dennis martin papp

Days Twenty

This fast I tried something different. I chose to eat at only certain times: 9, 12, 3 and 6.

Each time was assigned a certain food:

9:00am--Two boiled eggs

12:00pm--Fish, usually a can of undoctored tuna

3:00pm--Fruit

6:00pm--An ordinary meal, but light portions and only one helping

Each food was tied to a prayer theme:

Eggs--New life. What new thing do you long to do in us God?

Fish--Fishers of men. God, give us compassion, conviction and courage to reach the lost.

Fruit--Bear much fruit. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Make us fruitful Lord.

Ordinary meal--Much of life is lived in the ordinary. Praying for daily bread.

It was a good plan. It didn't always work. I missed 3:00pm the most. 

Why share this now? We are two days from done. What's your plan to engage God beyond these twenty-one days?

Maybe you will incorporate fasting as a weekly or monthly practice.

Perhaps you could tie a specific prayer to a daily meal or food item.

We will engage another season of fasting as a church in the future. Until then, what's your plan?

Today's Prayer Focus

Let's pray for tomorrow. What does God have in store for SouthField 2025, 2055, 2095? He who began this good work will be faithful to perfect His good work. He promised He would.

1. Pray for our kids, teens, and twenties. This is SouthField's future. Pray that God would grow in them a love for His church, His Word, and His will. Pray that they would not fall for the world's lies. And pray that if they drift, they come back home.
2. Pray for future pastors. Pray that God would grow up men who love Him, men of compassion and conviction, loving servant leaders. Pray that they would love Channahon, love people, love hard work, love Biblical thinking, and dream dreams that are God's dream, not their own.
3. Pray that God would continue to supply our needs as He already does supernaturally. Pray for the elimination of all debt and an increase in the space He gives us to serve Him.
4. Pray for future partnerships, missionaries and ministries with a like heart and mind with which we can align.
5. Pray specifically for kids and students in our church to sense God's call to serve Him in local churches, parachurch ministries and on foreign fields.

Day Nineteen

Kim and I choose to undertake a sundown-to-sundown food fast one day a week. No eating from Wednesday at sundown to Thursday's sundown. This week that was from 4:58pm Wednesday to 4:59pm on Thursday (yes, days are getting longer!!). Other days I have taken a limited approach. At 9:00am I eat two boiled eggs. At noon, some form of fish. At three, fruit and at six, a normal meal, but smaller portions and no seconds. Then no food in the evening. I'll talk more about the why of those choices tomorrow.

Sometime during the second week I had a moment. I realized I was hungry. Really hungry.

This moment was embarrassing. I tried thinking of a time prior to fasting that I was really hungry. There were plenty of times I wanted to eat, but I rarely allow myself to get truly hungry. More often than it should, something is going into my mouth. It may sound strange, but it has felt good to remember what hungry feels like.

Physical hunger is designed for at least two reasons. One is to remind us that we need to eat. Duh! The other is to remind us that we need to eat. Ahhhh!

God designed hunger to tell us that we need to feed our bodies and we need to feed our soul. Yes, our bodies need food to survive. Our soul need spiritual food to thrive. Far too many of us are starving spiritually and we haven't got a clue. We are so full of junk and fillers that we do not feel the emptiness. It is likely we fill ourselves with the junk of this world to dull any sense of emptiness. We think things and experiences and relationships will fill the void. Yet if we really pay attention, the hunger remains.

Remember the Beatitudes. We just read them a couple weeks ago:

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.

One version uses the word satisfied in place of filled. Satisfied is really the better word choice. We can be full and yet long for something more or something else. Satisfaction says, "That's it!" 

O that we would taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

One Bible teacher says, "Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God." Sin is the filler, the substitute, the spiritual junk food we shove into our souls to satisfy the void.

 My prayer for us as this fast draws into its final days is three-fold:

1. That we feel real hunger in our bodies and souls.
2. That we realize deep satisfaction in Christ as we chose more of Him, the Bread of Life.
3. That the Spirit would reveal false fullness in us and change our craving to long for God.

Today's Prayer Focus
Ready to join in a real break-through prayer? Many people are engaged in a spiritual mismatch. Some spouses are not on the same page spiritually. Some are Christ-followers married to someone who does not know Jesus. The mismatch may be about stage of spiritual growth and desire. While both are believers, one is growing and the other is stalled out. Perhaps the mismatch involves an addiction that one spouse engages and the other endures.

Let's pray for our friends who are married and mismatched.

1. Pray that God would increase the hunger in the person who has no desire for God, or who has drifted from God.
2. Pray for the strength and endurance of the spouse who longs for the one they love to want more of God.
3. Pray for us as a church to know better how to minister to these couples.
4. Pray that addictions would be broken and marriages would be restored.
5. Pray that children in these families would grow a strong love for God and hunger for His Word.

Day Eighteen

It is late January. This year has been the most January-like January we have experienced in a long time. Extended bitter cold and snow marked the month. The forecast holds promise of warmer days to come. The extreme cold has us longing for warmer days.

In winter, I miss my garden. There is little I enjoy more than getting my hands in the dirt. As I ponder the gardening experience, I realize something about me. Harvest has its rewards, and summer has its heat. It is spring I enjoy the most. I love the prep: tilling, fertilizing, spreading compost and manure, laying out the plants, placing seeds and seedling in the soil, starting up the irrigation system and watching for sprouts.

The early labor does not guarantee a great crop. Drought and disease can impact a plant. Still, without that prep the plant stands little chance of health.

We are now in winter preparing a soul garden for our children and students. June is planting season. Every year that month is busy at SouthField. We are all hands in the soil as we plant seeds in the hearts of SouthField's next generation. The work does not guarantee a harvest, but without it, we can be sure there will be no fruit.

The student work trip to Green Lake and Day Camp for our kids are two of the most significant events of our year. In both fields we work the soil, and we watch the ground for sprouts.

Let's join together today. Get on your garden gloves, or go bare handed like I do, and work the soil with prayer. Let's pray for God's Sprit to do a powerful work in our kids.

Today's Prayer Focus

Let's pray for certain kinds of hearts, whether child or student. We are going to pray over the condition of the soil. (Matthew 13:1-23)

1. Pray for the soil along the path. This is the hard, crusty path, resistant and rebellious. This is the soil that has already drawn early conclusions about God, and they are not positive. This is the kid who might be going through the motions of religion, or perhaps doesn't fake it at all. They look miserable every time they walk through the doors. Culture and the crowd are the birds picking away at the seed. Pray that the Spirit would work over the next several months to soften and enrich this soil.
2. Pray for the soil that is shallow and rocky. Jesus said that this soil has a hard time receiving the Word because problems and persecution take a toll on the young sprout. Our kids face challenges unmatched by any generation, cultural challenges as well as ugly, personal pain and problems. Pray that this soul would receive some relief, especially for kids who are being robbed on innocence and joy by adults in their lives.
3. Pray for the soil filled with thorns. In this soil, the seed gets choked out by both the worries of this life and the lure of wealth. Competition. False gods are being offered to our kids that diminish the importance of the true God. How many of our kids miss entire season at church to play a sport that will lead to nothing more than time on a field. Many idols are offered to our kids, and the seed has little room to grow.
4. Finally, He speaks of good soil. Good means ready, ready to receive the Word with joy. That was me at seven years old. I was ready, but I needed a farmer to plant the seed. Pray that God would partner the right kid with the right adults. Pray that God would provide moments for the Gospel to be presented with clarity. Pray that students would not walk away without asking questions. Pray for a great harvest of souls who will grow to become famers themselves!

Day Seventeen

Have you ever been uniquely moved by a passage of Scripture you have seen countless times; moved like you are seeing it for the first time?

That has been the case for me as we encountered the first several verses of Matthew 18.

Jesus, swamped by the demands of ministering to a broken world, takes the time to pull a little child close to Himself. He does this both to express love to the child and to teach a lesson. He holds up the child as an example of the stature we must embrace to become part of God's Kingdom. He says in no uncertain terms...Unless you become like this little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

A little later he issues a graphic warning:

...whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

He admonishes those who would stand in the way of the spiritual growth of a little child.

Yesterday Emmitt was sick. it was the first time for us that he had a fever and was inconsolable. It broke my heart. I had a very busy day, and our little guy just needed to be held. Between appointments I came home. He was crying a heart-breaking cry. Little tears streaming from his sad little eyes. I picked him up, held him close and turned his head toward our favorite episode of Winnie the Pooh. He calmed immediately and within moments was sleeping. I stood with him in my arms, patting his back, gently rocking for quite a while. He slept. 

It made me wonder how many times in our inconsolable, child-like moments, Our Father In Heaven scoops us up and just holds us. 

Children matter to God, and they matter to SouthField as well. We do not provide children's ministries to keep kids busy while parents learn. We provide these opportunities because children can learn too! I started following Jesus at seven. I experience what would be seen as a call to ministry that same year. Seven-year-olds matter to Jesus!

Pray with me today that our church would always have a huge heart for children. Pray that we would never, never do anything millstone worthy toward one of these little ones Jesus loves so much!

Today's Prayer Focus

The first year of LifeWise Academy has been a blast! Imagine being able to provide religious education during school hours! Our laws still make that possible. Within a year we went from hearing about this opportunity for the first time to seeing an academy started in Channahon, complete with staff and a big red bus! Let's join hearts in specific prayers for LifeWise.

1. Pray for the children attending who do not know Jesus. Pray that the Spirit would soften their hearts and that they would come safely home to Him.
2. The best way to get word out is an excited student inviting another. Pray that God would raise up several children to be like the disciple Andrew, always bringing someone to Jesus.
3. Pray that God would make the path clear for launching into more grades and more schools. 
4. Pray for those who continue to oppose our efforts. In Matthew we learned to love our enemies and pray for those who oppose us. Lovingly pray for their salvation. Lovingly pray for God to melt their hearts. Lovingly pray that God would thwart their efforts to oppose this good work.
5. Pray against satan himself as he lures children toward sin and a life that will lead to nothing but despair. Pray against his efforts to destroy our children.
6. Pray that God would grant us favor with the community as he did the early church in Acts 2.

Day Sixteen

A friend wanted to show me a meaningful object they received. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a Challenge Coin. 

The concept of a Challenge Coin was not completely unfamiliar to me, but also not vividly clear. In these moments, Wikipedia can be a friend. 

Traditionally, they might be given to prove membership when asked and to enhance morale. They are also collected by service members and law enforcement personnel. Historically, challenge coins were presented by unit commanders in recognition of special achievement by a member of the unit.

Members of the organization are challenged occasionally to pull out their coin and prove their membership. This usually involved slapping it down on a table, or repeatedly banging it on a table. 

My friend's coin was unique. it was not for military service, or for being a police officer or firefighter. This one was spiritual in nature. It is based on Ephesians 6, the passage about the armor of God.

We daily face a challenge. The passage starts this way:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

You can read the whole passage here.

We fight a daily battle with cosmic, evil forces, but we live like our challenge is all just flesh and blood, the physical plain. 

I love that Paul writes this motivational, lofty message about spiritual warfare and ends by saying, pray for me too.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Maybe we should see prayer as throwing down our Challenge Coin. It is time to slam it on the table or repeatedly tap it to ask others to join us in warfare prayer. It is time for satan and his minions to hear the clanking of our prayers and to know we finally get it; we are fighting on a cosmic level. 

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. 

Let's fight the good fight of faith today! It is time to pray.

Today's Prayer Focus 
I am aware of several situation that are warfare level situations. Would you join me in the fight against the enemy for these people today? In each case I will simply call the person a friend. I will be vague enough to veil identity and specific enough that you know how to pray. The Spirit knows the details. He will fill in the blanks with the Father.

1. I have a friend who works for a "Christian" organization. This group has ceased to really stand for God or anything biblical. Day after day this friend faces corruption and evil that should never take place anywhere, let alone in a place claiming to do the work of Christ. Pray for strength to stand when others deny Jesus. Pray for courage to expose corruption. Pray as my friend confronts moral drift that looks more like this evil world than Jesus. Pray for the Spirit's power to overcome vile evil.
2. I have a friend who must have a hard talk with someone they love about a decision they are making that will ruin their life if they move forward. Pray for the Spirit to give the right words, and the compassion and courage to deliver the words. 
3. I have several friends who are walking with family members who are severely depressed. This is creating chaos in the family system. Pray for God to intervene and bring those who are severely depressed back to a sound mind.
4. I have a friend who is in an intense addiction battle. The point of decision is here: embrace God and change or embrace addiction and the consequences. Pray for those surrounding my friend as they walk this difficult journey together. 
5. I have a friend who is being physically abused and is excusing it. There is still time to walk away. Pray that the wise decision would be made.
6. Now pray your warfare prayer. Who in your life needs you to throw down the Challenge Prayer? If you want, hit reply and send it to me. I will join in prayer you.