Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.You will hear these words this evening if you choose to receive the cross of ashes upon your forehead.These words will again be said as your body is returned to the soil.Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.
Humbling, isn’t it to hear these words.We are reminded of how temporary, how fleeting our life here is.
Ash Wed looks at everything in our lives that threatens to turn our lives to dust.We started with the solemn confession of Psalm 51 begging God to create in us a clean heart, asking God to remove sin from our lives.
People who have had a bowel or urinary blockage know that it has to be removed or one becomes very sick unto death.This Lenten season is a time to deal with the blockages in relationship to God, to ourselves, and to people with whom we live.Sin sucks the life out of us.Lent, known as the springtime of the soul, is a time of honest examination of our lives; looking at what is life-giving and what sin needs to be removed.
Personally, Lent is one of my favorite times of the year.Each day, through deliberate practices or disciplines I am reminded that God draws near to us bestowing grace upon grace.
Lent is not necessarily a time of giving something up, but discovering anew the source of life in the gracious, merciful, slow to anger, steadfast love of a blessing God.
Lent is a time of drawing into the Word of God, to study, to dwell in the Word of God.It is there that we learn of the loving God who is in relationship with us, so much so, that God dwells amongst us.
This Lent we will journey to the Cross together drawing our attention specifically to the story and the reality of the Cross of Jesus in our Context.
Lent invites us to invite the Holy Spirit to breathe life more fully into lives that are nothing but dust and ashes without the Life-giving Spirit of Jesus the Christ.
Yes, take this time of Lent; read the Gospels, as a time to tithe your focus upon the life-giving Cross of Jesus Christ.Invite the Holy Spirit to walk with you through the Holy Bible.Read the Gospels and put life into these temporary bodies of ours.
