Lenten Thoughts

Sunrise at Camp Lakeview, Indiana
2011, dwm photo

It's impossible to find anything about the season of Lent in the Bible.

Lent is 40 days, not counting Sundays, which began Ash Wednesday (March 1) and ends with the celebration of Easter (April 16).

It's an opportunity for somber reflection on our sins and the sins of the world.  The penalty for those sins is death.

The penalty was paid once and for all by Jesus Christ's death on the cross.

We can't earn salvation by living good lives or giving up something during this season.  Fasting or putting something aside is good discipline, but not a way to get righteous.

Our church is using the six weeks to reflect on various places in the Passion story.

The Upper Room and the Garden of Gethsemane are two prominent places to stop and pay attention to Christ's suffering on His way to the cross where he paid our everlasting debt.

The silver lining for Christians is we know the end of the story.

After dying on the cross on a Friday, Jesus rises from the dead Sunday, put His seal of victory over death and the devil.