Lent Devotional Series, Day 32

This post is part of a series of devotional videos put together by New Covenant Community Church. For more information, view my first post of the series here.

Here are my thoughts on Deuteronomy 8:1-16.

Lent Devotional Series, Day 26

This post is part of a series of devotional videos put together by New Covenant Community Church. For more information, view my first post of the series here.

Here are my thoughts on Hebrews 4:1-13.

Lent Devotional Series, Day 20

This post is part of a series of devotional videos put together by New Covenant Community Church. For more information, view my first post of the series here.

Here are my thoughts on Ephesians 1:3-6.

Lent Devotional Series, Day 14

This post is part of a series of devotional videos put together by New Covenant Community Church. For more information, view my first post of the series here.

Here are my thoughts on Psalm 19.

Lent Devotional Series, Day 8

This post is part of a series of devotional videos put together by New Covenant Community Church. For more information, view my first post of the series here.

Here are my thoughts on Romans 3:21-31.

Lent Devotional Series, Day 2

This year New Covenant Community Church put together a reading plan and devotional video series to follow through Lent. We've done something similar in the past, but never a series of videos from our pastoral staff. Our hope was to create a greater sense of community, inviting all of our congregation to read a daily passage, watch the video, respond in some way, and pray.

Readings were picked from the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B. Devotional videos were recorded and edited with my old iPhone and shared on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. We divided the devotional videos between the five members of the pastoral team.

Here are my thoughts on Psalm 25:1-10.

The Mark of the Cross

“All God's plans have the mark of the cross on them and all His plans have death to self in them.” - E.M. Bounds (1835-1913)

At the end of March we will celebrate an unprecedented event. It forever changed the course of humanity for good. Though it happened over 2,000 years ago, its impact has stretched through time and continues to grow. Jesus of Nazareth—who was fully God and fully man, faultless yet convicted, perfect yet despised, free to walk away yet resolved to show his love for humanity—took up a cross and carried it to a place known for death. Beaten, bleeding, crowned with thorns and mocked by his oppressors, Jesus took his last breath at what looked like the end. And the symbol of that sacrifice was the cross.

Consider the cross… It’s not to be revered in place of Jesus, and it’s not the only symbol we have of God’s love for us. But it is a paradox, both terrifying and beautiful. It shows us great pain, suffering and death. But it also shows us great love, hope and life.

Consider the cross… On Ash Wednesday crosses of ash are drawn on foreheads as a reminder that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. But our brokenness is not the end of the story, because Jesus made a way for us. Though our bodies will rest for a time, they will be resurrected again as Jesus was resurrected.

Consider the cross… It’s not the end of the story. It’s the beginning of a new story. It was intended for death but it made way for life. Not just then, but even now. What does it look like for us to take up our own cross? If God’s plans have death to self in them, then how will we follow Jesus to Golgotha today? How can we pour out our lives as Jesus did?

As we journey through Lent toward Easter, consider the cross. And on Easter Sunday, let’s consider the life we have been given. Let’s raise a loud shout of joy to Jesus, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame.” 

Let’s praise Him, and let’s consider how we can take up our own cross, to transform our world through Jesus for the glory of God!

One Step At A Time

Last week Tracie and I started watching a few episodes of a series on Netflix called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It’s a comedy from the team that was behind 30 Rock on NBC about Kimmy, who has lived most of her life underground in a doomsday cult, and—suddenly freed—decides to try life in New York City. In one of the episodes, Kimmy has to undertake a particularly difficult task, and another woman asks her how she can stand it. She replies that, “You can do anything for 10 seconds. So I just count to 10. And then I just start over counting to 10, because I can do it for another 10 seconds.” In the episode it’s a very funny moment. Kimmy is naturally optimistic, and it seems like she could take any storm that comes her way. At the end of the episode, though, she finds herself in a very uncomfortable moment. And she starts counting…

I think there’s some wisdom in this. The following comparison isn’t perfect, but stay with me.

If you truly believe that worship is an ongoing state of existence, a living, moment-by-moment response to God, then worship should be as rhythmic and constant as breathing. But it’s not: we’re broken. We’ve lost what it means to walk in the Garden with God. We must reclaim a life after God’s heart, minute by minute and day by day. Sometimes that takes focusing for a few moments at a time, and then building up that time of recognizing God’s presence. So we start with just a 15 minute quiet time. We start with an hour on Sunday morning with the gathered church, the body of Christ. We take a season like Lent, which is only 40 days, and we try a spiritual discipline daily for that time.

Soon our quiet times have stretched to an hour. Our Sunday morning has become a whole day of Sabbath rest and worship. The season of Lent becomes the season of Easter, and beyond! When we draw near to Christ and focus on Him, He makes it possible for us to center our time around Him.

I am wrapping up a reading program called #lentchallenge. Author Margaret Feinberg put together the plan through the YouVersion Bible app. It’s been 40 days through the Gospels. As I read the story of Christ each day, I’ve been surprised to find I look forward to my time of reading and reflecting more and more. The couple of days I’ve missed my reading, I really have missed it. It is centering me and preparing me for Easter, when we celebrate the most amazing moments of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

If you want to pursue a life of worship, it starts today. Now, even. You don’t have to be perfect in your pursuit. Thank God: the perfect pursuit of the Father has already been accomplished by the Son! By the Spirit we can work out our salvation each day. It just takes small incremental—and intentional—steps toward Him. He meets us there, and He calls us on.

Forty

As we left the theater, I was giddy.

It was over a year ago, and Tracie and I had just enjoyed a date night to see the second film in The Hunger Games series. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it follows a young woman who is forced to fight other young people in a series of “games” set in a not-too-distant dystopian future.

I love good stories, and I love it when they’re told well. I had read the books, and I was very excited to watch the films. The second film ends abruptly and tragically. The protagonist has lost a friend, and she finds herself homeless, lost, confused, broken. But I was thrilled by it, because I know how the story ends. Sure, I’d have to hold on for another year to watch the third of four films. I can wait, I told myself. The story is worth the wait, and they are telling the story well. I can wait to enjoy the ending.

We are in the middle of a season of 40 days—46 days, if you add in the Sundays—between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Lent, as it’s called, has been around since roughly the fourth century. It is 40 days long because that’s the length of time Jesus spent fasting in the desert. (By the way, Sundays are excluded from the count because Sundays are traditionally a day to feast on the Lord’s Supper. Nothing should interrupt this most important worship practice.)

During Lent we aren’t singing any “hallelujah” songs. We aren’t singing the phrase “praise the LORD.” Why? Because we’re playing out the entire story. We’re not skipping to the end. It’s no good celebrating Jesus’ victory over sin and death unless we also count the cost of that victory: hunger, testing, pain, suffering. Can you imagine how hard it must have been for Jesus to resist the temptation of bread after fasting 40 days? We have to take some time to consider that, to remember how great Jesus’ love is for us.

We aren’t singing any “hallelujah” songs because we are first plumbing the depths. We must realize our need for Jesus. It’s hard to do that sometimes in a world that says, “You deserve it: do whatever you’d like.” “You don’t need anyone else: you can do it yourself.” But those things aren’t quite true. We are broken, lost, confused. We need rescue, and the more we do it our way, the more things get messed up.

We aren’t singing any “hallelujah” songs because we need to press pause sometimes in life. We need to wait. We can’t skip to the end of this story. We need to let it play out. And when we do, the “hallelujahs” we sing when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection will be all the more joyful.

So let’s wait. The story is worth the wait, and we have a chance to live the story well. We can wait to enjoy the ending.