INTRODUCION to LENT DEVOTIONS 2024

(Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, February 14.)

“Behold the Lamb of God.”  The choir in Handel’s Messiah sings these words from John 1:29 reminding us to take time for a long look at the Jesus, Lamb of God.  We’re so familiar with the image of lamb for Jesus that we often fail to reflect again on it, and thus never learning more, and there’s always more to learn.  We’re in constant need of correcting our distortions of Jesus so that we worship him truly, for who he is and not for the image we created.  Only then will we live in ways that reflect the true Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus who is like a lamb, meek and humble and lowly of heart, and who calls us to be like him.
 
Join me in a Lenten discipline of daily beholding the Lamb of God as he is revealed in Scripture.  These Lenten meditations will reflect on Bible verses in parts 2 and 3 of Handel’s Messiah, adding other passages of Scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary.  Read your Bible and become more intimate with Jesus, the Lamb of God.  Daily a different Scripture with suggestions to reflect more deeply will be posted right here.  Book mark this page and keep returning, practicing a daily discipline of prayerful reflection on Scripture.
 
The format for these devotions is rooted in the ancient discipline of lectio divina.  It’s a discipline that requires patience, silence, prayerfulness, openness.  There are five movements to each day:

1. Prepare to listen.  Before we can hear God speak through God’s Word, we must prepare ourselves in silence.  Take however long you need, using the short verse as a call to listen.
2. Prayerfully read the biblical passage.  Read slowly, wondering about God, knowing what you see; be prepared to be surprised and be willing to be honest.
3. Prayerfully wonder and reflect.  The daily meditation begins and ends with a question.  Wonder about them if you find them helpful.  Add to the written meditation with your own thoughts.
4. Prayerfully respond.  Bible reading ends with prayer.  Use the written prayer or simply sit still and silent as let what you read sink in.
5. Live obediently.  We are called to be doers of the Word and not only hearers.  Determine to live each day in obedience to Jesus.