Observing Lent

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February 19
Brrrr. It is COLD!
Yesterday, began the Lenten season, traditionally 47 days of examination with fasting and repentance, which lead up to the grandest celebration of our faith..EASTER!

I'm doing an online study with a group of women, using a guide called Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,
by the She Reads Truth Ministry.  If you'd like to join us, email me and I will put you on the forwarding list.  boojoyful@me.com
The introduction to the study states:
"We will RETURN, kneeling at the cross of our Lord.
  We will REPENT, mourning the depth and reality of our sin.
  We will REMEMBER, tracing the path of Christ on His journey to the Cross."

I've printed off the Psalm below as a prayer to the Lord in preparation for a time of seeking to draw closer to Him in these weeks ahead!


Psalm 51:1-15   The Message                                                                                  A David Psalm, After He Was Confronted by Nathan About the Affair with Bathsheba
Generous in love—God, give grace!
 Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
 Scrub away my guilt; soak out my sins in your laundry.
 I know how bad I’ve been;
 my sins are staring me down. You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen 
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you, whatever you decide about me is fair. I’ve been out of step with you for a long time; in the wrong since before I was born.  What you’re after is truth from the inside out.  Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.  Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.
 Don’t look too close for blemishes,
 give me a clean bill of health.
 God, make a fresh start in me; shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
 Don’t throw me out with the trash or fail to breathe holiness in me.
 Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!
 Give me a job teaching rebels your ways, so the lost can find their way home.
 Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
 Unbutton my lips, dear God. 
I’ll let loose with your praise.

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