From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17
“As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing that body. Cut it, and up to a point it will heal, as a dead body would not. A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble—because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.”
C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins 1980).
Today I am flying to Washington D.C. today. I appreciate your prayers for safe and healthy travel. I get to speak at an event at Museum of the Bible tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, it’s Ash Wednesday, which launches the season of Lent. It’s a time when we “begin over again” as the professor keenly states.
What is Lent? Lent has been observed since the days of the early church from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. There are 40 fasting days that mirror the time Jesus fasted before His ministry began, and there are seven feast days, the seven Sundays leading up to and including Easter Sunday.
For your observance of Lent, I want to offer you two free resources from GTP.
Firstly, if you want a free devotional, click here to download a PDF copy of Lent Companion. It is a collection of daily readings for disciples of Jesus Christ. Each reading is designed to help you grow in your understanding and practice of the disciplines of giving, prayer, and fasting. Share the link with family and friends and go through it together. Experience Lent in community.
Two, if you want to grow as a steward in commuity with fellow followers of Christ around the world, go through Journey of Empowerment or JOE in the on demand format this Lent. What is JOE? It’s a spiritual and strategic experience that will help you grow as a steward and learn how to influence change in your context. It’s free and includes about 10 hours of content to explore on your own time over 6 weeks. To learn more and to register for the Lent cohort, click here.
Right now 89 people from 29 countries are registered to go through it together. Join the Lent JOE group.
Whether you download Lent Companion or go through JOE, make it a season of repentence. When the reign of God or the kingdom of God comes near to us, it shows us our sins and reveals our shortcomings. To live, give, serve, and love like Jesus, we must “repeat the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.” We all need a season of repentence, of changing directions, myself included.
Lent is a time to repent. The kingdom of heaven is near. Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner.
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