Lent Devotional 2021 - Pittsburg - Flipbook - Page 8
condemnation—it’s an act of love. The author of Hebrews 3
isn’t giving permission for Christians to run around putting
each other in their “place”; rather, the writer is pleading with
the family of God to lift one another up and to help each
other stand firmly against sin.
So don’t let your heart be hardened the next time someone
exhorts you. Instead, with gratitude and humility, praise the
Lord for the people who care enough to help you through.
PRAYER
Almighty God, we thank you for your constant love in our
lives. We thank you for the people you have placed around us
who encourage us to stand strong against sin. May we also
faithfully seek to enact that love for one another. In Jesus’
name we pray. Amen!
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021
The Rev. Daniel Voigt ’11
SCRIPTURE
You can feel the family’s embarrassment as the filth of their
house was on display. It is a feeling we all know too well
when our errors, sins, and grandiose shortcomings become
visible. What is most fascinating to me, though, is the
predictableness of the next feeling: we wish the light would
never have shined at all. But that is when and where the true
danger lurks—in beginning to hate the light, when all the
light really did was show us where we still needed to clean.
All responses to the light on our darkness start with
embarrassment. But the mature response ends in gratitude.
After all, God so loved us that, really, the light was sent to
bring us life.
PRAYER
To the God who loves us, thank you for sending us your
light—not to condemn us but to save us. May we have the
courage to look at what your light shows us and, ultimately,
be thankful for it. Amen.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2021
The Rev. Dr. Christie Sweeny Gravely ’16
John 3:16-21
SCRIPTURE
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but
may have eternal life. 17 Indeed, God did not send the Son
into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the
world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in
him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are
condemned already, because they have not believed in the
name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment,
that the light has come into the world, and people loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20
For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the
light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those
who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be
clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
DEVOTIONAL
There is an old story about a wealthy family whose home was
going to be the first in their town to have electricity installed.
To commemorate the occasion, they invited everyone they
could to come out for the initial lighting. People began to
cram together in the house that evening expecting to see
a miracle. Finally, the moment arrived, and as the sun went
down, with great fanfare the light switch was turned on and
the lights began to glow. Immediately, everyone gasped in
amazement at the sight, but then, just as immediately, their
gaps turned to sounds of disgust as the new, bright, electric
lights made every spider’s web in every corner pop out in
astonishing clarity and laid bare every smudge and stain on
the walls and floor for all the guests to see.
8 Lent Devotional 2021
John 3:22-36
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean
countryside, and he spent some time there with them and
baptized. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim
because water was abundant there; and people kept coming
and were being baptized—24 John, of course, had not
yet been thrown into prison. 25 Now a discussion about
purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew.
26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who
was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here
he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered,
“No one can receive anything except what has been given
from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said,
‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’
29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of
the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly
at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been
fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.” 31 The
one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of
the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly
things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He
testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts
his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted his testimony has
certified this, that God is true. 34 He whom God has sent
speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without
measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all
things in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but
must endure God’s wrath.