Spiritual practices, sometimes referred to as spiritual disciplines, are a great gift to us. They are given as ways to deepen our relationship with God and loosen the hold the world has on us. The one practice that may attain that result the quickest, though certainly not the easiest, is fasting.
In the New Testament, the Jewish community practiced fasting twice a week. We know that Jesus fasted. We know that his disciples refrained from fasting while Jesus was with them, and we know that Jesus assumed they would resume a practice of fasting once he left.
Jesus taught in Matthew 6:16, “when you fast.” But for modern day Christians, fasting is not a commandment. It is encouraged, but not required.
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Bible News
The latest Bible-related and Bible-adjacent news
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Israel Museum Exhibit Reconstructs Ancient Childhood — Missed from October 10: “Tiny Footprints” brings together hundreds of artifacts to across 500,000 years. Birth figurines, feeding vessels, writing tablets, miniature tools, dolls, and wheeled toys reveal high infant mortality, early work and apprenticeships, education, marriage expectations, and play. The exhibition also notes that Jewish communities rejected infant abandonment and child sacrifice. (Times of Israel)
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Temple Mount Seal May Connect to King Josiah’s Court — October 15: A forthcoming study examines a inscribed “Yeda‘yah son of Asayahu,” recovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project in 2025. Researchers cautiously suggest Asayahu may be Asaiah, an adviser to King Josiah named in , though the identification remains unproven. The project has recovered about 35 comparable sealings but faces decades of analysis because of limited funding and research backlogs. (JNS)
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Bible Education Group Secures Settlement With Washington District — October 16: The , revise religious-activity policies, train board members on religious liberty, and pay $275,000 in legal fees after LifeWise Academy alleged discriminatory treatment. The off-campus Bible program said it was excluded from resource fairs and denied flyer access available to secular groups. (Christianity Daily)
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The latest installment of the American Bible Society’s (ABS) report on the State of the Bible is on American belief in the supernatural. If that topic strikes you as more interesting than other data, put a pin in that; you may be part of the story.
Depending on who you talk to, it’s easy to think we live in a humanist, postmodern society where everything is science-based and logical. Like computers, we parse information as yes or no, black and white, with nothing landing in a gray area.
The numbers reveal something else, though: the true nature of how most Americans — not just Christians — view the world around them.
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Fear can be a warning, but it was never meant to be our master. Yet when fear takes over, we often respond by trying to control everything around us.
We tell ourselves that if we can just anticipate every problem, prevent every disappointment and manage every outcome, we will finally feel safe. But the more we try to control, the more anxious we become.
Control is fear disguised as strength.
But God does not ask us to carry the weight of every possible outcome. He invites us to trust Him with what we cannot control.
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How easy is it to access God’s Word?
A recent report from the Bible Access Initiative sheds light on global Bible access, and while it may not seem surprising at first glance, a deeper look reveals why Bible access varies across the globe.
The study looked at 106 countries around the world and discovered that half a billion Christians in the world live in nations where the Bible is illegal to possess, or access is somehow restricted.
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