Lent is fast approaching!! I have decided that for the Lenten season, as we celebrate the days preceding Holy Week (the week of the Last Supper, Christ's passion, death, and ending with his resurrection), we will have a special Bible Study.
What is Lent?
Lent is a time in which we come face to face with our own mortality and look into our hearts. We are preparing ourselves for the death and resurrection of Christ. We are preparing to die to ourselves with Christ and to be raised up on Easter with Jesus as new creations. We are called to die to ourselves and our own desires and to take up our cross and follow Christ. Christian lives are shaped by this dying to our own selfishness and being raised up with Christ to be imitators of Him. We no longer look at Jesus and ask "how can Jesus serve me" because Jesus has already served us beyond measure in His dying for us. His great love for us leads us to approach God and the Church not as things that serve us but as the truest authority and most deserving of our service. Ephesians 5 teaches us that the church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the head. Jesus loved us so greatly that we can do nothing but respond as the tools of Christ, as Paul teaches us many times in the Epistles. We must ask ourselves, "how can we serve God? How can we be best used by Christ?"
The Study
In this spirit, we are starting a study on the Ten Commandments. This study will last until the Sunday before Easter. It will be a opportunity to consider who we are in Christ and the holiness of God. We will gather for a meal at 6:30pm, followed by a short Compline service from the Book of Common Prayer, and end with a presentation and discussion on different elements of the Ten Commandments. I invite everyone to enter into this Lenten study as we prepare our hearts for Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. For this study, we will meet in my home. This is not a church service nor a commitment to our church, and it is open to everyone.
What do the Ten Commandments have to do with Lent?
Come find out!
Email adventpastor@gmail.com for directions or any questions.
