Ezra & Nehemiah: A need for fasting

It's hard to imagine what life was like for the people of Israel after they went into exile. Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians with great violence and brutality, as recorded by Jeremiah in Lamentations. But empires come and empires go, and in 539 BC, the Persians defeated the Babylonians and absorbed the lands of Israel and Judah into their territory. The next year, Cyrus allowed the people of Judah to return home and rebuild the temple of the Lord. Around 458 BC, another group of Judean exiles returned under Ezra's leadership (ESV study Bible).

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah (often viewed as one book) give us a historical narrative about these returns to Palestine, but with important theological lessons about God's covenant faithfulness. The exile was not the end of the story for God's people, and the book of Ezra shows an amazing turnaround of these pagan rulers giving favour to God's people and actually commissioning them to re-start their religious community centred around the temple. The rebuilt temple was nowhere near as great in grandeur as the first, so it was a bittersweet reopening (see Ezra 3), but the fact remains that God had preserved for Himself a remnant. He had not wiped out the descendants of Abraham. He still had plans to prosper them (Jer 29).

It was a great challenge for this broken, battered community to live distinctively and faithfully to the Lord. They had been in exile for 70 years. As they come back to the Word of God and the Law of God, they have to come to terms with their own disobedience and figure out how to move forwards. Ezra's leadership is bold and strong as he urges the people to obey the commands of the Lord, even at great personal cost (such as the removal of foreign wives and children - see Ezra 9-10). What struck me looking at these narratives was the place of fasting in the post-exilic community, as an integral part of their repentance and turning back to the Lord.

Fasting is not something we talk about very often. It is not something we do very well, I'm guessing (if my own practise is anything to go by). In OT Law, it was only prescribed for the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16), which was fundamentally about purification from sin. The people were charged to 'afflict' themselves (v29) and 'do no work', which suggests that fasting and prayer was part of this holy day where their sins would be dealt with before God in the Holy of Holies. In the offerings and the goat sent into the wilderness, God gave His people a vivid picture of their sin being atoned for, which ultimately pointed to Jesus' death on the cross. So I'm not suggesting we should go back to OT Law and fast like we're trying to add something on to Christ's work- He said, 'It is finished'! (John 19:30) But it's interesting that during the exile and afterwards, fasting became something God's people did when they realised their need for God. You could look at Esther calling a fast before she was to appear before the King to try to stop the killing of the Jews (a situation of desperation, see Esther 4). You could look at the prayerful life of Daniel and how he fasted and prayed when he realised the 70 years of exile had passed and God had promised through Jeremiah that He would bring the people back (Daniel 9). In Ezra, he fasts and falls on his knees in intercessory prayer when he hears of the mixed marriages of the exiles (Ezra 9). Nehemiah fasts and prays over an extended time when he hears of the state of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1). Why did they fast? Because they were desperate. They were full of grief over sin (not always their own sin, but the sin of the nation, of their community). They wanted to humble themselves before God and pray, and abstaining from food was an important part of that. It showed repentance (you could also look at Nineveh in the book of Jonah for that).

Why don't we fast? Because we're not desperate. We want to see God move, but we're not desperate enough that we're willing to give up the things we rely on each day to get us through - this isn't just our three meals, but other things too like social media, our mobile phones. I read something on Revive our Hearts where the speaker made a point that you wouldn't congratulate someone on being very self-disciplined if they managed to eat three meals a day. Imagine it: 'Well done! You actually managed to eat breakfast, lunch AND dinner!' It's something we take for granted, unless we're ill. Well fasting is meant to show us that the same commitment we have towards feeding our bodies is the commitment we should have in prayer. We NEED God more than we need food to survive (Jesus told the devil 'Man shall not live by bread alone' in Matthew 4:4 when He was tempted to turn stones into bread during a 40-day fast).

I know it's easy with fasting to become legalistic. In fact, Jesus warned His disciples not to fast like the Pharisees, to make a song and dance about it, and do it for human praise and attention (Luke 18:12). But He did teach on fasting as though it was meant to be a regular part of life for His followers - 'when you fast...' (Matthew 6:17). He was questioned on why His disciples didn't fast, and He replied, 'But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.' (Mark 2:19) Until Jesus comes again, there is sin, there is suffering, there is wrong-doing in the world. There is desperation. So fasting is to be part of following Christ until that day when He puts everything right.

If we don't fast, it's like we're saying there's nothing to grieve over. Our culture doesn't do grief. We're told not to focus on the bad things. But biblically, we should! We should grieve over the sins of our nation. We should mourn the hypocrisies and failures of the Church. We should deeply feel the horror of our sin and in the midst of our gratitude to Christ for making our atonement, it's not always wrong to set aside special time to fast and pray for victory over habitual sin. I'm not saying 'fast and God will listen to you'. I'm just trying to recognise that Scripture tells us there IS a need for fasting, and I know I need to do it a lot more than I do at the moment.

Colossians: journey through joy

Paul's letter to the Colossians has to be one of my favourite books of the Bible. I remember being at New Word Alive in 2006, hearing a series of talks by different speakers through this short letter, and it really impacted my life about the centrality of the gospel in the Christian life. My church, Hill City, also went through the book last year with dynamic, practical teaching that resonated 'Christ in me' again and again. But more recently, I was reading Nancy Leigh de Moss's book 'Choosing Gratitude- your pathway to joy' and I was reminded of how much thanksgiving and joy are part of this New Testament letter. So I decided to read through it looking at all the sources of our joy as believers as found in the book. Here's what I found...

The most important joy in Colossians is joy in the gospel and the work of salvation of God the Father through Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the lives of people today. Paul describes how the gospel came to the Colossians and is 'bearing fruit and growing' all over the world (Col 1:6). Its message is one of salvation, of God qualifying the unqualified to 'share in the inheritance of the saints' by delivering them 'from the domain of darkness' and giving them 'redemption' and 'forgiveness of sins' in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, His Son (Col 1:11-14). How amazing it is to be in this kingdom! We, who 'once were alienated and hostile', are now 'reconciled', 'holy and blameless' before a holy God (Col 1:21-22). We were 'dead in... trespasses' and God made us 'alive together with Him', and cancelled 'the record of debt that stood against us... nailing it to the cross.' In doing so, Jesus 'disarmed the rulers of authorities' and truly triumphed over them once and for all. (Col 2:13-15) Our joy as believers, then, is fundamentally in Christ, 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col 2:3). He is the key to everything, the way we can know God and please Him. It's possible for us to have a personal experiential relationship with the God of the universe through Jesus Christ! And it's not a one-off thing, it's a daily reality of walking in faith:

'Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.' (Colossians 2:6-7)

If we move away from Christ, we will lose our joy! We'll get bogged down and distracted by things that don't really matter. We'll lose our perspective. Listen to Paul:

'Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.' (Colossians 3:2-4)

Jesus gives us joy in the future, in the hope of our wonderful eternity which our human minds can hardly comprehend. And Jesus gives us joy in our new identity as children of God, no longer in the kingdom of darkness but in His kingdom of light. We are 100% accepted in Him - that's cause for celebration!

Jesus also gives us joy in lives on earth, as we seek to obey Him.

'Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. .. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self...Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.' (Col 3:5-17)

It sounds like a tall order, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can truly get rid of the sinful practices of our past and live a joy-filled life of freedom in purity which pleases God.

We can also find joy in our mundane tasks, our work, because we are 'serving the Lord Christ' (Col 3:23-24). We can take joy in any ministry we may have, as Paul did, despite his suffering. He understood that he was carrying out a God-given mandate to 'make the word of God fully known', and he understood that the gospel of Jesus made known a 'mystery hidden for ages and generations'. The message he was preaching, of 'Christ in you, the hope of glory', was a message of transformation, and so completely worth all of the 'toil' and struggle to carry it out. Ultimately Paul knew that he was able to do his ministry because of 'His energy that He powerfully works within me'. (Col 1:24-29) God does not leave us unequipped for the things He calls us to do, so we can do all things with joy knowing that He is sufficient!

We can joy in prayer, because we know our Father hears us. 'Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.' (Col 4:2) We can joy in fellowship with other believers, just as Paul sends Tychicus to encourage the hearts of the Colossians (Col 4:8). And we can joy in the faith of others because the gospel is dynamic and spreading all the time, today as well as in Paul's day.

'We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints' (Col 1:3-4).

Daniel: the courage of a clear conscience

I love the story of Daniel in the lions' den. It's so dramatic and Daniel is such an amazing hero, unflinching in his devotion to God and in the face of mortal danger. I was thinking about how Daniel was able to face such a trial with confidence. Obviously God's Spirit gave him strength, but I also think Daniel's courage had a lot to do with the fact he had a clear conscience before God.

When you read Daniel 6, his godly character and moral purity is emphasised: 'he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.' (v4) His enemies had to trap him by his faith as he was otherwise blameless before the king, and in line for a promotion (v3). His diligence and honourable conduct were unparalleled in the pagan land of Babylon.

Once the king makes the law banning prayer 'to any god or man for thirty days' except himself (v7), Daniel does not hesitate to continue praying to the LORD of heaven and earth. 'When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open towards Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.' (v10) In fact, this law made Daniel even more desperate to pray than ever! He knew he couldn't go on without the sustenance of his God. He knew that his privileged position was a gift from his Creator, not something he had simply earned by his own merit. If he had thought it was, he would have simply ditched prayer for a month and carried on at the top of the tree. But Daniel's view of God makes this impossible. He refuses to compromise.

It's interesting that his windows were open 'towards Jerusalem'. He's in exile, in Babylon, yet his heart is turned towards the place of the temple, the heritage of his fathers, the faith of his people. He is consciously following the scriptures where King Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, prayed that if the people were exiled for disobedience, they should turn their hearts back to Jerusalem and pray for God's mercy once again: 'yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly’, if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive' (1 Kings 8:47-50). Daniel was consciously engaged in this work of intercession, knowing and understanding that the exile was all part of the plan of God in disciplining his people. Daniel's regular prayer was fuelled by the hope that Yahweh would hear; He would forgive; He would bring His people home. In chapter 9 we see perhaps a clearer glimpse of this intercessory heart of Daniel, but for now it helps for us to see that to him, prayer was an absolute necessity. It wasn't something he could just drop out of his schedule. Both on a personal level, and on a corporate, national level, prayer was of the utmost importance and priority to this godly man.

Daniel knows, then, that in choosing prayer he is choosing something better than the king's approval, even than his own life. He understands that in choosing prayer, the way of obedience, he can then stand before God in a clear conscience. He can say, 'I've been faithful to You, LORD, above all others.' Daniel doesn't know if God will rescue him from the lions (much like his three friends with the fiery furnace). But he does know that if he dies, he will be able to meet His God unashamedly. That gives him a powerful courage and an ability to stand firm amongst some frightening enemies and terrifying circumstances.

It's so interesting to see the impotence of the king - ironic impotence, as the reason he is unable to help Daniel is because of the power invested in his own laws ('Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed' v15) - compared with the sovereign power of God. The king 'set his mind to deliver Daniel' and 'laboured' to do so (v14), but was ultimately powerless and ineffective. Daniel tells the king the next day 'My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths' (v22), a very clear answer to the king's question: 'has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?' (v21). There can be no doubting it: Daniel's faith is vindicated publicly.

Daniel declares God has saved him 'because I was found blameless before him' (v22). Perhaps this was something the angel told him; we don't know. But it encourages us that if we diligently follow God in faithfulness wherever He places us, then we can have courage to face any obstacles, with a clear conscience before our King.

Accountability Questions

I read this in 'Connecting your heart to others' by Fields & Eastman and thought it was really helpful for giving structure to prayer pairs/small groups when talking through the week and what to pray for.

The Wonder Question
1. Have you maintained an attitude of awe and wonder toward God?
...or have you minimized him, placed him in a box, failing to contemplate his greatness?
Key issue: awe, wonderment, and WORSHIP versus ordinary, usual, and IDOLATRY.

The Priority Question
2. Have you maintained a personal (quiet) time with God?
...or have you allowed yourself to become too busy for God? Have you exchanged a vibrant, tender relationship filled with rich communication for a superficial acquaintance with God?
Key issue: time with God versus time without God.

The Morality Question
3. Have you maintained integrity with the way you live out your faith?
...or have you compromised what you know to be true with your actions?
Key issue: integrity versus compromise.

The Listening Question
4. Have you maintained a soft heart, sensitive to the things of God?
...or have you chosen to remain on the easy path, refused to be challenged to move out of your comfort zone?
Key issue: uncomfortable versus comfortable

The Relationships Question
5. Have you maintained peaceful relationships and resolved conflicts to the best of your ability?
...or have you caused conflict or offense?
Key issue: peace versus conflict; resolution versus ignored.

Helping people to find Jesus

It could be your best friend. It could be your spouse. It could be your Mum or Dad.

Most Christians know at least one person, whom they love very much, who doesn't know Jesus.

How do we reach out to them? How do we help them to come to know who Jesus is and what He has done for them? How can we make sure that they're going to be in heaven too?

1. Remember it's God who saves.
Whenever someone becomes a Christian, it is a miracle. It may not always happen as dramatically as Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), but it is always a work of God's Holy Spirit: to convict people that they're going in the wrong direction and that they need to turn and go God's way. That's what happens when someone becomes a Christian. They turn away from sin and from ruling their own life, and they turn to God and ask Him to be Lord of their heart. On the ground level, it may seem like we're making the decision. But actually, it's God who enables us to make that decision. 'This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.' 1 John 4:10 The reality is that we're way too depraved and sinful to muster up love for God completely of our own accord. It comes from Him!

This means that we shouldn't get too hung up on thinking up amazing arguments to convince people why they should believe in Jesus. Yes, it's important to be able to answer people's questions, but ultimately you cannot talk someone into believing. It has to be a step of faith they take from God's Spirit working in them.

2. Pray!
If it's God's Spirit who does the work, we should pray for certain individuals we know. And it's great to pray specific prayers, because specific prayers bring specific answers. If we just pray 'Lord please save Joe', that is a valid prayer but we may never see the answer in our lifetime (Note- George Muller prayed for 5 friends every day of his life. They all became Christians- but some after he had died!). But if we pray 'Lord please give me an opportunity to talk about You to Joe at lunch today', we are more likely to see an obvious answer to prayer, which fills us with hope and joy and fuels our further praying and witness.

Use Scripture to help you pray, such as Acts 26:18 'to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in [Jesus].' Keep persevering, because God is 'not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.' (2 Peter 3:9)

3. Be bold!
Time and again I'm struck, when reading Acts, of the boldness of the apostles. They went into religious places and secular meeting points, they adapted the way of preaching their message but never altered the truth of the gospel, and they saw God's blessing on their work. They weren't always successful in human terms -sometimes the gospel was rejected and so were they- but they were obedient to Jesus' commission to them to 'go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.' (Matthew 28:19-20)

We too need to take seriously the urgency of Jesus' command to be disciple-makers. That involves telling people the gospel, living the gospel out in our own lives, and being intimately involved with others to show them how to live in the way that God wants. In her book 'Out of the Saltshaker', Rebecca Manly-Pippert makes some great points about how we don't have to change our personalities or take a hit-and-run approach to sharing the gospel, but instead we need to develop meaningful relationships with non-Christians and take every opportunity we have to explain why they need Jesus.

And it is a need. We need to remind ourselves of the destination of those who reject God: hell. 'If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.' (Revelation 20:15) It's a sobering thought. Your friends and family are not going to thank you in eternity for failing to tell them the truth.

4. Be prepared!
You need to know the gospel in order to explain it to others. There are some really helpful ready-made simplified explanations of the gospel, such as 'Two Ways to Live' www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/, or you can use five coloured squares of card to explain the different stages of the Bible's story:
Green- Creation
Black- Sin and death enter the world
Red- Jesus blood was shed so we could be forgiven
White- If we believe we are cleansed from sin
Gold- We have a future in heaven with God forever.

Think about how to simply explain your own story of how you became a Christian. Testimonies are often really effective to show how the gospel has power in people's lives today.

It also really helps to read books or websites with answers to common questions people have, such as 'Why does God allow suffering'? UCCF's www.bethinking.org/ is great for this, as well as the book 'If You Could Ask God One Question' (see http://www.christianityexplored.org/resources/books/cxpq/).

5. Be clear!
I'm really conscious of the fact that I've used loads of Christian jargon words in this blog-post, like 'sin' and 'gospel'. Argh it's so hard to 'talk Christian' without using these words which, to the majority of the population, mean very little -or worse, they mean something different. Just be aware when you're talking to people that when you say 'sin', they're probably thinking 'breaking rules' rather than 'living your own way, not God's way'. When you say 'faith', they may be thinking Buddhist-style believe-whatever-you-want-to-believe faith, rather than believing in Jesus and trusting in Him. Try to explain things as simply as possible, using things from our culture to help. In Acts 17 Paul did exactly that- he used a altar to an 'unknown God' and a poem to explain to the people of Athens who the real God was. If we read the papers and keep aware of what's going on in the media, we will find ways of engaging with people and helping them to understand why Jesus is relevant to their lives.

6. Genuinely love people.
Don't make people projects. They are individuals beloved by God. Treat them with respect and don't force yourself upon them. Give them space to think and respond and space to say 'not now' or to walk away from God. You have to accept that God works in His time, not yours, and you jumping up and down and screaming isn't going to help. You being there and listening and caring WILL help.

If churches welcome non-believers into the community, that is a huge witness and a big draw for people in our culture which is very individualistic and very lonely. People want to be loved and people want intimacy- that's why we love snooping at celebrities. The church should be the one place in this world of selfishness where people are loved for who they are, and not for what they can give.


I could go on and on but I'll end with encouraging you to keep going, keep praying, keep hoping, and keep praising God, for He is very very gracious and good.

Psalms 6-7: Turning to God in a crisis

Lessons from David- Psalms 6-7

Even in his darkest moments of gut-wrenching sorrow (6-7) David turns to God and asks for mercy and healing (2). He does this because he trusts in God's unfailing love (4), and affirms his belief at the end that God will answer his prayer.

In Ps 7, a more detailed picture is given of God- showing us why David (and we) should trust Him. God is someone to take refuge in, because He can save and deliver us from deadly foes (1-2). God is a God of justice (6), who is righteous and searches minds and hearts, to bring an end to the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure (9).

He saves the upright in heart (10). We should echo David in saying:
'I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness and will sing praise to the Name of the Lord Most High.' (17)