As Was His Custom: Fasting
While we don’t hear much about fasting in our modern faith circles, the power of this singular spiritual discipline is wholly worth pursuing. In my own faith journey, I’ve reaped the profound benefits of fasting and prayer, particularly when seeking direction, to hear more clearly from the voice of God, and to experience a breakthrough in an area of struggle. While I find such a powerful and extensive topic intimidating to write about, I’m eager to illuminate Jesus’ example and teaching in this custom while emboldening each of us to follow Jesus and experience more of Him through this practice.
As Was His Custom: Rest
If you had asked me last summer what I thought when I heard “rest,” I would’ve thought of sleeping or running away from my life. When that began to fail me and not satisfy me, I became more tired and more depressed. Growing up, I was raised in the church but was never taught what the word “Sabbath” means. I could probably tell you I didn’t even hear the word until I was about 16 or 17. It wasn’t until last fall that my student pastor said to me, “Halle, when was the last time you sat with God?” I looked at him like he was asking me a stupid question because I just spent the last 15 minutes of service worshiping God. He repeated it and walked away. From that, I walked away confused, but I didn’t know that 10-word sentence would change my life with Jesus.
As Was His Custom: Prayer
Prayer in the life of a believer is both essential and incredibly powerful. Prayer is, perhaps, the most important aspect of one’s life in God. Prayer is how we connect with God the Father and participate with him in His work on the earth. To be effective as a believer, we need to learn how to pray-to be continual students of prayer. What better way than by learning directly from the prayer life of Jesus.
As Was His Custom: Teaching
On hundreds of Sundays, I padded down the blue-carpeted basement steps to our newly constructed Sunday School rooms. I followed as other children walked into their respective classrooms. I looked forward to Sundays, as I enjoyed learning about Jesus, but I especially loved being taught by Doug Livgren. Now, looking back, it's because his love and passion for Jesus superseded just "getting through the Sunday School curriculum." My class would enter, girls giggling and boys shoving to get to seats, and Doug would walk in and command attention from us. What I remember most was having light bulb moments through his teaching, and honestly when I taught third-grade boys Sunday School in college, I thought back often and used Doug's methods.
Teaching is one of the many customs/habits of Jesus. Immediately following his 40 days in the wilderness (Luke 4), he begins traveling, preaching, and teaching in synagogues throughout the countryside. He even taught (albeit briefly) in His hometown of Nazareth. (Click here for a blog post on this topic!) However, Jesus' teaching slightly differed from what we're used to in our Western context. Jesus, more than likely, was educated in rabbinic tradition (see here for more info).
As Was His Custom: Silence
I remember the first time I experienced true silence. I was 11 years old and had just spent a week at my grandparent’s home all by myself. My Grandma Gus and I had attended musicals, gotten my ears pierced, and shopped until we dropped. She’d taken me to tea houses, watched Anne of Green Gables (with Megan Follows- because that version is a part of my DNA!), and rode my Grandpa Gus’ horses at sunset. That week was one of my most beautiful times with my grandparents on my mother’s side.
But in one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, on the way to surprise my Grandpa at work with ice cream, an intoxicated driver t-boned the car my Grandma and I were in. Our vehicle spun, rolling violently eight times into a bean field. When our car came to rest upside down, I was unconscious, pinned between the dashboard and the windshield. My Grandma’s seat belt had snapped, leaving her bleeding out on the ceiling of the car, now on the ground. My parents were over 12 hours away, and even though my Dad left immediately after receiving that awful phone call, I was relatively alone for several hours in that hospital room in Princeton, IL.
As Was His Custom: Solitude
One of the truths that most strongly stood out to me in studying Jesus’ practice of solitude is the foundation from which he operated. Jesus knew and operated from the truth that his strength, security, and purpose came solely from his place with the Father. Thus, he prioritized time to connect solely with Him.
As Was His Custom: Studying Scripture and Meditation
Although many secular scholars label Jesus as a country bumpkin, who probably couldn’t read or write, there’s adequate reason to believe that He could do both. We know from Luke 4:16 that Jesus was invited to read on the Sabbath in his hometown synagogue. While the other Scripture that talks of Jesus’ writing is not found in the earliest manuscripts (John 7:53-8:11), we can deduce that if He knew how to read, He would have also learned to write.
As Was His Custom: Reading scripture
Nazareth. It’s a small village nestled down in the middle of the cliffs and high hills north of the Jezreel valley. Back in Yeshua’s time, this valley was a major intersection for non-Hebrew people groups to travel through and sometimes settle as it was the easiest to navigate east to west from the coast to the Sea of Galilee. (I mean, who wouldn’t want to settle there when there is 365 feet of topsoil in the Jezreel Valley?!?!) This valley holds so much deep meaning for Israel and Christians alike. (For a video by Daily Bread featuring my professor, John A Beck, regarding the importance of Jezreel Valley, click here.)
Today, Nazareth is the fastest-growing city in what was ancient Israel. But this small village is where Yeshua’s parents raised him. (Essentially, he was a small-town boy). Surrounded by high cliff faces (see in the above video at time stamp 0.01-0.38), Nazareth was isolated from these Gentile and pagan people groups, to say the least. It was tricky navigating to Nazareth back in Yeshua’s time (probably only accessible by climbing on foot or with a donkey or mule). Even today, they’ve had to blast the cliffs to provide transportation to the community.
As Was His Custom
Right then, it occurred to me that Jesus led a life filled with habits and customs that He had done His entire life! And He had a lot. If you've heard the term "spiritual disciplines"- they are taken from the habits of Jesus. There's a reason for them- so that we can literally follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
The (Literal) Never Ending Story
Why are parallel passages so important? Because they help us interpret verses that are harder to understand. We can USE the Bible to interpret ITSELF. A parallel passage is another verse/passage in Scripture that is similar to another passage. We can use these correlating verses for comparison or to add deeper meaning to the text we’re studying. The most straightforward parallel passages we can find are in the Gospels.
Women of Valor: Corrie ten Boom
Corrie ten Boom, known today as one of the “most remarkable evangelists of her time,” was a Dutch woman used mightily for God, who, during WWII, launched a significant underground resistance to protect Jews in Holland, lived and ministered through the horrors of the German concentration camps, and later traveled the world sharing about the love of Jesus. While her story consisted of remarkable impact, Corrie began her life as a watchmaker’s daughter in the town of Haarlem, Holland, and lived an ordinary and obscure life until she was in her 50’s. Born in Holland in 1892, the first half-century of Corrie’s life was anything but exceptional. The faith of her family and the depth of their life in God was the only nod to the events that lay ahead.
BEHOLD’S Swedish Study Method
If written Bible studies aren't your thing, or you'd rather dig into Scripture with just the Holy Spirit, your Bible, and a couple of easily memorized questions, this is the Method for you.
The Swedish Study Method was started by a woman discipling college aged Swedish students, hence the name. With this method, her students were soon discipling others with these same questions.
Women of Valor: Harriet Tubman
She pushed ahead when no one else would. She rose above when her first husband remarried (after she hadn’t returned for some time) and forgave him by offering to help him if he and his new wife (and child) wanted to escape. She worked alongside men to help free people and push our country towards freedom for all. She also continued to work towards women’s rights while maintaining her faith and hope in the God who gave her heart freedom.
Women of Valor: Elisabeth Elliot
I grew up hearing the story of Elisabeth Elliot and her great empowerment of Christian women. However, I remember hearing her once answer a question on her radio show to a woman who asked a question about what to do since her husband physically abused her. Elisabeth’s response stunned me. She told the woman to stay and submit to her husband. I was appalled. I couldn’t reconcile the eighty-year-old woman whose voice cracked across the radio waves and the brave woman who faced the murderous jungle tribe with a toddler strapped to her torso. For years, I struggled to want to read anything that she wrote. Why would she tell a woman to stay with an abuser?
Women of Valor: Catherine Booth
When I first heard of the Salvation Army and its ministries, I had primarily heard criticism. So, I was astonished when I learned more about what they believe and their dedication to the call of God upon their lives. When I listened to another fellow seminarian speak about Catherine Booth, I felt like I had a soul sister in her.
Women of Valor: Amanda Berry Smith
I first heard of Amanda and her faithful obedience from a fellow seminarian, Faith Kendall Gibson, whom I must thank profusely for introducing her to me. The older I get, the more I see and acknowledge the many strong women of faith who have gone before me.
Women of Valor: Amy Carmichael
As I read the words of Amy Carmichael, she seemed to be a friend that I already knew. The sister I never had. The woman who discipled me to Christ without me knowing. She wrote, "There are times when something comes into our lives which is charged with love in such a way that it seems to open the Eternal to us for a moment, or at least some of the Eternal Things, and the greatest of these is love. It may be a small and intimate touch upon us or our affairs, light as the touch of the dawn wind on the leaves of the tree, something not to be captured and told to another in words. But we know that it is our Lord. And then perhaps the room where we are, with its furniture and books and flowers, seems less "present" than His Presence, and the heart is drawn into that sweetness of which the old hymn sings. The love of Jesus, what it is; None but His loved ones know."
Hailing All Women… Who Love Jesus
Sitting in one of my final seminary classes, I looked around at the people surrounding me, and my heart sank. Eighty percent of the class was men. I was one among the four other women. When I attended Ozark Christian College for my Bachelor’s degree, the percentage between men and women was more equal. (There may have actually been more women attending Ozark in the late 90s). In 2021, 55.3% of the Ozark Christian College degrees awarded were to women and 44.7% to men. The question I ask is this: where did these women go?
It’s no longer winter
If you were to ask me, I’d tell you the best thing about winter is when it’s over. I despise the cold, I hate that the sun spends so much time hiding, and I do not enjoy being stuck at home when it snows or the roads are icy. These are all signs of Seasonal Affective Disorder which I have battled for as long as I can remember. Some years I feel it worse than others but I can almost guarantee that once the time changes in the fall, I’m going to start experiencing some signs of depression. As someone who has walked through many seasons of various depths of depression, I’ve learned a few things about how I can manage it with a little more grace and not let the battle in my mind steal my joy. I’d like to share with you what I’ve found helps get me through these times…
What to Look for In a Bible Study
I’m constantly being messaged about what to look for in a Bible study.
“Hey Meg, have you heard anything about this new Bible study author?”
“Do you know of any Bible studies on anxiety?”
“Are there any Bible studies I need to avoid?”
I love getting questions like this. And I generally have answers to these questions. But it does seem as though every time I turn around, I find another new Bible study author, and they don’t always have credentials I’m comfortable with. But I digress. What I initially look for in my study now may surprise most people…