Think Fast!

At church yesterday, the topic of the sermon was temptation. The pastor gave the example Christ's temptation by Satan. I've never read that section of the bible, but from what the pastor said, the story goes that, soon after being baptized, God directs Christ to wandering the wilderness for 40 days, fasting, to be eventually tempted by Satan by food and unlimited earthly power. The pastor explained that this was a test from God to find out if Christ was indeed all that God wanted him to be, that is, he could resist the temptation that his humanity experienced. One has to wonder why God would need to test Christ, who is also 100% God, when he himself already knows everything.

But the important part of the story for the pastor was that intense prayer and fasting should be a regular part of every Christian's life; it will toughen them up so that they can resist the temptation to sin that inevitably arises from time to time. Personally, even if I were a Christian, I wouldn't do it; I just enjoy food way too much to fast.

My concern is that the two main pastors at the church don't appear to be practicing what they are preaching. Or if they do fast, they more than make up for it between fasts. It's not that they are fat, per se, but they sure as hell aren't skinny!