In this episode, we will look the importance of Lent and why it’s such a useful tool for spiritual growth. Lent isn’t just for certain denominations; it’s a chance for all of us to grow in our Christian lives. We talk about how saying no to small things can help us say yes to God in bigger ways. It’s about building discipline, just like athletes train for the Olympics. We also share some useful resources, including a free Lenten devotional and journal that can help guide you through this season.

Takeaways:

1. Lent is a special time for spiritual growth, both personally and as a church community.
2. The practice of Lent emphasizes denying ourselves small comforts to better say yes to God.
3. Discipline is essential in our Christian life, similar to how athletes train for success.
4. Lent encourages us to reflect on our struggles and grow stronger in our faith.
5. We can use Lent to give up more than food, like our free time or negative feelings.
6. Resources like free devotionals and handouts are available to help us during Lent.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. bible805.com
2. https://hobo-soul-podcast.captivate.fm

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Bible805
2. Amazon
3. Hobo Soul Podcast

Welcome to the Ministry Miscellany Podcast A collection of tools, strategy and challenges for Bible teachers from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's been teaching the Bible ever since as a third grader, I started to teach the kindergartners at my church about Jesus.

I've never quit doing that, and along the way I've picked up some practices, strategies, and resources that might be useful to you.

Our topic for today is Let's Talk About Lent, A powerful time for personal and corporate spiritual growth.

Observing Lent isn't about a denomination.Whether your church is a liturgical one or not, Lent helps us put the Christian life into a biblical perspective. It's a time to practice saying no to ourselves in little things so we can say a bigger yes to God in the larger decisions of life.

It can truly be a time for significant spiritual growth for individuals in your church as well as the church as a whole.

Following I'm going to be talking about some motivation for celebrating Lent, and then I'm also going to be giving you some descriptions of Lenten resources. I've got free handouts. I have a free downloadable Lenten devotional and journal.

Now, if you're really in a hurry and you don't want to bother listening to it all and you just like to grab some goodies for Lent, just which is fine, we all get in a hurry, just go to www.bible805.com and the resources will be right there on the homepage. So check those out right away. They'll be there. Now, following again, I'm going to be talking about some resources that I have.

But before that, I want to just give you a little bit, maybe more motivation for why we should celebrate Lent. Lent reminds us of the importance of discipline in the Christian life.

This year is really a good one for Lenten motivation because of the recent inspiration we've gotten from the Olympics. We can remind our churches, our groups, and ourselves that Olympic athletes don't win a medal without years of discipline and practice.

It takes training, patience, sweat, and tears to be worthy of the gold. That training and discipline is true in many areas of life. Military leadership comes from years of progressing through the ranks.

Combat experience is an essential requirement for the highest officers. A CEO isn't selected from the latest hires.

In a company, we judge an athlete, a soldier, or a corporate leader a cheat if that person tried to avoid the essential struggles necessary to reach a position worthy of admiration, worthy of leadership. Struggle before success is the expected pattern in almost every area of life except some assume for the Christian life.

Life Somehow there's the mistaken notion that in some Christian circles, well, the mistaken notion in some Christian circles that coming to Jesus means an endless supply of ease and freedom from all troubles in this life. Now, to be fair, the eternal destiny of those who trust Jesus as Savior is salvation from judgment and condemnation.

And nothing is more freeing than that reality. But the ease and freedom from trials that are for our future in Christ are not necessarily reality in our present.

If we're to be faithful in teaching our people and not lie to ourselves, we need to remind us all of the difficult realities of our faith. Lent is a very helpful time to do this.

Now, in addition to that, Lent helps us develop the spiritual strength that only comes through self discipline and self denial. It isn't just something to warn people about. It actually is like getting into the gym and doing some working out.

To help you do that, I have a free Lenten devotional booklet that I have updated and I have some other resources I'll share in a minute. Now, this devotional booklet and journal, I really apologize for getting it to you so late. I know it's late, I know the resources are late.

I know Lent starts in a couple of days, and I really apologize. What happened is, even though I had all of these things done quite a bit ahead, I really wanted to make this devotional pretty.

And so I worked really hard on a redesign and I made a beautiful colored version of it. I also. But that was kind of expensive when I went to upload it on Amazon.

So I also did a grayscale one that really is nice, but it's just not the real pretty colors and all that.

Uploaded everything, got them back, and there was this really strange print weird thing on the first one of the first pages, which is a prayer of St. Francis that introduces the devotions. And I thought, oh my goodness. Well, I got it corrected right away in the black and white version, uploaded it, everything's good to go then.

I have been trying for the last couple of weeks to get the colored one corrected and something always goes wrong, this or that or something else. And you know, I come to the conclusion that it's some sort of spiritual warfare. And please do pray for me that I can get it done.

But I decided I just have to get this information to you.

And so what I'm doing is, yes, you can check it out on Amazon, but I have a completely free devotion and journal for you as a Download on the Bible805 website. So just go there, you can download the whole thing.

And what it has is it has sort of challenging statements and then a place for you to journal your thoughts one each day as we go towards Easter. So check that out.

Now, in addition to that, something that I'm extremely excited about is I just started another podcast, the Hobo Soul Podcast, where it's subtitled Road Advice from the Bible. And someone a few steps ahead from me, Yvonne Prynne.

It's a five to ten minute daily podcast on just challenges from the Bible to help you grow in your Christian life. And I'm going to be taking Lent to go over the same material that's in the devotion and journal.

So again I have the links to that on the Bible805 website, but you can just find the Hobo Soul Podcast on any of your on itunes, Spotify, all of the other podcast resources. You can listen to that. And regardless of Lent or whatever, I would encourage you to check that out.

I also have some Lenten handouts for you and these are just flyers that you can use any way you want. You can also take the basic information and I have that available to you on the Bible805 website for you to simply download and use.

Let me read them to you.

The first one is Lent for all of us Self Denial Options for Lent, the less obvious and sometimes more costly forms of self denial to consider during Lent.

Self denial is a slippery discipline, especially at Lent when Christians traditionally give up something they like to eat.

Ages ago, when believers gave up meat, eggs and milk, they were suffering genuine hardship because they didn't have many other options in their diet. Today, giving up a certain food is easy. There's always more to replace it. No meat, no problem.

We've got fish and soy products, blender drinks and protein bar. In addition, there's always the thought lurking in the back of my mind that if I cut back on food a bit, I might lose a few pounds.

There are other options for self denial as we Commemorate our Lord's 40 days in the desert as he began his earthly ministry.

To add to your commemoration of Lent, or to begin now or anytime, consider these disciplines that may not be as obvious as food, but they can be quite difficult. We can give up our time. We can give up our free time and spend more time with Jesus in His Word and serving others.

This can be a genuine sacrifice because for many today there's a little free time. We can give up control of our words to Jesus. This is hard for us because we want to speak first to give our opinion.

For Lent, we can give up our words so we can listen carefully to others, we can give up our feelings of resentment. Living the Christian life is hard and few appreciate how hard we try.

But no matter how difficult our day, remember Jesus sees your efforts and loves you. Spend time alone with Jesus as He did with His Father in the desert. Ask him what he wants you to give up.

Obey him faithfully in secret, and your Easter reward won't be only a few pounds lost, but a closer walk with your Savior.

Now the next one has a little bit of a sports oriented theme. It starts out by saying

Run in such a way as to get the prize.Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I've preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. This is from first corinthians 9:24-27

How easy it is to admire the discipline in athletes, but how hard it is to practice it ourselves.

Lent is traditionally the time when we Commemorate our Lord's 40 days in the desert as he began his earthly ministry. Throughout the ages, Christians have used this time for self denial to train their bodies and spirits in godliness.

Here are a few suggestions on how we might do that. And then I go on and give the three that I read to you before on giving up our time, our control of our words, and our feelings of resentment.

And then this one ends by saying, for Lent, ask the Lord to be your personal trainer to show you what is keeping you from being the spiritual athlete he wants you to be. Age abilities don't matter. Obedience does.

Listen to his voice, practice the spiritual training habits in the Bible and use Lent as a time to become more effective in serving Jesus. Run in such a way as to get the prize. Let me repeat that. Run in such a way as to get the prize. That's great closing advice for us all.

We need to remember we are in a race in spiritual warfare. Lent gives us an opportunity to strengthen our spiritual inner resources.

I've got lots of free material for you on the Bible805.com website and I pray you'll take advantage of the different resources, use them with intention, and run your race to get the prize of life, you've been called to in Jesus.

I trust you found the content in this episode of Ministry Miscellaney useful.

For links to any resources mentioned and lots of free material to help you know, trust, apply and teach the bible. Go to www.Bible805.com

Let me close now with a reminder from the book of Daniel 12:3 where it says, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever.

That's you, someone who leads many to righteousness.

And in doing that, may you be ever growing in your reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, in the deepening of your friendship with Jesus, and in your trust in the goodness of God the Father, never forgetting in all the hard work you do, that you have a glorious heritage where you will shine like the stars forever and ever. Amen.