Lent

A Gift for You: A Biblical Journey through Lent {FREE Devotional}

February 10, 2015 By Michelle

It’s hard to believe that Lent begins in eight days — I feel like I am still recovering from the Christmas season!

I’ve always loved the season of Lent, actually. I love its somber quietness, its contemplative nature, the opportunity it offers to slow down, turn inward and grow a bit more introspective. I even like the fact that Lent forces me to look hard at myself, to examine where I am falling short in my relationship with God. I’m grateful for the opportunity to come clean with God and begin anew.

For the past several years I have collaborated with my home church, Southwood Lutheran, here in Lincoln, Nebraska, to create a daily devotional for the six weeks of Lent. This year, as I have the last couple of years, I am delighted to offer this devotional to you as well, as a small way to say thank you for your encouragement and the gift of your presence here throughout the year.

I particularly love the theme of this year’s devotional — A Biblical Journey through Lent — because it reflects my own journey these days as I navigate the uncertainty of the wilderness. If you think about it, the Bible contains one journey after the other, beginning with Adam and Eve’s journey out of Eden, continuing with the Israelites as they traveled out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Promised Land, and ending, of course, with Christ’s journey to the cross. We, too, embark on many journeys during our lives—both physical travels from one place to another, as well as our spiritual journey as we grow in our relationship with God.

Let’s journey together through Lent this year and discover the gifts God offers us every step of the way.

To Receive the 2015 Lent Devotional:

If you are already an email subscriber, you will find a link to the 2015 Lent Devotional at the very bottom of your email. Just click that link, and it will bring you to the devotional, which you can then either save to your own computer or print.

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If you have questions or run into any trouble accessing the Lent Devotional, feel free to email me at [email protected], and I will do my best to help.

Thank you, friends, for the gift of you. May God bless you richly as you walk through this Lenten season.

Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: Heaven Starts Here

April 21, 2014 By Michelle

This is the last of six weeks of Monday Lenten reflections. I hope you’ve enjoyed as much peace on these Mondays as I have. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.

No longer will there be a curse on anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there – no need for lamps and sun – for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5)

GrandTetonRiver

As Christians we tend to focus on heaven. We like to think about what eternal life with God in a heavenly realm might be like, who we might meet there, how we might spend our time. Sometimes we even find ourselves yearning for that heavenly peace and rest. We look to heaven as an escape from our present difficulties – a place and time when we will be free from pain, grief, loneliness and suffering. “No longer will there be a curse on anything,” John prophecies in Revelation, and we admit that it all sounds rather lovely.

In focusing our sights on heaven, though, we miss an important part of Jesus’ command for us while we are here on Earth. Remember how Jesus instructed us to pray the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” Jesus intended that his kingdom begin on this Earth, not only in heaven alone.

The truth is, Jesus came down to Earth in human form and sacrificed himself so that we could live free from sin and death. Through his love we are resurrected with him, and we will spend eternal life with him. As these verses from Revelation predict, someday we will see God face-to-face; someday we will live free of evil, despair and darkness.

Nevertheless, this does not diminish the fact that each of us has an important role to play in bringing God’s kingdom to Earth while we are here. We cannot overlook the fact that we can and will see God’s face here on Earth – perhaps not as clearly as we will in heaven, but here and now nonetheless, in the faces of our loved ones, our neighbors, the man on the street.

Our job is to seek God’s face right where we are and help bring his kingdom to Earth.

Heaven begins right here, right now, with us.

Today I celebrate your glory, Lord Jesus. Today I celebrate that you and you alone have the power to free me from sin and death. Today I celebrate your love for me, a love so broad and so deep that nothing can ever diminish it. And today I also thank you, Lord, for trusting me as your servant. May I do your will in your kingdom come on Earth. Amen.

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Thank you — I am so grateful that you are here!

Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: God Sees Us Through

April 14, 2014 By Michelle

We are enjoying a bit of Lenten quiet on Mondays here until Easter. I’m posting a verse, a devotion and a prayer. Peace and grace, friends…

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“O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health. You brought me up from the grave, O Lord. You kept me from falling into the pit of death. Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name!” (Psalm 30:2-4)

Sometimes we take passages like these a little too literally. We read a verse like, “I cried to you for help, and you restored my health,” and we think, “My health isn’t completely restored; I’m not completely cured – why didn’t God answer my prayer?” We begin to doubt God, or feel like he has abandoned us because our lives and circumstances don’t seem to accurately reflect what we read in Scripture.

The fact is, God might not cure all of our ills, even when we ask him to. But what He will always do is give us hope, peace and even joy in the midst of the most difficult circumstances, if we let him. Our faith in God keeps us from careening into the pit of despair. Our faith in God keeps us steady, allowing us to walk forward in holy confidence knowing that no matter what the outcome, he will be with us.

This is indeed reason for singing and holy praise because we know, as this psalm says, that while “weeping may last through the night, joy comes with the morning.” (30:5) He will see us through.

Lord, sometimes my grief and suffering feel like more than I can bear. Sometimes I doubt your presence and wonder where you are amid the trials. Thank you for this psalm today, Lord – a reminder that you are always here, working to restore me, lifting me up from the pit of despair and loving me. Amen.

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Please include the Hear It, Use It button (grab the code below) or a link in your post, so your readers know where to find the community if they want to join in — thank you!

Thank you — I am so grateful that you are here!

Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: Wisdom from Above

March 31, 2014 By Michelle

We are enjoying a bit of Lenten quiet on Mondays here until Easter. I’m posting a verse, a devotion and a prayer. Peace and grace, friends…

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace-loving, gentle at all times and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:17-18)

When we think of the typical attributes of wisdom, we might consider words like knowledgeable, thoughtful, contemplative, experienced, discerning. But James’ definition goes so much further, introducing descriptors we might never have associated with wisdom: gentleness, peace-loving, merciful, sincere, fair, yielding to others and a doer of good deeds.

The difference between James’ definition and ours is that James describes “wisdom from above” – a pure God-centered and Kingdom-centered wisdom, rather than a sullied earthly- or self-centered wisdom.

A person blessed with wisdom from above – a wisdom that comes from God – is not concerned with self-advancement or even self-preservation. A person blessed with wisdom from above is not focused on self but on the other. He plants seeds of peace. She plants seeds of mercy, kindness and goodwill. God’s kind of wisdom is humble, unassuming and based entirely on love for the other.

So here’s the most beautiful part about these verses: each and every one of us is blessed with wisdom from above. This isn’t a special gift given only to certain, elite believers; this kind of wisdom, God’s kind of wisdom, is offered freely to each of us.

We have the choice: we can live by wisdom from above – generously, selflessly, lovingly, gently – or not. We can choose the freedom of living a life guided by God-inspired wisdom or the imprisonment that comes with a wisdom created by our own flawed and fallible selves. Which do you choose today?

Lord, so often I am swayed by the wisdom of world. As a result, I succumb to selfishness, envy, bitterness and deceit. Breathe a renewed understanding of Your wisdom into me today, Lord, so that I may live peacefully, mercifully, gently, humbly, sincerely and fairly. Amen.

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Thank you — I am so grateful that you are here!

Relinquish to Receive

March 12, 2014 By Michelle

On the evening of Ash Wednesday last week I handed over my sin to God. I have more than one sin, of course, but I zeroed in on just one, a biggie. I wrote a single word on a purple slip of paper and dropped it into the basket on my way up to the altar for communion. It felt good, giving God that sin. I felt relieved and unburdened. I experienced a taste of the freedom Paul talks about in his letter to the Galatians. I left the church energized, my soul clean and my heart renewed. Ash Wednesday always reminds me a little bit of my Catholic days, when I’d draw back the red velvet curtain and exit the confessional liberated and right with God again.

In a lot of ways I haven’t changed much from my days as a Catholic. What always happened then — the inevitable crash back into sin — still happens now.

This time the cleansing lasted less than 36 hours. By Friday morning I was back at the altar (this time in the pre-dawn hours of my own living room), handing that same sin back to God again. By Friday morning I’d already cheated on what I’d given up and handed over. I’d already fallen back into my old ways. I’d already let my sin come between God and me again.

Insert big sigh here.

It kind of makes you want to give up sometimes, doesn’t it? It all feels a little cyclical, even fruitless. Like my friend Drew said at our small group study Friday night, “That purple paper isn’t close to big enough to contain what I have to give back to God, and it seems like the list is the same year after year.”

As crazy as it sounds, sometimes I find myself wishing for a new sin — something different from the same-old, same-old. God, can’t we just be done with this one, once and for all, I complain. Can’t we just, you know, move on?

That’s just it, though. We can’t move on until the work is truly finished. God doesn’t let us off the hook quite that easily. I know, there’s grace, and I get that, I do. God doesn’t hold our sins against us; he forgives us as many times as it takes. But God also won’t let us quit, move on, until the real work, the hard work of replowing and resowing again and again, as many times as it takes, is done. It’s tough love, yes. But it’s real love, too.

So this Lent I know I’ll be back at the altar more than once or twice, handing over that purple paper, that sin, again and again. But I also know this: it’s in the handing over, in the relinquishing, that I receive.

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Lent

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