What Is Lent?

You hear people talking about lent this time of the year in many churches but just what is lent all about?  What does it mean?

The word, "lent," comes from the Anglo-Saxon word, "lencten," which basically means the time of the year when the days grown longer.

Lent officially begins on Ash Wednesday and continues for 40 days until finishing up on Easter.  If you took a calculator and tried to figure out the 40 days you would come up with the wrong figure.  You have to subtract every Sunday because each Sunday is considered to be a "miniature Easter."  Thus, you calculate the 40 days minus Sundays.

Lent has its origins somewhere between the 6th and 8th century.  Originally, the idea was that a Christian, as a sign of repentance, would sprinkle ashes on his or her head.  In the Bible, ashes symbolize humility, mortality, fasting and remorse.  A person who sinned and felt remorse would sprinkle ashes on their head as a sign of repentance and sorrow.  

Ashes reminds us that we are mortal and eventually we will die.  At gravesite services, the pastor will usually say something in regard to dust to dust and ashes to ashes.  

Over time, instead of sprinkling ashes on a person's head, the ashes were instead rubbed into the forehead in the shape of a cross as a reminder of repentance and baptism.  Eventually, many churches gave up this practice.  The importance is what goes on in your heart.  

Why does it consist of 40 days?  That is because after Jesus was baptized, the Bible tells us that Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and to experience being tempted by the devil throughout this 40 day period.  

During the 40 days of Lent, we are think about our own troubles and temptations we go through and repent.  It is a time for us to receive God's forgiveness and to receive the power of the Holy Spirit  to give us strength and spiritual renewal to lead the Christian Life.  

Does Time Really Heal All Wounds?

Does time heal?  For some people it may indeed be true.  Some people swear by it.  

However, I believe that time heals nothing.  We learn to accept that which we cannot change.  

How long does it take to accept?  Six months, one year, three years?  

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross was a Swiss Psychiatrist who wrote a very well known book in 1969, called "On Death and Dying." In the book she outlined five stages that people go through when they go through the process of death.  

Stage one:  Denial - Reality is hard to face and the first reaction is generally denial that this could actually be happening.  "There must be some mistake, doctors missed something."

Stage two:  Anger - Once denial can no longer be used as a defense, anger comes in, "why is this happening to me?  It's not fair.  How could God let this happen?"

Stage three:  Bargaining - There is still hope that somehow the individual can overcome this.  "Let me live God and I'll serve you forever."  

Stage four:  Depression - When the person eventually realizes that denial and bargaining is not going to work they begin to understand the certainty of death.  "I'm so sad, why do anything.  I'm going to die soon so what is the point?"

Stage five:  Acceptance - Individuals finally come to grips with their mortality.  "It's going to be okay.  I can't fight it so I might as well prepare for it.

Later Dr. Kubler Ross, through further research, expanded these five stages to include not just death, but also all traumas.  

The question that I would like for you, as you read this, to try and come to terms with is this:  "How long is it going to take between depression and acceptance?"  Six months, one year, three years, ten years?  

In order to heal anything we first have to understand it.  Healing and curing are two different things.  Curing is a medical term.  Healing is a spiritual term and it is an active process.  It is not a passive one.  As Americans, we do not always want to make the effort to get better, rather we just want to feel better now.  Feeling better is a passive process,via drugs, trying to block things out of our mind, refusing to talk about it, etc.  Getting better is an active process where we participate in the healing process.  If you are waiting for time to do its work, you are going to be in for a very long wait.  

When I was a little boy I would sometimes cut myself.  My mother would always give me a lecture first on why I should be more careful.  She then would take water and soap and clean the wound carefully.  She would put some type of salve on it and then apply a band aid.  

What would happen if she didn't clean the wound?  It might taken longer, could cause an infection, but it would eventually close and likely leave a scar. 

When we experience a wound to our heart, or our soul, it feels like being torn apart.  Sometimes it even feels like we are bleeding inside.  Eventually, the bleeding will stop and the wound closes.  However, what is it we have closed up?  Have we truly healed the wound or have we simply closed up anger, hurt, regret, and remorse inside?  If we have not healed the wound, some people will experience "weeping wounds" which doctors and nurses describe as a wound that doesn't heal because of some type of noxious fluids that fester and ooze out.  How many weeping wounds can a person suffer before their whole system is contaminated.  

The Greek word for "trauma" is wound.  A wound that is not healed will fester.  Almost all philosophers believe we will die without ever healing our wounds.  

The Bee Gees believed that you cannot mend a broken heart.  You can't stop the rain from falling and you can't stop the sun from shining.  Dolly Parton sings Silver threads and golden needles can't mend a broken heart.  They are all probably right.  We may not be able to mend a broken heart but God can.  

The 23rd Psalm provides us with some answers.  Look at the first three verses: 

"The Lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  He restores my soul."

How does God restore our soul?  He makes us lie down in green pastures.  Green pastures refers to the bread of life which is Jesus Christ.  He leads us beside the still waters.  Still waters is the opposite of troubled waters.  He restores our soul.

God knows we go through troubled times and become anxious and depressed but God also wants us to be restored to a life of joy.  He wants us to slow down and know that He is with us.  He wants us to allow Jesus to touch and heal every hurt and wound that we may have closed up rather than allowed to heal.  

In ancient times, healing meant to be whole, which meant that if a person became sick they would not be whole anymore.  Something has happened that has broken our wholeness and disease has come into our body.  Something will have to be done, actively not passively, as time has nothing to do with healing.  

In pain management, you are taught to relax your muscles or wherever the pain is.  If you tighten up, the pain will obviously get worse the more you resist it.  Allow the pain to be present.  When you breathe deeply and become more aware of the pain, there is room for it to move and flow through you more easily.  Pain is there to tell us something is wrong whether it is physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual.  To become whole, means being open to our pain and our losses.  We include those things that would have been forever lost and not recognized as needing to be healed if we had not taken the time to heal.  One of my favorite singers is Carly Simon who touches on this with her wonderful song, "There's More Room In A Broken Heart."  

Time does not heal.  However, healing does take some time.  Let God help you through the process.  That's one of the things He does best.  

Stuck In LoDebar

In 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival released the "Green River" album.  One of the songs on that album was called, "Lodi."  It was written by John Fogerty and was one of the most popular songs Creedence Clearwater Revival ever performed that never made it to the Top 40.  It was also on the "B" side of the single, "Bad Moon Rising."  The reason the group loved this song so much was because of how much they hated being stuck in Lodi.  The first part of the lyrics give us a good idea what they meant.  

          "Just about a year ago, I set out on the road.
           Seekin' my fame and fortune, looking' for a pot of gold.
           Things got bad, and things got worse, I guess you will
           know the tune.
           Oh!  Lord, stuck in Lodi again."

In the 9th chapter of II Samuel, is the story of LoDebar.  LoDebar

is a place you might call between nowhere and goodby.  It literally

means, "The land of nothing."  A land of low hopes and shattered

dreams.  A place you can go to hide and no one will know you are

even alive.  

David's best friend was Jonathan.  Jonathan knew that his father, King Saul, was going to try and kill David and that things were going to get ugly.  Thus, they made a covenant with each other that no matter what happened they would always be friends and that their families would be taken care of.  Not much later, King Saul and Jonathan were killed and the house of Saul was terrified that David would destroy all of King Saul's family members.  A nurse taking care of Jonathan's five year old son, Mephibosheth, tried to run and hide but fell and dropped him.  His legs were broken and paralyzed.  The boy was taken to a place that no one who would look for him.  LoDebar.

Years passed by and David remembered the covenant he made with Jonathan and discovers that he has a crippled son.  He sends for the boy and when Mephibosheth is brought to him he falls on his face.  David asks him, "Are you the son of my good friend Jonathan?"  When he says, "yes," he is asked to get up.  David tells the boy he is not going to hurt him but rather is going to restore to him all the land of his grandfather, King Saul, and that he will eat at David's table all the days of his life.  Mephibosheth looks at David and says, "Why should my king look upon such a dead dog as me?"

Have you ever felt worthless?  Believing to be of no value?  Are you stuck in LoDebar?  Do you have lost hopes and shattered dreams?  Mephibosheth believed he was less than worthless, less than a dead dog.  When you are crippled physically or emotionally and have no dreams; when you have nothing, there's nothing to lose.  You're stuck in LoDebar.  But now Mephibosheth is in the presence of the king.  

God invites you to sit at His table today.  To come out of the wilderness.  To come out of LoDebar and sit at His table.  There is nothing that has happened to us in this life that cannot be healed by our great King, the King of Kings.  Open up your heart and come to His table.  Don't stay stuck.  Come out of LoDebar.  

When A Child Dies

What happens when a child dies?  What happens when you and many others pray for God to save your child and your child still dies?  How do you deal with that?  Do you lose your faith?  Does your faith become stronger?  What happens? 

The Bible gives us answers to these questions.  The Bible tells us the story of David.  David is described as a "man after God's own heart."  God loved David very much.  The first child that David had with Bathsheba became gravely ill.  The Bible says that, "David pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground."  

David's servants tried to get him up from the ground and feed him but David refused.  David is so upset that his servants are afraid that David will do something to himself.  For seven days, David pleads with God to save his son.  On the seventh day, the child dies and the servants are afraid to tell David.  

However, David overhears the servants talking and perceives that his child was dead, and asks them if the child died and they said yes.  David then rose from the ground, washed up, worshipped God, and requested food to eat.  The servants are totally confused.  They said to David, "You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food."  

David told the servants, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live.'  "But now he is dead; why should I fast?  Can I bring him back again?  I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

What David is saying is this:  When our loved one dies, whether it be a baby, sibling, parent, grandparent, that it's ok if God did not grant us our prayer that they would live.  We will go to them when it is our time.  We will see them again in the next life.  Not to worry.  We'll see them again.  Amen. 

Putting Work Clothes On Your Dreams

Once upon a time, there was a happy little boy who went out into the field wearing blue jeans, sneakers, a baseball shirt, and a very cool baseball cap.  In one hand he had a baseball and in the other hand a baseball bat.  He had the look of absolute confidence.  He had just watched his favorite baseball players on TV and knew he could one day be one.  You just have to practice.

Cocking his bat, he tossed the ball into the air saying, “I’m the greatest batter in the world!”  The he swung and missed.  “Strike one,” he said.  He then picked up the ball, examined it carefully, and then threw it into the air again.  As the ball was coming down he said, “I’m the greatest batter in the world.!  Once again he missed.  “Strike two,” he said.  This time he knocked off any sand which may have been on his sneakers, examined his bat carefully, picked up the ball, adjusted his baseball cap, and tossed the ball into the air for the third time.  He cried out again even louder, “I’m the greatest batter in the world!  He swung with all his might but he missed it and struck out.  “Wow,” he shouted, “What a pitcher.  I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”

Confidence can be a great thing for this new year.  Our attitude toward events, our frame of mind, our determination to put work clothes on our dreams is what will make this new year a great year.  We can talk about what we are going to do every day.  However, it is not until we stop talking about what we are going to do and begin doing it that anything meaningful is going to happen.  

The Apostle Paul didn’t just talk about doing things.  He put work clothes on his dreams and made them come true.  Here is his attitude toward attaining the victor’s crown as seen in Philippians 3:12, 14.  “I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it . . . but one thing I do:  forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”    In this new year, let’s begin by putting work clothes on our dreams and not just talking about them - but doing them.  

Love Is Blind

I was talking with Ginger (church secretary) in the church office one day and I mentioned how, as a teenager, I had a crush on the film actress and one of the most beautiful women in the world, Sophia Loren.  How I was shocked that she married Carlo Ponti, a film producer.  Carlto Ponti was 5'5" tall, 23 years older than her, and not very handsome.  To make matters worse, she turned down Cary Grant who proposed to her.  How did that happen?  Ginger said, "Love is blind."

I didn't know exactly what that meant.  So I turned to William Shakespeare.  One of his favorite quotes which he used in "The Merchant of Venice,"  "Henry V," and "Two Gentlemen of Verona," was:  "But love is blind, and lovers cannot see.  The pretty follies that themselves commit."  But what does that mean?

I did a little survey and found that most people interpreted the saying as, "That's when a girl falls in love with a bad guy that treats her mean but she didn't know it at first because she thought she loved him."

I got many different responses.  I finally went back to Ginger and said, "Tell me exactly what "love is blind" means.  Ginger said, "That's when you see with your heart.  Not with your eyes."  

I got it.  I then immediately thought of how God sees us.  He doesn't look at our physical appearance.  He looks at our heart.

How do we look at other people?  Do we see only their physical faults?  Do we see only with our eyes?  Or do we see with our heart?

In this Christmas season and New Year, may we make a point to see others as God sees us.  When we look at our friends, loved ones, and even strangers.  Let us see with our heart.

The Underworld: Part II of II

So where is this place called Paradise that Jesus is talking about?  The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus found in Luke 16:19-31 helps us to understand.  Jesus is telling this story in the Old Testament course of things.  He shows Hades (it is called Sheol in the Old Testament), the land of shadows.  It is in two compartments.  In Hebrew, the first compartment was referred to as Abraham's bosom.  That was the place of the abode for the righteous dead.  Abraham's bosom in Hebrew and Paradise in the Greek or New Testament.  

On the other side it was referred to as a place of torment, which I believe was referred to as Tartarus; although properly speaking both of these places had the general category of being called Sheol in the Old Testament and Hades in the New Testament.  It was the grave, the land below, the underworld.   

Here is a picture I have drawn which may help to explain it.

II Peter 2:4-5:  "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell (tartarus) and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly."

Jude 1:6:  "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day." 

Genesis 6:4-8:  "There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.  Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.  Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.  So the Lord said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.'  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."

Outside of Elijah and Enoch who went straight to heaven, everyone who died went there.  Now Jesus said the rich man being in torment  in Hades lifted up his eyes and across this gulf called to Abraham and said, "Send Lazarus back up to tell my five brothers about this place of torment and they will repent  because I don't want them to come here."  Jesus rose from the dead and still people don't believe.  This place of torment was a temporary place.  After the Final Judgment, Great White Throne judgment they will be transferred to a place called gehenna, hell, the lake of fire which burns forever.  

Revelation 20:10 tells us, "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.  And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

Satan is not in charge of hell.  He will not rule in hell.  He will be tormented in hell.  Also, remember that Satan does not even live in hell now.  His headquarters is in heavenly places.   


Ephesians 6:12:  "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."  

Ephesians 3:10:  "To the extent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places."

Headquarters of Satan is not on earth or under the earth.

Genesis 1:1:  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Heaven is plural and earth is singular.  One earth but more than one heaven.  Paul tells us in II Corinthians.

II Corinthians 12:2-4:  "I know a man  in Christ who fourteen years ago - whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows - such a one was caught up to the third heaven.  And I know such a man - whether in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows - how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."

Here Paul identifies the third heaven with Paradise and Paradise (since the resurrection of Christ) is located in heaven.  The first heaven is the visible heaven that we see if you walk outside and look up into the sky.  Then Revelation talks about a mid heaven and then there is the heaven which is the dwelling place of God and identified with Paradise.  Thus, three heavens.  The heavenlies, where Satan has his headquarters, must be the mid heaven which lies between the visible heaven and the third heaven which is God's dwelling place.

Christians do not go before the Final Judgment.  That is for unbelievers, remember?  Christians will go before the Judgment Seat of Christ.  

II Corinthians 5:10:  "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

This has nothing to do with salvation.  The Judgment Seat of Christ is for believers.  The Final Judgment, Great White Throne Judgment is for unbelievers.  Hear what Jesus tells us from John:

John 5:24:  "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My words and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."

This is why Paul can say in Corinthians.

II Corinthians 5:8:  "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."

I Peter 3:18-20:  "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water."  (The prison was Hades).  

At some point in Jesus' descent into the underworld, having been made alive in the Spirit went and preached.  What did Jesus preach to these spirits in prison?  The word preach in Greek means euangellion.  The Greek word used here is kerygma, not euangellion.  This word means to proclaim.  Jesus is here making a proclamation to the spirits in prison.  

What did Jesus proclaim?  I don't think it was an offer of mercy or a second chance.  I think Jesus made a proclamation that He now was in charge and Lord over life and death.  Jesus now held the keys of Hades and death.

Revelation 1:18:  "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.  Amen.  And I have the keys of Hades and Death."  

Hebrews 2:14:  "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil."

I Corinthians 15:55-56:  "O Death, where is your sting?  O Hades, where is your victory?  The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The Gospel was also preached though.

I Peter 4:5-6:  "They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.  For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (preached is euangellion).  

In Hades there was also the other side separated by the gulf which is referred to as Paradise or Abraham's Bosom.  This was made up of the souls of the believers from all previous ages.  Abraham and all the other believers.  They had a separate place in Hades separated by a  great abyss from the souls of the wicked.  Remember the story of the poor man who died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's Bosom and he lifted up his eyes and saw the rich man in the other part of Hades suffering moment.  

So they are in Paradise.  They had died in faith but had never received the promise.  So Jesus preached to these souls of the righteous.  He preached the gospel to them basically saying that it is finished and you can go free now.  I have paid the penalty.  At this time they were transferred out of Hades and into heaven.  He emptied this segment of the underworld.  This side is empty today.  Jesus moved Paradise from their into he presence of the Father.  That's why Paul can say, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord."

Jesus went down into the underworld.  He endured the entire wrath of almighty God in all aspects.  Having finished that, He was made alive in the Spirit.  He made a proclamation to the wicked dead that He is now Lord of life and death, and preached the gospel to the righteous believers telling them that it was finished and they were free to go to heaven.

When a person dies one of two things happen.  They either go immediately to be with the Lord; or they go to the other place in the underworld, Hades, where there is torment and wait until the Final Judgment at which time they will be cast into the lake of fire.  The Bible calls it eternal judgment.  

The good news for all of us is this.  Because of what Jesus has done for us - we will spend all eternity in the presence and power of love.  

John 14:6:  "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Romans 10:9:  "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Romans 10:13:  "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

John 3:16:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  


Copyright © 2014 by Allen C. Minor