taste and see

 

Taste and see that the Lord is good:

blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

(Psalm 34:8)

Today is the Sabbath, a day for rest, a day for taking refuge in the sanctuaries of our homes, our churches, our family, and our faith.  Resisting the striving to simply know that He is God, as we taste and see His goodness round about us.

Walking through the garden the other day I was aware of how sweet the air smelled, the breeze carried honeysuckle, jasmine, and orange blossoms through eucalyptus and lemon trees. Imagine that.  Intoxicating.  The scent of earth and the whinny of horses, all of it home.

Later in the day, as I homeschooled my fifth grader, I encouraged him to use all five of his senses to layer descriptive words into his writing assignment.  Inspired, I put a pad of unlined-paper in his hand and wrote see, smell, hear, taste & touch at the top of the page.  Sending him outside I asked my son to find a location on our property and write me a poem using those powerful tools.  The eleven year old swooshed the bangs from his forehead and rolled his eyes, slipped on his mother's flip-flops then sauntered out into her rose garden.  When he returned he gave me this:

In the Garden

I see the magnificent roses on my mom’s bushes;

I smell the wonderful scent of blooming jasmine;

I reach over to touch the soft peddles of the rose;

I taste the fresh squeezed lemonade from our lemon trees,

cool in my hand.

I feel that I am at home in the garden.

-Caleb

That is the Sabbath... being at home in the garden of God's safe embrace, at the end of one busy week and the start of another. Purposing stillness to look closely, listen carefully, inhale deeply, touch gently, and taste, intentionally, the Lord's goodness toward us.

Today, this Sabbath Sunday, also marks the end of one full week of fasting - which may be part of why I'm slowing down as well.  Depleted in one natural area of my being, that I might be aware of the supernatural at work without and within.  Denying sugar that I can more fully experience the sweetness of The Lord's nearness.

One of the women who has joined along with this online community for our 40 day sugar-fast is author, Katie Reid. She sent me a message, the day I went for a walk outside, celebrating how her food tastes more flavorful and enjoyable than usual.  The sweet tanginess of strawberries, the rich flavors at the dinner table.  It reminded me of the scent on the breeze so I replied to her comment online, telling her so.

Back and forth we've been communicating about our discoveries.  I've actually copied one of them and pasted it below because it was just so good.   Read it with me:

"Last night the kids were going to get some tomato soup from an Indian restaurant and they said, "I'll bet it won't taste as good as yours does Mom." I told them that it is fine for them to like other people's food more than mine because other people can cook better than I can. This morning I was reflecting on that and thought about how we often feel "no one's cooking is like that of home." There is comfort in eating where you feel loved, safe and known.

Then it went deeper. Do we long for the taste and food of our REAL home - Heaven? As believers, that hunger for home should drive us and fuel us. How many times do we settle for a quick, cheap fix for our spiritual hunger rather than the real stuff; the rich fare of Heaven? I have heard in third world countries that believers often talk about heaven and look forward to it. Why? Maybe it is because their days aren't full of comforts or the varieties of foods and pleasures like we have. They hunger for heaven and delight in what's to come. But isn't it us who are malnourished? We feed our face on comforts and we lose a taste for the best yet to come.

Oh Lord, may we hunger for You. May we feast on Your Word and the "hope set before us." (see Hebrews 9:18). Some people think focusing so much on heaven means you are out of touch with reality. But heaven is a joyful reality for those in Christ- where we will taste and see where He is good (see Psalm 34:8). Oh that we would all turn and experience the great banquet to come!

All this

& so much more

is on my mind

this Sabbath day.

Katie Reid is encouraging her friends on her own facebook page as she fasts from sugar as a means to letting God make her sweet.  I encourage you to stop by and get to know her here.

Streams in the Desert

 

California is in a drought, a real drought with limited water supplies and earth cracked open, parched.  Perhaps your soul knows how that feels. The soil's dry and rocky inside, and you wonder where the fruit has gone.

If only it would rain.

This is what the Lord says— “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. (Isaiah 43:17-21)

Few things are harder than giving praise in the desert, as though He's already brought relief; thanking Him for the healing when healing hasn't come; boasting about His kindness when our circumstances seem downright mean; and proclaiming His praise because of what He can do, regardless of what He chooses to do it.  How can we do all that in a barren wasteland?  Because of faith, believing, we offer up our sacrifice of praise...

Lifting our heads up to the skies, trusting He will bestow good and not evil.

...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. (Isaiah 61:3)

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

"This is what the LORD says: "'I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place. (Jeremiah 30:18)

And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten... (Joel 2:25)

If you are in a drought of any kind today - spiritual, emotional, relational, financial, physical, circumstantial - press on believing that rain is coming.  Rain is promised because a kind God reigns - so give Him the reigns to all the dry-bone places, gloomy expressions and soul-sad complaints as you fast and pray you way through this season.

Press in and press on... believing.

"I do believe; help my unbelief." (Mark 9:24)

(Dear friends, I am blogging my way through a 40 day sugar-fast and this is day 5. Some days, like today, I will simply post scripture devotions inspired by our 40 scriptures. Other days I'll journey down paths paved with stories of what I'm learning, or I'll invite guests to share how God is at work in their lives as we press in and press on together.  Fasting is a private thing, and we're not putting on a show, simply offering encouragement in the abiding and the stretching and the growing.  Join us?)

Return to Me

I wake up most mornings serenaded from within by this verse, this childhood Sunday School song.

"This is the day (this is the day), that the Lord has made (that the Lord has made) I will rejoice (I will rejoice) and be glad in it (and be glad in it).

You might not typically wake up singing, but I do.  Always have.  Maybe it's because my mom would wake us by playing her piano, or singing some made up melody about it being time to wakey-shakey. However, somewhere in my teens this verse became the soundtrack to my morning routine and has remain so for 30-plus years.  The lyrics bid me rise and shine no matter how much or how little sleep I get.  Scriptures hidden in one's heart can do that, welcome us into our days, and remind us each moment of struggle to fix our eyes on what is true, combating the focus of our flesh when we are sleep deprived, anxious, or hurting.

While the scriptures of my youth have carried me well through years of hills and valleys, I know that it is time for me to gather new verses.  I've been resting on the laurels of my childhood faith for far too long.  Maybe you have too.

When we began these 40 days of fasting (if you are new this series, here is a good place to start)  I wrote out a list of 40 scriptures, and have been diving into a new one every day.  However, out of them all, the third day's verse that has most shaped my conversation with The Lord during this fast most of all.

Before my eyes opened this early morning, around the time my good morning tune usually sings me awake from within, this verse spoke into my waking dreams.

"...return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning." 

With eyes still shut I whispered back, "Have I left you, Lord?  Have I truly left you?"

Silence.

I opened my eyes, rolled over and pulled back the covers, then sat on the edge to listen.  The silence remained but I knew without a word that I had abandoned Him, I just didn't know the details of my wayward devotion. A third time the verse washed over me like a wave and then I asked the Lord for something I do not suggest anyone pray for, unless they want to weep and mourn - I whispered, "God, please convict me today of how I've strayed from you, so that I know how to turn back."

[Tweet "Conviction is like a roadmap if we're willing to take the journey back."]

His answer didn't come in the form of a lightening rod, but almost immediately I began to mourn.  Morning turned to mourning, so to speak, and I started longing for His nearness like a child would a parent who's stayed gone far too long.  Though I knew it was the child in this case who has tarried.  I was weepy, though I could have blamed the fast, blood sugar dropping low and body craving protein, but I knew down deep my tears meant so much more than physical hunger  -I was grieving, though I still didn't know what exactly for.

Over the length of the day, homeschooling my eldest, bringing glasses of iced tea to my husband who was working from home, transporting my two younger kids back and forth from one event to another, planning our family dinner and folding clothes, I began to feel the prick of conviction in the unlikeliest of places.  The way I turned to Facebook in most every quiet moment, my short responses toward loved ones over the top of another basket of clothes needing folding, the way I fantasized about time to myself as I surveyed home and all it's natural chaos... little things and big things all day long suddenly showed themselves for what they were - a temptress, brazen and bold, and how I longed to follow her toward self-focus and the things of this world that can never truly satisfy.

"God, please convict me today about how I've strayed from you, so that I know how to turn back." Those were the words I had prayed, and come the day's end I could not deny His faithful Spirit-voice. In the busyness of life, I had become a wanderer. Wandering toward the approval of man, wandering toward my selfish desire to love me first. I had strayed.

While I thought this 40 day fast was solely about sugar-addiction, God is good to not set boundaries on His extravagant redeeming Love.  "Good," He said, "I'll take your sugar addiction, but I don't want to stop there.  That one thing you are willing to deny yourself is not my heart for you... I want it all.  Your fast from sugar is simply the door through which I will come in.  If you are willing I will meet with you in earnest and have a sit down talk about every corner of your life, every idol you bow down to, every cistern unable to hold water."

My husband uses the term "Let's have a come to Jesus meeting," when He really wants to address issues.  It's said as a joke, but Jesus coming in to meet with us is certainly no joke. I see now that's exactly what a fast is - denying one small earthly pleasure, that He might come in that open door and talk with us about every facet, every stronghold, every bit of our wander-lust life. Sitting there, talking and listening and caring so deeply about our transformation, He works His goodness, so much like a fetter, binding us back to Him again. "Return to me", His whisper is soft but firm and altogether compelling.  "Return."

Oh to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be Let your goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to thee Prone to wander, Lord I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart Lord, Take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above

(Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Robert Robinson, 1735-1790)

Made To Crave

It's time to hanker for Jesus, like we do Chocolate covered pretzels, potato chips and praise. It's time to run to Him, like we run to our phone, to our computers; any screen really and all day long.

It's time to dive into His Word, like we dive into a fresh pot of coffee to get us over the hump.

It's time!  Because we were Made to Crave so much more!

Today I'm not sharing any of my own thoughts, just giving you a taste of the wisdom and encouragement found in Lysa TerKeurst's amazingly enjoyable and transforming book, Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food. May it whet our appetites for Him.

To set the stage for why this book fits perfectly in with our 40 day fast, read this comment that was shared by one of you only two days in: "I have neglected God's Word for over a year and it is such a relief to be back. I have been malnourished from neglecting the Truth."

Malnourished.

The word caught me by the heart, because that is what we become when we stop consuming the Bread of Life and The Living Water.

Malnourished.

That's what fasting tends to remind a hungry soul.

These paragraphs below all come from Chapter One of Made to Crave.  I will share a few more selections in the weeks ahead, but I'm giving you some insight into chapter one now, hoping that you'll hustle out to Barnes and Noble right now to grab a copy and read along.  Here we go:

"In addition to helping you find the desire to conquer your unhealthy cravings, (this book) also holds the key to something very significant for most of us women - malnutrition.  We feel overweight physically but underweight spiritually.  Tying these first things together is the first step on one of the most significant journeys you'll ever take with God. It reminds me of a journey described in Matthew 19.  A rich young man comes to see jesus and explains that he is following all the rues but still feels something missing form his pursuit of God. 'All of these rules I have kept,' he says to Jesus. 'What do I still lack?' (Matthew 19:20).

In other words, How do I really get close to God?

Such a vulnerable question.  Such a relatable question.

Jesus responds, 'If you want to be perfect (whole) , go, sell our possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' (Matthew 19:21)

The rich young man then goes away sad because he won't give up the one thing that consumes him.  He is so full with his riches he can't see how undernourished his soul is.  He's just like people today who refuse healthier breakfast options like egg whites and fruit so they can fill themselves up with candy-sprinkled, chocolate-frosted doughnuts.  Even when their sugar high crashes and they complain of splitting headaches, they steadfastly refuse to consider giving up their doughnuts...

"When Jesus says 'Follow me,' it's not an invitation to drag our divided heart alongside us as we attempt to follow hard after God. When Jesus wants us to follow Him -- really follow Him -- it's serious business.  Here's how Jesus describes it: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' (Mark 8:34)...

God made us capable of craving so we'd have an unquenchable desire to for more of Him, and Him alone. Nothing changes until we make the choice to redirect our misguided cravings to the only one capable of satisfying them."

(Lysa TerKeurst, Made to Crave, pg. 15-16)

At the end of each chapter, Lysa asks us to reflect on our own personal journey with God and with food. Here's one question I thought we'd grapple with together:

"I had to get honest enough to admit it: I relied on food more than I relied on God.  I craved food more than I craved God.  Food was my comfort.  Food was my reward. Good was my joy.  Good was what I turned to in times of stress, sadness, and even times of happiness (pg. 29)"  Consider your eating experiences (in recent years). Using the list below, can you recall specific situations in which you turned to food for these reasons?

-Comfort

-Reward

-Joy

-Stress

-Sadness

-Happiness.

Yes, as a matter of fact, yes I can.  Not so much reward and joy for this girl, but sadness / comfort and stress, absolutely. How about you?

40 Scriptures for a 40 Day Fast

I used to laugh my way through the verse above, looking forward to the day when I would dine with Christ in Glory! Oh the chocoloate and the scones... and the tea, taken sweet with heavy cream. What a rich spread it would be! However, I must confess that as I fast and pray this week, my thoughts of heavenly hash are beginning to fade, and Christ alone remains seated at the banqueting table. From His extravagant banquet hall Christ bids us come, not for a tea party but for Him.

Jesus: The host, the feast, and the banner.

Imagine with me the moment your new feet cross the threshold to His Presence. I am sure, down deep in my empty belly, that we will not be thinking of food, indeed, our eyes will be fixed on the only thing in the room that can satisfy a soul for all eternity. I can only imagine...

I can only imagine What my eyes will see When Your face Is before me I can only imagine.

I can only imagine When all I will do Is forever Forever worship You I can only imagine.

Surrounded by Your glory What will my heart feel? Will I dance for You, Jesus? Or in awe of You be still? Will I stand in Your presence? To my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine.

(I Can Only Imagine, by Mercy Me)

Oh how we clamor here on earth, not able to understand the feast that's spread before us, grasping instead for what we think might satisfy. Sweet treats become our reward at each days end. Or, perhaps, instead of food you consume affirmation like a cocktail and praise just like a prize. You hunger for them, turning to Facebook for your feast, forgetting that all you need is His opinion of you, His wise counsel, his "Like". But we are a hungry people; hungry for food, for happiness and ease, hungry for cul de sac fame. Constantly hungry... though the banqueting table has already been set! It is finished. It is prepared. It is Christ.

Jesus is the only thing that truly satisfies and sustains. Therefore, I am setting a table before you today, heavy laden with scrumptious scripture for you to feast upon regularly during these forty days. Let us remember Christ, offering up Himself as the ultimate passover lamb, saying,"...the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." (1 Corinthians 11:23-25)

I offer you all sizes of portions - from snacks to main courses, with side dishes too. Do not be shy, fill your plate here. And if you start to sink low mid-afternoon, come back for more!

40 Scripture snacks - for when you're hungry

(A special thank you t0 Christy Nueman, of The Write Season, who not only taught me to love fasting, but also this idea of feasting on full plates, side dishes and even snack size portions of God's Word! A 40 day fast would have been an absurd notion without your example leading me on.)

1 - Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14)

2 - For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. (1 John 2:16)

3 - “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; (Joel 2:12)

4 - So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.(Exodus 34:28)

5 - And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (Acts 14:23)

6 - “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you". (Matthew 6:16-18)

7 - Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:8)

8 - 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? (Isaiah 58:6)

9 - I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)

10 - "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. (John 4:34)

11 - “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

12 - Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. (Psalm 100:3)

13 - I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:9)

14 - So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. (Ezra 8:23)

15 - Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

16 - And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. (Jonah 3:5)

17 - "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. (Jeremiah 32:17)

18 - How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

19 - Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:1-4)

20 - I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)

21 - So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

22 - "I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. (1 Corinthians 10:23)

23 - I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (Psalm 118:24)

24 - A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. (Psalm 23:1)

25 - Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matthew 9:14-15)

26 - Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

27 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

29 - “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

30 - We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

31 - You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

32 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

33 - He has brought me to his banquet hall, And his banner over me is love. (Song of Solomon 2:4)

34 - Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. [“But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”] (Matthew 17:18-21)

35 - My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ... (1 John 2:1-29)

36 - This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, 24 but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

37 - Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday. (Psalm 37:4-6)

38 - “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward... (Matthew 6:1-34)

39 - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9)

40 - “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? (Isaiah 58:1-14)