SEASONS - THOUGHTS ABOUT ASH WEDNESDAY AND LENT

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

February 10th was Ash Wednesday which was also the first day of Lent.  I do not feel this time is commanded, but I do not feel it is wrong either.  Any specific period of time set aside to grow closer to God is a good thing!  I have observed Lent many times and I have not forgotten all that the season has to teach, nor all the blessings I’ve received when I have taken the time out of my life to observe Lent.     

There is also a lot of golden wisdom to be obtained in the understanding of the meaning behind Ash Wednesday.  I find it very helpful.  Ash Wednesday happens on the first day of Lent each year, following Shrove Tuesday.   It marks a 40 day period of prayer and fasting, very similar to the 40 days spent by Jesus in the dessert when He was tempted by Satan before His crucifixion.  These are the days leading up to Easter (as the Catholic’s and Episcopals say ( I like to say “Resurrection Day”.)  Whatever you like to call this day; the fast of Lent ends with the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ and a very joyful time. 

On this day ashes are imposed on the foreheads of the faithful.  They appear in the shape of a cross and are worn all day as a testimony to the fact that we come from ashes and we will return to ashes.  Without God, we are nothing at all.  Perhaps we will be reminded of the mark of Cain who came from the dust of the ground and was doomed to return to the ground from whence he came.  He did not provide the proper sacrifice for his sins.  He was doomed to live with the mark of his own sins until he returned to the ground from where he was taken originally.  If only he had turned and obeyed God and provided the right sacrifice, he would not have to eventually die in his sin and be no more.  He would have gained the essence of eternal life.  But Cain thought like Cain and he continued in rebellion, much like mankind, much like the message of the dust of the ashes that we wear on Ash Wednesday.  There is nothing we can do for ourselves and there is no hope outside of a miracle of God.

The whole idea of the season is to examine your heart and repent of any unrepented sins before the day that celebrates The Resurrection of Christ, who IS the miracle provided by God.  

Personally, by the time this season rolls around every year – I have already done most of this work of the soul in the observance of the Month of Elul and The Days of Awe from the Hebrew calendar which lead up to The Day of Atonement, so if I join in and observe Lent, much of the spiritual housekeeping of my adopted Jewish heart has already taken place; but it never hurts to be thorough when it comes to your soul and eternity – so I often chose to join in with my friends, even though I do not feel this is commanded.  This is especially true, since we know from history and study that the whole idea of Lent was started by a monk many years ago, and possibly evolved from his study of those observing Elul and The Days of Awe.    The important thing is to be sure you repent, during any time or season.   This is what really matters.  After all, repentance should actually be a DAILY observance of all Christians, and this extra, though not commanded season, helps me keep aware of that fact all through the year.  

Seasons come and go and what do we learn in them?  How do we keep them pure with the right intentions before God?  

I try not to be  too legalistic with any season, but just strive to let God lead me to where He wants my heart to go whenever or where ever that proves out to be.   Every year for me is different in some way, because God doesn't have me living a stagnant life.  Nothing is ever the same if you are really alive!  Yet, all of God is constant and never changing.  What a balancing act!  It can get off center if you aren't paying attention to your true focus.     

I tend to lean in Hebraic directions and  I have noticed some years when I observe Purim and participate in The Fast of Esther, that it all  fits right into the whole mood of Ash Wednesday and fasting for Lent – so I don’t see any harm here, though it certainly confuses a lot of my friends who don't understand either subject whether from the Hebraic point of view or the Catholic point of view.  It gets even more confusing when we have one of those years when the calendar that God chose and the calendar that man has let evolve in the church get out of sync.  This is one of those crazy years when Purim comes long into Lent and Easter comes before Passover (completely backwards!)  I just laugh and go on.  God knows what I’m doing – and He knows my religious observances are always for Him, not mankind. 

The day is coming when God is going to either pull us outside of time with Him or step back into time with us.  I'll let him unravel the web we have woven, and until then, the Hebraic calendar will come first for me and when it is possible and logical, I'll join in with the others.  I'll keep holding on to the main things, the things that I feel will matter in the end.  
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 Just recently God has led me to a deep study of the life of Cain and Abel.  I have seen so many clues in their stories that make me stop and think.  One thing that always jumps out at me is the mark of Cain and it has me always noticing any time other people in the bible have been known for displaying or having a mark on their arm or their forehead.  Now I look for those things in order to grasp a better understanding.  

I notice every Ash Wednesday of Lent that the cross is a mark on the forehead of all of the faithful who go for ashes.  Of course this is in total contrast to the mark of Cain, as Cain was marked for the committing of sin, but the faithful also have their counter mark, their identification as being servants of The Most High God. They instead are marked for their submission to God's will.   

There are so many examples of different "marks," and I’m astounded when I begin studying them all.   Go just one step further and consider if the ashes on the forehead (the place of the brain, or the symbol of the mind) is the first step to the circumcision of the saved, or the mark of God over the heart of His own.  Could the marking of the heart, so symbolic of perfect love, be the next step after the marking of the mind?  I think it is a natural progression that every Christian pilgrim must travel.  What stays and resides inside the mind eventually shows up from the heart in either love or hate.  

Is your mind marked with the holy scriptures?  

Is your heart marked with the love of God?

I look at the passage in Ezekiel 9 which speaks of The Glory of God instructing a man with a writing kit in his hands to go about Jerusalem and mark the foreheads of the people who have lamented and wept or grieved over the detestable things that have happened in the city.  Instructions were given for everyone who did not have this mark to be killed, showing no mercy. 

 In one sense these people are like Cain in that they are protected from death.  The reasons though are very different.  They are protected because they have been faithful and true, Cain was protected so that he could suffer enough to possibly see his own sins and change.  It never happened.  God always allows us these times to consider our sins and He is patient as He waits to see if we will change.  Some of us remain in sin, like Cain, but those of us who are willing to humble ourselves and change eventually reap unimaginable blessings in eternal life.  

Lent is well under way now.  It began on February 10th this year.  Did you notice the marks on people's foreheads?  More importantly, have you noticed the mark of love and kindness from a neighbor or a friend?  That too might be symbolic of the mark of Christ over their heart.  Some sacrifices involve giving instead of giving up.  Sometimes God leads people to make changes in how they relate to their fellowman as well as how they relate to God.  

Whatever customs we follow and however we observe them today; in the end we will all be marked, one way or the other.  

Which way will you chose and what will be the sign over your heart?  

Will the things that you have been taught in your head sink down into your heart and spirit and spill out to others in the world or will you be like Cain and turn your face away?

We all have a choice.  

The mark comes from God, but the meaning of it is found within our own souls.  

What will your mark look like?
      

PEN ART - THE REFLECTION OF CHRIST IN NEHEMIAH - PART THREE

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

 In Nehemiah's day, the beginning of all the building started  in a spot that was deemed the most important place in the wall.  The place was known as  the wall around the Sheep Gate.  This gate represents Jesus, our Good Shepherd. 

This is the gate mentioned in John 5:2,  the gate beside the pool of Bethesda.  It is the gate beside the pool with five porches, which could easily stand for five types of ministry. 

This is the gate where the sheep were washed and brought into the temple for sacrifice.  Here we are washed of our sins, just like the sheep in Nehemiah's day.  The priest who offered up the sacrifices were required to live in this area.  They had to live next to The Sheep Gate.

  At the time of Nehemiah the High Priest's name was Eliashib.  "El" means "God."  "Yashib" means "to go back."  Reading backwards as the Hebrews do - we can hear a message even in the name of the high priest who worked at this gate.  The message says "go back to God" - or REPENT.

So it is recorded by Nehemiah that the wall around the Sheep Gate was built by one whose names meant "repent."  This gate is the perfect Old Testament picture of the New Testament sacrifice of The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.  This gate shows us the cross. 

We are lead to think immediately of the prophet Isaiah's great words about Jesus, "as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth."  (Isa. 53:7).   At the Sheep Gate of our lives there is a principle of death at work.  It is the death of the natural self.  It is the way we come to our own cross.  We are called to obey Christ, to follow Him and to walk with Him.  That means that some of our desires, some of our natural longings must be put to death.  That is the principle of the cross.  This is a gate that must be kept in repair if we want to grow into a strong Christian.

 A gate is an opening.  The cross symbolized by this Sheep Gate, is an opening to God.  A beginning.

 On each side of the Sheep gate the walls lead to two towers, one tower in each direction.  The first tower is named "Meah."  "Meah" means "Hundred."  The second tower is called The Tower of Hananeel - which means - "God is gracious and merciful."  "Hanan" means "gracious and merciful."  "El" means "God."  Reading backwards we have "God is gracious and merciful."

 Reading the gate and the wall by the meaning of the names of the places in the wall we come to see an Old Testament message with a New Testament meaning:  "The walls of Salvation built by one named "repentance" stands between two tall towers that say "God is gracious and merciful to hundreds."

 In the Old Testament, in the story of Nehemiah, there is a gate of sacrifice in the middle of a wall of salvation called The Sheep Gate that opens the way to God for mankind.  This beautiful picture that God has painted for those with eyes to see, just like a thousand other Old Testament pictures of Christ, brings us hope.  It is a reason to hold on to our belief in God and to cling to our faith in all circumstances, even when we appear to be as broken as Nehemiah's walls.