We are now in the Season of Lent.
We would, of course, much rather skip over the season of Lent.
We would rather avoid Ash Wednesday entirely and jump from the Light Shining Glory of Epiphany straight to the cosmos altering victory of Easter. We would like to oversimplify things and simply say that some people are good and some people are bad, and all to readily settle ourselves into the first camp without even bothering to examine our motives, our actions, our inner critic that noisily and nastily seeks to tear everything to pieces.
Lent reminds us that life is not as black and white as our reductionistic, over-simplifications would make it. Things are not as clear cut as people being all good or all bad all the time...if ever.
Lent reminds us that life is not as black and white as our reductionistic, over-simplifications would make it. Things are not as clear cut as people being all good or all bad all the time...if ever.
Lent reminds us that there are subtle shades in each and every one of us. Lent reminds us that there is good and bad in each and every one of us. Lent reminds us that we have a role to play in God’s salvation narrative for ourselves and for our world.
During the Sunday's of Lent this year we'll be focusing on the promises of God. As we look deeply into our selves and our motivations, seeking to grow in faith this Lenten Season, what better place to focus on worship services then on the promises of God. More specifically we'll be focusing on the great covenants of God as revealed in the Bible. We'll be talking about God's covenant with Abraham ("your descendants will outnumber the stars"), about the covenant promises of the Ten Commandments ("I am your God."), about the covenant promises of God's love ("For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..."), about Jeremiah's prophecy of a new covenant, and then how that new covenant came to fruition through Jesus Christ.
This Sunday, we'll get started with the most well known of the biblical covenants -- God's rainbow promise to Noah after he got off the ark ("Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.")
Come join us this Sunday at FCC Scottsdale as we take on the important work of the Lenten season, ad focus on the covenant promises of God!
Oh, and don't forget that we have a special Lenten Study Series on "Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism" that is starting up today. We'll meet in the Alpha/Omega Room at 6PM this evening to get started, or you can join Sandi on Saturday mornings in the East Office starting on 2/28.
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Genesis 9:8-17
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’
God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’
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