Read your Bible in the THIRD WEEK OF LENT. (Begins Sunday March 19)

​Day 1 (3rd week)
PREPARE TO LISTEN: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!  (Psalm 95:6)
READ: Exodus 17:1-7
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded.  They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.  2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.”  Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the LORD?”  3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”  4So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people?  They are almost ready to stone me.”  5The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.  6I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.  Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.”  Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.  7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
MEDITATIVE WORDS
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded.  They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water to drink….  The LORD said to Moses, ‘Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink’.
Israel journeyed in stages through the desert just as the LORD God commanded.  One of the stages was Rephidim, where there was no water to drink.  This desolate place was not a dreadful mistake that should have been avoided.  It was a necessary stage in their journey.  It was the right place at the right time.  There in Rephidim Israel experienced the astonishing presence of God—the miracle of water from a rock, flowing freely and abundantly.
As you journey through Lent God may very well lead you to your Rephidim, a place of dryness and desolation.  Like Israel, you may be tempted to quarrel with God or blame others; and like Israel you may fail to notice this is a necessary stage in your journey to a deeper relationship with God in Christ, and also fail to notice God’s surprising presence in your desert.  While never welcome, the desert is often the place where we experience God’s grace most noticeably—if we will pay attention and be open to God’s surprises.
REFLECTIVE WONDERING
Wonder about God’s deliberateness with Israel.  Notice that he didn’t immediately give them water to drink.  Moses had to lead them to the rock where God was standing (vv5-6).  Where is that rock for you today?
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER.
Almighty and Eternal God, you led Israel in stages and continue to lead me today in stages, inviting me to live life as it comes—bit by bit.  Sometimes the next stage is Rephidim, where there is no water to drink.  Forgive me for so often avoiding the desert stages and missing out on your gracious gifts that only come in the desert.  Give me the grace to enter it, alert and attentive to the surprising work of your Spirit in and around me today.  In the name of Jesus, Amen.
BE SILENT AND STILL: For a few moments, simply be in the presence of Jesus, who loves you, regardless.
 
Day 2 (3rd Week)
PREPARE TO LISTEN: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
READ: Psalm 95:1-7
O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 
In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 
The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 
O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
MEDITATIVE WORDS
For many of us, these are familiar words.  We sing them; pray them; use them when leading praise groups; or simply return to them when in need of comfort or encouragement.  Perhaps our familiarity with this plasm blunts its edge for us and we overlook or ignore its challenge.  The psalmist reminds us that the LORD our God “is a great God and a great King above all gods.”  An ever-present danger for us is that we may forget this great truth and wander off after other ‘gods’—something that gets our allegiance and even devotion.  It may be sports, a movie star, hobbies, a political party or leader; the list could go on.  Idol worship is very tempting and very prevalent.  Hence, the psalmist urges God’s people to worship and bow down, to kneel before the Lord, our Maker.  Physically bowing and kneeling helps us “bend the knee of my heart,” as King Manasseh prayed, and thus fully grasp that the LORD is our God, not those things that demand and too often get our allegiance and worship today.  We belong to this Great God.  Today, listen to his voice!   
REFLECTIVE WONDERING
I encourage you to act out the invitation to bow down, to kneel before God—physically, as you are able, and let it ‘bend the knee of your heart.’  In that bowed position know you belong to the Lord who is above all kings and gods and in humility listen for his voice.
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER. 
I bend the knee of my heart before you alone, Lord God.  I submit to your Sovereign rule over all of life, including my own.  I praise you for your greatness and seek your grace to worship you and you alone and so fulfill my vocation as one created in your image.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
BE SILENT AND STILL: For a few moments, simply be in the presence of Jesus, who loves you, regardless.
 
Day 3 (3rd Week)
PREPARE TO LISTEN: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
READ: Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
MEDITATIVE WORDS
Paul suggests two things to boast about in these verses.  1) Boast in your hope of sharing the glory of God.  Hope has to do with longing for what we know is a certainty, unlike the way we use this word today.  We may say things like, ‘I sure hope there’ll be no snow or rain over Easter.’  However, we can’t be certain about that.  That’s not what Paul meant.  We can be certain of sharing God’s glory because we stand before him in grace, God’s grace that is free and generous.  2) Boast in your sufferings.  This one shocks most of us today.  We do everything we can to avoid suffering, and sometimes that’s a good idea.  But, suffering is necessary and it finds us for whatever reason.  Paul boasted about his sufferings because suffering leads, ultimately to experience God’s love through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIVE WONDERING
What do you boast about, or hope to boast about?  I don’t mean the things we brag about to prove we’re better than most, but what we truly want or desire to be.
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER. 
At the end of the day, Lord I want to boast in the great truth I share your glory.  Help me live today with an awareness of this truth and of your presence (your glory) all around me.  For the sake of your glory, Amen.
BE SILENT AND STILL: For a few moments, simply be in the presence of Jesus, who loves you, regardless.
 
Day 4 (3rd Week)
PREPARE TO LISTEN: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
READ: John 4:5-15
So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well.  It was about noon.
 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’.  (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)  The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’  (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’  The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’  Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’  The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’
MEDITATIVE WORDS
The story begins when Jesus asked the lone Samaritan woman, ‘Give me a drink’.  In our lesson today it ends when she asked Jesus, ‘Sir, give me this water.’  The story in between is remarkable.  The Samaritan woman was unafraid to approach the well even though a male Jewish stranger was seated there, alone.  She has no qualms about entering into dialog with Jesus (an unknown Jew) and is even somewhat combative—you’re a Jew talking to me a woman and a Samaritan!  When Jesus maintains if she knew to whom she spoke she’d be asking him for water, she mocks a little: You have no bucket and the well is deep.  She takes Jesus literally.  But, I wonder whether she was beginning to suspect something deeper, not so literal, when Jesus responds with amazing words about living water.  She’s quick to beg Jesus for a drink of this living water, even though she still misunderstood it.
REFLECTIVE WONDERING
Jesus promised “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  This is not something we’re waiting for in some distant future.  We can experience it right now.  Become aware of that spring of living water within you today.
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER. 
Lord Jesus, like the woman in the story, I too beg: ‘Give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty.’  Amen.
BE SILENT AND STILL: For a few moments, simply be in the presence of Jesus, who loves you, regardless.
 
Day 5 (3rd Week)
PREPARE TO LISTEN: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
READ: John 4:27-30; 39-42
Just then his disciples came.  They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’  Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city.  She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!  He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’  They left the city and were on their way to him.
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’  So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word.  They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’
SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION
If you have time, read the entire chapter and take in the whole story.
MEDITATIVE WORDS
The Samaritan woman begins her encounter with Jesus with something of a protest (as we saw in the previous devotion).  She can’t believe a Jewish male would address her and lets Jesus know that.  As the story comes to an end, the woman moves from protest to ‘preacher’.  She returns to her village and proclaims (preaches) to the towns folk the good news of Jesus.  Many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of her word.  But the story doesn’t end there.  The Samaritan woman did what a good witness should do, stepped out of the way and let the people see Jesus for themselves.  The story ends, as any good witnessing story should end, with the villagers claiming: We believe, no longer because of your testimony, but because we’ve heard for ourselves and know that this is truly the Savior of the world.  I’d like to believe the woman was overjoyed when the villagers said this to her, wouldn’t you?
REFLECTIVE WONDERING
Imagine yourself in the story.  Which character best reflects yourself or the self you’d like to be?  What do you think Jesus would say to you?
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER.
Lord Jesus, help me be more like this Samaritan woman—bold in speech to you and in speech to those I live and work with.  Most of all, like her may I too lead others to believe in you, not because of what I say, but because they’re able to experience and hear you speak to them.  For the sake of you name, Amen.
BE SILENT AND STILL: For a few moments, simply be in the presence of Jesus, who loves you, regardless.