Daniel Fast Day 21

Daniel Fast Day 21 is coming to an end. This has been a very beneficial time for me. Going without a normal diet was a struggle at times, but has been very beneficial. Most days my breakfast consisted of a Berry Smoothie, (1 cup of orange juice, 1 cup of mixed berries, and 1 frozen banana, mixed in a ninja). The original recipe consisted of just water but I changed it to oj because the water made the smoothie taste weak. Here is what I learned: There are way too many chemicals in our food. The normal calorie intake is way too much. I don't miss meat, dairy, bread, or sugar. Spiritually: God is as close to me as I want to be to Him. (too many times things can crowd out God.) God will answer prayer when we get serious enough to pray and believe that He will answer. Be bold enough to pray big prayers. Fasting has transformed the way I pray. Each week there will be a fast day. Each time I sensed that God was going to do something, the enemy attacked. Spiritual warfare is a much needed and very rarely talked about today. I am almost finished with reading the Bible through in 90 days,and each day I saw some new things. I will continue to blog but it may not be as consistent as I was during this fast. Not sure what I may blog about, it may be random rant, it maybe on an area where I am reading, check back often you might be surprised.

Daniel Fast Day 20

Wow, is all I can say. At the beginning of this fast I thought that a 21 day Daniel fast was going to be tough. Here I am nearing the end, and things have gone well. Except this evening. I think I just will go into hiding on sunday eve, put a sign on the bedroom door, with a threat of life or limb if someone bothers me before tuesday at 9 A.M. Seems that the past two monday's have brought unexpected things, and i really did not like them. Suffice to say I kept to the fast. Things are looking good and tomorrow will be the final official day for this, but I will keep aspects from the fast in my daily life. As this evening draws to a close I am thankful for the trials as they remind me of the good days. Late tomorrow I will post what I have learned from this time.

Daniel Fast Day 19

Caught up on my blog today. I got a little behind but I don't have to be verbose to be effective. Today was interesting day as we started off by loosing an hour of sleep. Made it to church on time, and it being spring break not sure who would show up for Sunday School and Church, plus it was day light savings day. I knew the majority of my sunday school class was gone, so I knew I would have two boys, and ended up having three, (one was a new guest.) The majority of our worship team was out so we had to use come video's for worship. That went well, and no one complained, at least not about the video's. Right before worship stared we looked up and there were new people coming in the door, btw it pouring down rain, and all the sidewalks and back parking lot had water standing. I then remembered my prayer yesterday: Lord enlarge your church. It happened, and the service went well. We took someone out for lunch after the service and had a good lunch, (well it was again interesting to find something to eat without meat, and dairy mixed in.) I am amazed at how God is answering prayer. It seems that each week I am seeing things happen and the only answer is that God has heard the prayers and answered. I am compiling some lessons that I have learned that i will post to the blog on the last day of the fast. But I feel I need to share this one today, and that is the spiritual discipline of prayer and fasting,(fasting in any fashion). This should be included in a class for any one feeling a call to ministry. This discipline has really helped me this year, and it is one that will become an integral part of my life from now on.

Daniel Fast Day 18

Saturday, the I try to use as a sabbath was spent on the road conducting inspections. Day went well, saw some parts of north east texas, and saw some buffalo on my travels. Got to spend some time in mobile office just me and God, and I spent time praying, mainly asking God to enlarge the congregation I am privileged to pastor. I am not against marketing and outreach events but seems to me that when we trust in those things instead of God, they are not as effective. (again I am not against those things I just believe they are tools.) My prayer today was just to ask God to do something, and prayed for a specific goal for the church. On one of my stops where I was required to do an interior inspection as well as exterior I met a man who was confined to a wheel chair. He smiled as I explained the nature of the inspection. His daughter showed me the house, i quickly finished the inspection. As I was about to leave I looked down and there was this man's bible on the coffee table. I do not remember his name but his bible had Rev. embossed on the front of it. I asked him if that was him, and unable to talk to he shook his head yes. I told him I was a pastor also, and his eyes lit up and smile came to his face. I talked with the family for a few minutes, and hopefully my visit blessed them. This visit reminded me that we never know what our words or actions will do for someone. Hopefully a blessing.

Daniel Fast Day 17

One of the challenging parts of this fast has been going into restaurants to eat lunch or dinner. Today I was going around the east texas country side with my son, inspecting homes for my part time job. (it's actually less than part time, time wise, but the money is good!) We stopped to have lunch and there was no salad or vegetarian foods on the menu. I settled for a salad with no dressing and water. He had a taco plate and said it was delicious. Got to spend time with my son as we talked about life and the future, i think some things are starting to make sense to him. Arrived home entered reports and then headed to bed. Stuck to the fast even though everyone else was eating pizza and brownies.

Daniel Fast Day 16

Was able to use the majority of this day as a sabbath. This is hard to do sometimes due to all that goes on between the church responsibility, and the side work that I do. I am looking forward to being able to quit at least one of the side jobs here soon. Staying on the fast has been a challenge today, but with God's help I was able to stay with this. On the last day of the fast I am planning on writing down many of the lessons that I learned through this fast, and what I have determined to continue to do after the fast.

Daniel Fast Day 15

Day 15 of the Daniel Fast. The fast has almost become a natural way of eating. I feel good, no unusual hunger, and no headaches. Hard to believe that it has been 15 days,and I have had no bread, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, dairy, eggs,or meat. I am not vegetarian, but this fast has been an incredible way of looking at what I have been putting into my body. I have embarked on trying different ways of fixing food, and eating lots of raw vegetables and fruit. I have changed from drinking lots of tea, and frequent soda, (or pop if your in the south), to drinking 1 cup of coffee a day, fruit, vegetable juice and water with lemon slices. I have been making baked potato chips from potato's or sweet potato's for snacks. This evening one of the boys was grilling hamburgers and it did not smell good, as I was cooking my veggie burger. This evening I passed up a cake that was brought to church, it looked good, and smelled good, but resolved to stay with this fast. This evening we saw at church new faces, not very common for a mid week but they were at the activities. Our children's area is growing and we will need to do some revamping to meet the needs of these children. I am not taking any credit but through this fast I am seeing answers to prayer, seeing God move in the life of the church and recognizing I must be on my guard. I see God at work and look forward to sunday with anticipation of what is next.

Daniel Fast Day 14

This is the 14th day and things are progressing. I am certain that yesterday's troubles were an attack from the devil, who wants to derail the good things that are beginning to happen. God was helping yesterday and I am seeing a fresh perspective that in spiritual warfare one must stay vigilant. As I am working on some teaching on this matter I have gained new insights in this arena. God is great, He is my rock, my fortress and deliverer.

Daniel Fast Day 13

Day 13 of the Daniel Fast was not a great day. I stuck to the fast, but there were spiritual things going on that made this day very rough. But I was able to stick to the fast and trust God.

Daniel Fast Day 12

Day 12 of the fast and its going good. God's blessing is on the church and the good spirit was obvious today. There is definitely a spirit of anticipation among the people more than one person has expressed a sense of something good is about to happen. There is not really much more to say or it would be just rambling. God is good!

Daniel Fast Day 10

The sast is going well. The family had pizza from CiCi's this evening and it came with a whole pizza box of cinnamon rolls. I momentarily thought about having one, but decided that I would not. The spiritual lesson I am learning from this is God wants us to be in control of our bodies, and what we put into them. I have been a little negligent on that part, but part of stewardship is not about money but also about the bodies God has given to me. If I can control what I eat, then I need to control what I do, buy, etc... Of course I also need to yield control of my life over to God, and I know that I cannot call all the decisions and moves all by myself.

Daniel Fast Day 11

Half way point today. I have been learning more about relying on God, and seeing some good things happening. Looking forward to the services at the church tomorrow, even teaching the youth sunday school class. The youth in that class are high energy but they are a blessing. Not sure I could have said that 3 1/2 years ago when I started this blog, shows what I have come through, with God's help. A trend is not always a destiny. We finish up the series on the spiritual disciplines and then next week I will begin a new series on the power of Christ that takes up to Easter. Spent the day using the day as a sabbath, looked over sermon for tomorrow, and made the weekly trip to the grocery store. (i dread that more and more). This fast has made me read labels more and more, trying to be careful in the area of food additives, but also in the area of sugar. I have struggled with hypoglycemia since high school, and eating sugar and the abstaining from it, and then introducing it back can cause problems. So unless it is naturally in the food, I try not to eat it.(its the refined and corn syrup that is added to products that can knock my blood sugar levels out of kilter.) This fast has helped me to see that changes are going to be made at the end of the fast in my everyday food intake.

Daniel Fast Day 9

I like to eat. I am not sure if its out of habit, nervous, or obsession. However, during these past few days, I wondered how this fasting thing is going. I can see God answering prayer and moving. This evening as the family was getting dinner ready and I was catching up on some work I could smell hamburgers cooking and they smelled good. Someone asked what I was going to have, and I said, a salad, and veggie burger. One of the kids cooked it for me, as I was on the computer putting in my reports from today's work. I really could have went for that beef burger, but felt I needed to say no, not at this time, and I will have one in a few weeks, a real hamburger, from Jucy's. It may be me but today as one of my son's was traveling with me, we stopped to have lunch at Wendy's, and it seems my sense of taste has become more sensitive. He had a hamburger, and I had a salad. (BTW it's hard to order a salad at Wendy's with no meat!) I don't eat only salad, but today it was just easier to have a salad. I am still looking forward to what God is about to do.