This morning as I was driving home from taking the boys to school, a song entitled “Help Me Be New”, by Sara Groves kept running through my head. I made it my prayer for today. Here is the song . . .

God is doing a work in me
He’s walking through my rooms and halls
Checking every corner
Tearing down the unsafe walls
And letting in the light
And I am working hard
To clean my house and set it straight
Not let pride get in the way
To catch an eternal vision of
What I am to become
Will you help me be new?
Will you hold me …

QUOTES ON FASTING

Martin Luther preached about fasting in a sermon based on Matthew 4:1ff, saying “Of fasting I say this: it is right to fast frequently in order to subdue and control the body. For when the stomach is full, the body does not serve for preaching, for praying, for studying, or for doing anything else that is good. Under such circumstances God’s Word cannot remain. But one should not fast with a view to meriting something by it as by a good work” (What Luther Says, St. Louis: Concordia Publ. House, Vol.1, 1959, p. 506).

“Throughout its course, the life …

One of the things I am quickly learning during my first observation of Lent, is how forgetful I am. But not in ways that you might imagine. Five days into Lent, and since my initial lapse on the morning of Ash Wednesday, I have not forgotten to observe my Lenten fast. I have successfully avoided television, newspapers, radio, magazines, and, yes, even the internet. But what I have been forgetting is to use the time I have been saving to engage in intense spiritual activity. I have continued my normal routine of devotional readings and …

Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV)

13When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

At our Ash Wednesday service I gave everyone a Lenten pocket reminder in the shape of a nail. We sang “How Deep the Father’s …

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Joel 2:12

O Lord,
No day of my life has passed
that has not proved me guilty in Your sight,
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a hiding place in Your appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven Your merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Your righteousness exalts me to Your throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in You plead for my acceptance.
I appeal from …

Today begins my first intentional journey through Lent. For me, even the road leading up to this Lenten season has been both tremendously encouraging and spiritually challenging. My study of the history and practice of Lent has opened my eyes to many aspects of our Christian faith and spiritual disciplines, which, I, personally, and we, as a church, have too often neglected. So this morning I begin in faith, and with a little fear, a time of self-examination, fasting and repentance. I hope to be able, as much as possible, to share my personal Lenten journey …