Soul Sister Time

            Spring brings with it accumulating light.   The light reaches its maximum stay by midsummer.   After a long dark winter, light is a welcome friend.   It changes moods and brings on anticipation for something better.   Have you experienced more contentment as the light has lingered during the day?             Light and confessing sin don’t seem to mix.   Yet, they definitely go hand in hand.   Without the cleansing from confession, the light would be shaded.   Confession of our sin is what brings us into the light of Christ.   His light shines brightest through us when we are most aware of His presence.   Confession increases the light that is visible to the people who live in our world.   The less of our sins and the more of God they see in us sheds light on God and gives Him more glory.     ...

            It’s a good thing that I have 46 days to get into the rhythm of confession of my sins.   This spiritual discipline is one of the most difficult for me.   I rarely focus on confession.   It’s not that I don’t have a lot of sin to confess.   It is that I would rather not focus on my sins.             The Lenten Season is a gift to me.   I have been reading several Lenten devotional books and they each have different Scriptures and written prayers to guide me to true confession.   I need a tutor like that.   One of the best I have found is the Puritan Prayer Book— The Valley of Vision .   Now those people know what confession is all about!   I’ve got a lot to learn.             One of the best invitations to the purpose and meaning of confession was taught to me by walki...

I took a weekend Silent Lenten Retreat and learned how special the season of Lent (which means Spring) really is.   Being in the lovely setting where winter-spring becomes its own season, I discovered that the transformation from winter to spring reveals the transformation of our souls in Lent.   We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend to enjoy solitude with God.   Lent is a perfect season to see in nature what God is drawing out of us through the spiritual disciplines we focus on through penitence and preparation for Easter. It is the in-between season that shows us a lot about what we are doing spiritually through our focus on confession.    From a distance winter can seem stark and ugly.   I feel the same way about confession.   But if you take the time to see the winter (previous devotional) you can see that the winter season reveals realities that get masked over by the growth of summer.   In winter you become aware of what needs to be cleare...

            The Lenten Season invites believers to take part in a corporate fast.   The purpose of a fast is to become more aware of your powerlessness and to help you focus on God.   I think of my fasts from food as a way I show myself and God that I am really serious about the focus of prayer.   Of course as soon as the church gave a spiritual focus for fasting during Lent, we fallen humans found a way to focus on the food rather than the spiritual purpose.   Thus most people know more about Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras that focus on anything but spiritual intimacy.               I first practiced fasting as a teenager with my youth group.   I didn’t realize what a gift this was to learn to fast for a day or two combined with prayer.   I connected this discipline with major decisions, and I often fasted before making major decisions for my life...

            In some religious Jewish communities, there is nothing more spiritually significant for a Jewish person than to Make Aliyah to Israel .   Transliterated aliyah means stepping up, going up, or assent.   It is considered moving up spiritually when you move to Israel from another country.   The only reason you would make such a dramatic move is for your soul.   It is a spiritual change for your soul.             Lent is a season of soul transformation.   It is an opportunity to move up spiritually.   This season is about perfecting your soul by working on character development.   The church fathers prescribed specific fasts and religious meetings during this season.   When fasts become legalistic, they lose their spiritual power and purpose.   I don’t practice Lent out of cultural conditioning but because the Holy Spirit dra...

            Wednesday, February 22, is Ash Wednesday.   It marks the beginning of the season of Lent, which will climax on Easter Sunday.   Lent is comprised of the forty days (minus Sundays) before Easter. During this time the church fathers suggest believers prepare themselves for Easter in a way similar to Hebrew preparation for Passover.   It is suggested that Christians take on a Lenten fast.   The church colors change to purple which signifies repentance.             What does it mean to repent?   God blessed me on my recent trip to Israel by seating me beside a religious Jewish woman who taught me a lot about my faith by sharing about hers.   She explained how she had been instructed about repentance.   She said there are three levels of confession before you experience true repentance.   1.        Con...

            I have personally been aware of two genuine yet not famous times of revival.   One was while I was a student at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee.   Evidently some of the upperclassmen were so taken by the word of God that they dared to pray like Habakkuk recorded in 3:2 . O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.   (KJV)   I was present the evening that revival broke out on that campus but I wasn’t present to the significance of the spiritual reality.   I felt tired and left in the middle of the revival the Lord brought.   I was glad to hear the reports of the personal meaning the revival had in other’s lives, but I did not feel compelled to be a part of it, either by prayer or through my own confession.   I wish I had been more connected to what was taking place as...