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Dear Friends,
As I write this Shrove Tuesday beckons and the season of Lent is about to begin.
Lent being those forty days which lead us on a journey to Holy Week and onwards into Good Friday: where we stand at the foot of the cross and lift our eyes to gaze upwards at God's Son pouring out his life on the cross for us.
Then pausing for a short time on the Saturday we then move on in our journey to the explosion of the Good News on Easter Sunday morning - to the Risen Christ!
The Risen Christ - the core of our faith!
The Risen Christ - whom we are called to proclaim in word, action, love and prayer.
The Bible clearly shows that God considers forty days to be a spiritually significant period of time. Whenever God wanted to prepare someone for a task, he took forty days.
Look to Noah whose life was transformed by those forty days of rain.
To Moses who was transformed by forty days on Mount Sinai.
To Elijah who was transformed when God gave him forty days of strength from a single meal.
Then, there is the entire city of Nineveh which was transformed when God gave the people forty days to change their ways.
Jesus was empowered by his forty days in the wilderness.
The disciples were transformed by forty days with Jesus after his resurrection.
Forty days is a spiritually significant period of time.
Lent, therefore is always seen as a time of journeying, a time of self-reflection, a time of soul-searching and of course a time of God-searching, a time of trying to understand just what God did for us at this special time.
Many view it as a time when we should give up something in our lives because Jesus gave up his life for us and so to sacrifice something for forty days from our lives should be nothing compared to his great sacrifice for us.
However, Jesus also took on something for us, he took on the sins of the world so that we might be forgiven and have the hope of eternal life with him.
So perhaps rather than giving up something for the Lenten period of forty days we should be taking something on - how much more positive would that be!
It may be to undertake to pray for someone, some street or somewhere overseas each day for forty days.
It may be to serve him in a way you never have before for forty days.
It could be to undertake to read your Bible each day for forty days.
Whatever it may be - instead of giving something up for Lent why not take something on instead and be transformed by God - let him do something that will change your life for ever.
Blessings,
Caryl
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