Lent: Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Old Testament Lesson

Jeremiah 3:6-18

In spite of Israel's great sin, we see the Lord asking her to return. Make no mistake about it, the Lord sees our sin. Nothing we do goes unseen. He sees where we stray, He sees where we wander, He sees where we turn from Him. And, these things break His heart. These sins drive a wedge between us and God.

And, God will be the righteous judge of our sins one day. One day, we will stand before Him in judgement. But, today, on this day, He offers the chance to return. He offers the chance to repent. In spite of all that we have done, the Lord wants to forgive. In spite of all our failings, He wants to forgive. In spite of all the ways that we have turned our back on Him and chosen our way, He wants to forgive.

Today, will you return to Him; will you accept that forgiveness?

New Testament Lesson

Romans 1:28-2:11

We see this warning to Christians today. We we stand in judgement of others, we had better be careful. For, we do the same things. We are guilt of sin as well. We are guilty of failings as well. It is not just the "lost folk" that sin, but it is everyone. And, to the Christian, this is troubling, for we know better. Those that are lost, they only know sin. Those of us that saved, we know better. We know right from wrong, we know what is a sin.

And, yet we still sin. We still do wrong. We still choose the wrong thing. We know not to, and yet we still do. Thankfully, God gives us grace and forgiveness. Should we not give the same grace and forgiveness to others? Those of us that have had much forgiven, should we not forgive others in the same way?

Gospel Lesson

John 5:1-18

We see the religious leaders condemn Jesus because He had broken the letter of the man made law, but not the spirit of the true law. They were focusing on the wrong thing. They were majoring in the minors. They were allowing the little things to cloud their vision so that they could not see what God was really doing.

We need to make sure that we are focusing on what really mattes. We need to make sure we are in God's word so that we can see what He is doing. We don't need to allow little things to take us off of what God is trying to do. We need make sure we are not like the religious leaders and that we miss what God is trying to do.