Lenten Blog - Art

Today's blog is brought to you by Phoebe Williams:

For Lent, I am reconnecting with God through art journaling. I read and draw scripture listed in the PCUSA daily lectionary and write down the words/phrases/sentences that jump out at me. I sketch what they say about God, our world, etc. which usually leads to the question, “How do I now respond to this in my life?” This can generate inspiring ideas, but also serious convictions about my weaknesses. I can't always answer this question, but each morning brings more insight into the love of God and how to respond to that love. It can be uncomfortable, but exciting to see scripture in a new way, to draw it out and watch it come alive. If any of you love to draw, paint, doodle, or just want to try something new, grab some paper, a marker, some crayons, maybe even some glitter and go for it! My art journal entries are very simple black and white, but you can do this however you feel led with whatever colors/materials/resources you have. You don't have to be perfect, just open to God's lessons. You never know what you'll create and what you'll discover!

Lenten Blog - Writing

The following blog entry is written by Sue Mathews:

What are you giving up for Lent?

How many times have you heard this question as we enter this season in our church year? I’ve never been very good at giving up things like chocolate or nighttime television (a few responses that I’ve heard or seen on Facebook recently). I‘m drawn more to an idea that I heard about just before Lent began last year – the idea of adding something to the normal routine. So last year, I focused on praying for people that bugged me in traffic, were rude in line, or just seemed to be having a bad day. I would whisper a quick prayer for that person as I moved through my day.

This year I decided to write a note to a different person each day. At first I thought that it might be difficult to come up with a person for each day, but I have three on my list right now and today’s note is written. I also want to be intentional about writing every day and not sitting down to write several notes at one time. It might be a simple thank you note, a word of encouragement, a birthday card for someone that doesn’t usually hear from me, or an “I thought about you today” note. Each day as I write, I remember this season of Lent as we prepare to celebrate Easter and hope that what I have added this year will touch others.

Lenten Blog - Friend Friday - The Life We Live

On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from Erin Collier who is the Children’s Minister at Central Baptist in Midlothian, VA.

It's a catchphrase in many churches: “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”  What does that even mean? I'll be honest, part of me cringes when I hear those words, often because they're just said and then left alone.

When something is said so often, it begins to lose its meaning and becomes a cliché phrase, one that cheapens the intent behind it. Yet, because there is still something to it, an actual meaning, I can't allow myself to let go of that particular language. So what does it mean? Here's my attempt at a definition... For me, a relationship with God goes beyond praying, reading the Bible, and worshiping – it is in how we live our lives, and cannot be separated from relationships with others. We were created for community, to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world around us. It's in the faces and words and actions of others that I am able to see the love and light of God lived out on a daily basis. Even the challenges and conflicts bring opportunities to strengthen relationships with others, and therefore with God. It's often after good conversations, times of fellowship, or working side by side with others in ministry that I feel my relationship with God begin to change (for the better).

On February 10, 2012, my friend Melissa died, ending a four-month battle with esophageal cancer. Melissa was an amazing person who loved deeply and sought to have authentic relationships with everyone she met. She was full of life, and to her, being a minister was not a job, but who she was and how she lived. The fruit of that labor was made evident by the 500 people who attended her funeral, and I am confident that each one had some story of how she had deeply impacted them through their relationship with her. As one pastor said, “She did more in three decades than most would do in five lifetimes.”

When I think of my relationship with God and how to deepen it, I now think of Melissa and the life she lived, investing herself in the people around her. She lived life abundantly in relationship with others, overflowing with the love of God and embracing everyone she met without judgment or hesitation. This is what it means to be in relationship – a deep, authentic relationship - with God. My prayer is that I may follow her example and try to do the same.

Lenten Blog - Sunday School

 The following blog entry is written by Dannie Manning: 

 

My Sunday School class helps deepen my relationship with God.  We have very interesting studies of Christian based books in studying God's word and his plan for us.   We are fortunate to have some members that are expert teachers, but everyone teaches at some time.  We have an overall loving relationship with each other and share some of our own needs.  We pray for others.  The members contribute funds which are used in our discretion for a need either in our church or out in the community.  This group is faithfully led and coordinated by Karen Rollins, yet we all feel we are the Class.  So to sum it up, study, teachings, prayer, support and care through my Sunday School class deepens my understanding of God's love for his children and his word.

Lenten Blog - Music Monday - Dreams

One of the things that makes me feel closer to God is talking about the dreams I have.  Not sleep dreams, but the real dreams that I have for life, for others, for the world.  Those things that are deep inside of me that don't always make sense or are even a little scary because they involve a level of risk.  But when ever I talk about them with others, I can feel the spirit moving as we really share dreams and their realities.  So today for music Monday, a song about dreams and sharing what it is that is deep inside ourselves. 

Spit It Out by Tom Prasada-Rao

Lenten Blog - Another Friend Friday

 On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from Kim Crowley, Associate Minister at Seventh Street Christian Chruch in Richmond, VA:

One way I deepen my relationship with God is to experiment with different types of prayer. Breath prayers for me are so helpful. As one who has a hard time staying focused and still, breath prayers center me in my space. One I use a lot is “Be still and know,” from Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” This verse reminds me to be still and remember who God is, the Holy One always with me. For the breath prayer, breath in thinking or saying, “Be still.” And exhale thinking, “and know.” I find I am centered and in a focused posture.

Another thing I like to do is research prayers of the saints and other traditions. One I pray every Sunday is:
God be in my head, And in my understanding; 
 God be in mine eyes, And in my looking; 
God be in my mouth, And in my speaking; 
God be in my heart, And in my thinking; 
God be at mine end, And at my departing. 
From the Sarum Primer, 13th Century England

Lenten Blog - Waiting

 The following blog entry was written by Kristin Davidson for Advent and revised by Charlene Aldrich for Lent.   

 

A few years ago when I was working as a first grade assistant at a small Catholic school, I began to get a cold – not surprising as it was the middle of February and I was working with kids for 8 hours a day.  Unfortunately I was a little stubborn both about going to the doctor and about taking sick days. 

 

So for a couple weeks I tried to self-medicate with Dayquil and lots of vitamin C, but it only got worse.  When I finally did call in sick to work, I could barely get out of bed to get dressed.  So my mom had to take me to the doctor.  I had a fever; my head ached; my body ached; I could barely breathe without coughing. 

 

While we were sitting in the waiting room, a young girl in pajamas came in with her mom.  The girl looked about as sick as I felt, but she had brought a flannel blanket with her.  She wrapped herself in it and the laid her head in her mother’s lap.  I was more than a little jealous.  That little girl had come prepared to wait.  And I hadn’t even had my morning coffee.

 

There was something truly humbling about being sick in that waiting room.  There I was an adult and my mom had to take me to the doctor.  The nurses looked at me with pity, and the healthy people looked at me with fear, hoping that whatever I had was not transmutable through air.  And what’s worse was that I knew it was my own fault that I had let myself get that sick. 

 

So there I was waiting, and I realized that despite how miserable I felt, there was a little glimmer of hope – hope that the doctor would know what was wrong with me and give me medicine – hope that within the next few days my fever would break, my head and body would stop aching and I would be able to breathe freely through both nostrils.

 

Lent reminds me of that waiting room.  Here we are sick and weak usually through our own stubbornness or pride – waiting – waiting with a glimmer of hope for Christ to come and heal our souls.  We know that Easter's coming, but we have to go through Calvary to get there.

Lenten Blog - Another Music Monday

Bambalela (Never Give Up) is a simple song but one that speaks to what faith is about.  It also is appropriate for Lent as we recognize our sin and await the coming kingdom and Easter.  Enjoy this and feel encouraged by a God that doesn't give up on us and who reminds us that we also should never give up. 

Lenten Blog Series: Friend Friday #2

On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from Sara DeVane, a minister at First Baptist in Jamestown, NC:

For many of us, the task of “growing deeper” in our relationship with God is a daunting one because we struggle with feelings of inadequacy, like we are already behind in being the good, right disciple of God’s. Before we can begin reading more scripture, praying more, and/or finding more opportunities to serve the needy, we must first take steps in acknowledging that God sees us and God loves us. Period. God loves us. Whether we take one more step in trying to grow closer, scripture is overflowing with stories, situations, and actually words in red telling us that God loves us. God loves you, just as you are today!

Take a moment, right now, and rest in the knowledge that God loves you, just as you are, without changing another thing. YOU! How does that sit with you? Do you feel the strength, compassion, and grace that come from God’s true and unconditional love? This is my challenge to you. Before you begin to fill your schedules with more things, even though they are very good efforts to grow closer to the Father, take time today to acknowledge and accept the love that your God is lavishing upon you. Let God’s love surround you. Let it cover you. Let God love you for who you are. From that place of grace, then begin to make small but definitive steps in your day to day world that reflect God’s amazing love. You will find yourself growing closer, getting stronger, and feeling more at peace simply because you choose to accept the love that God has for you!
Walk today in God’s love, the unconditional love that is yours!

“So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”- 1 John 4:16

Lenten Blog - Lenten Thoughts

 The following blog entry is written by Nancy Andrews:  

 

Lent is a time of thinking of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, a gift given freely in love for us.  Each year I try to think of what I might do to show thanks to Him and to express my love for Him.  Jesus forgives all our sins, no matter how terrible.  Yet, I harbor feelings of anger and refuse to forgive, or at best grudgingly forgive.  This year of trying to discern God’s will, my goal is to try to follow Jesus by really forgiving and seeing the goodness in the people who have hurt me.  I will ask Him to help me see with his eyes and forgive from my heart.

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

                                                                  Isaiah 43:25

Lenten Blog - Music Monday #2

This song speaks to what it means for the Kingdom of God to be on earth.  It speaks of the changes that occur inside of us which lead to changes in the world as a whole.   My favorite verse is the following:

Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
And your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
You will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.

We so often think of ourselves as not powerful enough to really change the world, but it is not us, but the one that works within us that has the power to change everything, to upend the status quo and make all things new.  Canticle of The Turning, written by Rory Cooney, performed by Gary Daigle, Rory Cooney, and Theresa Donohoo.

Lenten Blog Series: Friend Friday

On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from theologian Richard Foster:

Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. That puts us in the "on-top" position, where we are competent and in control. But when praying, we come "underneath," where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent... The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by it, we live by it as well. And we pray by it.