“I Will Walk” – Robin Mark
A great song for Lent as we learn to walk with our God.
“A Clean Heart”
Reading from Psalm 51.
“Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:9-10)
Psalm 51 is a prayer asking God to cleanse the sin from the author. It acknowledges that we fall short, that we will sin, but also asks God to forgive. Asking God to renew us and make us pure.
This is no easy task. The temptation to sin is all around us each and every day.
But God, in His grace, forgives over and over again. When we allow God to cleanse us, we do change our ways. When we experience the grace of God in our lives, we cannot help be humbled and awed by what God has done for us.
“Grace” by Max Lucado – A Review
The things about Max Lucado books is that you know what you are going to get. Grace is no different.
In Grace you get great story telling, but you also learn and grow in your faith and understanding of the grace of God.
There is a reader’s guide with questions, activities and prayers for those who are working their way through this book. In the few months since the book’s release there have already been a great number of study groups and preaching series on this topic.
Once again, Lucado makes a connection with his readers and effectively introduces them to the subject at hand. And in this case, the subject is a big one as he deals with God’s grace in a world that desperately needs it.
“Dust to dust”
Reading today from Genesis 2:4-25 and Genesis 3.
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return” Genesis 3:19
This verse comes from the book of Genesis as God was removing them from the Garden of Eden. A reminder we have been created and in the end we will return to the earth.
So while our mortal bodies have this limitation, we see in Jesus Christ we are destined for something much more. We are destined for eternal life with our God in heaven. In the meantime, we are to live as God calls us to live. To live as one’s who are worthy of such a destiny. To live as examples of Jesus Christ to others in the world, so that all may come to know him.
Then, in our end, we join with the saints in the presence of our Lord.
“Reaffirm your love”
A reflection on 2 Corinthians 2:5-13
Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. (2 Corinthians 2:5-7)
Lent is a time for making things right. A time for deep personal reflection on who we are as God’s children. Part of this is to seek to heal broken relationships, because to feel hatred or vengeance is not healthy.
Jesus taught us to love our neighbours and our enemies. Jesus calls us to act differently than the world would have us act. We are in the world, but we are not of the world (to borrow the famous saying).
A simple reminder from the passage above, the world condemns, and can do so brutally at times, but God is forgiving. God is fully of mercy, grace and love. So we too should strive to be.