At the beginning of the year, many churches and Christians embark upon a corporate or personal fast.  Many of these fasts are based on the 21 Day Daniel Fast where the fast allows eating of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and water.  Sometimes this list is modified but basically, this is what is allowed.

The Purpose of This Post

I was raised in a very traditional Pentecostal church, so I grew up fasting.  However,  there are many different denominations that didn’t observe this practice.  So, my purpose here is to add some insight to help “rookies” survive a 21 day corporate fast.

Prepare for the Fast

For me, the most important element to surviving a 21 day Daniel Fast, without falling off the wagon, is preparation.

• Positive Attitude:  Approach the fast with a can do attitude.  Christianity is based on faith, so you must believe that you can successfully endure the fast.  A negative or defeatist attitude will most likely result in defeat.
• Caffeine and Sugar Withdrawal:  If you are heavy coffee and soda drinker or eat a lot of chocolate and sweets you will probably experience withdrawal in the form of headaches or cravings.  To help with these symptoms, start to cut back on sweets and caffeine at least a week before the fast begins.  The symptoms won’t last the entire fast but probably for about 3 days.
• Know Your Food Groups:  It’s difficult to survive a fast if you don’t have enough to eat, so you should know your food groups.  For instance, some fasts will say you can only eat fruits and vegetables.  Did you know that nuts are a fruit?  Nuts are also a great source of protein.  Learn your food groups.
• Go Grocery Shopping:  Make a list of what you are allowed to eat during the fast and purchase what you need for at least a week.
• Cook Ahead And Freeze:  Soups and some vegetarian casseroles can be prepared ahead of time and frozen.  You can make a very hearty bean soup with vegetable broth.
• Take Your Lunch To Work:  Taking your lunch to work will relieve the stress of finding what you can eat on a restaurant menu.

Notes About Fasting

• If you have severe medical conditions, check with your doctor before beginning a fast.
• You can pray without fasting but you can’t fast without praying.  A fast without prayer is a diet!
• Be humble in your fasting.  It’s not necessary to announce to the world that you are fasting (Matthew 6: 17, 18).

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. . .Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14)

This passage from the book of Esther has been my favorite for a long time. As I began to reflect on Mother’s Day, it put a few more parts of my life into perspective.

It has become a cliche for people to say that God works in mysterious ways. But when I look at my current life as a caregiver for my god-sister, Gladys, I know that God does indeed work in mysterious ways and He orchestrates our destinies in ways we can’t fathom.

Background

My mother graduated high school in 1948 and moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia where she met Gladys.  Mom and Gladys became friends and when I was born Gladys’ mother became my god-mother.  When I was five years old, my mother went back to Tennessee to take care of her mother who had cancer.  Since Mom had no job, she left me with my god-mother where I lived until I was 11.  Despite our age differences, Gladys and I were raised as sisters.

After my Mom moved me to Tennessee, I continued to spend my summers in Philadelphia until I got married.

The Mystery

Where’s the mystery in all of this?  God is omniscient and He knew that Gladys would have no siblings or children to take care of her in her old age.  He knew that my family would be her family and that we would be her caregivers.  I marvel sometimes that my mom and Gladys are about the same age but my mom is in good health and of sound mind.

Gladys has many physical disabilities and she has dementia.  She thinks she still lives in Philadelphia.  She knows who I am but she calls me by my daughter’s name.  Sometimes she has flashbacks and calls me “sister.”

Why I Chose to Share This

We don’t know what the future holds for us but it is possible to prepare for the unexpected.  Every Sunday our pastors tell us to get our lives in order.  Of course they are talking about salvation and living a godly life.  However, we also need to get our lives in order with a will, advance directives, and a power of attorney in case we become unable to make decisions for ourselves.

I was surprised when I received those documents from Gladys’ attorney in 1993.  I don’t know how she had the foresight to execute the documents but they sure came in handy in 2005 when she had a stroke and couldn’t make her own decisions.  God had already worked it out.

I hope this post will encourage you to get your life in order and execute the necessary documents to take care of your future. I also hope to encourage someone to look out for elderly family members and family friends who need help navigating through old age.

Enjoy your Mother’s Day!

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Twitter is a great social network and can be used for many things.  Friends keeping in touch, like-minded people sharing information, a marketing forum or an electronic bulletin board.  I know teenagers and college students act badly on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, but I expect more from adults.  Especially Christian adults.

Gary Lamb, Twitter and C3 Church

Last year Pastor Gary Lamb was involved in a scandal that ended up with him losing his pastorate, his wife and many friends.  He admitted what he had done, apologized and moved on.  Recently, however, Gary announced that he is in the process of starting another church.  He put together a team, tweeted and blogged about his new endeavor.  He explained what he planned to do and why.

Does Gary have the right to start a new church?  Yes.  Is it too soon for him to start a new church.  In my opinion it is, but I don’t know.  Should he start a new church in the same community?  I believe that’s a bad idea because there are too many open wounds that still need tending.  That said, what Gary Lamb does is his business.  If he is out of order, God will deal with him.

Cyber Stalking and Harassment

I am intrigued about what happens in the life of a pastor who steps down and begins over; so about twice a month I look at Gary Lamb’s Twitter page.  When I looked yesterday and saw he was starting a new church, I also began to see the chatter about him and his new church.  Some of the tweets were positive, some were negative and some were down right malicious.  So I began to follow the trail.

I could not believe that people had created fake ID’s so they could send malicious tweets about the church and about Gary’s personal life.  To me, the magnitude and malice of the tweets are the equivalence of cyber stalking.  The people sending these tweets are not unsaved, unchurched people.  They are Bible totin’, scripture quotin’ believers.  Since when did Christians begin to think that we have the right to stalk and harass someone because we don’t believe in what they are doing?  Oh, I forgot, we do it all the time!

When I was a child,

I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me (1 Cor. 13: 11).  These people need to grow up.  Their actions are childish at best and un-Christian at worst.  If they don’t like what he’s doing, they shouldn’t attend his services.  If they want to criticize him, they shouldn’t do so behind the mask of a fake identity.  If they think their friends are making a mistake by attending his services tell their friends why they believe he may not be qualified to lead, but not all the gossip that goes with it.

There’s a way to criticize with love.  Jesus showed us how.  These people should try it, they might like it.

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For many of us, the most heart wrenching thing about the aftermath of the earthquake is the orphans and children who need care and are desperate for medical attention.  The Haitian government acted swiftly to move on behalf of children who were already candidates for adoption, had met their adoptive parents and whose paperwork was in progress.  In addition, our state department and other countries are working with Haitian authorities to place orphans with adoptive families.  But they want to be sure that these children will be treated well and not used for illegal purposes.

Unfortunately, some groups have decided to act outside the Haitian legal system.  The missionaries from Idaho went to Haiti  intending to do something good.  However, it seems that they were misled by their leader, Laura Silsby, who was told ahead of time that she didn’t have proper documentation to take the children from Haiti to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.  As a result, she and the rest of the group now sit in a Haitian jail.

The Domino Effect

Ms Silsby’s actions caused a cascading domino effect that eventually harms those and other children.  Since their arrest, it has become increasingly difficult to send children from Haiti to other countries for much needed surgeries and medical treatment.  Why?  Because the authorities aren’t sure the children aren’t being abducted.

I followed a scenario on Twitter where Pastor Shaun King tweeted day and night to get help for baby Landina.  Landina was awaiting approval from the Ministry of Health to leave Haiti for surgery to replace a bone in her skull with a titanium plate; a delicate and complicated procedure.  This baby is only one of more than 1,000 children who need surgery.  Fortunately, baby Landina will receive treatment.  The fate of thousands of other children is still in limbo, made more difficult because of a group of people who meant well but ignored proper protocol.

Don’t Let Your Good Be Spoken of As Evil

Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s (Matthew 22:21).  In this case it means respecting the process for Haitian adoption and going through proper protocol to take children out of the country.  In our sincere desire to help others, it is important that we remember Romans 14:16 – “don’t let your good be spoken of as evil.”

Rules, protocol and red tape can be extremely frustrating, especially when we only want to help someone.  I know that someone is reading this and saying rules are made to be broken.  Go to Haiti and break their rules, you may wind up in prison.

What do you think of this?

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Yesterday I watched with amazement as a 70 year old woman was pulled from the broken and shattered slabs of concrete, rubble, litter and waste of a collapsed building in Haiti. The woman had been trapped in the debris for seven (7) days with out food, water or any companionship. The conventional wisdom, according to search and rescue experts, is that individuals trapped in homes or buildings that have been demolished due to an earthquake or a natural disaster can survive about 72 hours without water if they are in reasonably good health and maybe 5-7 days without food. In all cases, they say, the immediate enemy of survival is dehydration and not hunger, because the human body needs water more than food to maintain the fluidity and operations of its metabolism and internal organs. Yet when this woman was pulled from the rubble, she was not comatose, lethargic or dispirited; instead she came out with joy in her heart, singing a song of praise and giving thanks to God for his everlasting love.

I’ve noticed a pattern that as the Haitian people are pulled from these collapsed and demolished buildings, they come out rejoicing and proclaiming that God is good and has answered their prayers. As I watched this scene over and over again, it has become apparent to me that their praise towards God is a testament of their faith and the power of prayer. How else can you explain being trapped in this dark empty pit, with no one around to encourage you or keep your spirits lifted, nothing to eat or drink, the stench of death all around you, the relentless whispers and chants of Satan repeating over and over again that no one is coming to save you and that you’re going to be buried alive, the uncertainty of not knowing whether people think you’re alive, dead or a rotting corpse in this concrete graveyard; and through all of their fears, despairs, doubts and hopelessness, they come out of this lifeless abyss with a song on their lips and words of praise for God’s love and mercy.

I listen to ignorant and cynical people such as Dr. Pat Robertson who publicly and prophetically proclaimed the earthquake as God’s punishment towards the Haitian people for making a deal with the devil, and I’ve heard some of the religious and righteous pundits stereotype many of the Haitian people as being voodoo worshippers; and yet none of the survivors that came out of these hell-holes and into the marvelous light praised Satan or some voodoo god or some amulet around their neck for saving them. All of them came out with joy in their hearts and the knowledge and conviction that it was their prayers and faith in God that pulled them through. Just before Jesus healed the demonic boy (Mark 9:17-29), he told the boy’s father that all things are possible if you just believe. The Haitian survivor’s have shown us that all things are possible when you pray and believe.

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