Blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming Going back and forth in our minds, right vs. wrong, good vs, bad, do it vs. don’t do it…We grasp onto every thing that we hear and allow it to sway us, to influence us, to give us another excuse not to act on the truth.Well I heard, I think, I lean toward…I used to do this before I came to Christ. I would take the pieces of other beliefs that I liked and piece them together into to my belief system. The result was usually something that was only mental not a real life change. I would sit around and discuss (not live) what I believed)

Live out your time as foreignersWe don’t speak the same language. We can learn to communicate but we will never enter the mindset, cultural aspects, we are not from here. We use different words as well as different meanings for the same words.Owning stuff you can't take with you or use when you go home ( voltage, plugs, stuff that is too permanent and too big, stuff that cannot be serviced there, unless it is switchable it’s useless) We learn not to attach ourselves to things as much because we probably won’t take it with us. Sounds bad, but this includes people.We will never be totally included or understood by those that live here. We will always be “cizinec”, thereby stereotyped and often judged. Because they cannot relate to the experiences that formed us differently (salvation)We will never totally understand the country we live in. The longer we are Christians the less we understand the ways of the World. We forget how evil this place can be.We will usually group with those we have things in common with (language, country of origin, likes and dislikes, goals, work) Where are you from? Come together with believers (we are the expat community of heaven) The world will group with the world and the Christians should group with Christians.

I want to use this teaching to help you fast. But before I share I want to qualify something.Not fasting is not a sin. Not directly, but what if I knew that, to help someone, to break the power of the devil, to break sin in my life, it required fasting and Prayer and I didn’t do it. Would that be a sin?

Imagine you are standing on the starting line of a race. You have been looking forward to this day for a while and you hear the words “on you mark”…(you get in position, your heart beating faster) “ready”…and you hear the gun signaling the begin of the race. You shoot out of the blocks and run as hard and as fast as you can. As you had hoped all you effort was paying off because you are way out in front of everyone else. You look to you left and to your right…No one!At exactly 100 meters you lift your arms in victory and slow down for your victory round around the stadium. After a few meters other racers pass you by and continue to run. You are shocked that they were not stopping and congratulating you that they were actually running your victory round faster than you were.Then you hear one of the spectators yelling “What are you doing, keep running?” You look around to see the time board and that’s when you notice the name of the race next to the time. “Men’s Marathon”Confusion fills your mind and you walk off the field…thinking “all my preparation for nothing”