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The Latter Rain: Celebrate Lent – Day 4

Jesus Calls Levi

27 After this he went out, and saw a tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And he left everything, and rose and followed him.

29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house; and there was a large company of tax collectors and others sitting at table[a] with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus is always calling out to us, “Follow me”. The question is, are we listening for Him? Lent is a time for intentional listening. If we are not careful, the cares and concerns of this world, mixed with the busyness of our schedules, will drown out the voice of Jesus in our lives. Often, all we hear is our own voice echoing back to us as we lament over our concerns and worries.

But with the season of Lent we increase spiritual practices in our lives to help us listen for Jesus’ voice, something we should do every day of our lives. We listen for Him as we read a devotional and as we spend some dedicated time in prayer and meditation. We can even listen for Him as we are doing something intentional to serve someone less fortunate or some other good work.

The key to celebrating Lent and not just observing it is in the act of our being intentional. Instead of doing what we always do when we give up a meal in fasting, set aside that time for an act of personal worship. Acknowledge that in that moment you are aware of Jesus’ presence with you and listen for what He wants to say to you.

When Levi (aka Matthew) hears Jesus’ words, “Follow me”, he dropped what he was doing and obeyed. Levi was at work when he heard Jesus call him. The word tells us that he left everything, which likely means that he even left the tax monies he had collected. Suddenly, an encounter with Jesus was the most important thing to him.

From that moment on Levi’s life found meaning and purpose. He took Jesus to his home and held a great banquet for Him. He invited all his friends to come and hear Jesus as well. Levi knew that if Jesus’ words could have such a profound impact on him, then his friends needed to hear from them also.

Today, would you make some time to get alone with Jesus? Leave your thoughts about your work and all the things you need to accomplish and spend some quality time with Him. I promise you Jesus’ words will bring showers of blessings as they fall upon your ear. His words are the latter rain falling on those who hunger and thirst for more of Him. Who knows, you may even decide to throw a party like Levi did. Why not? It is Lent – it is time to celebrate!

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://www.stephensizer.com/2018/01/the-call-of-jesus-follow-me-john-143-51/. https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/6205/why-is-worship-important

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The Latter Rain: Celebrate Lent – Day 3

8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
    the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
Isaiah 58:8-9 RSV

Fridays in Lent are a special day. Each Friday we remember the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross. The heart of learning to ‘celebrate’ Lent, instead of just observing it is seen in how we view the cross. Do we see in the cross of Christ, death or life?

Death is easy to see. The way Jesus was killed was a heinous, murderess act. But we must look upon His ultimate, self-giving act of love, not with sorrow only but with joy and gladness. The cross of Christ is the instrument of Love; it was the greatest act of love possible. God could do nothing greater to prove His love to us.

The prophet Isaiah gives us great insight into how to celebrate Lent with joy and gladness. In chapter 58 he speaks convicting words to God’s people for their false worship through fasting without meaning. They fasted for selfish, self-righteous purposes which God condemns. And all the while they complain that God does not hear them…

‘Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not?
    Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,[a]
    and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
    and to hit with wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
    will not make your voice to be heard on high.

Isaiah 58:3-4 RSV

Then the Lord God reveals the fast that he accepts…

“Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of wickedness,
    to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
    and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Isaiah 58:6-7 RSV

If we wish to please God with our Lenten sacrifices, we must allow them to move us to action, to life-giving acts of love toward others – that is what Jesus did. He continually acted in love toward all humanity. 

When we view the cross of Christ, may we offer our Lenten fasting up to God with joy and gladness in thanksgiving for His breaking the yoke of our sin and setting the captives free. Then, let us go forth and shower the world with the latter rain of God’s love.

“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”

1 John 3:18 NLT

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://cradio.org.au/homilies-reflections/archbishop-julian-porteous/embracing-cross-christ/

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The Latter Rain: Celebrating Lent, Day 2

He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water,
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:3

Life is full of contrasts; black and white, hot and cold, up and down, in and out. These contrast point out something very important to us. They give us a standard by which we can measure things as they are supposed to be. Take coffee for example. Hot coffee should be served hot. Iced coffee should be served cold. 

If we want to enjoy the pleasure of such a drink, it is always best to drink it as it is supposed to be served. Those of you who drink coffee know what I mean. There is nothing worse than room temp coffee that is brewed to be served hot. Or how about an iced coffee from Starbucks served with no chill? No thanks.

Psalm 1 offers a clear picture of how life should be lived if we want the best experience possible. The psalmist writes of a contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous, the blessed and the wicked. Several modern Bible translations have changed the pronoun in the psalm from the singular ‘he’ to the plural ‘they’. While this does help us to see this psalm calls everyone to righteousness, the change causes us to miss the most important point in the psalm – Jesus is the ‘Blessed Man’. His life is the standard by which we should live.

So what is the secret to such a blessed life? To live with our roots planted deep by the streams of water. When we plant ourselves deeply in God’s word and Spirit, we draw our strength from the stream of Living Water – Jesus.

Lent offers us a time of concentrated effort to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We too must walk through the desert of life to appreciate the blessings and provisions of our Father along the way. The way of Jesus is the way of suffering and sorrow, yet it is also the Blessed way. The life rooted deeply in Jesus produces the fruit of righteousness. In His streams of Living Water we draw all that we need to conquer the wicked ways that masquerade as fun and pleasure, while robbing us all the while of true life itself.

As we begin our celebration of Lent together we are wading out, step by step into the stream of Living Water that is our God and His Word. Our Lenten journey is one best taken together. So, as you read this today, take hold of the hand of someone near you and invite them along on your journey. Take a walk in the latter rain…the shower of blessings we call Lent.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

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The Latter Rain: Celebrating the Season of Lent

“Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.” Joel 2:23 ESV

Every year I look forward to the celebration of Lent. That’s right. I said ‘celebration’ not ‘observation’. In my younger years I observed the season of Lent not really knowing what it was about. I fasted and tried to spend more time in prayer as if Lent was an obligation the church told me I should observe. 

In time, I began to see the Lenten season as much more than just something to be observed; it is a celebration of new life. Lent is placed on the liturgical calendar as a precursor to Springtime for a reason. In spring we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ as a time of new birth. Lent usually begins toward the end of the winter season; it comes to reminds us that spring is just around the corner. 

All things that look brown and dead now will soon be green and alive with new life. We too can come alive if we turn to the Lord in repentance and allow the Spirit of the Living God to wash over us, raising us up to new heights of living.

In Lent we are called to increase our times of fasting, prayer, and giving as a means of repentance. The Greek word for repentance means to turn away. However, when we turn away from something, we are necessarily turning toward something else. That something else is to turn toward a renewed life in the Spirit of God and away from our self-centered lives that so easily entangle us. 

The Latter Rain brings new life…

Today, many of us Christians mark our foreheads with ashes to remind ourselves that we are dust and to dust we shall return. But until the time of our return to the dust we can be re-born. No matter who we are or what we have done, we can die to ourselves and be continually re-born in the power of God’s Spirit. We can be re-born like the tulip bulb that lies dormant through much of the year but with the latter rain that falls in the spring, rises from the dust to new life.

The prophet Joel reminds God’s people to be glad and rejoice, for the Lord not only gave us the early rain, the blessings we have already experienced, but He also gives the latter rain. This latter rain comes to wash off the wintery dust that has collected on our souls and renew us once again.

Come, let us celebrate Ash Wednesday and be glad!

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://www.quickcrop.ie/blog/2017/08/how-to-grow-tulips/

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Timeless Faith for A Time Conscious World: Thoughts for New Year’s Day

The Riley family in Bethlehem, Israel at the Church of the Nativity – January 2017

Happy New Year everyone! How was your News Year’s Eve Celebration? Hopefully it was safe and filled with love and laughter. Now that we have turned the page to a new year I want to offer you a few thoughts of which to be mindful as you begin this year with hope and anticipation.

Have you ever wished you could stop time? Sure you have. Sometimes moments come into our lives and we just don’t want to leave them. We want them to last. Just about every moment I shared with my family on our pilgrimage to Israel was like that. I have good news! No, you cannot stop time but you can enter into the timelessness of eternity. How? I’m glad you asked.

If you are like me, you are probably saying to yourself, “How can it be 2020 already?” I mean, where does the time go? The answer to that question is – nowhere. Time does not move, we do. Time only exists as a creation of God for we humans to mark our days and nights. Time isn’t what, where, or how real life is lived. Real, authentic life is lived in the eternal presence of God through faith.

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

Psalm 139:16 NLT

There really is a lot of wisdom in the old saying, “Sometimes, you need to stop and smell the roses.” And when the roses are gone (as all flowers fade) we can still recall their scent vividly when we set our mind to try. When we become mindful that all of our lives were lived out in the heart and mind of the Living God before they ever came into being in this world, we can realize that our past memories and experiences are never really gone; they are waiting for us in the heart of God so that we can recall them into our present existence. This is why some memories are so powerful. God allows a past experience or memory to become fresh in our mind and hearts all over again when we enter into them through faith and mindfulness.

This New Year’s Day, I want to encourage you to meditate for a while on all the blessings God has brought you through. Recall former days with family and friends, many of whom may no longer be with us physically. Realize that life… all life… is eternal. Our loved ones whom we miss so much in the present are truly here with us if we will but remember them. Allow God to bring them into our present and hear and feel their love once again.

Nothing can separate us from each another, not even death when we live through faith in Christ and His eternal love (Romans 8:38). To live in Christ, as St. Paul writes, is to be mindful that this life we live in time and space is mystically hidden in the very life of Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He only gives true life – abundant life (John 10:10).

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in my body, I live by faith, indeed, by the faithfulness of God’s Son, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20 CEB

My prayer for you today is to remember life and all of God’s blessings. Live today in the fullness and mindfulness of the moments you have experienced and are experiencing. And as you remember you will forget about time, for a while anyway. Oh, the sun will eventually set on this day we call January 1, 2020. However, the sun will never set on our memories of this day as we recall them in the heart and mind of our loving God.

A Happy & Blessed New Year to you all!

Shalom,

Brad