Living intentionally Oct 2015 by LIVE-UK

ISSUE TWO

October 2015

LIVING INTENTIONALLY LEARNING TO LIVE INTENTIONALLY…. TOGETHER

EVEN REFUGEES CAN BE INTENTIONAL

MK INTENTIONAL CITY A Student’s Story FASTING FOR BEGINNERS

OCTOBER 2015 ISSUE TWO

LIVING INTENTIONALLY

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SYRIANS LIVING THE REFUGEE CRISIS Personal Stories from those living the experience

PLACE YOURSELF BEFORE GOD Intentionality

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LIVING THE DREAM OF MILTON KEYNES Roundabouts, cows and Greg Rutherford.

6 KEYS The Adventist Church shares the 6 keys of faith

30 MINUTES WITH JODY BLOOM Cambridge graduate living intentionally

UNFORGIVENESS & THE BRAIN We’re talking rumination and diminished memory to start

FASTING FOR BEGINNERS Breaking it down…

ARE YOU IN AN INTENTIONAL CHURCH? Time to ask yourself the question…

PERSONAL STORIES FROM SYRIAN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

IN THE REFUGEE CRISIS The difficulty of reporting from inside Syria means the world has heard very little about the suffering of the country’s children. Our teams on the ground and across the region are hearing of the appalling misery being inflicted on the country’s children. Here are some personal stories from children and families who have been affected:

Nidal Six-year old Nidal and his sister fled the conflict in Syria because of ongoing shelling and shooting. He was shot at while playing in the street with friends, was chased, and witnessed armed men taking his father away. His father was then killed in the street. “My name is Nidal. I am six years old. I left Syria eight days ago. What do I remember? Shelling. And explosions. “Houses fell, all because of an explosion. Another house was hit and was destroyed completely. There were people inside. [My grandma’s] house is filled with bullet holes, even the steel doors were broken.” “Men were running and shooting. A man came to our house, opened the door violently and sat next to our window with his rifle. And they all started shooting. I was scared. I was scared when I saw the fire. I thought maybe the house would burn while we were inside. I thought I was going to die.” “My message to the world? The war should stop in Syria so we can go back to our country.”

Saba 13-year-old Saba’s home was destroyed by the fighting. She has been unable to go to school or play outside due to the shellings. “We left Syria because there were lots of explosions but we didn’t want to leave our house. We were injured and we got scared, that is why we left. What do I remember? People being hurt. People dying. In front of my eyes.” “We were scared the same thing would happen to us. I felt…fear. I would pray that the sky would be cloudy so that planes couldn’t see us to drop shells on us. But the planes were always there.” “They were hitting schools. Many children died so we got scared and stopped going to school. No children would go to school, it was too dangerous. It makes me sad that I am not going to school.” “We should stop these shellings. For me, explosions lead to destruction. And more than that – shells injure people and kill people. The only effect is destruction, death and wounded people. My home has been destroyed, we were in it when it was it, and when it fell. I feel as though all of Syria has been destroyed.” 3

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I felt…fear. I would pray that the sky would be cloudy so that planes couldn’t see us to drop shells on us. But the planes were always there…

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Hiba (mother) Hiba has recently fled the conflict in Syria with her daughter and her severely disabled son, following the destruction of her home. The breakdown in healthcare in Syria meant that Hiba was unable to access the treatment and medicines her son needs. His condition is worsening. “Hospitals in Syria are being targeted by shells. The one I took my son to for physiotherapy sessions is not operating anymore. Some were hit by shells. Others were untouched but the roads were too dangerous for us to travel to the hospitals anyway. We stay at home, we call the doctor, but we can never reach him.” “How do I feel? Any mother’s heart would break seeing her son in this state. I am helpless. When I see him tired, I wish it was me instead. He gets stiff and faints; his eyes stare…this is very hard for me. Sometimes I cry, but I can’t do anything. “Once the shells started and we ran…I couldn’t take my son’s wheelchair so I had to carry him, and run. We thought it was better for us to die in the street than under the rubble of our house. We ran at three in the morning and we didn’t know where to go. We were just running because we didn’t want to die under the rubble. I wasn’t thinking – I just wanted to protect my children.” “In the morning we came back to our home but it was ruined…I cried and I shouted but there was nothing else I could do. There is no human being alive that wouldn’t be sad – we worked all our life to building our home and suddenly we lose it all. “ “There is no place for us to go, no safe space to go to at all… Syria is our country and we want to go back there. I don’t know who is right and who is wrong, but I know we civilians are paying the price.” scaemergency.org.au

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THE CHURCH COMMUNITY THAT CARES

CAMBRIDGE SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH HOBART ROAD

INTENTIONALITY Place Your Life Before God So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so welladjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1,2 (The Message)

RESTLESSNESS

Directing Our Final Intention Toward God

EDITOR HI, WELCOME TO A BRAND NEW MAGAZINE BUILT JUST FOR YOU. UNASHAMEDLY ADVENTIST AND CHRISTIAN, WE’RE EXCITED TO INTRODUCE TO YOU THE EXCELLENCE OF THE GOSPEL IN A MODERN, DYNAMIC AND INTENTIONAL WAY. JOIN US ON THE JOURNEY AND LETS EXPLORE TOGETHER! LETS GET INTENTIONAL TOGETHER AND BE THE PEOPLE WE INTEND TO BE. PASTOR COLIN STEWART

Milton Keynes UK, An Intentional City

MK HUB

INTENTIONALITY:

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THE THING IS, MK HAS ITS OWN STYLE. FOR INSTANCE, IN MK WE ALL LEAN TO THE RIGHT. NOT POLITICALLY SPEAKING, BUT PHYSICALLY.

When people talk about Milton Keynes, they tend to mention two things: concrete cows and roundabouts. Why, you might ask, aren’t they marvelling over how one can get to Bletchley on the train in four minutes, Leighton Buzzard in 11 minutes, or Cheddington in 17minutes? Or how there are two Costas, two Pret A Mangers and two Starbucks’ in the same shopping centre? There’s little justice in a new-town world. Cows and roundabouts are what stick. MK – as the locals call it — has been popping up in the news of late, whether it’s CCTV footage of some blokes driving through the door of the Red Bull Racing HQ and nicking the trophies; plans for the first driverless cars to be tested on MK streets; anticipation of the Rugby World Cup (MK is a host city); or the highest increase in jobs in the country. These stories nearly always come armoured with wry references to the cows (albeit now better-employed cows) and roundabouts. But they never really get MK. Perhaps that’s because no one seems to have lived there. The place has an in-and-out sort of vibe. But I have lived there, and I want to offer an appreciation of Milton Keynes. I’m fond of the place. I grew up in the surrounding area – a 10-minute drive away – and until recently lived in a flat smack in the city centre, above a Café Rouge, opposite a Nando’s, a Zizzi, a Las Iguanas, with the Argos headquarters to the rear, a Jury’s Inn on one flank and an enormous Sainsbury’s on the other. Dear reader, you’re right: I was living the dream. The thing is, MK has its own style. For instance, in MK we all lean to the right. Not politically speaking, but physically. It’s those roundabouts again. Just check the tyres on any MiltonKeynesian car — always more worn on the right than the left. So we affect a special lean. That’s MK style. Getting lost down a street that looks like the last seven you’ve covered? That;’s also MK style. Getting palpitations when you go a hundred yards without coming across a roundabout? MK style. A glass-sheeted city of endless reflections: the epitome of MK style.

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I’m a writer, a bookish soul, so style preoccupies me. Books offer particular ways of seeing. Their style becomes a perception that we take on. Milton Keynes, then, is specifically a JG Ballard novel — all concrete and chrome; hard-edged; made up of odd juxtapositions. Sometimes it can feel a bit Martin Amis, too — cartoonish, built on extremes, vibrating with a repressed satirical energy. When I was a kid, MK was a Roald Dahl story – lots of hairy-faced men in the shopping centre, the great glass elevator in John Lewis that presumably could fly, and peaches from M&S that, frankly, disappointed. Living in MK can also feel like living in one big art installation designed by a smirking postmodernist — which I love. There’s the Point, opened in 1985, the UK’s first true multiplex cinema. It rises from the concrete grid like a pyramid — a rusty skeleton of red bars meeting above a triangular structure of black blocks — but a pyramid for a lesser Pharaoh, like Wazner or Thesh, unremembered and uncelebrated. A pyramid for Rob Lowe or Emilio Estevez. Despite its historical reputation, it feels forgotten and fatigued, like the old man at a party who insists on his significant past (trials for West Ham, more sexual partners than is humanly possible). But no one’s paying attention. The glory days are gone. Then there’s the Xscape building (the Point’s usurper), a leaden humpback whale washed up in the middle of a big car park. And, of course, those cows, petrified into one long stony moo. Everywhere you go, the energy is offbeat. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but it suits me down to the concrete-gridded ground. It would be remiss not to mention the city’s heartbeat among this list of curiosities: the huge shopping centre, which, to most, justifies MK’s existence. It’s an ecological and temporal wonder. It has a tropical region (those alien-looking ferns and palm trees that line the concourses); an English pastoral (an oak tree with the flu in the centre — “acute oak decline” to be precise-

cont

with the obedient concrete cows huddled beneath its cropped and crippled arms); an artful bronze age (bronze statues nestled in unexpected places); an austere industrial age (up in the multistorey, out back in the humming warehouses); and the dizzying future of its traffic skyscape (look up and you’ll see delivery vehicles negotiating the rooftops overhead). The key to unlocking MK’s strange beauty is what Keats called “negative capability” – the ability to exist in contraries. After all, this is a place built on a grid system, configured by dualcarriageways, roundabouts, subways and bridges, yet it’s one of the greenest cities you could find, the interstices of said grid blooming with copious trees (some 20m in the urban area alone). It’s also a city with an indoor ski range (a bit strange) and, soon, driverless cars (very strange, though this suggests an absent-presence that seems somehow true to the MK experience). And let’s not forget my favourite Milton-Keynesian irony: the city isn’t a city at all. The centre is invariably referred to as the city centre, and numerous societies and clubs include “city” in their titles. But it’s not a city, it’s a town (whisper it;

this kind of thought is treasonous in these parts). You’ve got to love the ambition though. MK was designed on utopian principles. The grid, for instance, is meant to give the place order and pattern, what with its fixed map of symmetries and reliable right-angles, its carefully sequenced roundabouts and neat aisles of trees. Every road has its parallel, every spot its coordinate. You always know where you are with Milton Keynes. Above all, utopias are meant to give the sense of a frame within which to live. And Milton Keynes is a place of multiple frames. Because it’s a grid. But frames presuppose something beyond. They create the possibility of stepping outside of the frame. And the real MK, to my mind, is the stuff that does exactly this; the stuff that goes overlooked. It’s the little oddities and ironies, the blemishes within the self-imposed symmetries, that give the place its soul. These quiet rebellions are everywhere to be discovered. They’re there in the hidden pocket parks, entered through portals between office buildings like Alice through the rabbit hole. They’re there in the tumbling ivy and blossoms that pour over the low walls alongside the highways like something from an HG Wells novel.

But frames presuppose something beyond. They create the possibility of stepping outside of the frame. And the real MK, to my mind, is the stuff that does exactly this; the stuff that goes overlooked. It’s the little oddities and ironies, the blemishes within the self-imposed symmetries, that give the place its soul. These quiet rebellions are everywhere to be discovered. They’re there in the hidden pocket parks, entered through portals between office buildings like Alice through the rabbit hole. They’re there in the tumbling ivy and blossoms that pour over the low walls alongside the highways like something from an HG Wells novel. In MK, the modern and natural co-exist – lines of trees fattened on dual-carriageway mucus, densely vegetated roundabouts like conservation sites. But it somehow feels as if the modern is the older element, and the natural greens and browns and maroons are a newer supplement. New is old and old is new. A place of poetic ironies. That’s Milton Keynes. That’s the place I love. (And, let’s face it, utopias tend to be hells: everyone the same; everything levelled; a general mediocrity. Too many attractive anomalies in MK for that.)

Milton Keynes will always be the home of concrete cows and roundabouts. These are two facts not easily shaken off. But I want to add something else into the mix: Milton Keynes’s public art; the many sculptures and statues scattered about the landscape. London might have Nelson’s column, the north its angel, Manchester its Alan Turing. But here in Milton Keynes we have: Greg Rutherford … on a roundabout. There he is, the long-jumper suspended in mid-flight on a traffic island, a man made of metal. As you approach this statue from the east on the A421, something else catches the eye, directly beside Greg’s roundabout. A huge industrial unit, painted in a spectrum of blues so that it merges with the sky and looks like the mirage of a pool. Once you’ve picked this out of thin air, you notice the large “River Island” emblazoned across the side. And then a quintessentially Milton-Keynesian pun (unintentional, made from a random juxtaposition) becomes clear: Greg Rutherford is leaping from his island into an imaginary river. River island, indeed. You just have to look outside the frame. Because outside of the frame is where all the fun is to be had. That’s MK style. The Guardian · by Custardman · February 10, 2015 7

Cambridge University UK

JODY BLOOM

Student Testimony: My Intentional Living in Cambridge How did you find out about Cambridge Church and what made you decide to start attending? I had actually visited Cambridge church before I started University. During the summer holidays, I’d travelled up to view two potential houses for the year. The second house couldn’t arrange a viewing until 9pm, and after having dinner with my dad, we were wondering how to fill up the next couple of hours before the viewing. My dad suggested I visit the church, and it being a Wednesday, I realised they would likely be having prayer meeting. I agreed, and we hurried out of the restaurant and drove to the local Adventist church. My dad dropped me off, and I eagerly walked up to the front door. The lights were on in the sanctuary, and I could see a group of people sitting in a circle. They were already in the middle of the study, so I sat down and joined in, opening my Bible to 2 Corinthians 4:7. “We have this treasure hidden in earthen vessels…” At the end, they asked if there were any prayer requests. I requested that they pray for God to provide me with accommodation! So really even on your first experience at Cambridge Church, you were already involved! Was it easy for you to settle in with the church and the activities? Well, our prayers were answered. I found a house with five PGCE students, and best of all, it was only a 10 minute walk away from church. I always looked forward to putting my books down on Wednesday nights, and taking a leisurely stroll over to church for Prayer Meeting. Despite the journey being so short, it was guaranteed that someone would offer me a lift back to my house. Although it’s possible that this may have encouraged my aversion to

walking, I greatly appreciated their thoughtfulness, and many a theological discussion was had in the 3 minutes it took to drive to my door. Does anything stand out regarding your experiences at Cambridge Church? One thing that struck me most was their involvement with the community. Soon after I arrived, the church began to run a soup kitchen. I remember going out to invite the homeless to the kitchen a few hours before our opening night. It was cold, but we persevered, eager to serve and to make the project a success. We returned to church, and waited expectantly to see if anyone would come. No-one came, and we ended up eating the soup ourselves. But week after week I’d return to see first one new face, then two, until there were more visitors than church volunteers! And it wasn’t just homeless people who were attending. We had informed our community of the soup kitchen, and invited them to help. Faithful individuals would come out every week donating their time, or money (or both) to ensure that the soup kitchen ran smoothly. Did it have any influence on you spiritually? Well, I particularly remember Anna, a lady who lived just down the road from the church, making the whole table crack up with laughter with various anecdotes about her pet chickens, or providing free food she’d obtained from supermarkets before they threw it away. It was out of the soup kitchen that the idea of organising a beach trip came about. Church members, members of the community and homeless individuals from the soup kitchen all travelled together.

Cont,

I saw first-hand how the church was following Jesus’ example, ‘mingling with men as one who desired their good’. How else did you get involved with the community? We also went door-knocking, asking our neighbours if they had any prayer requests. Initially, the response I and my outreach partner received wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for. Most people were out (or were avoiding answering the door), and others just weren't interested. My partner appeared discouraged, but in the end, as we hadn’t been able to finish our street, we agreed to go again during the week. I decided to pray about it! Every chance I got, I asked God to work on the hearts of our neighbours. When we returned to the street, what a change! Nearly everyone was in and willing to answer their doors. People were friendly (especially once we assured them we weren’t selling anything), and we had several good conversations with individuals.

Did anything strike you about your intentional work in the community? I remember one young man who looked bemused when we asked him if he had a prayer request. Clearly he was not a praying man. He thought about it, then laughed, and asked us to pray for world peace. That night I prayed for world peace; I prayed that God’s kingdom would come soon, ushering in a world of peace. I also prayed for him. At another door, the girl who answered was visibly upset about something. When we asked if we could pray for her she readily agreed, requesting that we pray for her family. I couldn’t help but feel that God had sent us to her door at just the right time. Did your community experiences affect your development and the way you live and view life? Yes, it definitely impacted me as well as the community. I had always enjoyed being involved in church, but to be honest, at the start of the year I would have been more than happy to sit in the background and do my bit by just smiling at people 11

on Sabbath morning. I don’t put myself forward. Basically, I’m shy. Especially in a new environment, I’d rather just stay unnoticed. But somehow Cambridge saw something in me, and pushed me out of my comfort zone. They managed to convince me to come out of my shell, and had me up at the front, giving the welcomes, leading out an afternoon programme and a Week of Prayer reading. They even got me playing the piano for Women’s Day; anyone who knows me will testify that, much as I love the piano, I’m normally far too scared to play in public. As if that wasn’t enough, they managed to persuade me to lead a group of children at the Vacation Bible School. Seeing kids learning to pray for the first time, and asking if VBS could continue into the following week was an inspiration. Would you say there were any milestones in your Cambridge Experience? It would be one of my most memorable experiences at Cambridge church, which was when I was asked, and finally agreed, to take on my first proper preaching appointment. I was praying and praying beforehand that the sermon would be used to bless someone. God showed His great sense of humour by choosing me as the person He would bless through the sermon. The very next day, events transpired which meant that the message I’d spent weeks studying became very relevant in my own life and strengthened me more than I could imagine. God has used the short time I spent at Cambridge to refine my character and to bring me closer to Him. I am grateful to the church family for making my year such a wonderful experience, and I pray that they will continue to do so for all the students who pass through their doors.

Jody Bloom (Former Student, Cambridge University)

WHAT UNFORGIVENESS DOES TO YOUR BRAIN BY CHARLES STONE

We’ve all been deeply hurt in some way…a betrayal by a spouse, a behind-your-back criticism from a friend, hateful judgment from someone at church, a false accusation by a co-worker, unfair treatment by a boss or a parent. And the deeper the hurt, the harder it is and the longer it takes us to forgive. But sometimes we simply don’t forgive. We harbor a grudge. Resentment builds in our hearts. We nurse the offense. As a result, we remain prisoner to our pain and we harm our brain. When someone hurts us, it’s natural and normal to feel pain. God created our brains to help us survive when we feel threatened. It’s called the fight-flight-freeze response generated in our emotional centers, primarily mediated by two almond shaped clusters of brain cells called the amygdalae. When the amygdalae are activated, a series of bio-chemical processes begin. The adrenal glands that lie on top of our kidneys release the stress hormone cortisol into our bodies and the brain releases neurotransmitters into the brain. Those in turn activate part of our nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system. When this system is activated, among other things, our attention gets highly focused on survival, our digestive system stops, our pupils dilate, our saliva glands slow, our blood pressure and heart rate increases, and our muscles are readied for action. Our body prepares itself to fight, flee, or freeze. This process can happen whether or not we are in real danger or whether or not someone really hurts us or we simply perceive that they did. Unforgiveness can keep our bodies and brains in this state of high alertness and leads to these unhealthy results. • Rumination: we nurse and rehearse the hurt which reinforces our negative emotions and burns the event and pain even deeper into our neuropathways. When we’re not focused on a task, our inner selftalk will often default to rehearsing the painful situation. • Diminished memory: when we remain stressed for longs periods of time (i.e., we refuse to forgive), cortisol actually causes our brain to atrophy, especially our memory center called the hippocampus. • Amplified negative emotions: prolonged stress also amplifies our amygdalae’s sensitivity making us even more susceptible to further hurt and pain. • Schadenfreude: this concept describes the secret pleasure we feel when we see those who have hurt us experience misfortune themselves. It actually • causes our brain to produce the pleasure neurotransmitter dopamine. It actually feels good to see bad things happen to those we don’t forgive. It’s the opposite of praying for your enemies which Jesus commanded us to do. So, unforgiveness not only keeps us chained to our offender but it profoundly affects our bodies and brains. So what can we do? Consider these insights to forgive those who have hurt you. 1

First, admit the pain. When we name a painful emotion (not stuffing or rehearsing it) we actually decrease that negative emotion’s intensity. 2 Journal. Processing our pain through writing it down can lessen the pain and help us gain better perspective. However, don’t let journaling become another way to rehearse and reinforce your pain. Through journaling seek to gain God’s perspective and healing. 3 Begin to choose to forgive the person. Notice that I used the word ‘begin.’ Some offences can be quickly forgiven. Some may take a long time to fully forgive. Forgiveness is a process. The deeper the pain, the longer it takes. It’s not so much forgive and forget. Rather, true forgiveness is more like remembering it less and less. 1 4. Draw deeply from God’s grace. At the root of the Christian faith lies grace, receiving God’s grace and extending it to others who have hurt us. The Apostle Paul reminded us in Colossians 3.13 to forgive others as Jesus has forgiven us. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

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TWO FREE BIBLE APPS

FASTING FOR BEGINNERS DAVID MATHIS

Chances are you are among the massive majority of Christians who rarely or never fast. It’s not because we haven’t read our Bibles or sat under faithful preaching or heard about the power of fasting, or even that we don’t genuinely want to do it. We just never actually get around to putting down the fork. Part of it may be that we live in a society in which food is so ubiquitous that we eat not only when we don’t need to, but sometimes even when we don’t want to. We eat to share a meal with others, to build or grow relationships (good reasons), or just as a distraction from responsibility. And of course, there are our own cravings and aches for comfort that keep us from the discomfort of fasting.

followers will fast, and even promises it will happen. He doesn’t say “if,” but “when you fast” (Matthew 6:16). And he doesn’t say his followers might fast, but “they will” (Matthew 9:15). “Fasting is markedly counter-cultural in our consumerist society, like abstaining from sex until marriage.” We fast in this life because we believe in the life to come. We don’t have to get it all here and now, because we have a promise that we will have it all in the coming age. We fast from what we can see and taste, because we have tasted and seen the goodness of the invisible and infinite God — and are desperately hungry for more of him.

Not So Fast

Radical, Temporary Measure

Fasting is voluntarily going without food — or any other regularly enjoyed good gift from God — for the sake of some spiritual purpose. It is markedly countercultural in our consumerist society, like abstaining from sex until marriage. If we are to learn the lost art of fasting and enjoy its fruit, it will not come with our ear to the ground of society, but with Bibles open. Then, the concern will not be whether we fast, but when. Jesus assumes his

Fasting is for this world, for stretching our hearts to get fresh air beyond the pain and trouble around us.

And it is for the battle against the sin and weakness inside us. We express our discontent with our sinful selves and our longing for more of Christ.

When Jesus returns, fasting will be done. It’s a temporary measure, for this life and age, to enrich our joy in Jesus and prepare our hearts for the next — for seeing him face to face. When he returns, he will not call a fast, but throw a feast; then all holy abstinence will have served its glorious purpose and be seen by all for the stunning gift it was. Until then, we will fast.

Also, consider this backdoor inspiration for fasting: If you make a daily or weekly practice of eating with a particular group of friends or family, and those plans are interrupted by someone’s travel or vacation or atypical circumstances,

How to Start Fasting

4. Try different kinds of fasting

Fasting is hard. It sounds much easier in concept than it proves to be in practice. It can be surprising how on-edge we feel when we miss a meal. Many an idealistic new fast-er has decided to miss a meal and only found our belly drove us to make up for it long before the next mealtime came. Fasting sounds so simple, and yet the world, our flesh, and the devil conspire to introduce all sorts of complications that keep it from happening. In view of helping you start down the slow path to good fasting, here are six simple pieces of advice. These suggestions might seem pedantic, but the hope is that such basic counsel can serve those who are new at fasting or have never seriously tried it.

The typical form of fasting is personal, private, and partial, but we find a variety of forms in the Bible: personal and communal, private and public, congregational and national, regular and occasional, absolute and partial. In particular, consider fasting together with your family, small group, or church. Do you share together in some special need for God’s wisdom and guidance? Is there an unusual difficulty in the church, or society, for which you need God’s intervention? Do you want to keep the second coming of Christ in view? Plead with special earnestness for God’s help by linking arms with other believers to fast together.

5. Fast from something other than food.

1. Start small

Fasting from food is not necessarily for everyone. Some health conditions keep even the most devout from the traditional course. However, fasting is not limited to abstain from food. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special spiritual purpose.” If the better part of wisdom for you, in your health condition, is not to go without food, consider fasting from television, computer, social media, or some other regular enjoyment that would bend your heart toward greater enjoyment of Jesus. Paul even talks about married couples fasting from sex “for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer” (1 Corinthians 7:5).

Don’t go from no fasting to attempting a weeklong. Start with one meal; maybe fast one meal a week for several weeks. Then try two meals, and work your way up to a daylong fast. Perhaps eventually try a two-day juice fast. A juice fast means abstaining from all food and beverage, except for juice and water. Allowing yourself juice provides nutrients and sugar for the body to keep you operating, while also still feeling the affects from going without solid food. It’s not recommended that you abstain from water during a fast of any length.

2. Plan what you’ll do instead of eating. Fasting isn’t merely an act of self-deprivation, but a spiritual discipline for seeking more of God’s fullness. Which means we should have a plan for what positive pursuit to undertake in the time it normally takes to eat. We spend a good portion of our day with food in front of us. One significant part of fasting is the time it creates for prayer and meditation on God’s word or some act of love for others. Before diving headlong into a fast, craft a simple plan. Connect it to your purpose for the fast. Each fast should have a specific spiritual purpose. Identify what that is and design a focus to replace the time you would have spent eating. Without a purpose and plan, it’s not Christian fasting; it’s just going hungry.

3. Consider how it will affect others. Fasting is no license to be unloving. It would be sad to lack concern and care for others around us because of this expression of heightened focus on God. Love for God and for neighbor go together. Good fasting mingles horizontal concern with the vertical. If anything, others should even feel more loved and cared for when we’re fasting. So as you plan your fast, consider how it will affect others. If you have regular lunches with colleagues or dinners with family or roommates, assess how your abstaining will affect them, and let them know ahead of time, instead of just being a no-show, or springing it on them in the moment that you will not be eating.

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consider that as an opportunity to fast, rather than eating alone.

6. Don’t think of white elephants. When your empty stomach starts to growl and begins sending your brain every “feed me” signal it can, don’t be content to let your mind dwell on the fact that you haven’t eaten. If you make it through with an iron will that says no to your stomach, but doesn’t turn your mind’s eye elsewhere, it says more about your love for food than your love for God. Christian fasting turns its attention to Jesus or some great cause of his in the world. Christian fasting seeks to take the pains of hunger and transpose them into the key of some eternal anthem, whether it’s fighting against some sin, or pleading for someone’s salvation, or for the cause of the unborn, or longing for a greater taste of Jesus. “Without a purpose and plan, it’s not Christian fasting; it’s just going hungry.”

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org, pastor at Cities Church in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, and adjunct professor for Bethlehem College & Seminary. He has edited several books, including Finish the Mission, Acting the Miracle, and most recently Cross, and is co-author of How to Stay Christian in Seminary.

Restlessness of Soulâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Directing Our Final Intention Toward God The Voice of Christ

MY CHILD, do not trust in your present

with so much the more constancy does

feeling, for it will soon give way to

he pass through many storms.

another. As long as you live you will be

But in many ways the eye of pure

subject to changeableness in spite of

intention grows dim, because it is

yourself. You will become merry at one

attracted to any delightful thing that it

time and sad at another, now peaceful

meets. Indeed, it is rare to find one who

but again disturbed, at one moment

is entirely free from all taint of self-

devout and the next indevout,

seeking. The Jews of old, for example,

sometimes diligent while at other times

came to Bethany to Martha and Mary,

lazy, now grave and again flippant.

not for Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sake alone, but in order to

But the man who is wise and whose

see Lazarus.

spirit is well instructed stands superior

The eye of your intention, therefore,

to these changes. He pays no attention

must be cleansed so that it is single and

to what he feels in himself or from what

right. It must be directed toward Me,

quarter the wind of fickleness blows, so

despite all the objects which may

long as the whole intention of his mind

interfere.

is conducive to his proper and desired end. For thus he can stand undivided, unchanged, and unshaken, with the singleness of his intention directed unwaveringly toward Me, even in the midst of so many changing events. And the purer this singleness of intention is,

CHRISTIAN FASHION IS NO LONGER A TABOO...

ADVENTISTFASHION: POD COMING SOON

Christian Fashion And Design Discussions In Light Of The Gospel

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Living Intentionally Versus Existing 2015