2014
Lenten Greetings!
This is the second year that various friends of Bethel (people of all ages) have written devotionals to share with us in a Lenten booklet like this. We think they have done a great job and that you’ll really enjoy reading them over these next 40 days.
It is important for us to share our stories of faith, courage, hope and love with one another. We hope you will be affirmed, inspired, challenged, and uplifted as you read these. Be sure to thank the authors, when you see them, and let them know what their thoughts have meant to you, will you?
May you and your family have a blessed and meaningful Lenten season as you prepare for Holy Week and the Celebration of the Resurrection. God’s richest blessings to you!
In our Lord’s Love,
Pastor John Lestock
Worship at Bethel Lutheran Church
Ash Wednesday
Imposition of Ashes & Holy Communion
Wednesday, March 5
Bethel Downtown - 1:00pm and 7:00pm
Bethel Highlands - 5:30pm
LentenWorship
Wednesdays at 7:00pm
Bethel Highlands
March 12: “The Question”
March 19: “Can We Talk?”
March 26: “Counter Views”
April 2: “No Accident”
April 9: “The Breakfast Club”
Holy Week
Maundy Thursday
Worship with Holy Communion
Thursday, April 17
Bethel Downtown - 1:00pm and 7:00pm
Bethel Highlands - 5:30pm
Good Friday
Friday, April 18
The Service of the Cross
Bethel Downtown – 1:00pm
Tenebrae
Bethel Highlands – 7:00pm
Easter Vigil
Saturday, April 19
Bethel Highlands – 5:30pm
Easter Worship
Sunday, April 20
Bethel Downtown
6:30am Sunrise
8:00am Festival Worship
Bethel Highlands
9:30am New Song
11:00am Festival Worship
Day 1 / Wednesday, March 5, 2014“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19
Genesis tells the story of God creating Adam out of the dust of the ground. After Adam’s famous sin, the LORD God told him these haunting words that we hear today, on Ash Wednesday, as we are marked with the cross on our foreheads. The ashes are there to remind us of our mortality, that someday the bodies we now live in will return to the earth from where they came. The ashes also remind us of our current brokenness, how we are currently dead in sin. Paul writes in Romans 7:15, “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” St. Augustine admitted in his Confessions, “It was filthy and I loved it. I loved my own destructions. I loved my own fault.” Martin Luther confessed that the true self is a “furious and untamed beast,” who “does not want God to be God,” because as sinful humans, we want to be God.
Every time I try to wash off this cross of ashes, it catches me off guard. Usually when I look into the mirror, I find little ways in which I can improve myself. It makes me want to reach for teeth whitener, makeup, hair trimmers, or Q tips. While we live in a culture that tells us, “we’re pretty much okay, we just need a little help,” Lent, however, invites us into that scary, ugly, haunting, overwhelming place of reality, when we look into the mirror and see ashes. We see we need more than just a little help; we need a Savior.
While we cannot deny the ashes in the mirror, we also cannot deny the shape they are in: the cross. The truth of the Easter cross marks the hope that comes just where we cannot imagine hope to be found. The promise of the resurrection is that the ashes of death do not have the final word. If God already created humans from dust, God will be able to do it again.
Prayer: Crucified God, where there are ashes, bring the cross; where there is sinfulness, bring forgiveness; and where there is death, bring life. Amen.
Pastor Ben Hilding
Day 2 / Thursday, March6, 2014“Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:24
Thinking about Lent conjures up memories of my childhood. Being brought up Catholic, Lent meant going to church more often than just on Sunday, not eating meat on Fridays and giving up something I could not possibly live without for 40 long days. Each year I pondered what to give up for Lent. Some years it was gum, some it was candy and one year I gave up teasing my younger brother. Lent was a difficult time for me. Inevitably, each year I would be on my second bite of a hamburger before I realized it was Friday and I had sinned. I also had a difficult time deciding what to “give up” because my mom said it had to be something that we really loved, which for me involved something to eat or drink (candy, chocolate, soda or chips). I usually made it one or two weeks before I either slipped up or just gave up. The year I gave up teasing my brother, I only made it two hours. Not only did I feel guilty, my parents grounded me for a week. My sacrifices during lent were just chores I reluctantly performed because I was told to do so.
It was not until I became an adult that I really appreciated what each Lenten sacrifice was really all about. It was about abstinence, penance and my intention to turn away from sin and turn back to God. It was about Jesus and his sacrifices for us. My commitment to not eat meat on Fridays and to give up something was just a symbol of what Jesus did for us. It was about realizing that he bore a cross for us; he gave his life for us. I now realize that the small “sacrifices” I made pale in comparison to what Jesus sacrificed for us.
Prayer: Lord, help me to use your love as a way to persevere in my Lenten intentions. I am weak, but I know with your help, I can use these small sacrifices in my life to draw closer to you. Amen.
Tammy Skoglund
Day 3 / Friday, March7, 2014“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with the wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
Each week we look at what we have to do and what we need to accomplish in the coming week. The tasks at hand sometimes seem like there is no way we can complete them. The peace that comes from a belief in Jesus, as our Lord and Savior, helps us live each day with strength and confidence.
But our faith in Jesus gives us the peace, strength and the confidence to continue to live our lives mounted on the wings of eagles.
Prayer: Dear Lord, give us the strength to be productive servants in your world, and when we tire, renew us with your everlasting love. Amen.
Alan Burchill
Day 4 / Saturday, March8, 2014“I will sing unto the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” Psalm 13:6
This Psalm has always been one of my favorites, since childhood I have had a love of music, which spans genres, time periods, and instruments. Music has always spoken to me in a way that not much else could. Music has been one of the most constant things in my life and has helped me through bad times as well as celebrate good times. As I have aged I have noticed my love of music growing. I have been blessed in my life with opportunities to sing and share my love of music with those around me. The reason I love this Psalm as much as I do is because I never feel closer to God than when I am singing his praises, at home, at church, or in my shower. As time has passed I have noticed that I don’t only have to be singing church hymns to feel close to Him. I can feel his presence with me in my acappella group, when I sing in the car, or when I’m just listening and singing along with the radio. Every time I sing I do so for the Lord as a way to show that I am grateful for this gift. Singing is a way to connect me with my faith as well as those around me and I wouldn’t trade this gift for anything in the world.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunities to share my passion and gift with the world around me. Help others to discover their passions and gifts so that they may also feel that special connection with you. Thank you for the blessings you have given me and help me to continue to use them to bring you praises. Amen.
Hayley Uzpen
Day 5 / Sunday, March9, 2014“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”Psalm 119:105
In 1977, Janet and I had our first baby – by the end of 1983 we had three kids and a fourth on the way. At this time at Bethel, there were small groups being formed for a bible study. This study was not a three week commitment like we are currently doing, but rather a two year commitment to weekly bible study. The format of the study was to form a group (our group was made up of five couples – four of the couples were in the same stage of child rearing as we were, with three out of the four moms pregnant with their third or fourth child. The fifth couple was long time members Fred and Millie Johnson – they were both retired with grown children (one of them being Valerie Peterson, who was a missionary with her husband, John, in Hong Kong).
Looking back at how busy everyone was, I do not know how we ever thought we would have time to make a two year commitment to meet early every Sunday evening for bible study. I can only imagine how many excuses I had for not wanting to commit to weekly bible study, but since we had not done a bible study in the past, either individually or together, we took the plunge. In retrospect, maybe we did it just to get a time away from kids for a little while each week, but whatever the reason, we did it.
All I can say was it the best! I learned so much from the others about their faith – I learned so much from Fred and Millie who had great wisdom about God, living as Christians, and dealing with the bumps in life all of us have. We learned to do a faith statement - the “elevator speech” you could give when an opportunity arose. But most importantly, we just got to be together to learn more about the word of God.
We participated in the first three week bible study a few months ago and I was reminded how good it is to be with others talking and learning about the bible. As the verse states – it truly is “a light for my path.”
Prayer: I am thankful for Lent each year – to slow down (at least a little bit), to reflect on what is most important, to rejuvenate my faith by attending the Lenten services, and to reignite the light on my path.
John Clymer
Day 6 / Monday, March10,2014“FAITH is the substance of things hoped, for the evidence of things unseen.” Hebrews 11:1
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7
This is Lenten Season, a time to reflect and praise God for all the many blessings He has provided. I can honestly say that I can't think of any time in my life that I did not believe.
Thankfully, Father and Mother were strong Christians. My sister and I would recall that if any of us children had been out on a Saturday evening and tried to skip church, we were never allowed. Our parents were very active within the church; however, we never had any family devotions except to say our table grace.
God has been very good to me. I have always loved to travel and since my husband was in the Navy for thirty years, we were especially blessed to see much of the world. Our daughter, Pam, was born in Japan and started school in France. We lived on the East and West Coast as well. I have such wonderful and happy memories of those times.
Life in Japan was not a religious time for us. While Andy was on board the ship, I was working at the shipyard. Although we worshiped occasionally, it was not a strong religious atmosphere. In France, we had services mainly when the ship was in port, which was seldom. There was a Sunday School for the children, again, while we were all there.
When the ship left for other ports, the wives and families usually followed them, which was a wonderful experience for all of us. We arrived in France when Pam was only three years old, a little blonde cutie. The first weekend after we arrived in France, Andy left with the ship to their next port, Italy. The friends I had met talked me into taking Pam and going over to Italy. We were not able to travel with the other ladies, so it was just Pam and me. I spoke only English, and everyone warned me not to let Pam eat ice cream or drink the water.
We were not too many miles out of Villefranche, when the Europeans fell in love with our daughter and fed her whatever they were eating. (Thanks be to God for his guidance and for always being with us.) We both had a wonderful trip and Andy was surprised to see us!
It was a little scary for me having only been in France for about eight days or so, but needless to say, we made many trips after that. Life was great! One of the most spectacular Easter Sunrise Services was on top of the mountain in Villefranche-sur-mer, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and watching the sun come up. It was beautifully done with a chaplain performing the service and all our men were in uniform.
Andy and I have continued to remain very good friends over the years even though we had become divorced at a later point. Those were difficult times and I could not have made it without Andy and the Lord’s love and support.
As we go through life I can only wonder, "How do people exist without God?" I call on God, night and day, and my faith has become extremely strong and wonderful. Life is good and God has shared his abundant blessings; including my daughter and granddaughter, and having my sister and her husband, Georgia and Jerry Adams, live so close to me. They are all a constant blessing in my life.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, you have bestowed so many blessings on me, and I am ever grateful, and will always seek your guidance. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Marlys Anderson
Day 7 / Tuesday, March 11, 2014“Friends always show their love. What are relatives for if not to share trouble?”
Proverbs 17:17
I, like most people, know life has its ups and its down, its twists and turns. And I also know I’m not the only one when I ask “Why?” Now, for the moment, I haven’t had too troubling of times, but I know others have and I will sooner rather than later. But I also know that when those times come I’ll be able to share those burdens with others. I have my friends all around me to help me back on my feet when I fall. As for my family, I know that they lie in faith and in blood and will always be there and support me. I know that not only because I would do that for every one of them, but because God has always, and will always look out for me and everyone for as long as we live, eternally. I’ve also learned God is my friend, as well as everybody else’s.
Prayer: Gracious God, Thank you for the gift of people you put in our lives. Help me to “be there” for others as they have “been there” for me. Amen!
Jacob Benoy
Day 8 / Wednesday, March12, 2014“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
1 Peter 4:8
The phrase “Love conquers all” has been important to me throughout my life, and with every challenging situation that I’ve been through (and I’m sure with many more to come), it becomes more and more obvious to me how true those words really are.
A fairly recent challenge was put in front of my family and me at the beginning of the 2013 school year. Starting college at UW River Falls was a big transition, but one that I was looking forward to very much. Unfortunately, college is very expensive. With the financial aid that I had received, and with help from my mother, I was able to pay off my first semester, but that was about the extent of our financial abilities. At that point, paying for my second semester would have been very difficult.
When I was born, my grandmother had bought stock for me with General Mills. After all of us had changed addresses multiple times, that stock had gotten lost with paper work and other things. While trying to come up with ways to pay for my next semester of college, my mom thought back to the stock, so we filled out paperwork trying to figure out what had happened to that money. Just before my last installment of tuition was due, I received a call from my mom. The state of Minnesota had taken control of the stock, and once we contacted them, they sent us a check for the total amount that I had in General Mills, $8,000. Not only was I able to pay for my second semester of college, but I am also able to save some of the money for the next year.