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Me, my wife and two daughters are tackling reading through the Bible together this year.  My wife and I have done this for several years running, but wanted to include our girls this year.  While we're a bit behind as of today, we're enjoying reading together, stopping periodically to comment or ponder some grand truth or amazing event.  God is good.

But the results of reading His word are not always what we hope for.  Let me explain.

In Deuteronomy 9, we read of Moses, the great Prophet and Leader of God's chosen people Israel, literally starving himself to death.  He fasted 40 days and nights, came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets, found the "sheep" feeding themselves on a false god they made out of bronze, then goes back into a 40 day fast before the Lord.  Why?  [Note: Obviously God is sustaining Moses because medically 80 days of no food or water is not possible.  But God still defies medical science every day.]  But the burning question is why would Moses do such a radical, even insane thing?

I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor `rank` water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger (Deut 9:18).

So, I cannot speak for you, but as a Pastor and a follower of Jesus Christ, I am so convicted by this passion of Moses.  This is what it looks like to be a man on fire for God's fame and name!  Moses is beside himself with grief because the Lord has threatened to destroy the people (see vv. 22-25).  His burden is immensely heavy for God's glory to be seen by His redeeming, powerful hand (see vv. 26-29).  Moses would rather die of starvation then see the people of God destroyed by their sin.  Moses starves himself to mourn the people's sins and beg God to make His name great on the earth through His merciful redemption, rather than His righteous justice.

So, when is the last time I fasted to mourn the sins of members of Corydon Baptist Church?  When have I ever cared so much for God's glory?  When have I preferred death to seeing a marriage destroyed, a man giving himself to women, work and weekends, a woman consumed by self-pity, a child rebelling against his mother or father, a man addicted to cigarettes, a woman who cannot seem to stop smoking pot to escape the real world to which she has been called to shine the gospel light?  When?

Oh Lord Jesus, please forgive me for Your Name's sake.  I desperately want to be a Pastor who mourns sin whenever and where ever it is found.  Give me more of Your heart for the precious people of CBC.  Help me stop spending far too much time on the frivolous and silly, when the life and times of Your people here so clearly demand a soberness and even dire seriousness.  Oh God, set me on fire yet again for Your glory in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  Do not let me grow comfortable with "normal" church life and routine.  Let me not settle for average marriages, not-so-bad parenting, half-hearted singleness, non-evangelistic members, and an avoidance of raw, real, life-on-life discipleship.  Create in me a desperate heart, a hungry heart, a thirsty heart, and give Your people all of these things and more!  Please help me, Lord.  Please help us.  Fill us with Your Spirit.  Set our affections on things above.  Amen.  

by Keith McWhorter