Jesus Fame

Wednesday March 9th begins the 40 day Lent season. Now I understand that we, Missio Dei, are not Catholic but I do think that we can learn a lot from this discipline. This is not a legalistic duty but a choice that you have to give up something (beer, soda, coffee, tobacco, sugar, social media, tv, etc) to spend the time you would normally use in partaking in these activities to instead seek Jesus in prayer.

It might also be really cool to save the money you might spend on Starbucks or microbrews and give that money to a local charity or a needy family in your neighborhood or workplace.

What is the purpose of fasting?

We know Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of His public ministry. And while we’re not told explicitly what the reason for it was it seems that He was preparing Himself for what was ahead.

The reason we fast is simply to hear from God and seek the Lord’s direction and will by removing a common distraction like food or entertainment. When you look through the New Testament we see many Christians fasting and praying for specific purposes like setting apart Paul and Barnabus for their church planting expedition in Acts 13-14. We also see Jesus encouraging his disciples to pray and fast to be prepared for difficult spiritual situations like dealing with demon possession or spiritual warfare (Mark 9:29).

The purpose for fasting at the end of the day is sanctification…but here’s the deal, we don’t seek after greater sanctification to attain more justification. We are already justified. Therefore we don’t fast to be more acceptable to God, we’re accepted by the Father purely based upon the perfect life Jesus lived and the sacrificial death that He died. Lent is not a spiritual obligation, it does not make God love you more, but when motivated by the gospel celebrating Lent through fasting can be a beautiful way to express your gratitude for all that God has given you in Christ and it can also be a very effective means of denying your flesh.

I encourage you to consider fasting from something during the 40 days from Wednesday March 9th – Saturday April 23rd

Here are some things that you can pray for during this time –

1. Your own growth in the Gospel

2. Growth (both spiritually and numerically) for Missio Dei

3. Missional Engagement for the people of Missio Dei…opportunities for us to impact our city with the gospel. Souls saved!

4. Provision for Missio Dei

5. Opportunities for us to engage the campus of CSU

I hope you choose to join us on this journey.

Tomorrow morning we will begin a 4 week series called “God with Us” in celebration of Christmas/Advent. I am looking forward to making much of this holiday season because Jesus thought so much of us that He willingly became like us and took our place by living the life we could never live and dying the death we should have died.

This series will be an exposition through Matthew 1-2

Here is the schedule -

Week 1 (Nov. 28th) – Christmas Didn’t Begin in Bethlehem “The Bible is about Jesus” Matt. 1:1-17

Week 2 (Dec. 5th) – Christmas isn’t Primarily About a Baby “From manger to cross” Matt. 1:18-25

Week 3 (Dec. 12th) – Christmas and Idolatry “Jesus reveals our false worship” Matt. 2:1-8

Week 4 (Dec. 19th) – Christmas Demands Worship “He gave everything…how should we respond?” Matt. 2:9-12

I’ve been a really bad blogger over the last year…between microblogging, planting a new church, and working bi-vocationally I haven’t had much time. But I do plan on getting back into the action, so for the faithful few who have kept checking in please stay tuned for copious e-opinions.

Thanks to Steve Szczecina for all his hard work on updating the blog, and to Stewart White for hosting.