Hello Church Family,
For all of us participating in these 40 days of fasting, it is the annual reminder of where our hearts should be in relation to God in deep appreciation of Jesus’s sacrifice for our sins on the cross.
Dr. Barry Jones, Dallas Theological Seminary professor, explains –
“Part of what Lent is all about is entering into our own “spiritual wilderness,” a time of introspection and self-examination, a time of sober reflection on our spiritual health. Lent is a time of keen attentiveness to the reality of God’s presence and to the reality of our own sinfulness (for the two go hand in hand). It’s a time of repentance, fasting, and prayer. A time of emptying ourselves so that we can be filled. A time of purging our lives of the things that hold us in their grip.”
The problem is that we don’t like ‘the wilderness. Often, we prefer the tourist’s easy life versus the pilgrim’s rugged commitment. In these next 40 days, we are invited to stop playing and to take our faith seriously, to enter into a focused time of spiritual reflection and renewal, asking God to help us uncover the junk in our lives that chokes our souls, that weighs us down and trips us up.”
These 40 days offer a chance to deny yourself for the purpose of being present to God; a chance to prepare ourselves for His passion on Easter; a chance to observe this season as a spiritual discipline for reflection on our need, for repentance of that which we use to make life work apart from God and for renewal asking God to do some new work of His spirit in us.
The following links below represent each day’s devotional: (Open each day and view or download the day’s devotional.pdf)
DAY 1: Introduction to The Gospel of John
DAY 1: John 1
DAY 2: John 2
DAY 3: John 3
DAY 4: John 4
DAY 5: John 5
DAY 6: John 6
DAY 7: John 7
DAY 8: John 8
DAY 9: John 9
DAY 10: John 10
DAY 11: John 11
DAY 12: John 12
DAY 13: John 13
DAY 14: John 14
DAY 15: John 15
DAY 16: John 16
DAY 17: John 17
DAY 18: John 18
DAY 19: John 19
DAY 20: John 20
DAY 21: John 21
DAY 22: Introduction to Titus
DAY 22: Titus 1
DAY 23: Titus 2
DAY 24: Titus 3
DAY 25: Introduction to Mark
DAY 25: Mark1
DAY 26: Mark 2
DAY 27: Mark 3
DAY 28: Mark 4
DAY 29: Mark 5
DAY 30: Mark 6
DAY 31: Mark 7
DAY 32: Mark 8
DAY 33: Mark 9
DAY 34: Mark 10
DAY 35: Mark 11
DAY 36: Mark 12
DAY 37: Mark 13
DAY 38: Mark 14
DAY 39: Mark 15
DAY 40: Mark 16