The denial is not an end in itself. The further from self, the nearer to God, and in God’s one true self found. –Junius M. Horner
Lenten Quote, Day 24
God is the greatest of all who do good by stealth and do not crave for every benefit to be acknowledged. Or we may see how our pain becomes a blessing to others. And we turn the spirit of heaviness to a garment of praise. We may stop grousing and get our soul into its Sunday clothes. The sacrament of pain becomes then a true Eucharist and giving of thanks. [The Soul of Prayer, 42-43] –P.T. Forsyth
Lenten Quote, Day 23
…when Pilate sends an innocent man to his cross, he unwittingly helps to found another kingdom, an eternal kingdom, a kingdom that is not from this world. –Peter Leithart
Lenten Quote, Day 22
Christ rose in the body, and his resurrected body was marked by the wounds of the crucifixion. He bears in his resurrected, glorified body all the marks of the victory he had won in the body. He did not win a disembodied victory.–Francesca Murphy
Lent: Bringing the Gospel into focus
Here is the second of three interviews on Lent with Rev. Rich Lusk and Elder Doug Roorda. These interviews are from 2010.
Lenten Quote, Day 21
Lent is a a time to face the fact of sin, not merely sin in general, nor the sins of others, but ones’ own sins in particular; and to deal with them in a definite way; to find them out, to confess them, and to make them matters of especial prayer and watching and endeavor for amendment. It were a Lent surely not in vain if even one sin might be thus repented of, the bonds of one bad habit broken, the power of one deadly fault overcome. –Chauncey B. Brewster
Pastoral Meditation
There is a sort of blindness that is all encompassing. It is vast and comprehensive. The Bible is full of such blindness. The Pharisees in John 9 embraced that form of darkness. Their vision lacked focus. Instead of seeing the greater Moses, they were interested only in defending a false version of Moses’ message. They were blinded by their persistent refusal to see the Son of God and His works as validation of a new world before their very eyes.
We need to be cautious as well. Our eyes need to be focused on the great healer of Israel. Our eyes need to be renewed weekly in our worship. As we gather with God’s people, in love and joy, we are beginning to see the beatific vision with greater clarity.
Prayer: Our God, take away any blindness that is caused by my sins. I confess those sins that keep me from clinging to your glorious presence. Make me see your works that I may worship you as the man in John 9. I pray this through the healer of the world, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Lenten Quote, Day 20
We don’t mark Advent and Christmas and Epiphany, Lent and Good Friday and Easter and Pentecost out of nostalgia. We mark these days in protest against the rationalisms and simplifications of modern time. We mark these seasons to declare the truth that time is “not a quantity, but a melody” (ERH).
–Peter Leithart
Sin as the Poisonous Snake; or, Jesus as our Substitute
Precisely out of his fathomless love the creator God sent his own Son not simply to share in the mess and muddle of our human existence, but to take upon himself the task of being the place where God would pass judicial sentence upon sin itself, sin as a fact, sin as a deadly power, sin as the poisonous snake whose bite means death itself. –N.T. Wright
Lenten Prayer
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen