Ash Wednesday Devotional

We start with Ash Wednesday, and the Devotionals will be posted on the Facebook site late on Tuesday.  So you can read it at the FACEBOOK site Christ Lutheran Community Church Upper Darby or you can find the devotions posted on Pastor Stewart’s Blog, “SNAPSHOTS IN LIFE”.  My prayer is that one might find their own path for a discipline of renewal in their journey with God.

Try a slow reading of Joel 2 the first lesson for Ash Wednesday.  See what you might be called upon to do as a God follower or just as a God searcher…

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near-
2:2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.
2:12 Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
2:13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
2:14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God?
2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly;
2:16 gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.
2:17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

Some words that I will be pondering today:

"Return to me," God pleads to his people through the prophet Joel.  Twice in this passage he begs, "Return." We all tend to stray from God.  We get too busy with many things.  We drift off in other directions.  God's Lenten call is "Return to me." He doesn't plead, "Return to the church" or "Return to the Bible," but "Return to me." This will involve both the church and the Bible, but we can't stop with them.  They are avenues to God himself.  He wants a Person-to-person relationship.  He wants a two-way love, heart-to-heart.

God tells how he wants us to return to him.  'With all your heart" is his first request.  This return is no place for half-heartedness.  It's all or nothing with God.  Jesus taught that the first and great commandment is, 'You shall-love the Lord your God with all your heart." God specified "fasting" next.  This fasting is not to reduce weight, but to grow closer to God.  Fasting is common in Lent, when it takes the form of some self-denial in order to give the saved money or time to God and to others.  The positive side of fasting must be accented. 

Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments.  Rev. Rich.