Post by Admin on Feb 15, 2018 7:43:30 GMT
We opened the evening by recognizing February 14th as the beginning of Lent for 2018. Lent is a forty-day period before Easter, starting with Ash Wednesday. We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness before he began His ministry. It ends on the Saturday that the Lord’s body lay in the tomb (March 31). Our church also uses the term “Passiontide.”
Lent is a season of soul-searching, reflection, and repentance. With the emphasis in this Armor of God Bible study on prayer, and with the recent Divine Service about prayer (on February 11th), we have a great topic for our concentration this Lent: prayer. If we press into God’s presence like never before, we will experience God like never before. We’ll look back on these forty days as the best forty days of your life. For God to do something new in us, we cannot keep doing the same old thing. We have to do something different. And if we do, God will create new capacities within us.
After the video, we noted again that Priscilla used the terminology “saved” and described God's peace as being placed in us at that moment. Again that does seem to capture our responsibility to activate the peace, utilize it, and let it grow in us and through us.
Only God’s peace can dig in deep enough to offer the kind of anchoring, grounding, and security we need. Dealing with life and with other people in a way that promotes peace takes supernatural help that only God can provide. We talked about the activities, people, or escapes we seek out when we’re upset and trying to find peace, and whether those peace-seeking options are satisfying, temporary, or even deceptive.
We did not get a chance to talk more about the hobnail shoes of Roman soldiers and how their stability when they stood shoulder to shoulder in the shoes allowed them to create an impenetrable line. However, winning battles was not enough – they could also plow forward as a line and take territory with their shoes gripping into the dirt. That is the gospel’s power! So, as a congregation, where could we push forward instead of holding the line?
Lent is a season of soul-searching, reflection, and repentance. With the emphasis in this Armor of God Bible study on prayer, and with the recent Divine Service about prayer (on February 11th), we have a great topic for our concentration this Lent: prayer. If we press into God’s presence like never before, we will experience God like never before. We’ll look back on these forty days as the best forty days of your life. For God to do something new in us, we cannot keep doing the same old thing. We have to do something different. And if we do, God will create new capacities within us.
After the video, we noted again that Priscilla used the terminology “saved” and described God's peace as being placed in us at that moment. Again that does seem to capture our responsibility to activate the peace, utilize it, and let it grow in us and through us.
Only God’s peace can dig in deep enough to offer the kind of anchoring, grounding, and security we need. Dealing with life and with other people in a way that promotes peace takes supernatural help that only God can provide. We talked about the activities, people, or escapes we seek out when we’re upset and trying to find peace, and whether those peace-seeking options are satisfying, temporary, or even deceptive.
We did not get a chance to talk more about the hobnail shoes of Roman soldiers and how their stability when they stood shoulder to shoulder in the shoes allowed them to create an impenetrable line. However, winning battles was not enough – they could also plow forward as a line and take territory with their shoes gripping into the dirt. That is the gospel’s power! So, as a congregation, where could we push forward instead of holding the line?