Illustration results for Disciplines: Fasting
Staff Picks of the Week:
Memorial Day 2013
Memorial Day 2013 Preaching Bundle »
Greater Love Video Illustration »
Everlasting God Worship Music Video »
Sabbath
Sabbath Preaching Bundle »
1 Outta 7 Video Illustration »
Before The Throne… Worship Music Video »
John Piper, in A Hunger for God, comments, "if the reward you aim at in fasting is the admiration of others, that is what you will get, and that will be all you get. In other words, the danger of hypocrisy is that it is so successful. It aims at the praise of men, and it succeeds. But that’s all."
On April 25, 1985 (12 years ago) over 5,000 students on Liberty Mountain fasted for one day and prayed for the healing of Vernon Brewer, the Dean of Students. He was loved by the students so they fasted and prayed. Vernon had cancer and was given 6 months to live. He’s alive and well 12 years later because of prayer and fasting.
We live in a society that needs to rediscover the spiritual discipline of fasting. Consider this video I downloaded and edited for length the promo video from the International Federation of Competitive Eating website http://www.ifoce.com/)
Church bulletin - National Prayer and Fasting Conference announcement: “The cost to attend the Fasting and...
Fasting On That Day. An officer in the Turkish War told his men that if they died in battle, they would sup with Christ in Paradise. The officer fled. When asked why he did not wish to sup with Christ, he said that he was fasting that day. -Martin Luther "Table Talk"
Give Me New England For three days Edwards had not eaten a mouthful of food: for three nights he had not closed his eyes in sleep. Over and over again, he had been saying to God, "Give me New England Give me New England" and when he arose from his knees, and made his way into the pulpit they say that he looked as if he had been gazing straight into the face of God. They say that before he opened his lips to speak, conviction fell upon his audience. -J. Wilbur Chapman
FOOD SAFETY QUIZ
In our Scripture this morning, we see that Peter has a vision where a blanket full of different kinds of food and a voice announces, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replies. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
Peter is very careful about what he eats, and with that in mind, today we are going to start with a short quiz this morning, a quiz about food safety.
Number One
How hot should the inside of a hamburger be before you take it off the grill?
100 degrees Fahrenheit
160 degrees Fahrenheit
210 degrees Fahrenheit
160 degrees Fahrenheit - According to the FDA.
Number Two
How much of a time window do you have between leaving the grocery store and refrigerating your food?
30 minutes
2 hours
3 hours
You have two hours to get everything into the fridge. But, if it’s more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit out there, you have only one hour. (Not a problem we will ever run into here in Anchorage)
Number Three
What’s the highest safe temperature for your refrigerator?
32 degrees Fahrenheit
36 degrees Fahrenheit
40 degrees Fahrenheit
Bacteria multiply most rapidly between 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, so your fridge should always be below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Number Four
What’s the safest place to defrost food?
in the microwave
on the counter
in the refrigerator
The FDA says you should always defrost in the refrigerator to keep those nasty bacteria at bay.
Number Five
Which of these foods can you use to heal a burn?
butter
bananas
honey
We now know that many old home remedies for burns, like butter, don’t really work all that well. But, studies have shown that you can use honey on minor burns.
And Finally
If there’s just a little mold on top of something you just dug out of the refrigerator, can you just scrape it off and eat the rest?
yes
no
sometimes
It depends on the texture of the food -- scraping is probably OK with hard cheeses and firmer fruits and vegetables. But, if the mold is on sauce or bread you never know how far the bacteria has spread. The FDA says, "When in doubt, throw it out!"
Anyone get every single one right?
In our day to day life we have to be concerned about food safety - who wants to get a case of food poisoning from poor food handling? But, our concern in eating safe food is not at all the same as Peter’s concern in eating the right food. We are concerned with bacteria and creepy crawlies; Peter is concerned with ceremonial clean food.
Lincoln Proclaims National Fast Day
Abraham Lincoln wrote an address to the nation during the Civil War that was at least as important as the Gettysburg Address.
It was his proclamation for a national fast-day, by which he did designate and set apart Thursday the 30th day of April 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer.
Lincoln wrote: "It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
"The awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.
"Intoxicated wi...
I was at a Mongolian grill once with three other pastors, one of whom wasn’t eating. Another of the pastors was asking him why he wasn’t eating, wondering if he didn’t have money or wasn’t feeling well. The pastor did not offer that he was fasting and I appreciate this pastor’s effort not to make a big deal out it. What do you suppose he did when I intimated that he was fasting? Did he throw his hands up in the air, say "Crap! (you know, losing his sanctification and everything) Now my fast is ruined!" and grab a plate? Of course not. People finding out that you’re fasting does not nullify the sanctity of your fast. But fasting so that others will be impressed does mean there was no sanctity in it in the first place.
John Wesley declared, “. . .it was not merely by the light of reason that the people of God have been, in all ages, directed to use fasting as a means, but they have been taught it of God Himself, by clear and open revelations of His will. . .Now, whatever reasons there were to quicken those of old, i...
