Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
URGENT Appeal for the South Sudan
http://anglicancatholic.org/news/Bishop-Garang-Issues-Urgent-Appeal-for-Aid
Bishop Garang Issues Urgent Appeal for Aid
Mar 27, 2017
Food relief is essential for the most vulnerable populations--the pregnant, the elderly, and the young.
In recent months both the ACC website and The Trinitarian have reported on the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan. Though many have responded, the situation remains dire, leading Bishop Wilson Garang to make the following appeal.
In February 2017 the United Nations formally declared famine in South Sudan. According to a recently released report, 4.9 million people are in need of urgent food. This is more than 40 percent of South Sudan's total population.
The total number of food insecure people is expected to rise to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the severity of the crisis. The UN report also notes that more than one million children are currently estimated to be acutely malnourished across South Sudan.
The Diocese of Aweil has also been severely affected by the famine since last year. Many have migrated from Aweil to North Sudan in search of food. Others have resorted to collecting wild fruits and leaves for food.
I am therefore appealing to well-wishers to donate funds to provide famine relief. Donations will be used to distribute food to the most severely affected and the vulnerable--pregnant mothers, households with children below five years of age, and the elderly. Items to be distributed will include sorghum, maize, beans, powdered milk, Unimix, and Plumpy'Nut.
Your brothers and sisters in South Sudan pray for aid. Those who are in need will not forget what you do. May God bless you.
+Wilson
Donations for famine relief may be made through the Saint Paul Mission Society. Click here to find out how.
Tagged: aweil, food, famine, relief, donations, saint paul mission society
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Fourth Sunday in Lent at the URL below
http://anglicancontinuum.blogspot.com/2015/03/fourth-sunday-in-lent.html?m=1
Friday, March 24, 2017
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Synagō
For the Third
Sunday in Lent
He that is not with me is against me: and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth. (Luke 11:23)
What does it mean to gather with Christ? It is
possible that the word "gather" was meant to convey the idea of kibutz (קָבַץ), a word that the modern world became familiar
with because of the early Zionists and the state of Israel
It is also significant that this line is recorded
in a context about spiritual warfare and the attack of the Kingdom of God, a
frontal assault to take back territory formerly siezed by Satan, and
to set hostages free. Going back to v. 20, we see that context:
But if I with the finger of God cast out devils,
no doubt the kingdom
of God
And what follows is about spiritual warfare also,
with a warning.
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he
walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will
return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it
swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits
more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last
state of that man is worse than the first. (vs. 24-26)
Gathering with Christ and His Church seems to be
one and the same, at the very least inseparable. When on his way to die in
a Roman arena, St. Ignatius wrote several letters to various churches (circa
110 AD). Though he knew that he himself would never return to his bishopric in Antioch
The alternative is to be part of a great
scattering, a life of isolation where it is all too easy to avoid the clutter
of prayer, worship, sacraments and sound doctrine. In that scattering an
individual becomes such a house as Christ describes, "swept and garnished,"
ready for the habitation of evil plus more evil times seven. That last state is
worse than the first.
Koinonia
Another word that is relevant to the subject of
gathering with Christ and His Church is the word translated as
"fellowship," which is koinōnia (κοινωνία).
"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship (κοινωνία) with us: and truly our fellowship is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." (I John 1:4) Here we see that this
fellowship is impossible without the truth of Apostolic doctrine, the
word of God in Scripture.
This same word, koinōnia, is
translated "communion" speaking very directly of the sacrament of
Christ's Body and Blood. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not
the communion (κοινωνία) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we
break, is it not the communion (κοινωνία) of the body of Christ?"
(I Cor. 10:16)
A form of this word is used also to say we are
partakers. That is koinōnos (κοινωνός).
"But rejoice, inasmuch as ye
are partakers (κοινωνός) of Christ's sufferings; that,
when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."
(I Pet. 4:13)
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises: that by these ye might
be partakers (κοινωνός) of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust." (II Pet. 1:4)
Contrary to that is a kind of fellowship from
which we are told to turn away.
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are
ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit
of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and
truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them (Ephesians
5:8-11)."
In that passage we see a form of the same word
translated "fellowship," sygkoinōneō (συγκοινωνέω). With
what have we fellowship, that is communion? The Body and Blood of Christ, or the
unfruitful works of darkness? With whom have we fellowship, that is communion?
Christ and His Body the Church, or "the world, the flesh and the devil?" Choose.
One can see the skillful use of words in our
Service of Holy Communion when we come across such lines as, "humbly
beseeching thee, that all we, who are partakers of this
holy communion, may be fulfilled with thy grace and heavenly
benediction." The scholars of the Church of England were second to none,
and they knew exactly what they were saying in light of the Biblical use of
words that formed their thinking.
We partake, we communicate, we have fellowship;
this is with Christ and His Church; and it is across all barriers of time and
space. As St. John
That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we
have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was
with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (I
John 1:1-4)
Our Synagogue
Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us
consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting
one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Heb.
10:22-25)
That word "assembling" is a translation
of yet another form of the word "synagogue." It is episynagōgē
(ἐπισυναγωγή).
I do not know what value each of you place on the
fellowship of God's Church, especially in countries where the choices seem
endless, and where it is so free and easy to gather together. Unlike the
ancient Christians under the Roman persecution before 313 AD, and unlike many
Christians in various countries where the Church suffers persecution, modern
western Christians do not take a risk or pay a high price for the opportunity
to assemble. But, to understand the value everyone ought to place on the
fellowship of God's holy Church, let us summarize the points we have learned in
this brief study.
When we gather as the Church we gather with
Christ Himself. If we do not so gather or assemble together, we scatter and
become prey for the enemy. If anyone doubts the reality of that peril, let
us look at the very next verse from the portion we have quoted of
the Epistle to the Hebrews. Vs. 26, 27 tell us, "For if we sin
willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Why
does the writer, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, warn that
forsaking the assembling together of the Church leads to a state of willful
sin? Need we really ask this question?
When we gather as the Church we have fellowship.
This is not merely social; more than that it is also sacramental and
theological. That it is sacramental is obvious, as we have seen from the
passage about the communion of Christ's Body and Blood. That it is theological
is obvious, because of what John tells us about the doctrine of the Apostles
who touched, who heard and who saw the Incarnate Christ (especially as they
again touched, heard and saw Him after He had risen from the dead). Our
fellowship and communion is in the truth of God's word and it is sacramental.
It is with God, and it is with one another. Across barriers of time, we have
fellowship with the Apostles themselves by believing their testimony
and doctrine; this fellowship is with God and with His Son. We have
communion with Christ's Body and Blood; we have fellowship one with another;
together we look forward to the day when we may be partakers of the Divine
nature.
I hope you are not planning to sleep late this
Sunday.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
THAT DANGEROUSLY SUBVERSIVE CROSS
And as Jesus was going up to
Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,
"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be
delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and
deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he
will be raised on the third day."
Then the mother of the sons of
Zeb'edee came up to him, with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him
for something. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to
him, "Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand
and one at your left, in your kingdom." But Jesus answered, "You do
not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to
drink?" They said to him, "We are able." He
said to them, "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at
my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared
by my Father." And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two
brothers. But
Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It
shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your
servant, and
whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even
as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many." – Matthew 20:17-28 RSV
__________________________________
For the above quotation I have chosen to use the Revised
Standard Version (RSV) translated in the 1950s rather than the Authorized Version
of 1611, strictly because I wanted the word “servant” rather than the word “minister.”
Granted, in 1611 it was understood that “minister,” as a noun, and “servant”
were synonyms, and that “minister” as a verb, and “serve,” were also synonyms. The
word translated “servant” in this passage is διακονέω (diakoneo) from which
we get the English word “deacon.” It may seem doubly ironic that I chose a word
other than “minister,” that is, for any who either never knew or have forgotten
that when we call a man a deacon it is the same as calling him a servant. In a sermon I once wrote for Palm Sunday,
expounding on the great Christological passage in Philippians chapter two, I related
this story: “In
a rather unhappy conversation with a man who aspired to be a priest, I asked
the question, ‘What is it that you want?’ He answered me, ‘I want to be a
priest; in fact, I want to be a bishop.’ He even said, ‘Isn’t it right to want
to get to the top of your field?’ I told him that he should forget the whole
idea of Holy Orders for himself. I said I would not help him with it at all. I
went on to explain to him that this is not about ambition. Every priest,
including the Archbishop, is forever a deacon, that is, a servant. He said that
he had never heard that before. Had he not read what Saint
Paul
What we see in the Gospel passage, in
the way that St. Matthew placed these two events together in succession, is a
very clever use of irony by the former tax collector turned Apostle. In the
much the same way St. Luke writes about the other passage in which Jesus said much
the same thing to the Apostles as in what we read above. That is because, after
telling them that He was about to be handed over to the Gentiles, and that one
of them would betray Him to the terrible suffering and death that was now upon
Him, we read, “And there was also a strife among them,
which of them should be accounted the greatest (Luke 22:24).”
Lifestyles of the rich and famous – and powerful
In
the 1980s, or perhaps 1990s, a weekly television series caught the attention of
people who, as I overheard from time to time, discussed it in their places of
employment. The name of the program was Lifestyles
of the Rich and Famous. I never saw it, but I recall people being
enraptured about what they had seen. The world, after all, has a value system
in which riches, fame and, if I may add one more category, power, are in themselves
the zenith of success. Or, to mention the same things, in terms of their
spiritual substance, with the words of St.
John
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that
doeth the will of God abideth for ever (I John 2:15-17).”
It did not escape Patristic notice how
those three things line up with the very first temptation mentioned in
scripture. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to
be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat
(Genesis 3:6).”
Those
things must be overcome in our hearts if we are to be Christ’s disciples. As
much as modern Americans see the Church in terms of shopping and selecting only
desired items, and as much as the clergy are tempted here to become competing
salesmen in this awkward sort of emotional-religious retail, in reality the Church,
wherever she is true to her Lord, has but two things: Discipleship and
sainthood.
“And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch
“Unto the church of God which is at
Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,
with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours (I Corinthians 1:2).”
The Christian life is a
call to sainthood, which means simply holiness.
Holiness means two things: Both that we avoid willful sin, and that we cultivate
the virtues that grow in us by the grace of God, given to us by the Holy Spirit
(Galatians 5:16-26). The only method is discipleship, and we cannot be
disciples without taking up, each of us, our own cross and following the Son of
Man. “And he said to them all,
If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me (Luke 9:23).”
Blessed Subversion
It is not possible
to be Christ’s disciples if we have the same value system as the World; that is
as St. John uses the word “world,” both in the Epistle passage we have read,
and in the opening of his Gospel: “He [the Word or Logos] was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not (John 1:10).” In our own time I see a troubling
confusion among many American Christians. I have written quite a bit about the
problem of churches that are given over to overt heresy, immorality and
apostasy. But many American Christians who remain either orthodox, or
traditional or Evangelical, demonstrate by their public statements an inability
to distinguish between the spirit of the world and the Spirit of Christ. In a
world that prizes riches, fame and power, taking up the cross of Christ is
entirely contrary. We follow Christus
Contra Mundum, that is, in terms of the world’s upside down values, Christ
against the world.
Beginning a few decades
ago American Evangelicals began pushing the idea of “Leadership.” In daily mail
to the church, among colorful glossy advertisements that I throw away every
week are items about conferences with high sounding names like “Raising the Next
Generation of Leaders.” How very contrary to the Lord who said, “It shall not
be so among you.” Where are the conferences for Raising the Next Generation of
Servants? Churches advertise (in a manner most insulting to traditional
liturgical churches) their “Passion,” their “Power,” and their “Lively”
services – which appear to be mostly entertainment. But disciples have no power
in and of themselves, put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3), and
must take up the cross daily to overcome themselves.
The irony about which
Matthew and Luke wrote, which Jesus corrected with His words that the greatest
among us is a servant, is in striking consistency with the times in which we
live. The twentieth century was a time of severe persecution for the Church,
and it has grown more so since the turn of the millennium. Every day Christians
face persecution, and in many cases poverty. Many are imprisoned, beaten,
tortured or killed for their faith. In Touchstone,
a Journal of Mere Christianity, every issue presents news about “The
Persecuted Church.” How ironic, then, that in modern times many American Christians
believe they will be “Raptured” before some seven year period of a “Great
Tribulation” comes on the earth. Not only is that idea based upon a very poor
interpretation of Scripture, but it is also a clear symptom of moral failure. If
the Spirit of Christ is in them, how then can they fail to empathize with their
persecuted brothers and sisters who live and suffer in other parts of the
world?*
It is essential that we
become utterly subverted, from the world’s upside down point of view, by the
cross of Christ. It is impossible to prevail in the spiritual battle unless we
accept His call to take up our cross, and follow Him as disciples. We cannot
overcome the power of evil by the arm of the flesh, or by the methods of the
world. We must despise the value system of the world, and become servants. We
must take the lowest place. We cannot overcome the world unless we become
incurably subverted by that which is eternal, the Kingdom of God
___
* About that error I have written before. See “Why I want to be Left
Behind,” available in our own archives, and also on Virtue Online.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Thursday, March 02, 2017
First Sunday in Lent
II Corinthians 6:1-10 *
Matthew 4:1-11
Pelagius
was Britain St. Paul
To accept the Gospel you must come to
a very simple recognition of fact: Life is not a test. Those who teach, in the
name of religion, that life is a test, and at the end you get a passing or
failing grade, will never understand the portion of the Gospel according to
Matthew that we read this first Sunday in Lent. Like Pelagius of old, his modern
followers cannot see that Christ came in the fullness of his divine nature,
taking our finite and mortal human nature into his uncreated eternal life. They
cannot see that He reached down and saved us from sin and death, that His cross
and passion were the sacrifice by which we receive forgiveness of sins, and
that He was raised again for our justification; that only by His cross and
passion, and glorious resurrection and ascension, are we given life and
immortality. They cannot see that He did for us what we could not do for
ourselves. Life is not a test; it is a shipwreck. Christ did not come to
prepare us for a test; He came to rescue us, to pull us out of the sea of sin
and death and place our feet on solid ground. If life were a test we would all
get an "f" and be cast into Hell. But, the Gospel is this: "For
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through him might be saved."2
So,
the message of today's Gospel is not, "imitate Jesus: if he could do it so
can you." Yes, try to imitate Jesus the best you can by doing always what
pleases the Father. But, when, not “if” but when, you fail, confess your
sins and be forgiven. This is one area in which you cannot imitate Jesus, for
he had no sins to repent of. We have no power in ourselves, of ourselves, to
save ourselves. The temptations of Jesus in this passage from Matthew are
strange to us. They exist on a higher level than the carnality we must wrestle
with. I have never been tempted to use divine power to turn stones into bread.
Have any of you? I have been tempted to eat when I was fasting, and tempted to
satisfy the body in ways that are outside of God's will; but, never to turn
stones into bread. We need to examine
these temptations in light of what they were for Christ, and in light of what
they mean for us. Two things that come to our aid are from St. Paul
With
these passages in mind, let us think of the temptations Christ endured, first
in terms of their meaning in his life, and then what they mean for us. Always
remember this; Christ being holy and sinless was not a fallen creature. Modern English usage gives us the mistaken idea that temptation implies something in us that is weak encountering what is alluring to us. But, it simply means, as used here in scripture in its original Greek, that the devil tried to put Christ to the test. Now Jesus was
the Word made flesh, the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily among us,
fully God and fully man. It was not the fullness of His divine nature shrunken
down into humanity, but the raising of human nature into His infinite Divine
Person. For us, the temptations that come are common to man. To the holy,
righteous savior, born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit instead of the seed of a
fallen man, He is the pure and perfect man. These temptations we read about in
this chapter of Matthew were not common to man, in one sense, but were common
to man in another sense.
The
first temptation was this: "If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread." The temptation was to use His Divine power in a way
that was foreign to his very character as God. In everything we see from
creation, God always used his power to make, that is, to give.
Everything is grace, including life itself. The creation of life, including
human life, met no need of God, for God has need of nothing.5 All of God's creative work was because
of His love, by which love He gives, seeking nothing for Himself.6 The Son of God came into the world
because of God's immeasurable love, with the intention of sharing the humility
of a creature, and suffering the death of the cross as the Atonement, that
which no sinner could make either for himself or as a ransom for his brother.
The will of God foretold by the Prophets, that Christ rose again on third day,
was for our sakes; by His resurrection He meets our greatest need, the gift of
eternal life to save us from the full power of the grave. With mighty signs and
wonders He went about "doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the
Devil."7
But, here, in the desert wilderness after forty days of fasting, He was tempted
by the Devil to use miraculous power strictly for Himself. But, that creative power had
only been used in charity, that is, agape- the love of God.
The
second temptation was to throw Himself down from the temple, that is, to put
the truth itself on trial. It is this temptation that demonstrates the cunning
of Satan in his misuse of the very scriptures themselves. Notice how he
misquotes the Psalm, taking it out of its context that teaches us not to fear
death as an ultimate power, so that its meaning is reduced to something no
bigger than this mortal life. Notice too the addition of three words not in the
real Psalm: "lest thou strike thy foot against a stone" becomes, in
the Devil's mouth, "lest at any time thou strike thy foot against a
stone." At any time? The condition is taken away, and the promise
mis-stated. This
temptation was to place the word of God on trial, and to do so by using an
arbitrary and false measure, one forbidden by the Law itself, namely, testing
God.
The
final temptation is subtle indeed. "The devil taketh Him up into an
exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the
glory of them; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou
wilt fall down and worship me." It is the plan of God that all nations
serve and obey Christ when he comes in His kingdom 8. When He comes again in glory, this
will happen, and will happen in a way far beyond our present ability to
perceive. Understand the nature of this temptation for what it was: This temptation was to avoid the cross.
Remember one day, as we read later on in the Gospel According to St. Matthew,
when the Lord predicted his coming suffering and death, that Peter, "…took
Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall
not be unto thee.' But He turned, and said unto Peter, 'Get thee behind me,
Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be
of God, but those that be of men.'"9
The
temptation was to arrive early at the goal by abandoning the Father's will, by
avoiding the suffering and death which alone could reconcile man to God without
any compromise of His holiness, and which in making sacrifice also shows the
seriousness of our sins to change us morally. Retire early, avoid the
suffering, do not take up the cross. Such a decision would have been to turn
away from the Father indeed.
In
fact, there was no danger that Christ would yield to this. But we see important
things for our own edification. The book of Genesis describes the Fall this
way:
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a
tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did
eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."10
Look at these three things: 1) Good for food. 2) Pleasant to the eyes. 3)
Desired to make one wise. Compare this to the words of St. John
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for
ever."11
Compare
the two lists: "Good for food" to "the lust of the flesh."
We forget that the lust of the flesh is not only sexual lusts and passions, but
also all other things that drag us away from God because of their direct effect
on the desires of the body. This includes abuse of sex and of food, but also,
for example, the abuse of drugs and alcohol that destroys lives and families.
Beyond the obvious, read the fifth chapter of St. Paul
Compare "Pleasant to the
eyes" with "the lust of the eyes." Remember the words of St. Paul
Compare
"it was desired to make one wise" to "the pride of life."
Pride requires an illusion. The truth makes a man humble. The truth is the very
opposite of Pelagianism; for the fact is, you cannot go one day without
committing sins if only in your thoughts. The truth is, you cannot keep your
own soul alive. The truth is contrary to "Motivational Seminars,"
which teach the sin of pride a thousand different ways. Every day, in every
way, it is not getting better and better; no not at all. You are aging, and as
your eyes fail, and your hair gets gray or falls out, and your skin wrinkles,
you are reminded that, however long you live, the body is subject to the dying
process 15. This is part of the Fall. Pride says
life must be a test, and we can pass it. Humility says, "God I have earned
no better than an a failing grade. Save me from sin and death." A man
trying to stay afloat in a shipwreck has no time to impress anybody; he must,
with the humility that realism brings, accept salvation from his rescuer. Christ overcame the things that are in the
world. "The world" in this sense, that has only these three sinful
categories: The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
The world, in that sense, is best described in the first chapter of John's
Gospel: "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not." The world is fallen into the state of not knowing
its Creator, even in His Incarnation.16 This season of Lent, learn the humility to
take seriously these three enemies: The world, the Flesh and the Devil. Learn
to fight the temptations that come through "the things that are in the
world." Jesus used the scriptures, the sword of the Spirit; so, you need
to know the word of God, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it.17 The disciplines of Lent are useful
indeed. Fasting is a way to humble our souls before God,18 and giving is away to show gratitude
to the Lord.
Let us have a holy Lent, knowing that without Him, we can do nothing.19
1)
John 8:23
2) John 3:17
3) I Corinthians 10:13
4) Romans 5:15
5) Acts 17:25
6) I Corinthians 13:5
7) Acts 10:38
8) Psalm 2
9) Matthew 16:22, 23
10) Genesis 3:4-6
11) I John 2:15-17
12) Romans 7:7
13) Cp. Exodus 20:17 to Matthew 5:28
14) Hebrews 13:5
15) See my sermon
for Trinity XVI.
16) John 1:10
17) Ephesians 6:17, in context.
18) Psalm 35:18
19) John 15:5
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