And To Dust You Will Return

Yesterday, I went to my first ever Ash Wednesday service at my church. I had seen people come to school with a cross of ashes on their foreheads, but I never had one on my head before. I have never really known what to think about Ash Wednesday, but I knew it was the start of the season of Lent, or the 40 days before Easter Sunday. All I knew about Lent, was a lot of people gave stuff up, and that we didn't say "alleluia" during the communion talk thing at church. I had a very limited view of what Lent really was supposed to do

Luckily, I have a Youth Minister, or Minister to Students, as he calls it, that gave us a very accurate view of what it's supposed to be like. He gave the sermon about really focusing on letting the Lord come in and take away the bad things. He used Psalm 51, which was written by David after he had sent Bathsheba's husband to the front lines to kill him, after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. He says

"Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compasssion
blotout my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin\

For I know my transgressions
and my sin is always before me
against you, you only have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge..."

This is David coming to the realization that he has sinned against God. He is aware that he is in sin, and he takes the right response to it. He doesn't get mad at God, he doesn't try to fix it himself, and he doesn't sulk about his sin. He takes it directly to God, and agrees that he has messed up. It's like a coming back to God.

When you confess your sin to God, you are agreeing with Him that you need His help. When you repent of your sin, you take a 180 degree turn away from your sin, and since sin is running the exact opposite way of God, you go back to the direction of God.

One thing we like to do in our society today is to try and fix everything by our own power. If we just do something about it, it will all be better. If we do it better next time, it will blot out our bad thing we did. The thing is, trying to fix ourselves is like trying to screw in a nail with a saw... It will never work. Or trying to run with a broken leg. It will be very painful, and you will fall again. What God wants us to do, is to respond like David did, and allow him to blot out our iniquities. He wants us to agree with Him that our sin is evident in our lives, and that we might be made clean only by the blood of Jesus.

All I can really remember now is that we need to focus on Jesus. The words that are said to you when you get the ashes put on your head kind of tell me that we are so small and that we can't fix ourselves, so we should focus on Christ, and He alone will fix us.

Thanks guys
TJ


"You are dust, and to dust you will return"