Week One: RECEPTIVITY
Week Two: REFLECTION
Week Three: DISCIPLINE
Week Four: TEMPTATION
Week Five: OBEDIENCE
Week Six: SACRIFICE

I will be journalling these privately, but I may share some thoughts here in the coming weeks.  Is anyone else doing something like this for Lent?

Yup, Lent is coming soon!  Ash Wednesday is in tomorrow and is the first day of Lent.  I think I know what I’m giving up this year, and it was partially informed by a great post that I read over at ThinkChristian.  Here’s a small excerpt:

Lent begins in just two weeks, and I’ve always found it beyond coincidental that just as the receding snow reveals the unappealing garbage underneath, the spiritual disciplines of denial associated with Lent do the same for one’s soul.

Giving up certain things—like sex, certain foods, alcohol, caffeine—often reveals all too clearly our reliance on those things.  I know of people who have worked to give up coffee for Lent, others who have set aside all sweets, still others who have relinquished alcohol.  None of these people were addicts (except maybe the coffee lover), but all of them struggled to give up their chosen item.  Once they made the choice to renounce it, the hold the item had became that much stronger.  But moving into surrender, they realized how bound they were.  Naming their temptation was like holding a hair dry to a snow drift: suddenly the thing that seemed so unremarkable became very ugly.

But that is exactly the point.  We are not asked during Lent to give up things that are easy to give up.  We are not asked to set aside chocolate if we never eat it or coffee if we never drink it.  We are called to give up those things that tempt us to rely on them and not on Christ.  We are called to set aside those behaviors that move us into sin (whether that be idolatry or sloth or pride or lust or…), and replace them with behaviors that move us closer to Christ.

I’ve always tried to pick something to give up for Lent that would be a challenge – past things have included pasta, caffiene, potatoes, and cheese (they may not sound like that big of a deal, but trust me, they were . . . especially cheese).  I’ll discuss this year’s choice tomorrow, but I’m curious to know what others are giving up for Lent (or are you not participating?) – please share in the comments!

Readings in Bible and Theology, History, Philosophy, Science, Literature, Art, & Contemporary Culture

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Explore significant ideas, people, and events from a Christian worldview in a format that fits your busy life. A Faith and Culture Devotional will help bridge the artificial gap between learning truth and loving God…

And from Amazon:

Explore significant ideas, people, and events from a Christian worldview in a format that fits your busy life. A Faith and Culture Devotional will help bridge the artificial gap between learning truth and loving God—inspiring you with the wonder at the genius, power, and beauty of Jesus Christ.

Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington offer a daily guided tour through many of the paintings, laboratories, rock arenas, great books, mass movements, and private lives that have shaped the ways in which we think and live. This educational devotional will inspire us to go beyond critique to creativity as we discover the wonder of God in seven subjects—theology, history, philosophy, science, literature, art, and contemporary culture.

The book’s editors Kelly and Lael have also created a blog and will be posting regular updates with more insights along the same vein as their book.  Be sure to check it out, it sounds really interesting!

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10

I am thankful for a renewed sense of commitment to this blog.  I get so busy that I have become complacent in my Walk, and I am excited by the thought of blogging here and rejuvenating my spiritual life!

See what others are thankful for at Grace Alone . . .

Hat Tip: ThinkChristian

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

1 Corinthians 6:19

OK, that all sounds nice and dandy, you don’t really care about the intricacies of my food issues, LOL! I tell you this because I wanted to point out the thought that has gone into my decision, and the fact that for me personally this is a true sacrifice, and I don’t make this sacrifice to become a “martyr” and then complain the entire period of Lent – I make this decision because I know that this food has taken up too much room in my life, and that by getting rid of it, I will be forced to replace it with something healthier. I will be doing something to help clean up my body, which is God’s home. He gave me this body, and I have been disrespecting Him by disrespecting my body. I don’t think it’s necessary for me to give up cheese for the rest of my life, but by giving it up for Lent I will become less dependent on the food and more dependent on God as He helps me make healthier choices.

This year I am also going to do something new. I have heard many people say that they don’t give up something for Lent, but instead take something on, like a random act of kindness. This year, along with my sacrifice of food I will be sacrificing my time as well. I will be giving up time every day to spend with the Lord.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – you’re a Christian, don’t you do that anyway? Sadly, my answer is no (and this is my first time publicly admitting this). I don’t lie and say that I do spend time every day with the Lord, I just avoid the subject. When I was in high school, and even for the first half of my freshman year of college, I was very good about spending time in the Word and in prayer with God. I may not have gotten to it every day, but I’d say probably 4 or 5 days a week. Then, as college progressed, I got busier and busier, became tired, and wanted to spend my free time doing what I wanted to do. I lost my desire for time with the Lord.

Now, four years later, I see how this loss of devotional time has caused my walk to come to a standstill. I haven’t really strayed from the path, but I have become stagnant. And this is the worst thing of all. So, for Lent, I am committing to reading in the Bible along with a reading plan every day, and my goal in this is to strive for a newfound desire for time with the Lord. They say it takes 30 days to make something a habit, so I am aiming to create a time and ritual for my devotional that will last long past the Lenten season of 2007. If you have a spare moment, please pray that I can stay focused and committed to this aim.

I will be blogging about my progress throughout the Lenten season (and hopefully I will have great things to share from my time in the Word), and I look forward to others sharing their thoughts on Lent and the things they are committing to throughout the season.

Be sure to check out the Lenten Blog Carnival that will be happening on Ash Wednesday over at Homemaking Through the Church Year!

It’s true though, right? God created a beautiful world for us to live in. He created beautiful plants, oceans, creatures . . . and people. Take a minute to think about that. God, the most amazing Artist of all, created us. How creative must He be to create each person differently, each family differently, each country and custom differently? Not only this, but He created each us in His image. Imagine that – the most creative being of all created us in His image. By definition, doesn’t that mean that we too are creative?

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

No, we can’t all paint, play an instrument, draw something. But there are sooo many other ways that we use our creativity. That is the beauty of GOD’S amazing creativity. He creatively made us so that we could be creative in His image in unique and different ways! Cooking a meal, designing a car, solving a problem in a new way! A coach designing a new play for his football team is a creative act. Designing a software program requires creativity.

And best of all, finding new and different ways of loving each other requires the best creativity of all – we were made from creativity with love so that we could creatively love in return.

Are you using your creativity to it’s full potential? Are you seeking to worship God in new and creative ways? Are you being creative with your family and friends? Are you allowing yourself to have passions and hobbies, or are you stifling your God-given creativity so that you can conform to an image of perfection, something we can never achieve?

Show your love and appreciation to God by using your God-given creativity!!!

The Quiet Time Series
1. Not a Cleansing Rite
2. Defined
3. My Failure
4. What is it Good For?
5. Advice

*Updated 2/27/07 to add #5

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

The story of Mary and Martha is one that is often told among groups of women as a cautionary tale of what NOT to do. In a little bit of online browsing I came across an article on Crosswalk.com entitled, “The Women in Christ’s Life: Martha, Mary’s Sister.” This article shows a different interpretation of Martha’s actions, one that makes her immeasurably more sympathetic in my opinion.

Swiatocho says:

“I don’t know about you but I struggle sometimes with having to choose to either sit at Jesus’ feet or do His work . . . Personally, I believe Martha did love Jesus and did value his presence, but due to her life situation felt necessary to take care of her home first. She simply was doing what was good versus what was best.”

I often feel like I do good things, and more than once I feel like I could have done better. Was Martha so busy trying to organize the Bible study that she forgot to actually connect with the Lord when she was reading her Bible. Has the stress of creating the praise and worship team led her from her own personal worship? There are often times when I get so wrapped up in working on something for the Lord that I forget to take a moment and thank Him, praise Him, talk with Him.

Swiatocho’s article also details seven things that she learned from Martha, and after reading this article, I look at Martha in a new way. Not as the psycho crazy cleaning lady who didn’t take time for JESUS, but as a real person that I have been and will be again if I don’t stop to remember why I’m running around to frantically.