Ash Wednesday

Our prayer at the end of yesterday's offering, was all about the Blood of Jesus. We spoke of the Truth, Trustworthiness and Triumph of the Blood of Jesus.

On this Special Day, called Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our Lenten Season, we thank God for Jesus and His Saving Blood. We come seeking to learn more about blood as we return to the shedding of blood long ago, on that first Passover time. In ever brightening and captivating light, we have been returned to Father God and His words to His children, before the work of the saving blood was accomplished.    

Listen again to the voice of care, concern and deep commitment of unfailing Love for us sinners and hear how God's Love goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. Breathe in again, the great faithfulness of a covenant making and covenant keeping God and fall before our Maker.

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the Israelites: I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD. Exodus 6: 5 - 8. 

I offer you, on this day of beginning, this Ash Wednesday, these words of our Ever Loving, Ever Caring Heavenly Father who sees the condition and position of His children, you and me, and who is calling us to receive His already planned and completed works of Salvation in Jesus. But we must know the mind and heart of our Father towards us. Is it not the same heart and mind towards the children of Israel in their enslaved state? Can you not, by faith, hear God saying to Jesus, Saviour of the world, these words about us?  Listen again to Exodus 6: 6 – 8 as we hear it personally, with the heart and mind of faith. It is as people whose hearts and minds have been prepared and are ready to receive and respond, that we can hear our Heavenly Father’s covenant promise to us. 

I am the LORD

I will bring you out from under the yoke of sin.

I will free you from being slaves to sin.

I will redeem you with an outstretched hand and with mighty acts of judgment.

I will take you as My own.

I will be your God then you will know that I am the LORD your God.

I will bring you to the place of promise.

I will give it to you as a possession.

I am the LORD.

It is in the unwavering knowledge and sure believe that Father God does love us with an Enduring, Saving Love that we make the commitment as people of God, with heart and mind fixed on His Love that we are resolved to celebrate this Lenten Season.

Advisedly, we pause on this day of beginning, to ensure that we all have our hearts and minds, our wills and ways, all dead to us, so that we have all received clean hearts, renewed spirits, denied selves and Spirit-controlled minds. We each must be sure that we are prepared to face whatever this time of celebration requires of us, for to be unprepared will be most shameful. Indeed, it is wise to ensure this fact before any of us proceeds, in travel, in whichever way the Spirit leads.

We turn to the wisdom of Paul, as he speaks to the believers at Corinth on a matter of preparation. He tells them that he has been boasting about their readiness and enthusiasm in this special time of service to the Macedonians. However, Paul is wise and solid in his guided ways, as he sends some believers ahead, to the Church at Corinth, to ensure that their boasting about the believers there, in the particular matter at hand, should not prove hollow. Paul is ensuring that the Corinthian Church is ready and prepared as he said they would be. Paul goes on to say this. For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we – not to say anything about you – would be ashamed of having been so confident. 2 Corinthians 9:  4.

Paul did not just speak or write words to the people in Corinth. He sent some of his team in advance, to help the Corinthians complete their preparations and readiness.

It is in this wisdom that we will complete the remainder of this week.