Lent,, Day 18 - March 14

Our Readings today are: Psalms 75, 76, 23, 27; Jere 5:20-31, Rom 3:19-31; and
John 7:1-13

Sometimes reading the Psalms can be uplifting - such is Ps. 23 and 27. Sometimes they are full of praise as in 75 & 76. Behind each though is that sense of need that comes from confession, praise, and joyful response. Our soul is crying out to say "thank you Lord", and "I trust you Lord" and yet there is a realization that without you, God, our lives would be purpose-less, in vain, and without real hope.

I love reading Romans 3, as Paul reminds us of all that God has done in granting to us, through grace, by faith, his righteousness that comes from Jesus' shed blood on the cross. Lent brings me back to the fundamental truth that all of life is fulfilling because of what Jesus has done for us.

Jesus has come..."incarnation" means "in flesh"; he comes to "dwell"..."tabernacle" among us. The tabernacle was Israel's "tent of meeting" where God dwelt among his people in their wilderness journey, and even though it's hardly mentioned, it continued to be the place of worship up until Solomon's temple was built. I think it faded in prominence after Israel entered the land simply because God had told them that the land was His land and he would dwell with them in the land.

In the New Testament the book of Hebrews repeatedly reminds the Hebrew readers that the Tabernacle on earth was replicated from the heavenly pattern. "Skene" was used 400+ times in the Septuagint (greek translation of the Hebrew O.T.) to translate the Hebrew word for "tabernacle". So, it is amazing to see the word appear immediately in the New Testament as John writes in 1.14: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling (eskenosen) among us."
Four other uses of that word are all in Revelation; and several other times it's used in Jesus' parables (e.g. it is used when Jesus talks about the birds making their "nests".

It's a beautiful word full of richness as Paul uses it in 2 Cor. 12:9 to describe God's power coming to dwell in our weakness.

So we come back to this...God continues to "dwell" with us -- only it's not in what we often assume. It's not in our strength; but rather in our weakness. Here's the testimony of Lent. We come to God not in position of "our act is together"; but rather we come to God needing the righteousness of Christ given to us in his shed blood on the cross...a righteousness that we could never receive, or achieve, apart from Christ Jesus.

A Prayer:

"Father, there are many troubles that surround, many ways that I can be full of fears and trapped in self-contained anxieties, but I am reminded that the world while full of sin is still the world you loved enough to send your Son into. And Jesus, I am reminded that the remedy for my needs does not lie in my self-sufficient attempts to be religious enough to reach for you, but simply in trusting the finished work you have done for me on the cross. Lord, I need that righteousness that occurs because you came once to dwell on the earth, and now I ask that you dwell with me as well. Amen."