This Wednesday is known as Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent – a Christian holy day observed by many, but like Christmas and Easter, it’s not a Biblically “required holiday.” In Western Christianity, Ash Wednesday marks the first day, of Lent, which begin 40 days prior to Easter (Sundays are not included in the count).
Many Christians prepare for Easter by spending these 40 days in fasting, repentance, moderation, and spiritual discipline. The purpose of Lent is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ – His Cross, His suffering and His sacrifice, His life, death, burial, and resurrection.
Advent and Christmas turn us with expectant gratitude toward Jesus’s coming. But it is during the season of Lent and Easter that we appreciate why Jesus came – to pay for our sins through His own death on the Cross.
On Ash Wednesday, ashes (usually made from the previous year’s Palm Sunday’s palm branches burned) are placed on the foreheads of worshipers as a reminder of our mortality and sinfulness. The person who imposes the ashes quotes something like what God once said to Adam after he had sinned: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19). Though this is the bad news of our sinfulness, it prepares us to receive the good news of forgiveness through Jesus.
Jesus is about the cross. And if we are about Jesus, then we, too, are to be about the cross. So today and during the next days leading to Easter, lets turn our eyes and hearts toward Calvary.
How we do this and what we do will look completely different for each one of us.
In James 1:5 God promises that we can ask Him for wisdom and He will give it to us. {Isn’t that awesome???} So ask Him about you and Lent. He will lead you.
Some years I’ve felt led to fast something during Lent. Other years, I’ve actually added something – like spending extra time with the Lord in His Word. Some worshippers feel led to work on a certain attitude or character trait during this season, and some commit to a special act of service.
The purpose of these actions is to sharpen one’s understanding and remembrance of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. However, some believers don’t feel led to observe Lent at all, and that’s ok, too.
If you are observing Lent, I want to share with you three wonderful resources that will surely center you on Jesus during this special season.
3 Free Resources:
1. Don’t have much time to read anything? Then LISTEN to this series on ReviveOurHearts.com Offered by one of my favorite Bible teachers, Nancy Leigh DeMoss Woglemuth. She uses the book, The Incomparable Christ by J. Oswald Sanders, and builds on the material each day. God has used this series to draw many hearts toward Jesus.
I went through this book and series one year and was incredibly blessed! However, you don’t have to read along in the book if you aren’t able to at this time. This series can also be found in podcast form. Just look for Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth, then The Incomparable Christ series on any of your podcast platforms.
This is what Nancy has to say about this series and why she led us through it:
“Unfortunately, some of these special days in the Christian calendar that were once observed as holy days have now become holidays. As a result, we strip them of their meaning and their power and what they could mean in our lives.
So I think it helps us to be intentional about turning our thoughts and tuning our hearts to the reality and the meaning of these special days in the Christian calendar, and certainly there is none more special than that period of time that we celebrate as the Passion of Christ: Good Friday, Easter Sunday...
So during this season we’re going to use Sanders’ book, The Incomparable Christ, as a track. I’m not going to actually read the book to you—you can do that for yourself—but I’m going to use the outline he uses about these different aspects of the life of Christ and follow them throughout these weeks leading up to Easter…“
To listen to these programs, you’ll find the links below.
The Incomparable Christ Programs begin at this link on February 14, 2024, and run through April 5, 2024.
You can download the book here: The Incomparable Christ, by J. Oswald Sanders (The e-version is around $7.)
2. This is the best book – one I try to read at least every other year – either at the beginning of the year or during the Lenten season… or whenever I can work it in… The Calvary Road by Roy Hessian.
This book is small but powerful…Something to ponder, not plow through at a fast pace. It has changed the way I view myself, my sin, and my Savior, and I’m so grateful that the Lord brought it to me through a vibrant Christian woman many years ago. There are phrases from this book that I use in my prayer life on a daily basis. It’s a treasure!
A testimony from the author’s own words about what he learned and the God-honoring principles he shares in this little book:
“….I was enabled to give up trying to fit things into my doctrinal scheme and come humbly to the Cross for cleansing from my own personal sins. It was like beginning my Christian life all over again…And it has been an altogether new chapter in my life since then. It has meant, however, that I have had to choose constantly to die to the big “I,” that Jesus might be all, and constantly to come to Him for cleansing in His precious Blood.” Roy Hessian
If this sounds like something you desire for your own life, you can download the FREE PDF of The Calvary Road here. {The PDF version can be opened and read on your electronic readers, or in ibooks, or on your computer, or printed out to hold in your hands. 🙂 }
AND… if you want to get the MOST from this study, for around $5 you can purchase (in book form or in e-book form) The Calvary Road Study Guide-Workbook (linked here). It has brought a whole new dimension to studying through this book and to the piercing of the secret places of my heart with God’s Word. OR, this is a different, but FREE Study Guide to go along with each portion of the book.
3. A Lenten Love Study – How to Fall and Stay in Love with Jesus Christ. This is another wonderful resource from Revive Our Hearts.com.
This page is the introduction and on it, you’ll find a link to continue your journey through the podcasts.
Nancy writes,
“Why is it so important for us to know and experience Christ’s love? Because when we don’t believe He really loves us, we often try to fill that hole in our heart by seeking love in the wrong places. And oh, the heartbreak that awaits us then! When we are secure in God’s love for us, we also gain a whole new capacity to point others to Him…”
Additional Resources
In addition, Biblegateway has a free daily emailed devotion for Lent at this link. The Bible App’s free devotional can be found here. She Reads Truth has several years’ worth of Lenten devotionals, and will have a current one posted this year. You can find last year’s devo here.
Numerous Lenten devotional books, podcasts, and apps are out there – just a google-search away.
But more than that, we already have the Best Resource available to us – Jesus Christ Himself, who is The Word. Whatever it is that we do between now and Easter, whether or not we formally observe Lent, let’s all remember that we are people of the cross, and not take salvation for granted.
A blessed Ash Wednesday to you all, dear friends~
