The Rock San Diego – 9/21 message

• There are two seas in Jerusalem: the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.  The Sea of Galilee thrives with life, with the Jordan River passing into and out of it.  The Dead Sea is void of life because that’s where the water flow ends.  This is like an analogy of God’s blessings being the river and our decision to pass on those blessings or hoard those blessings.
• Establish a prayer custom
• When do you pray
• Where do you pray
• How do you pray

Fasting update

My fasting decision has not gone well.  I made it through to dinner last night, but then it came time to make the dinner, and we had a bunch of meat in the refrigerator, so decided to grill some carne asada.  So along with that came everything else, including a couple beers.  

I did learn, however, that I was able to make it through until dinner with only a banana, 2 apples and a few nuts.  I think that part of the realization of fasting is that you don’t need what you think you need.  

My decision to eat last night had nothing to do with my ability or desire… I was fighting against it for a long time… but I was fighting against what [my wife] and [my oldest daughter] would think.  I also was concerned about the lessons that [my middle daughter] would take away from seeing daddy not eat.  I thought about how that might contribute to an eating disorder for her.  

After the let down of dinner, I decided that my fast was going to be a bit different than I originally intended.  I decided that fasting was going to be my way of submitting the Sabbath to God.  I would not eat anything from sun-down on Friday to sun-down on Saturday, in observance of remembering and keeping His Sabbath holy.  Today, I ate pretty normally, until dinner, which I had a banana and some nuts.