LENT 2014 - DAY 1

Good morning, Lord.

Lent.  It is not something that I have practiced in the traditional sense - but I love the intentionality of looking forward to Your Resurrection - and going on the journey with You this year, a journey that will culminate in Victory!  I need this time of spiritual focus!  I need an infusion of Your Holy Spirit.  I come to you unworthy and undone, full of sadness - yet cautioned by hope.  Pervade not just my thoughts but my very life through this journey with You to and beyond the cross this year.

I am teary today - and have multiple reasons for that.

Sunday I learned of the death of my long-time friend.  When your friend died, even though You knew you were going to raise him from the dead, you wept.  Tears are O K....sometimes they wash away what prevents us from seeing clearly.

Monday I engaged in a conversation via email that left me confused and uneasy.  The clarity I got on that on Tuesday left me incredibly sad.  It is information that brings with it the intensely painful loss of an expectation I trusted to be true.  It means I will have to pray very carefully about God's present will for my life at this juncture.  

And today, I dropped my daughter's dog off at the vet for a second cancer surgery.  Any one of the tree are adequate reason for a few tears, but piled on top of each other they create a climate for emotions that tumble over each other.

I learned years ago that you can't trust emotions - so I won't.  They are my call to prayer.

Lord, I need wisdom.  You know my heart and the God-given desires You have planted within me.  I know this world is not my home - but I sure would like the journey to include a place of safety from the storms - and right now that just isn't the case.  I throw myself at Your feet....  Amen.


Sunday morning I had the joy of telling kids in Children's Church the story of John the Baptist being the forerunner of Jesus.  I always learn something prepping for talking to the kids, and preparing for that lesson was no exception.    I had never thought before about John being poor - but he lived a life of poverty.  His clothing was the least expensive available - made from camel's hair.  He lived a nomadic life in the wilderness, ate what was available - which the Bible tells us was locusts and wild honey - so by man's standard he was pretty low on the 'people we need to invite over soon for dinner' list.  But what man thought about John the Baptist was not what God thought of him.

The first record we have of John having a ministry was when he started warning the people of Israel to 'Prepare the way for the coming of the Lord' and they came out by the hundreds to hear him.  He baptized them with a baptism of repentance, confessing their sins.   He told them that there was one coming after him whose sandals he wasn't even worthy to unloose - One who would baptize them not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.  But what 'the One he spoke of' said about John was that he was the greatest man ever born of woman.  Wow!  Not one of the patriarchs, not one of the kings or priests or prophets of old.  John.

There had been no prophets in Israel since Malachi.  There was 400 years of silence from the Prophet Malachi to the time God spoke through John to His people.  After 400 years, and with the political mess their world was in, they were ready to hear the message.  Everything was timed precisely for Jesus' coming.  The timing of John's birth and his message were part of that.

John's ministry was very brief - His voice was cut very short when his head was severed for speaking the truth and being thrown in prison; and he was so hated by the woman he offended that when she had opportunity the one thing she wanted more than wealth or prestige of any other sort was John 's head brought to her on a platter.  He was about 31.

I really love John and the witness of John.  He wasn't a 'pie-in-the-sky- believer.  He was tested to the very limits of his ability to cope.  Even after the things he proclaimed about Jesus - declaring Jesus was 'the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world'  John's subsequent circumstance left him doubting.  He even sent a messenger to Jesus from prison asking, "Are you the One we've been expecting or should we look for another?"

As Godly and as chosen as John was, life wasn't going according to his script.   And he became discouraged.  God can handle our discouragement and despair....  In my past experience He doesn't abandon us there.

I am reminded to put on my armor:  Helmet of salvation, belt of Truth,  breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, sword of the Spirit (aka the Word of God) and put on my feet shoes of readiness to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.  'Tis the season, for the night is coming when no man can work.