Jonathan's Journals
February, 2005
Lent is the season in the church year which marks our time of preparation for Easter. It is a time when we do serious self-examination as we focus on our relationship with Christ. In the early church, catechumens (people who were receiving instruction on the Christian faith in order to receive baptism and become members of the church) would go through a period of intense spiritual preparation during the forty days prior to Easter. They were taught about prayer, about fasting, about the Scriptures, and about the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. On Easter, the whole church would celebrate the resurrection of Christ as new converts went through the baptismal waters of dying with Christ in order to be raised from the waters in the power of Christ’s resurrection and new life. This period of 40 days became known as “Lent,” which literally just means “spring.” It also became known as a time when long-term Christians renewed their faith by focusing on the remembrance of their baptism and all that Christ had done for them.
Last year, we as a church did the Forty Days of Purpose as a program of spiritual renewal during the season of Lent. We considered the place of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism in our lives together as Christians. This year during Lent, we are looking more specifically at the spiritual disciplines as avenues through which we become more receptive to God’s grace. We will be using as a resource Maxie Dunnam’s Workbook on Spiritual Disciplines. The spiritual disciplines we will explore include study of Scripture, prayer, generosity, solitude, service, fasting, and worship.
I want to make clear that the spiritual disciplines are not ways that we earn God’s favor. God is eager to pour his free grace and mercy into our lives, if we will just open the door. The trouble is that we have blocked the door through our sins and bad habits and have become callous to the ways that the Holy Spirit is trying to draw us into relationship with God through Christ. Exercising the spiritual disciplines are one way we open up the doors of our lives to God’s grace, so that we can experience and be shaped by his unmerited favor. Through the spiritual disciplines, we can put ourselves in the right posture to notice what God is trying to do for us and thus be able to receive God’s grace in our lives.
If you have not already expressed an interest in being a part of a small group during Lent to study the Workbook on Spiritual Disciplines, I hope you will call the church office soon, and let us know of your interest. Several members of the church have already indicated that they would be willing to host groups in their homes. These groups will meet at different times during the week, and we will work hard to try to accommodate everyone’s schedule. The meetings will last one hour, and will be based on conversation about what people have read during the previous week, as well as how they have responded to the material through their own experiences. This is a wonderful opportunity not only to learn, but to have Christian fellowship with others and become closer friends in Christ.
Recently I saw someone at the YMCA who had more muscles in his little finger than I had in my whole body. He had just come from the workout room where he had obviously been working out and lifting weights. Here was a person who took his physical health so seriously that he was willing to discipline himself through a program of exercise and training. His muscles did not just pop-up over night. They were the result of years of regular discipline. As Christians, we do not grow spiritual muscles just by sitting on the couch. God wants us to grow into spiritual maturity so much that He has given us these wonderful gifts -- these spiritual disciplines – so that we can become more Christ-like. This spiritual maturity, just like physical muscles, is a free gift of God. May we do what we can to receive the gift and to embody the gift in our lives.
