Bible Readings
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
Thought
The season of Lent is drawing to its close and the question that keeps coming into my mind is ‘are you ready?’ Ready for what you might ask?
Being ready is often associated with having plans. When we want to be ready for something we plan ahead. This Friday we will have the first ‘live’ service back in Scaldwell church since we celebrated Epiphany together in January. This has required planning. The church was not particularly clean. Although very few people had been in the church since January plenty of spiders, woodlice and other small creatures have been inhabiting the building. So a small, socially distanced, face-covering wearing group of us cleaned the church yesterday so that those who attend the Good Friday service will not have to worry about what they might be sitting on.
Plans do not always go as we hope they will. I had planned to drive up to my parents yesterday evening, but I noticed that the exhaust on our car was not looking quite as it should and on closer inspection (I got Rob to crawl under the car) we found that it had broken and so today, instead of being in Lincoln, I will be at a well-known garage in Northampton hopefully having it fixed.
So what has all this to do with Lent? Lent is a time of preparation, so that we are ready for Easter. Many people will happily say that they are ready for Easter Sunday, however before we can get to Easter Sunday we have to reflect on Good Friday. God’s plans don’t go wrong, God knows exactly what he is doing, exactly what needs to be done. Jesus knew the plan, he knew that he was going to have to die, for us. So before we can get to next Sunday we have to come face to face with the question ‘Are you ready to accept that God loved you so much that Jesus died for you?’ I think that this is a mind blowing concept, one that is too big for us really to get our heads around. That the creator of the world would love us, his creation, so much that he would do anything to save us.
So, are you ready? Ready to accept that you are so loved by God, so special to him, that he would do anything to save you? We have had the whole of Lent to get our heads around this idea and now Lent is almost over Jesus stands with his arms wide open declaring his love for us.
Prayer
Thank you God for loving me.
Amen
Song:
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