Day 1 of Water Fast- Ash Wednesday! by Sacristia Blog entry

Blog: My Health Journey
by Sacristia

Day 1 of Water Fast- Ash Wednesday!

My daily Journey to a healthier life style

Date: 3/10/2011 2:39:59 PM ( 13 y ) ... viewed 2322 times

March 9, 2011

The Lenten Season starts. Am I ready? I am trying to be. I almost feel giddy, as this is my time with the Lord and my time to re-learn all the things I have forgotten that I love about Him. I hope I am strong and capable of doing this for until Easter. If I get through it, it will be, because God has helped me and He has strengthen me so that I might do so.

My measurements the first day of my long water fast are:

At the navel: 31 inches
Narrowest at the waist: 30 inches
Widest at the hips: 34.50 inches
My neck: 13 inches

My weight is 130 pounds. I think I am retaining water, as I just started my monthly cycle. It really sucks because when I am on my cycle, I tend to eat more, as I am more active. I am in a lot of back/hip pain because of it, and I can't even take anything to sooth it. I normally don't take any pain reliever for cramps, as they usually are not really too bad, but this time they are. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of it.

I think that my liver will be very happy during this water fast, as I have been treating it right. I have been drinking a cup or two organic Roasted Dandelion Root tea every day or two. You can say that it was a live prep. Tomorrow I might have a cup of tea that is good for the kidneys if I feel up to it.

Today's (Wednesday, March 9, 2011) Lenten focus is Bring us near to God.

READ: Matthew 17:1,5

Today I was to pray for others to come near to God and know His love and pray that we would want to be good just because we love Jesus.

I did a lot of prayer throughout the day. Today is an important day to Phil, so I couldn't help praying about it. It is his deceased daughter's birthday. She would be 11 years old today. She has been gone going on for 7 years now, and her absence she affects him. Know he misses me because once in a while I get an odd text from him like I did back in December that said just this “I miss my girl” I remember her birthday because tomorrow is a date special to me. It was my first date with Phil. I have know him for 6 years now. And I look back and wonder what happened. We seemed so in love and things seemed going well for us. All I can see is that I ruined it some how. Sigh, it is depressing me. All the good memories just scream failure to me, since it all fell apart some how.

Sigh,

It is not what I am trying to focus on, but yet it happened.

Well, I prayed a lot: For the Salvation for my Dad, my mother and my friend Ashley. I also prayed for Phil and his son, PJ. My prayers were kind of off the cuff, as I was running errands for work, so at times, I got sidetracked and had to start praying again.

March 5, 2009, I got a newsletter from one of the Christian bible studies I was a part of. I read it it was about Lent and its pagan undertones. I read the article and made a Christian response to it. I will post the response tomorrow so it isn't too much to read.

There is the article that they sent me on March 4, 2009

The Truth about Lent

A recent article in the USA Today showed the popularity of the Lenten holiday to be on the rise in many Christian churches. The paper stated that many believers would be celebrating the season of Lent by fasting certain physical pleasures. During the forty day Lenten season, Christians throughout the world give up specific sins or bad habits to prepare themselves for Easter. Such a practice seems noble, yet history reveals that Lent can actually lead to sin.

Lent begins directly after the great debauchery of Mardi Gras. The French term "Mardi Gras" literally means "Fat Tuesday." This day commemorates the last day to get "fat" and eat before the fast begins. The first day of Lent is called "Ash Wednesday." On Ash Wednesday believers mark their foreheads with ash to symbolize the start of a solemn fast. Many suggest that Lent is kept to either remember the Savior's forty day fast or to prepare for the celebration of Easter. History proves that Lent is like other pagan practices that are not found in the Scriptures yet were adopted into the Church from the surrounding culture and ancient history.

"The forty days' abstinence of the Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, 'in the spring of the year,' is still observed by the Yezidis or pagan Devil worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent was held by the pagan Mexicans, in honor of the sun and was observed in Egypt as well. This Egyptian Lent of forty days was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god. Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz," wrote Alexander Hislop in the Two Babylons, pages 104 and 105.

A pagan connection between Tammuz and Lent is apparent. Tradition shows that the wife of Nimrod, the King of Babylon, claimed she had been supernaturally impregnated by the Sun god and gave birth to Tammuz. One day while hunting, Tammuz was killed by a wild boar. His mother and her family mourned for 40 days, at the end of which Tammuz was brought back from the dead. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary states, "Mourning for the god was followed by a celebration of resurrection." The Bible condemns such ancient practices that are actually cloaked by Christianity as Lent. "And He said to me, 'Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.' So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD's house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz,"' Ezekiel 8:13- 14.

Popular Bible commentator John MacArthur agrees, "The celebration of Lent has no basis in Scripture, but rather developed from the pagan celebration of Semiramis's mourning for 40 days over the death of Tammuz before his alleged resurrection- another of Satan's mythical counterfeits," (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; 1 Corinthians: Moody, 1984).

Lent officially became a "Christian" celebration at the Council of Laodicea in A.D. 360. Yet even the famed Catholic Saint Abbot John Cassian, monk of Marseilles, admitted in the fifth century, "Howbeit you should know that as long as the primitive church retained its perfection unbroken, this observance of Lent did not exist." Today Lent is observed by most Catholics, Episcipals, Lutherans, and some Presbyterians who desire to be closer to the Almighty. Many observe Lent without knowing its history or acknowledging its pagan past. Exodus 23:2 addresses the celebration of Lent by stating, "you shall not follow a crowd to do evil."

Of course, I will post my response to that article that they sent me. I posted it because it seemed very negative to my stand point, and wanted to point out that the Lenten season is a very humbling time for a believer in Jesus. It is a time to reflect on what Jesus ultimately did for us, and What he did during the time, in which He knew that He was going to die.

Well, back on to how my first day of my fast was.

I didn't have the urge to eat anything all day. I guess it was because I was so busy that I didn't have time to. I stayed at the office late to get things caught up, since the secretary has been in the hospital this week. I am so swamped that it isn't fun. The extra time at work, helped me stay away from any food that might tempted me. When I was driving home, I could smell all the good food from the restaurants that I passed. Just for a minute, I wanted to forget what I was doing. I was going to say to myself “ I will eat again, but instead I said “God will strengthen me” as I know that I will need His strengthen to endure 40 days of this.

My day went quick as I was busy and keep myself busy until around 8:30. So when I got home,I grabbed a bottle of water, I took a shower and got into bed. I pulled my Bible out and my other three books that I am reading, but I didn't get far. I had my book open, but Mekong was laying on my chest preventing me from really reading it. It was funny because she was so comfortable that I soon fell asleep. I only woke up when she licked my face, and I realized that I had fallen asleep with my book on my stomach and a cat on my chest. LOL I didn't realize how tired I was. I know that I did a lot of running to the Courthouses today, as well as I got really wet from the pouring rain (as I didn't have my umbrella with me) When Mekong purring and curled up on me, I put the book aside and turned out the light. Sleep came to me so easily, but I know soon that I might not sleep so well.

EXERICISE: walked 3.97 Miles,

WATER INTAKE: 27 ounces of water

WEIGHT: 130 pounds