“Fasting And Weeping” – Paul Washer

Fasting Scriptures

1Ki 21:9 In those letters she wrote: “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people.

Ne 9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads.

Es 4:3 In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Es 9:31 to establish these days of Purim at their designated times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had decreed for them, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants in regard to their times of fasting and lamentation.

Ps 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered,

Ps 109:24 My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt.

Isa 58:3 `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.

Isa 58:4 Your fasting ends in quarrelling 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.

Isa 58:6 “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?

Jer 36:6 So you go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the LORD that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns.

Jer 36:9 In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fasting before the LORD was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah.

Da 9:3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Joel 2:12 “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

Mt 4:2 After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

Mt 6:16 “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

Mt 6:18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Mr 2:18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

Mr 9:29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”

Lu 2:37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying.

Ac 13:2 While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Ac 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

NIV Version

Living a Holy Life!

In the message “Believe and Be Restored” we considered our need to believe that what God said is true. He said the death and resurrection of Jesus was the final sacrifice for our sin, and that those who believe would receive the gift of eternal life.

Clearly, our Salvation is a gift from God; “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). We did nothing to earn our Salvation and there is nothing we must now do to keep it, we simply must believe; “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Though our sins are forgiven and Jesus is 100% sufficient for Salvation – though we walk in grace and are absolutely free of condemnation – sin in our life still causes temporary separation and tension in our relationship with God. Therefore, over and over in scripture, we are called to a life of holiness: “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:14-15). Holiness is to receive top priority in our life; “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy” (Hebrews 12:14).

So why such an emphasis on holy living? After all, if we are saved by grace, our effort toward holiness plays no part in our Salvation. The answer is found in examining our purpose for life beyond Salvation: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1).

2 Peter 1:5-7
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

After we are saved, we live to worship and glorify God; but this can only be done by growing in our faith and presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice. For any sacrifice to be pleasing to God, the sacrifice itself must be pure, and the one who presents the sacrifice must be holy. So when we “make every effort” toward a life of holiness, we don’t do so in order to earn or maintain our Salvation; we strive for holiness because we desire to truly worship our Heavenly Father with every heartbeat of our life.

We must never lose sight of God’s wonderful gift given purely by His grace. But now our Father’s plan is for us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son and live in a continual state of worship. His design for our life is that we mature in our faith and worship Him by living a holy life.

By Steve Troxel

Holiness Is What I Long For, (But What Is It?)

Taken from this article in Christianity Today, and a must read for every Christian:

Still, as we maintain the priority of our union with God in Christ, we must also acknowledge that we are not yet holy. For our holy relationship with God in Christ requires of us—or better yet, enables in us—a response. “I urge you,” says Paul, “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Eph. 4:1); and, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1); and finally, “Continue to work out your salvation in fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12-13).

Such passages make clear that there is no place for cheap grace in the economy of God. Rather, the purpose of God’s saving work in Christ is to free us to live out the holiness we already enjoy in him. The wonder and beauty of the gospel is that God deigns to manifest his love and goodness through creatures created in his image. By virtue of God’s gracious initiative and through union with Christ, we participate in God’s holiness in a way that transforms our lives and manifests God’s grace: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Eph. 2:10).

Contrary, then, to any notion of mere moral conformity, true holiness is a grateful collaboration with God in seeking to live out the form of human life that he intends.

This is a result of a lack of commitment to God that isn’t attractive to the outside world and fails to live out the meaning of the faith and show what the power of God can do. Very sad.

If I Could Score One Point

“But to think that you’ve somehow trumped your atheist ‘enemies’ by denouncing them for not acknowledging a Supreme Being who, by your admission, is not the loving God you proclaim he is, is a reverse double bluff.” Rene I don’t consider you as enemies. I would like to see every atheist as my friend. Neither do I consider myself as being better than you, although I do see myself as being infinitely better off in the light of eternity. If I could score one point with those who profess atheism, it’s to convince them that the god they don’t believe in, doesn’t exist. Each of us, until we are “regenerated” by the Holy Spirit, has our “understanding darkened.” We are as Einstein said, like a little child in a massive library. I would add “an illiterate” little child. We are incapable of understanding, and so like Job (see Job 38:2), our words are without knowledge. When an atheist talks of God as being a God of love, I can understand the impossibility of reconciling His harsh judgments with His professed love. How could He kill humanity through the Noahic flood or mercilessly kill all the Canaanites, and still be called “loving”? It makes no sense. The answer in simple. It is because He is also “just” and “holy.” To help us understand this, we must take a moment to do something that is unpleasant. Think objectively about your sins. Be blatantly honest. Don’t try to justify yourself. Go through the Commandments one by one and ask if you are you guilty of lying, stealing, blasphemy, lust, fornication, unthankfulness, ingratitude, failure to love others as much as you love yourself, and of course the big one–failing to God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength? Then ask how you would do if God lost patience and judged you right now by that perfect Law, and you have to come to the conclusion that He hasn’t dealt with you according to your sins. He hasn’t treated you as He treated the Noahic generation or the Canaanites. If we remove God’s moral Law (the Ten Commandments) from the equation, this “God of love” and the harsh judgments we read in the Bible are diametrically opposed. But when the Law enters and we understand that He is both just and holy and loving and merciful, then we begin to get a right image of the God we must face. This has never been so clearly illustrated as at the cross. There we see an evident display of God’s wrath against sin as the Lamb of God suffered for the sin of the world. But we also see an evident and amazing display of His love and mercy of God, when we understand that He suffered in Christ so that our case could be dismissed (see Romans 5:8). Still, what I am saying is just words, and all the talk in the world cannot help you in this case. You need to “taste” what I am saying, because you are dying for want of the Bread of Life (see John 6:35). Every minute of every day is drawing you closer to breathing your last. The minute that you “taste and see that the Lord is good,” the life of God will enter your dying body, and the argument about His existence and the Savior He proved will be over. You will know the truth and the truth will make you free (John 8:31-32).

By Ray Comfort