Hi all,
I want to start by thanking you for your prayers. This spring has been very challenging health-wise for the men of the Fenn family. Me and my 3 sons seem to have been under attack this spring, and it has been very difficult. Knowing we have friends praying for us brings so much comfort. Thank you.
In spite of these things, we were still able to go to our conference in the Netherlands the first week of May, and it was an amazing time. The Father sandwiched that time right in between health challenges, giving us a 2-week window of peace. We are very thankful.
I also want to thank those of you who support us financially. We have all seen the statistics, that around the world everything is at least 1/3 more expensive now than it was 3 years ago, so we really appreciate you. We know you have done as Paul wrote of his friends, that they had first given themselves to the Lord, and then to them, resulting in the continued work of the gospel. (II Corinthians 8: 5)
Tulsa gathering: June 29-30. We are about to have about 200 people join us here in Tulsa for a weekend of teaching, sharing, worship, and instruction on house church (Sunday). And there is such an excitement in my spirit about it. We are excited to see everyone! Looking forward to meeting many I’ve only know by email. Prayers for the Father to pour the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him into us!
Jesus our Sabbath rest:
When God rested on the 7th day (Hebrew: quit), He established that day as a type of the future Messiah who would bring rest to mankind and creation.
To this day some misunderstand the ‘quit’ day, believing God ordained that day and that day only on which to quit. That misses the point that it is a picture of the rest brought about by Jesus. Jesus IS the sabbath rest. If you have Him, you are living out what the creation story predicts – the Man of rest bringing rest to all creation. If you have Jesus, you have it all.
In Exodus 20: 8-11, the command to keep the 7th day holy merely says not to work.
Years later the idea of using that day to gather for worship on Friday night started – that was the creation of man. God only commanded that the week was complete, so quit. Rest, restore your soul and body.
Unfortunately, well-meaning believers in our day and in Paul’s (who have unknowingly spiritually become Pharisees)*, elevating the day as the thing to obey rather than the understanding that in Christ, every day is rest for we have Him.
*Pharisees created over 800 of their own rules, then elevated those rules above the Word of God, which was the point of conflict between them and Jesus.
It is why Paul wrote in Romans 14 when they argued over which day to worship, that each must be fully persuaded in their own mind and to stop arguing among themselves. You have Christ, you have God’s Sabbath living inside you! So all days are Sabbath. Just pick one and rest on that day!
As the ‘quit’ day crowned creation after stating it was finished and all was good, so too is Jesus the crowning accomplishment of salvation, bringing the ultimate rest to mankind and the earth as well.
At its essence therefore, the Sabbath is completion.
As God ceased from creating for it was complete, Jesus ceased from ‘creating’ our salvation on the cross because it was complete: “It is finished”.
God didn’t rest because He needed a break, but rather that the 6 days were filled, complete, done. At the core then, that Sabbath was the day of ‘enough’. It is done, it is sufficient. Jesus is the literal fulfillment of the Sabbath, which is why the Lord told Israel the Sabbath would be an eternal command – Jesus is the eternal command of Sabbath rest. It is finished.
Hebrews 4: 9-11 makes this same point:
“There remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into His rest, has ceased from his own work, as God did from His. Let us work therefore to enter into His rest, lest we fall after (Israel’s) example of unbelief.”
To his readers, the author’s words would have meant to stop doing things to impress God or gain His favor. Every formula is based on someone making a sacrifice – you decree, declare, give, attend, recite – all sacrifices, all are things people do to move God, remind Him of their need, show their sincerity – but Jesus ended all those. His was the final sacrifice. We can rest.
Faith is not the issue. Jesus made several comments about people’s faith: Little faith, great faith, faithless, and so on. The issue isn’t faith, it is rest. There is a stream of the faith that teaches faith is something we confess, declare, make it happen.
But we can see here faith feels like rest and peace. Faith is a response to a revelation or grace from the Lord, which carries with it His presence of peace. Faith responds to that presence, and feels like peace. The work is to enter into that rest, that peace Hebrews 4:11 talks about.
The work is to enter into rest. The work is not faith, you have faith, you need rest. You need to say what Jesus has done and what you have done is enough. Complete. Now it is up to Him. You rest.
You can’t hold onto fear and peace (faith) at the same time – you will be in torment
As best as I can count, “fear not” appears in the Bible 71 times and “do not be afraid” about 80 times, or some combination of the two. Not being afraid means being at rest, being at peace.
Philippians 4: 6-7 says: “Be (anxious, filled with care) for nothing, but in everything by prayer make your requests known, with thanksgiving, and the peace of God that is beyond understanding will guard your hearts and minds…”
One day I took this as a step-by-step process.
I dealt with the fear first instead of my usual practice of carrying the fear all the way through my prayers. I spent several days dealing with the fear, the what if this and what if that – several days! Once I resolved to rest, to give it over to the Father, to stop entertaining all those fears, I then prayed.
For the first time, the thanksgiving I expressed was not laced with fear and worry. Usually I was no better after I prayed than before. But this was different. Different because I dealt with the fear, the worry, before I ever made my request to the Father. It changed my life to this day.
Jesus is our rest. Jesus completed our salvation, our provision in life and godliness. Rest…deal with the fear even if it takes days to wrestle with, THEN make your requests known, and you WILL have that peace Paul describes.
Thank you for being in our lives!
We appreciate you so much!
John & Barb, Brian & Amy
