Enter into Lent with an Open Heart & Mind - A Lenten message from Pastor Dr. Jay Terbush
Wednesday February 17th the church begins the season of Lent. This is a time of year when the we are invited to enter a time of prayerful reflection, a time of self examination, a time for focusing on our relationship with God and preparing ourselves for the great and life changing events of Holy Week and Easter. So as your Pastor I want to encourage each of you to consider giving something up or taking on some spiritual practice in these days. Some people may give up some thing like watching too much TV or spending too much time in social media, others may give up a food that is enjoyed or maybe something that is not healthy for you! Some people take on a regular time of Bible reading or devotional reading, some take on putting all of their spare change in a bowl which they donate to the church on Easter. It is not so important what you choose to give up, it is the heart attitude; it is less important what you take on and more important the ways that this facilitates your relationship with God and others. The purpose of this taking on or giving up is to encourage you to go deeper in your life with God. So for example, if I fast from breakfast and lunch, the hunger I experience can remind me of my spiritual hunger. If I mindlessly begin to scroll through my facebook page, I can stop and remind myself of my desire to lean into the Spirit of God. So I invite you in this special season to consciously choose to observe Lent as a time of making a small but deliberate decision to focus on God’s life in your life. AND I would be honored to have you share with me what you are going to commit to doing or not doing over the weeks of Lent. I will hold you in my prayers. And will share with you my Lent spiritual practice/ discipline for your prayers for me.