Lenten Meditation: a Word of Reunion

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Reunion

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

So goes a traditional nighttime prayer taught by American moms to their children for generations. It may seem odd to us today that there would be the mention of death in a child's prayer.  But scientists say that sleep is the closest we come to death while still alive.  The Greeks even had a proverb,

Sleep and death are brothers.

However, in the first century, Jewish moms taught their children a different bedtime prayer...quoting Psalm 31:

Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Completion

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Completion

Tetelestai!* It is finished! The death of Christ on the Cross is the HINGE of human history...and nowbefore He breathes His last breath... a cry of victory,It is finished!

What's finished? It must be something BIG,...look at what happened when Jesus died:

At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.

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Focus on the CROSS: the Last 7 Sayings of Christ with B.C. 2001

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Focus on the CROSS: the Last 7 Sayings of Christ with B.C. 2001

How to refocus on Christ and the Cross during these unsettling, fear-filled days of the COVID-19 pandemic? I usually post a review of all of our Lord’s beautiful final words before His death on the Cross during Holy Week.

But I decided this year to share this post at the beginning of each of the remaining weeks of Lent. It will take us back “beneath the Cross” via links to each saying and also via an amazing “cartoon” from days gone by — B.C. (Johnny Hart).

I love this post because it was such a serendipitous delight to find this clipping in my file a few years ago. So I can't help but share it year by year.

Would you meditate along with me ... and revisit Christ's seven sayings for the Cross this week? [See links below] It's truly "holy ground" as we reflect on the Cross, what our Lord went through, but mainly, what He accomplished there. What a perfect preparation for the joy, freedom, and release of the Resurrection.

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[New Song added] The Place of QUARANTINE. . .Under His Wings

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[New Song added] The Place of QUARANTINE. . .Under His Wings

So appropriate is this imagery for what we are facing today with the COVID-19 outbreak. Now more than ever, we need these Scriptures and these truths to keep us stabilized in the Lord.

When in the deepest of troubles...when there is no consolation or comfort...go to the sacred place where you and the Lord live together and nothing can touch...the place of union with our God through Jesus Christ by faith (Colossians 2:9-10 ESV)...and rest in Him who rests in you (John 17:20-23 ESV)!

Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:8b

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Personal Need

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Personal Need

Thirst is a primal need in all of us humans...more demanding even than hunger!  We can go quite awhile without eating, but a very short time without drinking. Jesus on the Cross had refrained up to this point from satisfying His thirst.  Instead He drank the Father's cup to the very last drop! He became sin for us...the Sinless One!  Jesus took our place, and the Father turned His back.  The punishment for sin had been accomplished...spiritual separation from God....for US!

Now in fulfillment of prophecy, Jesus expresses His own physical need:

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. John 19:28-29 ESV

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The Real Enemy Behind the COVID-19

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The Real Enemy Behind the COVID-19

We have an Enemy. . . a silent enemy. . . an invisible enemy . . . a nasty Bully of an enemy.

And it’s not the coronavirus or any other entity that can harass our bodies and do damage in our physical world. The enemy I’m referring to is the Enemy of our souls, God’s enemy and therefore ours (because we belong to God) — the “spiritual forces of wickedness” —the devil and his evil legions.

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Back to the Cross -- our Focus in Crisis and Everyday

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Back to the Cross -- our Focus in Crisis and Everyday

I don’t know about you, but I have been so distracted these past couple weeks. So much to process. So much to try to wrap my head around. So much still going on with COVID-19 ramping up in the US. Whatever Lenten Meditation I traditionally do at this time of the year has been distracted and even sporadic.

Every Lent for the past 8 years, I have shared reflections on Jesus’ words from the cross. I love to think deeply on each of Christ’s words. And even though I wrote them down as the Holy Spirit illumined my mind and heart, I read them fresh as coming from another pen.

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A New Lenten Fast -- Social Distancing in this Pandemic

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A New Lenten Fast -- Social Distancing in this Pandemic

This morning I was reading the lovely Lenten book, 40 Days of Decrease (Alicia Britt Cole). It has been my habit day by day and year by year. Each day the author suggests a new fast — for instance, fasting regret, fasting criticism, fasting religious profiling, etc.

Well this morning, all of a sudden, I realized that we have a perfect fast going on…not by choice but by necessity. But we can make this fasting from social interaction spiritual by our attitude and our offering.

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Carrying or Casting? Our Choice in the Midst of Pandemic

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Carrying or Casting? Our Choice in the Midst of Pandemic

The situation we now face is enough to send each of us over the edge with anxiety and fear. We have no idea how this will all go globally, nationally, and personally. We watch it all unfold as our government officials and staff spell out what they know day by day.

It is then that we have to remember we have a choice. Will we carry the weight of these facts and predictions? Or will we cast our care, fling our anxieties on Him who is on the throne of heaven because He cares for us?

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[NEW LINK] In the Throes of COVID-19: Message from a Brother in the Lord in Austria

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[NEW LINK] In the Throes of COVID-19: Message from a Brother in the Lord in Austria

Hi everyone,

We are going through some unusual times.
Since I live in Europe, I feel a bit of a responsibility to write to dear friends and family in the US about the situation here and what it most likely will be like in the US in a few days.
Let me paint a picture of what may come in the next few days in the USA.
The Virus hit Europe several weeks before it arrived in the USA…

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The Place of Immunity (a.k.a. QUARANTINE). . .Under His Wings

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The Place of Immunity (a.k.a. QUARANTINE). . .Under His Wings

When in the deepest of troubles...when there is no consolation or comfort...go to the sacred place where you and the Lord live together and nothing can touch...the place of union with our God through Jesus Christ by faith (Colossians 2:9-10 ESV)...and rest in Him who rests in you (John 17:20-23 ESV)!

Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:8b

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Live While You are Alive . . . even in a Pandemic

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Live While You are Alive . . . even in a Pandemic

How do we live during this unsettling time? Is God still God? Can we children of God practice what we preach as in the times of relative peace?

Jesus comforted and warned His beloved disciples (including us) just hours before He died:

I have told you these things so that you will be whole and at peace.
In this world, you will be plagued with times of trouble, but you need not fear;
I have triumphed over this corrupt world order.

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Abandonment

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Abandonment

Abandoned!  Left on the "doorstep of Life"...but with no Rescuer in sight! What happens next in the unfolding drama of the crucifixion of our Lord is incomprehensible!

It's an abandonment so profoundly mysterious that it boggles the mind...but ravishes the believing heart! Let's watch it unfold...

It is noon. By this time, Jesus has already forgiven ... 

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