Ever since coming to Christ last year, I have been pouring myself into studying God's Word. Drowning myself in the Word has been surprisingly easy for me... or so I thought.
In the past few months one thing has become clearer to me and has become a burden I want and need to rid myself of.
This burden is the knowledge that Christ is not sufficient for me currently... Each day I become more and more aware of the fact that there are unnecessary things that I still feel controlling me. I get these feelings that I need, or worse, HAVE to do something to be happy. These are idolatrous hooks of my past life that I must nail to the Cross, lest they rise up and consume me.
These warring idols in my life mostly relate to entertainment that takes up too much of my thoughts and time. The deeper I dive into the Living Water, the more I realize that my time is NOT mine, it belongs to Christ. He has bought me with a price, and it is time that I start following him instead of salivating like a trained dog when something "cool and geeky" comes my way.
So, you may ask, what does this all mean?
Well, for a season, it means some spiritual fasting for me. This is going to be extremely difficult, but it is something Christ is calling me to do. What he has called me to do is to give up all of my entertainment for awhile... every bit of it.
Starting on October 31st (What better day than Reformation Day to start?) I will only rely on God's Word for satisfying those needs for "entertainment" that I feel. I am vowing to search out the hooks of idolatry in my heart that remove Christ from his rightful place in my life. Until I travel from start to finish in the Bible and Christ turns these "needs" into just things I can do, free from any feelings of compulsion, I will be parting ways with all of my other books, my websurfing (blog posting included), my music, my games and anything else I just "occupy time" with.
The only exceptions will be a once daily check of email (in case family and friends are trying to contact me), Tabitha updates here and time spent with Zane. This is a personal fast and it would be wrong to force this upon Zane.
Denita has also agreed to join me in this, so please be in prayer for her as well. This will be a difficult trial, but both of us believe that this is needed for our spiritual health.
For those interested, here are some passages that have been weighing upon me that turned my thoughts to this fast: Luke 14:25-35, Matthew 6:19-24, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 8:12-17, Romans 12:1-21, James 1:19-27, James 3:1-18, James 4:1-12, Ephesians 4:17-32, Philippians 3:17-21
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Hi Eric,
Hope you are all doing well. Since it's almost Denita's due date, I'm hoping you can provide just a teeny tiny update on 'Nita and baby Tabitha (and of course zany Zane!) Merry Christmas!
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