Lenten Devotional Guide 2019
Scripture Focus: Romans 10:8-13 The week of March 11, 2019 But what does it say? The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, [d] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. [e] 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:8-13 Let s Renew our Vows! When I was coming up in the church, this was one of the passages that I had committed to memory because the preacher would recite it every time someone came up to receive the Lord. This passage was a part of my being and made up my spiritual fabric. And I realized early on that emphasis had to be placed on confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God had raised him from the dead. Yes, you had to say it as well as believe it! And if you followed this simple recipe of faith with a committed life of discipleship, you were saved. I received the Lord at age 16. So surely, I had confessed, I had believed, and after all these years somehow mastered being a follower of Christ. But while reading Mark Battersons book, All In, I had to put on the brakes. Wait! Was I following Jesus or had I merely invited Jesus to follow me? Had I called Jesus Savior, but had never surrendered to Him as Lord? At 16, I had confessed and surely, I had believed, but saints, every now and again during this Christian walk it is okay for us to renew our vows. During this Lenten season, let us do this very thing. Let us renew our vows. Let us confess all over again with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. And let us believe in our hearts all over again that God raised Him from the dead. No guilt and no condemnation, just a sweet renewal of our wedding vows to make sure that we are following Jesus and He s not following us, that He is truly our Lord, and that our main goal is to have God s purpose and God s will fulfilled in our lives. Do you take Jesus as your lawfully wedded Savior? I do! Will you live for Jesus and be a witness
throughout your days? I will! Well, you have once again pronounced Jesus Christ as your Lord and He has undoubtedly pronounced you as His bride. You may now kiss your Savior! Let us be all in. Let us rededicate our lives to the Lord. And let us renew our vows both now and forever, Amen! Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, I thank You for this opportunity for me to renew my vows and rededicate my life to You. Once again, I confess with my mouth that you are my Lord and I believe in my heart that God has raised you from the dead. And I know that I am saved. During this Lenten season, I recommit my life to You so that Your purpose and Your will are fulfilled in me. And I thank You for calling me your own. In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen. Rev. Keshia Spencer Youth Pastor
Scripture Focus: Psalm 27 The week of March 18, 2019 All in is a phrase that may have originated in no-limit poker, where you bet all of your chips as a sign of total confidence in your hand. For example, if you have a very good hand, go all-in to win the maximum number of chips or to scare off mediocre hands so they will not catch the cards they need to beat yours. If you have a bad hand, you can bluff by going all-in and hope everyone folds. The author of this psalm (David) is expressing his total confidence in Almighty God. He is all- in or confident in knowing that God is his source and guide (light), and his saving protection (salvation) from his enemies. Because of his relationship, understanding, experience and history with God, circumstances, situations and people that would normally make him fearful are all but eliminated. This psalm really speaks to the faithfulness of God. Notice that the writer is not asking God to help him. He is confident that God will indeed help him. We too, can be all-in for the Lord by having total confidence in His ability to guide, guard and govern our lives. It is not a gamble. We can bet all of our chips (without bluffing) that God will be faithful and protect us from our enemies. Each of us has been a prisoner of fear at one time or another---fear of rejection, misunderstanding, uncertainty, sickness or even death. If we want to counter the darkness of fear, let us remember like the psalmist that the Lord is my light and my salvation. If we are allin with God, we need not fear anyone. Prayer: Gracious God our Father, help us to be all-in when it comes to our relationship with you. Help us to have a yielding and willing spirit that allows your will to be done in our lives. Help us to trust you more and more everyday so that our confidence in you outweighs any fear that the enemy would try to put in the paths of our lives. LORD, continue to be our light and our salvation as we confidently stand on your Word and promises despite what our circumstances may look like. Thank you for going all-in on Calvary s cross. Great is your faithfulness! As you do these things, we will be careful to give YOU the praise, honor and glory! We lift this prayer to you, with thanksgiving. In Jesus name. Amen. Rev. Reginald Clark Minister to Men
Read Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Message (MSG) Key Verse: But just experiencing God s wonder and grace didn t seem to mean much most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased. The week of March 25, 2019 Nicholas Copernicus was an astronomer who argued the earth revolved around the sun. During my time of contemplative prayer and meditation on the key verse in our pericope, God spoke into my spirit these words. Copernicus almost had it right; he should have argued Everything revolves around the Son (Jesus Christ.) It is time for a paradigm shift in the body of Christ from just having an experience with God to having a transformative relationship with God and Gods beloved community. It is time for personal restoration, communal reconciliation, and global liberation; it is time for the Disciples of Christ to go. The post-modern 21st century society has introduced new idols and temptations our ancestors were not privy to in the ancient text. When we read that God was not pleased, it should be a wakeup call for those of us who profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The text is a clarion call for the body of Christ to remember the total cost of discipleship and spiritual transformation requires an intentional and conscience effort to decide to go for Christ. Paul admonishes use in our daily walk with Christ and creation that we must never try to get Christ to serve us, but instead, we were created to serve Jesus Christ. Paul is reminding us of a faith which is not Christocentric (focused on Jesus Christ) is unfaithfulness and a faith with a displaced hope. When we lose sight of the God, whom brought us out of the land of Egypt, who parted the Red Sea, brought us out of the wilderness and the God whom so loved the world He gave his only begotten son that whom so ever believed in Jesus Christ would have ever-lasting life. During transgressions and temptations, we too can make the mistakes of our ancestors. We can find ourselves shifting our faith and trust from God and begin to drink from wells that cannot cleanse us or cure our thirst. When we lose sight of the Rock of our foundation, we succumb to our temptations and even new temptations. The great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrase cheap grace. Bonhoeffer is saying some Christians want God s grace without discipleship, without picking up their cross and without Jesus. Paul says in our scriptures, these are all warning markers DANGER! in our history books, written down so that we do not repeat their mistakes. As we enter contemplative prayer, mediation and fasting during this 2019 Lenten season, let us keep our minds focused on Jesus and our faith in the Confidence and Promises of God. Remember, no temptation has overtaken you except what is
common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. Prayer: Heavenly Father teach us to have confidence in you O Lord, to have a steadfast faith, which pursues to obey and to do thy will. Help us Lord to be loving spirits who seek no reward in serving but to serve that you get all the glory. Help us Lord to remove the distraction in our lives, which leads us into temptation and away from the Rock of our foundation. In Jesus Name, Amen. Rev. Katherine J. Myers Evangelism Ministry
Scripture Focus: Luke 15: 1-3 The week of April 1, 2019 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Then, Jesus told them this parable. Luke 15: 1-3 Jesus had compassion for the people. He came to seek and save those who were lost. The tax collectors and sinners were eager to follow Jesus because they recognized that had a spiritual need. On the other hand, the religious persons like the Pharisees and teachers were critical, prideful, and judgmental of Jesus and the lost. They thought that they were spiritually superior but were actually spiritually blind failing to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Today, we who are seasoned Christians must regularly examine ourselves and be spiritually sensitive to the move of the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, we should have a compassion for the lost. We must be willing to let go of any hindrance and courageously risk all for Christ. In his book, All In, Mark Batterson says success is to Do the best you can with what you have where you are. Let us be all in withholding nothing back from God in all areas of our lives! Sing a Song of Meditation: This is My Story Prayer: Gracious God, we are grateful for your love toward us. We humble ourselves, and declare our total dependence on you. We offer ourselves to you completely and are All In. Please use us for your glory! Rev. Theresa Andrews, Minister to the South Orange Campus
Scripture Focus: Isaiah 43:16-21 New International Version (NIV) The week of April 8, 2019 Focus verses: 18 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Winter is perhaps the darkest and dreariest season of all. It is the time after the beautiful colors of spring flowers and lush green lawns of summer vanish and fade into fall. The ground freezes and all that illustrious beauty turns brown looking like a wasteland. But, it is during this time that change is taking place above and below. Toward the end of winter, God, through Mother Nature gives us small signs that He is doing a new thing. We begin to see little buds on the trees and a few green sprouts that push their way and spring up through the thawing ground. When we take time to be still and notice these miraculous but seemingly insignificant changes, we feel the tingle of hope and imagine what is yet to come even before it gets here. When Jesus died on Calvary, the earth shook and went dark. All seemed bleak and dreary. But, when the report came, that the stone was rolled away from the empty tomb, it was a sign and tingle of hope, for what was yet to come. And then on that glorious third-day, Sunday morning, when Jesus pushed through and got up, with all power, it gave us new life, new hope that the best in Christ Jesus was still yet to come. Jesus went all in for us and during this time of consecration we must recommit to being all in for Him. His life, his death, and his resurrection All had to happen for God s plan to be complete. This scripture in Isaiah tells us that some things in our past like guilt, mistakes, bad decisions and bad relationships, we must allow to die. We have to stop looking and staring out of the rearview mirror and face forward if, we are going to see the table that God has set before us. It is only then, that God can do a new thing to us and through us. In order to get it all, we have to give it all, or there will be no room for the new blessings and opportunities to be a blessing.
A familiar hymn encourages us: All to Jesus I surrender Make me Savior wholly thine May Thy Holy Spirit fill me May I know Thy power divine The only way we can fully know the power divine is to be All In. Prayer: God our Father and keeper in all that has passed, I surrender all. I am all in and thank You for the sacrifice of your Son who died for my sins and rose to give me another chance. Thank You God for all the new things that you will do to me and through me. I believe that the best in Christ Jesus is still yet to come. I give you all the praise and all the glory for all You have done and will do forever and ever in the name of Jesus. Amen. Dr. Karen Young-Thomas New Life Ministries
Scripture Focus: Luke 23: 1-49 The week of April 15, 2019 Jesus was accused, judged and condemned by people who just a week ago, praised and celebrated him. He is forced to decide if he will stay true to who is and his divine purpose or change course and reject who he is to avoid persecution. How often have we been faced with having to prove ourselves and our abilities and/or to defend our position? How do we respond in those instances? In those moments, we can choose to take the easy way out and conform to the expectations of others. The other alternative is choosing to stay the course no matter how difficult the journey because we know there is light at the end of the journey. It is up to us to decide if we will opt out or go all in. Going "all in" from a spiritual perspective requires us to accept and endure challenges we face in our lives. Our acceptance is an act of surrendering to our experiences with the understanding that a blessing is coming. Jesus knew what he was about to endure and he did not fight it. He knew that it was necessary for him to suffer, be crucified, and die for a greater purpose. In this Lenten Season, we must learn to be steadfast in the midst of chaos, struggles, pain, losses and disappointment. It is through trying times that we uncover strengths we have, realize our calling and are elevated to the place God destined us for. Let us be encouraged by and stay focused on the many blessings awaiting us beyond our challenges. Sis. Faith Edgar Dance Ministry Leader