training for service to King Nebuchadnessar, requested that he not have to eat of the king's "special foods". He and his friends stuck to a diet of vegetables - and after a 10 day test Daniel was brought before the king. What was the testimony? Daniel and his friends impressed the king with the wisdom and favor God had given them. There was none that could compare to these men who were set apart for the purposes of God. They had a health that was in their bodies, souls and spirits. May the Lord cause His healing grace to flow through our bodies as we consecrate ourselves before Him through this fasting period! May our health spring forth speedily in Jesus name.

Get ready

In church this morning I felt again a second prophetic annointing over the same scripture as my Friday entry.

Isa 54:
1 Sing oh barren women, you have never born a child

God is saying that the shame of the world, the looks of those who see you and call you barren, call you desolate, call you unfulfilled, even the thoughts that well up inside you that say, "I am barren, I am childless, I am without fulfillment. All around me I see fullness, richness, fatness in the lives of others while I am left desolate, empty, dry and weary.

Burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor

You shall burst soon with joy, fulfillment shall be yours, though without those things that enrich the many around you, you shall become rich. You shall become filled

because more are the children of the desolate woman, than of her who has a husband says the Lord.

God is getting ready to fill you, and not just to fill you, but to fill you to such a capacity that those who now appear to be full, those that now appear to be rich, those that now appeart to have that you do not, shall come to you and say, "Why are you so full? Why are you so rich? What is it that you have? Teach me, show me, impart to me that I may partake in your richness."


2 Enlarge the place of your tent

The word I am receiving is abode - which like tent is a physical place but is representative of all you have, your entirety, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual....

stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
Increase your capacity and your expectations. Do not hold back, do not set limits, do not build boxes or walls, do not set boundaries....

3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;

God is ready to establish his house, and a large house it will be, wide will its breadth be and long its depth, able to contain vast numbers and vast accumulations....

your descendents will dispossess nationsand settle in their desolate cities

The joy of the Lord will fill you as you take back and take in what has not been seen before. The joy of the Lrod will go ahead of you and behind you and encompass you round about.

Then I heard, joy, joy, joy, joy over and over again. So in closing I've recorded just these few brief scriptures.

1 Chron 16:
27 Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and gladness are in His place.

Job
8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughing, and your lips with rejoicing.

Psalm
5:11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you

Isaiah:
9:3 You have multiplied the nation And increased its joy; They rejoice before You According to the joy of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

29:19 The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, And the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel.

51: 11 Therefore the redeemed the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

55: 12 “ For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

56: 7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Habakkuk
3: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Acts
2:28 You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of joy in Your presence

Since Mark had the link for the blog, I am using his account to share about a way the Lord spoke to me earlier this week.

God speaks to me with white cars. That might sound a bit strange to you, but to me it's almost humorous. Whenever I am tempted to speed (or am actually committing the offense), or become impatient with other drivers around me, God puts a slow car in front of me. It's His way of saying, "Oh no, you don't!" Just so I don't miss that the message is from Him, He always makes sure the car is white. It's like His defining signature. Over the years, this has happened often enough that even my children know (perhaps snickeringly so) what a slow white car in front of mommy means: Somebody's getting a spanking.

Thursday was a time of contemplation and confession. I spent some time before the Lord telling Him about my sins--where I've fallen so short of His glory. As I went to pick up Lauren from school, I continued the conversation with Him. I acknowledged that I had, in my relationships with others, retracted into my shell. Just as I was about to go on (and on) telling Him how much I liked it there, how comfortable it was--and how content I would be just to stay there and let the big meanies of the world slug it out without me-- something caught my eye. There, in the side lane this time, was a white car "turtling" down the highway. I had to work a bit to make out the license plate. Turns out, God was just trying to get a word in edgewise. The plate simply read "3NGAG3."

Now I must figure out, through prayer, where and in what capacity He wants me to engage.

Lisa

The Widow's Fast

We are more than half way through this 10 day fast. It has been an amazing time of seeking the Lord - together. I'm so very encouraged by the number of Grace members digging in to seek the Lord at one level or another this week. You guys are great! God is doing something very powerful through this time. It's fun going deeper together as a body.

In Isaiah 58:6, 7 "Is this not the fast that I have chosen...to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?" Here Isaiah makes a huge shift in his emphasis concerning God's chosen fast. It's a shift from the spiritual to a very pracical, physical ministry of blessing the needy around us. Christina made mention of this in an earlier post - about taking some of the food we saved during the fast to give to the needy at Autumn Lakes. Great idea! I'm sure there are other practical ideas God will put on our hearts to reach out to and minister to the poor in our lives. One idea just came to me. Several times a week I get calls from people looking for financial assistance. Grace does what it can to give benevolence moneys each month. But many times we run out and I have to say we can't help. I need to check with Susie, but the thought of inviting some of these folks over for a meal might be an awesome substitute for the money they are looking for! May the Lord lead us in this regard. God is going to grace us to minister to many practical needs even as we press in to seek His face at a whole different level.

As we have been fasting, the Lord has put a few things on my heart. There are two songs that go back a few years that have really come up in my spirit.

The first is a song called, “Let Your Fire Fall” ©1999 Integrity’s Hosanna Music, Lynn Deshazon, Gary Sadler The words are as follows:

Come show your power as in days of old, Lord, Lord, let your fire fall
Burn up the idols of wood and stone, Lord, Lord, let your fire fall

We come before you Father, we offer up our lives
Our hearts are on your altar, consume this sacrifice

Lord, Lord, let your fall. Lord, Lord, let you fire fall.

Come and show your power in our midst today,
Lord, Lord, let your fire fall

Holy Spirit come and have your way, Lord, Lord, let your fire fall
Purify your people, set our hearts aflame
Give us holy passion, come and glorify your name.

But even before the fast I was focused by the spirit on a concept – are we building the house of the Lord or are we building a church? Building a church will not ensure that we are building the house of the Lord, but building the house of the Lord will result in building a church, just maybe not one that looks like what we are used to. This happens to tie in closely with a very central scripture in my life:

Acts 15:16 After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; 17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.

God tells us he is going to rebuild David’s tabernacle and then tells us why.

The second thing rising up in my spirit is quite different. For the past two days the spirit has been bringing back to my remembrance – yes - another song – sorry, you’ll just have to deal with it:

There’s a new song arising in the hearts of God’s children, a new song arising in the hearts of His own

A song of hope, a song of peace, the sound of liberation, the shout of victory
The hymn of praise, the new song of God, many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord

With the oil of joy He’s anointing His children and the music He gives sets the nations free
With the oil of joy He’s anointing His children and the dance of our Father’s bringing liberty

Over and over I’ve sung the second verse – the oil of joy – I’ve had this bursting forth of joy in my spirit these past two days. Then last night at prayer towards the end I had this word from the Lord but couldn’t find the scripture reference so here it is:

Isa 54: 1"Sing, O barren, You who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman," says the LORD. 2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. 3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.

Even as I write this I feel a strong prophetic anointing…..

Enlarge, enlarge, enlarge is the word I’m getting. Enlarge your hearts, enlarge your spirits, stretch out your tents and pull tight the ropes, drive in your stakes with a word for what is coming. Because what is existing cannot contain what is coming. From the East and the West, from the North and South they are coming, get ready! GET READY! Enlarge the place of your dwelling, enlarge the place of your walking, enlarge the place of your worship for what He is about to pour in. Enlarge your vision, enlarge your capacity, and enlarge your expectations for what God is willing, capable and prepared to do. Whatever you think God is doing, whatever your think God wants to do, whatever you think is possible, whatever you dare hope can be....enlarge it!

Moving into the Daniel fast

My best friend from college, Lindsey, is finally here to visit us! She's been unable to visit over the past year because of her job as a Psychology intern, so this visit is cause for rejoicing for many reasons. So, to celebrate her arrival, we broke fast with vegetables this evening at dinnertime. For the remaining five days we will be abstaining from meat and sugar. As overjoyed as I was to be able to enjoy some nice, fresh vegetables, I was much more excited to enjoy cooking a meal together with Lindsey for the first time in many months! The Lord has blessed me so much through her friendship.
This morning, I was meditating on some chapters in Isaiah, and God encouraged me with these verses:
"When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." (Isaiah 41:17-18)
This verse is full of comfort for me. These days are filled with things that grieve my heart (and how much more must they grieve the heart of an absolutely Holy God). The more I discover how much suffering abounds in the world, the heavier my heart can feel. And, although I feel the call to action and the impulse to help in any way I can, I know that I am finite and have limited means. But our God does not have limits of any kind, and here He has promised to care for the needy. So today I'm praying and claiming this promise from a God who is abundantly capable of working miracles - I will pray for Him to satisfy both the physical and the spiritual thirst and dryness in this world, and then I will be willing to be a part of the answer to my own prayer if He uses me.

Breaking Every Yoke

Really battling some serious low physical energy today. Amazing, though, how when I run to the Lord, there is actually a new wave of physical strength that comes to my body as I feed spiritually in His presence! Really cool.
Isaiah 58:6 finishes with this statement about "breaking every yoke." Boy, that really sounds powerful. Meditating on this and can't help get excited. What kind of yokes do we see in our hearts, our families, our city or nation? Sinful habits, wrong mind sets, false hopes, wacked out priorities and uncontrolled appetites. Others might involve unhealthy relationship yokes. I suppose the list could go on... Praise God for power to break EVERY yoke. May He do a great work in our lives today of breaking many yokes that keep us from Him, His ways or His purposes for our lives. Praise God for freedom from yokes - and the great power God gives to a life given over to Him.

Quiet Moments

The first two days of the fast were pretty slow for me. I hardly had to go out at all, the tasks I had to get done at home were minimal, and I was able to spend more time meditating on the word than I have been days 3 and 4. Today I'm teaching violin lessons all day, and tonight I have a dear friend driving up to spend her MLK weekend with us, so preparing the house (for example, trying to get all the dog hair off the carpet) took up a good bit of the morning. But I am really treasuring my breaks so much more than usual. Being calm and quiet and simply feeling the presence of God, speaking a few words to Him in-between activities, and remembering to rest in His peace have become easier as I have become hungrier. My body craves food. These cravings remind me of my weakness and need. And my automatic reaction is to run to God in all the in-between times and ask Him to sustain me. So I guess fasting is helping me re-order my priorities! Maybe this is what Paul meant when he said "pray without ceasing." That we should be in a constant state of submission to and reliance on God. Thinking of Him should be our first impulse, and He should be the first source of nourishment we draw from. Today I'm praying that God will help me keep this attitude of submission far beyond this period of fasting, and by His grace I would continue to draw on His living water first, and value it above all other types of nourishment.

Let the oppressed go free

I think many of us should turn a corner today regarding how hungry and tired we feel. Seems as though by the 4th day our bodies make some adjustments to the fact that there's no food being brought in. So, hopefully all of us are feeling a bit better today. I am very excited about what God is doing in our souls through this time. We will all look back at this journey and realize some special things wrought in our hearts by the Lord. Let's keep drawing near to His presence.

The 3rd thing Isaiah mentions in chapter 58:6 is about "letting the oppressed go free." This is so powerful! That word oppressed means "break, bruise, crush, discourage, oppress, struggle." Do you think there is any of this stuff that works in our lives at times? How about the people around us here on the Peninsula? You betcha! As we fast, may the broken be healed. As we fast, may those bruised in their souls be healed. As we fast, may the crushed recover. As we fast, may the discouraged be encouraged in Jesus name. As we fast, may the oppressed and struggling be set free by God's mighty power! God is moving. Let's be encouraged and continue to press into His awesome presence.

Humble Me, Lord

Yesterday I was pretty devoid of energy and not able to focus well on anything. Hence, no blogging. But by grace, today I felt better for a large portion of the day. I'm praying for God to strengthen me even more for tomorrow - it's my first day of teaching at my new job, and I am so excited to meet all my violin students!
Today the song "I Need Thee Every Hour" has been constantly on my heart. God kept bringing it to me over the past few days. Although I have been abundantly blessed by my Father with good gifts, there are definitely things that make me feel my continual need for Him and remind me to rely on His faithfulness. Nothing makes me feel that need more than conviction - when I can feel in my soul that I have grieved the heart of my Heavenly Father by disobeying his Spirit's guidance. But as I've been fasting, I have felt so physically challenged that I have felt constantly my need for God's grace in both a spiritual and a physical way.
My college roommate gave me a copy of Donald Whitney's "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" a few years ago. I'm a bit embarrassed to say I had never even peeked at the chapter on fasting until yesterday. Whitney encourages the believer to engage in fasting, but with a definite purpose in mind so that it can actually be of spiritual benefit. He describes ten purposes for fasting. One of them is "to humble oneself before God." This struck a particular chord with me today - fasting as "a physical expression of humility before God...[expressing] humility before the Lord in every activity throughout the day by fasting." King David describes doing exactly this in Psalm 35 - "I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting." As we fast and feel our hunger, both for daily bread and for the Bread of Life, we should be clothing ourselves in humility before God. Fasting is not a statement of prideful piety which seeks to earn God's favor for our sacrifice. Fasting is an outward acknowledgment of our weakness and our neediness, in which God's strength can be made more perfect than we know!

Continuing to meditate on Isaiah 58. The second phrase of vs. 6 says that the kind of fast God has chosen is to "undo the heavy burdens." That sounds great!! Boy, how easy it is to pick up and carry burdens. They come from all sides and before we know it we are drowning in them. May the Lord help us to see many heavy burdens undone in our souls this week. May He also grace us to help others be set free from the burdens of life. This really is the essence of ministry - being set free from burdens and helping others do the same. Burdens of sin, sickness, fear and oppression... The list goes on.
The Lord, through Peter, encourages us to "cast all your care upon the Lord for He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7) May every burden we are carrying today be cast on Jesus. He alone can bear them. We are not able. May every burden in our souls be undone as we cast them upon Him! Boy, that feels good!!

Day 3: Awake

I woke up this morning smiling. I wasn't smiling because I felt comfortable or because I felt good. I wasn't smiling because I felt completely rested and wide awake. No, I was smiling because when I woke up this morning I felt the Presence of God all around me. The moment I opened my eyes I experienced His Presence. I was smiling because when I woke up He was Right there welcoming me into the day. That's the moment you know the day is going to be good. The moment He walks into it.
That is what it is all about...His Presence. Life is pointless, empty, and worthless without Him being in it. Although, many times when we wake up in the morning we lose sight of this fact. Instead of Him being the first thing on our mind we are thinking about all we need to do, where we need to be, or how many mouths we need to feed. I know I have done this many times and I am sure we have all done it once or twice! God is telling us, "I NEED to be FIRST."
I would give everything, go anywhere, to have that every morning, every day, every hour.
Let's Not leave God in our after thoughts. Instead let us awake ready to connect, ready to experience His Presence. Let us be seekers of His Presence. Let us be a people full of the Presence of God.
It starts the moment we open our eyes.
Oh, God is So Good!

Day 2. Definitely feeling tired and hungry - May the Lord help us all to focus. Had great time last night praying together with about 10 folks at Grace. Really encouraging to seek the Lord together with friends during a fast. We'll be here at 6 pm tonight if you are interested.

Isaiah wrote "Is this not the fast I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness..." This list goes on, but it is interesting that the first thing he mentions is that there is power in fasting to help break the grip of sin in our lives. I love the term "bands" used here. Oftentimes that is how we feel - bound to sin in some way or another. Fasting can be a part of seeing those bands broken so we can be free to love God and one another. Hebrews 12:1 speaks of "besetting sins". For all of us, there are specific things that seem to just grip us - not wanting to let go. It's like we are tied to them by some unseen force. Certainly coming into God's presence, reading His Word, connecting with other believer and other things help us along the way towards greater and greater freedom. But this weapon called fasting we are picking up can be another part of the answer. Through fasting these bands of wickedness are broken from our hearts and lives! That is encouraging. May the Lord do this work mightely in us through this time of fasting. Let's approach Him with boldness with a cry to be set free from the sin that so easily besets us. May He do a great work in our lives through these 10 days!

Isaiah 58

Today was hard, physically. I'm finally at a point where my stomach isn't complaining and my head doesn't hurt. It's difficult not to think about food or about how my body feels, but I'm doing my best to turn my thoughts to better things and spend my time in prayer.
Pastor Chris talked about some verses from Isaiah chapter 58 last Sunday, but he mentioned that the entire chapter centers on fasting. I decided that today I would meditate on the chapter as a whole and think about what fasting means and what the true purpose of this spiritual discipline is.

The chapter begins with God telling Isaiah to inform His people that although they thought they were righteous, they were still living in sin. He said that if they wondered why their fasting and humility went unrecognized, they should look at the way they used their days of fasting. Instead of focusing on God's thoughts and on communion with him, they went about their business as usual, pursued their own pleasure, oppressed their workers, argued and got into fistfights. God told them that kind of "fasting" was not going to make their voices heard to Him.
Is it enough to act humble, to bow down, and to wear sackcloth and ashes before the Lord? God says that He chooses a fast that is about freedom and ACTION.
Fasting is about actively breaking bondage. It's about sharing your bread with the hungry. It's about bringing the homeless poor into your house, clothing the naked, and satisfying the desires of the afflicted. It's about seeing and meeting needs.
So why fast? God commands us to do those good things ALL the time. But fasting can help in several ways - first of all, I think it can help us take our attention off of our own needs long enough to notice the needs of others. Second of all, I think community fasting can bring together the hearts of God's people to re-focus them on their united goals of caring for those in need. And perhaps most practically, it can free up some of our resources for those who need them more than we do! Jonas and I need to eat to live, but we have much more food than we need. God has blessed us and we don't know what it's like to go hungry out of poverty. So tonight I told him I think we should take the food we're NOT eating this week and bring it to church to be distributed to the Autumn Lakes community. What better way to use our resources than to obey God's picture of a true and valuable time of fasting by sharing our bread with the hungry? This way, the fast becomes not only a period of introspection and communion with God, but also a tool for empowering and encouraging others.
This fall, Jonas and I co-led a young adults' small group, and our object of discussion was God's picture of reward in scripture. I don't believe we ever got to Isaiah chapter 58, but here is a wonderful collection of promises from God - He doesn't only command fasting. He rewards it richly if we do it to His glory! Many of the promises stand out to me - he will make our light shine brightly, give us speedy healing (for ourselves? for others, through us?), our righteousness will go out before us, we will be like an unfailing spring of water, we will raise up the foundations of many generations and be repairers, rebuilders, and restorers...the list goes on and on. God promises to use fasting to empower us to advance His kingdom in the hearts of those around us! So I find myself encouraged by the thought that this fast is not an empty ritual or an act of religious piety. It is more like a collective call to action, and through the sacrifices we are making, we will be better able to change the world.

Starts Tomorrow

My name is Christina. I have been a follower of Jesus Christ and a believer in His word for many years, but I have never participated in a Biblical period of fasting. Tomorrow, in fellowship with my husband and my church congregation, I will begin a 10-day fast. My husband and I plan to abstain from food, but we also plan to incorporate a small media fast (from TV and internet surfing). For the first five days our plan is to have nothing but juice and tea to drink. Then we may move into a period of abstaining from meats and sugar, eating vegetables, fruits, and grains only for the remaining 5 days. I'm sure everyone in the church will approach the fast a little differently, with some people taking in nothing but water for the whole ten days and some people only abstaining from meats and sugar for the whole period. The point is not to follow a specific regimen, but rather to focus on spending time with God and with each other, and to tap into a greater source of spiritual power by displaying faith and discipline in our lives. One of the things I'm hoping for in this ten days is simply to understand fasting better...why Jesus did it, why He expected His followers to do it, and why God's people throughout the Bible turned to it as a solution to problems. I invite anyone who reads this to add your thoughts, comments, or personal experiences with fasting to the blog.