The average American eats 2-3 pounds of sugar per week. A century ago, the average person consumed five pounds of sugar per year. Kyle Idleman documents this in his book, Gods at War, where he takes a look at the idols that we tend to worship. One question we should ask ourselves, Idleman says, is, “Where is your sanctuary?” In other words, when you’ve had a hard day at work, where do you go when you get home? To the fridge for comfort food, like ice cream or brownies? Or to the phone to vent with a friend? Or to the TV? (“I need some me time and besides; I don’t want to think right now!”) Do you turn to alcohol, or to porn? Where do you go?

I was in a ministry team in the 80’s called Damascus Road, and we used to sing the song, “I Go to the Rock,” by Dottie Rambo. Here’s part of the chorus:

I go to The Rock of my salvation 
I go to the stone that the builders rejected 
I run to the mountain and The Mountain stands by me 
When the earth all around me is sinking sand 
On Christ, the solid rock I stand 
When I need a shelter, when I need a friend 
I go to The Rock 

Here are the questions Idleman closed the chapter on the “God of Food” with, for your (and my!) consideration:

1. Do you eat more for pleasure or for nourishment?  “…there is nothing wrong in finding pleasure from a gift that the Lord God has given us; but when we pursue pleasure for its own sake it has a way of expanding beyond its borders.”

2. When and why do you overindulge?  “When life goes wrong, our first impulse frequently is to turn to food.”

3. Would you be willing to try a fast?  It is one of “the easiest ways to gauge the power that the god of food has over you…Don’t do it as a test of discipline or as as way to fit into your skinny jeans in the closet. Do it for the expressed purpose of spending time with God. Pray that you will have a greater hunger for Him than for the food of this world.”

Go to the Rock!

John Feinstein wrote an article for   The Washington Post a few days after Dean Smith’s 83rd birthday, and one story he told stood out to me above the rest. When Smith arrived in Chapel Hill in 1958 to serve as an assistant coach at UNC under Frank McGuire, he was appalled to learn that Chapel Hill restaurants were still segregated. He talked to his pastor and the two came up with the idea for Smith to go to a restaurant where the management knew him, and take a black member of the church with him. He did, and the two were seated and served. “That was the beginning of de-segregration in Chapel Hill,” wrote Feinstein. When he interviewed Smith in 2007, before the onset of dementia, he asked the coach about that story. “Who told you about that?” Smith asked, with an angry look. Feinstein told him that he had heard about it from the pastor, and that Smith should be proud of doing what he did. Dean Smith leaned forward in his chair and said quietly, “You should never be proud of doing what’s right. You should just do what’s right.”

It’s that time again, one of my favorite times of the year. The best years in my memory for March Madness for me were 1982, 1993, 2005, and 2009. I would add 1957 but I was not born until September of that year, so I enjoyed that Tar Heel championship from the womb. 🙂  One of my favorite memories as a student at UNC in the 70’s was when the Tar Heels won the semi-final game against UNLV by one point to make it to the final game against Marquette. After that Saturday afternoon victory against  UNLV, thousands of students poured onto campus, and the mayhem was truly madness. I had a friend who owned a Triumph Spitfire convertible, and five or six of us piled into it to cruise down Franklin St. I ended up being the one holding onto the luggage rack, feet hanging off the back, toes wiggling in the breeze. That’s when I saw one of Chapel Hill’s finest making his way towards our car, and my first thought was, “Ok, great. We just won a final four game, and I’m going to jail.” But the policeman just smiled, gave me a high five, and kept walking. He was as excited about the Tar Heel victory was we were.

Unfortunately the Marquette team coached by Al McGuire was better than we were that year, and Dean would have to wait five more for Michael Jordan and James Worthy to cut down the nets and give the coach his first NCAA championship.

I don’t expect the Tar Heels to go all the way this year….but they could! That’s why they call it March Madness. Anything can happen.

Go Heels.

I follow Todd Wilson’s blog by email and today it contained the following letter that I knew I wanted to share with you. You can read more about Todd and his ministry to families at http://familymanweb.com/

Todd,

 When I saw this letter (see below), it broke my heart and brought me to tears – literally.  This is from an 11-year old girl whose father is an alcoholic and is rapidly destroying his family.  (She slid the note under his door while he was passed out in his bed.)  My wife has been encouraging his wife for several years now, and his wife is an amazing woman who wants to honor God in her marriage.  But as you can see from this letter, she has been fighting a losing battle as her husband continues to pursue his selfish and addictive behavior.  I am struggling in how to continue to offer them hope, and have been praying that God would break the husband and convict him of what he is doing.  In the past, he was required to go through rehab twice through his employer, and while there was hope and expectation of change, after a short time those hopes were dashed on the rocks of relapse.

 I offer this as a request for others to pray for this husband and father of three.  It is also a warning to men who are toying with sinful pleasures that they know are wrong.  Don’t fall down this slippery slope – the damage you cause to yourself and family are not worth the temporary enjoyment.

~ Lance Y

By J. Mark Fox 

I wrote a blog post about running yesterday. After that, my wife sent me a link to one of the most amazing running stories I have ever heard. So amazing that we had to look it up to see if it really happened. It did.
Watch this 2 minute video about a 61 year old who ran a 544 mile race in his overalls and workboots. And won. Then he gave the prize money to the the next five finishers.

Go here to read Ann Voskamp’s excellent commentary on Cliff’s accomplishment:
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2014/01/how-to-get-through-the-dark-places-thejesusproject-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HolyExperience+%28Holy+Experience%29

I love to run. I am by no means a competitive runner. I have won a couple of first places in my age division, but only because there were very few in my division in those races! 🙂  No, I run because I love the euphoria I feel after the training run or the race. I run because I want to stay in shape and live as long as I can to love my wife, children, grandchildren, and…great-grands? I run because I love the time alone, on the road, just me and my iPhone , listening to podcasts like the one I am going to tell you about, or a great sermon by Alistair Begg or John Piper, or music by Steven Curtis Chapman or James Taylor. So, you may be an avid runner OR one of those people who say, in response to someone who says they are going for a run, “Is someone going to be chasing you?” Or, “Why in the world would anyone in his right mind WANT that kind of torture?” Either way, I encourage you to check out this podcast by Matt Johnson. It’s called Everyday Runners, and you can find it (and subscribe to it) here: http://runneracademy.com/everyday-runners-podcast/ I heard about it from my wife (who is also a runner) last week, and listened to 2 and 1/2 episodes while on a ten mile run last Saturday. And I LOVED it! In each episode of this brand new podcast, Matt interviews everyday runners like you and me, and you will hear amazing stories from people who started 100 lbs overweight and within a couple of years had run their first marathon. Matt is a running coach as well, and at the end of each episode he answers questions that runners have sent him. His answers are excellent! So….what are you waiting for? Start running!

Happy New Year from the Foxes!
Mark and Cindy Fox; Micah and Kari Fox (with Blake, Seth, and Owen); Caleb and Celia Fox; Hannah, Luke, Jesse, Judah and Susanna.

Every parent has seen this with his 1-year-old child. You are sitting at the kitchen table with your son in your lap and you see something in the backyard, like a squirrel. And you point out the window and say, “Look at the squirrel!” Your son looks at your hand. “No, buddy, look outside,” you say. “See the squirrel?” He looks at your face, and then your hand, which is still pointing. It takes a while to get the child to understand that your hand is not what you want him to see. Or remember when your child first learned to wave goodbye? How did she do it? With her fingers curling back towards herself, because that’s what she’d seen when you waved goodbye to her. A child has a hard time making the transfer from the sign to the referent. The sad thing is, some children never learn it. They end up as adults who continue to be fascinated by the “sign,” disinterested in the significance to which it points. What would you think of a person who sees the “Rest Area” sign beside the exit ramp and pulls off and parks under the sign? The sign is pointing to the reality. But instead of a nice warm building with bathrooms and vending machines, they’re parked under a blue sign on the side of the road while everybody else rushes past them, waving (backwards?)

There’s a great example in Acts 8, where we meet Simon the Sorcerer. He was famous in Samaria, almost worshiped as a god because of his ability to use the supernatural power of the demonic world. Then the real power came to town, as Philip entered preaching the truth about Jesus and performing signs and wonders with the power of God. Simon was amazed, not at Jesus or the power of God. He was mesmerized by the signs and just wanted to be able to do what Philip was doing. You find as you read his story that Simon, just like everyone reading this column today, had faith. Just in the wrong thing. Everybody has faith in something. Or in someone. But the old saying is just as true today as ever: Faith is only as valid as the object in which it is placed. Simon’s faith was in the supernatural. Signs. Wonders. Philip is pointing to Jesus, but all Simon can see is the hand. “I want hands that can do that,” Simon says.

Signs and wonders are simply hands, pointing to Jesus. They are signs, not to be exalted or to even fixate on like a child. They are the means to an end, but they are not the end. What are some signs we can hold up that point people to Jesus? How about music? That’s a sign, isn’t it? When Jesse and I went to hear Phil Keaggy in concert at The Cove a few weeks ago, we saw 90 minutes of signs and wonders performed. Every song he sang, every word Phil spoke pointed us to Jesus and His grace. You like to act? It can be a sign that points to Jesus. You like to do liturgical dance? Preach? Write? Cook? Play a sport? They are all signs that can point to Jesus. John Piper wrote, “Whether we preach or sing or act or write or heal, we are utterly and desperately dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit to straighten crooked hearts and cause people to look away from us to Jesus who alone can save.”

Don’t park your life under a sign.

J. Mark Fox is the author of “A Faithful Man” and the pastor of Antioch Community Church on Power Line Road in Elon. You can Tweet him @jmarkfox and can find all of Mark’s books on Amazon or other online sellers. Email Mark at markfox@antiochchurch.cc

It has always been interesting to me that Jesus’ disciples never asked the Lord to teach them how to witness. Or preach. Or cast out demons. They asked Him to teach them how to pray. Maybe they understood that Jesus’ intimacy with His Father was the power source. Someone has said that Jesus went from one prayer meeting to another, and in between, He healed the sick, preached to crowds and even raised the dead. That’s a little simplistic. We know that on a few occasions, Jesus said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God.” Ultimately, Jesus came to do what the Father had sent Him to do: to lay down His life to atone for the sins of those who would believe in Him as Lord and Savior. But even there, on the cross, Jesus prayed.

Teach your children how to pray. It has been our custom for many years to have family devotions that begin with reading the Bible and end with each of us praying, one by one. When our children were very young, their prayers would usually go something like this: Hands folded, knees on the floor, elbows on the sofa, eyes squeezed shut, the youngest would pray, “Lord, help us to have a good day, not to get hurt and not to fight.” That was OK. It was a child’s prayer, one that focused on comfort, safety and security. Sadly, many adults pray in those same tracks. Their words and sentences get longer and more impressive to the ear, but the requests are the same: “Lord, bless me today. Give me everything I need. Protect me from harm or even from anything hard or uncomfortable. And help me to make it safely to death one day!” No one actually prays those exact words — at least I hope not — but many pray those same themes. Over and over. Day after day.

As my children matured, I challenged them to get outside the prayer box they were in, to look around them for needs in the church, the community or the world. Or, in their own hearts. “It’s fi ne to pray for your own needs,” I would say. “Jesus taught us to ask for our daily bread. But He also taught us to pray for forgiveness for our own sins and for grace to forgive others who have sinned against us.”

Cindy and I taught them and led by example to pray for the sick and the hurting. We taught them to pray for missionaries around the world. We taught them to pray for those who are not followers of Jesus Christ. We taught them to give God praise and thanks in prayer. My children have learned through the years that prayer is to be a delight, not a duty. We have taught them that they can pray any time and under any circumstances. Someone once said, “As long as there are final exams, there will always be prayer in school.” True. Prayer is not a ceremony that requires equipment, rituals, special clothing or even a place. You can pray in your heart any time, and God hears.

Susanna Wesley, though mother to 19 children, found time to pray for two hours every day. David Brainerd, missionary to the American Indians in the 1700s, prayed in the snow until it melted around him. The Apostle James, beheaded by King Herod in the first century, was called “camel knees” according to legend, because of the callouses he developed through hours of prayer. We need their kind among us again. Teach your children to pray.

J. Mark Fox is the author of “A Faithful Man” and the pastor of Antioch Community Church on Power Line Road in Elon. You can Tweet him @jmarkfox and can find all of Mark’s books on Amazon or other online sellers. Email Mark at markfox@antiochchurch.cc