It is hard to believe that Lent is already upon us! Ash Wednesday will be on February 10th this year. Lent is a time in which we prepare for the commemoration of our Lord's passion, mournful death on Good Friday, and glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. Our preparations are marked by repentance and self-discipline. In both cases, as baptized children of our Father, we engage in battle against our sinful nature by fixing our eyes on Jesus. Repentance, after all, is not merely a bringing sinful habits to an end, but a turning away from the idols we worship and lies we believe and turning towards Jesus who sought us out and freed us with His grace.

I want to strongly encourage you this Lent to join us for both our Sunday and Wednesday services. We will be going through two series that will drive us towards repentance and faith. Consider inviting your friends to join us for these series or point them to our website where they can hear the gospel for themselves.

Sunday Series - CTRL+ALT+DELETE: Reboot Your Life

Last year we joined a large number of congregations in our Synod for the "Preaching Project" in a series called "Liar, Liar." We are joining the "Preaching Project" again this Lent for a series called "CTRL+ALT+DELETE: Reboot Your Life." Do you ever wish you could reboot your life like you reboot your computer? What is it that has gone wrong in your life that you wish you could go back and undo? The season of Lent is traditionally a season of repentance - a time to reflect on what has gone wrong in our lives and to reboot with the only One who can give us a truly fresh start, Jesus Christ. In this series, we’ll look at some of life’s most common regrets and then talk about how repentance can bring forgiveness, hope, and comfort in Christ.

Midweek Lent Series-The Book of Job: Blessed Be the Name of the Lord
(Wednesdays at 7:30 pm):

One of the Bible’s greatest wisdom books is the book of Job. This Lent we will explore this magnificent composition that is numbered among the greatest literature of all time. Martin Luther asserted that "Job is magnificent and sublime as no book of Scripture." The early Christian scholar Jerome perhaps put it best when he called the book of Job an "eel," since the more one tries to contain it, the slipperier it becomes! We all suffer—personally and privately. We also suffer in more public ways. A husband loses a job. A child gets divorced. A parent dies. And now, thanks to the media, we are able to see and experience more and more of the world’s catastrophes and suffering. We need the book of Job, now, more than ever. The purpose of our Lenten emphasis is to learn how to apply Job to our lives so that the book becomes less like an eel and more like a loving companion through life’s dark valleys. We will be hearing from the other pastors in our circuit as take part in our typical round robin preaching rotation.

Pastor Bob

The full newsletter can be found here:
www.faithmoorpark.com/files/pdf/2016/2016-02-Newsletter.pdf