Now that I’ve risked making YOU feel like YOU are unimportant, let me correct back to who YOU are that God would send Jesus as payment for your sins. 

He loves you and in Christ, you are family.  This love is powerful and salvific.

What kind of love is that? Scripture says in 1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

Any of us who have children know they are not carbon-copies of each other.  They are not clones.  They aren’t even similar in looks or temperament in many cases.  Not even twins are fully identical in every way. But each child is fully family. By the grace of God, we are all adopted children, loved as family!

Setting aside the bad case examples for a moment…parents, imperfect though we are, still love our children because they are our children.  Sometimes, parents can acknowledge that they don’t like a particular tantrum or action, yet good parents (and God is the best!) love our kids.

For this reason, each person–in Christ–can have a sense of belonging to something greater than self…we are family.

In Galatians 6: 9-10, it says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

You are important as a member of this family, of Christ’s Church.

Thank You, Father, that You love us, called us into Your family, Your Church!  What a privilege that just as we do not choose our birth families, we did not choose ourselves to be in Your Church.  Your grace alone accomplishes this act of love.  May we respond with hearts of gratitude always.  In Jesus’ Name and for His glory.  Amen.

Here’s a good litmus test for our understanding of how “God loves YOU, God cares for YOU, Jesus died for YOU” and how YOU view this love…made personal to YOU by well-meaning evangelical pastors looking for a new convert.

Another favorite idea with Bible-believing Christians in the evangelical world is predestination, meaning that God chose YOU before He ever created YOU, which admittedly is a lovely thought.

Take the predestination litmus test:
Suppose YOU are wrong.  YOU were not among the chosen.  Jesus died for others, but He did not die for YOU personally. 
Now, think of the person YOU hate the most.  
The individual who has wronged YOU in unthinkable ways.  Maybe someone YOU are waiting for God’s vengeance against, the peer who always escapes accountability or justice or seems to get ahead while YOU don’t.  Think of the ex-husband, ex-wife, or rebellious children who have hated YOU with every ounce of their being and proclaimed that to YOUR face.  Think of the person who abused YOU, took YOUR promotion by taking credit for YOUR ideas, did unthinkable things to YOU, stole from YOU, or committed other crimes or insults against YOU.  Just being real here, but if YOU are such a perfect Christian that YOU don’t harbor any negative emotions or thoughts regarding anyone…think of someone who hurt someone YOU love.

Now tell yourself that instead of YOU (not chosen),
God loves “that person.”  God cares about “that person.”  Jesus died for “that person.” 
And chose “that person” YOU hate, not YOU.
To fulfill Scripture, it happened before that person had done anything good or bad
so that election might stand apart from works.
This is the danger of the personal YOU focus.

“What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!  For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9:14-16)

You see, if God loves His Image-bearers (as a group and as individuals) and cares for them and died for them, it makes more sense.  If God loves the group and the individual, Jesus died so that “in Him” they could be saved just as the Way was predestined.   Yes, it means that some of those people are like the thief on the cross next to Jesus—even someone YOU secretly hate in your silent moments can come to a saving faith.  The grace of Christ means none of us is beyond redemption because none of us earns His favor.

Prayerfully ask yourself whether YOU have unwittingly made yourself more in the scenario than a sinner in need of forgiveness. 

Lord Jesus, thank You for level ground at the foot of the Cross and how any of Your Image-bearers can find refuge and forgiveness there. Your grace is beyond our understanding, the power of Your blood is sufficient to cover any of our sins. Help us to see that it is not a contradiction for You to love Your Church, Your people, Your world, and in the miniature, each man, woman, or child whom You have called…personally. Turn our focus, O Holy Spirit, toward magnifying Christ and minimizing ourselves. With right mind, clear and sober assessment, focus our hearts on considering that we bring nothing to the equation except a repentant heart wanting nearness to Jesus. Give us right minds in these terrible days in which society screams for us to seek self. May we seek You and live. Amen.

What is mankind that God is mindful of us? 
And beyond that, exactly how personal does God get
with knowing us individually?

Evangelicals are fond of the personal relationship aspect of Christianity. Especially at Easter, pastors will often emphasize that “God loves YOU!”  Which God does, it’s just His love is on a totally different level than we can experience from fellow human beings. 

God loving YOU is an easy sell. 
It’s so inviting, costing us nothing,
that it’s almost a platitude in its commonly portrayed lack of depth.

Pastors continue “God cares about YOU!”  He cares about what you’re going through as an individual.  Which He does, but in a different way than we can fathom.  For that reason, it may not always look like He cares about YOU because He’s doing things His way, not the way any of us might want.  But like “God loves YOU”, the idea that “God cares about YOU” is an easy sell because it’s sold through the lens of our lives and the world revolving around us, not His Word and His Will.

“Jesus died for YOU,” is the Easter proclamation of many pastors.  Which is true but God cares about His Image and He cares about YOU—both/and—not either/or.  “Jesus died for YOU”, however, is the easy sell, and why? Because the focus is on YOU. 

So much emphasis on YOU,
it was all done for YOU, and how all YOU have to do is receive it,
risks turning the sacrifice of Christ backwards in a sense,
and makes YOU into the deity…instead of God. 

We can be so focused on YOU that we can totally forget that it cost Jesus everything.  It cost the Father everything.  Worship or exaltation of YOU had nothing to do with it. 

I know it’s hard for those of us with a more evangelical mindset, but today, I’d ask that YOU reflect upon how YOU are simply a side-beneficiary of a transaction that didn’t involve YOU…personally…at all.  It was personal between Jesus Christ—the Son of God—and God the Father.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your sacrifice of love. Thank You for Your faithfulness to finish the work the Father sent You to do. Help us to balance our true understanding of the true love You have for us with the full knowledge that grace means–by definition–unmerited favor. There’s nothing we did to earn it. It was all You. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, guide us to look beyond ourselves and give us discernment for the ways in which our Christian culture of tame Christianity leads us down a path of comfortable focus upon ourselves. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive the well-meaning pastors who fail to speak the cost of salvation, who for the sake of comfortable converts, fail to teach true Biblical Christianity, which is far from feel-good, easy sells. A call to crucify ourselves, our old ways, our old lives, and our old devotions, to pick up our cross and to follow You. Even if it’s into the way of suffering, this is the call of discipleship and what we owe You. We owe You our lives. We humbly ask Your help, for us to be bold for You, even more because the days are short before Your return in Judgment. Open our eyes to see the fields are ripe for harvest, give us hearts to love others, and send us as harvest workers for Your glory. Amen.

Throughout Lent, I emphasized the point that we are Image-bearers. Each person belonging to the human race is endowed with this Image-bearing. Now because of sin, it’s in broken form–a relic of what once was…in original created perfection. 

It was my hope to offer a helpful corrective to the human-centric
“Jesus thinks you’re so special that He died so you can be happy” nonsense
that is peddled by many so-called pastors. 

If Jesus died for that, then He’s playing favorites.  He’s picking His basketball team and either you’re on it or you’re not, and it depends on you and your abilities or special qualities that Jesus finds endearing or desirable.  That makes God self-serving and capricious at best.

But if God so loved the world, that Jesus died for His Image-sake,
then any Image-bearer finds level ground at the foot of the Cross. 

It doesn’t matter the family you were born into, any innate abilities, any endearing qualities, good looks, strength, smarts, or anything else.  We all start at level ground, standing together in need of forgiveness. And it’s ours if we’ll only repent of our sins to restore relationship with our God and receive this free gift of His grace.

Take a moment today to consider where you are. In the flow of time and in the story of the Bible and God’s redemptive work in the world, we’re nearing the end of the story. Time remaining is short.

Who is man that God is mindful of us?

We will explore this question over the next few weeks, but for now, in light of Jesus’ imminent return in judgment, please get right with the Lord. There are no do-overs on this one.

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  It’s traditional celebratory verbiage for Christians at Easter.  The tomb was empty and that’s worth celebrating, but why was the tomb empty?  Because He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! While a circular answer, that’s not what I’m asking.

Why was it necessary that the tomb be empty…that Christ rose bodily from the dead?

If His body was still there, we could say He was alive in spirit and had a new body, but there would be no evidence to back up our claim.  The empty tomb is one piece of evidence that He is Risen.

But there’s more to it than that. Ours will rise, just not yet. Our bodies—when we die and are buried—can yet be exhumed.  Our eternal life is already with soul and spirit but not with our bodies until the Return of Christ.  His Resurrection makes ours possible.

But there’s more still.  He appeared to people with His Risen body…which still bore the marks (the stigmata) of crucifixion.  He was Jesus, not a ghost, but flesh and bones as the significant piece of fish showed us on Lent 27.

Because He has a Risen body, we will get one too when He returns, the dead in Christ rising first (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  We will resemble ourselves but also perfected as God’s Image-bearers.

The empty tomb and the encounters of the early disciples with the Risen Lord to be witnesses (in real time and in Scripture recorded for us) are meant to encourage us and embolden us.  Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The body and soul (Image-bearing identity) are coupled in this life but separated at death.  Jesus’ Resurrection shows us that death no longer has a hold on our bodies and eternal life replaces mortality.  Death has lost its sting.

The demons in Hell’s prison know it and writhe now in eternal anguish, awaiting Judgment Day, and no longer laughing, mocking God’s people as under the same curse.  The curse has been broken and the empty tomb is Exhibit A.  Exhibit B is His Resurrection appearance to disciples, but adding to the compelling truth is this: At His Ascension, Jesus’ sacrifice was totally accepted by His Father. It was proven in the coming of the promised Holy Spirit to dwell in believers who are now fully clean and forgiven, born again to eternal life, and which will include resurrection bodies at Christ’s Return.

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow is ours
because He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

At His death, where did Jesus’ Very Image of God go? He wasn’t extinguished…with no spirit, no soul bearing the Image of God, a dead body only.  If He wasn’t extinguished, what happened at His death?  It’s “deep time” on the Image of God.

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In the past, when the ancients in faith died, they had no spirit of life left, just a dead body.  Their souls (Image-bearing identity) went to the place Jesus refers to as Abraham’s side.  Any ancients without faith died and were buried.  They went to Hades in torment (with their Image-bearing identity).  According to Jesus, Luke 16:22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.  23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side”.

Souls—even with identity–don’t have the bodies they left behind.  In the past, a human body was in the ground, the human’s Image-bearing soul was at Abraham’s side for those of faith, but the spirit was gone.  No life.  The curse of death persisted as the wages of sin.  Dust to dust.  No spirit of life.

In the moment of His death, Jesus, I’d argue, was different for a multitude of reasons.  “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’” (Luke 23:46).

He gave up His fully human spirit life and died a fully human death.  But He was also fully God.  His Spirit-life was never extinguished by a curse of death.  Unlike us, death had no hold on Him.  Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me” and this fulfilled Scripture from Isaiah, according to Luke 4:16-21.

His human body was dead enough to be in a tomb on Holy Saturday.  But His Spirit-life and Very Image soul went straight to Abraham’s side…the place Jesus called “paradise” to the thief next to Him at Crucifixion.  Here’s the distinction: Jesus showed up at Abraham’s side with His Spirit-life in addition to His Very Image of God soul.  His Spirit-life made all the difference.  The only thing Jesus left behind was His earthly body which would be resurrected.

Focus for Lent: Those ancients of faith who had been imprisoned by the curse of death (no life), were souls without life until Jesus set them free by His earthly death and Spirit-life.  His Spirit-life gave them eternal life and once He was resurrected, He’d be able to give them bodily resurrection in due time.  They will rise first when He returns according to the Apostle Paul (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Questions for even deeper thought:

Jesus, we’re told, also made proclamation to the disobedient imprisoned spirits, the distress for them so great it’s something people sometimes refer to as the Harrowing of Hell. 

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.   19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits– 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.”

As long as all humanity was imprisoned (obedient at Abraham’s side/bosom and disobedient in Hades), the disobedient could still taunt.  Prison was, after all, prison.  And death came to all. It was prison for everyone, “ha-ha” was the taunt of the disobedient.

But then here comes Jesus with His Spirit-life, able to give life to all.  He even talked about it in a sense,

John 6:60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you– they are full of the Spirit and life. (Jn. 6:60-63 NIV)

Suddenly the disobedient aren’t laughing anymore.  Abraham’s side gets the spirit-life, freedom, and eternal life.  Ah, but the souls who are disobedient will also have eternity, but they will remain imprisoned in hell.  God will not be mocked, and Jesus silences laughter of the willfully ignorant mockers.

In what way was mortality for Image-bearers made possible by sin, but eternity was made possible by Jesus’ resurrection?

One final point of depth in Scripture (and truly I don’t have all the answers, but I read God’s Word and these things make sense to me).  Matthew tells us of a weird scene from the Crucifixion and beyond.  It’s almost as if he breaks the timeline into happening now, happening spiritually, and will happen someday when Jesus returns.

Matthew 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.  51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

No other gospel writer mentions this event, but keep in mind that Matthew was written to the Jews for the purpose of displaying Jesus as Messiah.

So, on this Holy Saturday, to recap as we fully appreciate Jesus as the Very Image of God in advance of the empty tomb with His body resurrected, setting the launch for resurrection of all the faithful…

Jesus is God’s Very Image of Perfect Love, Perfect Holiness, Perfect Unity, Perfect Knowledge, Perfect Sacrifice, Perfect Mercy, Perfect Relationship, Perfect Creativity, Perfect Submission, Perfect Rulership, Perfect Service, Perfect Patience, Perfect Endurance, Perfect Completion, Perfect Ethics, Perfect Mindset, Perfect Justice, Perfect Goodness, Perfect Faithfulness, Perfect Peace, Perfect Gentleness, and Perfect Self-control.  These, among others, encircle the Image of God in us and form His fingerprint upon human life, broken now, but born again to perfection at His Return.

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This concludes the Lenten Devotional Series for 2023. Thank you for coming with me on this journey. Wishing you all a blessed Easter with full confidence that He is Risen, He is Risen indeed.

In the words of Eugene Peterson, perseverance is a long obedience in the same direction.  Jesus knew it by living it.  He persevered until the very end.

After fulfilling the very last of Scripture needing fulfillment by drinking vinegar from a sponge (one last act of kindness from some anonymous person to our dying Savior) Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Focus for Lent: The 33-year ministry of our Lord Jesus reached its end in earthly form.

Questions for further thought:

How does Jesus’ ministry continue? What role does discipleship play?

They were real people who were at the foot of the Cross on which our Savior died.  They heard His last words.  They saw how He died. Yet, Scripture keeps almost all of them anonymous.   In what way did they perform this following Scripture? “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? (Matthew 25:37).

On the Holy Week calendar, Maundy Thursday was the night of the Last Supper (when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in an act of humility and service). On Good Friday at the Cross, someone served Him. That person didn’t know He would rise from the dead as Messiah. To that person with the sponge, maybe Jesus was just another being crucified, no one special, yet that person served anyway. In what way did that person display the Image of God? 

Prayer:  Lord, help me to be a compassionate and loving person at all times, not just when there’s something in it for me.  Help me to neither seek fame nor attention.  The temptation is great to want to be known for what we do, to go viral or have many followers.  I ask for Your help in resisting that.  May I be content with Your awareness and knowledge alone.  That the good things I do quietly and in secret will be rewarded by You someday.  It’s an act of faith to persevere when we cannot see the fruit or know the outcome.  It’s an act of trust that whatever small good we bring, when it’s given to You, multiplication of what is good is what You do.  Give me the kind of servant’s heart that knows Your pleasure and is well-content with that.  Thank You Lord for showing the way.  I love you, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

I find oddities interesting.  The same Jesus who had food to eat that no one knew about and could resist hunger when tempted to make stones into bread, spoke one simple Greek word (διψάω) among the last 7 phrases He spoke upon the Cross: “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28) or as the KJV has it, “I thirst”.

It was an odd thing to say except Scripture prefaces it with “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.”“

Here’s the same guy who “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38)

How could He possibly thirst with living water? 
Here’s the key: He was diligent, ensuring that all Scripture about Him had been fulfilled.
Meticulous perfection is what one would expect from full deity–
and it was held in beautiful tension with
the subject of thirst as a powerful affirmation of His humanity.

Focus for Lent: It was necessary that both divinity (Very Image of God) and humanity were fully on the Cross in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Questions for further thought:

Which Scripture was being fulfilled? After all, the Greek word (διψάω) shows up nowhere in the Scripture of Jesus’ day…not even in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. 

Some suggestions are Psalm 69:21”They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.“  Or Psalm 22:15 “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. “

Other options, perhaps He was quoting from Psalm 42 or 63, uttering but a single word aloud for a man who struggled to breathe under the painful agony of the Cross and longing for intimacy with the Father, now impossible because of the payment for sin. 

Psalm 63:1 A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

What if with vinegar on a sponge, He fulfilled Scripture by one audible utterance? I’m confident that Jesus was comforting Himself with His Word. As fully human, He was no doubt thirsty in the hot afternoon sun. But His focus was Scripture. What about this one?

Psalm 143:1 A psalm of David. LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. 2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. 3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. 4 So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. 5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. 6 I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land. 7 Answer me quickly, LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. 8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. 9 Rescue me from my enemies, LORD, for I hide myself in you. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. 11 For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. 12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.” 

I am struck by how Psalm 143 encompasses themes of so many Good Friday/ Crucifixion scenes and “last words”.  What do you think?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we thirst for You, for the living water welling up to eternal life! We praise You and thank You for Your faithfulness upon the Cross, and for all the ways You were faithful to do the Father’s work until the very end. Indeed, You put Your trust in God the Father throughout Your ministry. Please show us the way we should go as we entrust our lives to You. We pray that You will rescue us from our enemies as we hide ourselves in You. We pray that You will teach us to do Your will and by Your Holy Spirit, to walk on level ground in confidence of Your unfailing love. Father, please bring us out of trouble, silence our enemies, and destroy the wicked who only want to propagate wickedness in Your face and in our midst. We take no vengeance but leave room for Yours. We wait patiently for your Name’s sake. Amen.

Jesus said many confusing things on earth.  This passage in John 6:48-60 is one of them.

Jesus said, John 6:48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

Yeah, it was a hard teaching then, but for those of us on this side of the Cross, having witnessed the Last Supper in Scripture, we can understand that Jesus’ Crucifixion was not a bad turn where evil got the upper hand and we’re suddenly all becoming cannibals. 

Focus for Lent:  Evil did not get the upper hand.  It was the plan.

Questions for further thought:

Is it any surprise, then, that Jesus who said, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about…to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:32-34) that He would comfort Himself with Scripture, even as He was dying?

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

As God’s Very Image, Jesus yet felt in His full humanity, the forsaken condition of the sinner on account of sin.  He felt it.  He knew as deity that sin was deserving of wrath.  He comforted Himself by calling out to His Father as His earthly ancestor David did (Psalm 22), identifying with him. 

How did doing the will of God nourish Him as the wrath of God against sin was paid in full? I don’t mean to question other pastors and theologians who say God turned His back on His Son and their view of what happened. But I must ask, did God stop loving His Son in that moment in order to pour out wrath?

Did God actually forsake Him (as God’s Very Image), or did it bring glory to the Father that Jesus was crucified, identifying as sin in Image-bearers to pay the penalty of sin, according to His will? 

Would God forsake Him as deity for doing the will of God or was Jesus expressing a cry of humanity in need of God’s intervention?  See Philippians 2:6-11. Was He forsaken only in His humanity or also as deity?

Prayer: Father God, some teachings are hard for us to understand—that Jesus would humble Himself to death on a Cross and what happened to the Very Image that Jesus was/is in that moment of His death.  Surely Your full wrath even for a moment–it is an excruciating thought that Jesus would bear this! Oh, Lord, and that we caused this pain! It’s a hard teaching… hard to understand… hard to fathom that kind of love for us as Your Image-bearers… hard for us to fully comprehend how offensive sin is to You!  Jesus became sin for us. We ask Lord that You would give us understanding in some small way to make sense out of the senseless so that we can appreciate to the fullest extent Your grace, Your compassion, Your mercy, Your love, and Your forgiveness for the very ones who offended You … in every manner, all the time.  We thank You, Lord, that even though our hearts still seem inclined to only evil all the time as mankind before the Flood, yet You do not destroy us without offering the opportunity for redemption of Your Image in us. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank You Lord Jesus for Your sacrifice!  All glory be to You. Amen.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2023 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

• Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
•  A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God  which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014. 
• Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations.  We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17. 
• ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
• Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ.  It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
• Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
• Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
• Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
• The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
• Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.