In The Valley of Decision

A lovely Saturday morning on the first day of Spring. So nice to see summer rising out of winter. Almost seems like a resurrection.

Lent is a spiritual journey of discovery. It is something like a farmer sorting out the weeds from the wheat. We take forty days and forty nights to examine our lives. This allows us to put off the superfluous so that we may wisely employ the necessary. Doing so we prepare ourselves for living a life of service as followers in the way of Jesus. All while our spiritual being is nourished and strengthened by the spirit of God.

We had a conversation about services to come. There is still a lot of uncertainty. We will record Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Our present plan is to have service in the Church on Easter morning. This is not yet confirmed. There are many variables and we will pay close attention. Then we will make a decision and let you know.

Here is the recorded service for this week:

These are the texts on which the service is based:

Lent Five – March 21 2021

Jeremiah 31:31-34 - The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

John 12:24-28, 31-32 - Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--' Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."