Fast

In 2014 I am going to learn to fast. Well, I hope to learn a bit more about fasting...
The Prophet Isaiah writes about true fasting:

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.

Declare to my people their rebellion

    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. 
For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them. 
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers. 
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high. 
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord? 

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke? 
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 
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, 
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. 
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. 
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. 

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
    and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
    and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 
then you will find your joy in the Lord,
    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.*

So I'm not going to give up eating. Maybe I'll have a day or two of that, but instead will just try and keep the Sabbath. In January I'm going to fast from facebook, and in February I'm planning to fast from meat. Throughout the year I'm cutting back from mindless TV, so only the news or movies or a set program (extra hours on weekends :p) And hopefully this will mean, no technology after 10 pm and more time focusing on God and others! :D

Jesus was asked by John the Baptist's disciples why his disciples didn't fast. Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast."**

Jesus, our Bridegroom, hasn't returned yet. Let us watch and be prepared for a long wait. I think fasting is a good discipline to have an understanding of, and exercise in this period; especially the fasting that seeks justice, freedom, welfare, peace and healing.

*Isaiah 58
**Mark 2:19-20

december 27: quiet

Go to a quiet place, and pray. In the last few days I have been enjoying the lull of this time of year, for me anyway. There is pause, maybe I should call it a calm before a storm. Nevertheless, I have had the chance to read a bit, watch a few movies, relax, do craft, eat food, listen to music all in beautiful stillness and calm. Few people have disturbed it. Doing nothing isn't bad or wrong, even if I do feel that I have been a bit lazy. Truth is, I am trying to come away by myself and get some rest, and despite it being interrupted at times, sometimes with pleasant things, other times very unexpected things, I am also aiming to get away from the crowds so I can be closer to God, more focused on God, listen to Him, pray to him. 
Listen to Jesus and see him at work. He seeks quiet and yet when it is disturbed does the task at hand lovingly and then finds what he needs....

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.*

*Mark 6:30-46

December 26: after

Another pet hate of mine about Christmas timing, is the amount of places where the shepherds and the wise men are at the stable together! I'm pretty sure the shepherds came pretty much the same night as Jesus was born... Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. (Luke 2:11) 

But the wise men, well I'm more inclined to think that the star they were following appeared around the same time Jesus did, and the journey took a bit longer as they were traveling from the east. And Herod wanted to know how long the star had been around, as a way to guess how old this new King of the Jews might already be. Maybe Jesus was already smiling, or sitting up, or crawling, or even saying his first words by the time the Magi (wise men) arrived!??

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.*

*Matthew 2:1-12