It Can Happen In A Flash

It all happened late Saturday night. A truck in front of me was sitting a the light about to make a left hand turn into the Battlefield Mall. We were right behind him about to make the same left hand turn. The truck proceeded to make a left not realizing that the two cars coming from the other direction were driving at excessive speeds (they were racing). All of a sudden, a black camaro flashed by and then a dark green firebird crashed into the back rear of the truck, ricochet off him, hit me and the mini-van behind me. The mini-van was then pushed back into another vehichle. A total of 5 cars involved in the incident. (My car is the top and the firebird is the bottom) Apparently, the camaro and firebird decided to have a race from the previous light where they were sitting. The black camaro stopped long enough to realize something serious had just happened and then proceeded to race off. Here's the amazing part...no one in all five cars involed was seriously injured. My whole family didn't have a scratch. I wish I could say the same for my Nissan Altima!

Since the accident I've had this impression. I come to understand that God's protection was on my family and then some. There was a curb between my car and the firebird. The curb turned the firebird as my car was being hit. Otherwise, he would have hit the driver's door, where I happened to be sitting. I know, my car doesn't look that bad, but the impact on my wheel broke my front axel, suspension and drive shaft. The wheel was the best place to take the impact. The mini van behind me, his front end was totaled. Poor guy, he just bought his van the day before. Was this coincendentally or was something more going on? I believe because God's protection was upon me and my family, that protection also covered everyone else in the accident. People kept asking about what happened to the people in the cars. I would say things like, "this car belongs to those standing over there" and "here's the driver of that car" and on and on. They would just go, "wow!"

Does it always end up like this? Of course not. However, this time God was up to something. I now have a broader view of God's protection. His realm of provision goes beyond the boundaries of just my home. God is not only concerned with our lives, but also with the lives of those we come into contact with. I wonder how may lives have been impacted because God's protection or provision was with us?

Have a blessed day!

Taking The Risk

In Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft, Thor Heyerdahl tells how he and a crew of five crossed the Pacific Ocean from South America to the South Pacific Islands on a crude raft of balsa logs bound together with hemp rope. During the three-month journey in 1947, they had little control of the direction of the raft and no way to stop its forward progress. They learned early in the voyage that anything dropped overboard was almost impossible to recover once it passed behind the raft.

Two months into the voyage and thousands of miles from land, Herman Watzinger lost his footing and went overboard. The raft, driven by a strong wind in heavy seas, moved ahead faster than he could swim. The five remaining men were horrified for their friend. They tried to throw him a life belt on a rope, but the wind blew it back at them. In seconds, Herman was all but lost to their sight in the tumble of waves.

Suddenly Knute Haugland grabbed the life belt and dove into the water. He swam back to Herman and wrapped his arm around him, holding his exhausted friend and the rope while the men on the boat drew them back to the boat.

Effective evangelism requires that someone risks and takes the gospel to the one who is lost.

Thoughts on Fasting

“Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer.” 1 Corinthians 7:5

For many of us, fasting is a foreign—and perhaps uncomfortable—experience. Consequently, while we recognize its place within Scripture, we often find ourselves unable to makes sense of why we are called to do it. Are we trying to impress God? Restrain the flesh? Focus our thoughts? In as much as the mandate to “fast and pray” is a biblical one, I offer the following thoughts.

Fasting in Scripture is typically associated with great need. We fast because we have a desperate desire to hear from God in this matter, at this time. It is the natural expression of our soul-hunger for God. We fast because our circumstances, whether personal or corporate, have grown beyond us. We fast because we need the grace of God to shower upon us in fresh new ways.

It seems to me that fasting is not a direct means of igniting spiritual hunger, but rather of paving the way for, and preserving, an already present spiritual hunger. Fasting is a form of preparation, an intentional cleansing of all distractions that would come between the believer and the God whom he desperately seeks to lay hold of. It is David laying aside Saul’s armor in preparation for the giant. It is Elijah girding his loins before his desert flight. It is the man rushing into a room with the long sought treasure map and, with the sweep of his arm, clearing the table in order that he might make undistracted use of the map. We fast because we want nothing—not even food—to distract us from our desperate desire to encounter God. It is the same logic found in 1 Corinthians 7:5, where Paul talks about a husband and wife fasting from sex in order to focus on prayer. Sex, like food, is a good thing. But there are times when that which is good must be laid aside to seek after that which is best. And so we fast because we deeply desire to lay hold of God and because we want nothing to dull this desire.

In many ways, fasting—whether it be from food or sex—is a form of mourning; a refusal to go on with “life as usual.” Like the bereaved lover who does not desire to be comforted, so too we fast because we do not want our earnestness to hear from God lessened by a numbing slide back into normalcy. Fasting sanctifies our desire and serves as a constant reminder that things are not right—that we must hear from God in this matter, at this time. When we have arrived in such a state of mind, eating becomes a sacrilege, a profaning of a holy moment—like boisterous laughing at a funeral. To eat is to squelch the soul-hunger, and desecrates our profound sense of holy dissatisfaction. We fast because we have arrived at that particular place where nothing but a fresh encounter with God will suffice; a place where must see the hand of God move. We fast because the status quo is no longer acceptable.

The convicting thing then, is not that we fast so little. It’s that we feel so little need to fast.

So let’s all pray together that God would spark in us a hunger for more of Christ. And let us fast together that nothing would stand in the way of us realizing this desire.