From My Lenten Journal – Week 6
Lent
My Journal Page for Ash Wednesday
My journal page for Ash Wednesday – Week 1 of Lent.
I’m committed to doing one page with a Lenten theme for each of the 6 weeks. I’m not focusing on “making art,” but on what this season means to me. I have a 6 x 6 journal that I purchased last year to record scripture-related art that meant something special to me. I began the first page of that journal with the first week of Lent last year. Now, with this year, I will actually finish the last 7 pages of the journal with an entry for each week of Lent and one for the week of Easter. I think it’s rather amazing how that worked out.
(For any of you not familiar with the tradition of placing ashes on the forehead to publicly recognize the need for repentance and the beginning of this period of Jesus’ suffering for us, I’ll tell you that the spot on her forehead represents those ashes.)
Lenten Poems — week 3
SUFFICIENT
Seized and stripped and slapped and spit upon,
Scornful salutations; sorrow; shame;
Satan stalks the Son of God and Son of Man
Scarlet stripes, scalding tears, searing pain;
Search the scriptures, surely they the story tell:
Insatiable evil strikes; the Lamb is slain.
But surely, it’s my sins He bore, my sorrow and shame,
My sickness, my distress, my grief, my pain.
Submitted Sacrifice: He sealed the promise;
Sufficient, He bought me peace with God again.
Lenten Poems — week 2
SACRIFICE
A crown,
A diadem,
A shackle placed upon the brow.
Bestowed
Contemptuously,
And scarlet robe on shoulders bowed.
The grief,
The agony,
The tortuous, mutilating pain.
All born
By Innocence
To give me peace and health again.
A cross,
On Calvary:
To execute the Father’s plan.
A tomb,
Now empty stands:
He’s paid the price for every man.
Lenten Poems – week 1
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. A few years ago I wrote 7 poems during Holy Week — or Passion Week — leading up to Easter Sunday. This year in commemoration of our Lord’s suffer, I’m going to repost those poems on each Wednesday in Lent — and then post the last of the 7 on Easter Sunday. I hope they bless you and inspire you to gratefully meditate on how our Lord Jesus suffered for our sins and in our place to work our total redemption and salvation.
BARABBAS
My heart pounded
As they dragged me out.
They stood me close beside Him,
And I looked about.
The crowd was frenzied:
With rage and raw disgust.
I wasn’t sure the real cause–
Why they fumed and cussed.
I glanced beside me
To catch a glimpse of Him,
But what my eyes saw in His
Convicted me within.
When guards shouted,
“Who is it going to be?”
Then I understood they’d choose
To set one free.
“Free Barabbas!
Set Barabbas free!”
I could not believe my ears:
They chose, not Him, but me.
“What of Jesus?”
Then asked the guards.
“Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
He is not our God!”
My shackles fell off:
By law a free man.
Pilate called for water then
And there he washed his hands.
The day grew dark
As He hung there,
Upon a cross with thieves each side,
Then He said a prayer.
He prayed, “Forgive them.”
Did that include me?
When He said, “It is finished!”
I knew He’d died for me
— Barabbas.
Lent: Meditating On The Sacrifice
THE SACRIFICE
A crown,
A diadem,
A shackle placed upon the brow.
Bestowed
Contemptuously,
And scarlet robe on shoulders bowed.
The grief,
The agony,
The tortuous, mutilating pain.
All born
By Innocence
To give me peace and health again.
A cross,
On Calvary:
To execute the Father’s plan.
A tomb,
Now empty stands:
He’s paid the price for every man.
~
The Happy Wordcrafter 