Opened my email this morning to find the experience or challenge for this week is "Godless." Which, coming off my apathy of last week, is interesting in its timing.
If you go here, you'll see the story of a man from Ethiopia who accepted Christ and then was punished severely for his faith. This story reached me more deeply than any of the previous week's stories.
Now for the challenge:
• Hide or put away all signs and symbols of religion in your room, including your
Bible
• Hand copy a page of the Bible and use only this page as your Scripture for the
entire week
• Don’t attend any religious services or meetings for the week
As always, you can adjust these experiences or come up with your own. Commit to
one, remembering that we are trying to step into what it would feel like to be unable
to have access to spiritual resources (in Shimelis’ case, it was lack of the resource
of freedom to be a Christian and worship).
Also, listen and ask God to speak to you in new ways this week as you leave behind
some of the normal means through which you might hear Him. Consider how believers
all over the world have a life-changing relationship with Christ even though they may
not have Bibles, worship bands, and public meetings. Ask God to challenge and grow
your knowledge of Him and faith in Him as He does theirs.
--Written by Sarah Brubaker
While last week I couldn't think of anything to do, this week, I don't want to do any of those. Remove symbols? Hide away my Bible? Brad is unable to go to church with me this morning, but I certainly don't want to skip it--I can't imagine doing that. Suddenly all that I took for granted last week is more precious.
This one requires some thought, some prayer.
photo borrowed from a facebook friend, it's phone wallpaper
3 comments:
Definitely something to think on!
again. i typed this huge long, thoughtful response only to have my stupid internet go offline. grrr. lost the entire comment.
i'm thankful i live in a country where i can be a faithful, demonstrative believer. i thought about how i could participate in a fast of God and then said… i'd have to change everything from morning until evening. even the background of my computer screen.
sorry. i'll not be able to join you on this one.
If you were going to do the second choice, I would pick a page out of 1 Peter (towards the end of the book - chapter 3 or 4). 1 Peter has a lot of good meaty stuff about suffering for doing good and suffering for being a Christian - it would go really well with the story of the Ethiopian.
Good Luck!
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