Religion Can’t Save You
Romans 2:17-24 from THE MESSAGE
17-24 If you’re brought up Jewish, don’t assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you’re an insider to God’s revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God’s revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I’m quite serious. While preaching “Don’t steal!” are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, “It’s because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God,” shows it’s an old problem that isn’t going to go away.
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Lent reminds us what is important. Lent helps us prepare for the great celebrations at Easter.
*Lent has always been about renewal, about second chances, about new life in Jesus through the waters of baptism. Lent has always been about the important things.
Over the centuries, Lent evolved into the season we now keep. Beginning on Ash Wednesday and lasting until the week before Easter Sunday, the Lenten season is forty days (excluding Sundays). This echoes the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry.
Lent starts dramatically on Ash Wednesday.
Those ash marks on people’s foreheads recall an ancient practice mentioned throughout the Old Testament. When people had done something awful, they would be covered in ashes as a sign of humiliation. It was a way of showing that it’s not all about us. We’re not important, but God is very important.
Lately, it has become more common to take things on for the season of Lent. People might decide to read the Bible or pray more. But we might also decide to focus on something like forgiveness. How can we practice forgiving others? Who do we need to forgive?
Lent quietly teaches us. We have all that we
need in God’s grace. We aren’t meant to look after ourselves alone but rather to offer sacrificial love to our neighbors. We don’t need to fear anything.
Loving God and loving our neighbors are the most important things. And Lent is a wonderful way to remember that life is about love, not about our own desires.
Taken from article: Scott Gunn: What is Lent and why does it matter?
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/what-is-lent-scott-gunn
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