Kenbe Fem Fasting Month #2 - Pruning

"Any good gardner knows that beautiful roses require careful pruning.  Pieces of living plant have to die.  It cannot just grow wild.  We cannot simply "celebrate growth." It is more than to be regretted, it is tragic that we seem to have lost the insight that growth in Christ requires careful pruning.  Pieces of us by our intentional action need to die if we are to become the person that is in God's vision.  We are not cutting away a cancerous growth, but making intentional action of pruning of life that better life might grow by God's grace - just as better roses grow by God's grace...Mortification is the intentional denial of legitimate pleasures in the spirit of Christian poverty that one might be more human...Once rendered silly, we dismissed the idea of "giving up" and talk of "taking on."  What we failed to understand was that a life incapable of significant sacrifice is also incapable of courageous action." - From Spirituality for Ministry by Urban T. Homes III

​students heading to Three Angels Christian Academy

Last month, I was challenged by the Isaiah passages that call us to fast and pray on behalf of the the poor and oppressed around us.  This morning, as we take another day to fast and petition for our Haitian brothers and sisters, I am looking look in the mirror.  Fasting immediately holds a mirror to my spiritual condition, today.  What am I holding on to today?  What needs pruning today?  If I truly desire for God to shape me into the person He has created me to be, if I truly want to resemble Jesus more than my own disposition, what is holding me back?  I am challenged by this word picture that asks me to cut so that I may experience more of the good stuff.  Fasting is so often cast into a prudish picture of ancient piety reserved for the stoics or the super spiritual.  But this morning, I am feeling thankful for fasting because it reminds me that God has so much for me if I am courageous enough to cut away the overgrowth in my life.  He uses my petition for Three Angels and the people of Haiti to soften my heart to Him, to teach me to let go of the unnecessary, and to find the path to freedom that exists right below my feet once the overgrowth is pruned.  

I encourage you today to allow this fast to be one of anticipation.  Yes, of what God will do to further the ministry of TACR, but also what He wants to do in your life, today.  Let him speak to you in a new and fresh way.   Let him show you where there is overgrowth, and where He wants to make your life more simple. Discover your path to freedom this morning, so that you can walk light knowing that you are a child of God who loves you and will care for your needs.  Don't take on burdens He never asked you to.  Fast, and experience the pleasure of pruning.

Thank you for your prayer today. Let's expect great things from our Father this month.

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TACR: Day to Fast & Pray - Devotional #1

​Lord, we pray that you will provide the people and the resources to build a center for reaching Haitian families on this land.

Isaiah 58:6-10 “Is this not the fast that choose to loose the bonds of wickedness to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, to cover him, and no to hid yourself from your own flesh?  Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily .... Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer: you shall cry, and he will say, “Here I am.” ... If you poor yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be as noonday.”

In his book, Walking with the Poor, Bryan Myers writes, “Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good.”  The Israelites of Isaiah’s time should have easily been able to identify with the poor and oppressed in their midst.  Their journey as a nation had included slavery, poverty, and long seasons of exile.  But, like most of humanity, whenever they encountered a season of prosperity it became too tempting to embrace pride and a sense of superiority.  The poor and the alien in their midst were despised and looked down upon.  The provisions in God’s law for the Israelites to methodically release their grips on wealth were easily abandoned.  Instead of exercising compassion, they often shamed those on the fringes of society.  But, they chose to look to the portions of the law that promised blessing and prosperity.  Much effort was given to lavish ceremonies and church services with the belief that God would be happy and bless them for their routines.  Instead God was disgusted, and speaking through Isaiah He chastises them for not understanding His heart, for not recognizing that His incredible love for them as a nation extended to all.  They had ceased to see their own brokenness and believed that God owed them something.

Before we are too quick to judge the Israelites of old, I am challenged by the way we often come to God as a church, and how I often come to him in my own life.  I have walked with Jesus for many years, and it is tempting to believe that in some small way He owes me a good life for my service.  My prayers can often be filled with a request for personal blessing with little thought to the oppressed in my city and those that suffer around the world.  This is why the habit of fasting and prayer can be so helpful.  By removing my comforts, I can recognize how much I cling to them.  I can see how much I have, and quickly realize that I am so blessed.  I can understand that although my Heavenly Father desires to give me great gifts (as He so lavishly has) that He has other children, many children.  His heart weeps for these.  He is calling me, he is calling us, to be like the Israelites, the favored few, to pour our hearts out for those children.  As brothers and sisters to the children of our Father, we must recognize our brokenness and dependency on Him.  Then we will be free to give, serve, love, sacrifice for those who need to experience His love.

Today, we begin a monthly ritual of fasting and praying for the orphans, children, and families that we are called to serve in Haiti through Three Angels.  My heart is not that we all simply beg God to provide finances.  He knows what is needed.  My desire is that all of our hearts will be shaped by the calling God has given us as His beloved sons and daughters.  I pray that today will be a day where we experience the abundance of His grace, and in so doing experience the freedom to love and give to those in Haiti.  They are our brothers and sisters, and Jesus loves them just as much as we do.   Over the coming months, I pray we learn to stand strong with them, and watch God respond to our prayers in the manner He called the Israelites to in the time of Isaiah.  

I pray that you experience Jesus in a renewed way today as you fast and pray.  Thank you for joining us!

In Jesus,

Peter