Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow Morning I will be attending our Ash Wednesday Service at 7 am at City Church. I am looking forward and excited as my family will be participating in this Lent Season. In all honesty, I am thrilled, yet a bit nervous to see the Lord at work. Thrilled to see all that He will do through the Body and no doubt, nervous as He will definitely not let me go without a thorough self examination. Pastor Dave from City Church has been preparing us for a while since the new year started and definitely has encouraged us to get involved this Lent Season. As I have been preparing myself to go through this Lent Season, I have already been seeing the Lord on the move. I wanted to share this note I got out of our bulletin at City Church:

Using the historical church calender as a helpful tool to help us focus on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, we are gathering for worship on the day of the year, commonly known as Ash Wednesday. A day to begin the Lenten season and to prepare our full, anxious, and often bruised hearts and minds for the Easter celebration in seven weeks of the resurrection of Christ.
Why are we acknowledging Ash Wednesday and Lent as a congregation?
The Vast part of our culture acknowledges Easter and Christmas, and in so doing, acknowledges the church calender. Lent, which means "springtime"is the season most-often trivialized. Consequently, many churches do not observe the season. There have been, however, two good reasons suggested for keeping this tradition.
First, this is a wise tradition. God, as revealed in history, has always told His people, both ancient Israel and His modern followers, that the totality of their lives should be characterized by repentance, a word used all through the ancient Scriptures. (Often as a sign of repentance, a person would apply ashes to their body; thus-Ash Wednesday). This word repentance, means to change in our attitudes, words, and lifestyles-something for which all of us recognize our need if we are honest with ourselves.
We acknowledge that this humble and acknowledged need for change is often not visible among us today. All the more reason to set aside times for a particular focus on our need for change, the grace God extends to us, and His provision to make it happen.
Second, we think it is profitable to us to honor the traditional wisdom that has preceded us for centuries in those who have earnestly sought such personal change for the honor of God.
Simply put, we acknowledge we are needy and that our hearts desires are often bent out of shape, so just as a baseball player may work at staying in shape year round but still give special attention to conditioning before spring training (the word, Lent, means "spring") so we may find great benefits in setting aside a few weeks to give special attention to the state of our souls.

Here is another article found in our bulletin: I would encourage you to keep reading.
To Take Up The Cross by Dr. Steve Harmon
In Central Texas, where I grew up, Catholic friends came to school with ash smudges on their foreheads, ate a lot of fish, gave up various pleasures for a time, and went to extra church services. My Baptist friends and I did not. We wrongly considered this evidence that Catholics believed they had to do these things to be saved. We believed we were saved by grace and therefore didn't have to do any of that.
In seminary, I discovered the Christian year and decided to lead my congregation to take up its observance. Advent went all right; four Sundays of anticipating Christmas didn't seem like a such a bag thing.
With Epiphany approaching, I gave an overview of the history and significance of all the seasons in the Christian year. My church members looked at me, as the expression went, "like a calf looking at a new gate."
All Christian congregations observe some sort of calender in their worship...as many expect certain days and seasons of the year to be recognized in worship services. If Christians already observe a calender without worrying that such observances are unbiblical and hinder congregational freedom, and if they have already granted pride of place in this calender.....for Christmas and Easter, then they can observe the Christian year, including Lent.
Without the observance of Lent, and Holy Week in particular, Easter Sunday fails to keep in proper balance the Cross and the Resurrection as the two main New Testament paradigms for the Christian life. Christians not only can but should observe Lent, because it will help them take up the cross and follow Christ in the midst of suffering world.
~Steven Harmon, author of Ecumenism Means You, Too and professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School.

Daily Prayer starts tomorrow from 12-1pm @ City Church, Monday-Friday. If you desire more prayer time during this season of Lent come by and join us for prayer.

In Him
Rose M. Lantz