Lent Day 10

I decided to intentionally read each of these passages specifically looking for applications to Lent. First, what is Lent? Lent is about preparation for the Savior, for His death and resurrection. Why did He die? He died to pay for our sin. And there it is. Lent is about the thing that separates us from God, our sin. One of the websites I visited made this distinction, that Lent is about “Facing the reality of the consequences of sin and the terrible toll it takes on the world.”

Psalm 55 sees David once more crying out to God for aid, but this time is different. “For it is not an enemy who taunts me” (verse 12). A close, dear friend betrayed David, someone who walked with David in God’s house. See the consequences of sin, people faking friendship and betraying trust. Yet God is the Always Faithful One, the True Friend.

Deuteronomy 11:18-28 is a charge to remember God’s commands, to keep them in our hearts and constantly before our eyes, to pass them on to our children and never, ever forget. But we do. We daily, hourly, by the minute forget God’s commands, what they are and the great love He has shown for us that should make us eager and impatient to obey Him. We forget. The Fall has warped our memories so that this all important thing flies from our minds at the first opportunity. Yet God doesn’t forget. He loves us and rescues us just the same.

Hebrews 5:1-10 continues in the strain of Christ as High Priest. Who was the High Priest? He was the one who brought the blood of the sin offering of the people to God to be forgiven. He didn’t represent God to the people as much as he represented the people to God. That meant that he was just like all the people he represented, knew their struggles, knew their sins, knew their suffering. In all of these things except one Jesus is our High Priest. He represents us to God, bringing us to God and saying, “Forgive.” He knows our suffering intimately, He experienced it Himself, yet He was sinless. The Fall brought suffering to the world and made the blood sacrifice necessary. And God makes this sacrifice, for not only is He our High Priest, He is also the Lamb killed and the pardoning King.

John 4:1-26, the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, was harder to think about in this context. Sin separates us from God, and from each other. The Samaritans and the Jews worshiped the same God (as far as I know) and both were looking for the coming Messiah, but hated each other. The Jews were the chosen people of God and the Samaritans were nothing to them. But where sin separates, God brings together. Jesus is the Living Water, open to all who are thirsty for Him.

“O Changeless God… My heart is without affection, and full of leaks. My memory has no retention, so I forget easily the lessons learned, and thy truths seep away. Give me a broken heart that yet carries home the water of grace.” –Valley of Vision

Lent Day 3: Living Icons

Catholic icon from Italy

The Psalms for today are 31 and 35, both of which are pleas for God to save the author from pursuing enemies.  In Psalm 31 God saves David not once, but twice. It could be that this is the same salvation, just doubled for emphasis, but we see it twice. In verses 1-2 he begs God to save him. In 3-8 it seems that God has answered his prayer and has delivered him. “…you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.” The plea is repeated in 9-18, and salvation comes again in 19-24. Daily I am faced with Sin, my abiding enemy, but daily God promises rescue. “Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me.” How glad I am that the rescue isn’t dependent on my own strength!

In Deuteronomy 7 we eavesdrop on God’s exhortation to the Israelites. Their 40 years of desert-wandering are almost up; they wait at the edge of the Promised Land, poised to enter. But God wants to remind them of who they are and how they are called to live. Verses 6-11 remind them of how God chose them and rescued them, not because they were great, but because He first loved them. Flowing from this love then is the desire to live for Him. Verses 12-16 tell how to do this: Obey His commandments, the rules He laid out to their fathers. If they do that, they will be blessed beyond what they could ever imagine.

Titus 2 is a similar passage, with Paul teaching Titus how the Church is to behave. I wonder if the early church knew that it would be over two thousand years before Jesus returned. In this passage Paul says that we are to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…” Think of that “waiting for our blessed hope.” Are our lives meant to be lived simply waiting? In some ways, yes. But our waiting lives are to be lived in such a way as to point people to Christ. I recently heard a pastor say that we were to be icons to point to Christ. The Catholic church uses icons, elaborate pictures and figures, to remind themselves of Christ. Such art was and is continually before their eyes so that they are constantly reminded of what Jesus did for us. That is what we are supposed to be, living icons that continually point to Jesus.

In John 1:35-42 we see Andrew and Simon Peter becoming Jesus’ disciples. Perhaps you all know about Andrew, who seemed to be constantly bringing people to Jesus (Peter, the boy with the loaves and fishes). He heard John say “Behold the Lamb of God!” about Jesus, then immediately went and found his brother Simon. “We have found the Messiah!” he says, and takes his brother to Jesus. His first reaction is to find someone whom he deeply cares for, and bring him to the long-awaited Messiah.

So what have we learned today? God loves us, fights for us, rescues us, which in turn prompts us to love Him and obey Him. Our lives then are to be lived in such a way so as to point others, including our closest friends and family, to this Rescuer, for whom we patiently wait.

Ash Wednesday

This year I actually began thinking about Lent far enough in advance to do a little research and commit to observing it. I found a 40-day scripture reading plan, each day containing Psalms, Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel. The theme for today (in my head) is Sin, more specifically confession of sin.

Today’s reading begins with Psalm 95, urging us into God’s presence with songs and shouts of praise, for He is the Creator. How appropriate is this? Unless we see God as our Creator and King to whom we owe our lives and allegiance and fealty, we will never see our sin for the perverse thing it is. The readings continue with Psalm 32, in which we are promised forgiveness if we will confess our sins. What, then, holds us back? We are assured forgiveness and restoration, why do we hesitate? Psalm 143 then is a plea for God to save us from pursuing enemies. What enemy is more destructive than our sin?  He promises to destroy our enemy for the sake of His great name, which is such an overwhelming comfort, because nothing we do can keep Him from fulfilling this promise.

The Old Testament reading comes from Jonah 3 and 4 and tells us of God sparing Ninevah because they repent in ashes and tears. I was struck for the first time by God’s words to Jonah in 4:10, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.” God labors over us, makes us grow, gives us life. His stake in us is great, He will save us.

In Hebrews 12:1-14 we learn that self-discipline is a necessity in doing battle against sin and becoming holy, as we are called to do. I struggle epically with this. Well, maybe not so epically, since I always give in fairly quickly. The author uses the analogy of a race, “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,” he says. What runner lets any extra weight remain on his body during a race? That’s crazy.

In Luke 18:9-14 we read the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector going to pray in the temple. Luke says that Jesus told this parable to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” The moral of the story is Humility. We are truly nothing more than ashes while we remain in our sin, and we need to approach God in this attitude, though perfectly, completely trusting in His grace, which He promises us in advance.

Lent isn't supposed to drive us to despair, it is supposed to drive us to Christ. Interspersed with days of fasting and abstinence and tears are six days in which we celebrate our risen Lord, the One who makes our salvation possible. Take heart, Christian, the cross will take your sin and the tomb will be empty.

Aslan is on the Move

With the disappearance of the snow and ice it is beginning to feel a lot like Spring.

New Year's Resolutions

In November of last year I thought my "theme" for 2013 was going to be Family. I would move back to the States, get a job, and spend as much time with my family as possible, given I've been away from them for an entire year (minus two and a half weeks at Christmas). That was before I learned I would be staying in the Netherlands until May. Now I've decided that my "theme" for 2013 should be No Regrets. In the year that I've lived here I've been to three different countries and explored six different cities in the Netherlands. In twelve months that's not a lot. There have been so many weekends where I've looked back and thought "Why didn't I get out and DO something?" I have plenty of good excuses: too tired, no money, it was raining/snowing/icy, just didn't feel like it. But I would hate to move back to the States in May and have a list of regrets that equaled my list of things I was happy I had done. So here is my current list of places to see in the next four months:

• Cologne, Germany
• Venice, Italy
• Paris, France
• London, England
• Brussels, Belgium
• Luxembourg
• Various Dutch cities including Utrecht and Delft

There's No Place Like Home

Home... There's just something about it. The way it smells when you've been gone for more than a week, the way the floor creaks in particular places, the way the door frame in the kitchen is a little loose just shoulder high and only I know it because only I use that particular spot to as a handle to swing myself out into the hall. There's also the food, which is the epitome of comfort, and the people who are so happy to see me and don't mind me acting like a crazy imbecile.

The phrase I would use to describe my visit home was "Best Christmas Ever." What is it about having a baby in the house again that makes Christmas special? I got to meet my nephew in person for the first time ever, and he is... well, he defies description. Amazing, spectacular, intelligent, adorable, happy, chubby.... The adjectives go on! We were a little concerned that he would be overwhelmed by all the doting, hovering relations, but he took it like a king. There was a look on his face when they first arrived that was almost a "You look strangely familiar, and obviously you are happy to see me, so I'm just going to be OK with you holding me" look. At the beginning my sister (the Child's mother) kept saying "All these people love you" in a very reassuring voice, which helped. Oh my, the way he looked at his mother! It's like the sun, moon, stars, and earth all revolve around her! So cute.

Now it's back to work, and we've hit the ground running with a stomach bug right off. Hopefully it will be confined to the Middle One and we're finished with it!

Just Keep Breathing

I leave for the U.S. of A. in 2 days and 15 hours. It's so hard to believe it's almost here! I keep thinking it's going to feel like forever, but the days are really flying by.