Giving Up Security for Lent?

by Barry Wiseman

Lent. That's something Catholics do, right? Why would I want to go through that? It might do something to my faith. Mess me up. Confuse me.

I could go on making up excuses. In fact, I'm pretty good at it. I managed to cram five years of college into seven by using excuses, and became rather adept at procrastination. But this time, God isn't having any of it.

It seems that God has chosen for me to give up my security for Lent. After a year of wrestling with God and the expectations of others, my family and I are beginning the search for another congregation to serve. I hate moving with a passion, the whole process of packing, loading, unloading, and unpacking. But most of all, I want to avoid that wobbly feeling of not sensing a firm foundation under my feet that knowing where your office and your home is provides. Soon, one way or another, I will have different ones.

I've been told that I hate moving so much it takes dynamite to move me. That's been true of the past, and it's true again now. But I'm viewing the "dynamite," or dunamis, differently. I've experienced the "fasting from security" before. That same shaky, weak-kneed feeling exists, but this time I have a stronger perspective. I know the power of God will bring us to the place He has prepared for us. But, also, this time I not only have to trust my immediate family to God, but also my parents and mother-in-law who live near us.

This Lent, God is not accepting any more excuses from me. He's like the parent who takes the face of His child in His loving hands and says, "Do I have your attention, now?"

Yes, Lord, I can hear You.

How God Used Lent to Save Me from a Dangerous Place

by Molly Ann Cox

When I young, Lent sacrifice was commanded. It was thrown at me. It felt like spears. All around me were the smells of pride in the practice of Lent. So, when I was twenty-one, and I came to know my Savior, I left the church family that had so harshly jabbed at me and imprisoned me with Lenten fasts and other traditions. I avoided the Lent-season-focus like a plague.

I had a lot of fear. I feared all religious traditions. I feared the imprisonment of mandated rituals. I reveled in the freedom, outside them and beyond them. I also nurtured a judgmental attitude against those who practiced such seasonal traditions. I was in dangerous territory and I didn't even realize it.

Here is what I thought . . . and what is true:

Religious actions, performed because we fear rejection from God, or judgment from others, are empty containers-empty because fear and pride fill them up instead of love and faith in an Awesome God. Fear-based faith practices and pride-filled actions that claim faith are empty.

I used this as a reason to allow judgment to grow in my heart.

So, I steered clear of Lent and anyone who spoke about it.
   
But God has shown me some interesting things about Lent and the "empty container" label I had put on it. I have come to see Lent from a new perspective, and I do not fear it anymore or those who teach its merit. I celebrate when others seek to know Him deeper from learning sacrifice and giving. I know now that I am not in charge of the "how" and the "what" that is used to teach and encourage faith in Jesus. I realize now that Lent is a practice that is meant to teach focus, and it can be useful. It is possible to find His heart in the intention behind the Lent practice. Jesus said that those who seek Him will find Him. For the most part, those who engage in the observation of a season of Lent are seeking Him.

Years have passed, and my faith and love for my Savior has grown. He has taught me so much. He is Magnificent! I am more grateful than ever to be His! I admire faith in action and hearts filled with devotion to Jesus. I can see now that those who wanted to teach me to learn sacrifice and to exercise, in my young faith, toward true submission were not as far off the mark as I once thought.

I know now, that anytime I push through the gravity of this flesh and focus on Christ, as Redeemer and Risen King, I am only acting more and more like a conquering warrior, like my Brother, my Savior, my King.

Those who bound Lent and other traditions on me and other young hearts meant well. They were hard pressed to find a way to encourage us to focus on that which is above (Colossians 3). After all, the world is bent on teaching its focus and the efforts of this world are quite successful.

Lent is a word that is first defined in a general dictionary as "to grant the use of (something) on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned." When I live a fast unto my Lord, it is to take my focus off ME and place my focus on HIM. You might say that I 'grant the use of _______(whatever is given up, or given to)____, knowing that I will receive a "return." I know that I will receive growth, deeper knowledge, encouragement, insight, answers and even wisdom at a level that is beyond measure.

Now, I can honestly say that I am thankful for the binding of ritual Lenten practices on me when I was a child. It has served to teach me that the intention of any exercise of my faith is most important. God wants my heart. When I was young God got my attention by showing me many people struggling to reach for Him and this stayed with me and helped me want to reach for Him too. Now I celebrate in my heart that many people, through practicing a Lenten focus, are reaching through the gravity of this flesh . . . reaching for Him and Him alone.

God can teach each heart that there is no room for pride-filled actions in a Lenten sacrifice . . . in any sacrifice. God is powerful, He is able, and because I know that, I am no longer afraid of the desire of some to practice the ritual of a season of Lent. He's got it covered and He can use it. He used it to teach me and He has returned me to respect for seasonal liturgical practices. I repent of all judgment cast by my fear-filled heart toward those who practice Lent.

I celebrate that so many are looking toward God and wanting to prepare their heart to celebrate anew the joy of having a Risen Savior! How can that be a bad thing?

The Ashing

We asked readers to send essays with the theme, "How Lent has changed me." Here is another very moving essay by Debi Simmons. She lives in Northamptonshire, UK.

by Debi Simmons

Each year as I look forward to the season of Lent, I find myself drawn more and more towards the preparation . . .

Ash Wednesday is like the first day of a long journey for me. I anticipate it with excitement, but with some fear and trepidation, and want to make sure I have listened to God's instructions for what my heart and mind need to reflect on.

Sometimes, the preparation is right on track, and God and I are 'in sync' if you will. But other seasons, God comes in and rearranges, or summarily dismisses, all the prep work, and I find He's crafted a completely new wilderness adventure. So, you might say Ash Wednesday is the day I get to open up this new gift from Him. It sets up His presence in a new sacred space I know only He will lead me to.

What follows are some very personal thoughts about when I finally stopped rebelling against our vicar's dirty thumbprint on my forehead. Although I now worship and serve within the Anglican tradition, I grew up in the Churches of Christ, and some of my annual ambivalence about 'enduring' Lent had to do with getting 'Ashed' and walking around in public with a sign on my forehead, as if I were showing off a phylactery like a Pharisee.

So last year, part of my Lenten prep was to dialogue with my vicar, a dear friend, and discover what the emblem, in context with Eucharist, was really all about. God led us both to a richer understanding.

Ashes. Not one of my favourite things. Dirty, smelly - they leave an awful black stain over everything. But the Lenten Ashing has become a seasonal gift, calling me to reflect upon the ashes in my life.

ASHES of . . .

JOY
Swirling from the glowing campfire, hymns linger with friends and family close by in a circle of light; Remnants of a cosy fireplace, a snowy night, a quilt, a good book.

POVERTY
I was aged twelve the first time I beheld such raw poverty. Today's ashes remind me of beautiful Afghan children, huge eyes sad, hopeful, begging me for bahkshish - I, the enchanted American kid with a steady supply of Oreos from our American compound in Kandahar. I see faces caked in dirt, and residue of ash on hair, elbows, knees, and cracked bare feet. The children who I wish might be my new friends reach out, touching my white skin, blonde hair, smelling the clean fabric of clothes I get to wear. Ashes drift upon them as they sleep near smoky open fires during cold Kandahar nights.

Such a painful feeling, the first time poverty in 3-D stares back at you - filling all your senses to the core. Overwhelmed, tears sting my eyes, invade my thoughts. Where to start? My allowance? Only a chit book, it's not adequate to feed, clothe, or heat their school.

Poverty is cruel to children on both sides of the line: those who have not, and those with much but too young to command power to give all they would.

GRIEF
Watching the ashes of someone I love dearly fly away brings a longing ache to hug them still. In faith, I believe the Lord's opened arms will be on the other side of the clouds to capture their spirit, holding them close when I no longer can.

REPENTANCE
These ashes are most difficult to accept, emblematic of the wrongs I commit. Placed compassionately on my forehead, the affirmation received within this sanctuary of fellowship compels me to observe God's inner workings inside my heart. As I step out into a world that offers no sanctuary and little compassion, I silently remove this black stain of ash.

RENEWAL
Repentance allows that most ultimate of God's gift - grace! What a freeing feeling I get when I know He pours it over me, again and again. I like what Father John Beddingfield, of St Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church, New York, writes: "While ashes may signify and remind, they also invite . . . They begin a season that moves us through silence and longing into a season of joy and resurrection."

The Rhythm of Creation

by Kaye Pepin

There is a rhythm to the heartbeat of the planet. The sun rises, the sun sets. Winter bursts into spring, spring slides into summer. Time passes, the beat goes on.

Unconsciously, I have often seen time as my enemy. Our children are growing up and will soon leave us. There are more gray hairs on my head than there were a year ago. My parents won't be around forever. Where has it gone, and how did it pass so quickly?

This Lenten season, I've been engaged in a meditative book entitled, Lent and Easter: Wisdom from Thomas Merton. One section spoke directly to this time-weary heart.  Merton suggests that the Church is not fighting against time, for she does not consider time an enemy. Time has not robbed the Christian of anything he treasures. Christ has redeemed and sanctified it. Outside of Christ, time is one's enemy, because every moment may be the one when the soul is brought face to face with the consequences of surrendering to forces opposed to God. 

As it turns out, time is on my side. This frees me to bask in the seasons, to flow with the pulses of the earth. It enables me to wake each morning, to seek God's guidance for my day, and to follow in His ways, working joyfully at the tasks He's laid before me. The rest is up to Him. I try to seek not my own glory, but His.

Thus Lent, a part of the Church calendar for so many centuries, is vital for me. Its liturgical, seasonal nature keeps me centered in the daily-ness of life. It keeps me attentive to prayer and fasting. It keeps me focused on the way of the cross. It reminds me that Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, is coming.

How Do You Do Charity?

Thirteenth century Jewish theologian Moses Maimonides had 8 progressive levels:

• Give reluctantly


• Give cheerfully but not adequately


• Give cheerfully and adequately, but only after being asked


• Give cheerfully, adequately, and of your own free will, but in such a way as to make the recipient feel demeaned


• Let the recipient know who the donor is but not the reverse


• Know who is receiving your charity but to remain anonymous to him


• Have neither the donor nor the recipient be aware of the other's identity


• Dispense with charity altogether, by enabling your fellow humans to have the wherewithal to earn their own living

 

The Shield of St. Patrick

I bind unto myself today the strong name of the trinity,
by invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever by power of faith Christ's incarnation,
His baptism in the Jordan river, his death on the cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spiced tomb, his riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, his might to stay, his ear to harken to my need,

The wisdom of my God to teach, his hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The Word of God to give me speech, his heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me;
Christ to comfort and restore me;

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three,

Of whom all nature hath creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word;
Praise to the God of my salvation, salvation is of Christ the Lord!

The New Season Beginning

Today's Lent Reflection is brought to you by Sacred Space Lent eCards. Take some time on the way home or during an early evening walk to notice Spring. Lent is about rebirth. Thank God for the new season.

Thy grace shines forth, O Lord,
It shines forth and gives light to our souls.
Behold, now is the accepted time,
now is the season of our repentance.
Let us cast off the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light,
that having sailed across the great sea
of the Fast, we may reach, on the last day,
the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Saviour of our souls.
- Byzantine Vespers

Give Up SEX for Lent?

by John Ogren

A few years ago, during Lent, Miramax Films released 40 Days and 40 Nights. The movie’s premise was simple: a young man gives up sex for Lent. The target audience (despite the R rating) was teenagers, and the message was sadly predictable: adult relationships are all about sex, sex is all about power, and we are all powerless in the face of our overriding sexual passions—true intimacy (without sex) is a mirage, and sex is better than intimacy anyway—celibacy is impossible, unnatural, and undesirable.

40 Days and 40 Nights is just one window on our hypersexualized culture, but it is somewhat unique in that it does (however lamely) suggest an alternative to the culture’s idolatrous enslavement to the god of SEX. The main problem with the movie, though there are many others, is that it presents this alternative only for the purpose of dismissing it. What is the Christian response to a culture that produces 40 Days and 40 Nights and puts so much faith in its message? How does the gospel—the cross and resurrection of Jesus—address this mindset, and how can the Church embody a better way? Sex is a gift that reveals a slice of the vast generosity and genius of God, and when we are sexual in the way that God intended, it brings him glory.

As followers of Jesus, learning in the Spirit’s power to live lives shaped by his death and resurrection, our distorted understandings and perverted use of God’s gift of sex must yield to the logic of the cross and empty tomb. The Church’s witness to the world on this issue is often compromised, I would argue, because we are not sexual enough, and we are not Lenten enough.

The world’s big lie is easy sex—sex without commitment, sex without communion, sex without contact! God’s people know, of course, that this is shadow sex—sex without joy, without glory, without legacy. Yet we tend to settle in the shadows all too often, and I can’t help but wonder if what we really need (and what our shadow sex-saturated culture needs) is more of the real thing. I might be wrong, but I just have a hunch that the sexual images that pervade our mass culture would have less power if we were sexually fulfilled, that fewer teenagers would be promiscuous if more of their parents were enjoying sex, that more women would give up romantic fiction (including “Christian” romantic fiction) if their husbands would ravish them with conversation, companionship, and affection. I think that some men would spend less time worshipping the goddesses on their computer screens if they had more faith in Yahweh in their bedrooms.

But if the Church’s witness somehow requires that we be more sexual and have more of the real thing, how are we going to do it? We’ll have to start by staying married. We’ll have to turn off the television. We’ll have to talk to each other, forgive each other, delight in each other, laugh more, cry more, gaze more, touch more, play more, serve more, love more. What many of us often don’t want to face (and here our accommodation to the culture of easy sex shows tellingly) is that good sex, sex that God would be proud of, is hard work. Sex one time, of course, is easy pie. Gerbils have sex. And as we have seen so frequently in this shameless generation, children have sex. But sex for a lifetime; that is a different thing altogether. This is the kind of sex that proves its fullest pleasures and this kind of sex is where Lent can make a difference.

Think of the married people you know and the struggles they are facing—loss of loved ones, loss of employment, loss of health, loss of dreams, failures in business, children with health problems and disabilities, rebellious children, infidelity, infertility, to name just a few—and you can begin to see how sex, real sex between a man and a woman who will love and serve each other no matter what Hell throws at them, sometimes is an act of faith. Sex is a gift, but a gift with a cost—to become better lovers, we have to become more like Jesus.

And this is the purpose of Lent; to help us enter more fully into the suffering and death of Jesus, so that we can more richly appreciate Easter and enjoy his resurrection life. Lent is a reminder that our call to discipleship was a call to take up a cross, that our baptism was a burial into his death, and that our daily life with Christ is a sharing in his suffering and conformity to his dying. In Lent we seek deliberate and concrete ways of remembering this so that we can live it more faithfully. The disciplines of Lent (fasting, prayer, acts of service, sacrificial giving) serve to mortify our flesh, so that our flesh, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can be made to share in the life of Christ and experience the God-given exaltation of his resurrection. Much of this, we know, will only be complete in that final Easter morning of general resurrection and transformation when Christ appears. So the season of Lent signifies and equips us for the Lenten life we lead until that final Day of Redemption.

It should be acknowledged that Lent is offensive to many evangelical Christians, perhaps because it is a remarkable feature of the Catholic tradition that we have, historically speaking, rejected. Furthermore, Lent is trivialized to many by the caricatures of Lenten discipline that abound (maybe you’ve known someone who gave up candy bars for Lent). But hopefully it is clear from what has been said, how richly evangelical an authentic pursuit of Lenten discipline might be. And what some have trivialized might yet be realized, even by Christians with no place for Lent in their tradition or experience of Lent in their own past.

In Churches of Christ, the tradition in which I am happy to live and serve, there is no corporate observance of Lent, but we do practice something of a parallel to Lent in our weekly communion service. As long as I can remember, the Lord’s Supper has been marked as a time for self-examination, following Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29. If we have not always read this passage in its context or appreciated the corporate dimensions of this self-examination, we have still recognized the call to test our lives and behavior in light of what we affirm and proclaim when we eat the bread and drink the cup. Lent can be understood and practiced in a similar way: in parallel with the weekly testing that accompanies the celebration of our fellowship at the Lord’s table, Lent is an annual season of testing and discipline that accompanies the celebration of the Resurrection. Like the self-discerning that Paul required of the Corinthians, Lent should be practiced in the context of relationships and community. We are not solitary individuals attempting to perfect ourselves, but rather we are members of a new humanity being built up to perfection in the Body of Christ.

So should we give up sex for Lent? The question and the discussion to this point are not meant to be exclusive; single people can be addressed by this question, though I want to address it first to married people. We have become accustomed in discussions about married life to thinking of sex and referring to it as a “need.” Accepting a vow of celibacy for the forty days of Lent might confirm this notion for some, but would likely disprove it for many others. Sex is a very strong want, but no different from other so-called needs: financial security, recreational companionship, an attractive spouse, etc. We do not die without them, and more importantly, we can relinquish them for a higher calling. How can we call sex (not to mention the other wants) a “need” and expect our single brothers and sisters to be celibate? Paul is quite clear that in view of one’s devotion to Christ, the celibate life is not merely possible, but preferable. The goal is devotion to Christ and Christlikeness, for those who have sex and those who don’t, and married or single this means we must all die—to sex, to selfishness, to self. Lent is simply a tool to help us face the death we might all prefer to avoid.

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is in March, and for most readers this should allow for a few weeks to prayerfully consider whether Lent might be a tool you would choose to use in your walk with the Lord. Lenten discipline can be undertaken alone, but is also greatly enriched by the strength, encouragement, and accountability found in community. Some of the following recommendations will require the participation of other believers. To those for whom Lent is unfamiliar territory it should be said that Lenten discipline is ordinarily not focused primarily on sexual issues but on bringing the whole person into deeper obedience and closer fellowship with Christ. These recommendations, or challenges, are offered in view of the aim of this issue of NEW WINESKINS—to bring our sexuality under the Lordship of Jesus Christ—and with prayers for those who might accept them.

If you are addicted to pornography (or if pornography has any role at all in your life) confess this to some mature believers and with prayer and fasting make Lent the beginning of a new life of holiness, accountability, and freedom. If you are in a sinful or adulterous relationship, break it off. Confess the sin and with the help of wise Christian counsel (and with prayer and fasting) let this Lenten season begin a season of healing and rededicating your life and your marriage to the service and glory of Christ. If you are married and have deprived your spouse of affection or sex, change this, and with prayer and fasting enter into Lent with a commitment to selfless devotion to Christ and to your spouse. If you are single and celibate, but distracted or disillusioned in your Christian walk, lay claim to the fulfillment and wholeness found in the Lord, and with prayer and fasting recommit your life during Lent to pleasing Him and bringing him glory.

This Easter may our witness to the world be that the powers that would enslave us in distorted understandings and misuse of God’s gifts have been overthrown through the death and resurrection of Christ. And may this witness be embodied in the Church as we live our lives free, whole, pure, and fulfilled in Him.

John Ogren serves the South MacArthur Church of Christ in Irving, Texas as the Communities of Faith Minister, coordinating adult education, small groups, and church planting. Formerly, he served in the same congregation leading worship and ministering to young families. He and his wife Wendy have two boys, Isaiah and Nathaniel.

The God Who Is Slow to Anger

Today's Lent Reflection comes from Sacred Space. Used by permission.

Scripture
Micah 7:14-15, 18-20

Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you, which lives alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, show us marvelous things.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency. He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and unswerving loyalty to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.


Prayer

"He does not retain his anger for ever, because he delights in steadfast love." The parable of the Prodigal Son shows me how steadfast that love is. Can I accept that you pardon me Lord, do not retain anger against me, and that you even take delight in me? Let me talk with you about this.

For Use By Those at School

J.H. Garrison wrote a little-known but classic devotional guide. Today's Lent reflection comes from this book. Our gratitude to Leafwood Publishers and Gary Holloway, who edited this book, for this excerpt. Garrison's book includes some really cool prayers for different occasions. Granted, this is also done in the Episcopal "Book of Common Prayer" style and this is not unique, but for those of us who struggle with words in prayer and need helpful guides and ideas for blessings and words to pray, this is a welcome prayer for those in school (if not a little dated, but that adds to its charm and unique voice for us today).

For Use by Those at School

A prayer by J.H. Garrison
From Alone with God

O God of all wisdom, grace and truth, I thank you that you have given me the desire for knowledge and some capacity for acquiring it.

Help me to be faithful and diligent in all my studies, respectful and obedient to my teachers, gentle and courteous to my fellow students, and to strive so to behave myself as to be a good example for others. While I am seeking mental improvement, and that intellectual training that will fit me for my work in life, grant, I beseech you, heavenly Father, that I may not neglect my moral and spiritual culture, without which all knowledge is vain.

Help me to keep in loving memory my parents to whom I am indebted for these privileges, and to cherish fondly the precepts and instruction I have received at their hand. Help me to compensate them in some measure for the anxiety and loneliness that my absence from home may occasion, by the manner in which I behave myself at school, and the progress I make in my studies.

O you great Teacher, who are meek and lowly in heart, will you assist me in all my efforts to improve my mind and strengthen my character in virtue, to the end that I may serve you acceptably here, and enjoy your presence forever.

For your name's sake: Amen!

Jesus and the Devil

by Lauren Winner
an excerpt from The Voice of Matthew
(Chapter 4: Jesus and the Devil)
March - April, 2007

¹The Spirit then led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
²Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. After this fast, He was, as you can imagine, hungry. ³But He was also curiously stronger because of His fast. And so He was able to withstand the devil, the tempter, when he came to Jesus.

The Devil: If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

Jesus:(quoting Deuteronomy) ⁴It is written, “Man does not live by bread alone.
Rather, he lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” _{Deuteronomy 4:4}

The point, of course, is not that Jesus couldn’t have turned these stones to bread. As you will see a little later in our story, He can make food appear when He needs to. But Jesus doesn’t work miracles out of the blue, for no reason, for show or proof or spectacle. He works them in intimate, close places; He works them to meet people’s needs and to show them the way to the Kingdom.

⁵ Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem, and he had Jesus stand at the very highest point in the holy temple.

The Devil: ⁶If You are the Son of God, jump! And then we will see if You fulfill the Scripture that says, “He will command His angels concerning You, and the angels will buoy You in their hands, so that You will not crash, or fall, or even graze Your foot on a stone.” _{Psalm 91:11-12}

Jesus: ⁷That is not the only thing Scripture says. It also says, “Do not put the LORD your God to the test.” _{Deuteronomy 6:16}

⁸And still the devil subjected Jesus to a third test. He took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain, and he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in all their splendor and glory, their power and pomp.

The Devil: ⁹If You bow down and worship me, I will give You all these kingdoms.

Jesus: ¹⁰Get away from Me, Satan. I will not serve you. I will instead follow Scripture, which tells us to "worship the LORD your God, and serve only Him." _{Deuteronomy 6:13}

¹¹Then, the devil left Jesus. And angels came and ministered to Him.

¹²It was not long until powerful people put John in prison. When Jesus learned this, He went back to Galilee. ¹³He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, a town by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali—¹⁴He did this to fulfill one of the prophecies of Isaiah:

¹⁵ “In the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the road to the sea along the Jordan in Galilee, the land of the Gentiles—¹⁶in these places, the people who had been living in darkness saw a great light. The light of life will overtake those who dwelt in the shadowy darkness of death." _{Isaiah 9:1-2}

¹⁷From that time on, preaching was part of Jesus’ work. His message was not dissimilar from John’s.

Jesus: Turn away from sin; turn toward God. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

By now Jesus desired a community around Him, friends and followers who would help Him carry this urgent, precious message to people. And so He called a community around Him. We call these first beloved followers disciples, which means “apprentices.” The first disciples were two brothers, Simon and Andrew. They were fishermen.

¹⁸One day Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee when He saw Simon (also called Peter) and Andrew throwing their nets into the water. They were, of course, fishermen.

Jesus: ¹⁹Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.

²⁰Immediately, Peter and Andrew left their fishnets and followed Jesus.

²¹Going on from there, Jesus saw two more brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They, too, were fishermen. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee getting their nets ready to fish. Jesus summoned them, just as He had called to Peter and Andrew, ²²and immediately they left their boat and their father to follow Jesus.

²³And so Jesus went throughout Galilee. He taught in the synagogues. He preached the good news of the Kingdom, and He healed people, ridding their bodies of sickness and disease. ²⁴People talked about this Jesus, this Preacher and Healer, and word of His charisma and wisdom and power and love spread all over Syria, as more and more sick people came to Him. People who were too sick to walk persuaded their friends and relatives to carry them to Jesus. The innumerable ill who came before Him had all sorts of diseases—they were in crippling pain; they were possessed by demons; they had seizures; they were paralyzed. But Jesus healed them all. ²⁵Large crowds from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from the ten cities called the Decapolis, from Judea, and from the region across the Jordan—these cripples and demonized and ill and paralytics came to Jesus, and He healed them, and they followed Him.



Download and read all of Matthew 4 from The Voice of Matthew

Wrestling with God

Today Kelsi Williamson writes about wrestling with God. She is 18 and heading to Wheaton College next year. This is her Freshman application essay, and we thought it is a fitting response to Lent and wanted to share it with you. Our thanks to Kelsi for submitting this.

Wrestling with God
By Kelsi Williamson

"Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome" (Genesis 32:28).

The story of Jacob, his relationship with God, reminds me that my faith isn't any old stroll down Main Street.

Instead, this faith in God resembles much more closely a wrestling match in which I often try not to let God win. I lost many matches with God even before I knew Him as my Lord and Savior, and know that I will continue to lose. But that's part of our deal.

As I wrestle with Him, I also grapple with my mistakes and flaws. In the end, however, I alone do not and cannot defeat sin; I must submit to Jesus in the first match and let Him finish off the fight in the second.

When I was young, I wrestled with worry. My younger years were filled with fears and anxieties about numerous situations that were completely unrealistic figments of my imagination. I worried about being sucked down the drain in the bathtub, and shut up in the bleachers at the basketball games my dad would coach. One time, I desperately insisted on going to bed before midnight in order to prevent the inevitability of turning into a pumpkin-too many hours of watching Cinderella!

As I got older, my fears increased in peril and horror. I worried about the approaching new millennium and thought for sure that the world would end as soon as we left the year 1999. I also had trouble sleeping soundly because of my fear of the dark. I refused to use any kind of sweetener or antiperspirant and warily stood five hundred feet away from the microwave at all times . . . in order to prevent cancer, of course.

I was twelve when I gained more peace about my life and faith in the power of God's love. But, of course, the wrestling match was not over.

I had finally decided to fully give my life to Jesus Christ and demonstrate this change through baptism. I stopped dwelling so much on hypothetical disasters and felt comfort in God as a stable pillar in my life. I found solace in Matthew 6:25-34, which became a constant reminder that I could not "add a single hour" to my life through worry.

God - 1 Kelsi - 0

When I was in middle school, I wrestled with hypocrisy. I was going to a small Christian school, but was frustrated because nothing seemed at all Christian. The kids cussed, did drugs, and refused to sing in Chapel. Most teachers taught with little passion and remained unconnected to their students. And I became increasingly bitter and angry with them all. I blamed God and was turning more and more away from Him, never stopping to ask myself how my own faith might be in danger.

But God remained close by my side and provided me with the opportunity to start high school at Albuquerque Academy. Academy was a bigger, independent school with moral values far different from what I was used to. God knew that by removing me from an environment where I could easily criticize others relationships with Him, I could focus on my own flaws and imperfections. Through this fight, God gently taught me to, "first take the plank out of [my] eye" in order to then "remove the speck from [my] brother's eye" (Luke 6:42).

God - 2 Kelsi - 0

Throughout high school, I wrestled with doubt. Even though my new school was where I needed to be, I was suddenly bombarded with many ideas contrary to my beliefs. I had to constantly rethink values I had once just taken for granted. Oftentimes, this caused periods where I was uncertain about what was true. I began to doubt the importance of God's presence in my life because of His absence in so many of my peer's lives.

But through the doubt, God again did not give up the fight. He used my susceptibility to false beliefs to reveal my helplessness and my absolute dependency on Him. Through confronting the uncomfortable views of the world, God filled me with a passionate purpose to follow Him.

God - 3 Kelsi - 0

And now, as I prepare to start a new chapter of my life, I continue to wrestle with God on important decisions such as college choices. I have faith, though, that I will eventually lose out to God no matter how hard I try to win.

And with each defeat, I am constantly reminded that my relationship with Jesus Christ does not consist of a single event that will provide me with all of the answers. It is a huge tournament of wrestling matches in which I have, and will continue to struggle with God and with men, and will someday, eventually, overcome.

Lord, will you make me more wise?

Note: We're making the type larger to help readability.

Psalm
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.
Psalm 143:10

Meditation
Be an example in spirit. Always cherish a meek, gentle, and quiet spirit—a humble, loving, heavenly, and praying spirit. Such a spirit will almost silence the tongue of slander, or cause its poisoned darts to fall harmless at the feet.
Barton W. Stone, Christian Messenger (1843)

Scripture
Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:

"To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.
O simple ones, learn prudence; acquire intelligence, you who lack it.
Proverbs 8:1-5

Prayer
Father, give me the gentleness and humility I need to receive wisdom. Teach me this day to do your will.

Ask

Scripture

Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive.

Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish?

As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.

Matthew 7:7-11, CEV

Reflection
"Ask . . . search . . . knock." Three aspects of prayer.

Each one gives us confidence of gaining a hearing. Jesus' teaching is demanding, but our Father is willing to give us the capacity if we but ask.

With the confidence of the child, we can demand, "Give us this day our daily bread." Each day, we are invited to ask, to demand.

Prayer
Would you teach me to appropriately demand daily bread, not just for me, not just for my family, not just for my church, but for the world? Give this world, Father, daily bread and teach those in need to demand it like hungry, humble children.

Source: Sacred Space