The Focus of Worship

Tonight at Watershed's Thursday Gathering I will be starting a series on the values that Watershed holds as a young adult ministry. The first value we'll be discussing this evening is Worship.

In my personal reading times, I've been going through the Old Testament (or my new word choice - "The Hebrew Scriptures"). Recently I came across a story in 2 Kings that I really wanted to use in tonight's talk, but for the sake of time and clarity, I'm not using the passage. So I thought I'd blog it! :o)

Worshipping Saving Snakes
Perhaps you are familiar with the story of the serpent on the pole in Numbers 21. It's a bit of an odd story - God has commanded the Israelites NOT to worship idols (I'm thinking specifically of the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20), but in this passage he has Moses craft a bronze snack, put it high on a pole, and have the people look at it whenever they get bitten by a poisonous snake. Jesus refers to this story in John 3:14-15 when he says that like the snake, he too must be lifted up (meaning that when people look on the crucified Christ to save them, they will be healed from their sin and separation from God).

(Interesting side note: I've been reading "The Gospel According to Moses" by Athol Dickson. Athol talks about this paradox (no idols, but look upon a bronze snake), and mentions that the Hebrew word used in this passage for "pole" is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures as "banner" or "example". He wonders aloud in his book that perhaps it wasn't the snake that the people were to look to but the "example" or the One behind the serpent. This goes along with what I discovered in 2 Kings, which I now come to...)

In 2 Kings 18:1-4, we are introduced to Hezekiah, the new king of Judah. Of the many kings talked about in 1 and 2 Kings, Hezekiah is one of the better ones - he was focused on doing what was right in the eyes of God. As the chapter is opening and sharing about the good things Hezekiah did during his reign, it mentions in verse 4 that he destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses has fashioned.

What? Moses is a hero - an icon of the Jewish faith. How can Hezekiah be "good" if he destroyed an ancient artifact that Moses himself crafted?

Because the people had stopped worshipping the God who told Moses to build and raise up the bronze snake and began worshipping the snake itself!

Worship Snakes Today
I think sometimes we make similar mistakes. I know Christians who have clung on to their style, their preferences, their "banners", and have gotten their eyes off the One those things originally pointed to. And I'm not just talking about people who are clinging to what many churches call "tradition". I think even "new" forms of worship have turned into bronze snakes for some people.

So when you go to worship God, whether corporately or privately, what is your focus? How good the band did? How well the devotional writer wrote? How much organ or drums there were during the music? What the pastor was wearing while he delivered the sermon? Or is your focus on the One who called these people and these forms for a season to be used as tools to direct people's attention to Him?

As John Piper says: "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him". I encourage you to not be satisfied simply by a music style or a particular book. But be satisfied only in the One who gave the grace for us to enjoy the music and the books and to be used to draw our hearts toward Him. Move your eyes past the snake to the One who was lifted up on a cross for the forgiveness of your sins.

Dave the Driver (in CR!)

The Starving Jesus gang has put up a "Dave the Driver" video on their home page. While it is pretty funny, I got a kick watching out the window of the RV - this was all filmed in Cedar Rapids!

And as you watch, keep in mind that J.R. and Dave (the two insulting each other in the video) have known each other since 1st grade. So you'll understand why they treat each other like brothers.

Final Thoughts (Starving Jesus and the fast)

Starving Jesus
What a GREAT night. Even though Craig Gross got stuck in Chicago and couldn't make it, the night still exceeded my expectations. JR was extremely transparent as he talked - and his passion for Christ betrayed the fact he's been talking about this stuff everyday for the past 27 days+ (I would probably be getting bored saying the same thing over and over). And to meet Dave and Clint was an additional treat.

But what has me just as excited was the number of Compassion kids that were sponsored. I don't have a total number, but I saw a LOT of people adopting kids. It was awesome to watch.

And then our House of Hope construction project set for Oct. 7th and 14th in one night was almost completely filled. I think we only have like 2 open slots left. That too blew me away.

I want to say a gigantic thanks to everyone who helped us with set-up: Matt, Steve, and Kern who showed up at 3:30 to get things started (you guys did a great job moving trailers by hand!). To Joe, Amber, Christina, Heather, Jonathan, Austin, Andy, John, Phil, and anyone else I might have missed - thank you for not only helping with set-up but sticking around to take it all down as well. We could not have gotten things done without you.

And a special thanks for Andrew Male who bailed us out last minute with the video stuff. We went from one projector that wouldn't work to two projectors and two TVs that worked beautifully!

And last, but definitely not least, thank you God for the gorgeous night and for showing up in JR, and the videos, and all that took place that I don't even know about.

Be sure to check out the Starving Jesus website with their thoughts on their time in CR. (And the photo above is of the praying mantis that joined in the night with us - biggest praying mantis I have EVER seen!) To see more photos from the Cedar Rapids stop, go to our basic Starving Jesus photo page on the Watershed website.

Break Fast
I was surprised last night that I could do all the work I did without much fatigue at all. I thought for sure after 8 days of no food and only water and juice (and Propel) I would be quite a bit weaker. It was by God's grace I felt so good. In fact I admitted to some people that I felt like I could keep going. But I didn't. :o)

I decided to start simple - I ate a yogurt when I got home at midnight. Well... and a piece of left over birthday cake I made for LeAnn last Saturday. :o) But I think my taste buds went to sleep on this fast - the yogurt tasted kind of weird and the cake really wasn't very good (but it was 6 days old...). My cereal this morning was fine, and my Chic-Fil-A sandwich was better, but I still feel like my taste buds are trying to figure out how to work again.

And as I admitted on the blog earlier this week, I did not step on our scale at home during the fast so that I wouldn't think about the weight loss - I wanted all this to be about God.

But now that the fast is over I stepped on the scale this morning. I haven't seen a number that low in quite some time. :o)

Between January (when we got our scale) and the start of my fast last week, I had lost approximately 13 lbs. Well, in one week, I lost 9 lbs. I had heard that you can lose about a pound a day during a food-free fast, but I didn't think I would lose quite that much. I guess I was wrong. And to be honest, it's kind of nice to be this thin again. :o)

Someone asked if I will fast again like this. Undoubtedly yes! It is hard to do with a family (mealtimes together are so precious) and those first few days are quite hard, but it felt kind of nice to be free of food, to be more intentionally focused on Christ and the Word, and to sense God giving me grace when I was so tempted to eat. I might even try to go longer - but it sure would help to have someone else doing it with me.

So that's the wrap up to the Starving Jesus event and of my personal fast. It was a great experience, and I hope the residual effects of all of this are seen and felt for quite some time.

-E

Fasting Quote

On the last day of my fast, I found this great John Piper quote on Desiring God's website.

"?The reward we are to seek from the Father in fasting is not first or mainly the gifts of God, but God himself."
(A Hunger for God, pg. 78)

I thank God that by his grace He gave me this outlook before the fast began. And as my 8 day fast comes to an end, God himself is what I am still seeking.

P.S. After a good night's sleep, the nervousness I had about tonight's Starving Jesus event is gone and I am extremely excited at what God may do tonight. Hope to see you there!

Starving Jesus and Starving Erin

Starving Jesus
Only one more day until the Starving Jesus tour joins up with Watershed for one night. I'm super excited, but for some odd reason a little nervous. I'm hoping that every thing comes together and that we aren't the worst stop on the tour. I am really praying that God draws the right people who need to hear Craig and J.R.'s message, and that in Kingdom-terms the night is a success, regardless of how many actually show up.

If you live in the Cedar Rapids area and don't have plans (or if you do - cancel them!), I encourage you to join us tomorrow night, Aug. 31 at 7:30 pm in the west parking lot outside New Covenant Bible Church.

Starving Erin
My fast has been really good, very interesting, and quite hard. Here are some thoughts (some even paradoxical thoughts) on my fast so far:

- I know this next sentence makes no sense: in some ways I expected the fast to be easier (I didn't expect hunger pains THAT strong) but also harder (I've had no headaches and almost no fatigue).

- It wasn't as hard sitting at the restaurants last Friday and Saturday watching everyone eat as I had expected (although I was very hungry). But it was much harder to make a cake and supper for LeAnn's birthday on Saturday afternoon. And the supper that the Pagels brought to us last night was almost unbearable to smell!

- I was told by various sources that I just needed to make it through Day 3. Well Day 4 was JUST as hard as Day 3. Day 5 was the turn around for me.

- I expected to need more sleep and to feel more tired. I've been very surprised at my energy level, especially with a newborn baby in the house (I woke up at 2:30 this morning with T and couldn't get back to sleep until 4:30 am - weird!).

- I have been very glad that I made the decision not to step on the scale during this fast (so that it wouldn't be an extreme diet), but I can tell in the mirror I've lost weight.

- I've had some great times with God during all of this, but haven't quite had the deep moments I expected and prayed for. But I've seen some cool things in Scripture lately! (Ask me about my new-to-me discovery of Elijah/Elisha paralleling John the Baptist/Jesus!).

- And I am glad that by the grace of God I haven't even slipped once (I even washed the cake icing off my finger instead of licking it off as I baked last Saturday), but I have been amazed at the power of temptation to eat. I didn't realize how easily I ate before, or how prevalent food is in our society (every where I go are advertisements or conversations about food!).

- I haven't regretted a bit doing this, and think I will probably do another fast in the future. But I also have to be honest - I am REALLY looking forward to Friday! :o)

Happy Birthday!

Here's a happy birthday post to the most important woman in my life.

I Love you, Le! Welcome to 33.

More on fasting...

Two days until my week-long fast. I'm excited, nervous, and fearful all at the same time. Excited about what God will do in my life during this next week. Nervous of the unknown (as I've admitted, I've never done a fast for this long). And fearful of going without food for a full week (I really like food!). But if the Starving Jesus dudes can go 40 days, I think I can handle 7.

Books on Fasting
If you are thinking about joining me for this fast, but want some more info, someone lent me two books on fasting. I quickly read the little one entitled "How to Fast Successfully" by Derek Prince. It was well written, to the point, and somewhat helpful. The other book is entitled "The Beginner's Guid to Fasting" by Elmer Towns. I haven't cracked it yet, but I am familiar with Elmer Towns' name, and so expect the book to be just as good as and more thorough than Prince's short book. If you would like to borrow one of these books, just let me know, other wise I'll return them to their owner after my fast.

If you don't have time for a book right now, you might just check out the page about fasting on StarvingJesus.com by clicking on Fasting 101 in the right column (before the tour dates list).

Be Affirmed!

In case you've been feeling neglected or ignored by me lately, please click here.

:o)

My life as an apple tree...

Observation from my back yard at this moment...

There is an apple tree growing in the back northwest corner (the picture is of M hanging from it two summers ago). My kids love to climb it. (But at the moment M and S are playing some strange game of knocking each other off the slide - and they are laughing and loving it. I'm wondering how much longer it will last before someone gets hurt, but I digress... back to the tree...)

I noticed this evening that the tree is producing more apples this summer, and larger ones at that, than in previous years. But as I sit here on the patio in my cracked plastic chair, I noticed how the fruit is strong and numerous on some branches, but very few apples are growing in other parts.

Man, my spiritual life is a lot like that apple tree...

Fasting

By the way, I think I failed to mention with all of this Starving Jesus stuff that I've decided I'm going to fast from food completely for 7 days. I'm going to start August 25th and end the fast after the event on the 31st (well, technically I'll break the fast on Sept 1).

I'm excited about this fast, but also dreading it. My wife's birthday is August 25th (so I better make sure we celebrate early!), I have a conference the 25th and 26th, our staff has a fun activity planned for the 29th... All these great "food" opportunities and I'm going to have to abstain. AAAHHHH! Maybe my food addiction is worse than I thought... ;o)

What will make the fast easier is if I have some other people doing it with me. If you are in CR and want to join me, leave a comment here or email me directly. I'll let you decide what your fast looks like (one day, daylight hours only, TV/media fast, etc.). If you do do a fast for only one day, I strongly recommend you do it on Thursday, August 31, then come to the Starving Jesus event sponsored by Watershed.

-E