A transformation that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish within us
A Thought
The season of Lent reminds us that we are faced with clear choices and we can’t have it both ways: we can put our faith in God or in the devil. The Old Testament reminds us in this season how the Jewish people had to choose to put their faith in the one God who had chosen and gathered them. Like them, we must believe, confess and live our faith. During Lent God asks us to scrutinize the choices we make, so that at Easter we can truly “confess that Jesus is Lord.” Whose side will you choose?
Jesus brought a fresh and transforming understanding of the Word of God…a message that is counterintuitive in many ways…yet deeply resonates with the heart. In order to put the fullness of His message into practice requires us to turn our lives around, again, the theme of metanoia. Some hear this theme and think that too much is required of us. Yet in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus explains that the message He brings cannot be contained within the rigid structures of the Jewish worship of the day. We hear Jesus talk about a new paradigm or model of how we understand our world. It is not a model with a multitude of rules to follow but one with a single powerful summary of the law that says you are to love God with all of your heart and your neighbor as yourself. To live this out requires a transformation that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish within us. Our old ways and understandings cannot really co-exist with the new understanding. Our desire and ability to follow God’s Word, flows out of that transformation. Without that transformation from metanoia, we are like the old hard wineskins that will burst from the pressure.
A Prayer
Father, You have shown us through the example of Your Son, Jesus, that we must set aside a regular time and quiet place to meet with You, to hear Your voice, to recognize Your presence and to invite Your transforming power to renew our hearts and minds every day. We want Your kingdom of light to guide us through this world of darkness as You stamp Your own image deep in our hearts like carpenters who embed nails deep in planks of wood. . Amen
Music
When I Survey The Wondrous Cross (Isaac Watts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jjq3xrPtPA