Roads Jesus Traveled...

We are quickly approaching Lent...less than a week away in fact - Feb 13.  Let me remind you about this sacred time of the year....Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.  Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means "spring."  The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan.

As we embark on this journey I want to lift up some of the roads that Jesus traveled during his earthly ministry.  This week I want us to take a look at Mark 1:9-13 and ponder the time Christ spent in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry.  Here is my outline:

The Road to the Wilderness

Mark 1:9-13

It was a time when Jesus would:

Focus on what he would do

And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Mark 1:11 (ESV)

Face the temptation to be less than He was

         The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

Mark 1:12 (ESV)

Finalize the commitment to see it through

           And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.

And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Mark 1:12-13 (ESV)

Again, Lent is a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for the coming of Easter. It is a time of introspection.  In the early church, Lent was a time to prepare new converts for baptism.  Today, Christians focus on their relationship with God, often choosing to give up something or to volunteer and give of themselves for others.  Sundays in Lent are not counted in the forty days because each Sunday represents a "mini-Easter" and the reverent spirit of Lent is tempered with joyful anticipation of the Resurrection.  Let us eagerly enter into this season together.