Friday, December 21, 2012

A Broken Record-Murmuring: 30 Day Negativity Fast

When I was younger my parents bought my brother and I a record player to play our children's stories and songs. We had one record which was a dramatization of the Popeye cartoon. The only thing I can remember from the story are these words, "Oil and Blubber..Oil and Blubber..Oil and Blubber.." There was a scratch on the record and whenever the needle would get to that point it would always get stuck until we bumped the record player or picked up the needle. This nagging repetition that happens with a scratched record reminds me of the term called murmuring.
As you continue our 30 day Negativity Fast and Gratitude Feast I hope you are becoming aware of times you find your self murmuring and learn how to give yourself a bump.
According to Strong's Concordance the word murmur is translated in the bible to mean:  to stop (usually over night); by implication to stay permanently; hence (in a bad sense) to be obstinate (especially in words, to complain): - abide (all night), continue, dwell, endure, grudge, be left, lie all night, (cause to) lodge (all night, in, -ing, this night), (make to) murmur, remain, tarry (all night, that night).

Murmuring is a spot that you get stuck on and dwell for a long period of time with no resolution. Here are five ways to give your self a "bump" when you are stuck in a rut of murmuring.
  1. Begin to count your blessing naming them one by one. I Thes. 5:18
  2. Remember God's faithfulness to you in the past. Psalms 78:35, Jonah 2:7
  3. Release yourself from unhealthy comparison with others. II Cor. 10:12
  4. Instead of rehearsing the problem come up with three potential solutions. Prov. 25:2
  5. If you are a believer realize you have a responsibility to shine as a lights in a fallen world and you can't do that well stuck in a rut of murmuring. Please read the following passage in it's entirety:
"Do all things without murmurings and disputings, so that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Among these you shine as lights in the world," Phil. 2:14-15

I have had to catch my self several times on this Negativity fast and intentionally choose gratitude. I don't want to be known for what I complained about but for what I did to fix the situation. Choosing to fast from murmuring will change your life! Keep going on this journey and invite your friends.

Listen to a message I shared on the subject called "The right way to Complain"
Download to your favorite player here
Listen to all of the Church Ablaze podcast here


-Get your free Fast & Feast Poster
-Read about Overcoming the Flesh
-Read about How to Wash Your Mouth
-Read about 5 Observations on Choosing a Joyful Perspective.
-Join in as we fast from negative words for 30 days. I wrote 15 viable reasons to join this campaign in a previous post.
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Monday, December 17, 2012

Free Poster-30 Day Negativity Fast & Gratitude Feast


We are half way there on Day 15 of our 30 day Negativity Fast and Gratitude Feast. What better way to stay motivated, than with a visual reminder. I have attached a link below so you can download a high resolution pdf to print and put up as a reminder.

Click here: 11x17 High resolution poster.

Try and go as many days as you can negative free. If you blow it just get up and try again.

-Read about Overcoming the Flesh
-Read about How to Wash Your Mouth
-Read about 5 Observations on Choosing a Joyful Perspective.
-Join in as we fast from negative words for 30 days. I wrote 15 viable reasons to join this campaign in a previous post.
If you would like to receive email updates of my new post click below: Subscribe to Jonathan's Blog by Email
Don't forget to check your email to verify subscription.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Overcoming the Flesh by Lisa Hill

Matthew 26: 41 "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Okay, I am not sure about all of you that have taken up the 30 Day Negativity Fast and Gratitude Feast, but I have never found the above mentioned scripture to be so true. I am so much more aware of what is coming out of my mouth. I have mentioned in my blog before, that by nature, I tend to be pessimistic. The first thing I notice in a situation is the wrong and not the right. But even knowing that about myself, I have been a bit surprised at how quickly negative or death filled words slip out of my mouth.
With that being said, I thank God that there is always an answer in His word. He says to, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." Every morning I know that if I am going to succeed at speaking words of life (Prov 18:21), planting trees of life in my children's hearts (Prov 15:4), speaking pleasant words that bring healing (Prov 16:24), speaking soft answers that turn away wrath (Prov 15:1), and if I will open my mouth with wisdom and have the law of kindness on my tongue (Prov 31: 26), I need the Lord's strength and encouragement. I need to watch for those same ol' situations that bring out the worst in me and stop and pray and ask the Lord to help me to respond differently. I need to stop frustration in it's tracks by asking the Lord for the wisdom I need to be a life-giver in the midst of my testing. Is it really that simple......yes! Over and over again accessing the Lord - that's what being an overcomer is.
The second part of the verse says, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." I am so glad that the Lord knows me. He did say in His word, that in the flesh dwells no good thing. So really, I should not be surprised when those negative and death filled words come to my mind and desire to roll right off my tongue. But the good news is that I do not live after the flesh any longer. As I was reminded this weekend by Kay Arthur: we live and walk by faith in the power of God working in us. We don't owe the flesh anything (Romans 8:12)!
So if any of y'all out there are like me and finding that you needed this fast a little more than you had thought, take heart. Know that your Father in heaven, knows what you have need of. He knows your frame. He made you. Be mindful of the times, situations, and people that tend to steal all your kind words away (smile) and pray. Ask God for wisdom. Ask Him for His strength to overcome the flesh and access the power of His spirit to become a life-giver! It is He that works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure!!!

Written by: Lisa Hill (my lovely wife and mother of our 6 children)

-Read about How to Wash Your Mouth
-Read about 5 Observations on Choosing a Joyful Perspective.
-Join in as we fast from negative words for 30 days. I wrote 15 viable reasons to join this campaign in a previous post.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?-Day 10

We are on Day 10 of our 30 Day-Negativity Fast and Gratitude Feast. Is the glass half empty or half full? This age old rhetorical phrase has been used as a tool to express how different people have different perspectives on the same circumstance. Traditionally, the optimist sees the glass as half full while the pessimist sees it as half empty.
As we continue on this journey recognize that there are at least two ways to view every circumstance. Give yourself permission to choose joy. The reason I said, "give yourself permission" is because we all grow up with a natural default. Some were raised around complaining, worrying and negative people so your natural inclination is to find something to complain about. Others were raised around optimistic, thankful, and encouraging people that look for the good in most situations. If your natural default is negative from this day forward give yourself permission to choose to think, talk, and act differently.
There is a story in the Bible found in Ezra 3:10-13, where the foundation of the temple of the Lord was rebuilt after many years of having no place to worship. There were a host of singers, trumpets, and cymbals that made for a huge celebration. Amongst all of the celebratory noise, that could be heard for miles, were also a mixture of cries and laments.
Ezr 3:12,13 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
One situation, with two polar opposite perspectives. Those that knew the empty void of not having a temple at all praised with shouts of joy. Those that were only in comparison mode which prompted criticism were weeping with a loud voice.

5 observations on choosing a joyful perspective:
  1. What God does for a former generation he may do differently in another. Both should rejoice.
  2. Having high expectations creates low appreciation. Resetting your expectations to a new reality means letting go of what was and embracing what is.
  3. Having high entitlement creates low gratitude. Whenever you feel you deserve something more than what God has provided, you will not be thankful. Gratitude begins where entitlement ends.
  4. Comparing yesterday's success can leave you with zero appreciation for current mercies in your life.
  5. Being critical can make just as much noise as rejoicing. One leaves you unfulfilled the other brings satisfaction.
Sometimes it doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full, but being grateful that you have a cup of water.
Join in as we fast from negative words for 30 days. I wrote 15 viable reasons to join this campaign in a previous post. Entire churches are joining, small groups, corporate offices, classrooms, families, teams, etc. are all joining in. This campaign will change your life!
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Thursday, December 6, 2012

How to Wash Your Mouth-Soap or Hot Coals?-Day 4

Day 4 of our 30 day Negativity Fast and Gratitude Feast. Yesterday, I blogged about the Anatomy of the Mouth. In that post we revealed that there is a hidden component of your mouth which controls it's functions. "Taking a fast from negative words is not merely a physical exercise of controlling the motion of our mouth, but rather tending to the condition of our hearts." I asked a question, 'how do we tend to our hearts?'


Through the years there have been several tactics used to attempt to clean up our speech. One of prominence is washing the mouth out with soap. I have also heard of people putting hot sauce on the tongue or making the transgressor drink Castor Oil. All of these means can instigate change, embed anger, or completely clean out your digestive system but can it get at that hidden component of the heart?

In Isaiah 6:5-8 (NIV) I found another method instituted by God and delivered by an angel: "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs (an angel) flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

During this three days of this negativity fast I hope you have come to the realization that it is impossible to rid your speech, thoughts, actions, and attitudes of negativity in your own strength. Some of us have probably felt like Isaiah in the above passage, a person of unclean lips and living among people with unclean lips. We can also glean from this passage a key prerequisite to having a successful negativity fast. We must have our hearts purged of sin in order to have our mouth cleansed of negative words.

Before a Holy God, our best attempts are seen as unclean (Isaiah 64:6) and our need for help is exposed like a roach when the lights are turned on.

Hot coals represent purging, cleansing and pardoning. To be considered acceptable to God an unclean thing must go through purification. In this case it was Isaiah's mouth. In our case it is our mouth by way of our hearts!

The hot coals are not meant to burn your lips but rather clean your heart,
-they are not meant to scar your mouth but heal your heart,
-they are not meant to hinder your speech but qualify and bring life to your words,
-they are not meant to brand your guilt but pardon your sin.

God's word is like a fire Jeremiah 23:29. The Holy Spirit works as fire, Matt. 3:11. God's method for cleaning up our speech thoughts and actions are done by a means that effects us at the heart and conscience level. Read below:
Hebrews 9:13-14 (CEV)
According to the Law of Moses, those people who become unclean are not fit to worship God. Yet they will be considered clean, if they are sprinkled with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a sacrificed calf. But Christ was sinless, and he offered himself as an eternal and spiritual sacrifice to God. That's why his blood is much more powerful and makes our consciences clear. Now we can serve the living God and no longer do things that lead to death.

God wants your speech to produce life but it can only happen if it comes from a good heart that has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. In the eyes of God there is only one acceptable sacrifice for our back biting, evil, slanderous, pessimistic, doubtful, and sinful words, thoughts, and actions (Heb. 10:14). God provided this sacrifice, His only son who was sinless and pure. Jesus was tempted at all points yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). The clean was given for the unclean. At a conscious level you can receive power to bless others from a pure heart if you put your faith and trust in Jesus and His finished work on the cross.

Don't attempt to do this Negativity Fast in your own strength. Surrender your heart to Christ and allow the Spirit of God to give you a new heart which will give you new speech with no soap required.

Join in as we fast from negative words for 30 days. I wrote 15 viable reasons to join this campaign in a previous post. Entire churches are joining, small groups, corporate offices, classrooms, families, teams, etc. are all joining in. This campaign will change your life! It is the right thing to do.
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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Anatomy of Your Mouth-Day 3 Negativity Fast

Today is day 3 of our 30 day Negativty fast and Gratitude Feast. I am hearing moaning and groaning from friends and family near and far that it is tough to stay positive. Without a doubt, it is a challenging task. Since we all have three days under our belt it is fitting to understanding that there are some perquisites to successfully fasting from negativity. One of them is understanding the anatomy of the mouth.

Paraphrasing the dictionary Britannica.com, the mouth is the orifice through which food and air enter the body. The mouth opens to the outside at the lips and empties into the throat at the rear; its boundaries are defined by the lips, cheeks, hard and soft palates, and glottis. It is composed of a vestibule, open space, between the cheeks and the teeth, and a lower chamber filled by the tongue. In addition to its primary role in the intake and initial digestion of food, the mouth and its structures are essential in humans to the formation of speech.

The above definition tell us that the mouth is only a tool used for the"formation of speech" so our words originate from somewhere else and the mouth is a tool of vocalization. Read this passage below:

Matthew 12:33-38 (New Living Translation)
33 “A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. 34 You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. 35 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. 36 And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. 37 The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.”


I like verse 34 in the NASB version which says, "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart."

Quick summary:
  1. The origin of our words comes from our hearts.
  2. Words are like fruit and our hearts are like fruit trees.
  3. Our hearts can be evil or good, and in addition they can be filled with evil or good.
  4. Evil words come from an evil heart. Good words come from a good heart.
  5. Our identification to others is often formed by the fruit we bear or the words we say.
  6. Our words shape others judgement of us. They can reveal the judgement of innocence or the judgement of guilt.
So from the anatomy lesson above we understand that the mouth has a hidden component called the heart that really controls all of our words. With that being said, taking a fast from negative words is not merely a physical exercise of controlling the motion of our mouth, but rather tending to the condition of our hearts. So just how do we tend to our hearts? We will tackle that in future post. Give us your comments.

Click here: Growing in Gratitude. for a free download of a great 30 day devotional that is pointing you towards gratitude.

Join in as we fast from negative words for 30 days. I wrote 15 viable reasons to join this campaign in a previous post. Entire churches are joining, small groups, families, teams, etc. are all joining in. This campaign will change your life! It is the right thing to do.

If you would like to receive email updates of my new post click below:Subscribe to Jonathan's Blog by Email
Don't forget to check your email for confirmation

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Fast to Feast-30 Day Challenge

We are on Day 2 of our Negativity Fast and Gratitude Feast. Notice it is not just a fast, but also a feast. We want to saturate our lives with gratitude and starve the negativity in our lives. Sometimes you have to fast in order to feast. Abstaining from negative thoughts, words, attitudes or actions in order to initiate a feast of gracious things that will produce fruit in your life. In Colossians 3:1-17 the principle is explained as "putting off" and "putting on". By the power of God we have been given the ability to put off ungodly actions and put on gracious actions. Here are three ways to make this 30 day experience enjoyable:

1) Do it with friends, family, coworkers, or your church. That way you have built in accountability and encouragement.
2) Get an encouragement jar and some poker chips. Red are for negative things you do. White are for things you do to express gratitude. Someone else has to put a chip in the jar for you. Check at the end of a week how colorful your jar is.
3) Establish some consistent way to get in the word of God. Truly the only way you can make a heart change is by allowing the God of your heart access to uproot negativity and to plant gratitude.

My wife and I are going through a resource by Nancy Leigh Demoss called Growing in Gratitude. It's a free download and is pointing us to the word of God as our source for living a negative free life. 

Read previous post: Fifteen Reasons to join us in this challenge.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

30 day Negativity Fast-Gratitude Feast

Starting Monday, December 3rd we are asking everybody to fast from negative words, thoughts, and actions for 30 days. During this fast we will also feast on Gratitude. So it is a Gratitude feast and a Negativity fast. This is a campaign that will change your life. The tongue possesses power according to Proverbs 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..." It is your choice rather you use your tongue to build up or tear down..speak life or speak death..encourage or discourage..utter doubt or utter faith.

Fifteen reasons to join us as we fast from negativity and feast on gratitude:
  1. People are spending too much of their life focusing on self criticism, critisizing others, and being pessemistic.
  2. Too many people are living below the level God has designed for them because they are confessing, meditating, and thinking about negative things.
  3. Your relationships with God, spouse, children, coworkers, family, friends, and generally everyone you come in contact with will get better. Your worklife, home life, and church life will all improve.
  4. People around you will begin to eat the fruit of life from your lips and flourish more because of your positive encouragement.
  5. You will be taking the axe to the root of negative words and uprooting them so that they can be replaced with postive, faith filled words that are based on the true promises of God.
  6. It will force you to think of better ways to communicate your desires.
  7. It will help you to stop believing lies about your self and become the person God made you to be.
  8. It will aid you in changing your perspective on even problematic situations.
  9. It doesn't ignore problems but helps you deal with them in the right way.
  10. You will train your self to be solution focuses rather than problem focused
  11. Guarding your speech means you are gaurding your heart, which means you are changing your beliefs, which means the core of who you are is being afforded the opportunity to be transformed.
  12. Things that used to be fearful obstacles will turn into opportunities as you anchor your heart and confessions in God's word that will give you courage and strength to overcome.
  13. You will become "other-minded" versus "self-centered".
  14. It will ignite your faith in God, service toward man, and love for all.
  15. You will be certain despite circumstances that God is faithful and you won't allow situations to easily alter your moods and attitudes.
Listen hear for a message on the subject: Joy is a Choice 
Will you join us? If so comment on my blog or facebook, or twitter (use the hash tag #negativityfast or #gratitudefeast).

LET's DO THIS!!
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