LENTEN MEDITATIONS
A Forty-Seven Day Devotional Journey
By
Mark Fredericksen
M.Div., N.D.
Published by KLG Press
Lenten Meditations: A Forty-Seven Day Devotional Journey
Daily Walking on Water, Special Edition #2
Daily Walking on Water Devotional Series
Smashwords Edition
Lenten Meditations: A Forty-Seven Day Devotional Journey
©2012 by Mark Fredericksen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or KLG Press except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
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Cover Art by Patti Ann Colt
Pictures by Mark Fredericksen
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Publishing History
KLG Press
First Edition, February 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1469954059
ISBN-10: 1469954052
~~EXCERPT~~
Day 2, Endurance
We don't believe in Christ because He makes our way easy, keeps us safe, hands us life on a silver platter, or erases all pain, grief, and suffering. It doesn't work that way. We believe because His love endures our pain, our sin, and our struggle. He gives back to us the assurance of the salvation of hope and endurance to the very end of time. Endurance forges a character that is stronger than steel. God's love lifts us up for endurance in the battles of life. Through God's love, a brand is burned forever on our character: His brand.
Won’t you join us on our journey through Lent, walking with Jesus, preparing our hearts and readying our spirits for the Good News that is to come?
~~TABLE OF CONTENTS~~
Day 1: Create in Me a Pure Heart
Day 7: Professional of Faith Day
Day 13: Sweating the Small Stuff
Day 16: When I Have Lost Everything
Day 17: Righteousness Revealed
Day 21: What Color is Your Faith?
Day 24: Awesome Responsibilities
Day 25: Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Day 26: Serving Others with Our Lives
Day 27: Do You See Christ in the Mirror?
Day 28: An Assurance of Things Hoped For
Day 31: He Doesn’t Let Go of Us
Day 34: Trudging through a Monday
Day 37: A Small Seed in the Dark
Day 40: Create in Me a Clean Heart
Day 44: The Day the Lord’s Prayer Came to Life
~~Dedication~~
St. Patricks’ day (March 17th) falls in the middle of Lent; St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. The following prayer is attributed to him:
“I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same – the Three in One, and One in Three.”
With his prayer, I place this devotional book before you. I pray that through it, you, too, might find yourself bound a little closer to our God. Read, reflect, and walk humbly with our God. May you find strength and solace for your journey with Christ to the cross and beyond, and may the Holy Ghost bless thee richly.
--M.O.F.
~~Introduction to Lent~~
Lent derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning springtime. This is the time of the liturgical year when Christians prepare their hearts and spirits to receive the Risen Christ. In the early day of Christianity, the forty-day period was for repentance and fasting. It was developed to commemorate the time Jesus spent in the desert, fending off the temptations of Satan while preparing for his ministry to come. The number forty also parallels the length of time noted in many areas of Biblical history, such as the Great Flood, the time spent by Moses on the mount, and the years spent by the Israelites in the wilderness.
If you’ve counted on your calendar, you’ve probably realized by now that there are actually more than forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Church tradition doesn’t count the Sundays during Lent. This is because the weekly Sabbath time already celebrates the resurrection of Christ.
Through the dark and dreary days of winter, it can become easy to dread the coming crucifixion of a man without sin, the Son of God. God is ever present in our lives, however, whether in the cold times of winter or the hopeful rebirth of the coming spring. God hopes at all times for us to turn, see, and hear a reminder of His steadfast love through all of life. His hope abides even through the sacrifice of His only begotten son for the redemption of mankind.
As you prepare your hearts and spirits for the good news to come, always remember the hope of God and His never-ending love. Blessings on your day, and prayers for each of you reading this that you’ll feel the lifting Presences carrying you through Lent and all of life.
~~Day One – Ash Wednesday~~
Create in Me a Pure Heart
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:10-12, NIV)
~~Meditation~~
Sometimes, it's easy to gloss over scripture and make unexamined assumptions. For instance, without reflection, one can assume that a willing spirit, or a pure heart, is already ours. Lenten liturgies that use these verses often communicate a subtle presumption of our holiness or purity. A prayer, a cross made on the forehead with ash and we're good to go. But do we really pause long enough to check if we feel the pure heart? The steadfast spirit? God's presence and the Holy Spirit? Joy in our salvation? I think liturgies can, at times, communicate a hurry-up expectation. The words are rattled off, and absolution and blessing, like a magician's “abracadabra,” restores our perfection. The benediction is complete, "go in peace."
This is, perhaps, too quick of a jump to the Easter good news. There is a wisdom to The Church holding onto the forty days of Lent prior to Easter. It is forty full days to explore deeply within ourselves some questions we might not really want to explore, except privately with our God.
Consider these questions as you travel through Lent: do I really want a pure heart? Is my spirit willing or steadfast? We may not be ready on these first days of Lent to say yes. Sure, "yes" is the right answer, but is it MY answer right now? If not, why not? Perhaps our very first step should be to pray for a willing spirit or pure heart. Truthfully, taking on either one can directly change your whole existence and life habit. We should never be in a rush to get some place spiritually just because others are already there, or want us to be there with them!
With Lent, we are granted 40 days to honestly search our hearts. We are granted time to ponder where our souls reside. We don’t need to be pressured to arrive too quickly at conclusions. These conclusions need to be more gently grown or fermented or aged. We are granted time to be still and just know what God already knows about us. We can take in that knowledge and use it creatively and constructively for God.
~~Prayer~~
Oh God, sustain me and help me to be present with You in the coming days. Help me to ponder my spirit and my heart through these days of Lent and to prepare carefully and thoughtfully for the good news that will come. Amen.
~~Day Two~~
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Endurance I
[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (I Corinthians 13:7, KJV)
~~Meditation~~
The 13th chapter of First Corinthians gets used so often for weddings that I think the first reaction most of us have to the chapter is that it's talking about human love. I do not think this is accurate. I think it is talking about the character of God's love, especially in the middle section.
Paraphrasing a sermon I heard recently, trouble always comes, and we cannot grow into mature, faith-filled adults in Christ without trials and troubles. Another line from the same sermon resonates: "We may never overcome our troubles, but we can endure our troubles living in the spirit." Believing in God doesn't guarantee the absence of trouble. Rather, it guarantees us eternal abiding love and presence; a hand always to hold. God doesn't leave us in our troubles. God walks with us in our endurance of trouble.
We don't believe in Christ because He makes our way easy, keeps us safe, hands us life on a silver platter, or erases all pain, grief, and suffering. It doesn't work that way. We believe because His love endures our pain, our sin, and our struggle. He gives back to us the assurance of the salvation of hope and endurance to the very end of time. Endurance forges a character that is stronger than steel. God's love lifts us up for endurance in the battles of life. Through God's love, a brand is burned forever on our character: His brand.
Our need may be great. In fact, it may be huge, but perseverance in the love of God keeps us patient and kind and waiting for perfection to come and the impartial to pass away. We dare not ever lose sight of this if we care about the strength of our character at all! Feel Christ's brand of possession on your character and on your whole person. Trust your faith in Him.
~~Prayer~~
Dear God who has placed a brand on us: thank you for claiming us as Your own beloved children. Build up our endurance and trust in You for withstanding all that life throws our way. Amen.