a call to fasting

a call to fasting...
as i explained yesterday, fasting is a discipline that many of us desperately need. why? cause our lives are being ruined by our inability or unwillingness to deny our selves. our bodily desires (or mental desires) too often dictate our lives, and often those desires are detrimental to us (and to others)...
and so, amidst needing to deal with the specific areas of sin that dominate our desires (lust, greed, materialism, pride, selfishness in whatever form), many of us need to aggressively deal with our own lack of self-control and inability/unwillingness to deny ourselves.
enter: fasting.
again, as i said yesterday, fasting isn't about food. It's about training ourselves in self-denial. it will reveal to us how much our lives are dictated by our desires, and it will train us to acknowledge our desires and submit them to God's desires (to say "no" to ourselves so that we can say "yes" to God). which is exactly what many of us need.
now lets just say it--fasting isn't easy. its not convenient. its socially awkward at times. and it can't fit around our schedules (or between meals or snacks). it will reshape our schedule. simply put: it's costly. but thats exactly what we need--a new habit that will challenge us profoundly, that will call into question how we think and live, and that will ultimately change us. fact is, being unable to deny ourselves is costly. too costly. so at the outset, we need to decide what we want most: to not have to go thru the difficulties of fasting, or to break free from the bondage of having no self control? as far as i can see, fasting is less costly in the long run...
now there are a lot of ways that one could take on a discipline of fasting. whatever it is, it needs to be costly and regular. for me, i've recently decided to fast one day a week (a habit i've had in the past and i'm now coming back to). its long enough (a whole day) that i definitely start to feel hunger and have to wrestle with that, and its consistent enough that it becomes a part of my way of life, and calls into question my way of life (not just something i do once in a while).
to the question of does fasting have to be from food? well, there might be a time and place for fasting from other things (and certain medical conditions that would hinder someone from being able to fast), but generally i think there is significance in fasting being from food. we need it. in fact, its a gift from God (unlike say: the TV). to deny ourselves food (for a giving time) is to deny ourselves something that is essential to living, and to do so will cut us to the core. few other forms of fasting will cut us as deeply as food fasting.
on a practical note, its vital to decide ahead of time when you will fast and how you will fast. for me its mondays, and all i consume is water. if you wait till the morning to decide whether or not you'll fast, you won't. and if you wait till the moment to decide whether or not you'll eat or drink a certain thing, you will. whenever i start fasting, i have to sit down and think through and decide when and how--otherwise my fasting will be dictated by my desires (which is why i'm fasting).
one other practical thought: don't abandon your fast if you break your fast in some way (by accident or even on purpose). we do that too much (with sin). you mess up (give in to your familiar temptation) and then decide to just give up. at some point you'll have to get up again, why makes things harder on yourself by just throwing up your arms in defeat (and all the impact that comes from that). if you mess up (ie. forget that you're fasting and chuck back a Timbit, or intentionally break your fast in some way), dive back into it, pray about it and learn from it.
the main thing that i think we often lose sight of is that fasting will only become a "spiritual" discipline if we go about it in submission to the Spirit of God. that doesn't mean that we will be in prayer every moment of our fast, but that we will be intentional to engage with God as we fast: to let our feelings of hunger prompt us to prayer; that when i feel like i so much want/need something to eat or drink, that i'll bring that hunger to God and ask Him to stir my hunger for Him; that i'll pray and ask God to make me more aware of my sinful desires and that i'll similarly submit them to Christ and deny myself; that when i start rationalizing my way towards eating something that i take to heart how often i do this with sinful desires, and that i seek God to help me turn from this... and so on.
for fasting to accomplish its purpose we need to go about it in dependence upon and submission to the Holy Spirit, inviting Him to use this as a means of His transforming work in us--which involves the renewal of our minds, the submission of our will, the redemption of our bodies, the re-direction of our desires. ultimately for His glory and our joy in Him...
thats enough for now. questions? thots? words of wisdom? obviously i haven't covered everything in reference to fasting, just the stuff that's most pressing. if you have questions or stuff you want to explore further, then respond to this blog and we'll go deeper.
praying with and for you (you are part of the reason that i'm fasting). your parkside compadre, scott anderson

Ramblings by RexManning

here are some loosely connected ramblings by RexManning. maybe you'll identify with this or parts of this, or maybe you'll wonder "what are talking about?" If you find yourself in the latter you are blessed.

Three years ago I moved. I was in a place doing lots of things where I was and it was in these things that I found my identity. I came to not like that about me. Now I’m in a place where I do much less. I wish I could say that I feel better but I really don’t. I wish I could report that I found myself in the transition or the going through changes or just in god but I haven’t discovered me in any of it.
I wonder if 'it' (our sence of self or maybe worth) is somehow connected to our actions (for which some say we are judged upon … whether by god or man), or is it about just being? I’ve heard it said by Buddhist and Christian alike that we need to find ourselves not in our doing but in our being. If that is so then what are we to do? Are we just passing time from conception to the grave?
If we are just passing time does any of this matter - the processes and experiences that form us? Even so, how much of our character is made up of what we precieve to be right or wrong in our actions or opinions. (This is where I get tangled up.) Wasn’t the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil something that was never meant for man/woman?
I find no worth in and of myself, yet I crave the attention and affirmation of others.
and still I lift my eyes up to the heavens. Where does my help come from? Does my worth come from the maker of heaven and earth? When I consider these things I wonder who am I that you are mindful of me?
If you think I have had some idea that resembles truth near the end when I start to talk about god, I fear you may have missed my concern in all of this. It is much easier to say than to rearrange my mind to settle on any answer here. Maybe there is no answer – just ideas. I’ll end it here so that there will be room for discussion.

so do we pray for healing?

so, we've been talking about healing recently.
why? 2 reasons. cause many of us and others around us have bodies that are broken, sick, failing. AND cause healing is something that happens when the Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus healed not to prove that He was Divine (though He was), but to prove that the kingdom of God was beginning to be revealed on earth.
anyways, last sunday we dove into the difficult waters of faith and healing--how having enough faith isn't the only matter in healing. God's will is the ultimate matter in healing...
too many people have been weighted down with guilt because someone has told them that if only they had more faith they would have been healed, or their child would have lived, or whatever. when all the while, they had as much faith as they could muster and had prayed like crazy, and still they weren't healed, or their child didn't live. healing requires faith, but it is ultimately a matter that rests in the will of God.
and so we ended by talking about the need to come at prayer in a new way. instead of just prayer for our desires and tacking on "but not my will but yours be done, Jesus teaches and invites us to begin prayer with discernment (to begin by asking God what His will is, to ask God what He wants us to pray for...), and then to pray for that, to seek Him for His will. confident that what we seek is God's will.
the challenge of this is that discernment takes time. it isn't always just a matter of asking in the moment, hearing in the moment, and then praying. it takes time. time to listen. time to discern God's voice. time to have God search and sift our desires and reveal His. but in the end, it is a gift to come to God knowing that what we seek is truly His will, to know that we are seeking what God is seeking.
now as i said on sunday (repeatedly) this isn't the whole story on healing and prayer (and prayer for healing). there is so much more that could be said and that needs to be said.
and one of those things is what James says in James 5:14. but before i explain the verse (that most of us know), let me explain why i'm even bringing it up.
i guess i walk away from sunday concerned that any of us might now think that we shouldn't pray for healing, that we can't pray for healing, that we're only allowed to pray for healing, unless we've first heard God say that its His will to heal... cause its true, it isn't always God's will to heal... BUT it is always His heart (His desire).
and so, although i know that Jesus is calling us to learn to seek to know His will so that we might pray in faith for His will, He also invites us through James to ask for healing prayer. james 5:14, "Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord."
so what does this mean? does the Bible teach us to ask for prayer for healing when we're sick, or does it teach us to seek to know GOd's will and then pray for that? well, i'd say both.
God is not a slot machine. Christianity is not a system. we are children of a Living God who relates to us as a Living God. He has a will and desires (as we do). He is sovereign and all-knowing (unlike us). but that doesn't mean that He is impersonal. if anything, the Bible affirms to us that God is personal. we are invited into a living relationship with Him. to worship and trust and surrender to Him, but also to wrestle with him. sometimes God has even been known to change His will.
may God grant us humility as we wrestle with God and ourselves, and may His Kingdom and His will always win out... for His glory and our joy in Him.
your companion in the journey,
scott b. anderson

what would it take?

ok, so this is my dream for you and me and parkside: that we would be/become the kind of people and community that others (who don't know Christ) would be drawn to.
when i read the gospels, i'm struck with how much people were drawn to Jesus. not the ruling people (be it religious leaders or political leaders), but pretty much everyone else. and then it was the same with the early church in the book of Acts. not that the church was the new "it" thing. but there was something about Jesus and something about that early community of Christians that attracted the humble, the broken, the hungry, the weary. and the room was always full. people were drawn to Jesus. they were hungry for what they saw in him. they were hungry for what they saw among the early Christians...
thats what i long for. that we would become the kind of people and church that others (who don't know Christ) would be drawn to.
so the question then is: how? what would it take?
- what would need to happen/change to see you and i become the kind of Christians that others (who don't know Christ) are drawn to?
- what would need to happen/change to see Parkside become the kind of church that others (who don't know Christ) are drawn to?

seriously...
i'm listening. scott

yes, but...

so, the last couple weeks we've had some pretty significant conversations about the gospel (i.e. what is it and do we believe it?). do we believe Jesus when he says that, in his coming, the kingdom of God has begun to be revealed on the earth?... that, in his coming, the day of salvation has begun?
and then this passed sunday, we dove into a 1st century understanding of being a rabbi's disciple: to be with the rabbi, that we might learn from the rabbi, how to be like the rabbi... how to do what the rabbi does... for this is what Jesus is inviting us to in His call to follow Him (matthew 4:19, mark 1:16f).
as i keep saying, the implications of all this are truly life-altering. especially since so many of us live like Christian deists (as though God created everything, got the ball rolling, told us/showed us how to live, at present isn't around, but will meet us at the end). the gospel (the reality that the kingdom of God is at hand) invites us to live in a new way. to live in faith for God to be at work in and around and through us... do you live like that? not just do you believe that, but do you live like that?
do we live and pray in expectation for God to heal the sick? do we live and pray in expectation for God to bring deliverance to those caught in the grip of sin? do we live and pray in expectation for God to reveal Himself to those who can't see Him? do we live and pray in expectation for God to break in to the darkness that creaps in on us and others?... cause that is what the gospel is all about: we live in the day when God shows up... to save.
yes but...
its that "yes but" that is so difficult to get passed.
fact is the kingdom has not yet come in its fullness. sin is not a thing of the past. disease and death still happen. injustice still has its grip. brokenness remains.
and because of this--because we live in-between the times (the kingdom is already here but not yet in its fulness)--it sometimes seems easier not to get our hopes up. not to set ourselves up for disappointment... not to pray for the sick (cause what if they aren't healed). not to expect deliverance (cause what if no relief comes). not to pray for revelation (cause what if we/they never see and truly believe).
sometimes it seems easier to not believe. sometimes it seems better to not believe.
and thats where i hear Jesus saying, "yes but.." but what about those times when he does truly desire to heal, to bring deliverance, to break in... through our prayers and faith? if healing is only going to come to 10% of those we pray for, why not pray for 100 people, instead of stopping after 3 disappointments? if we choose to set up camp in the land of the not yet, we are going to miss out on so much of God's desires for us. if we choose to set up camp in the land of the not yet, so many others are going to miss out on God's desires for them.
are we willing to embrace disappointments in love for others? are we willing to embrace disappointments in the expectation that there will also be victories? are we willing to embrace disappointment for the sake of those few who will be healed/saved/restored through our prayers?
if we are going to take the gospel seriously, we need to believe the gospel in the face of abiding brokenness. and not let the possibility of disappointments dissuade us from acting in faith for the kingdom to be revealed in and through us...
... i'll stop there. thots? stirrings? wrestlings? amens? yes buts?
may God's kingdom come and will be done, on earth, in and through us, as it is in heaven...
your companion in the journey, scott b. anderson

ashes... venturing into lent

ashes...
Lent begins with ashes. the ashes of burnt palm leaves from last year's Palm Sunday. i.e. we begin where we will end. i.e. we know where we're heading... to the cross. to the darkness of Good Friday, the pain and confusion of Holy Saturday, and the joy and relief of Resurrection Sunday.
Lent is a journey towards the cross. but not because being sober is the holiest of moods, or cause its healthy to fast or we could use a God-driven diet... but because we often lose touch with how much we need redemption. because we often lose touch with the hunger of our soul for God and His grace... through Lent, we are led to rediscover our hunger and to follow its lead... to God.
I'm wary of Lent when it is percieved simply as 40 days of fasting from sweets or TV or whatever. I'm wary of Lent when it is explained simply in terms of self-denial... because lent is so much more than this. it involves fasting. self-denial is central to Lent. but the fasting and self-denial and repentance are not the end. they're not the goal. not the purpose. the end of Lent is transformation, new life, resurrection. life... not death. Lent is a gift, not a drudgery. its an invitation into the very depths of God's love and grace, with the hope of being raised to a new life in and with Christ...
so, as we begin lent, i want to invite you to join me in seeking to embrace self-denial for the sake of becoming more responsive to the needs of others (physically, relationally, spiritually)... to fast so as to feel the hunger of others and to find ways to respond to it... to go without for the sake of giving more to others...
in this lenten journey, may we truly die with Christ to sin (self-obsession, self-preoccupation, self-preservation) and may we truly rise with Christ to a new life--to live in and with Christ. a life marked by selfless love and compassion and mercy and grace and righteousness (i.e. peacemaking and justice-seeking).
may your journey through Lent be truly filled with joy. may you be filled with the hope of a new life emerging from the death of your self...
ashes...
you companion in the journey, scott

flip. by Rex Manning

My family had a trampoline when I was a kid. It was a good distraction for a kid and I was great at front flips. I never did get the back flip though. I was just too scared. Well last summer I was hanging out with some friends and decided that I should get over it and just try. Funny thing about fear, eh? or was I just showing off!?!? I don't think the fears of a child always need to be attacked by a thrirty year old. Yeah, that's right. Thirty. ...well, things didn't turn out so well that fatefull day. I landed on my head and had to go to physio two weeks later when I could hardly move my back.

Although I'm sure there is a lesson in that, that's not really the kind of flip I mean to talk about. I mean flippant. (from the word flip) I got this from dictionary.com:

flip·pant adj.
Marked by disrespectful levity or casualness.

Is it just me or has flippancy been a plague to all of us. I'm sure it stems from holding all things suspect or being a sceptic or individualistic or something of that nature (which is not always bad considering that that likely comes from disappointment). What ever the source, have we become fippant. Here is my "proof". In light of our youth culture we hold high the idea of COOL. Now cool dosn't just mean Neato! or Awesome! or even popular. That is how we sometimes use the word, but cool is much more. It's the Fonz - AKA. Arthur 'Fonzie' Fonzerelli (Happy Days). He was cool because he was always in every situation calm, COOL and collected. Nothing could rattle him. I can think of many times when being calm and collected is good but for nothing to shake us we often shut down our passion and caring so as to not let things get to us. So there is my conection. Cool is to 'not be rattled (shaken)' and to be popular and Neato! That's sad, don't you think? To link the two? Where is life love and passion when it is neato to be flippant. Does anyone remember the song by Ben Folds Five called "Battle of Who Could Care Less" from the album 'Whatever And Ever Amen"? It is a tongue in cheek look at fippancy. her's the first verse:

Do you not hear me anymore
I know it's cool to be so bored
I know it's not your thing to care
But it sucks me in
when you're aloof
It sucks me in, it sucks it works
I guess it's cool to be alone
Will you never rest
Fighting the battle of who could care less
Everyday you wake up late
Sometimes I wish I was that way

Well in effort not to go on and on, I'll stop now and hear what ya'll have to say. or don't respond, either way I don't care! (jokes!)