Opinion: Lent for Baptists [Ekoomenikal]

Associated Baptist Press ^ | 2/20/12 | Jim Denison

[marshmallow]

(ABP) -- If you're like me, you grew up in a Baptist church where Lent was a foreign word. Like all things Catholic, it was ignored if not rejected. In recent years, I have come to see the error of our ways. I am now convinced that Lent holds enormous promise for us. This ancient discipline can be a pathway to healing and hope in our fractured, fearful world.

What is Lent?

"Lent" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic word "lencten," which means "spring." As strange as it is to Baptist ears, it's easier than quadragesima, the Latin term for the period (meaning "40 days" or more literally, "the 40th day"). Greeks called this season tessarakoste ("40th").

As its names imply, Lent is a 40-day observance that occurs each spring. (The 40-day period excludes Sundays, which are to be weekly celebrations of the Resurrection.) Why 40 days?

Jesus fasted in the wilderness and was tempted for "40 days and 40 nights" (Matthew 4:2). As he used these days to prepare for his public ministry, so we use them to prepare for his resurrection and to minister in his name through the rest of the year.

In addition, the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness for 40 years of purification before entering their Promised Land. The world was flooded for 40 days during the time of Noah, washing away the evil that had infested it. According to tradition, Jesus' body lay 40 hours in the tomb before the Easter miracle. All these facts led early Christians to set aside 40 days before Easter for spiritual preparation and purification.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22 this year). It is always the seventh Wednesday before Easter Sunday. Its name comes from the ancient practice of placing ashes on worshippers' foreheads as a..........

[Carpe Cerevisi]

Did you even bother to view the video I posted above?

[Mr Rogers]

During the 40 days before Easter, our SBC pastor has challenged us all to pray for revival. He said this is the way he wants us to do it:

Draw a circle about 3 feet in diameter. Stand in the circle. Then ask God to send revival to everyone inside the circle...

So I guess for ‘Lent’, we are being challenged to give up our desires, and to daily ask God to change us, and to fill us with His Spirit.

My guess is that most Catholics would view that favorably.

;>)

[.45 Long Colt]

I don’t observe Lent because I see no biblical warrant for the practice, but as with paedobaptism, I can respect those who feel they should observe it. It’s certainly nothing that believers should fight over. I have good friends and a few cousins who observe it.

[wideawake]

is there anything in the Bible about "Lent"

Matthew 4:2.

[Salvation]

That sounds wonderful!

God bless you!

[Salvation]

You need to get out of Ephesians and into James!

(My judgment)

“Regarding the debate about faith and works: It’s like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most important.”

~C.S. Lewis

[SumProVita]

It’s certainly nothing that believers should fight over. ___________________________________________________________ Exactly! Thank you my brother in Christ. We all need to be VERY aware that Satan often laughs at how easily he divides us with such things. It would do us all well to re-read C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. “Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

[WestwardHo]

“Regarding the debate about faith and works: It’s like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most important.”

~C.S. Lewis
Oh yeah, I’d take C.S. Lewis over God’s Word any day. Ever notice how Lewis appeals to everyone, and offends no one?
There’s a big difference between the works that The Lord Jesus has planned for each of His children after He has made them alive in Christ, and doing the works we do on our own thinking they will earn salvation.
It’s really not that hard to grasp.

[gemoftheocean]

WestwardHo -— Catholics would not at all disagree with you that by his Cross and resurrection He made salvation possible and opened the gates of heaven. But don’t forget He also said ‘Whatsoever you DO to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.’ So yes. He DOES expect us to do something for our fellow man. Can we agree that it is by God’s GRACE that we are saved? i.e. He doesn’t ‘have to’ save any of us. But He still has expectations of us that if we really know Him, we will do our best to do His will. And His will, apparently, involves ‘DOING’ unto others! We must try and assist God in His work when we can. Try re-reading the apostle James. What is faith without good works?

[cloudmountain]

Ashes on the forehead are a REMEMBERANCE of our beginning, NOTHING to do with fasting, washing one's face or anything to do with not showing off. It's our kick-off to Lent, not a Lenten practice like fasting and abstaining.

Just a remembrance, a reminder to us Catholics...remember the funeral rite, from dust to dust, ashes to ashes? You have your Biblical reference or interpretation mixed up with this one.

[Cronos]

He did say to eat of His body and blood, namely to do the Eucharist thingy believing in the True Presence... Lutherans, Orthodox, Catholics, Orientals follow His words — do others? no...

[Cronos]

I think your pastor has got the idea — for us to think about Christ’s sacrifice and pray. We ought to do this throughout the year, but most of us fail, so this is good kick to remember..

[.45 Long Colt]

I’m not mixed up in the least, but dust your head if you wish.

[WestwardHo]

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

There are many godless philanthrophists. They can do good works til the cows come home, but their works will not save them.
There are true believers who are not in a position to do good works...the thief on the cross, Lazarus the beggar...who being dead, yet speaketh...
I’m an old lady. A nobody, making no big claims to anything.
But I know this, when I think I’m doing a good job on a good work it usually ends up looking pretty useless. Then there are the times it comes to me that some good has resulted from something I did but wasn’t aware that I’d done anything. In that, I realize God had caused me to “walk in a work He had ordained for me.”
Those works do not earn me salvation, or a right standing before God. They are evidence that God has put His Spirit in me, and He is fulfilling His Word in Eph 2:10.
It’s not about us. It’s all about God’s glory and what He does in the lives of His children.
We have this Treasure in an earthen vessel.
When I “discovered” Eph 2, those verses about being dead in my sins described me perfectly. But, when Christ declares me “Raised and seated in the Heavenly places” I still cannot take in the wonder of that. And so, my continual prayer is that The Lord Jesus would teach me what that means, and that I would do the works He has ordained for me.
Nothing I do on my own is worth squat. I can no more compose good works on my own than I can make this dead corpse of sin alive in Christ if He doesn’t do the work.
This isn’t about being Catholic, or Baptist or any other group. It’s about taking God at His Word, and measuring everything by His Word.

[Turtlepower]

Amen!

+1000

[marshmallow]

There are true believers who are not in a position to do good works...the thief on the cross, Lazarus the beggar...who being dead, yet speaketh...

You are right.

That is why good works are but a proxy. They are a proxy for love and it is love which brings us salvation.

St. Paul says ...And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.
1 Corinthians 13:13

So there is something greater than faith and that something is charity (or love). This is undoubtedly why St. Peter says that love atones for a multitude of sins;

But before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covereth a multitude of sins.
1Peter 4:8

Now how is love expressed? It is expressed through our actions. Through what we do. That is why James says.....

"But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
James 2:20

God sees the heart. He sees the faith and the love. So for those such as the thief on the cross, his "work" so to speak, was his death offered up to God.

Those works do not earn me salvation, or a right standing before God. They are evidence that God has put His Spirit in me, and He is fulfilling His Word

Correct.

However, we do have our own part to play. We are not simply helpless puppets with God pulling the strings. We have free will.

In the Gospel of Luke we read:

And a certain man said to him: Lord, are they few that are saved? But he said to them: Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able."
Luke 13: 23-24

Keyword: "strive". This is synonymous with effort. IOW, Jesus is saying to the man, "you try your best". From this passage the conclusion is inescapable that our own efforts are an essential component of our salvation. Not sufficient by any means, but necessary.

[Tax-chick]

Jeremiah Wright is “United Church of Christ,” what used to be the Congregational Church (that of the Massachusetts Pilgrims) when I was a girl. They “united” with somebody at some point. Once, they were Calvinist stalwarts, but they started going loopy in the 19th century and now believe basically nothing ... or *anything*.

My family stopped attending the Congregational Church when a minister in the early 70s verbally assaulted Vietnam Veterans in a sermon. My father did two years in Vietnam.

[WestwardHo]

“That is why good works are but a proxy. They are a proxy for love and it is love which brings us salvation.”
Where is that taught in the Bible?

Context, context, context!!! Who is the speaker, who is his audience, and what is the message? Taken out of context, the words a merely a device to prop up your argument, but does not accurately divide the word of truth.

The Bible is it’s own dictionary.
The Bible is it’s own interpretor.
For example, put Eph2 next to Genesis 2:7 (And God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.) Totally and completed the work of God. And in addition, God gave Adam work to do. All Adam needed to do was obey.
“Do your best.” Is not in the Bible. “Without Me, you can do nothing.”
When God saves us, we do what we do because we love Him. “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
Just think about our great God, bigger than, and independent of His creation, making Himself small enough to enter our universe, take on our humanity, offer Himself as the sacrifice for our sin, make Himself small enough to live in our small, pityful hearts in order to bring us to Glory, and do it all for His own Glory!! And man thinks he can do anything that adds to his salvation? That without the help of man God’s salvation is incomplete?
We owe everything to God. Our works are as “filthy rags.”
That’s “our works”, not the works God has ordained for us.

[cloudmountain]

I’ll dust my head if you wipe your drool and quit dragging your knuckles. :o)

[Salvation]

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Opinion: Lent for Baptists [Ekoomenikal]

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