FASTING MADE EASY

Almost every person has wondered if there are really any benefits to fasting. Dr. Don Colberts, author of the bestseller Toxic Relief, has now written a book that outlines the needs, benefits, and lifestyle of fasting from both physical and spiritual perspectives. Aware that readers are living in a toxic world, Dr. Colbert presents an easy-to-understand instruction manual that offers a step-by step fasting protocol for better health. This will be readily accepted by people who want to increase their fitness in all areas of their lives. Topics covered in Fasting Made Easy include: *Why should I fast? *How should I fast? *When should I fast? *How do I maintain a fasted lifestyle? *How important is my attitude? *What are the healthy choices I should make-body and spirit? This book is a suggested companion to be sold with Toxic Relief
Fasting can provide fantastic health benefits to your whole being. While it may seem like a "sacrifice," Dr. Don Colbert, author of the bestsellers Toxic Relief and the Bible Cure series, believes fasting is "a powerful tool for health, cleansing, and spiritual empowerment."

In this easy-to-understand instruction manual that offers a step-by-step fasting protocol for better health, Colbert explains the needs, benefits, and lifestyle of fasting from both physical and spiritual perspectives.

Your overall health will improve as you:
Give restorative rest to your digestive tract.
Cleanse your body of undesirable toxins.
Boost you immune system to prevent disease and illness, thus giving you a longer life.
Make yourself look better and help your skin become clearer.
Melt away toxic fat to help you feel better.
Repair and rejuvenate every organ, including your brain.
Bring spiritual cleansing and renewal to your relationship with God.

Featuring daily recipes and testimonials from successful fasters, Fasting Made Easy explains how this biblical key to health will bring renewed vitality, healing, longevity, and deeper spirituality to your life.

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The Begginer's Guide to Fasting

Publisher’s Description
Since Old Testament times God's people have engaged in the practice of fasting: going without food for a predetermined length of time to accomplish a spiritual purpose. Fasting can be done for any number of reasons, including to know God better, to wait on God for an answer to prayer, to listen to God, to demonstrate sincerity to God, and to worship God.
Serving as a complete introduction, The Beginner's Guide to Fasting shares with readers the myriad benefits of this valuable spiritual discipline. It also gives practical explanations of how to prepare for and carry on one's first fast, what kind of a fast to follow, and how to pray and study God's Word while fasting.
From the back Cover
God created the human body as a finely tuned instrument of enormous power, but it requires fuel to operate. To make sure your body gets enough fuel to run efficiently, God created in you an appetite for food, which we call “hunger.” So, why would you ever ignore hunger and choose not to eat? Going without food for spiritual reasons is called fasting and is a spiritual discipline with a long and important history in Christianity.When accompanied by your earnest prayers, fasting demonstrates your sincerity to God. In The Beginner’s Guide to Fasting, beloved teacher-theologian Elmer L. Towns introduces you to the basics of this powerful spiritual discipline. You’ll find an overview of fasting in the Old and New Testaments as well as answers to your questions about fasting and physical health, social interaction, spiritual warfare and much more. This is an essential handbook for all who long to draw closer to God through biblical spiritual disciplines!

BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO FASTING
BY ELMER TOWNS
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
SECTION ONE
The Practice of Fasting
1 Getting Ready
2 My First Fast
3 What Kind Of Fast To Follow
4 Learning to Pray While Fasting
5 Getting Into The Bible When Fasting

SECTION TWO
Passion From Fasting
6 Fasting To Know God
7 Fasting To Wait on God
8 Fasting When You’re Scared
9 Fasting To Listen To God
10 Fasting To Open up Heaven
11 Fasting To Satisfy Your Hunger
12 Fasting To Worship God

Elmer Towns is the author of The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever and The Beginner's Guide to Fasting. He and his wife have three adult children and eight grandchildren. They make their home in Virginia

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Supplying Resources for Kingdom Advancement

Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting

Christians can change world events!
Christians have altered the course of history and governments by emphasizing biblical methods of prayer and fasting.

Derek Prince recounts from personal experience how history was shaped through prayer during the Second World War in North Africa, the birth of the State of Israel, the end of the Stalin Era, and the independence of Kenya, East Africa.

The book begins in its introduction with a transcript of "A Proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer by the President of the Unites States, Abraham Lincoln" A quote from this proclamation will set the stage for the core of the book:
"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. Intoxicated by unbroken success, we have become too self- sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us!"

Learn how you too can implement change in your family, church, locale, country, and the world through these two powerful weapons. Prayer and fasting.

From the Back Cover
You Can Make a Difference The times we are living in are scary, to say the least. The world is unstable. Global politics are volatile. The rate of change we now experience is spiraling out of control. We're uncertain about what will happen tomorrow, and we feel helpless to do anything about it. Yet what we are facing isn't new. There have been many wars. There have been threats and acts of terrorism. History is spotted with violent episodes of unimaginable carnage and horrors. And what did people do about them? The only thing they could do--they prayed!

Discover with Derek Prince how your prayers can change the world. Using experiences in his own life, he illustrates how you can make a difference. You don't have to fight. You don't have to hold a high political position. You don't have to be a certain age. You don't even have to have power, money, or influence on earth. What is important is your influence in heaven. Whether you are a teenager or an adult, you can learn to touch the heart of God through prayer--prayer that will change the

Table of Contents
Foreword by Lou Engle
A Presidential Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting and Prayer
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Salt of the Earth
Chapter 2: A Kingdom of Priests
Chapter 3: Praying for Our Government
Chapter 4: Rulers Are Gods Agents
Chapter 5: Seeing History Shaped through Prayer
Chapter 6: Fasting Intensifies Prayer
Chapter 7: Fasting Brings Deliverance and Victory
Chapter 8: Fasting Prepares for Gods Latter Rain
Chapter 9: Practical Guidelines for Fasting
Chapter 10: Laying a Foundation by Fasting
Chapter 11: Fasts Proclaimed in American History
Chapter 12: Culmination: The Glorious Church

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God's Chosen Fast

Having proved over many years the great value and blessing of fasting, the author has written this book to share with others what the Bible has to say about this important and neglected subject. His aim has been to furnish a handbook which deals not only with all the main passages in Scripture that touch on the matter, but also with the practical issues involved.

This is a balanced study which seeks to give to the subject the weight that Scripture gives it and avoids exaggeration and over emphasis. The book includes a biblical index, and an appendix dealing with the textual problems surrounding four references to fasting in the New Testament.

Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Why Fast?
Chapter 2: The Normal Fast
Chapter 3: The Absolute Fast
Chapter 4: The Partial Fast
Chapter 5: When Not If
Chapter 6: The Time is Now
Chapter 7: The Regular and Public Fasts
Chapter 8: Fasting Unto God
Chapter 9: For Personal Sanctity
Chapter 10: To Be Heard on High
Chapter 11: To Change Gods Mind
Chapter 12: To Free the Captives
Chapter 13: They Fasted to Deliver
Chapter 14: For Revelation
Chapter 15: Fleshpots of Egypt
Chapter 16: To Buffet the Body
Chapter 17: What About Asceticism?
Chapter 18: Fasting and the Body
Chapter 19: For Health and Healing
Chapter 20: How to Begin
Chapter 21: How to Break the Fast
Chapter 22: Diary of a Fast
Chapter 23: In the Last Days

Appendix 1: Doubtful References to Fasting
Appendix 2: Answers to Practical Questions
Appendix 3: Healthy Eating
Biblical Index

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Fasting A 20 Day Study

The Passionate Participation in God Project will start a 20 Day Study on Fasting starting Sunday August 22nd on our Facebook Group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237088564302

You can get this study emailed to you daily by joining our group at the link above.
You may also find book reviews on fasting books on this blog.
 
FASTING

The voluntary abstention from an otherwise normal function—most often eating—for the sake of intense spiritual activity.

Fasting was an integral part of the lives of the people we read about in the Bible. They fasted during times of mourning, in repentance, or to seek blessing, answers, or guidance. Everyone fasted together on the Day of Atonement. A normal fast during biblical times involved abstention from all food and liquid except for water, but during extreme circumstances even water was declined (see Esther 4:16).

Jesus undertook an extreme fast of forty days and forty nights when He experienced the temptation in the desert. He also speaks of fasting as a normal part of life for His followers (Matt 6:16-18). Later, in response to a question about why His followers do not fast, He answers that wedding guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them, but that “the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matt 9:15). From these words it seems clear that Jesus expected His followers to practice the discipline of fasting.

So why is fasting less common today? Probably the main reason is that we rarely deny ourselves anything, whether food or drink or material goods or entertainment. Fasting forces us to take attention from our desires in order to focus on God. Jesus tells His disciples that His food is to “do the will of Him who sent Me and to complete His work” (John 4:34). Fasting can be a humbling experience, as we see just how controlled we are by our appetites. But it also teaches us that what sustains us is not the food we eat or the pleasures we feel, but God alone.

Yet even now, says the Lord, / return to me with all your heart, / with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.—Joel 2:12
Day 226 Spiritual Practice: Humbling Our Souls Through Fasting
Day 227 Not by Bread Alone
Day 228 David Fasts and Pleads with God
Day 229 A Communal Fast
Day 230 Ahab Fasts and Humbles Himself
Day 231 Sanctify a Fast
Day 232 Fasting for Victory
Day 233 I Afflicted Myself with Fasting
Day 234 Joyful Fasting
Day 235 Rejecting the Royal Rations
Day 236 Spiritual Practice: Fasting from Food
Day 237 Ezra Proclaims a Fast
Day 238 Right Reverence
Day 239 Was It for Me That You Fasted?
Day 240 Fasting in Solidarity
Day 241 Fasting After Saul’s Death
Day 242 The People Assemble with Fasting
Day 243 Return to Me
Day 244 Fasting for the Church
Day 245 They Fasted That Day
The Material above is from the book, ‘A Year With God,’ Edited by Richard Foster

RENOVARE (SPITITUAL FORMATION)

Connecting with God: A Spiritual Formation Guide
How can we experience god?God has communicated with his people throughout the ages in many ways. Adam and Eve encountered him directly in the Garden of Eden, Teresa of Avila experienced him through visions, and Francis of Assisi heard his voice through nature. Connecting with God gives practical advice for communing on a deeply personal level with God. It uncovers new places to look for God, while providing reflection questions and activities to reinvigorate communication with God in such traditional areas as prayer and Bible study.Divided into twelve chapters conveniently organized for individual or group study, each section explores a different area in which we can deepen our individual communion with God, including: Living with God • Talking with God • Meeting God in Scripture • Listening to God Through the Creation • Hearing God Through Other People • Perceiving God in Circumstances • Seeking God in Silence • Seeing God in Dreams and Visions • Sensing God's Presence • Encountering God's Messengers • Wrestling with God • Walking with God.
Published by, HarperSanFrancisco, softcover, 144 pages.
       The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Guides, created by Richard J. Foster and the team that developed The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible and the longstanding A Spiritual Formation Workbook, provide tangible lessons that help us become spiritually formed, conformed, and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Geared for either individual study or use in small groups with chapter structure similar to A Spiritual Formation Workbook, each Renovaré Spiritual Formation Guide explores one facet of our life with God, providing readings from Scripture as well as classic and contemporary works of spirituality.
       The combination of readings, reflection questions, exercises, and activities makes these books invaluable interactive guides that prompt true spiritual growth. And they are a tremendous resource for connecting Scripture study with larger spiritual formation ideas and themes.


Learning from Jesus: A Spiritual Formation Guide
How do we become a student of the Master?To Christians, Jesus is many things: the Son of God, the pivotal figure in whom we put our trust and who speaks on our behalf, a companion in the life of faith. But Jesus is also an incredible example of how to lead a faithful life. Jesus, as a human, walked on earth and confronted the same struggles that we face.
      Our primary mission as his followers is to learn from him--to become his apprentices. In this book we seek to further our apprenticeship by studying everything from Jesus's interactions with those around him to the revolutionary wisdom recorded in the Gospels.Learning from Jesus is organized for individual or group study, and includes chapters on: Expecting the Messiah • And the Word Became Flesh . . . • Experiencing the Second Birth • Redefining Blessedness • Freeing the Sabbath • Feasting on the Word • Confronting the Powers • Welcoming Us into Community • Living Abundance • Balancing Mary and Martha • Bearing the Cross • Abiding in Christ. Each section of this Guide leads you further down the path to true discipleship.
       HarperSanFrancisco, softcover, 160 pages.The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Guides, created by Richard J. Foster and the team that developed The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible and the longstanding A Spiritual Formation Workbook, provide tangible lessons that help us become spiritually formed, conformed, and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Geared for either individual study or use in small groups with chapter structure similar to A Spiritual Formation Workbook, each Renovaré Spiritual Formation Guide explores one facet of our life with God, providing readings from Scripture as well as classic and contemporary works of spirituality.
       The combination of readings, reflection questions, exercises, and activities makes these books invaluable interactive guides that prompt true spiritual growth. And they are a tremendous resource for connecting Scripture study with larger spiritual formation ideas and themes.


The Great Omission
"The word disciple occurs 269 times in the New Testament," writes Dallas Willard in The Great Omission. "Christian is found three times and was first introduced to refer precisely to disciples of Jesus. . . . The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ. But the point is not merely verbal. What is more important is that the kind of life we see in the earliest church is that of a special type of person. All of the assurances and benefits offered to humankind in the gospel evidently presuppose such a life and do not make realistic sense apart from it. The disciple of Jesus is not the deluxe or heavy-duty model of the Christian--especially padded, textured, streamlined, and empowered for the fast lane on the straight and narrow way. He or she stands on the pages of the New Testament as the first level of basic transportation in the Kingdom of God." Willard boldly challenges the thought that we can be Christians without being disciples, or call ourselves Christians without applying this understanding of life in the Kingdom of God to every aspect of life on earth.  
He calls on believers to restore what should be the heart of Christianity--being active disciples of Jesus Christ.
Willard shows us that in the school of life, we are apprentices of the Teacher whose brilliance encourages us to rise above traditional church understanding and embrace the true meaning of discipleship--an active, concrete, 24/7 life with Jesus.HarperSanFrancisco, hardcover, 256 pages.
http://www.renovare.org/

So You Think You Know Jesus?

So You Think You Know Jesus? By D. Thomas Lancaster
http://ffoz.org/blogs/2010/08/know_jesus_better.html/

"Most Christians claim to know Jesus, but most of us don't.
Yes, we know Him as our Lord and Savior, and we know a few parables, a few miracles, and about how he died and rose, but it pretty much stops there. It is possible to be a Christian your whole life and never get to know the real, historical, Yeshua of Nazareth, the first century, Galilean-Jewish rabbi.

Of course, we get to know Jesus by reading the Gospels, but unless you grew up in a Torah observant Jewish home and happen to have an education in first century Judaism, you are not going to understand the Gospels very well.

Remember the first time you had to read Shakespeare? Reading the Gospels without a Jewish perspective and without their rabbinic context would be like a third-grader with no familiarity in Shakespearean English trying to read and enjoy Hamlet. To understand the story and the teaching of Jesus, you simply need more information.

We can get more information from Bible commentaries. Unfortunately, not a lot of people read Bible commentaries. Most people don't even read the Bible, much less a boring commentary in small print with a lot of big words. Even when we do read commentaries, they are sometimes not very helpful. Most Gospel commentaries were written by Christians who did not know Judaism much better than any other churchman. Worse yet, some Christian Bible commentaries are skewed by anti-Semitic prejudices, anti-Torah doctrines, and replacement theology. Those interpretations turn the teachings of Yeshua backwards. A lot of Christian teaching is based upon Christian misinterpretation due to ignorance about the Jewishness of Jesus.

But what if there was a commentary that read more like a story? Imagine a commentary on the Gospels that provided all the important Jewish background information and rabbinic parallels, but did so in a story format, while following the life of Yeshua from His conception to His ascension. Suppose that this commentary harmonized all four Gospels into a continuous narrative so that it felt more like you were reading a novel about Rabbi Yeshua than a commentary on the Bible.

Sound good?
Get on board this fall. Subscribe to "Chronicles of the Messiah," the new Torah Club Volume Four, and get to know Yeshua better.
About the Author: D. Thomas Lancaster is Director of Education at First Fruits of Zion, and regular contributor to Messiah Journal. He is the author of the Torah Club programs, and the books Grafted In, Restoration and King of the Jews."

http://ffoz.org/blogs/2010/08/know_jesus_better.html/