Fasting and Communion

Just a really quick update on the past couple weeks and what we have been talking about in class. The Sunday before yesterday was our class on Fasting. We once again addressed how this spiritual discipline is for all of us, not the pious religious elite. We talked about soe of the advantages of fasting like the whole figuring out what controls our lives, the numerous health benefits (when solely done in the correct way) and the advatage of finding strengh and perseverance in God. God has to be the main focus for a fast or we end up just like the Pharisees.

 We also discussed the practical ways to fast.

1. Start with a partial fast for 24 hours. This means simply abstaining from food and caffeine, but drink juices and powerade, things like that.

 

2. After doing that a couple times, say once a week for two or three weeks, move on to a total fast for 24 hours.

 

3. Beyond that start doing longer and longer fasts. A 30 hour famine is common as are 36 hours.

 

4. Extended fasts need a little more direction

            1. Carry around a set of breath mints. After around two days of no food, a body will begin to detox itself, and your breath will smell bad all day, regardless of how many times you rinse with mouth wash.

2. After the third day your body will be through the detox, but on the fourth day the serious hunger pains set in. First off let it be noted that the first days you will have hunger pain as well, but these go away with simply drinking water. Our bodies are so used to eating on certain schedules that at certain times our stomachs just get pains for food. By the fourth day however, the hunger pains do not go away as easily. These are typically associated with the hardest days of an extended fast.

3. Most extended fasters will say that from day 7 to about 21 are fairly easy. The hunger pains return then and is rough until about day 40

4. An extended fast should never exceed forty days, since this is near the boundary of the bodies ability to go without food.

5. Expect some major weight loss. For the first few days it may be up to about 2 lbs. a day and around 1 lb. a day after that. If you are experiencing much more weight loss than that, stop the fast and seek the approval of a physician for a fast.

 

WHAT TO EAT BEFORE:

 

Some may think it wise to eat a lot of food before a fast. This will only enlarge your stomach and cause the hunger pains to be more drastic and severe. Rather, progressively eat smaller and smaller meals, and eat a lot of fruit and veggies to prepare.

 

DEAL WITH DIZINESS IN THE FAST:

 

If you are doing a partial fast, this is a simple fix. Drink something to replenish the sugar and electrolytes like Gatorade or powerade.

 

But if you are doing a total fast, try and drink plenty of water. If you are still dizzy or have severe headaches, you may want to try putting a small amount of lemonade powder into the water to give you a little sugar. Not enough to be full out lemonade, but just a hint to get some sugar.

 

COMING OUT OF THE FAST:

 

Do not eat large quantities of food coming out of the fast because there is one result to that. You’ll get sick. Instead, on the first day, plenty of fruits and veggies. The next days start eating a little heavier food progressively. Like move to something like salads or lunch meat sandwiches. Go through this progression especially if you are coming out of an extended fast. A 24 hour fast will be much easier to come out of. 

Then yesterday we all went to Panera Bread and had a meal together, during which we partook of the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper. We talked very briefly of the origin of sacred meals and took it together. We also briefly discussed community, but it was more of an experience type class, rather than a lesson. 

Next week we will be talking about giving, financial decisions and the Sabbath.

The Daily Office

This past week we talked about the ancient practice of the daily office of prayer. Now when we say the word "office," it is not like a work office, but rather it comes from the latin root opus, which is where we get the word offering. So we discussed the ancient practice of the daily offering of prayer. There were seven hours of prayer in each day. When we say hour we mean a specific time, and the prayers only lasted around fifteen minutes. Not an hour. Seven hours would be ridiculous. In fact, at school once someone tried to get together a 24/7 prayer movement. We all signed up for an hour of prayer at some point throughout the week. Mine was at like midnight. So I would stay up and at midnight I would begin to pray. Well sitting and praying for an hour straight really didn't work out well for me. I got through about fifteen minutes and I ran out of things to say to God in my prayer. And I fell asleep. So don't worry, I'm not telling you that you have to sit and have your head bowed for that long of time. 

No, the daily office was much quicker. It contained ten different parts, many of them were very short. There was a call to prayer, Psalm of Invitation, Joint prayer, Hymn of Praise, Psalm for the day, Reading of Scripture, Response to the Word, Prayers of the People, Confession of Sin (only once a day) and a Blessing. It sounds like a lot, but we did one in class and it only lasted around fifteen minutes, and that was with trying to get people to pray. 

As for personal prayer life one of the only things I could say to help on the practical side is to do it more. Not that you don't pray a lot already, but we could always do more. We talked about some ideas like a prayer journal or a prayer box.  I really like what James says in chapter five of his letter because it includes personal prayer and corporate prayer and shows a need for both. 

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. I anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." James 5:13-14 ESV

In addition to prayer we talked about meditation and solitude. Both are very helpful because we are all always so busy and overwhelmed. With meditation we talked about slowing down and spending time focusing on God, scripture, and creation. Some good ideas as you begin meditation would be to find a specific place to go to, a specific time, and clear your mind. 

When we go into solitude take many of the ideas we have for meditation and apply them to it. However, in meditation we work at clearing our mind. In Solitude we find time to just be with God. However, you must differentiate between being lonely and being in solitude. None of us wants to be lonely really. That's not what solitude is. We are just taking time away and spending it with God. 

So that is a brief overview of what we talked about real quick. Here's a little update on how things are going. Some of the books are in. If you signed up for one I can have it to you on Sunday if you have your fourteen dollars. Some of them were just ordered so there is a chance I will not have all of them on Sunday, but I will have them the next week. The only problem is that I will be at CIY. So I will give them to the receptionist at church if you want to stop by and pick one up and she will take your money. Or you can wait until Sunday the 12th if you think you can read the chapters we need to by Tuesday the 14th when our discussion begins, most likely at my house that night. So pick up books this Sunday, next week at church, or the Sunday after. 

Reds game deadline sign up is this Sunday. I would love to have your money then but it is not completely necessary. That cost is ten dollars.

We are filled up for the children's ministry on the 30th, so we can't have any more sign ups, sorry. I will get with you all when I get back from CIY to go over some planning for it.

Cedar Point is set for August 8th. I need you to sign up and a deposit of $20 dollars by like July 31st (I need to reserve our tickets a week in advance). The only vote for the free drink wristband was a no, so since not many people cared we will keep the cost at $44 dollars provided we get 15 people to go and barring any major push for the drink wristbands. So let me know if you want to go and we can get your name down. See you all next week. 

Brad

Bridging the Gap

Well the first class for the summer is in the books. We discussed the meaning of the name of the class for a while which was described in the last blog post. Moving more into spiritual disciplines we talked about how we are slaves to shallow teaching and for the majority of us that's all we get. We don't go beyond shallow faith. We don't know how to go deeper. Spiritual Disciplines bridge the gap for us. They help us become someone weighty. 

There are seven ancient spiritual disciplines that we will look at in detail because as Jeremiah says, we think there is something valuable in them. "Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls." (Jeremiah 6:16 ESV) These seven practices are part of all three Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We looked briefly at the Judaism equivalent for the practices and how Christianity practices stem from them. The seven practices are: prayer, fasting, observing the Sabbath, sacred meals, giving, pilgrimage, and observing the sacred seasons. 

We also looked at other spiritual disciplines there are for us to put into our faith. The list we came up with is not finished but a good start: meditation, service, study, financial decisions in general, fellowship, and prioritizing. All of these will be looked into more deeply over the coming Sundays through August 9th. 

We had a great start to our ministry this weekend and I'm excited for all of the other things that are in store for the summer. Many of you are going to do the Children's Ministry with us on July 30th and many are going to read "Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions" by Mark Driscoll with us. I am going to order the books on Monday, June 29th and would love to have everyone's money on the 28th, Sunday. I should have the books available for you all by Sunday the 5th. However, I did say we were going to begin the discussion on Tuesday the 7th, but I completely forgot that most of the new Freshman and I will be at CIY in Tennessee so we need to push it back until the 14th of June to begin the discussion. This also gives more time to ensure that everyone gets a copy of the book before we begin the discussion. So we will begin the discussion on the 14th and we will do five tuesdays meaning the last one will be August 11th. If that's a problem for anyone let me know. 

And the final update is that tentatively on August 8th we will be going to Cedar Point. That date could be changed if there was enough interest but that is the weekend date that I think will work better for everyone. Tickets for groups of 15 or more are $32 a person. We will probably need ten dollars a person for gas and then a couple bucks to cover parking. So that's $44 for the day plus food you want to eat at the park. There is a deal that if we all pay $6 extra everyone gets free drinks all day which is potentially a good deal. But the problem is not just some can get it. We all either get it or don't get it so we need to decide on that. Let me know what you think, message me on Facebook and stuff like that.

Well I think that's all for now. I will see you all next week when we cover the first Ancient Practice of prayer, and probably throw in some meditation stuff in there as well. "Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:7 ESV

Deep Living for Spiritual Beginnings?

So some of you may be wondering why I have decided to call our summer class "Deep Living for Spiritual Beginnings." It's actually quite simple and you will discover why on Sunday. However for right now just understand that I understand the desires of your heart. They are what I want as well. Everyone is searching for spirituality. Everyone is searching for something deeper. While the 20th century could be categorized by science vs. religion, the 21st century could be categorized as a search between Religious fundamentalists, mushy spirituality, reason and logic (or lack of faith) and a desire from all to have something more. From this comes a new wave of thinking and intentions and a desire to return to Spiritual Disciplines. A desire for a new kind of spirituality. Away from the institution of religion. Away from false love and weak faith. Away from simple logic and the denial of anything beyond what we can see. Spiritual Disciplines help us accomplish this. Immersing ourselves in the disciplines guides us to a true spirituality. Will we every reach that place called spirituality? Not on this earth. That's why we will always be beginners, hence the Spiritual Beginnings. Paul said in Romans that the law is spiritual but he is of flesh. I believe he was saying that he can never be truly spiritual (and if Paul can't we must humbly admit that we can't come to that point either because we are sinners as well). Paul called himself a wretched man. 

But he goes on to talk many times of being freed from sin. He talks about living a lifestyle for Christ. He talks about deep living. He talks about going beyond the physical realm and be alive in Christ through the spiritual disciplines. There is one thing that we must first understand. Spiritual Disciplines are not solely for the religious elite. Let's take a look at the Pharisees. Do we want to be like them? Yes and no. Let's not forget that the Pharisees did practice many spiritual disciplines and they could have been some giants among men in the realm of spirituality. However, they accomplished these disciplines for the outward appearance. They did it out of an obligation of being a Pharisee and a desire to appear pure to the people. Not because of a love and desire to be nearer to God. They did not let the disciplines change their heart. They did not reach that deep living we all desire. So we want to practice the disciplines and make them as much a part of our life as the Pharisees did, but we need to do it right and for the right reasons. We need to allow them to change our hearts. That is true Deep Living.

So we want to accomplish Deep Living to get closer to spirituality. Deep Living is attainable. However the idea that we are spiritual is out of our grasp. As Thomas Merton says, "We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!" So we will learn how to go beyond the shallow mushy faith that I have, and I'm willing to bet most of you, and emerge into Deep Living for Spiritual Beginnings.

Each Monday I will post on here an outline and general summary of what we talked about the past week in our class in case you miss a week. So check back if you miss a week. And you may want to check at other times as well because I will probably begin to write something whenever I feel like it or have some type of thought I feel somewhat significant. 

Your Brother in Christ,

Brad Shelley

Center Pointe College Ministry Intern