The Start Of Lent

And so, we begin the season of Lent. No weather related change in seasons. But what is Lent? For that matter, what is Shrove Tuesday which is commonly called Pancake Tuesday? Just so you know, it is about two things. First it’s about using up all the butter, eggs and fat so you will not be too tempted to go off your Lenten Fast. Yes, people do that. To put it in perspective it has been associated with giving up your most desired food for the next forty days. How’s that working for you? I on the other hand look at Lent as a time to make changes in my spiritual life. Sort of replacing negative behaviour with God honouring behaviour.

Secondly it is also supposed to be a day where you go to a confessor and confess your bad deeds and then the confessor will shrive (absolve) you then you may hear by your deeds what you are to do [in the way of penance]" Simple, right? Not so fast. My bible has something to say about this.

All of this is well and maybe good but God wants more from us. He wants us to go to Him, and He won’t get us to do something to pay for our sins. Christ did that once and for all. And even though it’s a great thing to go to the person we have wronged and ask forgiveness but also, we need to go to God for complete and utter forgiveness. This forgiveness brings again, two things. One, it changes us and creates in us a new heart. A heart that wants to do what is right and pure. Then we realize we didn’t have to pay for it by doing something. I have a cap I wear that reminds me daily, “Jesus Paid It All”. This past week while standing in line at the grocery store a fellow in front of me, (who wanted to be oh so cool) turned around and read the cap. He said to me: “He did, that’s good”. It may have been the first time he ever heard that. Or it could be a reminder of what he heard long ago in Sunday school. Either way the message gave him something to think about. Does it you?

Something to think about

Rob

The Sun Came Out

I keep telling people, "Have a great day". Maybe it's the optimist in me. We would all love to have a life filled with good to great days. But, sometimes, no matter how positive we are, we don't have much control on life and those times are not good days. In fact some people when their day has been decidedly terrible, want to sit down and read that wonderful kids book, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". We all have them. Doesn't matter where you are in life, life sometimes comes and kicks you in the shin.

This week was one of those weeks for me. Never do we want to be in the place of losing someone. We don't have a say in this and God doesn't ask our permission. It's out of our control. The more I thought about it the better I began to feel. Yes, we lost a wonderful friend. They will be missed.  Almost everyone who is reading this will know what I mean. We can relate with each other. For some reason, sorrow and lose brings us together, and that is wonderful.

While driving at the end of the week, when things got back to almost normal, my mood began to change. The more I thought about it, the more I smiled and then out of the blue I started to sing, (no one else in the car to ask me to stop), "When we all get to heaven, What a day of rejoicing that will be, When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory". We always say we have lost someone but that is not entirely true. And that is when it all came together and I thanked God for reminding me. If we believe that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us who believe in Him, then we look at loss differently. Those who are in Christ have been assured a place in Heaven. And, if that is true, and I believe it is, then we will not only see each other again, but will forever be together. Jesus still turns the water into wine and rain into sunshine.

This leaves me with an important question for all us still here. How many of the people that you know, do you want to take with you to heaven?

Something to think about

Rob

 

I Found It!

Have you ever been sitting there saying to yourself, “Somethings missing.” You really can’t pinpoint it but you know there is something missing. This is not like missing your glasses or missing an appointment. But, from somewhere in the back of your head you can’t get rid of the thought you are missing something.

The older I get the more things in my life start disappearing. The first thing was my memory. But everyone goes from one room to the next and immediately forgets why they came in there, don’t you?  That is not what I’m talking about either. It’s almost as if you even start to think you have missed out on something that everyone you know has experienced. This lasts until you realize that you are having an amazing journey  through life.

This exersize will lead you down the path of reconnecting. You think of family and friends and start calling and visiting just to catch up on what you might have missed about them in the last little while and because, well, you miss them. We all know time just gets away on us, and life fills up with new things. It’s at these type of moments we realize something is missing.

Seriously, many of us are sitting in our easy chair, looking around us haunted by the feeling something in your life is missing. Just the other day this feeling started changing when I decided I would't stop searching until I found what that something was. And what I found was not what was missing but what I have had for a very long time. It was wonderful and exciting and most of all I realized it was what I have - my faith in Christ alone. It was not in what I lost but in what I had forgotten I had that made my heart sing. This is what I read that morning, Jeremiah 29:13; When you look for me with all your heart, you will find me.

Pray it’s the same for you today.

Something to think about.

Rob