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....

Today has been the worst day of my fast. I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case, since everyone says that day 3 is the worst. I thought the worst was behind me… Regarding hunger pains, this day has definitely been easy. But the problem is in my mind. While I don’t feel much, if any, physical hunger sensations, I’m just plain tired of not eating. I just want to be able to eat. And there are specific things I’d just love to have right now: pizza (I never want pizza!) scrambled eggs sausage Tostitos (I never crave Tostitos!) a nice big sandwich any kind of meat dish quesadillas I could go on. Surprisingly, I couldn’t care for any desserts (even ice cream, my favorite food) or fast food of any kind. Then again, I’m not a huge fast food fan, anyway. It’s a last resort for me. But it’s weird to me that certain food stands out to me right now–there’s no rhyme or reason I can see. I wonder if this is similar to temptation in the Garden of Eden. The Bible says that Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, she ate it. I think I can relate. There’s nothing wrong with eating food, and it seems so desirable right now, even though I’m not physically hungry. Perhaps the saying “you don’t know what you have until you lose it” fits the situation. Just like when you get sick and you wish so much that you would return to health and be able to breathe easily in your nose again. At that point, you realize what a blessing it is to be in health, and to be able to fall asleep at night with ease. Right now, I realize what a blessing it is to be able to eat and enjoy food. I look forward to being able to enjoy it again, but realize how far away that time is…at times I feel at the edge of just caving in. I need to find strength. **On another note, we got a Wii for Christmas. I weighed myself on the Wii Fit just before starting my fast,...

I don’t plan on blogging for each day of my fast–just whenever I have something to say. However, I thought it would be good to at least do the first 3 days, since they are the hardest. And day 3 has indeed been the hardest. My hunger was a little intensified today, but not a whole lot. What really got me is that I needed to do shopping and errands today at several stores, and I wore myself out doing that. I’m pretty exhausted–so I’m sure this post will be short. Interestingly, my hunger today is more on junk food, rather than apples, etc. I think I don’t really have increased hunger, it’s more like I just miss the foods I like. I’m hoping that tomorrow will be easier than today. After all, it’s day 4–should be the day I break this barrier! I look forward to being able to pray without having the distraction of hunger in the background. I’m shooting a video tomorrow, and I’m sure we’ll take a lunch break. I’m looking forward to getting away during that hour to pray and read the Bible! Up to this point, that’s been hard to do. Well, that’s all for now. Time to crash!...

On day 2 of fasting, I woke up feeling very weak. When I took a shower, it was all I could do to lift my arms up to wash my hair. After taking a shower, I had to sit down on the bed for 5-10 minutes just to allow my heartbeat to slow down and relax a little. By the time I was dressed and ready for the day, I suddenly felt like I could throw up. After talking with Audra, I realized I hadn’t drunk any water since I woke up, and thought maybe that would help. It did, indeed. The feeling went away immediately. One of the most important things on a fast is drinking lots of water. I am figuring that the reason I felt this way this morning was because I didn’t drink water for so many hours because of sleeping. I will make it a habit from now on to drink a glass of water immediately after waking. Speaking of drinking water, I’ve never drunk so much in my life. I go to the bathroom more than a pregnant woman. Those of you who know me well know that I don’t drink much liquids most days. It’s not uncommon for me to eat an entire meal and go on with my day without drinking anything. But my throat feels dry most of the time, so I continue to gulp it down. As I was praying and preparing for church this morning, I found myself inadvertently humming a song I haven’t heard since I was in high school. Surprisingly, the words to the song really speak to this occasion in my life. (Sadly, the song is written by Carman.) But as hard as it is for me to say it, I believe this song by Carman was put into my head by God. I encourage you to listen to the song here. The lyrics speak about hungering for holiness and for God with great passion. I feel like I should continue listening to this song, so that my hunger can be channeled toward these things–so that I become just as hungry for God as I get for food. Speaking of hunger, I still haven’t had...

Our church is starting the year off with 40 days of prayer and fasting. I’ve debated whether to blog about this or not, in light of Jesus’ words about fasting and not proclaiming it wherever you go. In the end, I feel Jesus is addressing a mindset and arrogant heart that tries to get praise from people when one fasts, and that’s not my goal. In fact, most–if not all–of the people who read this blog I never see anyways–they’re google-searchers or friends of mine from the past, so I’m not trying to impress anyone around here. If anyone around here does read this, they’re participating in the fast too, so this isn’t breaking any secrets. The reason I want to blog about this experience is because so few of us fast, and I think it would be beneficial to hear someone’s account. I figure it can only help gain a better understanding for fasting, and that anything we can do to make fasting less of a foreign concept is a good thing (since Jesus assumed His people would fast when He left the earth). I must admit that this is only the second time in my life that I have done a “real” fast. I’ve done a few other fasts where I don’t eat for a day, and then once nightfall comes, I pig out. 🙂 There’s only been one other time that I’ve fasted for about 3-4 days, and it was an interesting experience. This time, I plan on fasting for as long as my body allows during this 40-day period. Because of my body type and weight, I know that will mean less than 40 days, because I don’t have much when it comes to reserves. I’m not going to get into the practical aspects of “how to fast” here, but one thing that I’ve learned about fasting is that the first few days are very hard, because you feel very hungry, but then that goes away for several weeks. But when hunger returns, you know it’s time to break your fast–otherwise you will do serious harm to your body. If you would like to learn more about the practical aspects of fasting, I compiled a...

Here are some of the reasons that compel me to believe that Christianity is indeed true and that Jesus is in fact who the Bible claims Him to be. It all fits very well. Not just all the prophecies in the Old Testament (such as Isaiah 58), but also the laws (such as the commands for how to perform sacrifices for sin removal) as well as holidays (such as Passover) and stories (such as Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac) seem to indicate that there has been a plan all along for a messiah to come, and that God had been hinting this all along. Just reading the book of Hebrews is compelling enough for me. It lays out so many parallels between Jesus and how He fulfills the Old Covenant. It doesn’t fit TOO well. There are still unanswered questions and things that puzzle me as to how they fit. If it all fit perfectly together, I would be concerned that this was a man-made invention. Instead, some things seem out of grasp, which requires one to use their mind instead of blindly accepting what someone else says. Christianity requires one to put all their hope, dependence, and trust in their Creator for eternal life, rather than other religions which try to find ways for humans to achieve this through their own merits. Something inside of me tells me that those are all false hopes, and that only God can fix what I feel broken on the inside of me. Christians don’t believe the Bible is simply “spiritually” true, but historically true as well. The faith is based on historical claims of God acting with humans–not just principles on how to live a good life. Unlike all other religions out there (such as Mormonism), archaeology and history continue to uncover evidence that locations, people, and events recorded in the Bible were real. Of course, the Bible can never be proven to be true, but bits and pieces continue to be verified as time progresses. The large elephant in the room regarding that last point is creation/evolution. At this point in time, science is discovering what seems to be the progression of life on earth, which has shed considerable doubt...