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Lent Devotional 2020 – February 28
PRAY:
Show me Your glory, I pray.
Exodus 33:18
READ:
Then he led out his people like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid;
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
Psalm 78:52:53
Do you have a favorite story? Perhaps a story your mother told you to help you drift into sleep. Maybe a story you read in school, watched in a movie, learned from a song, or one shared by a friend. Native American folk wisdom teaches: “Tell me a fact, and I will learn. Tell me a truth, and I will believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.”
The Exodus story lived in the hearts of the Pilgrims, inspiring them to leave the old world for the new. They read themselves into the Exodus script, imagining that God delivered them from despotic bondage, crossing the Red Sea of the Atlantic, journeying through a wilderness to the Promised Land of freedom.
Similarly, it was a story inspiring both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to propose the image of the Exodus for the Great Seal of the United States. Although another design for the Great Seal was chosen (see the backside of a dollar bill), this demonstrates the power of the Exodus story on the nation’s founders. Later, the civil rights movement looked to the Exodus redemption for inspiration and guidance. Martin Luther King Jr., like a modern day Moses, rallied people, declaring:
“I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
(Speech on April 3, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee)
The psalmist picks up today’s scripture to read his times in the light of the Exodus, urging parents to tell it to their children: “We will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might and the wonders that he has done” (Psalm 78:4b).
How about you? What inspires you in the Exodus story? What might you want to tell others about your story?
REFLECT
- Popular Christian spiritual writer Henri Nouwen said that our best gift to the world is our story. How do you think you might gift others by telling them your life story? What might people learn of God, grace, and love, by hearing your story?
- Who specifically might you gift with your story?
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Lent Devotional 2020 – February 28
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Lent 2020 Devotional – Introduction
How would you like to get a fresh perspective on your life? How would you like to see more clearly where you have been, where you are now, and where God wants to lead you? The purpose of this 40-day…
You will bring water from rock for the community.
Numbers 20:8
We take our name from the Bible’s story of the archetypal Exodus journey during which the people of God came to a place in the desert wilderness where there was no water. Yet, it was there in a hostile wilderness that they experienced God’s provision of water for them and leadership into a new future. We trust in a God who still provides, renews and leads His people.
Rooted in the Word
We are a ministry of Christian renewal rooted in the Living Word, Jesus Christ, as He reveals Himself through His Written Word, the Bible. Through the Written Word we encounter the Living Word in the incomprehensible wonder of His love. We are mindful that knowledge, even of the Bible, “puffs up” while love “builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). We engage the Scriptures seeking to love more and know more of love. We purpose to search out God’s Word with both our minds and our hearts.
Ecumenical in Outlook
We honor all followers of Christ who have gone before us, and all who are among us now. We have much to learn and receive from all who have a lived experience of God’s transforming love. By reaching out to embrace the universal Body of Christ we strive to balance orthodoxy (right belief) and right living (orthopraxy).
In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.
(Rupertus Meldenius, 1582 – 1651)
Experiencing the Living God
We thirst to know God and not just to know about Him. We long for a living experience of God. We believe that God breaks into our world on the holy ground of His Word, and seek through His Spirit a living encounter with Him there. We daily aim to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength (Mark 12:30).
The arms of God be around my shoulders,
The touch of the Holy Spirit upon my head,
The sign of Christ’s cross upon my forehead,
The sound of the Holy Spirit in my ears,
The fragrance of the Holy Spirit in my nostrils,
The vision of heaven’s company in my eyes,
The conversation of heaven’s company on my lips,
The work of God’s church in my hands,
The service of God and the neighbor in my feet,
A home for God in my heart,
And to God, the Father of all, my entire being. Amen.
—Fursey of Yarmouth, 6th century Irish monk