Lenten

Holden Lenten Service

Each week during Lent we use the "Holden Evening Prayer Service" all four parts. Listen to each one here during your Lenten meditations.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Greetings, in the name of Christ. If you were not able to join us on ZOOM this evening at 7:00 pm for Lenten Midweek Devotion, I hope you will use this email as a way to rest and center yourselves in the promises of God. May God bless your time in prayer and reflection and fill you with health and hope!

Pastor Ron Roschke, Bridge Interim Pastor

St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Northglenn CO

PRAYER

OPTION #1: If you are familiar with Centering Prayer, please take some time now to rest in God. Twenty minutes is a good time to set for yourself. If you want a brief description of how to do Centering Prayer, click here.

OPTION #2: If you are not familiar with Centering Prayer, spend some time letting God know what is on your mind. Remember not only your needs but the needs of others. And don't forget to give thanks and praise to God!

GOD SIGHTINGS

Each week in Lent we have been practicing a discipline called God Sightings. We are trying to become alert to ways God is reaching out to us—answering prayers, searching for us and others. This week we've invited you to look for places here have you seen God bringing resurrection here into the middle of things. God doesn't wait until the very end of the story to surprise us with new life. Remember that in your baptism you have been joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Martin Luther was fond of saying the every day we die and rise. Here are some questions for you to consider. You can discuss these with another person, reflect on them privately, or start a journal to mark your spiritual journey.

1. Did you see any "resurrections" happening here in the middle of things? Tell a story about what you have seen.

2. Are there times when you find yourself saying, "I'm at the end of my rope" or "I can't go on any further," but you find out that you are not at the end of the story at all? How is that like a resurrection?

3.In order for something or someone to be "raised from the dead," there first needs to be a death. Paul tells us "you also must consider yourselves dead to sin." Some things in life prevent us from being fully, really alive. What have you been discovering this Lent that you need to "let go"?

4. Has your Lenten journey this year led you into new life? These are "little resurrection." What have you discovered?

5. Complete this statement: "As I now make my way into Holy Week and Easter, the most important thing for me is...."

SCRIPTURE - ROMANS 6:3-11

³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸ But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Greetings, in the name of Christ. If you were not able to join us on ZOOM this evening at 7:00 pm for Lenten Midweek Devotion, I hope you will use this email as a way to rest and center yourselves in the promises of God. May God bless your time in prayer and reflection and fill you with health and hope!

Pastor Ron Roschke, Bridge Interim Pastor

St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Northglenn CO

PRAYER

OPTION #1: If you are familiar with Centering Prayer, please take some time now to rest in God. Twenty minutes is a good time to set for yourself. If you want a brief description of how to do Centering Prayer, click here.

OPTION #2: If you are not familiar with Centering Prayer, spend some time letting God know what is on your mind. Remember not only your needs but the needs of others. And don't forget to give thanks and praise to God!

GOD SIGHTINGS

Each week in Lent we have been practicing a discipline called God Sightings. We are trying to become alert to ways God is reaching out to us—answering prayers, searching for us and others. This week we have been looking for ways God surprised you—shown you something you had not seen before? God isn’t done making all things new, so keep your eyes open! Here are some questions for you to consider. You can discuss these with another person, reflect on them privately, or start a journal to mark your spiritual journey.

1. What surprised you this week? Was it a "good" surprise or a "bad" surprise?

2. Do you think it's easier to see God in "good surprises" or "bad surprises"? Why do you answer the way you do?

3. How do "good surprises" help you to see God's presence and activity in the world?

4. How do "bad surprises" help you to see God's presence and activity in the world?

5. If, through Jesus, we have come to know God as the one who loves us unconditionally, how does that shape the way we handle life's surprises?

6. How does the cross and open tomb of Jesus affect the way we understand surprises?

SCRIPTURE - EPHESIANS 1:17-19

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

GOD SIGHTINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK

Here is the God Sightings assignment for this coming week: Where have you seen God bringing resurrection here into the middle of things? God doesn't wait until the very end of the story to surprise us with new life. Remember that in your baptism you have been joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Martin Luther was fond of saying the every day we die and rise. Be on the lookout this week for places where God injects new life into hopeless situations! We'll build next week's Lenten Midweek Devotion around what new things you've seen.

Greetings, in the name of Christ, I'm glad you've decided to take time to drop the busyness and business of the day. Please use this devotion as a way to rest and center yourselves in the promises of God. Since 7:00 pm Wednesday is our normal time for Lenten Evening Prayer, you may want to do these exercises then, knowing that others are joining you in devotion and prayer at the same time.

Pastor Ron Roschke, Bridge Interim Pastor

St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Northglenn CO

PRAYER

OPTION #1: If you are familiar with Centering Prayer, please take some time now to rest in God. Twenty minutes is a good time to set for yourself. If you want a brief description of how to do Centering Prayer, click here.

OPTION #2: If you are not familiar with Centering Prayer, spend some time letting God know what is on your mind. Remember not only your needs but the needs of others. And don't forget to give thanks and praise to God!

GOD SIGHTINGS

Each week in Lent we have been practicing a discipline called God Sightings. We are trying to become alert to ways God is reaching out to us—answering prayers, searching for us and others. This week we have been looking for ways God meets us in a stranger. In last Sunday’s Gospel, a Samaritan woman strikes up a conversation with a stranger only to discover that she is talking to the God who accepts her as she is. Here are some questions for you to consider. You can discuss these with another person, reflect on them privately, or start a journal to mark your spiritual journey.

1. Where was God trying to surprise you through unanticipated conversations? Tell the story. Does an incident from the past week occur to you?

2. How did the encounter feel? What words would you use to describe it?

3. Did you do something for the stranger? Did the stranger do something for you?

4. How do you think you helped the stranger? How did the stranger help you?

5. If you were to let this experience happen again, would there be anything you would want to do differently?

6. Pay attention to the Spirit that "bubbles up inside you" (last Sunday's Gospel). What do you think God may be saying to you through this encounter?

SCRIPTURE - Matthew 25:31-46

Jesus said, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

How might God be reaching out to you in the strangers that you meet? Please notice, it doesn't matter whether we recognize God being there or not! How might this change the ways in which we interact with those around us?

GOD SIGHTINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK

Here is the God Sightings assignment for this coming week: Where has God surprised you—shown you something you had not seen before? God isn’t done making all things new, so keep your eyes open! We'll build next week's Lenten Midweek Devotion around what new things you've seen.