Lent can sometimes be perceived as a time for giving things up, but consider instead spending some extra time with Jesus and receiving something special in return. This year's Lent readings with lunch are taken from 'the Way of the Desert' by Andrew Watson.
We'll be meeting every Thursday from the 19th February to the 26th March from 12-1pm at Dave & Emma's home throughout Lent and then meeting at Cornerstone on Good Friday to hear the story of Jesus crucifixion set to music. A simple soup and bread lunch will be provided at a small cost with the proceeds going to the orphan school project in Uganda.
"In the Bible the desert is a place of punishment and discipline, but also of blessing and love's reawakening. Both Jesus and the people of Israel before him spent time in the desert, learning what it meant to be chosen and loved and holy. Yet while the people of the exodus frequently got it wrong, providing some cautionary tales for us to learn from, Jesus himself constantly got it right, offering a perfect model for us to follow.
As we travel through Lent, Holy Week and Easter, then, we will begin our readings with Israel's entry into the promised land, and focus our main attention on the 40 years in the middle, on life in between. This desert, God's training ground, won't prove a comfortable spot in which to settle. Both the place itself and the scriptures that describe it will share at times a sense of wilderness, unpredictability and danger. But just as Jesus' own life and ministry were tested and formed in that environment, so the same can be true for us. Indeed we believe in a God who can make the 'wilderness blossom' and can reveal to us 'treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places' (Isaiah 35:1; 45:3)"
It would be lovely to see you and journey together.
