Lent 2020 - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2020 | Resurrection Sunday: “Worship”

Today is Easter Sunday.

At our local congregation, we like to celebrate it as Resurrection Sunday. I find that it helps us to focus in on the reality we are remembering and celebrating.

Like so many other Christians, I celebrate this wonderful miracle at a distance. While I do not need to be in a building to remember and worship my God and my Savior, I feel a renewed appreciation for the corporeal existence of the children of God called the Church. I miss being with them.

This will be an Easter for the ages. I hope and prayer is that we do not forget the lessons learned in this difficult time.

Lent 2020 | Day 40: “Wait”

That first Saturday after Jesus’ crucifixion had to be complete agony for the disciples. The doubt and fear that must have been present in them can only be described as unimaginable.

They had given three years of their lives to follow Jesus. They had invested so much time and effort in learning and practicing everything that Jesus had taught them. They had been looking forward to the fulfillment of everything Jesus had talked about.

But in a moment, their world was turned upside down. In a flash, their hopes had been ripped from them and their faith had been shredded by death.

That first Saturday must have felt like it would never end.

Unlike those first disciples, we know how the story ends!

While they waited, filled with anxiety; on this Saturday we wait with anticipation.

I know that the world had gone mad with fear and anxiety over the global pandemic. But, as a follower of Christ, I find comfort that death is not an end or the end. In Christ, the sting of death has been removed, even though I have to endure the difficulty of dying.

Because I know that there was a resurrection, that Jesus rose on Sunday morning almost two thousand years ago, I can wait on this Saturday. I can live in comfort knowing that in spite of all that may be going wrong in the world, God has made a way for our souls to be made right with Him!

Hallelujah!

Lent 2020 | Day 39: “Fear”

NOTE: I was so busy getting ready for Good Friday, I forgot to post this! I apologize for that.

The word focus for today is “fear.”

Fear is the most natural instinct in the human experience. It is a gift from God. It helps to keep us safe in times of danger.

Even when we do not know “why” we are afraid, we know that something is “off” around us. It is not something we need to be taught. We have it from birth. This is what I call natural fear.

There is a second kind of fear: spiritual fear.

Spiritual fear is the fear that comes upon us when we consider ourselves in the grander reality of life. When we stop to take inventory of the world in which we live and ask the question: Why do I exist?

How we answer the question of existence will impact how we live our lives. What kind of people we want to be.

Spiritual fear speaks to the character we form and shape as we experience the highs and lows of life.

I don’t want to start splitting too many hairs here, but I think there is a third kind of fear. This one I want to call supernatural fear or “divine fear.”

Divine fear is the fear we experience when we come in contact with God. When we have a true and intimate apprehension of who God is and what he expects from us.

The longer live the greater our ability to tell the difference between all of these kinds of fear. And, as we grow the more we become less susceptible to the first two and become focused on the third.

The “fear of the Lord,” as the Scriptures describe it is the only safeguard we have against being ruled and ruined by our emotions. We have to look to God and trust in his provision.

On this Good Friday, this is one of the most important lessons of Jesus’ crucifixion. We can face anything that comes at us if we are moving and living in the will of God.

Lent 2020 | Day 38: “Message”

As a Christian, the message of salvation in Jesus Christ is at the heart of the Church’s identity. Without the Gospel, the reason for which the Church exists would fade away.

Whenever we fail to hold to the Gospel, we will inevitably find ourselves losing what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. One of the key elements of the Gospel is that it serves a steady and unchanging truth that grounds us in life. But especially in difficult times.

In this Holy Week, I would encourage you to look to the Cross, rehearse the message of the Gospel and rejoice in what God has done for you and me. We have been saved. We have been restored. We have been given eternal life. These precious gifts are not for our indulgence. They are reminders of God’s grace and Jesus’s sacrifice.

The Gospel is the most important message we can every carry with us and convey to others. We must do all we cant to get it out and to live it consistently in our lives.

Lent 2020 | Day 37: “Looking”

The focus for today is “looking.”

When we look, we are usually doing it on purpose. This is implied in the word but is often taken for granted. And that is part of the problem.

The life of faith is a life of searching. We are introduced to God through the preaching of the Gospel. It is a notice that God has done something for us. God has made it possible for us to enter into his presence. But, we have something we must do. We must seek him even though we have been found.

I think what trips people up is not understanding that our seeking of God has nothing to do with God. When we seek God, we are embracing the journey that prepares us to meet him. We need to look for him. Not because he is not there, but because we don’t always notice his presence.

The apostle Paul said that the glory of God is seen in what has been made. That means that evidence of God’s reality is all around us… if we would just look. We have to be intentional in our looking. It is not enough of light and images to hit our eyeballs. We have to be purposeful in our observation.

This is the power of the liturgical calendar. The church year is a simple pattern of remembering the work of God year in and year out. The cycle of the Christian journey is expressed through a steady movement through important commemorations of God’s works in the world.

As we approach Easter, it is so important to not allow it just pass by as usual. I hope that we are looking forward to this Easter, in spite of all the challenges. I pray that you are looking forward to celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, and all the promise it holds for us who believe.

I know I am this year!

Lent 2020 | Day 36: “Great”

When I saw the word for today the phrase that jumped into my mind was: “Great are you, Lord.”

I find that we often used words in a way that actually diminishes what the words are designed to express. How many things actually inspire awe in us? And yet we use the word awesome. How many things are genuinely wonderful? But we will casually say that something is wonderful.

There are truly few things that should be described with these and other words. But, we have to slow down enough to consider what we are saying. That is not always easy. We have gotten so used to talking like this. Even if it’s not accurate.

This is what I am thinking about the word “great.” How many truly great things have I experienced? The easiest way I can describe what I am thinking is in terms of impact. How many things have truly caused a change in my life? I can name a few truly significant events. My marriage. The birth of my children. My call to ministry. These and a few others have been great moments. They have shaped who I am and even altered the trajectory of my life.

In spite of all that is going on in the world, the truth of the matter is that what God accomplished in and through Jesus’s sacrifice can truly be described as great. Maybe even the greatest of things.

As we make our way through Holy Week this year, and as we approach the glorious celebration of Christ’s resurrection, my hope is simple: May we honor God as he deserves.

Great is the Lord. And he is worthy to be praised.

Lent 2020 | Day 35: “Dawn”

If we are not careful, we can feel like we are enduring a night that will never end.

This could not be further from the truth. The beauty of our world is that for every night there is a morning. Some night may feel longer than we would like, but the world keeps right on turning.

The goodness of God protects us in days and times like these. He has order the universe to operate in such a way that we can trust in its constancy. Every cycle of evening and morning; every cycle of the change of seasons; even the cycle of life and death is a reminder that God is there, keeping everything in its place.

Uncertainty can cause us to waver and fret. But God never changes. God never wavers. God never forgets what he has promised.

The nigh may feel long, but we can hope in the fact that each nigh is followed by a glorious dawn.

Lent 2020 | Palm Sunday: “Celebrate”

Today is Palm Sunday.

I cannot remember the last time I missed gathering with my local congregation to celebrate during Holy Week. I find this time to be bittersweet. I pray that the Lord in his mercy brings this terrible time to a quick end. But even if it endures for a while longer, may we celebrate and rejoice that God’s grace in tribulation is not wasted or misplaced.

Every Sunday in Lent is not technically a part of the season of Lent. It serves as a reminder of the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ because every Sunday is a celebration of what the gospel proclaims. So this Sunday, and every Sunday in the season of Lent, we will celebrate what it means to have been saved. So, rather than an extended devotion, I would like to offer you a song that can help us to focus our attention and to give worship to God for the sacrifice, ministry, mission, and purpose of His Son our Savior, Jesus Christ, as we celebrate the renewed life that we have in him. Let us celebrate today, for He is good and in all things he is faithful to us.

Lent 2020 | Day 34: “Watch”

What is the difference between seeing and watching?

Some would say not much. They both use your eyes. They both involve some form of observation.

However, there is something different in the intensity of engagement (at least I think so).

When we see something it usually means something registered in your visual field. It entered into your awareness, but it did not keep it.

When we watch, something else happens. Our focus is placed on the object of observation. We are just seeing what is happening. We are intent on making sense of what is happening.

As we prepare for Palm Sunday tomorrow, we should take a moment and take note. As Jesus entered into Jerusalem, there were many who saw him enter. But, not many were paying attention. Not many were focusing in on who Jesus actually was.

One of the great challenges of the Christian faith is that we can see and not notice. We can use our eyes and still not pay attention.

We are called to watch. To be more than just casual spectators. The Gospel calls us to vigilance in our labor. This is what it means to watch.

Lent 2020 | Day 33: “Darkness”

The power of darkness is an empty threat.

The Christian faith points us to and highlights the fact that we serve a God who is light. That means, if we are willing to accept it, that there is nothing this world can throw at us that either surprises God or diminishes his glory.

In spite of all the uncertainty the current state of affairs wants to heap on us, God is calling us to remember who he is. He has not changed. There is nothing that can happen in this world that can undo what God has done; that can unravel what God has planned and executed. God is unwavering and God is unimpressed with the darkness.

The reason the darkness feels so overwhelming is that we have a tendency to focus on what reminds us of those things that are not God. We know grace is not what we deserve. We know that God’s mercy feels wasted on us. We know this. Why? Because we know ourselves. The darkness is the warm blanket of accusation reminding us how bad we are.

The problem is, the real tragedy is that we have grown so used to the darkness, we don’t trust the light. We feel that if we approach it, too much will be exposed. Too much discovered. Too much revealed. And then, at our most vulnerable we will wonder how anyone, especially God, could accept us.

It is into this conundrum that God sends his son. Right smack dab into the middle of this mess we call the human experience, Jesus steps in and manifests how light dispels the darkness. How a God who is light and love can embrace what should be rejected.

The Gospel–the story to which Easter is the final climactic peak–is proof positive that light can truly vanquish darkness. That darkness a fear-inducing reality is a toothless, venomless foe.