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What Is Ash Wednesday All About?

⛪🙏 What is Ash Wednesday all about? From our church's bulletin last night: Throughout the Bible, ashes have been associated with humility, repentance, and mortality. In Genesis, we read of the great patriarch: "Abraham answered and said, 'Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes'" (Genesis 18:27). In Job, we read that the long-suffering Job said of his life: "I have become like dust and ashes" (Job 30:19b). Daniel the prophet states: "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). Ash Wednesday brings us the opportunity to follow the pattern set by our spiritual ancestors and to begin the observance of 'a holy Lent' as we come before the Lord in ashes.

⛪🙏 Lenten Prayers always seem to rub people the wrong way, don't they? Our Old Adam HATES them! Good. It's supposed to. During this season of Lent, we should spiritually prepare for the coming celebration of Easter. However, despite this deep self-reflection and awareness of our sin during this time, Lent is still always about Jesus. As Pastor Eric Brown once said: "Lent is the season where we focus most clearly on Jesus taking the battle to Satan -- Jesus fighting against sin and death and the Devil. Think on the upcoming readings -- His temptation, He heals, He casts out demons, He takes on false doctrine, He fights against hunger and hardship... and He dies. This is all saying, 'Look at Jesus take the battle to Satan.' This is, as Luther would have us sing, 'But for us fights the valiant one.' Lent is the battle season -- it is the Son of God going forth to war for you. That's the real focus of Lent." AMEN!





⛪🙏 My 16-year-old son Luke asked me the other day why there's so much sin in the world and why can't more people be Christians. I thought the Bible verse John 3:19 referenced in one of this morning's devotions pictured above ("Refusing God's Help") was a great answer to that question.

⛪🙏 I thought the other devotion for today titled "Virtue" is a great bookend to everything else here, especially when you think about how Christianity is not a checklist or "To-Do List" of things for us to accomplish in this life. Quite the opposite! As one Pastor put it, "Jesus does all the verbs!" meaning when we are untrue, He is true; when we are dishonorable, He is honorable; when we are unjust, He is just; when we are unsure, He is pure; when we are unlovely, He is lovely. Why? Because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). What a comfort!



NOTE: Please understand that I'm not a called and ordained minister of God's Word and Sacraments. I'm a layman or just your average everyday Christian, Corporate Healthcare Recruiting Manager, Husband, Father, Friend who lives in the "City of Good Neighbors" here on the East Coast in Buffalo, NY. As another Christian Blogger once wrote, "Please do not see this blog as me attempting to 'publicly teach' the faith, but view it as 'an informal Public Journal of sorts' about my own experiences and journey." So if any of my notes here help you in any way at all, then I say, "Praise the Lord! Thanks be to God!" but please do double check them against the Word of God and with your own Pastor at all times. Trust, but always verify. To be more specific, and relevant to the point I want to make with this lengthy disclaimer/note, please understand that I'm a relatively new convert to "Confessional Lutheranism" and one who recently escaped an American-Evangelical-Non-Denominational mindset a little more than 9 years ago now despite being a Christian my whole life. That being said, please contact me ASAP if you're a Lifelong Lutheran who believes that any of my "old beliefs" seem to have crept their way back into any of the material you see published here, and especially if any of the content is inconsistent with the Bible, our Confessions, and Lutheran doctrine in general (in other words, if it's not consistent with God's Word, which our Confessions merely summarize and repeatedly point us back to over and over again) so that I can not only correct those errors immediately and not lead any of His little ones astray (James 3:1), but so that I can also repent of my sin and learn the whole truth myself. With that in mind, please be aware that you might also discover that some of the earlier/older pieces I wrote for this blog back in 2013 definitely fall into that "Old Evangelical Adam" category (and they don't have a disclaimer like this) since I was a "Lutheran-In-Name-Only" at the time and was completely oblivious to the fact that a Christian "Book of Concord" even existed (Small/Large Catechism? What's that!?!). This knowledge of the Lutheran B-A-S-I-C-S was completely foreign to me even though I was baptized, confirmed, and married in an LCMS church! So, there are some entries that are a little more "out there" so-to-speak since the subject matter was also heavily influenced by those old beliefs of mine. I know that now and I'm still learning. Anyway, I decided to leave those published posts up on this website and in cyberspace only because they are not blasphemous/heretical demanding I correct them or take them down entirely, but because I now have this disclaimer, and only to demonstrate the continuing and sanctifying work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in my life from then until now (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6). Most importantly, please know that any time I engage in commenting on and/or interpreting a specific portion of the Holy Scriptures, it will always closely follow the verse-by-verse footnotes from my own Lutheran Study Bible and/or include references to the Book of Concord unless otherwise noted. Typically, I will defer to what other Lutheran Pastors both past and present have already preached and taught about such passages too since they are the called and ordained under-shepherds of our souls here on earth. Finally, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the length of most entries (this disclaimer/note is a perfect example of what I mean by that! haha). I'm well aware that blogs should be short, sweet, and to the point, but I've never been one to follow the rules when it comes to writing. Besides, this website is more like a "Christian Dude's Diary" in the sense that everything I write about and share publicly isn't always what's "popular" or "#Trending" at the time, but is about all the things that I'm studying or thinking about myself at the moment instead. For better or for worse, these posts tend to be much longer than most blog entries you'll find elsewhere only because I try to pack as much info as possible into a single piece so that I can refer to it again and again over time if I need to (and so that it can be a valuable resource for others -- if possible, a "One-Stop-Shop" of sorts where I've done all the research for you already to help save you valuable time). Thank you for stopping by and thank you in advance for your time, help, and understanding. Feel free to comment/email me at any time. Grace and peace to you and yours!

About JKR

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend.

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Thank you for visiting A Lutheran Layman! Please feel free to leave a comment or a question since we do not exercise censorship. We've seen a similar policy with other blogs and it's worth repeating: Please act as if you're a guest in my home, and we'll get along just fine. I think anyone would agree that the kind of back-and-forth that is characteristic of blogs/chat forums and social media is becoming tiresome for all of us. Still, we should confess, edify, and love (and contend and defend when needed). Bottom line? Search the Scriptures! Apply Acts 17:11 to anything and everything you find here and, if you do happen to disagree with something you find here (which is certainly ok), or think I'm "irresponsible" and "wrong" for writing it, then please refute my position by supporting yours with Scripture and/or the Confessions. I don't think that's an unreasonable request, especially for those who identify themselves as "Christians" here, right? Besides, Proverbs 27:17 tells us "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another" and 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." If you have an opinion that's great, I welcome it, but try to support it using God's Word. I mean, if the goal here is to help us all arrive at the truth of God's Word (myself included), then it should be easy to follow through on this one simple request (I'm talking to all you "Anonymous" visitors out there). Grace and peace to you and yours!

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