2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
With the coming of Ash Wednesday, this year’s Lent season has begun. The Lord has answered my prayer, a request for His inspiration in writing a series of messages appropriate to the season designed to stimulate faith. He has directed me to look into what it means to know who the Messiah actually is and what His sacrifice on the cross really means to our lives. This whole subject is very real and personal to me, as I hope it is to you. The first twenty-five years of my life were carried out on a schedule of being taught that there is a Messiah, but He has not yet come, nor do we know exactly who He is. A problem arose, as I have already written, in that eighth grade Jewish class at the temple I attended in which an assertion bubbled up from within me that surely was not carefully thought out. At the time, I had no idea why I even said what I did, but to my teacher’s astonishment and horror I asked, “haven’t you forgotten that Jesus Christ is God’s Son?” To traditional Jews, those whose lives have not been completed with the knowledge that Christ is the Messiah, this is not a welcome topic of discussion. It caused a considerable stir, one that I’m not anxious to relive. God had taken me to a very uncomfortable place. Now that I look back on it, I feel that He had given me a visit from the Holy Spirit and that my life has been blessed by that. However, it took a good many years before I was able to appreciate what had happened to me.
The purpose that the Father has had for my life has been uncovered quite gradually, and it’s likely there is a lot about it that my limited human perspective can’t comprehend. His ways of leading me to this purpose have been varied and constant. One of them is my life-long interest in singing fine music. Because of my asthma, I can no longer sing in our congregation’s choir, but I did have almost 40 years experience in with various choirs which contained some real “mountain top”moments. In spite of not singing now, I have never lost my appreciation for great music. The many years of voice lessons that I took did not go to waste. If you wonder why I mention this singing and appreciation of music, it is because the Lord used it as a tool to help bring me to faith and to help me to understand just who the Messiah is in my life. As I said above, the subject of the Messiah is very real and personal to me. In writing this series of messages, I would like to share with you why, in the hopes you will feel the same way about it.
Peter and I have had the privilege of singing the entirety of Handel’s “Messiah.” This magnificent and God-inspired work has a section that is sung in the Christmas season, the one with which most people are familiar. It also has another, less familiar, section that is sung in the Lenten season. During the times that we rehearsed and sung this work, my focus was on its most extraordinary music. As I write this series of messages, I can hear this music in my mind-that’s how much the Father has taught me to love it. When I prayed to Him recently about what to say in this Lent season, He led me back to the Lenten section of this great piece of music to revisit it from the point of view of its Scriptural messages. And so, that is the gift He has given to me to share with you. I hope you will join me in keeping in mind throughout this series of messages just who the Messiah is in your life and what He means to you.
JN 1: 29-30, “The next day John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. This is the One I was talking about when I said a man is coming after me, but He is greater than I am because He existed before I was born. ‘ “ The composer, Handel, began with this passage when he began the Lenten portion of the “Messiah.” The choir sings in awesome reverence #22 “Behold the Lamb of God.” Let me share the words that are actually sung in each part of this work in an effort to impart their beauty and the importance of their message. “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” We come into this world on a track to be lost. We are sinners who could easily be without hope, except for Jesus Christ, Who our loving Father sent to be a sin-sacrifice on the cross. His blood shed for us makes salvation possible. The Jews of ancient times selected a lamb without spot or blemish, a lamb which was kept as a pet for a week by the family and then offered as a sacrifice to attain one year of forgiveness from sin. The high priest performed the same sacrifice for the whole nation too. They never knew that this ritual foreshadowed the great sacrifice on the cross that the Lamb of God would do for all mankind. They never knew that eternal forgiveness and salvation would be made available for all who believe in Him.
PRAYER: O Lord, each year at this time, You ask us to behold the Lamb of God and revisit the events that led up to His death, burial, and resurrection. Bringing this to our minds is Your way of asking us to re-evaluate the question of what the Son means to our lives. You deserve our praise, thanks, and adoration for the love You show us by bringing that question to our minds and hearts. We dedicate ourselves to understanding and appreciating Christ’s sacrifice and what it meant to You to offer Him up for us. By obeying You and making Him the Lord of our lives, we can show our love for You, love You richly deserve. In Christ’s name, amen.
I hope you will enjoy the path the Lord is leading me on in this series of messages about the Messiah. Take the time to listen to a recording of Handel’s “Messiah” so that you can not only enjoy its gorgeous music, but so that you can also enjoy it’s God-inspired message as well. Feel the warmth of God’s love and meditate on how it undergirded His decision to bring the Lamb of God to the cross for our salvation. Peter and I also send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn