This is the third in a series of Lenten devotionals by a group of Anglican bloggers and friends. Today’s entry is by Andy, of All Too Common blog. You can read other entries in the series here.
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Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Thursday After Ash Wednesday
Today’s Gospel reading: saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:22-25, ESV)
Today we remember the atonement of our Lord and how we are to follow Him, no matter the cost. The martyrs old, and those of today, are prime examples of someone giving their all to uphold the faith and to preach the gospel of salvation to all. For if we are not willing to stand, even in the hardest of times, what will it profit us?
This is encouraging news, despite the fact that we might be persecuted for holding to the Christian faith, because we are told that we will gain eternal life with God Himself, though we may lose our lives here on earth. St. Paul wrote that to live is Christ, but to die is gain. What does that mean for you and me today, during this Lenten season?
Well for one, we can obviously do what we can to help our brothers and sisters overseas who are being physically persecuted for Jesus. Those Christians in the Muslim world need our prayers and any practical support we can give them. At home, those of us in ECUSA must make our stand and denounce the worldliness of so many leaders and continue to proclaim Christ. In all parts of the Church around the world, Satan is attacking us. We have heretical revisionism in the West, Islamic attackers in the East (and coming into the West), doctrinal disagreements which prohibit reunification, moral relativism (and relative truth), and not to mention the usual bickering we Christians have always done with each other over pettiness. This is all happening now in what is probably one of the toughest periods in the life of the Church.
We must call sin what it is, we must not be afraid to point out the error of false religions, we must confront moral relativism and we must be slow to anger and quick to forgive. Christians in the West: it is time to stop sitting by and letting Satan run over us and believing the lies that tolerance is the key. We are seeing the effects of this new “tolerance” all around us. We must take up our crosses daily and proclaim the Good News with vigor and remain faithful to Jesus Christ and stop compromising with the world, of which we are not a part.
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have the most need of your mercy. Amen.
–art credit: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/e/eakins/eakins_crucifixion.jpg
