Holy week - Wednesday

The seventh word from the cross was “Father…” - Luke 23:46
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." We cannot hear these words without calling to mind what Jesus had just suffered. Do you remember how for three awful hours the perfect fellowship between the Father and the Son, between the first and second persons of the Trinity, was broken? Do you remember how the light of God's presence was removed from Jesus and there was darkness over the whole land? And for this reason Jesus said, "I am thirsty" (Jn 19:28) meaning, in the words of the psalmist,
(Ps 42:1-2) As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

Up to this hour on the cross, there had been perfect and unbroken fellowship between the Father and the Son. During the Last Supper, for instance, when Jesus prayed his High Priestly prayer, he could say to the Father, "All I have is yours, and all you have is mine ... you are in me and I am in you" (Jn 17:10,21). In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus could pray to his Father: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Lk 22:42).

Jesus' first word upon the cross was to the Father: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34). And now his last word is also to the Father: "Father," he said, "into your hands I commit my spirit." But between this first and last word, he hung on the cross for six hours: three hours spent suffering at the hands of men and another three hours spent suffering at the hand of God. When Jesus said these last words, what he came to do, was done. The cup of God's wrath was drained (Lk 22:42).

This last word from the cross shows Jesus to again have fellowship with the Father. The Saviour is once more in communion with the Father. He can once more speak to the Father, because the Father is no longer removed from Him.

He whom Jesus calls Father is also our Father because of Christ and his work upon the cross. The Father is also my Father. What comfort is contained in this title! What assurance it conveys! God is my Father. He is my Father and he loves me, he cares for me and supplies all my needs. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us," says John, "that we should be called children of God!" (1 Jn 3:1).

In Jesus Christ we too have the confidence to call God our Father. Death is not the end for us. After death my spirit continues to live. My prayer is that your spirit and my spirit will live with God, for the other possibility is too horrible to even contemplate.

My prayer is that this Holy Week will help you to commit your life, yourself, yes your spirit, to God in Jesus Christ who suffered for us. That through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit you will understand the love that caused Jesus to go through this darkness, to lead us into the light of fellowship with our heavenly Father.

Because of the suffering of Jesus, and his resurrection, your spirit is also forever in God’s safe keeping!

Prayer - Dear Lord, do not allow anything to stand in my way of sharing this Holy Week with you. Bring us all to glorious victory through your Son on Easter Sunday, because in faith we know that you walked through the shadows of death, in order to lead us to the light. Amen

Holy Week - Tuesday

Mark 11:15-19
Jesus and those who followed came to Jerusalem. And Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, "Is it not written,

`My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'?
But you have made it a den of robbers."

And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

Holy Week - Monday

O sacred head with grief weighed down,
with thorny bush your only crown!
How pale you are, abused and scorned,
your countenance, now blood adorned!

What shall I say, dear heavenly Friend?
Your shame and suff’ring, I cannot mend!
But let me never faithless be,
your dying love – it was for me!

O sacred Christ, so cruelly crowned –
no greater love or grace to be found.
O Jesus let me worship thee,
so scorned, so mocked on Calvary!

What is “Holy Week” about?

The majority of Christians across the globe refer to the week that begins with Palm Sunday, celebrated yesterday, and ends with Easter Sunday (4 April), as “Holy Week”. During Holy Week we also observe the Tenebrae Service on Maundy Thursday as well as Good Friday worship. The high light always is the joyous celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

We know that the word “holy” means that something belongs to God. It tells us that this week is set apart for God, to remember, contemplate and celebrate the central truth of the gospel, that only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, saved us from our sins by his atoning death and victorious resurrection.

May all our readers be blessed, encouraged and equipped to live the Christian life to the full, when we participate in the worship of God and celebrate Jesus Christ, during Holy Week 2010!

Palm Sunday

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, the crowds were singing from Psalm 118. This is a psalm for the Passover. It was a psalm for pilgrims coming to Jerusalem, to worship at the temple. It was a song that would have been on everyone’s mind on that Palm Sunday. What is amazing is that they applied the words of the psalm to Jesus!
Jesus is entering Jerusalem on the Sunday before the Passover. And the people cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!" – from Psalm 118: 25 – 26.

The word “Hosanna” that they sang is the Hebrew word for “save” or “save now”. That is exactly what we find in verse 25 of Psalm 118 – It says, “Save now, I pray, O LORD,” literally, “Hosanna, O LORD”. The psalmist in verse 25 is calling the LORD God to save him!

The Jerusalem crowd applied these words to Jesus. Verse 25 instead says, “Save now, I pray, O LORD.” In the rest of the Psalm the poet proclaims God’s love as seen in his mighty deeds of salvation, experienced by his people over many ages. But verse 25 looks forward to some future deliverance.

The Jews were under Roman occupation, even though they were living in the Promised Land. The nation of Israel as a political entity, did not exist. And so the people were eagerly awaiting the Messiah, whom they hoped would restore the kingdom of David and they expected it to be a political earthly kingdom.

This is why the crowds also echoed verse 26 of the psalm as they said “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!” Their songs and exited procession show that they were hoping that Jesus was the Messiah.
And indeed Jesus was, and is, but not in the way that they thought. He was indeed the blessed One who came in the name of the Lord. He would bring salvation and deliverance to God’s people. He would overcome their enemies.
He would bring a restored kingdom, but a kingdom that was better than the old kingdom in the earthly Promised Land. He would bring an eternal, heavenly kingdom!
Jesus was their saviour and messiah, but not the kind they were thinking of. And so, ironically, the crowds spoke the truth. They rightly chose this psalm and applied it to Jesus. Yet, in just a few days, the same crowds would no longer be praising Jesus as they did during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but instead they would be crying out to crucify him!

This irony comes to a climax at the cross of Jesus. Psalm 118 ends with a call for a festival sacrifice. Jesus is this sacrifice. He is this paschal lamb. Although on Palm Sunday they cried to Jesus, “Save!”, “Save!”, soon they would cry out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” And when they cried out to crucify him, they are basically calling out the words of verse 27, “Bind the sacrifice!” Bring on the festival sacrifice! Prepare the paschal lamb! Crucify him!

When we sing our Hosanna’s on Palm Sunday, we hail the One, our eternal King and Lord, who came to save, by giving his life – by being the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world!

Hosanna! Save us, oh crucified, risen Lord!
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Hosanna!

Holy Week

What is “Holy Week”? (This year celebrated from 28 March – 4 April)

The majority of Christians across the globe refer to the week that begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday, as “Holy Week”. During Holy Week we also observe the Tenebrae Service on Maundy Thursday as well as Good Friday worship. The high light always is the joyous celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.
We know that the word “holy” means that something belongs to God. It tells us that this week is set apart for God, to remember, contemplate and celebrate the central truth of the gospel, that only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, saved us from our sins by his atoning death and victorious resurrection.

What is “Palm Sunday”? (28 March)
Palm Sunday always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The feast commemorates an event mentioned by all four Gospels (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19). It remembers the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the last Sunday before his Passion.
The Gospels go on to describe how Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and how the people there lay down their cloaks in front of him, and also lay down small branches of trees. The people sang part of Psalm 118 - ...Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David. ... (Psalms 118:25-26).

The earliest evidence of Palm Sunday celebrations can be traced back to Jerusalem in the 4th century, according to the travel diary of a woman who had traveled to Jerusalem and observed the festivities - including the procession of believers with palm fronds.

On Palm Sunday music plays an important role in praising Jesus our King, who came to Jerusalem to save his people. He is a King who saved by giving his life – body, soul and spirit – to carry our punishment and deliver us from the law and judgment of God.

What is Tenebrae? (Thursday 1 April)
The Tenebrae service is observed on Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Good Friday. It was on the Thursday night that Jesus instituted the holy Supper, washed the feet of his disciples, experienced the anguish and fear of Gethsemane and was arrested and tried by the Jewish religious leaders. It was the night that he was betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter.

Tenebrae (Latin for 'shadows' or 'darkness') is a unique ceremonial memorial of the suffering of Christ by the gradual extinguishing of candles, a series of Scripture readings, teaching on the meaning of the Passion of Christ and in remembrance of him, sharing in holy Communion.
The purpose of the Tenebrae service is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion events. It is not to be a happy service, because the occasion remembered is a solemn one in which we are in mourning because our sins caused the Son of Man so much hellish torment and distress.
It is an incomplete service without benediction at the end, only to be completed on Easter Sunday, when our blessing and joy arises from the glorious, victorious resurrection of Christ.

Good Friday (Friday 2 April)
Good Friday is not a day of celebration but of mourning, both for the sins of the world and our personal sin that the death of Christ represents. Yet, although Friday is a solemn time, it is not without its own joy. For while it is important to place the Resurrection against the darkness of Good Friday, likewise the somberness of Good Friday should always be seen with the hope of Resurrection Sunday. We always observe Good Friday well knowing that Sunday is coming! Sunday, every Sunday, remains a feast of worship and praise, because Jesus triumphed over death and all our enemies.

Traditionally we remember the words of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday...
Father, forgive them . . . (Luke 23:34)
This day you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43)
Woman, behold your son . . .(John 19:26-27)
My God, my God . . . (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)
I thirst. (John 19:28)
It is finished! (John 19:30)
Father into your hands . . . (Luke 23:46)

Easter Sunday (Sunday 4 April)
On the 3rd day he rose again!
Easter Sunday is the crown of Christian worship that inspires every Sunday service of the year, where we are equipped to live for the glory of God every day of our lives, until the end!
You could call it “the most important Sunday of the year”. I prefer to call it the most inspiring Sunday worship one can ever celebrate!

Lent - giving my best for the Master!

It was a few days before Jesus' death. He was in Bethany, just east of Jerusalem. There was a dinner in the home of Simon. Guests included Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, and, of course, Jesus. While they were eating, Mary entered the room, broke open a bottle of expensive perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus.

Judas criticized Mary for wasting the perfume. "Why was not this ointment sold," he asked, "and the money given to the poor?" But Jesus defended her. "She has anointed me for my burial. The poor you always have with you." Matthew also records these words: "Truly, I say to you, whenever this gospel is preached to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

Jesus responded to Mary's deed with the words, "She has done a good thing." It is indeed a good thing, the best thing, to give of your best to the Master. What is your best? What valuable talent, or gift, or possession sits even today on the shelf of your life? Will you pour it out for the Master? Did you mark the best you have on the congregation’s gift bank form?

Does not her example move you to devote yourself to the Lord? Is there something precious, something personal, something important, something that will make a difference, your best, that you can lay at the feet of Jesus during this Season of Lent?

What does the hymn say?

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all."

Lent: Christ’s work is finished

"It is finished." This was the cry of our Lord just moments before his death.
"It is finished." Is this a cry of defeat? No, it is a cry of triumph. What does this cry of Jesus mean? It means that Jesus' life was finished- that Jesus' work of redemption was done. Scripture's promises about the Messiah are finished or fulfilled.

"It is finished," said Jesus. Jesus' life was ended. He was a living human being. He ate and drank, slept and walked, preached and prayed. But now all this was finished. His life was at its end. In a moment he would die. "It is finished," was his cry.

How different Christ is from us: "he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." Christ submitted to death. He embraced death. He died willingly, of his own accord. But, then, didn't Jesus say this is the way he would die? Remember his words in John 10:
(Jn 10:17-18) The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

"It is finished." Sin's account is paid in full, settled. Our debt of guilt is wiped out, because Jesus suffered and died for our sins upon the cross.

"It is finished." Jesus has completed the work God has sent him to do on this earth. What was started when Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem, was ended on Golgotha. Christ's salvation work was now done. He did what needed to be done to save us from our sins. There is nothing we need do, there is nothing we can do, to complete this work of redemption.

Thirsty during Lent

"I am thirsty." These words were spoken by our suffering Lord just before "he bowed his head and gave up his spirit" (Jn 19:30b). How terribly sad: the Maker of heaven and earth with parched lips; the Lord of Glory in need of a drink.

A word of Jesus' humanity
While living on earth, the Lord Jesus gave full proof of his sinless humanity. He entered this world as a baby and was wrapped in strips of cloth (Lk 3:7). Like any normal human child, "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature" (Lk 2:52). As a man he became tired (Jn 4:6). He was hungry (Mt 4:2). He fell asleep (Mk 4:38). He prayed (Mk 1:35). He rejoiced (Lk 10:21). He was troubled (Jn 11:33). He wept (Jn 11:35). And he cried out: "I am thirsty." Christ was thirsty because he was and is fully man. The book of Hebrews says this about Christ:
(Heb 2:17) ... he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

A word of Jesus' sufferings
"I am thirsty." This word of the Saviour also expresses his sufferings.
The Bible tells us that at the institution of the Supper, was the last time Jesus ate and drank before he was crucified the next day. The Bible tells us Jesus was so anxious and upset about his imminent crucifixion that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Jesus also was whipped. Back then people were whipped until their backs became a big bleeding and open mass of flesh. And think about his crucifixion. Nails, pain, blood, fever! And now remember that he went a night and a day without anything to eat and drink. Is it strange that Jesus said "I am thirsty?" This word on the cross expresses the Saviours extreme bodily, human suffering.

A word expressing thirst for God.
"I am thirsty." In these words we also hear our Lord's thirst for God, after being forsaken for 3 long hours of darkness, when God had turned his face away from Jesus. After three hours of forsakenness, Jesus was crying for God. Jesus remembered the words of the the psalmist:
(Ps 42:1-2) As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. (2) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
Jesus had been without God for three awful hours. No wonder he cried out for God. No wonder he said, "I am thirsty."

We also often cry: "I am thirsty," and "my soul is empty (pants for God)". Yet, as Jesus often explained, we look into the wrong things and go to the wrong places to fill our soul when the challenges of life itself shows us our thirst for God. But Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again" (Jn 4:13).

Christ alone can quench our thirst. He alone can meet the deepest needs of our heart, our soul, our life. Come to Jesus. If you die in your sins, your eternal cry will be the moaning of the damned: "I am thirsty." In the lake of fire the lost suffer with nobody to quench their thirst.
Come to Jesus and drink of him. For only Jesus can satisfy your thirst today.

The Lenten Season defines Messiah

In Luke 9: 22 Jesus defined himself. He did so using four verbs. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” This is a hard lesson, yet it is the heart of the gospel.
It is not pretty, it is not easy, it is not soft, it is not sentimental and it is not gentle. But it is the truth.
Jesus told us that he had to suffer, be rejected, be killed, and be raised again, all on our account. This is for us.

And then in verse 23 Jesus also used four verbs in defining Messiah’s followers: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

If our Messiah is defined by suffering, rejection, death and resurrection, we, his followers, are defined by loosing our lives through the complete commitment with which we follow Jesus.
Our very lives are not ours to keep, but to give. To keep one’s life to yourself is to forfeit life. But to pour out one’s life for God and for others in following Jesus, is to truly find life and life everlasting!

Lent – contemplating historical truth

In the Apostles' Creed the church recites that Christ Jesus was crucified "under Pontius Pilate." We use the name of the Roman governor in the Creed not to blame him for the deed, but to date the event.

Christianity is an historical religion. It stands or falls with the truth of historical events: namely, that there was a man named Jesus; that he lived in Palestine; and that he was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor of Judea.

Today we would date the event by the year, month and day. But in Biblical times a date was indicated by the rule of a governor. So, for instance, says Luke 1:5: "In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah ..."; or Luke 2:2: "This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria."

By mentioning Pontius Pilate, the Apostles Creed confirms that all the events surrounding Christ's crucifixion and death, are historical truth. It really happened. My salvation by his suffering and death, really happened.

The cross, Golgotha Hill, the 7 words on the cross, the 3 awful hours of darkness and the temple curtain torn from top to bottom, everything really happened, when Pontius Pilate was the governor in Jerusalem, more than 2000 years ago.

Our faith is based on historical fact. Therefore on a day, month and year in history, I was saved from my sins and adopted a child of God. Because I believe that Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

Believe it!

Lent: Jesus was forsaken by God!

God forsaken
Matthew 27:46: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"
Here we have the original words of Jesus in his own language, Aramiac. This is the language in which he ministered, prayed and died. And it means: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Sabachthani, forsaken, means "to abandon, to let go, to leave."
It is awful to be forsaken. It is not natural for anyone to be totally alone. We have a God-created need for others and for God himself. To be forsaken means that no one is able or willing to help you. You are totally alone.

At the end of his life Jesus was totally on his own. The crowds and his disciples had turned against him. His family did not believe in him. In his dying hour he cries out that even God has forsaken him! Of everything he suffered, this was his greatest pain and sorrow.

According to his divine plan God physically forsook Jesus. It was because God abandoned Jesus, that Jesus could be betrayed by Judas, was mocked, spit upon and was falsely accused. It was because he was abandoned by God that Jesus, though found to be innocent, was still treated as though being guilty. It was because Jesus was abandoned by God, that he was whipped, had a crown of thorns forced on his head, and nails were driven through his wrists and feet. It was because Jesus was abandoned by God, that he died the cruel death of the cross.

To be forsaken by God in this fashion is to suffer the torments of hell. Hell is the complete absence of God and all that is good. Hell is complete separation from God.

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" This cry scares and surprises us. It must also be answered. Why did God forsake Jesus in both body and soul? What was the barrier that existed between the first and second persons of the Holy Trinity?

The barrier was sin. It was our sin which broke the bond of communion between the Father and the Son. Jesus took on our sin. He was cursed and abandoned and forsaken, to save us from our sin. The question was: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The answer to this question of Jesus is: Our sin! Your sin and my sin is the reason why God has forsaken him.

Precisely because he went to hell in this way, we know victory, forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Christ took our place. He was separated from God, so that we don't have to be.

This is why we also share in Christ's victory on Easter Sunday. We are also raised with him.
O God, what a Saviour you sent to us!

Lent – a season of simple rejuvenation...

Lent is to be a season of fasting, spiritual discipline and growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity. The word “Lent” comes from the Germanic word for springtime and can be seen as spiritual spring cleaning.

It is a time to take a spiritual inventory, cleaning out those things which hinder our personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to him in his Body. This is why Lent begins with repentance – on Ash Wednesday. But the whole season of Lent and its disciplines can transform us, body, soul, and spirit. Disciplined diet cleanses the body, providing for a simple spiritual journey, that brings us into a closer walk with God. Thus our emotions can get rid of obsessions, fear, sadness and emotional pain.

This happens when we focus on becoming more and more like Christ. Eastern Christians call this process theosis, which Athanasius, an early church father, appropriately described as "becoming by grace, what God is by nature."

There are very basic Christian tasks associated with the season of Lent. These are fasting, almsgiving, prayer and contemplating the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we consider his bodily and emotional suffering and his torment when he carried all our sins and was punished for all our iniquities, even forsaken by God his Father, we find his light in the Father’s love, who gave his only Son for us – and we find the love of Jesus to be strangely familiar, as of a friend who gives his life for us. There is no greater love, than to give your life for your friends.

The purpose of Lent is to once again find assurance of faith, by the grace of God. The wealth of spiritual renewal that comes through grateful sacrifices, renews my understanding of the love of God and of being his child. Within the simplicity of Lent a renewed relationship with Jesus comes to pass. I am redirected onto the way of God’s purpose for me to only live for his glory. And by grace, through faith, the Word of God rejuvenates my servant’s heart through grateful love for what Jesus my Lord and Saviour did for me!

The Lenten season comes to an end with great joy and happiness - with the feast that rejoices in the victory of Christ over my enemies – the Easter Sunday!
And this joy continues every Sunday for the rest of my life, when I worship and praise, and learn to walk with the risen, conquering Lord every day, until the end.

Lent: Penitential Prayer

O Lord,
The house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that you may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it,
to whom shall I cry but to you?
Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord,
and spare Your servant from strange sins.

Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430)

During Lent the light of Christ shines in the darkness of the world...

Jesus is our light in spite of the darkness of the world.

According to John 8:12, Jesus said: "I Am the light of the world".
This is one of seven "I AM" statements of Jesus. By calling himself “I AM.” in the way God did when he revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush, Jesus claims to be God, yes to be God's equal. He claims to be a person of the holy Trinity. Remember the words of Ps. 27: 1: "The Lord is my light and my salvation". Jesus is claiming the same thing about himself that the psalmist says about the God of Israel.

"I am the light of the world." John's Gospel talks a lot about light. Of the seventy-two times that the Greek word for "light" appears in the New Testament, thirty-three of them are in John's Gospel. Think a moment what these words meant if you lived during the times of Jesus. Then light was something you had during daylight hours. There were no power stations, no electricity, no batteries and no gas. It means that all knew and recognised the importance of Jesus' claim to be the light of the world. Light shining in darkness was a precious, sought after commodity. Light prevents falling, getting hurt, getting lost, getting robbed!

Jesus was sent as a light into the world to save the world from darkness:
(Jn 8:12) "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
(Jn 12:46) “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”

During the Lenten season we rejoice that Jesus is the light. We rejoice that Jesus frees us from the hold of darkness and brings us into the light. We celebrate that if we follow Jesus we will be delivered from the perils of darkness. We are safe in the light of Christ. If you want to live, to really live, you must be in the light, who is Christ. If you want to live, to live forever, you must come to Christ.

Yet, says John, (Jn 3:19-21) “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil. (20) Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (21) But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light ...”

Jesus is the light of the world. But by nature, people love darkness more than light, because their deeds are evil. Without Christ, darkness is in your heart and in my heart and, without Christ, darkness is where we love to stay. Deep inside we are ashamed of who we really are. We hope that darkness will cover the shame of our own dark thoughts, words, attitudes and deeds. We fear judgment as a result of the darkness of our hearts and hope that the darkness of the world will cover our transgressions. We fool ourselves into thinking that if we remain in darkness, God will not know who we really are.

To be in "darkness" means not to know God and Christ. To "walk in darkness" means to regulate one's life according to the darkness, and to conduct one's life by the darkness. The unsaved world fears the light, because light chases the darkness away. Light exposes our deep inner shame, because of our longing to remain immoral, selfish and greedy. Darkness wants us to believe that we do not have to change, to repent or be honest with ourselves and with God about how lost we became living without Christ.

The unbelieving society rejects Christ and remains in the darkness. And, in that darkness it will be forever lost,
until it comes to the light, who is Christ.

Example of a Lenten Prayer

An Example of a Lenten Prayer:

O Lord, who has mercy upon us,
take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore you,
a heart to delight in you,
to follow and enjoy you,
for Christ's sake, Amen.
Lenten Prayer of Ambrose of Milan (AD 339-397)