DAY 19ish As we start a new week, let us continue to really spend some time each day observing the Lent period leading up to Easter as we prepare for the reminder of what Jesus' death and resurrection means to our day to day lives. Task: Read through and meditate on the lyrics of this Tim Hughes worship song [featuring Brooke Fraser] and then give it a listen, remembering a time [it may be now] [...]
As we head into the weekend i have combined today and tomorrow into one post. Please use accordingly. They say 'Familiarity breeds contempt' although i would say sometimes that 'Familiarity breeds familiarity' which means that sometimes things that are completely profound, can lose some of their depth and meaning [for us] simply because we see them so many times that we get used to them and possibly skim over them and in one way take [...]
DAY 16ish On day 1 of this Lent observance the task was to pray for your enemies and i imagine some people would have been all, 'But i don't have any enemies' and others might have been tempted to send out a generic, 'God please bless all my enemies' prayer to cover them all. Well, if you really don't have anyone who you don't like or who doesn't like you [whether you would specifically call them [...]
i was hoping to be able to get something out on this before Fred Phelps died, which apparently i failed to do. Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church where we use the term 'church' loosely as nothing of what i ever heard them connected to sounded anything like the idea of church that i have come to know and love. An obvious indicator is that the website address of this 'church' is the [...]
DAY 15ish received this in an email from someone i don't really know so well on the book of faces and figured it was a good reflection to have on this day: Task: Join with me in praying this Lent Prayer “Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.” JOHN 11 Jesus then said, "I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even [...]
Jesus cranks things up a notch by talking about end times and the importance of being watchful in this passage from Mark 13.14-37. [For the next vlog in the Mark series on Jesus and perfume and creating space for the interruption, click here]
DAY 14ish Task: Today is a simple but profound one. Intentionally show gratitude to someone for something you tend to take for granted. I know we have looked at Gratitude already in this series, but i really want to take it a step deeper and for us to really look for someone in our day who does something for us and probably does not get thanked or appreciated or maybe even noticed. Imagine if we [...]
There have still been people joining us in this Lent Observance and so a quick shout out to you. Glad to have you with us... My apologies for the break in Lent Observance transmissions, but we were away this weekend at Yosemite. Tough break huh? Anyways, will be on track again from today and have revised the series name to 40ish Days of Lent - let's see just how far we get. DAY 13 So [...]
DAY 10-12 It is the weekend, and tbV and Aaron and Sarah and myself are having to Yosemite for the weekend to stay in a Yurt [look it up!], and it might be partially enforced for us, but I want to encourage you to try this for a couple of hours, or a day, or if you’re really feeling brave, the whole weekend. Task: unplug yourself from the screens... Turn off the television, step away [...]
How do you put a positive spin on the words, "All men will hate you because of Me"? Especially when they come from the mouth of Jesus [which makes them a little bit harder to ignore or explain away]. Perhaps that is why Mark 13.1-13 is not a particularly popular passage for those who don't specifically preach continuously through the Bible? The rest of it is End of the World stuff which generally is good [...]