Prayer and Fasting 2012

Fasting keeps you sensitive to His Spirit, enabling You to live holy.

I am convinced that we will never walk in the perfect will of God until we seek Him through fasting. When you present your body in the manner, you open yourself up to hear from God. You will prove or discover His good and perfect will for your life. Paul was fasting when God called him and shared the assignment for his life (Acts 9:7-9). Peter was fasting on the rooftop when God gave him a new revelation and called him to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10). Fasting prepares the way for God to give you fresh revelation, fresh vision, and clear purpose. ~J. Franklin

I want a fresh start in 2012. Do you?

Our fast will begin on sunrise of January 2nd and last through sunset of January 6th. That's this Monday. There are many ways to fast but if you are medically able, fast from food in some way. I am preparing to fast on a liquid fast for three days and then finish the week out with a Daniel fast. This is what I hear the Lord asking of me. What is He asking of you.

Do you want a breakthrough? Do you want to be rid of a habitual sin or a bad habit? More importantly, do you want to hear from the Lord what He wants for your life? What is His will in your marriage? I know I do.

So join us on Monday. I'm so excited that so many of you have committed to join us. You will not be disappointed. God will surely show up when you offer this sacrifice to Him.

On Monday, Rosheeda Lee, who leads our fast every year, will post a scripture verse to reflect upon and a prayer to start the day. So stop in early and pray with us corporately.

Dineen and I believe this year God has called us to pray very specifically for our families. On Monday, pray for your spouse. Every aspect, his/her health, job, parenting, hobbies, his soul, heart, and emotional state. Pray to understand him better. Ask God to show you where you can be a better spouse and to give you the courage to take action in whatever area He reveals. Pray, pray, pray.

Light a candle.

Each time you see the flame along with your hunger pangs; both will remind you to shoot up prayers.

On Tuesday, pray for your oldest child. All day. In the same manner. On days-three, four, and five pray for each subsequent child. If you have more than three kids double up days or extend your fast. If you don't have three kids, then pray for another significant relationship in your life.

The community of believers here at Spiritually Unequal Marriage is an expectant bunch. We truly believe God answers prayer. I know I have seen the miraculous in my prayer life, so let’s expect God to hear, to act, to show up and show off.

Then let us bring Him praise. Lynn

Fasting. Does It Work?

When you eliminate food from your diet for a number of days, your spirit becomes uncluttered by the things of this world and amazingly sensitive to the things of God. 

Matthew 6:

Jesus said, "When you give....When you pray..... When you fast...." 

This passage in Matthew six is where Jesus made it clear that fasting, like giving and praying, is a normal part of the believer's life.

On January 2-6 we will fast as a community of believers. There are many different ways to fast. Last year we set out several examples of fasts and I want to list them here again today. Please begin to pray and ask God to prepare you and to point you to the fast that will work for you.

 

 

 
 
Are you willing to forgo a Snicker's bar in the afternoon to over come a recurring sin in your life?

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So what is fasting? It's the humbling of ourselves to draw closer to God.

Fasting must be coupled with prayer and reading of God's word. This three cord approach is what releases God's supernatural power into our life. Without all three, fasting is just dieting.

Fasting is NOT:

• A tool for weight-loss.
• An attempt to arm twist God into our way of thinking.
• Advisable for those with medical conditions that are complicated from fasting.

True fasting is giving of our basic human nature completely over to the Lord. To allow Him to fill us up spiritually as we empty physically.

There are many ways to fast. You can fast from television. Or give up one meal a day. Or like, Daniel, fast certain foods. The Biblical fasts include fasting from food for one, three, ten, 21, and 40 day fasts.

In his book, Fasting, Jentezen Franklin, describes the types of fasts:

• Absolute Fast: Food and water fast. For only a limited time and under medical consultation.
• Normal Fast: No food, clear liquids, lots of water, 1 gal purified the first day, broth and juice when necessary.
• Partial Fast: The Daniel fast was vegetables and water.

If you have never fasted before, I would suggest trying out a one day fast. Forgo food from dawn to dusk. After sunset you join the family for a modest evening meal. This was the first kind of fast I participated in. It was amazing. This was the type of fasting I did during our annual fast last January.

Why do this corporately? We all are living in some difficult and challenging circumstances. When we pray and FAST together we bring down the power of God. We will also bring God into our planning for 2011.

Okay today, if you are feeling that excitement build, leave "I'm In" in the comments again. Also share any experiences you have had during a time of fasting. Your experiences can help others to be ready.

Additionally, I discovered some excellent information about the details of fasting on the Campus Crusade website. Take a look:

Why You Should Fast 

How to Fast Safely

How Long and What Type of Fast

We will be sharing the focus of our fast for the week on Friday. See you then.

Be blessed, Lynn

Praying & Fasting for 2012

With the New Year ahead, I find myself anticipating what God has planned. If you were with us here at S.U.M. last January, you may remember that we fasted that first week. I will confess that I did not want to participate.

First of all, fasting has never been easy for me. I’m one of those people who struggles with a food addiction so this is a big undertaking for me.

Second, my family and I were traveling from Florida back to California by car that week. Fasting on the road seemed even more daunting. I made up my mind to do what I could. I wanted to at least fast during the day.

So, as the week of fasting approached, I started praying and asking God to prepare me to do this. He above anyone else knows how I struggle in this area. My heart's desire was to honor Him. Plus, I use this first week to ask God for words and Scriptures for myself and my family to guide me in my prayers for the rest of the year.

Finally, the week arrived. Day one of the fast and our first day on the road. I allowed myself only basic liquids, like tea and broth. Evening came and I felt like God was calling me to continue. I continued to pray for strength to continue because what I really hoped and longed to do was fast for three days—something I’d never been able to do.

By the end of this first day, God gave me my word for for 2011: VICTORY. I will tell you, I stand in awe of what God has done in a year that seemed to start out rough but has truly become a year of true victory for my family in so many ways, with some still coming to fruition.

Day two arrived and I continued on. I didn't want to be low on energy because I wanted to help drive and alert for my husband. God amazed me and continued to strengthen and keep me going. As I prayed for direction for myself, God gave me a wonderful verse to affirm my work for Him in ministry and speaking.

Evening came and I felt God's strength to keep going. I was amazed how He provided for me through a bottle of juice and the broth from a bowl of chicken soup from Subway!

Day three arrived and I focused my prayers on my family. God gave me insights and a Scripture to pray for each of them. The one that amazes me the most was for my youngest daughter who still struggled with health and emotional issues from her past battle with cancer.

I have prayed Malichi 4:2 (But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.) this past year for my daughter and claimed this promise from God even when things seemed worse. God is so faithful. My daughter is flourishing and growing in ways I hadn't even imagined possible at this point. She is truly like this calf, leaping with joy from its stall.

When day four arrived, I felt God's release to break my fast. I was amazed. I'd actually done it, even while traveling on the road and stopping at restaurants for meals, which is part of the fun! And my family seemed to understand too. Even my hubby. I already felt victorious as I started my year of victory!

Friends, as we approach the first week of January, will you start praying now for God to guide you in a decision to fast? We will start at sunrise January 2nd and end at sunset January 6th.

You can fast for one meal, just for the day until sunset or as many full days as God leads you to. And that is key here. This has to be about what God is calling you to do. And it can be a fast from food, just sweets, television, the computer or whatever it is you feel God putting on your heart.

As one who still struggles with the discipline of fasting, I can tell you there is something powerful that happens when we align ourselves like this and submit our wills completely to God in order to know His. He loves to meet with us in this most sacred of places. 

Will you join Lynn and I as we take this most amazing journey again? Let's walk this road together and start our year with the strength and guiding wisdom of God. Each day, starting January 2nd, we will meet here at S.U.M. to share a prayer for our unbelieving spouse and our children. Each day will be geared to pray for one person, and we will light a candle each day as our reminder to pray each time we see its flame.

If you're an Advent wreath nut like I am, use that center candle, the Christ candle, each day as your connection and reminder to pray your loved ones into the loving arms of Jesus and His grace. Come each day and share what you feel God is telling you or just to be encouraged to keep going and continue to seek God.

God's love for us is like that candle's flame, only unimaginably brighter and hotter in His passion and pursuit of us. Let's hear what He so longingly wants to tell us for 2012.

Praying and believing,
Dineen

Can Men and Women Be Just Friends?

 

 

What do you think?

From Our House.....

To Yours...

Merry Christmas

 

Dineen and I wish you a blessed Chrismas filled with laughter, memories and the love of Christ.

Tune in on Monday, December 26th as we set our sites on the new year and talk about what's coming next. Hugs, Lynn

A Charlie Brown Christmas For Me

I grew up waiting each Christmas season for two special TV shows to appear on our old television set. Yes, I grew up in the “Dark Ages”, according to my teenager. There weren’t video recordings nor hundreds of channels with millions of re-runs. You had one chance, once a year. That was it. I anxiously awaited, A Charlie Brown Christmas which was followed by The Grinch That Stole Christmas.

I would sit in the basement, next to the aluminum Christmas tree with the weird color wheel turning. Mom, would bring down the freshly popped corn which was coated with the most divine candy coating and we would make popcorn balls. With popcorn ball in hand, I sat criss-cross apple sauce on the floor and watch as Charlie Brown and the gang lit up our small television.

This is my personal testimony of the meaning of Christmas in my life. Join me at the Cafe Today.

Have a blessed week, Lynn

Weekend Devo — 'Twas the Week Before Christmas

I'm having an "ahh" moment with a cup of my favorite tea. The warm scent of English blend wafts across my nose and my eyes close in welcome relief. The stress in my shoulders seeps away as I settle into my comfy chair and on the matching ottoman I prop my aching feet. 

I'm tired but happy. My Christmas shopping is done. Next week promises busy moments with my family as we make ready for Christmas baking and fun. My oldest daughter will turn 22 and additional  presents will be under the tree for her new fiance (we always have a gift for this sweet guy but this year he's earned a few more!). We even have a stocking for him hung by the chimney for Christmas day.

My youngest (18 as of last week—yes, we have Christmas babies!) won't be with us—she's tucked snug with family in Florida, enjoying the fuss and attentions of my husband's big family. Nope, no sugar plums are dancing around her head but I'm betting she's having visions of what she'll buy with the gift card we sent for her birthday.

I settle down more into my soft chair (no kerchief for me, too many curls in my hair). The nativity scene on the sofa table catches the light from the twinkling tree. I smile to myself and thank Jesus for being there for me, even on busy and hectic days like these.

Another sip of tea and my heart settles into silent Christmas songs. Our newest member of the family (a hyperactive mutt we named River) races into the house with a clatter and stops in front of me. Her little brown nose wiggles as she sniffs and she tilts her head as if to ask, "Why are you sitting around?!"

With a scratch on her head and a pat on her back, she races out the back door after the cat. I return to gazing at the tree so brightly lit. Lights twinkle and blink and dance up the branches. Big bulbs of color glow inbetween ornaments each with a story that matches.

This one for our baby girl's first Christmas. That one for Dad's favorite movie, A Christmas Story. Another reminds me of our time in Switzerland and Christmas snow! And yet many more bring a parade of past memories of Christmas cheer and glow.

No Santa to bring presents this year—our girls are all grown. Just the sweet lingering essence of a baby promised long ago. I'm so thankful for our Savior—He's always so near. And though our family's changed and we're not all together, our hearts are forever tied with love and Christmas cheer.

Much to celebrate in the Miller home this year. So much to be thankful for—my heart just overflows. The trials of the last few years grow dim in the faithfulness and reality of God's plan. So from my heart to yours, I wish you the same.

Peace and many loved ones to be always near and the blessing of God's presence all through the year!

Merry Christmas, my friends!
Dineen 

A Christmas Legend??? I Believe

This story was written by Rev. Howard C. Schade, pastor of the First Reformed Church in Nyack, New York. By the time the story was anthologized in Alice Gray’s Christmas Stories for the Heart in 1998, Rev. Schade already had passed away in 1989 and could not be contacted to verify the details of the story, which is why Snopes calls this story a “legend.”

I choose to believe!

By Rev. Howard C. Schade

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.

They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On December 19, a terrible tempest — a driving rainstorm — hit the area and lasted for two days.

On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor and, not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.

On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea-market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.

She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet….

“Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?”

The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials EBG were crocheted into it there.

They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving.

The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike. He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier.

He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

Thankful Thursday - A Focused Moment

Hi Everyone,

It's a bit late in the day to join Thankful Thursday but my heart and Dineen's heart overflows with gratitude. We thank our Lord for allowing us to share the hope we have for our unequally yoked marriages with the team and eventually the listeners of the radio program, Focus on the Family.

We arrived at the Focus campus yesterday and went straight into the recording session. We will share more at a later date. For today, Dineen and I want to offer praise to Jesus for this day and to thank our Lord for the community here at Spiritually Unequal Marriage.

You are our eternal family and we love you very much. Lynn and Dineen

Away in a Manger, Then a Tomb—The Humility of Christ

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” — Luke 1:34-37 (NIV, emphasis mine)

As I read the account of Gabriel’s visit to Mary above, that last line pulled me in and kept there for a while. Here’s the mighty Gabriel telling Mary what she needs to know most of all. In the 1984 version of the NIV, that line reads, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

This is a message for us too and reminds me of the promise in Philippians 4:13: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

God will never take us to a place of seeming impossibility and leave us there! He is faithful, true to His Word and will give us whatever we need to walk all the difficult paths in our lives. We don’t walk them alone. Emmanuel is with us, remember?

Now let me show you something so amazing, that one of my pastors (Thank you, Pastor Alvin!) showed us just this past Sunday. Read these two Scripture references below and let God bring a wave of fresh awe for his grand plan of salvation:

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. — Luke 2:7 (emphasis mine)

Then he took it [Jesus’ body] down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. — Luke 23:53 (emphasis mine)

Jesus’ life and death are “wrapped” in the humblest of means and He willingly chose to do this for us.

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! — Phil. 2:6-8

Christ’s humility is the ultimate example of dying to self. He left the greatest place of power—the Son of God—and took on the greatest form of weakness—a helpless baby.

For all of us. ALL OF US! Believe God’s Word will never fail and trust Him to bring the answer to our prayers for our unsaved loved ones at just the right time.

Just as He brought his Son to Earth so long ago—at just the right time.

Praying and believing,
Dineen