Lenten Devotional

Day 24 – April 1, 2025 This past year, 2024, was definitely a wilderness experience for me. I have had the diagnosis of osteoarthritis in my hips and knees for many years.  In the fall of 2023, I went to the orthopedic doctor because of the pain.  My family doctor had recently taken me off of arthritis medications because of damage to my kidneys. The x-rays and MRI confirmed the arthritis but it wasn’t surgery worthy. I did several weeks of physical therapy. Throughout 2024, the pain in my hips became unbearable. I was in such intense discomfort that I became immobile, depending first on the use of a cane, then a walker, and then a rollator walker. Thank goodness

Day 23 – March 31, 2025 In Matthew’s telling of events, it is interesting that it is immediately following Jesus’s Baptism that he is “carried away by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1)  Is it possible that we are to consider the proximation of temptation from salvation? As pertains to Jesus’ life, the metaphor likely ends there – we cannot compare our worldly journeys to his…but to me, there is something striking that Satan chose this – of all moments – to tempt Christ. Is it evidence that there is – perhaps – an inherent vulnerability that accompanies freshly awoken, or invigorated, zeal? My Wilderness story – what I – in hindsight

  March 30, 2025 (4th Sunday in Lent) Today, our sermons will center on Psalm 32, concerning David’s relief when he voices his sins and receives forgiveness, and  2 Corinthians 5:16-21 about becoming a new creation in Christ.  But today’s devotional rests with a word repeated in Psalm 32: “Selah.”  Selah is a Hebrew word that is similar to the words “forever” and “amen” but, most notably is understood to signify a cue in a musical piece or poem to stop and consider what was just stated. Selah means to pause and contemplate. In a world where many of us listen only in order to respond, or where there are computers/tvs/phone calls/texts all going at the same time, or we

Day 22 – March 29, 2025 Remember the long way that the Lord has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments (Deuteronomy 8:2).  The wilderness carries great symbolism and real experiences for some. Scripture tells us that Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days dealing with the temptations. Some of us know what it is to be in a spiritual wilderness. It has been said that a spiritual wilderness is a place of hopelessness, despair, and a feeling of separation from God.  The season of Lent is a time of reflection, confession, and repentance. In this

Day 21 – March 28, 2025 1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.– Exodus 16:1-4a (NIV)

Day 20 – March 27, 2025 Led Out of the Wilderness of Worry by Steve Mathews     In 2005, our eldest son (Josh), having just completed High School, and led by his convictions, decided to pursue a career as an Army officer.  To that end, he enrolled at North Georgia College & State University, attending on a full Army ROTC scholarship.  His freshman year of college went well, but by that Spring, Josh had decided he needed to first serve as an enlisted soldier before he could effectively serve as an officer.  So, he enlisted in the Infantry and headed to Ft. Benning (now Ft. Moore) for Basic, then Airborne training.  He was soon assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at