Fasting

Why Don’t We Talk About Fasting?

It has been said on more than one occasion that members of the church cannot get together without eating. In fact, some of my own seminars have been graded on the number of pounds I gained: “Well, that was a five pound meeting.” We love to eat. We eat when we are happy and celebrating (birthdays, VBS, camp, anniversaries) and we eat when we are sad (deaths, sickness, hospital stays, or even breakups). Eating can bring comfort, allow for fellowship, and may even serve as a distraction.

Fasting isn't something we often talk about.

Fasting isn’t something we often talk about.

Eating is a major part of our culture. We define our day around meals or what we are eating. And rare is the parent who has not heard hundreds of times: “What are we eating for dinner?” It is no surprise then that many pulpits remain silent on fasting—after all who wants to upset the applecart (unless those spilled apples could be put into a pie)? Preachers will readily joke about their stomachs being “chicken graveyards,” but how many will touch on the Biblical topic of fasting?

Here’s what I intend to teach my children regarding fasting.

I have a weakness for food. I love to eat good food. In fact, about the only thing I just won’t eat is liver. Aside from that, I’m game to try just about anything. You know firsthand that I normally keep a stash of ice cream in the freezer, and it’s not hard to talk me into stopping by a restaurant on the weekends. So understand what I’m about to share with you goes against my nature, and is something I have to work hard on.

The Bible records over twenty times this experience known as fasting (e.g., Jeremiah 36:6; Daniel 6:18; Daniel 9:3; Joel 2:12). Probably the most prominent example and most familiar passages come from Jesus. In Matthew chapter four we find Jesus fasting when he is tempted by Satan. Just a few chapters later Jesus instructs: “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:16)

In Matthew chapter nine Jesus is questioned about his disciples and their fasting: “Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.’” (Matthew 9:14-15, emp. added).

So here is what we know. Jesus fasted. Jesus instructed us how to fast. And Jesus’ disciples fasted. There are many more passages we could examine, but this is ample evidence that we should also be fasting.

Why? What is the purpose of fasting? Fasting is to make us more focused and more aware of our need for God. It is a temporary measure that reminds us that life is not about earthly pleasure, but rather there is a day coming when we will no longer need to fast! Fasting helps us to grow spiritually as we deny ourselves something in order to glorify and grow closer to God.

While Jesus does give some instruction in Matthew chapter six on fasting, He does not indicate things like how often or specifics on how. Many individuals try to jump in and do day long (or even week-long) fasts having never fasted before. These individuals are setting themselves up for failure.

Let me recommend you start out purposefully fasting through a single meal. Then increase it to that same meal two or three days in a row. After that try fasting for an entire day. Many scholars recommend continuing to drink water (so you don’t become dehydrated) and others recommend doing a juice fast—which would cut out solid foods, but would still give you some nutrients and sugars to give you enough strength to continue on throughout the day.

My recommendation is you start out small and increase from there. Be very conscientious of how your fasting causes you to treat others (in other words, it does no good to fast to get closer to God if you are grumpy all day with your siblings and parents!). And plan ahead! How will you deal with those times when you get really hungry? Will you use this time to read your Bible, take a walk outside, pray, etc.?

Fasting is not something I’ve perfected. But it is something that is in the Bible and we should work on. I’ll make you a deal: you encourage me when I’m fasting, and I’ll do my best not to put my big bowl of ice cream in front of you when you are fasting. Keep growing and keep studying.

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Baptism: Sprinkling or Dunking

Baptism: Sprinkling or Dunking

The Bible makes it very clear that baptism is essential to obtain salvation and become a disciple of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Matt. 28:19-20; Gal. 3:26-27; 1 Pet. 3:21).  Therefore, it is necessary for us to determine the proper mode of baptism, especially since various religious bodies in Christendom define baptism in different ways.  Some pour or sprinkle water on people’s heads and say they’ve baptized them; others completely immerse them in water and define that as baptism.  Which of these is correct?  Or, are both of them correct?  Does it really matter?

How does the Bible show baptism occurring?

How does the Bible show baptism occurring?

God told us in his Word that “every word of God is tested…” (Prov. 30:5), and we are not to add to or take away from his Word (Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:6; 1 Cor. 4:6; Rev. 22:18-19).  Therefore, determining the proper definition of baptism is just as important as recognizing that it is scripturally necessary for salvation and forgiveness of sins.  After all, if God told us to baptize with a specific act in mind and we do something different, we have not actually obeyed him and thus our eternal salvation is in jeopardy (Heb. 5:9; Matt. 7:21-23).

With this in mind, we must remember that in the first century AD when the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the New Testament (2 Pet. 1:20-21; Eph. 3:1-5; cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 14:37), their words were written in Greek.  The Greek words they used which in English we read as “baptize” and “baptism” are baptizo and baptisma.  Note the similarities between these Greek words and the English words “baptize” and “baptism.”  These similarities exist because “baptize” and “baptism” are not actually TRANSLATIONS of the Greek words, but instead are TRANSLITERATIONS (where Greek letters in a word are simply given their English equivalents.)  To confirm the actual meanings of baptizo and baptisma, we must go to authorities on the Greek language.

Greek linguistic authorities such as Thayer, Liddel & Scott, Sophocles, Cremer, and Vine all define “baptize” (baptizo) and “baptism” (baptisma) as “to immerse, to plunge, to dip,” “…consisting of the processes of immersion, submersion and emergence.”  Not one standard Greek lexicon defines baptizo as “to sprinkle” or “to pour.”  In fact, there are completely different Greek words for “pouring” (ekcheo) and “sprinkling” (rhantizo).  No, the proper definition of baptism is immersion.  When we understand this, it makes the biblical figures of speech used to describe baptism much clearer.  When Paul says that we are “buried” with Christ in baptism (Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12), that imagery makes more sense when correlated with actually burying someone in water via immersion rather than sprinkling them with water.  How many of us would sprinkle some dirt over someone’s coffin and conclude that we’ve buried them?

Furthermore, understanding baptism to be immersion in water also gives logic to the actions committed by those who baptized others in the Bible.  For example, John the Baptizer (Immerser) chose to baptize at Aenon near Salim…why?  The Scriptures specifically give the reason:  “…because water was plentiful there…” (John 3:23).  If baptism is sprinkling a few drops of water over someone’s head, why would John need to go where there was a lot of water?  A single glass of water would be sufficient to sprinkle at least one hundred people.  However, one would need a lot of water in order to dip someone’s entire body into it, especially if you needed to do so with hundreds of people.

In addition, consider the actions of Philip and the Ethiopian when Philip baptized him.  The Bible says that upon finding water and confessing his faith in Christ, the Ethiopian “commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.  And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away…”  (Acts 8:38-39).  If baptism is defined as Philip sprinkling a few drops of water over the eunuch’s head, why would both of them go down into the water and come back out of the water?  Why would even one of them need to go down into the water?  They both could have stood on the shore while Philip reached down and got his hands sufficiently wet enough to sprinkle some water on the eunuch’s head.  In fact, why would the Ethiopian even need to leave the chariot?  Philip could have left the chariot, come back with a handful or cupful of water from the oasis, and sprinkled some drops on the eunuch’s head right there in the chariot.  However, since baptism required Philip to fully immerse the Ethiopian’s body in water, it makes sense that they would both leave the chariot, go down into the water before baptism, and come up out of the water after baptism.  With this in mind, note that Jesus, upon being baptized by John, was also said to come up out of the water (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:9-10), thus showing that our Lord himself was immersed in water when he was baptized.

Therefore, we must remember whenever we read in our English Bibles the words “baptize” and “baptism” that we are read transliterations of the original Greek words rather than the actual translations which only mean “to immerse” and “immersion,” transliterations that were made most likely to avoid offending those in the religious world who practice pouring or sprinkling instead of immersion.  However, the priority of true followers of Christ is to avoid offending God rather than men (Gal. 1:10).  To know exactly what his will is, we must use the actual definitions of the words the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the New Testament to use.  May we set aside our fallible human wisdom which puts the actual commandments of God on the back burner in favor of keeping the traditions of men (Matt. 15:1-9; Mark 7:1-13)!  Instead, let us keep the actual commandments of God and thereby prove our love for him is true (John 14:15; 15:10, 14; 1 John 5:3).

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His Hands and His Arms

 His Hands and His Arms

It is difficult for us to imagine the understanding Moses had of God when he stood before the burning bush. Unlike us, who have the fullness of the revelation of God, Moses had no Bible. Not a single page of it had been written. The world and its understanding of the Creator was about to change, and Moses was the one God would use to reveal His nature to mankind.

Are your hands an extension of God's?

Are your hands an extension of God’s?

Listen to the words Moses heard. “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…I have seen the oppressing of My people who are in Egypt…and have heard their cry…for I know their sorrow. So I have come down to deliver them” (Ex. 3:6-8). Look at what God said—I am; I have seen; I have heard; I know; I have come down! Moses had known the oppression of the Egyptians, and perhaps, he had cried out to God. Now Jehovah announced to Him, I saw it all and I was listening.

It was not long before Moses was to be used by God to change the world ever more. After they left Egypt, Moses described what had happened. “So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders” (Deut. 26:8). It was by His mighty hand and His outstretched arm that deliverance came. We must never overlook the fact that so often the hands and outstretched arms God uses are ours.

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, ’Stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt … that they may become blood … Stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up … Stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be hail in all the land … Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts … Stretch out your hand that toward heaven, that there may be darkness … Stretch out your hand over the sea, that they waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots’” (Ex. 7:19; 8:5; 9:22; 10:12, 21; 14:26).

What does this have to do with us? In the midst of our trial, we can so easily overlook that God sees, hears, knows and comes. The Israelites could never have known just how close God was to them, but He was! We too may forget that He sees, hears, knows and comes to us—but He does!

What does this have to do with us? The Almighty God is still in the world with his mighty hands and outstretched arms, but so often He uses our hands and arms to accomplish His purposes. Like Isaiah let us say, “Here am I Lord, send me.” Give your hands and your arms to Him. Let Him use you!

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Paul was Against Baptism?

Paul was Against Baptism?

Many in Christendom believe that baptism is not something one is required to do in order to be saved, even though both Jesus and Peter said differently (Mark 16:16; 1 Pet. 3:21).  One of the reasons many sincerely believe this is due to what Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:14-17, specifically his statement, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…” (v. 17).  Many conclude from this statement that baptism must not be essential to salvation.  However, when one takes into account the immediate context (1 Cor. 1:10-13), as well as the inspired record of Paul’s preaching in Corinth (Acts 18:1-8), it becomes apparent that Paul definitely preached that baptism is necessary.  Therefore, his comments to Corinth should not be taken as suggesting that baptism was not essential.

How did Paul view baptism?

How did Paul view baptism?

When we examine the context of 1 Cor. 1:14-17, we see that Paul was addressing a problem within the church there.  They had the wrong attitude towards preachers, an attitude which divided them (1 Cor. 1:10-12).  Some of them gave all of their allegiance to Paul, others to Apollos, others to Peter, and others to Christ.  Basically, they were thinking too highly of the different preachers who had preached the gospel to them, an attitude which was worldly rather than spiritual (1 Cor. 3:3-4).  After all, preachers such as Paul and Apollos are nothing more than fellow servants of Christ (1 Cor. 3:5-9), which is why Paul told the Corinthians that they should not boast that their allegiance was to their fellow man (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

With this in mind, notice Paul’s question to them:  “Were you baptized in the name of Paul?”  (1 Cor. 1:13).  Since many of them had this divisive, misguided allegiance to preachers, the fact that Paul would ask them this question seems to imply that the Corinthians were claiming to be disciples of those who had personally baptized them.  This would be the reason why Paul would then express his gratitude that he had personally baptized only a few of them, lest anyone should say that he was baptizing in his own name rather than in the name of Jesus (1 Cor. 1:14-15; cf. Acts 2:38).  Luke records how “many” of the Corinthians were baptized as a result of Paul’s preaching the gospel to them (Acts 18:1-8).  Paul himself baptized only a few of them, including Crispus (Acts 18:1-8; cf. 1 Cor. 1:14).

Thus, one should not twist Paul’s words to the church at Corinth to imply that he didn’t believe baptism was necessary for salvation.  On the contrary, his writings make it clear that baptism is a necessary component of spiritually dying to sin, being buried and clothed with Christ, being spiritually resurrected to a new life, and entering into a covenant relationship with God similar to the Old Testament covenant relationship manifested by circumcision (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:11-12; cf. Gen. 17:9-14).  Paul himself verbally testified of his own baptism and how he was told that it was how his sins would be washed away and he would call on the name of the Lord in order to be saved (Acts 22:16; cf. 2:21).  So when we read Paul’s statement to the Corinthians, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…” (1 Cor. 1:17), we should understand that he is not repudiating the necessity of baptism.  Rather, the context informs us he is trying to cause the Corinthians to repent of their misguided allegiance to the ones who had personally baptized them.

Furthermore, the fact that Paul was an apostle (a word which means “one sent”) should also be taken into consideration, especially when we read him give the reason Christ “sent” him:  “to preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 1:17).  As an apostle, Paul’s role was to preach the gospel, “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8).  Paul fulfilled his role by preaching divinely inspired sermons wherever he went (Gal. 1:11-12).  His preaching resulted in the baptism of his converted listeners, as was the case at Corinth (Acts 18:8).  However, it was not imperative that he himself baptize his believing listeners.  Others (such as his traveling companions like Apollos), could easily do that task.  This evidently happened at Corinth, for while “many” were baptized (Acts 18:8), Paul himself personally baptized only a few (1 Cor. 1:14-16).

In rebuking the Corinthians for their misguided allegiance, Paul reminded them that he had not been crucified for them, nor had they been baptized in his name (1 Cor. 1:13).  However, Christ HAD been crucified for them, and for us as well.  Have you been baptized in the name of the One who died for you?

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A War of Attrition

A War of Attrition

Lately I’ve been reading books about the Revolutionary War of the United States: a Biography of Benjamin Franklin, a book on the year 1776, and now a book entitled “George Washington’s War.” In this latest book, the author points out how Washington was basically waging a war of attrition. The basic concept of this type of war is to wear out your enemy politically and emotionally. It is often employed against larger armies. The smaller army will hit and run and then regroup and return to hit and run again. This keeps the larger army always on the defensive. So long as supplies and money are available, a smaller army can keep up this practice as long as they remain ambitious. The larger army is then deprived of lives and money thus creating political unrest back home. These tactics eventually forces the larger army to withdraw. Obviously this is an oversimplification of the Revolutionary War, but, in large part, that was what contributed to the victory. In considering this type of warfare, I thought that I would note some similarities to our spiritual warfare (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Are you waging Spiritual War?

Are you waging Spiritual War?

First, God’s people have always fought in the smaller army. Noah, for example, waged a spiritual warfare as a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), yet only eight souls were saved through his efforts. Moses was vastly outnumbered by Pharaoh’s army, yet he was able through God’s strength, to lead the nation of Israel out of captivity (Exodus 14:8). Elijah was just one prophet among hundreds of prophets of Baal, yet he prevailed (1 Kings 18:39,40). Indeed, Jesus told us that we would be traveling the strait and narrow way which few find (Matthew 7:14). He told us that the world would hate us (John 15:19) and that we ought to prepare to be in that minority. But we have the greatest ally that can be had, greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). He promises us the victory to overcome the world through the faith (1 John 5:4). So while we may be in the minority, we cannot be defeated; we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).

Second, God expects us to never give up. This is a must if one is going to wage a war of attrition. If the smaller force gives up, then the war is over. Winston Churchill said it well: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing, great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” But the principle is biblical. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). The word “can’t” simply isn’t in the Christian’s vocabulary because we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength (Philippians 4:13). Let us then press the battle and engage the enemy as a good soldier of Jesus, the Christ (2 Timothy 2:3).

Third, we must continually battle the enemy again and again. Satan is a tough adversary. He doesn’t give up either, but God has promised that if we resist him, he will flee (James 4:7). Jesus faced Satan and prevailed because he trusted in the power of God’s word (Matthew 4:1-11). Peter tells us that we must withstand him steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:9) and Paul tells us to equip ourselves with the entire panoply of God so that we can resist him (Ephesians 6:11). God has given us the tools in order to do spiritual battle and it is up to us to war the good warfare (1 Timothy 1:18). If we continue to attack, then Satan will be defeated.

George Washington was not merely a commander in chief consigned to his desk. There were several occasions where he mounted his horse and led his troops into battle himself. We too have a great leader who has Himself led our army into spiritual battle, the Captain of our Salvation, Jesus, the Christ (Hebrews 2:10). He has lead the charge and fought and conquered the enemy (Hebrews 12:2) and through Him we will prevail!

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