Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a church tradition marked by a time of self-examination and spiritual renewal, culminating in Holy Week. During the Ash Wednesday communion services (6am & 6PM), those who wish may have ashes placed on their foreheads to signify our own mortality but also to remind us of our great hope in Jesus Christ.

In Latin, Lent means, “dawning of the sun.” Lent is also known as springtime, fitting imagery for a season of the Church year that is intentional about self-examination and preparation. The process of the “dawning of the sun” is both revealing and restorative. The sun pushes back the shadows that have covered the ground and reveals all that has withered. The sun then applies its restorative property, offering nourishment to the ground and vegetation, once again yielding life. The spiritual life is similar. The season of Lent offers a time when we take a closer look at what lurks within us, within the shadows. At the same time, we are offered nourishment and restoration that is found only in the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Lent Resources

A devotion and other info— from City Church San Francisco

2012 Lenten Readings – The Meaning of Lent

Tools for the Christian Life – On Keeping a Holy Lent

The Sacramental Cast blog – Why We Need Lent

Free Album – Songs For Lent by New York Hymns

Patheos Blog – Lent

Come learn about Mission to the World and how the PCA missions sending agency is helping more take the love of Christ to the World. 10 -11 Sunday morning.  This class meets in the CCC Office Complex.

Mitch Gindlesperger has served with MTW for eight years, and is currently the director of the Two-Week Department. Mitch has led trips to China, Greece, Mexico, Belize, Spain, and locations throughout the US.
Mitch is married to his middle school sweetheart, Melissa, and they have three boys; Mason (7), Miles (5),and Merritt (3).

So much of your distress at what is, is really a hunger for what will be.
–Paul Tripp

“You may never call yourself a Presbyterian, Buddhist, Lutheran, Hindu, Mormon, Baptist, or Muslim, but you will also never successfully escape forever. It is inside you. It has been constructed inside you by your Maker. You and I didn’t have a vote.”. —-Paul Tripp

What is the ultimate Christian hope?
and
What hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present?
–Tom Wright

Often people assume that Christians are simply committed to a belief in “life after death” in the most general terms and have no idea how the more specific notions of resurrection, judgment, the second coming of Jesus, and so on fit together and make any sense—let alone how they relate to the urgent concerns of today’s real world.
–Tom Wright

I always appreciate the way catechisms can beautifully & concisely communicate Bible teaching in a way that warms the heart.

Q. 82. What is the communion in glory which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?
A. The communion in glory which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is in this life, immediately after death, and at last perfected at the resurrection and day of judgment.

Q. 86. What is the communion in glory with Christ which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?
A. The communion in glory with Christ which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death, is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness, and received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies, which even in death continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds, till at the last day they be again united to their souls. (excerpt)

Q. 87. What are we to believe concerning the resurrection?
A. We are to believe that at the last day there shall be a general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust: when they that are then found alive shall in a moment be changed; and the selfsame bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power of Christ. The bodies of the just, by the Spirit of Christ, and by virtue of his resurrection as their head, shall be raised in power, spiritual, incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body.  (excerpt)

–those were from Westminster Larger Cat and these are Heidelberg Cat———————–

57. Q. What comfort does the resurrection of the body offer you?

A. Not only shall my soul after this life immediately be taken up to Christ, my Head,[1] but also this my flesh, raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul and made like Christ’s glorious body.[2]

[1] Luke 16:22; 23:43; Phil. 1:21-23. [2] Job 19:25, 26; I Cor. 15:20, 42-46, 54; Phil. 3:21; I John 3:2.

58. Q. What comfort do you receive from the article about the life everlasting?

A. Since I now already feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, [1] I shall after this life possess perfect blessedness, such as no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived– a blessedness in which to praise God forever.[2]

[1] John 17:3; Rom. 14:17; II Cor. 5:2, 3. [2] John 17:24; I Cor. 2:9.

59. Q. But what does it help you now that you believe all this?

A. In Christ I am righteous before God and heir to life everlasting.[1]

[1] Hab. 2:4; John 3:36; Rom. 1:17; 5:1, 2.