Top 10 reasons most pastors wouldn’t want to have a ministry like Jesus’: Reason #1: Jesus never developed a financially-sustainable ministry, and never received a salary. Reason #2: While He did enjoy a short stint in success, in the end, it all fell apart as quickly as it started. Reason #3: None of His hired staff had any ministry experience and didn’t even really understand what His purpose was. Reason #4: Jesus’ idea of sending out missionaries/church planting included taking no money with you to help start the venture and just looking for homes to stay in. Reason #5: His target audience was the poor and the outcasts of society. Reason #6: He didn’t network. Reason #7: There was no building–church was always in some different location. Reason #8: One of the requirements on the membership form to join Jesus’ church was, “Will you give away all your possessions and follow Me?” Reason #9: It wasn’t until after He died and the next pastors took over that the thing took off. Reason #10: He tried His best to be a nobody. I’m not saying that our churches should model everything that Jesus did–obviously He did certain things for reasons specific to His own mission. My point is simply that most of us pastors zealously strive toward building a successful ministry. I wish we would re-channel that zeal/passion towards simply following God in our lives. Isn’t it interesting that it was only after Jesus had died that He became such a huge figure in history? Paul himself said it in Philippians 2:5-11: Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,...

The Son of God didn’t need to come in order that people who are hungry could have food. There’s already plenty of food on earth, and people could be fed without Him having to leave His heavenly throne. He did, however, instruct us to feed the hungry. The Son of God didn’t need to come in order to give people money who were in poverty. If so, He did a poor job fulfilling His mission. The poor Guy (pardon the pun) had no money of His own. He did, however, instruct us to take care of the poor and give them money. But if the Son of God had never come to save humanity from our sins, we would all still be lost and eternally separated from God. That was the reason why He needed to come. Jesus did, in fact, perform “social” acts of justice. But these “social” acts of Jesus were done in the context of declaring that the Savior of the World had come. Not just as acts of social justice. For example, when Jesus would heal people, He often told them their sins were forgiven, and they would be healed. In one instance, Jesus tells a paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven. The leaders get upset at Him for claiming to have such authority. So Jesus proves it to them by telling the guy to rise up and walk. It’s no different today. Today, we declare a Gospel that itself declares that Jesus is the only Son of God, and that only He is worthy of worship. That all other gods and religions are just man-made. And just like back then, today’s leaders (even within supposed “Christianity”) object. These proponents of a social gospel get upset: “How dare you claim that He has such authority! What narrow-mindedness! Jesus was about loving the poor and feeding the hungry–THAT is the gospel.” Case in point: Audra and I met a lady several months back in Alabama who left her denomination, and the last straw for her was the that denomination’s response in the relief effort in Haiti. According to her, churches were encouraged to provide much-needed packages for the survivors of the earthquake. However, they weren’t...

I’m back to eating normal foods again! Although it’s great to be eating again, I realize that food doesn’t satisfy as much as my mind made me to believe when I was fasting. There’s a slight shallowness in the satisfaction of eating. As I end this fast, one question lingers: Did I fail at fasting? That depends on how you look at it. When I set out to do this water fast, I intended to fast after the initial hunger pains subsided all the way until “true hunger” manifested itself. For many people, that’s around 40 days. I was expecting that to happen for me at about 25 days, because of my low weight and body type. That didn’t happen–I didn’t make it that far. So from that angle, I failed. But I don’t see this as a failure. I see it as a learning experience and a time of growth. I also think that anytime we attempt to do anything to draw us closer to God, it’s never a failure. God has already done some great things in my heart. I think this idea of failure is why people are afraid to try anything–why we keep it safe. And it’s why people in ministry put so much pressure on themselves to over-perform. After all, I don’t want to become a pastor of a church, only to have the attendance dwindle in size after a year–I want it to grow! But can we look at it from another angle? Maybe the true measure of success is if we give it our all to God. If we follow Him where He leads–even if that means less people are onboard. Let’s not judge whether what we do is or isn’t a success until we stand before God on that day. Would He say that I failed in this fast? If you were to die on February 9th, what would He say about your life during those first 40 days of the year? Let’s live with THAT in...

You might be wondering why I’m still calling this “fasting,” when I’ve already started breaking the fast. Actually, the most crucial period of fasting is when you break it. I’ve already referred to the Fasting FAQ which goes into more detail about this, but if you embark on a long, extended fast, you can even kill yourself if you jump right back into eating like you did before the fast. Since my fast wasn’t too long, I’m not in danger of that. But last time I did a 3-4 day fast, I ended it by eating a Southern Chicken Sandwich combo meal from McDonalds. I’ll let you guess how that turned out… Last night, I had some veggie broth. This morning I had 4 pieces of chopped melons, and I felt full. For lunch, I had more veggie broth with some saltines for dipping and some more melons. I noted that by lunch time, my appetite had increased. I was hungry again, so I had an early dinner. I ate baked chicken, and a little corn and mashed potatoes. Later on, I even had one of those quesadillas I was craving during my fast. No problems. I think I’m ready to return to normal foods again. Here are some additional takeaways from this experience of water fasting that I haven’t already mentioned in previous posts: I would like to start praying before meals as a family. I’ve never really done this, simply because I felt they are always so perfunctory. I know everyone else does them, and I’m a pastor, but I don’t want to do something just for it’s own sake. Why bother? It’s like when we open up church business meetings for prayer–most of the time, I find that time silly. Well, I have a new-found appreciation for food and for the time we gather to eat it together. I would like to have prayers at meals that aren’t perfunctory. I think this would be a great practice to begin. I would like to try a juice fast in the future. I now realize how much more energy you have than when you only drink water. It was night and day for me when I drank that...

Today, my mental anguish over fasting was not so much an issue. However, my exhaustion continued. The first time I fasted for a couple of days, the first three days were very difficult because I didn’t prepare my body by cutting back days before the fast began. But following those three days, things got easier. This time, the first 3 days have been easier than the following days, even though the hunger pains subsided once again after three days. The difference is that the first three days’ hunger pains were not nearly as hard to manage this go around, because of my preparation. However, instead of the following days being easier, they became more difficult. My exhaustion level continued to increase, and showed no sign of letting up. Part of my fast these 40 days is to cut out TV during the evenings so that I can be productive (such as writing, etc.). However my exhaustion level has been such that that’s the last thing I want to think about! After evaluating everything, I feel that my water fast is actually diminishing my ability to seek God and accomplish what I set out to do during this fast. In addition, I was being no help to Audra or the family. I also was concerned that my exhaustion level was not going to decrease anytime soon, and that the longer I continue my water fast, perhaps the more time I would waste. So after evaluating, consulting, praying, thinking, and rethinking, I decided today to start ending my water fast this evening. I’m sure Audra is relieved. 🙂 However, I plan to continue fasting for the remainder of the 40 days, but not a water fast. I’m still thinking about what that will look like. In the end, I want to be able to seek God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength during these days, and that wasn’t happening. So I made some homemade vegetable broth from odds and ends vegetables we had in the house. It actually didn’t turn out too bad–except that I overdid the pepper. I had half a bowl of the broth, and I ate two of the carrots that I used for the broth....