Archive for January, 2010
Only God
When we gathered together Thursday evening, we said our prayer for 2010 is a simple one: “Only God.”
Our desire is that Jesus would do something so incredible in our church this year that the only possible explanation we have is this – Only God.
As you can see, we saw a glimpse of this Thursday. 3,000 people stood to pray, worship, take communion and fix our eyes on nothing else but our great God.
It was a stunningly beautiful night, and can only be described in one way:
Only God
Reflecting on our 21-day journey
One of the most important parts of a fast happens afterwards. Reflecting back on the journey and capturing what you’ve learned and experienced is vitally important. I want to encourage you to do that today. Comment on the blog and let us know what God showed you during this journey.
To get us started, I asked Tami Shields to go first. Tami is a wife, aunt and teacher. As important as those roles are, God used this fast to remind her of an even greater truth about herself and her Heavenly Father….
“When I considered participating in the 21 day fast I began researching what the essentials of a fast were. I knew I would give up something, and I would pray. Several people indicated that getting into the Word helped them focus and pray. So I decided that during these 21 days I would read through the book of Isaiah.
Throughout my daily reading I kept thinking, “How stupid were these people?” God kept showing up in their lives and rescuing them, then two chapters later they were back at their false idols and old tricks. Then a few chapters later they would come back, sing of redemption, then they were off again. I kept thinking, “Boy are these people lucky they are the promised people! Otherwise they’d be done!” It wasn’t until I came to chapter 58 that I began to see, really. It is this chapter where he says the people are “seeking Him out”, “eager to know his ways“ and wondering why God doesn’t see them in their “fasting” and “humility”. He goes on to explain that if you “do” the right thing but don’t have the heart and the actions behind it, it means nothing. So in today’s words: just going to church on Sunday mornings and singing, doesn’t mean you have worshipped or learned about God. Sitting and reading a devotion doesn’t mean you have internalized the message and will apply it. Just as the people of Israel openly defied what they knew was right, they also internally defied while giving the appearance that they were doing what was pleasing to the Lord. And yet, He forgave and redeemed these hard-headed people. Whether their defiance was open or internal, He forgave.
So what did I learn while I was fasting? I am Israel. I am coming to the Lord for the millionth time, praising Him for protecting me through the stupid things I have chosen to do, thanking Him for the strength it will take to deal with the consequences of those decisions, and asking Him to help me. Help me to stop worrying about finding ways to get the world to fall in love with me, and start finding ways that I can fall more in love with Him. For me, this means finding ways to love all that He has created and serving all that is His.
Isaiah 58:9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
I am Israel. I am a hard-headed, sinful, and guilty child of an unbelievably loving and redemptive Father whom I am learning to fall deeper in love with.
So, what have I learned? God loves me. Not only does He love me, but he wants to have a intimate relationship with me. That’s why He keeps calling me back, why He waits for me to ask Him for his input, and why He wants me to be all that I can be. I am Israel, and loved by my God!
What have you learned?”
Day 21: We Made It!
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Day 20: Dependent Living
Do you find yourself living more dependently during your fast? Do you find yourself calling out to God more and depending on yourself less?
It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about during my fast. Recently, during a trip to visit our partner church in Estonia, I found myself sitting on a plane in a snowstorm in Germany. The temperature was well below freezing, visibility was terrible and there was an hour wait for the de-icing trucks. As I sat on the plane, already in awe of how it ever gets off the ground on a normal day, I thought “How does it take off safely in this kind of weather?’
Once again, I was in a place of dependence. The uncomfortable truth is none of us are as in control of things as we like to think. We have the illusion of control. As I sat on the plane, I told God what He already knew. “Lord, I have no control of how this goes. You are in control.” I didn’t need to remind God of this. I needed to remind me.
During this fast I feel a much greater dependence. I am fasting from a couple of things that I want now, but I am depending on God’s strength to get me through. Each time He has done it. Each time I wait, strength rises up within me. We often sing the song “Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord”. We sing it but have we experienced it?
When I recognize and embrace the truth of dependent living, I find myself thinking, “How can I live every day of my life in complete dependence on God?” Instead of being reliant on Him every now and then, for this relationship or that meeting, how can I depend on Him each day?
This is what I want for 2010, and the rest of my life. I want to depend on the God who created me, sent His son to die for my sins and now lives in me. I want to depend on Him to give me courage to invite more people to my dinner table that live in my condo building. I want to depend on God to give me the eyes to see people who are hurting and need a friend. I want to depend on God to help me to see more opportunities to get to know the 300,000 people that are in desperate need of Him in our city and that He would give me the love to love them.
And so, as uncomfortable as it may be, I am not in control. I am dependent. But this much I do know – His strength rises up when I kneel down. Dependent. Waiting. Living.
Rod Brown
Day 19: My Circle
By this point, we hope you have heard that there are 300,000 unchurched people within a ten-mile radius of Buckhead Church. And while that number is large, in many respects it’s a collection of circles.
For example, there are many people within my circle of life who are not connected to church and who do not have a relationship with Christ. I can get so caught up in my day, my plans, and my agenda that I can fail to really see those around me. It’s easy to shrug it off and say, “Well, I’m not overly extroverted like someone else.” It’s easy to think that I don’t want to offend someone by initiating a conversation. It’s easy to think that they would presume that I have some sort of agenda, especially when they hear that I work at a church.
During this 21-day fast, my personal prayer is that I would have God’s eyes to see those around me as He sees them. I pray He would draw my attention where conversations should be started and where they shouldn’t. I pray that my eyes will be taken off of me and that I would really see those in the circle around me as God sees them.
What if all of us here at Buckhead Church had that thought over the course of these 21 days? What if 5,000 of us were going about our business in this city with this vision?
We might be surprised how fast our collected circles would add up.
Maybe even to 300,000.
Steve Giddens
