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Dear friends in Christ,
We will experience the season of Lent this month and the next, beginning with Ash Wednesday on February 22nd. The words of our liturgy that the pastor speaks on Ash Wednesday are a precious invitation into what we call the "discipline of Lent." We hear those words one time a year. The words of invitation spoken on Ash Wednesday are worth hearing more often! We would do well to meditate on them more than one day a year. We would benefit from thinking about them individually in advance of Ash Wednesday so that we could prepare ourselves well to engage in the "discipline of Lent." Although the invitation is given during the season of Lent, it is not intended to be restricted to the season of Lent. We would do well to apply the Lenten spiritual practices through all of our days. I offer to you the "Invitation to Lent" from our Ash Wednesday service. I invite you to take time to read it, meditate on it, pray with it, and let God speak to you through this biblically-sound wisdom of the Church. You might even want to print out the words and place them somewhere to help you in your walk with Christ and your daily devotions. Talk about them with family and friends, in your small groups and classes.
"Friends in Christ, today with the whole church we enter the time of remembering Jesus’ passover from death to life, and our life in Christ is renewed.
We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance and for God’s mercy. We are created to experience joy in communion with God, to love one another, and to live in harmony with creation. But our sinful rebellion separates us from God, our neighbors, and creation, so that we do not enjoy the life our creator intended.
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to a discipline that contends against evil and resists whatever leads us away from the love of God and neighbor. I invite you, therefore, to the discipline of Lent - self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love - strengthened by the gifts of word and sacrament. Let us continue our journey through these forty days to the great Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection."
I affirm the many wonderful ministries of Holly Grove Lutheran that God inspires, and which you make possible by your giving of time, talent and treasure. As we build on our worship in word and sacrament, the precious gifts the Lord has given us, the good things we do for others in the name of Christ, and as we humbly turn to God through Jesus with the "discipline of Lent," I fully expect the blessings of God to continue to be poured out upon us. The light of Christ, the light of the world, will shine brightly and accomplish God’s gracious purposes in us, among us, and through us.
In the awesome love of God,
Pastor John
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