worship preview

With Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in our rearview mirror, we approach our first Sunday in Lent.  For many Christians, Lent is a misunderstood time of the Church calendar.  Often we think of it as a time to refrain from sweets or to scale back our coffee consumption.  The question most often asked this time of year is "what are you giving up for Lent?" 

 

Lent, however, is not about giving up something but about gaining Someone.  It's a time for us to reflect on our absolute need for Christ and to take steps that allow Him to live more fully within us. Doing this might lead us to give up some behaviors or thought patterns that quench the Spirit. Usually such things don't involve coffee or chocolate, but rather things like prayerlessness, gossip, and judging others. Giving up these habits can create an interior space for us to know and love Christ more deeply.

 

The first Sunday in Lent traditionally focuses on the temptations of Christ and so our text for worship will be Luke 4:1-4, which narrates the first temptation.  We will zero in on the second and third temptations in subsequent weeks.  Pondering the trials that Jesus went through can help us to see what steps we need to take if we are to truly be his disciples.  Please read the verses in Luke (includeded below) and reflect on these questions: 

why would it have been wrong for Jesus to have done this? why would this have been a tempting option for Jesus? what does Jesus' response tell us about his mission in life?  if Jesus didn't come to turn stone into bread, what did he come to do?  in what ways are you tempted to see Jesus as less than he is?  in what ways are you tempted to compromise your mission in life?  how do these temptations get expressed in your life?  relying on Christ's help, how might you resist these temptations in a greater way?

 

May God guide each of us into a deeper experience of His love and grace this Lenten season.

 

--Bryan

 

The Temptation of Jesus

 ¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

 ³The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."

 ⁴Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone."