Lent

Lent is a forty-day liturgical season that brings the Church into the most sacred part of the Christian year. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Holy Saturday. Sundays are not included in the forty-day count because every Sunday is a joyful celebration of our Lord’s resurrection. During Lent, Christians meditate with awe and thanksgiving on the great Paschal mystery—the salvation God offers to us though the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The meaning of Lent—Lent is apparently derived from the Old English lencten, which means “lengthen.: It refers to the lengthening of the daylight hours that occurs in the northern hemisphere as spring approaches. It is in this time of the year that the season of Lent falls.

The length of Lent—It was customary in many ancient Christian communities to require a forty-day period of fasting, discipline, and study for candidates who were to be baptized on the evening before Easter. No one knows for sure why forty days became the norm, but it was probably meant to recall Christ’s forty-day ordeal in the wilderness during which He fasted and was tempted by Satan (see Matthew 4:1-11).

Worship during Lent—The solemn colors of purple and black replace the white and green of the Epiphany season. Many churches hold special mid-week worship services and other devotional activities that help their members concentrate on the Lenten disciplines of prayer, repentance, and obedience.

The liturgical color for Lent—Purple, the color of royalty, repentance, and self-discipline, is the traditional color for the season of Lent. Black, the somber color of mourning and sorrow for sin, is reserved for Good Friday and Ash Wednesday. For the period from Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday, some churches use scarlet, an intense variant of purple and red that symbolizes the life-giving blood of Christ.

What Lent is about—For some Christians, the coming of Lent means preparing for some kind of fast. These fasts typically take the form of abstaining from all or certain kinds of food on a particular day. In place of a food fast, some Christians commit to give up a pleasurable activity or take on some kind of charitable work or other added discipline. If a Christian chooses to ”give something up” for Lent as a way to praise the Lord Jesus and remember His sacrifice on the cross, then it is a commendable discipline that can help lead to a deeper faith and should therefore be encouraged. However, it is important to always remind ourselves that nothing we do through fasting, self-denial, or good woks can ever earn God’s forgiveness or “pay Him back” for what He accomplished for us through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Lent is not about our giving something up to please God. Lent is about what Jesus Christ gave up to pay the penalty for our sins.

What to Give Up for Lent

Give up watching television one evening a week. Visit some lonely or sick person instead.

Give up looking at other people’s worst points. Concentrate on their strong points and positive attributes.

Give up speaking unkindly. Let your speech be generous and understanding.

Give up your worries. Trust God with your problems and frustrations.

Give up hatred or dislike of anyone. Learn to love instead.

Give up the fear which prevents Christian witness. Seek courage to speak about your faith to others.

Give up spending so much time with newspapers and magazines. Use some of that time to study your Bible.

Give up grumbling. Learn to give thanks in everything.

Give up ten to fifteen minutes each day. Use that time in prayer.

Give up buying anything but essentials for yourself. Give that money to God’s work or someone in need.

Give up judging by appearance and by the standards of the world. Learn to give up yourself to God.

 

Go From Thinking to Life Change:

Time for a Change?

- When you change your thinking, you change your beliefs.

- When you change your beliefs, you change your expectations.

- When you change you expectations, you change your attitude.

- When you change your attitude, you change your behavior.

- When you change your behavior, you change your performance.

- When you change you performance, you change your life.

Background for Sacred Assemblies

by Claude V. King, Co-Author of “Experiencing God”

In 1989 Richard Owen Roberts of Wheaton, Illinois, introduced me and other leaders in my denomination to the biblical pattern for corporate repentance-the solemn assembly (or “sacred” assembly in the New International Version).1 We began to study sacred assemblies in Scripture to see their connections to revival. Sacred assemblies were occasions for God’s people collectively to worship Him, to repent of personal and corporate sin, to remember His special blessings on them, and to anticipate future blessings. The prescribed sacred assemblies (or holy convocations) for Israel included the Sabbath (Lev. 23:3) and seven other days of sacred assembly: the first (Passover) and seventh days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:4-8), the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost, Lev. 23:15-21), the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25), the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:26-32), and the first and eighth days of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-36).

Sacred assemblies were times for God’s people to confess and repent of their sins. They were times to renew the covenant relationship with the Lord and return to Him in faithful love and obedience. They were times for worship and sacrifice, feasting and fasting. Even with these regular opportunities to renew fellowship with God, His people tended to depart from Him and from obedience to His commands. Spiritual leaders knew that the sacred assembly was a time for corporate repentance in the face of God’s righteous judgments (see Joel 1-2). A number of national revivals in the Old Testament occurred in response to a sacred assembly.

The term “sacred assembly” is not used in the New Testament. However, Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Last Supper on one of God’s prescribed sacred assemblies-the Feast of Passover. The first disciples were celebrating a sacred assembly when the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. The church of our day also needs regular opportunities for individuals and the church to renew their relationships with the Lord-to remember and renew the New Covenant relationship they have with Him. In light of the current crisis, we need to bring God’s people together for an emergency sacred assembly to hurry back to the Lord.

Examples. The following are some examples of sacred assemblies in Scripture:

• Jacob assembles his family, Genesis 35:1-15
• Moses consecrates Israel, Exodus 19:10-19
• Joshua seeks the Lord following defeat at Ai, Joshua 7
• Samuel guides Israel to return to the Lord, 1 Samuel 7:2-13
• King Solomon and Israel celebrate Tabernacles and dedicate the temple, 2 Chronicles 5-7
• King Asa guides an assembly, 2 Chronicles 15:1-15
• King Jehoshaphat calls a fast, 2 Chronicles 20:1-30
• King Hezekiah celebrates the Passover, 2 Chronicles 30
• King Josiah renews the Covenant, 2 Chronicles 34:14-33
• Revival under Ezra and Nehemiah, Nehemiah 8-10
• Nineveh repents after the message from Jonah, Jonah 3

Multiple Leaders. Multiple leaders were characteristic in Old Testament revivals. I’d recommend you enlist other staff, elders, deacons, or other spiritually sensitive persons to assist you in planning and guiding the sacred assembly. If this is all new to you, you will find yourself walking by faith-and that is a good way to walk. Trust the Lord to guide you.

Who should come? In the Old Testament sacred assemblies they invited all who could understand. Older children, youth, and adults would certainly be included. Even younger children can benefit by seeing adults taking their faith and relationships with Christ and His church seriously. Call people to come for an open-ended period of time. You may want to hire some childcare workers for babies and preschoolers so every adult member can participate in the service. Or you may provide space in the back of your meeting room for parents to care for children and still be able to hear and participate.

Fasting. Fasting was commonly a part of the call to an emergency sacred assembly. The focus was perhaps three-fold: (1) deny self to seek the Lord, (2) don’t waste time eating when more important matters must be dealt with, and (3) emphasize the seriousness of the time. Encourage fasting the day of the sacred assembly for those who are physically able to fast.

Pray. Seek the Lord’s directions as you plan for and conduct a sacred assembly. Enlist intercessors to pray for you as you prepare.

CALL A SACRED ASSEMBLY

by Claude V. King, Co-Author of “Experiencing God”

In the Book of Joel, God’s people had experienced great destruction from swarms of locusts. As a spiritual leader, Joel knew the remedy was to call God’s people to return to Him in a sacred assembly. When the people responded, God heard, forgave, and restored the land (Joel 1-3). Brothers and Sisters, now is the time to call God’s people in the United States and in our churches to repentance.

“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezek. 33:11).

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand (Joel 2:1).

Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty (Joel 1:14-15).

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

Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing- grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:13-17).

If you sense, as I do, that God’s people must cry out to the Lord at a time such as this and seek His mercies, call the people you lead to a time of sacred or solemn assembly- a holy convocation. If you sense a need for help in guiding God’s people to repent in a time of crisis like we face, I’ve prepared the following suggestions to assist you. Most of the following is abreviated and adapted from my book Come to the Lord’s Table: A Sacred Assembly for the Church. This book is a three or four week study to guide God’s people in returning to Him in preparation for Communion or the Lord’s Supper. But we may not have that much time to return to the Lord. Consequently, I’m providing the following suggestions to assist you in guiding an emergency sacred assembly to prepare the church for the crisis we are facing.

Spiritual Readiness

by Claude V. King, Co-Author of “Experiencing God”

We are at a critical time in our nation’s history when God could very easily release His judgment on our nation for our sin and wickedness. Consider the following thoughts.

1. God has established a limit to the amount of sin He will tolerate before He brings judgment and wrath in response:

They always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last (1 Thess. 2:16).

“The sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Gen. 15:16).

“Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!” (Matt. 23:32).

According to Scripture, God has established a legal limit to sin. In one sense, God has a bowl to hold our sin that has a given measure. We cannot know exactly what that measure or limit is, nor do we know how close we may be to crossing that limit. When the sin of a nation or a people reaches that limit, God’s wrath takes the place of His mercy. The only remedy is for a people to confess (agree with God about) their sin, and repent-turn from their sinful ways to God and His ways. When God forgives sin, He removes it from our account and keeps us at a distance from the limit to our sins. As God’s people, we need to stand before God, confess our sins, turn from our wicked ways, and pray for mercy. The spiritual healing of the United States is waiting on the repentance of God’s people:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).

2. The measure of judgment we use is the measure of judgment we will receive. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:1-5).

Essentially Jesus was not saying, “Don’t judge at all.” Rather, He was saying, “Be careful how you judge.” We must be spiritually right with God if we are to be effective in removing “the speck” from another’s eye. As our nation prepares to execute a measure of judgment on evil in our world, we need to be prepared to undergo the same scruitiny by a God who is holy, pure, and righteous. Are the people of the United States guilty of sins that would justify God’s bringing judgment on us as a nation? God’s examination is not based on what we believe is right and wrong, but what God has established as right and wrong. America is not spiritually prepared to withstand His holy examination. God says, “I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. 7:27).

3. Only those who are right with God are prepared for a time of God’s judgment. Here is the word God sent to Ezekiel:

“If a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men-Noah, Daniel and Job-were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD” (Ezek. 14:13-14).

We must be careful that we don’t trust in deceptive words that permit us to hold on to our sin and still try to claim the righteousness of Christ as our cover. Israel did something similar in the days of Jeremiah. They trusted in the fact that they were God’s people and had the Temple of the Lord in their midst. God said:

“‘Look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

“‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe” – safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD’” (Jer. 7:8-11).

When God’s people had made His house a “den of robbers,” He brought His judgment on the nation at the hands of a Babylonian king in 586/7 BC. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem centuries later, He prophesied the destruction that would come at the hands of a Roman army in AD 70. He brought the same accusation against God’s people in His day: “‘”My house will be a house of prayer,” but you have made it a “den of robbers.”‘”

Essentially, a den of robbers is where God’s people live lives of sin all week long and then come before the Lord and say, “We’re safe. We’re God’s people.” A “den of robbers” in our day would be a church where God’s people live and act like the rest of the lost world all week long and them come to church on Sunday and say, “I’m okay. I’m going to heaven when I die. I prayed the prayer. I joined the church.” As we examine the lives of church members, I fear that most of our churches look more like a den of robbers than a house of prayer.

God’s people must confess and repent (turn away) from our sin, if we are to receive the cleansing Christ has provided through His own shed blood. Only through repentance can we stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

4. As God’s people, we have a choice: We can either see the pending danger and return to the Lord before He brings judgment, or we can wait until after the disasters to cry out for mercy and repent.

Throughout Scripture from beginning to end, God’s people have had a tendency to depart from Him. Consequently, God prescribed regular times for His people to renew their covenant relationship with Him (Lev. 23). These times for renewing a right relationship with God were called sacred assemblies (or solemn assemblies, holy convocations). In the Old Testament we see two approaches to the use of sacred assemblies. One comes before the disaster and the other comes after the disaster.

Before. When King Jehoshaphat saw a vast army coming against the nation, he called for a fast and a time to seek help from the Lord (2 Chron. 20:1-30). God responded and saved the people. When Jonah preached a message of coming destruction, a wicked and pagan city and king repented and God withheld the disaster (Jonah 3). When King Josiah heard God’s Word read, he tore his robes in anguish realizing how much his nation had offended God by violating His commands. When Josiah humbled himself before the Lord and then guided the people to repent, God spared that generation from destruction (2 Chron. 34:14-35:19).

After. In 586/7 BC, God used a wicked king of Babylon to execute judgment on Jerusalem and Judah, and Nebuchadnezzar carried God’s people into exile in Babylon for 70 years. After experiencing such great judgment, Ezra and Nehemiah guided the people to stand before God in repentance so God would heal and restore the land (Neh. 8-10) – and God did!

“THINKING WITH A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW”

“I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Romans 12:1-2   NKJV

The Holy Spirit is calling every disciple of Jesus Christ to a deeper level of consecration and commitment in 2007. As we enter this New Year, do you hear the Holy Spirit’s voice speaking to you about your personal walk with Jesus the Christ? I hear HIM saying become more intimate with Jesus and make sure HE is your priority in all your heart, relationships and endeavors. The Word of God let’s us know the times will become more deceptive and hostile to the Christian way of life (2 Tim.3:1-5). The time is now to prepare ourselves to meet the challenges ahead for the Church. What will it take to continue to be an effective disciple in the sphere of society where you have been called to serve HIM? I believe it will take a serious and intentional effort on all our parts to fully embrace a Christian worldview. A Christian worldview is simply a perspective on all areas of life that is informed by the Word of God. To determine if you have a Christian worldview, what is your answer to the following four questions?

1.      Where did I come from?

2.      What has gone wrong?

3.      What can I do about it?

4.      How now shall I live?

The answers that a person gives to these questions will determine what type of worldview they have. For the Christian disciple, our answers to these questions are found only in the Word of God. God’s Word gives us the truth from which we can think, make our decisions, and take action in order to make a difference for Christ in all of society. The great challenge for many Christians is to begin to think christianly about all of life. Too many still think from a carnal or worldly centered perspective because they are not disciplined enough to study the Word of God faithfully. I will be exhorting you over the course of this year to saturate your mind with the Word of God so that your thinking upon God’s truth will continue to transform your thoughts and actions in accordance with the will of God. We will be taking an in depth look at the Book of Romans and especially Romans 12:1-2. The Book of Romans is the doctrinal centerpiece of the New Testament from which many of the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith are found. If you want to live with a Christian worldview, you must make up your mind to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Every Christian disciple must be firmly rooted in foundational doctrines of the Christian faith in order develop a Christian worldview. Join me in 2007 has we seek to think and live to the glory of God our Father and Jesus the Christ.         Remember, Paul said, “…But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16b).