Easter is drawing near! As we prepare for the annual celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death for our sake, may I suggest two ways that we can ready ourselves? The first is brining someone with you on Easter Sunday, and the second, which we will look at next week, is making Holy Week a priority. Did you know research shows that the vast majority
of visitors come to the church through invitations from friends or relatives?
 
Studies show that 2% come to the church as a result of advertisement, 6% by pastoral
invitation, 6% by organized evangelism campaign, and 86% by friends or relatives.
Quite a staggering statistic! Most of the time we think that advertising is key, but in fact you are the key for someone to connect with God and His Church. It is worth noting that the research states they come through the invitations of friends or relatives. People respond to those they know and trust. They value what you find important in your life, especially if it is a priority in how your order your life.
 
There are a couple of lessons for us therein. First, when it comes to invitations, begin with those you know and have relationships established with. There are postcards in the church with the Easter service times to hand out. We also have business cards that you can hand out too if you prefer that method, which allows you to add your number or email to the back of the card. You can take to social media and share the Facebook event set up online, and in the Encourager there is a PDF version of the postcard that you can email out as well. Options abound for getting the word out, but in addition to an invite you consider an offer to grab lunch after, saving them a seat, or even picking them up for church that morning. Intentionality in your relationships often bear the most fruit.
 
Secondly, another lesson for us from this statistic is to broaden our friend circles. If we primary have Christian friends, perhaps we can forge relationships with neighbors, coworkers and others who are disconnected from God and His Church. We do so for a host of reasons, but one can be helping others discover what we have found in relationship with Jesus. Relationships take time, but such investments may allow for someone to reconnect with God in the future.
 
I am so thankful this time of year for the reminder that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us (see Romans 5:8)! Jesus bridged the gap for you and me back into relationship with God. We, by cooperating with the Holy Spirit at work in us, may be a bridge for someone else to reconnect with God as well. May God open our eyes to those around us in the days to come and give us boldness to share with them what we have found through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

​The past few weeks we have explored two of the three pillars of Lent; fasting and almsgiving. Both are intended to create space in our lives so that we can spend time with the Lord. The chief way we do so is through prayer. Communication is the key to strengthening and maintaining any relationship, and the same is true of our relationship with the Lord. Cultivating and creating times to be with the Lord is vital to our spiritual growth.
 
Prayer is a two way street, one in which we both converse with God and He converses with us. As one of the Church Fathers, Isidore, wisely noted, “Anyone who wants to be always united to God must pray often and read the Bible often. For in prayer it is we who are speaking to God, but in the readings it is God speaking to us.” As simple as that reminder may seem, it can be a challenge to put into practice. Yet, such moments are vital to keep us grounded in the trials and chances of life, to keep perspective, and to allow us to further trust Him.
 
Through prayer and times of listening by spending time God’s Word we train ourselves to go to God with all things in our lives from the hurts, difficulties, decisions, and thanksgivings. Each afford us an opportunity to dialogue with God about what is going on in our lives and seek guidance from Him. We seek counsel from so many people in this life. What if we went to Him as frequently as we did a friend, parent, sibling or spouse with what was happening in our lives? How might it change us if we sought out our Author and Creator first and foremost above all others?
 
We would discover a greater peace and clarity through moments in His presence. Such a discovery isn’t necessarily directly correlated to the amount of time spent with Him as Osawald Chambers observed, “It is not the thing on which we spend most time that molds us, but the thing that exerts the greatest power. Five minutes with God and His word is worth more than all the rest of the day.” Certainly this is a great place to being. Learning to cultivate times and keep and ongoing dialogue with the Lord throughout the day transforms us and aligns our lives with His will for us.
 
The challenge for us in this season is creating space in our lives to find this to be true. The even greater challenge is allowing ourselves to continue to create such moments beyond this season to carry on daily. May God continue to assist us with His grace as we seek Him first, bring things before Him and allow Him to speak to us through the pages of His Word. 

​Last week we explored fasting as a practice to draw us closer to the Lord during this season of Lent. Closely related to it is the practice of almsgiving, which is another pillar of this season to assist us in our growth, return, and refocus in these forty days. Almsgiving and fasting are linked, because in generations past when one gave up meat on Wednesday and Friday, or fasted from a meal entirely, the money that would have been spent was set aside for the work of ministry. It was another way to order one’s appetites by returning more of oneself to the Lord.
 
Therein lies the purpose for such a practice, namely to bring our lives more fully under God’s reign and rule by placing Him first. Almsgiving may also serve as a valuable discovery tool in our lives and routines as well. For example, giving up a cup of Starbucks coffee on the way to work each day can easily amount to $150 a month in savings, and forgoing lunch out each day can amount to even more. At times we may not realize how much small items add up, and how much of an impact small sacrifices could make in the advancement of the Gospel.
 
Choosing to set the aside money we would have spent on something during this season can have a bigger impact than you may imagine. Returning to our Starbucks example, the amount of $150 spent for coffee would provide an entire month’s salary for a pastor in Africa or 1/5 of the annual support needed to invest in a life at La Gran Familia orphanage in Mexico. It may also be the amount needed in the life of someone in our community who is out of work to keep them from eviction or help them keep the lights on another month. Call or email the church office if you’d like to chat more about what you could place such an offering toward at the end of these forty days.
 
Almsgiving is yet another practice to help us refocus upon what matters most as we give beyond our normal offering to the Lord. It also provides a way to simplify and to bring to our awareness where our resources go and perhaps the excess we have. May God use this season to draw our hearts closer to His in this area of our lives.   

Lent is upon us. A season of spiritual growth that is set aside for refocus, return to the Lord, and reprioritizing in the days leading up to Easter. Traditionally, this season has been marked by three practices to assist toward that end: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. Over the next few weeks we will explore each of these pillars and practical ways to implement them as tools to further our growth in the likeness of Jesus during this season.
 
Historically, during Lent, fasting is encouraged on Fridays. Many wonder why this is a custom in the life of the Church. There are many reasons, but the first may be to remind us of the day. It is akin to tying a string around your finger, or in this day and age, sending yourself a reminder on your phone or computer. It marks the day as different as we set aside portions of the day to seek the Lord. For this reason fasting is often encouraged when we need the Lord’s guidance on a matter or issue in life. We see our Lord point to this in Scripture (i.e. Acts 13:2 and the choosing of the disciple to replace Judas).
 
Beyond merely marking the day, fasting also serves as an offering to God. We give up the time we would have spent over a meal in prayer. Even in our fast paced society today, we often have at least an hour for lunch. And if we turned this into an hour of prayer or studying God’s Holy Word, we present our time and ourselves as an offering back to Him. In times of trial or great decision we ‘carve out’ time to listen and seek the Lord for guidance, and on Fridays in Lent it allows us time to reflect upon our Lord’s sacrifice on our behalf on that day.

Lastly, Fr. Homer Rogers, a priest from this area of a generation past, once said that fasting helps “to discipline and train the bodily appetites in obedience to the higher faculties of the intellect and will.” Put another way, fasting helps develop in us a discipline to seek God above all else. It places us in a position of both humility and availability as we seek His will.
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During Lent abstinence from meat on Wednesday and Friday is also done for many of the same reasons. The goal of course was not so focused upon the meat, as what the meat represents: extravagance. We don’t think of meat as extravagant, but it is certainly more rare than other food items (and a luxury in other parts of the world, or to the poor in our own communities). The goal behind this custom was to live more simply during this season. As we take times to refocus upon the Lord through both fasting and abstinence this season, I pray that we draw nearer to Him through these practices as we learn to seek Him above all else.