Friendship on Foreign Soil

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Meet Krissy

In the beginning of 2020, Krissy Jones found herself in a state of deep spiritual slumber. What started as a desire for rest and a pause from the busyness of life had evolved into apathy toward God and others. For a chronically busy person like Krissy, the Covid pandemic provided a great respite from people.  Seeing social obligations drop off the calendar felt like a dream come true. Covid meant she could tell people no. She could stay home and do nothing, wearing pajamas indefinitely. And like many others, she grew to love it. People required effort, but Netflix offered immediate comfort.  The problem was that living life “asleep” became a steady, insatiable habit. Even when the threat of Covid had passed, Krissy’s spiritual slumber continued.

“I had fallen asleep spiritually, worshiping the gods of pleasure and comfort,” Krissy said. Endless Netflix consumed her time.  She sought rest mostly from sources other than the Lord. On some level, she wanted God to wake her up. But on the other hand, spiritual slumber was easy. It was easier to isolate and focus on herself, convincing herself that “she needed this break.” Sure, she still had spiritual commitments: small group, band, church on Sundays, etc.  But the passion for any of these spiritual pursuits was gone; the life and love of it was missing. After all, people were difficult and hurtful and messy. After several wounds and difficulties in ministry, ice began forming around Krissy’s heart.  Deep down, she knew that chasing after her own selfish desires would never truly satisfy. She had experienced the unexplainable joy of living fully surrendered to Jesus before, and she wanted to feel it again.

Krissy decided to sign up for the 2023 Honduras mission trip, and she longed for what it promised:  a spiritual awakening.  “I wanted revival. I needed renewal,” Krissy said. She had gone to Honduras on mission trips several times before.  Each time, she had experienced a spiritual awakening, only to fall right back asleep. But something felt different about this upcoming trip.  She began to fervently pray and even express to others, “I want things to be different for me when I come back home.” In the midst of her slumber, Krissy longed for lasting spiritual awakening.

 

Meet Maria

Maria Diaz’s experience of the pandemic was quite different from Krissy’s. As an ICU nurse, Maria’s work life became heavy and all-consuming. Long work hours, sickness, and death were all around. Isolation began to fill up the spaces that were once filled with friendship. When Covid caused all church services to go online, her feeling of spiritual community disintegrated. It was as though the spiritual wind was taken out of her sails.

Maria felt painfully distanced from her church community, family, and friends. Just as wearing a physical mask helped to shield her from invisible germs that could harm her, Maria’s emotional mask also shielded the fullness of her struggles from others. By protecting her friends and loved ones from the messier parts of who she was—her fears, her sin, her vulnerabilities—she also denied them the privilege of bearing her burdens and celebrating her victories.  In the process, she deprived herself of the joy that comes with sharing the deepest parts of her soul and being loved anyway.

When the imminent threat of Covid was over and people’s lives started to look normal again, Maria was determined for things to change. She was tired of going through the motions, attending church but not fully engaging with God and others. “I longed for something more than what I was experiencing in my spiritual life,” she said. At the same time, troubles began brewing at home. She had just stepped into what turned out to be one of the hardest seasons in her family’s life. As things began to unravel at home, Maria knew she was going to need other people around her.

Toward the end of 2022, she decided to get fully re-engaged at Clear Creek. Maria wanted things to be different and decided she was going to be “all in.” As soon as she could, Maria signed herself and her husband up for a small group. They were incredibly intentional with the people in their group, inviting different members over for dinner to get to know them. They were attending church regularly, and soon, even began leading their own small group, but she wanted something more. She wanted to leave the comforts of her life and serve people on international soil. When she heard about the mission trip to Honduras, she signed herself and her husband up for the trip. She did not know anyone else on the trip except for her husband, but that didn’t bother her. She knew this would be an opportunity to build deep friendships with other members of Clear Creek, and she was ready. Maria longed to know others and be known by them, even if it meant flying to another country to do it.

 

Meet Brianna

As the clouds of the Covid pandemic began to lift, Brianna Bolling found herself firmly planted at the Clear Lake Campus. She was deeply connected to her church community, having spent several years intentionally engaging and building deep roots there. She genuinely loved the people that made up the Clear Lake Campus, and she was fully bought in to the mission of seeing unchurched people become fully devoted followers of Christ. She was leading a high school girls’ group as a student ministry navigator and loving it. Serving students in this way felt like the perfect fit, meshing both her love of discipleship and her leadership skills into a role that felt like it was made for her.

“At that time, I was spiritually thriving, constantly looking for ways to be obedient to God,” she said. Her attitude was one of ready obedience. No matter what God was going to ask of her, she already knew her answer would be “Yes.” She loved Him, and His church, and she felt spiritually alive. When she heard about the trip to Honduras, she decided to go. Not because she had a desire to travel internationally or even go on a mission trip at all, but because she wanted to be obedient to God. Brianna wondered, “How could I encourage my students or people in my small group to sign up for a mission trip if I had never been on one myself?” So, she signed up for the trip, wanting to be obedient and to completely embrace the mission of the church.

As the trip approached, her adult small group started to dissolve into chaos. Her group was full of messy, broken people trying to live in community with one another, bringing all their baggage with them. It was hard. And, as leading a small group tends to do, it shined a light on her own brokenness as well. Brianna leaned on her group guide, Rachel Fisher, as she navigated the uncharted waters of a difficult small group. Through this, Brianna started to feel a need in her life for more women who were slightly older and beyond her stage of life. She longed for mentors in the faith to walk with, share struggles with, and to challenge her to be more like Jesus. She wondered who God might bring into her life to fill that role.

 

The Trip

What happened on the trip was not totally unexpected—the team bonded quickly and intensely.  Being on foreign soil with others in the name of Christ offered a beautiful experience. They felt a heightened sense of purpose for serving others and sharing the Gospel, knowing all the time, money, and effort it took for everyone to be there. It fused them together. Testimonies were shared; lives were impacted. The love of Christ united them all.

But according to Krissy, “I was skeptical that these new friendships would last after we got back home. The relationships that are formed on short term trips typically last no longer than the duration of the trip. Eventually, the norm goes back to being the norm.”

But something felt divinely different this time. “It took me by surprise when we came home, and the people from the trip kept calling. They kept texting, kept caring, and kept extending the open hands of friendship,” Krissy said. Some of the conversations that started in Honduras spilled over to the states. There were spiritual matters left unfinished, still things left to say, still decompressing and sharing about the impact of the trip. Soon, they were inviting each other to parties and other social events.

The shared time together continued growing deeper roots between Krissy, Brianna, and Maria. The storms of life inevitably hit, but their closely developing friendships helped them stand firm in Christ. Maria’s family struggles weren’t suddenly mended. In fact, when she returned, the storm continued to rage around her. The difference was, she wasn’t walking through it alone. Suddenly there were other women there, like a safety net ready to brace her fall.

“I see God’s hand in all of it,” Maria said, “the timing of the trip and when he brought Krissy and Brianna into my life. I had no idea how difficult my life would become, but God did. He was giving me the foundation of these friendships before life got really hard so that I would have them to cling to.”

Brianna’s small group didn’t magically pull themselves together while she was away. The struggles of leading messy people toward Jesus continued to be messy. But she gained two women to listen to her, to encourage her, and to challenge her.

Krissy’s temptation toward spiritual laziness and apathy didn’t immediately disappear either. But the ice around Krissy’s heart began to melt, and the counterfeit rest she was clinging to became less appealing. In the months following the mission trip, they counseled and uplifted one another. They grieved together and sorted through the confusion of life’s heartaches together. They found themselves scheduling intentional time to hang out and continue to do life together, even in the fast paced, isolating sort of busyness that is all too common.

“God called me to give my love away, to open my house, and open my heart to friendship again,” Krissy said. “I vowed that I would no longer serve the kingdom of self and comfort, letting those desires dictate my decisions. The joy of the Lord and His community is infinitely better.”

Today, Krissy, Maria, and Brianna are still deeply connected. The  years since the trip have brought with them a torrent of unexpected challenges, including health scares, struggles with kids, and other spiritual attacks. Each one of them has endured pain, fear, joy, longing, and everything else that comes along with living. Maintaining healthy friendships with broken people is hard, even when the friendships are forged on a life-changing, gospel-centered trip. But despite busy schedules, personality differences, and different life stages, their deep, lasting love for each other remains. Although all three of them were drawn to the trip with different motivations, God, in his kindness, gave them what they all truly needed—gospel friendship.

“I thought that the trip itself might possibly get me out of my spiritual funk,” Krissy said, “but I did not realize it would be the people that did that.”

Stones of Remembrance: Ali Llewellyn’s Story

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Ali Llewellyn’s life looks like most people’s: normal and ordinary. On any given day, she remains busy managing two teams at NASA and co-running a consulting company doing strategy for missional organizations. She even recently co-published a book entitled What Comes Next? about Christian leadership with her friend and business partner.

It was in the middle of the ordinary, in August 2023, that Ali received a major shock: her doctor diagnosed her with cancer. Ali’s response, however, was anything but ordinary. She became determined to not let cancer slow her down.

“I wanted to put cancer in its proper place,” Ali said. “I wasn’t willing for it to be my whole story, nor even a detour. I wanted it to be just a chapter. I’m not going to let it take away the things I care about, and it doesn’t define the terms of my life.”

Despite loved ones and co-workers encouraging her to consider slowing down to let her body rest, Ali persisted in her work and in the callings God had placed in her life. Knowing deep in her soul the love, strength, and wisdom of God, she chose to continue following Him despite her life changing dramatically.

“Growing up in church, I was a dedicated over-achieving little girl who knew all the answers and did all the things,” Ali said. “Doing church is not the same as being saved, though. I ended up at a summer camp where the gospel was shared with me, and it was there that I knew that I knew that He loves me.”

Standing on the lakeshore at Camp Allen, Ali sobbed profusely as she felt the love of God wrap strongly around her. Standing there was a new daughter of God who knew she was secure in a relationship with Him. In return, she wanted to know Him, too. Upon returning home, she began to ravenously read God’s word with the knowledge of how deeply God loves her fresh in her heart.

Ali hasn’t stopped yearning to grow closer to her Father since then; nor has she returned to the “church kid” performance she embraced as a child. When she began attending Clear Creek Community Church in 2022, she dug roots into a community of friends and family. These were the very people who told her “You belong to us” and would prove pivotal in Ali’s life throughout the next few years.

One of these pivotal moments arrived one night in early 2024, the night before Ali was to start chemotherapy. “A friend brought over a giant pink shopping bag stuffed with items and gifts. It was a message of ‘Hey, sorry you’re in the club that nobody wants to be in but we’re here with you,’” Ali said.

One of the most significant items in that bag for her was a quilt with a prayer tag sewn in it, noting that it had been stitched by someone with stage 4 cancer. “I had never met her because it was just left on my porch,” Ali explained. “But it was so humbling that someone with even more advanced cancer turned around and made this for me.” For Ali, this was a gift truly needed the most the night before chemo: the reminder that God was with her and so was her church community.

Two weeks later at church, Ali was at worship – and having difficulty standing up in the service – when someone sat next to her. Miraculously, that person happened to be the anonymous quilter. They started a conversation about how that quilt served them both and prayed for each other.

“God plants those seeds of hope that will help you process and move forward in the journey,” Ali shared.

Later in the spring, another pivotal moment of community happened during an annual girls’ trip, which would involve hiking through a river gorge. Exhausted and weak from surgery, and with her short hair barely coming in, Ali wasn’t sure how the trip would go. She looked at the climb ahead and felt major doubts at being able to travel to the other side. Her friends, however, rallied around her and declared, “We’re going to do it together. No one fights alone.”

“I have a desk job, and I’m not athletic,” Ali said. “I wasn’t honestly sure if I could make it, but my friends wanted to make the climb with me and were there the whole time. At the end, I was so energized. They asked me why that was, and I just replied, ‘It was easy because we did it together.’ Things I couldn’t do before cancer, I could now do in the middle of it.”

Since her diagnosis, chemo, and surgery, Ali’s life has not radically changed like she thought it would (besides climbing a literal mountain). Her life did not stop, either, because of cancer. Her work and general life still remains the same as it was before.

“The gospel goes deeper in my own heart than I even knew,” Ali shared. “Cancer demonstrated the things I thought would end the world but didn’t. We all have a thing in our heart that says, ‘If I had to do that I’d fall apart.’ For me, it was chemo. When chemo was my only option, then it was losing my hair. When I lost my hair, I recognized God’s kindness in showing me that the things I thought would destroy me didn’t. With Him, I have everything that I need.”

Ali recognized that God used cancer to draw her closer to Him and to teach her new things. She doesn’t always understand or like the lesson itself, but she treasures it nonetheless.

God’s reminders for Ali are the reasons she hasn’t slowed down in her work or in God’s callings of her life, despite other’s pleas to do so. That’s how she climbed the mountain despite just having surgery.

“Cancer doesn’t define the terms of life. God does!” Ali said. “As long as I remember where faith belongs and don’t get freaked out along the way, there’s really nothing I can’t do. God says, ‘With Me, you can do anything.’”

To grow one’s faith, one’s perception of God must shift first. When she first received her diagnosis, and then later discovered that she has a genetic disorder that predisposes her to cancer, Ali had to change her perception of God in order to deepen her faith despite the events in her life that seemed to contrast her knowledge of God and faith.

“We live in a broken world where sin and cancer are consequences of the fall,” Ali stated. “God uses it for my good–to demonstrate to me that He is God, and I am not, and that He can be trusted. Do I believe God gave me a predisposed genetic condition for this? I don’t know. Again, God is God, and I am not. But I know this: more is within me than I knew. There’s more hope and faith in me than I knew.”

By sharing her story, Ali strives to provide comfort to those experiencing a major life change themselves or walking alongside someone experiencing a major life change, like cancer.

“If I could go back before all of this, I would tell anyone in a trial, ‘The more you can know God and know yourself is going to help you in that trial,’” Ali shared. “Read God’s word, be in a community, serve people, and worship. The more you can do that, the more you’re making a deposit in the inner man. Out of the overflow of our heart the mouth speaks. Deposit everything you can before the crisis.”

Ali also learned and valued the importance of leaning on other people in difficult times. She knows that there is no virtue in independence and that we were never made to be alone in our pain. She highlights the importance of the idea of community in the gospel itself.

“I was the first person to ask my doctor if I could drive myself to chemo,” Ali said. “I was always independent, so I didn’t like the feeling of needing help or being dependent. Whatever the crisis is, we need people. There’s something in a community response that is part of God’s intent. So, find your circle and let them help you even when you think you don’t need it.”

In an email update to her care circle, dated shortly after her diagnosis, Ali wrote: “We can’t choose our road, though; we can only choose how we walk it. So, I choose to have hope and pay attention to the lessons and the good things. I want to set up stones of remembrance so I don’t forget.”

“And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”   –Joshua 4:20-24 (ESV) 

As Ali finishes up her treatments, she continues to set up stones of remembrance. She tries not to set up stones of pain, suffering, hopeless nights, or questions of why cancer is happening. Instead, she sets up stones of remembrance of who God is, what He has done for her, and what He will continue to do.

“God is not a vending machine; I don’t get to make a wish and get what I want. But I do get to know Him. When I listen and conform, what I get is Him. So, I win.”

Blueprints of Eden

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The beginning of a new year and a new Bible reading plan can bring much excitement and hope as Christians gear up to read through the Bible. The first couple of months, the reader gets to take in some interesting stories through the books of Genesis and into Exodus—famous stories that even those unfamiliar with the Bible would know. It’s captivating reading (outside of a few genealogies). Then comes some ancient laws in the middle of Exodus when the people of Israel reach Mount Sinai. The reader thinks, “Okay, I can get through this.” But out of nowhere, the reader’s hit with Exodus chapter 25. Of the next sixteen chapters, thirteen contain blueprint designs for a tent along with uniform clothing patterns. Not exactly text that the typical reader will find intriguing.

As a summary, chapters 25-31 of Exodus contain the plans to build the Tabernacle as well as the design of the uniform for the priest. Chapters 35-40 repeat the blueprint plans as the Israelites follow through with building the tent. Even though the tent itself is highly important to the people of Israel as this is where God would dwell in their midst, it seems kind of redundant (and boring) to go into that much detail. So, what’s the point of having thirteen chapters of plans dedicated to this tent structure?

It is helpful to go back to the beginning. Genesis starts with a seven-day creation story and narrows down to the land of Eden. There are some details in these two chapters to take note of:

  • God dwells with Humanity in Eden
  • Trees are prominent in the garden
  • Fruit is in the garden
  • There is a three-tiered element to the garden land (the land, region of Eden, garden in Eden)
  • Adam and Eve will work the garden1
  • Rivers flow out of the garden
  • Beautiful stones are found in the garden
  • After Adam and Eve disobey, they are exiled to the east2
  • Cherubim with a flaming sword protect the entrance to the garden

With these details in mind, elements of Exodus 25-31 may start to stand out. It is as if God is having them build a little replica of Eden in the middle of his people. The tabernacle is also a three-tiered space, guarded by a flaming altar with cherubim on the doors of the holy space, facing east.3 Within that space are items made from precious stones and wood.4 Depictions of trees and fruit are hung on the walls and made into ceremonial elements, with a basin of water, too. Add to that a seven-day ceremony that was held to dedicate the tabernacle and priest.5

God did not give Moses random blueprints to build the tabernacle. He was modeling the Garden of Eden where God and humanity dwelt together in a full and complete relationship. The relationship Adam and Eve had with God in the garden before Genesis chapter 3 was an experience God wanted to provide to his people once again through this tent. Of course, there were some stringent regulations about how that played out, but God was committed to bringing his space and humanity’s space back together in totality. The tabernacle was a constant reminder of God’s presence among the Israelites and his covenant with them.

The tabernacle was the portable version of the temple King Solomon would later build in Jerusalem. If you read the description of the temple blueprints in 1 Kings 6, many of the same garden imagery is used once again. It is another depiction of God’s commitment to restoring his creation as it was in the garden.

The role of the priest of the tabernacle was also significant. Israel was called to be a nation of priests to all the word.6The priest worked in the tabernacle and, later, temple as a mediator between God and humanity. Israel was called to do the same to the world around them. Unfortunately, Israel continually rejected God’s covenant, so the temple itself did not serve its ultimate purpose, nor did the priest or the nation of Israel.

When John starts his Gospel, there is an instructive verse in chapter 1: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”7 The “Word” is a reference to Jesus, and the word “dwelt” is the Greek word for “tabernacled.” From the very start of his narrative, John claimed Jesus was the space where God and humanity are in full relationship, just as they were in the garden and as the tabernacle/temple represented. A few chapters later while Jesus taught at the Jerusalem temple, he pronounced he would destroy the temple and in three days raise it up. His audience was very confused. The narrator then jumps in and tells the reader Jesus was talking about himself.8 Jesus saw himself as both the temple and priest—the place God dwelt and the mediating priest between God and humans.9

When Jesus ascended into the heavens, he told his followers to wait for the Holy Spirit so that God’s presence would fill a new kind of temple, Jesus’ followers, both corporately and as individuals.10  This has major implications. Now instead of one tent or one temple or even one Jesus on the earth, God’s dwelling presence is now within followers of Christ—followers collectively known as the body of Christ that will spread out and proclaim the good news of Jesus all over the world. Christians, with the same vocation as the priest mediating in the tabernacle, are to be walking around as little Eden spaces in the world.11

Exodus chapters 18-25 may seem redundant, overly detailed, and boring, but they point both backward and forward to God’s redeeming of creation and humanity through Jesus. And it is Jesus who empowers his “body” to be the images of God though his indwelling Spirit, proclaiming, modeling, and calling all creation into a new Eden.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 2:15 and Numbers 3:7-8 use the same Hebrew word for the priest’s work
  2. Genesis 3:24
  3. Outer court, Holy Place, Holy of Holies
  4. The Hebrew word ‘ʿēṣ’ is used for trees and wood
  5. Leviticus 8:33
  6. Exodus 19:6
  7. John 1:14
  8. John 2:21-22
  9. Hebrews 4:14
  10. Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8
  11. 1 Peter 2:5

How Should We Fast?

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Why Should We Fast? listed several OT narrative situations when people responded by fasting. We observed that fasting serves as a means of intensifying our awareness of our dependence on God and intensifying our prayers.

Considering what we see in the experience of Israel when it comes to fasting, we can discern some things that can both encourage us to fast and guide us as we do so.

When and why should we fast? Generally, when we identify a specific need or situation that requires a season of intensity in prayer. For example:

  • Whenever you care deeply about a situation that is out of your control. If fasting serves to increase urgency and intensity, what is going on in your life or another person’s life that needs God’s intervention? Maybe a ruptured relationship, maybe the need for protection in the midst of conflict, may in a big decision that must be made when you can’t predict the outcome. We can fast and pray on behalf of someone who gets a bad diagnosis, who has a big job interview or a big test. We could fast and seek God to move in the life of the people on our Top 5 list.
  • When you need to go to God in grief, in a season when tragedy has occurred – in your life or someone else’s. In these seasons fasting acknowledges our utter dependence on God for life and acknowledges his will is sovereign and good.
  • When you need to confess sin and commit to a life of repenting from sinful actions.
  • Whenever you want to intensify the focus of your prayer.

How should we fast? In ways that make it possible for us to feel the physical longing that remind us of our mortality and dependence on God. We can fast privately about personal situations, and we can join in fasting seasons with the church or with other communities of faith (such as our small group). Fasts can be:

  • Private, about personal situations.
  • Corporate, in response to a call of the leadership of the church or to a group of faithful friends.
  • Spontaneous, for a short time, maybe just one meal, as we pray for God to work when we are surprised or overwhelmed.
  • Strategic, planned ahead of time and practiced for a specific duration or rhythmic periods. (i.e. One day a week for a month; one evening a week; every morning for 30 days.)
  • From food, to be reminded of our spirit need by our physical hunger.
  • From habits or cravings, a fast from media, exercise, or work can serve to break patterns of mindless indulgence and replace them with intentional devotion to God.
  • With urgency and intensity, utilizing the fasting season to focus our minds and hearts on being in God’s presence.

One thing Jesus makes clear us that fasting should be discrete, in the sense that the point is to intensify our interaction with God, not to make an impression on other people. (Matt. 6)

We can still fast in community, in response to the call of the church, but we need to always remember fasting is just a vehicle, a tool, it is not an objective.

It is important to understand that the practice of fasting does not make a person more “spiritual” or somehow more acceptable to God. The prophets point out that fasting (like any other religious action) in the absence of willing obedience and the pursuit of Godly character in other parts of our lives is a waste of time (Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 14; 36). Fasting can be a productive discipline when it is accompanied by true repentance or desire to turn to God in worship and obedience. When we have pure motives for why we fast we have great freedom to do it in a variety of situations and with different things.

After my survey of the Old Testament narratives about fasting I had a real sense of personal conviction. Partially because I hadn’t ever taken the time to consider what there is to learn from how and when the people of Israel fasted. But also because it made me wonder why I am not more often so broken, desperate, repentant to employ a season of fasting to intensify my prayers for the lost, the sick, the sinning.

But God is gracious, and I have learned, and I will use fasting as a gift God has given to draw me close.

Why Should We Fast?

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Why fast? What is the point? When should I fast and for how long? These are legitimate questions, because for many people the practice of fasting is unfamiliar and for some maybe even seemingly unnecessary. Depending on your faith tradition, fasting may not even part of your experience in church. So, when there is a call to fast you respond with some reluctance or even resistance, because we don’t understand the meaning and purpose of it.

This describes my personal experience. I have done seasons of fasting, sometimes in response to a call from the church and sometimes on my own initiative. But honestly my fasting in community was done more out of a desire to submit to the leadership of my church than a genuine commitment to intensely focus on my need for God’s intervention in my life or someone else’s. I have also fasted as a kind of muti purpose “I’ll do something spiritual and maybe lose a few pounds” effort. Unfortunately, both of those approaches miss the true motivation and objective of entering a season of fasting.

We shouldn’t let ourselves settle for an uneducated view of what a productive fast is and why we do it. The Bible speaks about fasting often enough that we should let it teach us how to engage in the practice in a meaningful way.

What does it mean to fast and why should we do it?

The Hebrew term used for fasting is part of the family of words that mean to weep, to morn, to deny oneself. In the Hebrew Bible people often fasted in response to a crisis or a tragedy. Fasting was both a personal and sometimes corporate expression of grief and often an expression of regret and repentance – (at least among the faithful.) Sometimes fasting was observed as part of seeking God’s favor and protection in the presence of a threat, so it was a response to fear.

The practice of fasting from food has its roots in the knowledge that we are both physical and spiritual creatures. The experience of being hungry connects our physical dimension to our spiritual need. Simply put, during a fast the gnawing sensation of hunger in our stomach serves as an unignorable reminder of our desperate need for God’s provision for all things in this life and for life beyond.

Our problems and failures and circumstances are not just physical or earthy in nature. They are reflections our mortality. They represent reminders that we are fragile and temporary creatures. The practice of fasting is intended to remind us of our humanity and physical limitations. Few things can connect us to our dependent nature than going hungry.

Through fasting we leverage a season of hunger to heighten our awareness and focus on the greater ways we need God’s grace and mercy. The need for food represents our need for God’s provision of forgiveness, healing, help, strength and faith.

You can see this almost universally in the narrative texts that describe situations in which fasting was employed by the people of Israel and the early church. The following sample texts are representative:

1 Samuel 7 – Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness God had allowed the Philistines to capture the Ark of the Lord. In the process of it’s potential return to Israel the prophet Samuel commanded Israel to rid themselves of idols and return to the Lord. Samuel gathered the people at Mizpah and they fasted and confessed their sin.

1 Samuel 31 – After king Saul was killed the Philistines took his body and displayed it as a trophy to humiliate Israel. When some valiant men of Israel recovered his body, they buried it and fasted for seven days in grief and remorse, for Saul and for the situation in Israel.

2 Samuel 12 – King David fasted over the sickness and death of his son by Bathsheba. His fast was in grief and desperation for the life of his son, but also in knowing his sin was the cause. He fasted in repentance and hope that God would forgive him and spare his child.

Ezra 8 – Ezra proclaims a fast in seeking the Lord’s protection on the remnant of people returning from exile to Judah.

Ezra 9 – Ezra fasted in disappointment and broken heartedness over the unfaithfulness of people who had intermarried with foreign, idol worshipping people.

Esther 4 – Mordecai fasts, laments, and weeps upon learning of Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews. Esther asks that all Israel fast as she prepares to do the unlawful and enter the king’s presence to ask his favor.

Daniel 6 – King Darius fasted all night in anguish and guilt for unjustly having Daniel put in the lion pit.

Psalm 69 and Psalm 109 – David describes fasting in anguish, seeking God’s intervention and relief from the relentless torments of his enemies.

Acts 13 and 14 – Luke records church leaders fasting before sending out missionaries, and as part of committing men to the responsibility and burden of eldership in the local church.

If you read the referenced texts and the different situations that call for fasting, you see the motivation include seasons of grief, tragedy, remorse, desperation, fear. All things that should drive us into the presence of God in prayer and in his Scriptures. Fasting was a means of addressing the urgency and increasing the intensity of people’s declaration of dependence, trust, and petition of God’s response to significant moments in life and in the life of the church.

If we just use these texts as a general guide, we can identify many situations and seasons where we could practice fasting the same way they did – as a way to infuse our need for God’s help with urgency and intensity.

A Mark of Justice and Mercy

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Many people assume the Bible is a boring read, of course if one starts with Genesis, that assumption is quickly dismissed. There are some fascinating (if not weird) stories right at the start! Cain and Abel is a well known story that has elicited many question from readers for thousands of years. For instance, what is the “mark” of Cain?

The God of the Bible is presented as both just and merciful, and the “mark of Cain” is an example of that justice and mercy. After Cain kills his brother out of jealousy, he becomes a fugitive and is afraid for his life, but God “puts a mark” on Cain that will protect him from those trying to take vengeance in their own hands2. But what is the “mark”? Scripture doesn’t say, and that ambiguity is on purpose to set a pattern moving forward.

The first few chapters of Genesis set up many narrative patterns that are repeated in the rest of the Scriptures. One of the patterns is the narrative use of the Hebrew word ʾôt , typically translated “mark” or “sign” for English translations. And when a reader comes upon a story that contains a ʾôt (mark/sign), it is most often a result of both God’s justice and His mercy.

Shortly after the story of Cain and Abel is the story of Noah. The earth is filled with violence, God is grieved and uses the waters to reset creation, except for Noah’s family and the mini-Eden boat that is protected during the flood. After the waters subside, God gives another ʾôt to humanity (namely Noah’s family) and the creatures of the boat, the sign of the “bow in the clouds”3. Water, which just acted as an instrument of justice on a corrupt and violent humanity is now given to Noah as a sign of mercy that never again will the earth be destroyed in a deluge. The “bow in the clouds” is a sign in the sky that God is both just and merciful.

Chapter 12 becomes a hinge point for the book of Genesis, narrowing down on a descendant of Noah, the man Abram. Abram is asked to leave all he has known and trust God’s promise of a land and family that shall bless “all the families of the earth”.4 Within the narrative about Abram is a ʾôt that will mark a people for hundreds of generations after. But why another “sign/mark”?

There is one problem with Abram and his wife Sarai, they are both old and no longer of childbearing age. Will they trust God and his promise, even if it sounds crazy, or they will try their own way? Abram and Sarai seem to be set on trying their own way instead of trusting in God’s promise. Along the way there are some bright spots, but for much, it’s distrust, unfaithfulness and consequences.

At one point in the story, Sarai decides to take matters into her own hands, and offer up her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to Abram, in order to produce the promised child. Hagar does become pregnant and even though this was the idea of Sarai, she resents the child, and Abram gives approval for her to “deal harshly” with Hagar. Now instead of a flourishing family provided by God’s provision to Abram and Sarai because they trusted in His promise, there is an abused, pregnant, immigrant7 slave alone in the wilderness.[1] Abram and Sarai certainly do not trust God, and in their distrust, harm those they were called to bless.

And so God will be just and merciful, again with a ʾôt. The very next narrative is the story of the “sign/mark” of circumcision. God must be just for the actions against Hagar and thus he tells Abram he must circumcise that which was misused in an attempt to produce offspring on their own terms. This marks the descendants of Abraham (God changes his name along with the sign9) for generations. A constant reminder of what Abram and Sarai did to Hagar because they didn’t trust God’s promise and that what God meant for good can be taken and used in humanity’s own devices as evil. God is just.

And mercy? It’s like the “bow in the clouds”. That which was used as a judgment can also serve as a sign of God’s enduring mercy. It is still through that which was misused and now marked, that the promised offspring for Abraham and Sarah10 comes to fruition. The barren Sarah becomes pregnant with the promised offspring Isaac.

The ambiguous mark of Cain sets a pattern moving forward throughout the story of Scripture that points to God as both just and merciful11. Fast forward in the story and Jesus fulfills this pattern in his crucifixion. He takes on the righteous justice of God in place of corrupt and sinful humanity, the consequences of all of humanity’s distrust and disobedience, death. God is just. Yet, through the same act of the crucifixion, God in humanity’s place, is the offer of life from death. God is merciful. The pattern continues for those who are in Christ Jesus, also marked with his crucifixion, through baptism. A mark of those in God’s Kingdom, participating in Jesus’ death and participating in new life through his resurrection.

A ʾôt of both justice and mercy. May we never forget the justice and mercy of God in our own story, and would our lives display the justice and mercy of God to the world.  

1Genesis Ch. 3

2Genesis Ch. 4

3Genesis 9:13

4Genesis 12:3

5Genesis Ch. 15

6Genesis 15:6

7The root of Hagar name means “to flee” as an immigrant

8Genesis 16:13

9Genesis 17:5

10Sarai’s name is also changed to Sarah, Genesis 18:15

11Exodus 10:2, Exodus 12:13, Numbers 21:8/John 3:14

[1] Abram and Sarai are harsh and unfaithful, but God is merciful and just to all people. He sees and hears the oppressed, he rescues Ishmael and promises her that, although despised and discarded by Sarai, her son will also father a multitude.

An Apocalypse of Conquering

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There’s a propensity to come to Revelation ready to “figure it all out”, conquer the text to know all the right answers. It’s how we navigate most of life, so why not also this book of Scripture? Maybe a more helpful approach is to let the text “conquer us.” Let it shape us over multiple readings and reflections to form us into the image of Jesus. But for many readers this is a challenge when engaging with Revelation in particular.

Revelation is written in the style of apocalypse (also the title, the Greek translation of Revelation), a literary style that was very popular 2000 years ago, but foreign to modern readers. And on top of that it’s to be communicated as a letter to seven ancient churches that would have been in modern day Turkey. That’s a world apart. But it’s part of the Christian scriptures, so what can we use to help us appropriately engage with this book that has a communication style a world away?

From the “How to Read the Bible Class” at CCCC we know that finding what the text meant to the original readers is a great first step to find its meaning to us today. Near the beginning, Revelation starts off with seven letters that all have a specific charge to each church. That charge is “to conquer”. Then the question becomes: what did those churches think when they heard they were to conquer? They certainly saw the Roman Empire conquer many peoples around them with military might. They had expectations of what political rulers were to do to when conquering rivals, both with power and economic leverage. And they saw what happened to those who didn’t assimilate to cultural norms, being ostracized or even persecuted.

We know the general perception of “conquer” to the ancient society at large (and it’s very similar still in our day), but John wants to “reveal” or apocalypse what this means to those who call Jesus the Christ, their King. (Christ is a royal term, the Greek translation of the Hebrew title “Messiah”).

In Chapter 1, king language is repeatedly used to describe Jesus, then Chapter 2 and 3 contain the specific communications to each of the seven churches with the charge “to conquer” (remember, all of Revelation is a letter too). Starting in Chapter 4 and moving through 5, John is invited to see a new perspective at what is happening, God is continually worshiped in the heavenly throne room, and knows that his creation needs renewal, so a scroll is introduced that anticipates the plan to deal with the corruption of creation and decree restorative justice.

John’s first reaction upon hearing this is weeping, he laments along with creation (1), that the scroll must be open by one who is worthy. At this point, an angel describes the worthy one, again using royal-messianic language, “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, who has conquered (2)”. After hearing all the royal language (and remember the empires way of conquering), he turns and sees….

A slain lamb (3).

Hardly what one thinks of when one thinks of anything related to conquer, a bloody lamb? But this is how John’s see the conquering Messianic King. To the churches that are charged with “conquering”, this is the image they are given to think through. Their imagination of what it means to conquer has to be reoriented and challenged by the apocalypse John’s gives them. New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham puts it this way:

“Key to John’s vision of the slaughtered Lamb is to recognize the contrast between what he hears and what he sees. He hears that ‘the Lion of the Trib of Judah, the Root of David, had conquered’. The two messianic titles evoke a strongly militaristic and nationalistic image of the Messiah of David as conqueror of the nations, destroying the enemies of God’s people. But his image is reinterpreted by what John sees: the Lamb whose sacrificial death has redeemed people from all nations. By juxtaposing the two contrasting images, John has forged a new symbol of conquest by sacrificial death. The messianic hopes evoked are not repudiated: Jesus really is the expected Messiah of David. But insofar as the latter was associated with military violence and narrow nationalism, it is reinterpreted by the image of the Lamb.”(4)

All of Revelation is a revealing (apocalypse) of God’s plan and promised renewal, but this is the apocalypse within the apocalypse. These first five chapters set the framework for reading the rest of the letter. It should orient our notion of what John describes in the rest of the letter, God verses evil, and how each corresponding entity conquers.  Jesus is our example of what it looks like to conquer, and John wants to bring that into focus. Both Jesus’ teachings and how he lived that out to rescue and restore the world should not get lost in the common notion of what conquering meant 2000 years ago or today.

So may we follow Jesus into the way he conquers. He conquers by seemingly looking like he has been conquered. He is our example today and for the ancient churches of Revelation. This is not something we can “figure out” after a single pass through reading Revelation, but something to live out in the community Jesus has invited us into and among our neighbors. It may look strange to those unfamiliar with Jesus and bring along difficulties of assimilation to our own society’s cultural norms.  But that’s what Jesus has invited us into, a lifetime of following him to the cross, willing to sacrifice oneself, while holding the tension that just as Jesus defeated death, so will those who call him King.

“The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” Revelation 21:7

(1) Also see Romans 8:22-23

(2) Emphasis mine

(3) Also see Exodus 12:1-14, Numbers 28:4 , Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29

(4) Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, p. 74

Community: The Heartbeat of Christians

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In C.S. Lewis’ allegorical story, The Great Divorce, Lewis depicts Hell as a place where the inhabitants are on a never-ending expansion away from God and each other. Early in the story we get to listen in on a conversation between two residents where this phenomenon is described:

The trouble is that they’re so quarrelsome. As soon as anyone arrives he settles in some street. Before he’s been there twenty-four hours he quarrels with his neighbor. Before the week is over he’s quarreled so badly that he decides to move.

The conversation continues by describing people as eventually moving further and further apart until they are “astronomical distances” from each other, every now and then moving further still away from God and neighbor.

This is such an apt picture of the culture we live in.

Our society is so quick to separate people into cliques and tribes based on any number of socially constructed categories, and this is exacerbated by a runaway individualism which continues to sort and separate until each person becomes a tribe of one, having no sense of belonging anywhere or with anyone. We continue to move further and further away from each other until we are so far apart it seems there can be no return.

Christians must be different. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatian church that, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” (Gal. 3:28). To the Corinthian church he wrote, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit,” (1 Cor. 12:12-13). Christians of course are still individuals with various cultures and languages, but we are individuals unified, placed into communion with each other, through the work of Jesus.

You see, entering into community is a requirement of becoming a Christian. We are baptized into community, into the body of Christ. To fully participate in the call of faith, to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus, requires us to not only move towards Jesus, but also to move towards others as Jesus did.

The practices of regularly worshipping together, taking the Lord’s Supper together, serving together, participating in small group together, caring for our neighbors together – these communal activities will, through the Holy Spirit’s help, begin to move us outward towards God and neighbor, eventually culminating in what theologian Scot McKnight calls a “fellowship of differents.” Revelation 7 describes it this way, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,” (Rev. 7:9).

Let’s pray that God ignites and fans the flame of community in our hearts, inspiring us to love God, his church, and our unchurched neighbors, building a stronger church because of this love. Amen.

Be Still

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According to recent studies the average iPhone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times a day. [1]

Research shows each user to be on his or her phone for an average of four hours and 25 minutes each day. [2]

With all of our digital consumption and our attention given to our smart phones, our actual attention span is dropping. According to an article from Time Magazine, our average attention span in the year 2,000 was 12 seconds. Since the digital revolution our attention span has decreased by four seconds, leaving us at an average of eight seconds — one second less than the attention span of a goldfish. [3]

So, can we just be honest?

We are distracted.

We are hurried.

We are tired.

And we’re only ramping up.

We run from appointment to appointment, meeting to meeting, the gym to the office to the little league practice field, to the fast food restaurant, and just when we finally start to slow down and give our minds a minute to settle, we turn on Netflix or scroll through social media until we finally fall asleep.

And it’s not just those in the workplace or with busy family schedules. I have heard students in our church say that silence frightens them. To slow down and be quiet is to invite anxiety, loneliness, and even depression.

You may relate. How many friends do you know who can sit in silence for 10 minutes? How many of you have to have something making noise in order to fall sleep like box fans, white-noise apps, or ceiling fans?

We can’t even bear stillness and silence in our subconscious.

Meanwhile, the Psalmist writes:

“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!” – Psalm 46:10

There’s a glaring contradiction between the unhurried, undistracted life of presence Scripture calls us to live, and the life we actually live in 21st century America.

But, for many of us, this is where the excuses start to flow.

The writers of the Bible had no idea what it would be like to live in today’s fast paced world.
Silence and stillness sound great, but you don’t know the kind of life I live, and the kind of pressures being put on me.

Things are different these days, “the times, they are a-changin’,” and if we don’t change with them we’ll fall behind.

If that’s you, I hear you. And I feel those same emotions. And, if you think for a minute that things today are frenetic and fast paced, and that being still and silent before the Lord is harder now than ever… you’d be right.

However, that doesn’t mean that stillness before God is a rhythm that is completely out of reach.

Here are some of the other sentiments in that same Psalm:

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. – Psalm 46:1-3

And again,

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. – Psalm 46:6-7

The Psalmist seems to describe a terrifying reality of war, natural disaster, political unrest, and near-apocalyptic global events, and a stillness, rest, and peace in the God who is present, in control, and still worthy of attention and affection amidst the chaos.

What am I getting at?

I’m saying that the invitation is not to ignore the busyness, hurry, worry, and turbulence of life, but to find moments of stillness and silence in the midst of them.

Small daily disciplines of silence can actually restructure the pathways in our brain to slow down and be still throughout the rest of our day.

So how do we do that?

As a church we use the acronym B.R.E.A.D. as a tool to prayerfully encounter God through the scriptures.

And this acronym begins with B – Be Still.

Silence and solitude are not an additive to a busy life in order to make it easier. They are a lifeline to cling to in order to flourish.

We know digital escapism isn’t the answer.

We’re learning that more work, events, or distractions aren’t the solution.

But maybe, just maybe, five minutes of “being still and knowing [he is] God,” in the morning could actually start to change the way we live the other 1,435 minutes of our day.

Maybe, just maybe, 10 minutes of breathing deep and being quiet before we look at our smart phones could actually change the pathways of our psychological condition.

Maybe, just maybe being still and silent for 15 minutes before the kids wake up and the chaos of the day begins could change the way we read the Bible, change the way we encounter God, and even change the way we live.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

1 https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/

2 https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/

3 applewebdata:/…/79A85C33-E3D4-4E06-8AFB-D3B512DB645E

How to Invite God Into Your Bible Study Time

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Biblical fluency does not happen because of our efforts alone. Rather, the Holy Spirit takes our efforts and then works in and through us to reveal truth and conform us to the image of Christ. As we approach the study of the Bible in prayer and with an open heart, we invite God to reveal himself and transform our lives through his Word.

Simply put, prayer is a conversation with God, an intimate dialogue where believers can express their thoughts, concerns, and gratitude.

Incorporating prayer into Bible study creates a two-way communication channel, allowing us to seek clarity of Scripture and invite the Holy Spirit to inform its understanding and then direct our actions. Praying as we study recalibrates our focus from a pursuit of information to a desire for life transformation. Life-change happens as we connect with God through prayer while being immersed in his Word.

Prayerfulness can be a simple, natural, and very important part of our time in the Word, from start to finish.

Praying before, during, and after our time in the Word each day is how we invite the Holy Spirit to join us in our study.Incorporating prayer shifts our focus from being primarily an academic or intellectual pursuit of knowledge to becoming a uniquely personal pursuit of knowing, trusting, and obeying God himself. Prayer invites God into our learning process. In prayer we commune with God as we understand and relate to his words in Scripture with the goal of knowing him rightly and steadily becoming more like him. When prayer is an integral part of our study time, we come to realize that the Bible is more about God than it is about ourselves.

So, pray all along the way.

Pray actively, pray honestly, and expect to connect with God as you read the words that he has specifically inspired and preserved for you and me and all who will call him LORD. Ask him to help you listen, to understand, and to willingly obey every day.

Keep it simple and enjoy the process.

Before you open your Bible to a passage of Scripture each day, take a minute to:

  • Thank God that his Word is truth, applicable for today, living and active.
  • Admit that spending time in the Word is not easy for you. Ask for his help. Briefly give him the concerns of your heart, setting them under his care while you focus on the Bible. Ask him to protect your time from distractions so that you can be mindful as you read.
  • Tell him that you want to know him rightly, understanding his character as he reveals it in the pages of Scripture.
  • Humbly ask him to show you your own sin and give you the courage and power to follow and obey him as he shows you where change is needed.

During your time in the word prayer is simply an interactive dialogue between you and the Holy Spirit. You can:

  • Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and give you wisdom and understanding.
  • Ask him to help you retain what you read and lessons he shows you.
  • Praise God when he shows you something about his character that is new to you.
  • Pray his words back to him.
  • Ask the LORD to give you understanding. If a passage does not make sense tell him so. Maybe jot down your question in your journal and see if he gives you understanding at another time.
  • Read the passage again if you have time.

Finally, after your time in the word:

  • Close by writing a simple prayer of devotion to God, praising him for who he is and thanking him for what he has done for you.
  • Ask that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, his truth would bear fruit in your life as you trust in and follow Jesus.

As you walk through your day, continue to engage with God through prayer seeking strength and guidance to apply the lessons you’ve learned from the Bible.