Observing LENT: Has anyone ever died from fasting?

Two weeks ago, Ash Wednesday began the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter. The idea behind Lent fasting is to identify with the sufferings of Christ.  According to a Barna survey, 30% of Lent observers fast food or drink, 28% fast meat, 28% sugar.

Although I can appreciate the intent of Lent fasting, I am not an observer.  Someone will have to convince me that suffering the loss of sugar for 5 ½ weeks is tantamount to the travail of Jesus. Admittedly, it is easier to skip a meal every day for a month than “pick up your cross daily!” Our highest call, according to Paul, is to be conformed to Christ's death (Phil 3:10; 1 Pet. 4:1). 

The true disciple's fast is not seasonal—but a lifetime of daily self-denial. Fasting one’s self is Jesus' mandated method for attaining more of His life and vitality. Has anyone ever died from this fast? Yes. Paul did: I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20). But, listen to this: if we die with Him, we shall live like kings with Him (2 Tim 2:11-12, edited). 

“The OSTEENification of American Christianity.”

Hank Hanegraaff of CRI has published a book, “The OSTEENification of American Christianity” in which he calls Joel Osteen the “provocateur of a seductive brand of Christianity that reduces God to a means to our ends… a fast-food Christianity that’s long on looks but dreadfully short on substance.”

“Why give so much attention to Joel Osteen; isn’t he harmless?” you say. Think about this. Joel Osteen is THE public face of evangelical Christianity. Not only the leader of America’s largest church, he is the most listened to preacher on the planet. His influence is almost unparalleled.

Joel's message is not pure Gospel, but a politically correct, inclusive, positive-thinking philosophical mix which non-Christians, even Buddhists and Hindus, find appealing. How unlike the exacting call of Jesus, who thinned out the crowds with His “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). Jesus' call to self-denial has been Osteenified into believe in yourself.

New Year—New You!

I am sure we are all wondering what changes lie ahead this year, hoping they are “good” (as defined by us). Change equals growth—physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Still, even though we know we this, we are quite change resistant, unless the changes are under our control, and happen to coincide with our own plans.

But, God’s predestined plan is clear: to renew our inner man day by day (1 Cor. 4:16); to conform us to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:28); and bring about our transformation (Rom. 12:2). The words ‘renew,’ ‘transform,’ and ‘conform’ all denote “change.” In particular, the word ‘renew’ means to become newer (a word for which we have no English equivalent), God's way of producing Christ-likeness in us, one day at a time.

None of us knows what changes God has pre-planned for us in this new year. But this truth should sustain us: If any person is in Christ, He is “new” (2 Cor. 5:17), and yet, becoming “newer” every day. Walk in this “newness” (Rom. 6:4), and by the end of 2014, you will have become a new, i.e., “newer,” you.

Cut it out!

I read an article about Governor Brown's proposed tax cuts in California in which the writer described it using the idiom, “death by a thousand cuts.” It means “lots of small bad things are happening, none of which are fatal in themselves, but which add up to a slow and painful demise.”

"What a graphic metaphor," I thought, "for Paul’s I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31).  We crucify the self-life a thousand times a day when we respond in love and grace to unexpected interruptions, unfair criticisms, demands from 'un-deserving'  people: things that bring out the worst in us! But as we say ‘yes’ to God's interests, the cross cuts to the bone of our self-life: pride, ambition, and a host of what Tozer called the hyphenated self sins: self-importance, self-defense, self-indulgence, self-pity, even self-sensitivity.

The cross proves that God loved the world too much to leave it in its fallen condition. Likewise, God loves you too much to save you and then leave you without a way to cut out your cancerous self-life. The “daily cross” is a very personal focal point in your private life with God.  Unfortunately, not many are willing to take up this cross (Matt. 16:24).  They may acknowledge their co-crucifixion with Christ; they may even say they want to "die daily."  But at the first sign of pain, they pull back, refusing to let God cut it out.

If You don’t Tie Up Loose Ends, You’ll Tie Yourself in Knots

To “tie up loose ends” is a familiar idiom, meaning “to deal with the minor consequences of a previous action; to tidy up, finish, or complete.”

"Tying up looses ends" will keep your past from hindering you presently. Loose ends can be distracting, and sometimes, paralyzing. Loose ends steal your mental concentration as they occupy your mind. You are unable to focus as you want to on more important things.

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1:13).

When Paul wrote these words, men didn’t wear pants; they wore tunics—skirts. To “gird your loins” meant to draw-up and tie your skirt into your belt so you could walk or run. This prevented the “loose ends” of the tunic from becoming snagged on something or entangled with your feet which would cause you to stumble or fall. No solider would consider going into battle without first ‘girding his loins.”

Spiritually, it means: don't let your loose thinking and undisciplined thoughts cause you to stumble into a wrong attitude. If you don’t tie up loose ends and tighten up your thinking, you will not be ready to respond to the need of the moment. Rather, you'll find yourself tied up in knots.

The Way of the Cross, by Zac Poonen

Jesus, as our Forerunner (One Who has run the same race ahead of us), has opened a way for us to enter the Father's presence and dwell there all the time. This way is called "the new and living way" (Heb.10:20).

Paul speaks of it as "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus" (2 Cor.4:10). He once said, as his personal testimony, that he was crucified with Christ and lived himself no longer. It was Christ that now lived in him because he himself had died on Calvary. This was the secret of his amazing life and usefulness to God.

Jesus once said that no one would be able to follow Him, unless he decided to deny himself DAILY and to die to himself DAILY (Lk.9:23). It is impossible to follow Jesus if we don't deny ourselves daily. We may be cleansed in Christ's blood, have received the Holy Spirit and have a deep knowledge of the Word. But if we don't die to ourselves daily, we cannot follow the Lord Jesus.

The way of the cross is the way of spiritual progress. If you are not overcoming sins like anger, irritation, impatience, lustful thinking, dishonesty, jealousy, malice, bitterness, and the love of money etc., the answer lies here: You have avoided the way of the cross. A dead man does not stand up for his rights. He does not fight back. He does not care about his reputation. He will not take revenge. He cannot hate anyone or have a bitterness against anyone. This is what it means to die to Self.

[The foregoing is in excerpt from: http://www.cfcindia.com/web/mainpages/word_for_the_week.php?display=01_05&year=06]