Bittersweet Farm – Page 62 – Bittersweet Farm

Fasting and BBQ Potato Chips

June 11, 2021 Filed Under: Current Thoughts

The building used to be called The Professional Center of Agriculture. It was the building where our church met in October of 1990.

Fasting. Does it Matter? Does God Care?

A friend called. He is sailing dark waters right now.

“I’ve been fasting. It is so hard. How do I know God even cares? How do I know it matters at all.”

I told him that fasting is an interesting thing. New Testament Christians are never commanded to fast, but Jesus promised that when we secretly fast—or when we fast, not to be seen, but sincerely—that he will reward us. Jesus promised a reward for those who fast. (Matthew 6:16-18) What is the reward? Is it now? Is that reward in heaven? I think both, but often the reward is not the answer to prayer we were seeking. God is usually up to something deeper as much as he delights to answer our prayers and supply our needs and solve our problems.

We are often motivated to fast by our great need, but fasting is not mostly to move God’s hand to meet our pressing and immediate felt needs. Fasting is a very powerful way to show us how much we delight in the things that God so faithfully gives and not in him. I’m sure there is much for for those who have drunk deeply of God, but for me, that has been the most profound lesson or impression upon my heart from fasting. Maybe the greatest reward has been a humbling reminder that my appetite for food and other things God has given is so great and my appetite for God is so weak.

The BBQ Chip Lesson

One day, many years ago I determined to fast for the day. I would set aside an hour at lunch to pray and to seek the Lord. I would enjoy an hour alone with the Lord. The was the plan. When noon came I was absorbed in my work and forgot that I had decided not to eat, but instead to spend an hour with the Lord.

Across the street from my study was a little convenience store. They served hot deli sandwiches and sold really good BBQ potato chips. I got to thinking about those chips, wrapped up my current work and started to lock up the office and head to the store for lunch when I remembered my promise to God

Inwardly I groaned. Those BBQ chips were on my mind. I was craving those chips. A wave of melancholy swept over me and I walked back to my study and slumped into my chair.

Suddenly it occurred to me—the sharp irony of it. I was more excited about BBQ chips than I was about spending time with the Lord. I know that there are times to seek the Lord with feasting. I know that is it worshipful to enjoy God good gifts like food, but I believe he expected that his children would sometimes set aside other things—set aside indulgence in some of his gifts—to seek him, the Giver and the Gift.

To come face to face with our weak appetite for God is humbling and it may be “first grade” in seeking to know God. When we realize how little we delight in God and how much we delight in other things, it humbles us. When we long for the things God gives more than we long for God, it exposes a need in our souls. If fasting shows us that—there is a great reward in it.

I don’t think fasting is intended to be joyful. It is like lament. It is especially designed as an aid to humility, to contrition, to time of mourning and perhaps increased self-examination. In Matthew 9:14-15 Jesus answered a question about fasting. He told those who questioned him that when he went away his followers would fast. While he was with them they would rejoice and feast. When he went away they would mourn and fast.

We seek God through fasting, but in my experience the fasting has shown me how weak my hunger, my appetite, my thirst for God is. Later, I believe, it has helped me seek God and have deeper experiences and delights in God that may not happen during the time of humbling and fasting. These, for me have come later.

It is sweet to contemplate the simple promise of Jesus that he will reward those who fast. What greater reward than in increased hunger, longing, thirst and ultimate satisfied in Him?

Bittersweet Farm
June 11, 2021

The Story Podcast

June 10, 2021 Filed Under: Current Thoughts

Here is a link to the Stories from Bittersweet Farm podcast.

Is Your Church Really Friendly? Are You Sure?

June 8, 2021 Filed Under: Village Parson

Mrs. Anderson was feeble and afraid to meet new people but she made herself get dressed and she drove out to our little church in Ohio years ago. People were kind to her. She felt at home. Later she was saved and baptized. Her daughter and son-in-law and grandson were eventually saved and baptized. She grew to love our church and never missed a service. She had her own little place just inside the back door. She came to every service morning and evening. She grew ill and had to be treated for cancer. We loved her and we prayed for her. When she went to be with the Lord her funeral tent was filled with her friends from the church. She told me she was afraid the first time she visited, but because she received a warm welcome in our little church she is with the Lord today, her family knows the Lord today. I’m so glad someone greeted her warmly that first time she visited our church.

Is Your Church A Welcoming Church?

I have an important question for you. Is your church a friendly church? Careful. Think a little before you answer. In most churches people are friendly with their friends, they are friendly with people they know, but is that the measure of a friendly church?

If a new person came to your church, let’s say a person who was struggling with alcohol abuse or drug addiction, or depression and anxiety, or a difficult marriage, or shame and guilt, or troubled kids, if a person came to Bethel with any of these problems it is unlikely you could tell just by looking at them. I wonder, would they find a friendly welcome or would they see people talking with other people they already know?

Follow Jesus. Help Others Follow Jesus.

Here at Bethel we have a saying; “Follow Jesus and Help Others Follow Jesus.” We are “Jesus People.” We are Christ-followers. But Jesus said something I think we need to think about. It was in his famous Sermon on the Mount:

Jesus spoke to the heart of this: “If you love those who love you what reward o you have. Do not even tax collectors do teh same. And if you free only your brothers what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

A Few Other Important Questions:

Why do you go to church? Do you go to get a blessing, or do you go to get and blessing and be a blessing to others? Do you go to church praying for an opportunity to serve and help others, or are you tempted to just go for what you get out of it? Do you go because you want things for your family? Jesus said he came, not to be served but to serve and to give. If we are following Him we should do the same.

A Friendly Suggestion About Friendliness.

I have a simple suggestion. Here are a couple things you can to help strengthen the culture of Bethel church in the area of warmth and friendliness.

Pray before you leave home for God to give you an opportunity to show warmth to someone you don’t already know. Agree as a family that you want to be a blessing to others every time you attend a service. Set a personal goal to pick out at least one new person a week and learn their name. Sometimes I will walk up to someone I don’t know and will say, “Hey, I’m Ken. I’m sorry but I don’t know your name….” Try this. Ask them a question or two to show kindness and warmth. You might even want to invite them to join you at Culvers or One North.

Let’s be a truly welcoming, truly friendly, loving church. Let’s go out of our way to make new-comers right at home. You never know what people are going through and how important it is to welcome them. Let’s keep working on keeping a culture of warmth and genuine love at Bethel.

It doesn’t take much. You don’t have to meet everybody, but if a number of us would meet at least a few every week, it would go a long way to making Bethel even friendlier and more welcoming than we already are. Who knows what would happen. I’m sure there would be wonderful stories to tell. …and there are many “Mrs. Andersons” out there.

Bittersweet Farm Journal | June 8, 2021 | The Last Two Chapters

June 8, 2021 Filed Under: Bittersweet Farm, Current Thoughts

It’s Sunday evening now, the sixth of June. It’s been a beautiful day. The sun is low in the sky nearing the golden hour. It is casting its slanting beams across the rich green grass in the yard below my window. We call our home Bittersweet Farm, but we really don’t grow any crops or raise any animals here. I like to think of myself as a gentleman farmer, but the truth is all we grow is a couple acres of grass and some trees. Lois has her well-tended flowers, bird baths, and bird-feeders, but Bittersweet is a farm in name only. Yet it seems to be the right name for it.

When it was time to get to the church this morning it was hard to leave. Bittersweet is especially beautiful in the golden hours… the first and the last hour of the day. I often drive east and turn around in the early morning and then drive slowly past the place thanking God for his great kindness in preparing such a retreat for us. Toward dusk I love to sit outside in the cool of the day and listen to the every-evening concert of birdsong.

We do have a “barn” and “chores.” That is farm-like. We feed the birds. We keep the place tidy. We trim and mow and try to take good care of our stuff.

The Preacher’s Wife Candle Co.

Saturday Lois set up her candle display in the shade of a Maple for a show in the northern Indiana countryside. It was a warm day but a steady breeze and the shade of the Maple gave her a pleasant place to make conversation and display her candles. Lois called her candle operation The Preacher’s Wife Candle Company.

Her candle scents are often more life flavors: Peach Tea, Freshly Picked Orange, Banana Bread, Coffee, Lavender, Carmel Corn, Maple Sugar Cookie.

We work together raising the canopy, setting up the display and putting out the fragrant candles. I like talking to people. They often say, “You must be the preacher?” I returned to be sure I helped her break down and pack things away. We were home well before dark and Lois was happy with her show.

After the show I followed the road along the river that ran through south central Michigan through towns and villages, farms, and clusters of homes.

I spent just a few minutes in the Lowry’s Bookstore in Three Rivers, but left without buying anything. I have a large personal library, filled with fascinating things to read. This morning I started a chapter at a time through Michael Card’s latest book The Nazarene. I want to read through again the major works of C. S. Lewis. John Piper’s huge tome on Providence waits for me on on the landing library outside my room and I pass it every time I leave and every time I return at night. I have always believed that having so many wonderful things to look forward to contributes to my emotional well-being.

The Lord’s Day at Bethel was especially good. More and more people are returning to worship and we are seeing people we have not seen for a long time. Bethel is a singing church. The singing brings me to tears. Pastor Leo, one of our elders and our long-time former pastor administered the Lord’s Supper this week. In the month of June I am completing my preaching through the book of Revelation with my final four messages on the last four weeks of June. Yesterday’s message was entitled “Is Heaven Your Heartland?”

I love Michigan and I loved the Ohio of my youth, but more and more I realize that Heaven is my heartland. The New Jerusalem and the New Earth. I’m already making plans. Take a few minutes to read the last two chapters of the Bible. Sunday I reminded the faithful to be sure they do all they can to see to it that those they love are there, and learn to give clear directions to any who need to know the way.

Bittersweet Farm
June 8, 2021