SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE FOR LENT SEASON 2020

Day 4 Feb 29 Passage: Isaiah 40: 12-17 The passage today is filled with question marks, and is one of the unique passages in the book of Isaiah. Three consecutive questions are not meant to allow the listeners to contemplate and to come up with their own answers. In actuality, the design of the questions is meant to turn the focus of the listeners (including the readers) to “who is God”! Who could use the palm of the hand to measure the volume of water? No one could. Only God Himself could measure the dimensions of the sky and the earth, the height of the mountains, the depths of the seas, and determine the amount of dust covering the lands. Only God Himself could decide what to do, and what needed to be done. Only God Himself could formulate and implement strategies and initiatives! This phrase, “The nations are like a drop in a bucket,” allows us to see that all things on earth are insignificant in the eyes of the Lord! Nations do not carry any weight in God’s eye...

Day 3 Feb 28 Passage: Isaiah 40: 9-11 The materials on Day 1 allowed us to focus our attention on God’s comfort, and reading today’s passage permits us to more clearly see the contents of God’s message of comfort to the people. The good news from God was targeted at the people of Jerusalem. The good news was that God would return to Jerusalem. Jerusalem would be where God would command and exercise judgment. Jerusalem had been the focal point of the message of the book of Isaiah. Almost the entire book from the beginning to the end narrated the situation in Jerusalem and all it would have to encounter! From the day of its destruction, Jerusalem and God had an inseparable relationship. The acts which God would manifest from hereon, Jerusalem would definitely be a place which could not be ignored. From book of Isaiah, we saw that God spoke to Jerusalem. After all, what did God want to do in Jerusalem? We have to be careful and watchful, and also be mindful as to whether w...

Day 2 Feb 27 Passage: Isaiah 40: 3-8 God’s judgment and discipline against His people was not the terminal point! Judgment and discipline are meant to renew once more! God clearly expressed to His people that He was the one who doubly punished them. Since this punishment was from God, then one can possibly look forward to a revival from God. If destruction of a nation was due to a chance event in history, then this would be entirely due to acts of man in history. Then God really had nothing to do with the national disaster faced by the people, and whether or not God still represented as hope to the people still could not be ascertained. So God began Chapter 1 by bringing the charges against the people, and simultaneously proclaiming that God would act to discipline and punish the Israelites. This indeed came to pass; Jerusalem was destroyed, meaning that God’s temple also ended in ruins! With the exception of the elderly and the people who were looked down upon, still...

Day 1 Feb 26 Passage: Isaiah 40: 1-2 The Lord began to speak again, and spoke for a very long period of time…The contents of Chapters 40-55 are all God’s spoken words! In fact, the entire 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah are almost solely based on God’s words. God expressed Himself through the experience of Israel; the history of the Israelites cannot be separated from God. At the same time, through His acts for the Israelites, God expressed to the world His purpose. Before this, God’s spoken words could be traced back to the time when He created the world. When man then decided to choose his own path and walked into “chaos”, deviating from God’s will, came the words which God spoke to Abram’s family. God said: From Abram’s family would come forth a group of people who belong to God, and this group of people would be the intermediary through which the world would receive God’s blessings. God’s word was not in vain, from a childless Abram family came forth a huge tribe...

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE FOR LENT SEASON 2020 The Lent season begins from Ash Wednesday and lasts till Easter, for a period of 40 days excluding Sundays (Sundays are not included in the 40 days because Sunday is always remembered as the day of Christ’s resurrection). Since the old days, believers would fast and pray, repent and reflect on the sufferings and death of Christ. During this period, the Sunday sermons of the liturgical churches would usually mention such personalities like Moses, Elijah and Jesus. For Moses, he fasted 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai before receiving the Law and Commandments; Elijah, who challenged the false prophets, ran away to a broom tree when he was pursued by Jezebel to be killed. When the angel of the Lord strengthened him with food, he travelled 40 days and 40 nights without food and water. As for Jesus, he was led into the desert where he fasted 40 days and 40 nights; he drew close to the Father and was filled with the power of t...