Fasting

According to this NY Times blog, "It’s long been known that glucose fuels many brain functions. Having a bite to eat appears to help boost a person’s willpower."

So, if you're learning to fast, when you're struggling, just have a bite to eat. That will help. Hmmm...

I fasted a bit a few weeks back. I wish I was more spiritual because it wasn't fun. It took a lot of focus. Maybe it's me just getting older but it was tough. David talked in Psalm 109 about being weak when fasting and I guess I experienced that.

But i do recognize that something deep happens during the midst of it. I really can't explain it. Rewards of Fasting and Too Busy Not to Pray are a couple books that I read during my fast. Both are helpful. I would recommend each of them, although the former is the harder read.

4 Benefits of Fasting...
1-increased hunger for God
2-clarity
3-holy detachment
4-increased focus in prayer life

Scripture References to Fasting

Faith - The Campsite and the Trails

Faith has a campsite and miles of hiking trails. The campsite is where the stories are preserved. The trails are where the stories originate.

More often than not churches resemble the campsite. It's the place where we preserve, build walls, fortify and safely talk about the great hiking adventures. As important as stories are we can't forget where the majority of the adventures come from. They come from the trails, out in the mountains, out on the edge.

A authentic 21C church provides an intersection where the safe and the unsafe collide. Playing it safe will not build prevailing churches any more than it will build a prevailing life.

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." Hellen Keller

Videos

couple of videos i like really well...

1 -Stand By Me


2 - Life is Beautiful from Stephen Niebauer on Vimeo.

The Media Must Have Content

It feels like the media talks about the swine flu so much that the people get worked up about it and the media talks about people getting worked up so much and so the Vice President says he's hesitant to fly and the media talks about what the Vice President said so much that flights to Mexico are reduced and the media talks about Mexican flights being reduced so much that the airline industry begins losing money and making cutbacks and the media talks so much about cutbacks and less flights and less money that the people get worked up about it and fly less and the media talks about how people are flying less and how airlines people are losing their jobs, which affects the economy and the media talks about how bad the economy is...