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I’ve Been Thinking …

So Sunday we’re finishing this series on ‘The Emerging Church’. We’ve learned about the spectacular growth of Christianity in Africa and Latin America (the Global South). It’s also encouraging to know that our North American churches are showing vitality and renewal when they live out a ‘generous orthodoxy’ — living out the historic Christian message in a gentle and non-judgmental way. The exciting challenge that Katie and Rhonda share Sunday is the description of a generation already appearing, who are keen to live sacrificial lives that will improve the society and the world around them.
This week we begin the season of Lent,a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday (Feb.6th). We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection.
Lent is intended to be a season for reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when new converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days (read Matthew 4: 1-11 this week; if you’re really keen, also read the book of Exodus). Each Sunday during Lent we’ll look at different biblical incidents in the life of Jesus, and in the 40 years of wilderness wanderings by God’s people after escaping slavery in Egypt.
We want to use the Old and New Testaments to show the patterns of the continuous presence of God in our lives. Even when we are LOST? there is The Promise beyond the wilderness.

The spiritual journey begins this week –after a feast of pancakes and sausage on Tuesday. See you there? — ORVILLE

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