Lent

This Wednesday, March 1, 2017, is Ash Wednesday and we will have our annual Ash Wednesday Service at 8:00 pm. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. The Word “lent” comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means "spring.” Lent is forty days leading up to Easter, not including Sundays. The practice of a forty-day preparation period began in the Christian church during the third and fourth centuries. The number forty carries biblical significance based on the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness and Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness. The objectives of Ash Wednesday Service are the following: 

1.     Meditate on our mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior 
2.     Renew our commitment to daily repentance in the Lenten season and in all of life 
3.     Remember with confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death and sin

Ash Wednesday Service is filled with gospel truth. The imposition of ashes will be a central part of the worship service. It symbolizes frailty, death, sadness, mourning, judgment, and repentance. Ashes are also considered to be a purifying agent. During the imposition, we will hear the words, “Consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Jesus Christ.” As we enter the Lenten season, let us worship together this Ash Wednesday as a community and prepare for the coming of Easter.