“Return To Me With All Your Heart”

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The Season of Lent is a 40-day period leading up to Easter where Christians focus on God and His word through prayer, fasting, giving, serving, and repentance. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, observed this year on February 14th, Lent culminates in Holy Week:

• Maundy Thursday (March 28th,24): from the Latin word "mandatum," or commandment. On this day, Jesus washed His disciples' feet and commanded them to love each other as He loved them. It is also the night when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.
• Good Friday (March 29th, 24): marking the day Jesus was tortured and crucified.
• Holy Saturday (March 30th,24): the day Jesus' disciples mourned His death. Being a Jewish sabbath day, it was a day of rest -- not just according to God's law, but also as Christ's body "rested" in the tomb. In just a few hours, on the first Holy Saturday, Jesus Christ would be raised from the dead, demonstrating He is God in human flesh.

Today, this is why we mark the season with the color purple. In one sense, it represents mourning and the anticipation of the suffering Jesus endured for us on the cross. In another sense, the color purple represents royalty, celebrating Jesus Christ's sovereignty and resurrection from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins.

Join us at Messiah Lutheran Church during these special times:

• March 5th  |   Ash Wednesday at 6pm  |  Self Reflection Vespers Service
• March 12, 19, 26, April 2, 9 (the following Wednesdays in March and April)  | Vespers at 6pm

It is Finished: A Lenten Poem

Come and view the Word made flesh
On whom all our sin was laid;
He has words that will refresh
Every sinner who has strayed:
“It is finished!” Christ decreed,
Giving everything you need.

All the Scriptures are fulfilled,
All Christ’s sufferings are complete,
All God’s righteous wrath is stilled,
Satan here has met defeat.
“It is finished!” Jesus cries,
Gives His spirit up and dies.

Come here, sinner, rest your soul
In the wounds of Christ your God;
Here your sins have no control,
Washed away in Jesus’ blood;
“It is finished!” hear him shout;
All your guilt is blotted out.

Bring your conscience here to find
What alone can make it good;
Here God’s mercy shows His mind,
Doing what you never could;
“It is finished!” You are free –
Christ’s death is your guarantee.

Every sin to which you turned
Has become your Savior’s loss;
All the punishment you earned
Has been poured out on the cross.
“It is finished!” It is true,
There is nothing left to do.

Do you see your sin inside?
Do not look inside your heart;
See your sin on Him who died,
See the truth his words impart:
“It is finished!” not in you,
In Him who makes all things new.

If you try and can’t forget
Sins that long have held you bound,
Bring your heartache and regret
To the words where faith is found:
“It is finished!” Hear him say
Words that take all sin away.

When the battle rages on,
When your flesh desires the lie,
Look to God the Father’s Son,
Hear his clear, triumphant cry:
“It is finished!” It is done!
Jesus has already won.

When you fall to sin again,
And you fear God’s righteous wrath;
See his blood remove the stain,
See your wages paid in death:
“It is finished.” From his veins
Flows the flood that cleans your stains.

Do you fear the future now,
Knowing what the past has been?
Let this saying teach you how
All your time is found in Him:
“It is finished!” Nothing can
Snatch you from your Savior’s hand.

In these words forgiveness find,
In these words your Sabbath lies,
Giving sight back to the blind,
Comfort for our pains and sighs:
“It is finished!” Nothing more
Is there left to end the war.

Peace He gives, his peace he leaves
With these words that shatter doubt;
Blest is he who this believes!
Let him join with Christ and shout:
“It is finished” Christ has died!
By this I am justified.

by Pastor Mark Preus (2015)

St. Andrew's Lutheran Church

Laramie, WY