I read in Europa Times last year that Mussa Zoabi of Israel claims to be the oldest person alive. He says he's 160 years old. Guinness Book of World Records isn't going to print his name, simply because his age can't be verified.

Mr. Zoabi is older than most record-keeping systems will go. But here's the interesting thing: However old he really is, Mussa Zoabi knows exactly how he managed to live so long. He'll tell the secret to anybody who wants to know. He says, "Every day I drink a cup of melted butter or olive oil!" Doesn't that sound like a great diet?!

Diets are the rage, aren't they? Everybody's got a special diet. One says his diet can cure cancer. Another promises to reduce your weight, and then to keep those extra pounds off. Already in ancient times there were diets that supposedly turned on the sex hormones, and made a person incredibly irresistible!

Now there's a report from Copenhagen that the Danes have a diet craze on their hands. People are eating horse food! You don't see many sick horses, do you?! Health Department spokesman Haagen Schmidt (not Haagen-Dazs!) says that "especially young women keep on eating hay and raw oats!" And they do it, he says, in spite of a tremendous surge in digestive problems reported by hospitals all over the country!

Diets are the rage in our society. Are you on a diet? 60% of women in North America say they're on a diet! Imagine that! A woman at Weight Watchers said that a new client had begun her diet, came in to be weighed after the first stressful week. Stepped on the scale. Lost a couple of pounds! But the dieter wasn't too happy. She complained.

She said, "My friend comes here to Weight Watchers, and she said she lost ten pounds her first week! She told me I'd lose ten pounds in the first week too! But look at this!"

Well, the leader over at Weight Watchers was a little disturbed. She knew that you don't lose weight overnight. And she tried to comfort the woman by reminding her that the ideal was a slow weight loss. That kind of diet was more likely to produce permanent weight reductions. So she asked the dieter, a little indignantly, "Who told you that? Is she a doctor?!"

The woman shook her head. "Is she a nurse?!"

"No," said the woman.

"Well! Is she a nutritionist, or another Weight Watchers leader?!" Negative again!

"Well who is she?!"

The newcomer said, "I think she's a liar!"

Well, most of you know the truth and the lies about dieting. And so, maybe, you think you know all about the issue Jesus raises for us this morning: Fasting!

Fasting sounds a lot like dieting, doesn't it? At least from the things we've heard. You stop eating for a while, or at least you slow down.... And you do it for a noble cause! (Even if it is just to fit into those slacks again!) In a letter to one of his friends, C. S. Lewis wrote, "Perhaps if we had done more voluntary fasting before, God would not now have to put us on these diets!"

Maybe so.

In fact, earlier this century, Bernard Macfadden, who had a wide following in North America, said that everybody should fast now and then, if only for the good health that it brings!