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What are You Giving Up for Lent?

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 I didn't grow up in a Christian denomination that observes Lent, so for most of my life all I knew about it was that it had to do with preparing for Easter and giving something up, like TV. So, what is Lent? What does the Bible have to say about it? Should we give something up for a while before Easter?  As Advent is a season of preparation before Christmas, so Lent is a season intended to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Easter. Advent is a time of excitement and wonder. Lent, on the other hand, has a more somber, penitent tone to it. It is intended to help us recognize our brokenness as humans and our need for a Savior (1). It began early in the history of Christianity with new believers who were planning to be baptized on Easter Sunday fasting on the Friday and Saturday before (2). Over time, the church began fasting for different periods of time and in different ways leading up to Easter until finally, in the fourth century, a standardized Lenten calendar was est...
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Praying God's Wisdom: Living Daily with Wisdom

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   Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, Ephesians 5:15  Interestingly, we explored this verse last Spring while doing the study, For Such a Time as This . What I wrote about then holds true today, but I feel like it has just a little more depth, a little more insight. I love how God’s Word is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword ( Hebrews 4:12 ). We can look at the same verse over and over, and each time we learn something new, but perhaps this is partly because we are not the same person that looked at it before. Since then, we’ve grown, changed, learned new things. The verses are the same, but we are not.  When you zoom out and look at the whole passage in Ephesians, we see that, according to verse 17 , living as wise involves understanding the Lord’s will. A few weeks back we talked about how to discern God’s will and growing in our ability to hear and trust His guidance. God brought Isaiah 30:21 to my attention that...
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Praying God's Wisdom: Growing What God Gave You

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  Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.   1 Corinthians 4:2  This last year, God has been putting on my heart that I need to make sure that what I have isn’t just sitting there, it is accomplishing some growth. The clearest way to see this is with our money. An interesting blessing that came through my husband’s layoff last year was that I became more involved in the finances, much more involved. One of the things that stood out to me initially was that we had a significant amount of money sitting in an account that didn’t really earn much interest. Much of our savings my husband had put into laddered CDs that were earning better, but this money, which we had intentionally kept liquid in case we needed it, was not pulling its weight. I learned about High-Yield Savings (HYS) accounts last summer and we moved the money there where it has been happily growing ever since. I even looked at what bills we paid just a few times a year, ...
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Praying God's Wisdom: The Gift of Blogging

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  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.   1 Peter 4:11  I’m a very open person. I’ve been accused of “processing publicly.” When something’s on my heart I share it, and I don’t limit it to the people in my house or in my home group, I share it with the world on my blog. Well, I share it with the people that God puts my blog in front of and I’m not entirely sure how many or who that will be, so I figure it’s just public knowledge. In the suggested reading today ( Matthew 5:14-16 and 1 Peter 4:10-11 ), Jesus talks about how we should be like a city on a hill, letting our light shine and not diminishing it. Paul also commissions us to use the gifts that God has given and allow them to glorify Him.   Today’s verse tells me to live at 100%. I...
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Praying God's Wisdom: Counting the Cost

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  "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.'" Luke 14:28-30  In Western Washington, if you drive out to the coast, you’ll pass through some beautiful country. About halfway between I-5 and the ocean, you come across the little town of Elma. There are forests and hills, rivers and even giant metal sculptures to keep you entertained. You might drive right past without noticing them during the day, but if you make the drive at night, you’ll notice flashing lights on top of two giant towers up on the hill. These towers, WNP3 and WNP5 collectively known as the Satsop Power Plant, are the stark reminders of one of the biggest failures in our region, really our country. Let me tell you the story.   Back in th...
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Praying God's Wisdom: Dreaming Dreams

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Image created with Gemini But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.“ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 1 Corinthians 12:9  Have you ever given God a wish list of how you think He should use you in this world? Almost like a resume, have you said that you are really good at certain things and would really shine if He gave you an opportunity in a certain area? I know I have.   In my young adulthood I wanted to be a missionary. Many people in my family have done this for generations and I’ve dreamed about it since I was a child. I’ve read missionary biographies, sat on the edge of my seat during missions presentations at church, sought out opportunities to visit with missionaries, everything I could think of. I prayed, oh how I prayed! I went on a couple of short-term mission trips which taught me so much and blessed me abundantly, but the door never opened ...
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Praying God's Wisdom: Becoming

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  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11  Have you ever been sure that God is doing a thing, but you can’t quite see it yet? Does everything just look like an impossible mess around you, but you’re absolutely certain that God’s going to work it out somehow? Take heart, He absolutely will! Today’s verse promises us that God will put everything together just right in His perfect timing. If things aren’t right yet, God’s not finished yet.   You know who had to live this out in a very challenging way? David. He had a wild youth serving as his family’s designated shepherd, watching over the flocks and keeping them safe, but this was not seen as an important or valuable job in his day. In fact, as the eighth and youngest son in the family, he wasn’t even invited to dinner when Samuel the prophet came for a visit. The family didn’t know th...
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