Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the period of preparation leading to Easter.
It marks a period of reflection and repentance, an acknowledgment that we need a Saviour. Our sin – every wrong thought, every evil act, our very propensity to go against what God ordains – separates us from God. We need His help if life is to be restored to His original good. During this period, we focus on God’s ways and God’s wisdom.
This leads us to the startling discovery (symbolised by the ash cross drawn on people’s foreheads in some services) that God’s wisdom and ways are quite unlike ours. (1 Cor 1:18-25) Often we equate knowledge with wisdom, but as the saying goes, knowledge tells us a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom warns us not to include it in a fruit salad! God’s wisdom led to crucifixion as the means of reconciliation, but His ways went further than our power in raising Jesus from the dead on the third day.
Easter cannot be glamourised, no matter how many fluffy chicks or cute bunnies make their way into our Easter cards. Easter is not synonymous with spring, though the daffodils and snowdrops are welcome signs of new life. As we walk through Lent, we fix our eyes, as Jesus did, on Jerusalem and the cross. “My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name!” (John 12;27-28)
Journey with us through Lent as we look at spiritual essentials for life found in John’s Gospel on Fridays, starting on 27 February at 11.45 a.m. at Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church. We’ll start with soup and sandwiches and a drink and then go on until about 2 p.m. using Paula Gooder’s book ”Lentwise” to focus on the compass, nourishment, light, shelter and water and how God meets all our needs through Jesus.