This amazing video shows the scale and magnificence of Herod’s Temple. It also points to some of the key events in the ministry of Jesus that took place in the Temple precinct.
Following Jesus
The ROAR of Heaven
I hear the ROAR of Heaven.
I hear the ROAR of Heaven.
A million times a million believers worshipping in unison at my throne.
I hear the ROAR of Earth.
I hear the ROAR of Earth.
To you it seems small and insiginificant. It is dispersed across thousands of congregations and seems so weak comapred to the roar of the world.
But I hear your ROAR. I see it all. Every worshipper alone or in a small gorup or a megachurch. It make sno difference to me whether you are rich or poor, untaught or university educated. I hear the ROAR of hearts and voices rising to me.
So let the ROAR continue even stronger in heaven and on earth.
Michelle Petersen: The Good News About Fasting
From “Crisis” Magazine
The Good News About Fasting
Michelle Petersen
“I dread fasting—it’s miserable.” “It’s too easy and not even a sacrifice for me.” “Does my condition exempt me or not?” “How much is OK for each meal or snack?” “Well, it’s really just about self-denial, so I’ll just give it my best shot.”
Among Catholics, this wave of consternation is about to hit on the eve of Ash Wednesday. Each year, these questions pepper Catholic social media; and each year these Catholics suffer more than necessary because repetition of the rules cannot address the experiential side of their struggles. We give it our best guess and tough it out for the two required days, then feast during Eastertide, and soon our busy lives delay the search for deeper answers until Lent rolls around again. This year, let us prepare in body, mind, and spirit and seek grudging acceptance of a holistically life-giving relationship with the virtue of fasting.
Fasting has been a stumbling block to me personally in each of the above ways at different times in my life, and it has been a journey to find peace with fasting and even a love of fasting. In the messy process of learning, two key discoveries have been absolutely pivotal. My first breakthrough came when I learned from Catholic doctrine that fasting is a virtue, a habit: it is built into our very nature to adapt to fasting, so that it becomes easier with a bit of practice.
Even as I practiced fasting and enjoyed the increasing ease, I found that there was still a grating resistance and dread inside me that was not due just to pangs of hunger. If this is you, I urge you to ask yourself: Do you truly believe that fasting is good for you as a whole person—good for your body, good for your emotions and imagination, for your whole psychological state, as well as for your intellect and will in grace? Do you truly see it as a gift from God, your loving Father, who wants you to find not just the initial mortification but actual refreshment of body, mind, and soul as the fruit of this medicinal practice?
The second breakthrough for me came from the secular fasting movement, which enabled me to see an underlying misconception I had been harboring. As the secular movement discussed the health benefits of fasting and the healing mechanisms in the human body that fasting unlocks, I realized that I had been thinking of fasting as causing damage to the body, as a way of benefiting the soul at the cost of the body in a zero-sum manner: all penalty born by the body and all fruit enjoyed by the soul. While it is true that extended fasting can be damaging if done recklessly and that there are conditions in which it is not healthy to fast (for which the Church makes exemptions), it is erroneous to think of fasting as harmful, especially the carefully defined, limited fasts the Church requires.
In fact, the Church has always taught that fasting integrates body and soul by teaching the body to follow the guidance of the soul and that it is beneficial to the whole person. The data on the benefits of fasting helped me to approach the Church’s teaching with better understanding—without the post-enlightenment lens through which I saw the goods of body and soul pitted against one another—and to truly embrace fasting from food as an irreplaceable part of the spiritual life. Seeing the integral good of the virtue of fasting is really the answer to the stumbling blocks that so many of us encounter with fasting.
It can be hard to see in what sense fasting is good when it seems to be a natural evil: the deprivation of appropriate amounts of food. Similarly, it can seem wrong to say that human nature was designed to fast, since from the beginning it was not so. Nevertheless, both are true specifically in the conditions of a fallen world.
The state of original justice in which our first parents were created meant that the body was perfectly subject to the soul, so that it enjoyed health, secure life, and peace. The soul itself was ordered, the lower powers being perfectly subjected to the will and reason, both of which were perfectly subject to God in grace. This integration of the person, wounded by sin and its effects, paradoxically finds a remedy in the practice of fasting. While the state of Eden will never be restored, and perfect integration must wait for the resurrection of the body, we can truly make progress in health of body, mind, and spirit by the regular practice of fasting.
In his question on fasting in the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas observes that fasting is good because it is aimed at a threefold good: the curbing of concupiscence, the atonement for sin, and the raising of the mind to spiritual things. He quotes Augustine’s sermon on prayer and fasting: “Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, kindles the true light of chastity.” Here we see a hint at the integrity of the person being restored: the soul is rendered receptive to God, the mind clear, the lower powers of the soul docile to the higher and the flesh to the soul. St. Thomas Aquinas observes that fasting is good because it is aimed at a threefold good: the curbing of concupiscence, the atonement for sin, and the raising of the mind to spiritual things.Tweet This
St. Thomas, in listing the ways in which fasting is natural to us, observes not only that we all naturally fast between meals but also that men willingly fast more “in order to avoid sickness, or in order to perform certain bodily works with greater ease,” implying that physical benefits were commonly acknowledged. Regarding the spiritual benefits, he goes so far as to say that the need for fasting in general is a precept of the natural law, a manifest remedy for all touched by sin, and that the laws of the Church merely add due times and manners to fasting.
St. Thomas Aquinas could not have known the mechanisms by which the body, in a fasting state, reverses the physical effects of decadent living, purifies itself from pollutants, and regulates neurotransmitters to ameliorate the psychological state, but he knew that this virtue works to reverse the effects of sin and of living in a sinful world, even providing benefit to the body.
My emphasis on the physical benefit is by no means to introduce a prosperity gospel that promises health. Rather, I wish to demonstrate that fasting is not about suffering as such or sacrificing the good of the body. It is about the proper ordering and union of both under God, submitting to God’s ordering instead of our own, which actually tends toward the flourishing of the whole person. Though we may be called at times to leave behind the temporal good of the body for the sake of the soul, God’s general design for fasting as a habit includes the good of mind, body, and spirit, which, post-enlightenment, is an important truth to rediscover.
The integral good of fasting from food also explains its primacy in the Church’s disciplines. Despite the great good of withdrawing from other comforts and pleasures, fasting from food is fundamental and irreplaceable because of its ability to order both body and soul. This is why even when fasting from food becomes easier, and giving up another created good would be more difficult for a particular individual, the fast from food still supports the proper ordering of body to soul and soul to God that brings clarity and strength to other forms of penance.
Bringing a positive, holistic understanding of fasting to others in a way that can transform it from stumbling block into stepping stone needs to happen primarily through culture—virtue is taught by experience. We need the steady example and reassurance of those around us to give us hope and confidence that fasting can be done, and done beautifully, as a regular part of life.
If you are struggling with fasting as a stumbling block, I encourage you to read what current fasting science has to offer on the subject, such as Fast Like a Girl by Mindy Pelz or The Complete Guide to Fasting by Jason Fung. You may find motivation, reconciliation to the idea, guidance on how it works with any health conditions you may have, and guidance to gently work up to Ash Wednesday. We can take what is true in secular fasting culture and use it to help us revive neglected traditions. I encourage you also to learn and practice with others in your family and parish, so that we can build a Catholic fasting culture and truly accompany one another on the path to Heaven.
Life Matters
It has been a bad summer, apparently, for people drowning, particularly at the beaches along our coastline. People have been taking risks such as swimming at unpatrolled beaches, entering water that was dangerously rough and so on. In a couple of cases, people have died in the process of rescuing somebody else who was in trouble.
We add to those people dying in the water to those who lost their lives on the roads, and it is clear that it has been a dangerous summer for many people.
When I was young, I used to love the water. Waves were fun, and the beach was a place that seemed almost magical in many ways. There were a few times when I could have been one of those who was swept out in a rip or suffered an injury from a dumper.
The phrase, “but for the grace of God” springs to mind when I think of those situations.
We are used to thinking about our lives stretching on for ever, with no thought that it might end one day. None of us knows when that time will come. For any of us it could be much sooner than we ever thought possible.
The Bible tells us that “each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgement,” (Hebrews 9:27). There is no replay or second chance. We all get one shot at life.
The Good News is that Jesus, in His death on the cross, paid the price for us. All who put their trust in Jesus can be sure that everything is forgiven and the slate is wiped clean.
Taking a risk in the surf or on the road can be fatal. Taking a risk with God has eternal consequences.
Jentezen Franklin: You Shall Be Filled
Our American diets are loaded with sugars, toxins, processed foods, meats, etc. Yet it is possible for us to be eating large meals, be overweight and still be malnourished.
In that sense, it is easy to see how our physical lives again parallel our spiritual lives. We can become over-nourished on a hefty diet of church programs and activities, religious structure and traditions of men and yet be severely undernourished when it comes to the deeper things of God.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” (Matt. 5:6). When you begin to develop a hunger for the deeper things of God, He will fill you. However, sometimes just being in a good service is not enough. I believe God is already raising up people in this hour who do not want a diet of just “church as normal” any longer. I see it at Free Chapel; people are fasting and developing a hunger for more of God, and religious traditions are having to just get out of the way. Hungry people are desperate people. They will push over the custom; they will push over the ritual—they don’t want to leave hungry.
Hungry in Flesh. . .Hungry in Spirit
Jesus found such hunger while visiting Tyre and Sidon. A woman whose daughter was possessed and tormented by a devil heard that He was there. But the woman was Greek, “a Syro-Phoenician by birth” (Mark 7:26), and, therefore, outside of the covenant God had made with Israel. But that didn’t matter to her. She was hungry, and her faith was persistent. Even when Jesus discouraged her, saying that the “bread” was first for the children of Israel, she was hungry enough to ask for even a crumb that would fall to the floor. Many of the children who sat at the table had not shown such great hunger. Jesus honored her request, and her daughter was healed because of her persistence (vv. 29–30).
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Hungry, desperate people are hungry for more of God than they have ever had. They are breaking out of religious rules, regulations and traditional thinking and breaking through to more of His presence, more of His power to turn situations around, more of His healing power, and more of His miracle-working power. Only Jesus satisfies that hunger!
Fasting stirs a hunger in your spirit that goes deeper than the temporary hunger you experience in your flesh. When you hunger for God, He will fill you. Jesus went through cities where He could do no miracles—because there was no hunger.
As Jesus entered Capernaum, He was confronted by a Roman centurion whose servant was paralyzed and tormented (Matt. 8:5–13). But the centurion knew it would take only a word from Jesus for the servant to be healed. When he said those words to Jesus, the Bible says Jesus was amazed at his faith and told those around him, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (v. 10). He was saying, “So many in Abraham’s lineage don’t have the hunger this man has shown. They come to see Me, but they don’t hunger.” In this day, God is saying, “I’m looking for somebody who wants something. I’m looking for somebody who will do more than show up, but they will hunger for that which I want to place in them!”
Anybody can be normal. Normal is overrated. Someone has to say, “But I want more! Lord, I’m hungry! I’m going to have to push tradition aside! I’m going to have to push religious rules aside! I’m going to have to push all of the rituals aside because I’m starving to death, and I just can’t do ‘church as usual’ any longer.”
My suggestion is to begin by pushing the plate aside. Show God that you are serious. We must get to the place where we are desperate for God again. We must begin to desire Him more than food or drink. Let us be filled with the Bread of Life instead of the refuse of religion. Begin to make fasting a regular discipline, and see how God answers your hunger!
Christian Fasting Part 2
There are different kinds of fasting, in the same way that there are different kinds of prayer or different forms of worshipping. All are offered to God as our holy sacrifice.
Firstly there is the complete fast. Usually this involves just giving up food for a specified period of time- perhaps a day, two days, a week. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. We are told that He was hungry, not that He was thirsty. Jesus would have drunk water during this time.
In a complete fast, people sometimes allow themselves fruit juice to maintain their sugar levels. I drink tea as normal, sometimes with milk but sometimes black. Even though fasting is a discipline, we have freedom within the discipline.
Secondly there is the absolute fast, which includes abstaining from water or any other fluid. This should be done very carefully as our bodies do need water, especially during hot weather or physical exertion. During the month of Ramadan, devout Muslims engage in this type of fast during the daylight hours only. So an absolute fast might just go for the day time, or 24 hours maximum.
Finally, there is the partial fast. People sometimes choose to go without things that they consider to be luxurious food items. The most widely known partial fast is the so-called Daniel Fast. There are actually two fasts mentioned in the book of Daniel.
In Daniel 1, Daniel asks for his friends and himself to be given just fruit and vegetables and spared from the richer foods of the King’s table. These would have been considered unclean in Israel’s dietary laws. This was initially given on a trial basis for ten days, but then they were allowed to continue.
Then in Daniel 10, Daniel enters a special time of “mourning” that involved abstaining from wine, meat and fine food for 21 days. During this time he undertook special prayers for his people. Often a Daniel fast is considered to allow fruit, vegetables and grains, but exclude things like cakes, fine pastries and sweet desserts.
It is important that we do not get hung up on rules about fasting. Decide in prayer what kind of fast you will undertake and for how long. Pick a particular prayer project that God is laying on your heart and make that the focus of your prayers in that time.
In the past I have only ever done a sunrise to sunset type fast, that is fasting until the evening meal. Recently the Lord led me in a whole day fast, that is eating nothing at all from when I got up in the morning until I went to bed at night. That was harder, but still doable. I believe that in the upcoming Lent season I may do a number of these fasts, and maybe even a two day fast.
Whatever kind of fast you do, just do it to the glory of God. If you fall down and fail to complete the fast, don’t get discouraged. Learn from your mistakes and try again later.
Joseph Mattera- 7 Typical Prophetic Buzzwords Given to Hype Crowds
From Charisma
Every year, many prophetic words are given to start the new year. Many prophetic words are just repetitive rewordings of previously hyped-up words. However, are they really prophetic words? With all the prophetic lunacy in much of the charismatic church over the last few years, we need to revisit the prophetic standards statement as a guide for church movements and Christ followers.
Also, I encourage you to check out the 2023 review of prophetic words given last year by Remnant Radio.
To aid the body of Christ in developing discernment, the following is a summary of some of the standard generic words or phrases that appeal to many despite the fact they rarely come to pass.
The following are some generic prophetic hype buzzwords:
1. There will be a wealth transfer this year. In the past few decades, I have often heard many words like this that I have lost count. The truth is that many people who believe in these words are still in the same financial position year after year. Even though I have seen some individuals go from poverty to wealth quickly by utilizing faith, creativity and hard work, the Scripture regarding wealth transfer implies that it takes several generations. Hence, it usually entails parents instilling practical life skills and biblical discipleship into the next generation, imparting money management skills and life principles that result in a wealth transfer from the wicked to the seed of the righteous (Prov. 13:22).
2. A great revival is about to take place. For many years, prophetic words have been used, promising an imminent revival that will shift the nation. Words like these tickle the ears of vast prophetic adherents but have yet to come to pass despite many local outbreaks that have come and gone through the years. Also, many local church pastors have told me that a prophet came to their church and said their church would be the center of a great revival in their city. However, in every city I visited, I met a pastor with the same word. Even within the same city, multiple pastors received the exact word about their local church.
Can a prophetic word predict a revival? Of course! However, pastors should not build their entire ministries upon these prophetic words.
3. All your adversaries shall come, bow down and repent to you. Some iterations of Isaiah 60:14 have been given numerous times to multitudes through the years regarding a promise of adversaries repenting to them. However, these kinds of words are conditional and do not come to pass without a Christian exhibiting humility, brokenness, forgiveness and unconditional love toward those who hate them (Matt. 5:44-45).
4. This is the season of your elevation. I have heard this kind of word spoken over people online and in some conferences too often. However, walking in Christlike humility is always the conditional precursor to God lifting a person up whether they receive a prophetic word or not. The written word promises this for those who live for the glory of God (1 Pet. 5:6).
5. God is sending you to the nations. I have heard this prophetic word spoken over people more often than any other word on this list. What does this mean? Since all the nations have come to major cities like NYC, believers no longer have to cross an ocean to minister to the nations. Unfortunately, traveling prophets often give words like this to people, resulting in them becoming distracted from serving and committed locally to their own congregation. They are always looking to leave to fulfill that prophetic word rather than stay home to make a difference. Can a word like this be legitimate? Of course. However, I wish more prophetic people would give words that help build up the local church rather than prophetically sending all gifted people out of their church.
6. Using a New Year’s rhyme to prophetically predict what’s to come. In late 2019, I heard prophets say things like, “2020 will be the year of 20/20 vision,” essentially a year when there will be an acute level of prophetic accuracy. However, it may have been the year with the most inaccurate prophetic declarations as virtually few, if any, foresaw the looming global pandemic and the failure of Trump to get reelected.
Another word I heard in late 2019 was that 2020 would begin the so-called Roaring ’20s, when the power of God and great revivals would break out. Thus far, nothing implied in this prophetic rhyme has occurred nationally except perhaps in some local areas in North America and beyond.
Furthermore, before 2024, I’m sure there were words such as “There will be an open door in 2024,” and in the coming years, there may be prophetic declarations like “You’re gonna thrive in 2025” or “Everything will be fixed in 2026” or “2027 will be an open heaven ….” You get the picture. It’s almost as if these so-called prophets think God depends upon man-made calendars to shift His actions or focus.
7. Hebrew calendar usage. Many popular prophetic people use the Hebrew calendar or alphabet to predict what is to come. Unfortunately, most of these words (sometimes interspersed with symbolic visions and dreams) are so complicated that very few people understand the totality of what’s being communicated, which makes it challenging to edify the church (1 Cor. 14:3, 11-12). Furthermore, this utilisation of the Hebrew calendar can sometimes be considered by some to be a form of Kabala, which is Jewish mysticism.
I have no issue with people attempting to understand the importance of certain times of the year corresponding with a Jewish feast in Scripture (the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, Passover and Pentecost, to name a few). My point here is that we must be careful with prophetic words that are so mystical that they are either too difficult to interpret or can be interpreted in numerous ways.
Fasting
A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast, on my bike, about fasting for miracles. This particular speaker is a part of a church in the USA where members regularly fast for 21 days in January. As I was listening I was drawn to the idea of fasting as a congregation, not in January which doesn’t work at all in Australia, but through Lent.
I have spoken to a few people who think, as I do, that the Lord is calling the church to do this project together. It is interesting that at the time that the Holy Spirit was talking to me about it, He was also talking to other people.
Fasting is not a big part of the Western church in our times. The idea of voluntarily abstaining from food for even just 1 day fills many of us with anxiety. I think because we are so used to having food of almost any sort, whenever we feel like it, we can’t imagine not eating when we are hungry.
I confess that I have not been a big practitioner of fasting at any time in my life, except for brief times. Yet this was a big part of living for followers of the Lord in the Old Testament and for followers of Jesus. The early church, and right through to modern times, extolled the value of fasting as a spiritual discipline.
If you search for “Fasting” on Amazon, there are literally thousands of titles on fasting for health, intermittent fasting, and so on. The number of christian titles on fasting is much smaller.
There are two things, I want to emphasise in this short article.
Firstly, Christian fasting is linked to prayer. It is not about just doing without food, but setting apart a time period when we seek the Lord with such intensity and passion, that you are willing to do without food for a period of time. There are many testimonies of people being saved, healed, receiving miracles, breakthrough prayers being answered because people fasted and prayed. Fasting turbo charges your prayer life by reminding you that you are dedicating this period to the Lord. Every time your stomach growls is a call to prayer.
Secondly, Christian fasting is about your relationship with God. In the Old Testament, various people are described as humbling themselves before the Lord, and usually in connection with fasting. Fasting reminds us very powerfully that we are totally dependent on the Lord for everything we need for life.
We fast for spiritual reasons, but there are health benefits. I have a tendency to snack almost constantly. When I fast it resets the bad habit of picking up food and mindlessly eating. Often people experience a detox process as their bodies take the opportunity to process and eliminate the bad stuff in their bodies. It gives your digestive system a rest and renews its strength.
So what does a Lenten Fast look like? How long do you have to keep it up for? What can I expect?
We will explore these topics and much more as we get closer to Lent.
My Mission
In the bloguanary project, this morning’s prompt is “What’s Your Mission?”
My mission in life is to honour Jesus in all I do. This has not changed since my conversion in 1976. Of course, the focus has changed as I have journeyed through life.
I see this mission as being filtered through 3 main responsibilities in my life.
Firstly, I want to be the best husband possible to my wife. I am not always successful at this, as my own sins and insecurities can sometimes mar the relationship. But after 43 years of marriage, we are more in love than ever.
Secondly, i want to be the best father to my four (grown up) children that I can. Again, I am more often aware of my failings in this regard than my successes. Nowadays three of the four live a distance away from Narrabri. But I always notice that when they are all together there is so much laughter. Maybe, just maybe, I can consider that I haven’t done too bad a job.
As a pastor, I want to see my parishioners grow in their experience of Jesus Christ. I want to see them all grow to be all that they can be in the grace of God. This is not always easy, but it is a very rewarding mission.
I won’t ever get to the place where I can say “Mission Accomplished.” These are all life-long missions that will keep me busy for the time I have left on earth.
Time Matters
I decided to write some articles for Bloganuary, an annual blogging start of year encouragement on WordPress.com
Today’s prompt: Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
As a pastor, I spend a significant amount of time thinking about the future. God gives us dreams and visions about how our lives as individuals and as a community of faith might develop over the years ahead.
To do this, I need to think about the past also. How does my past inform my future plans? What has worked or hindered the vision in the past.
In another sense, I have to think about the past whenever I read the Scriptures. The are God’s living words to His people right now. How do I reach into an ancient culture to understand the followers of Jesus in order to bring their experience into the present?
The Biblical understanding of “remembering” was very different to ours. When Jesus tells us to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in memory of Him, He is not just telling us to act out an event that happened two thousand years ago. Similarly when the Jews celebrated Passover, it was not just about ancient history. To remember means that we bring the events of the past into the present and allow them to transform us now.
Past, present and future all impinge equally in our lives. But then there is eternity, where time takes on a very different meaning. Followers of Jesus will live forever in a perfect, reconstructed heavens and earth. That seems like the far future, but really it isn’t that far from us.
Any one of us could die in the next 24 hours and find ourselves in the presence of God. Then all of our earthly lives will be past tense. We will be asked to give an account of our lives. Those who faithfully followed Jesus will be brought into heaven, while those who rejected Him will be “cast into the outer darkness.”
New Life Narrabri 