LENTEN ITINERARY – Day 1: “The Call to Conversion”

During Lent we will once again follow the “itinerary” that led us through these forty days last year. We especially recommend ourselves to your prayers as we will be on mission in Brazil and Argentina for most of Lent. A major concern in our hearts and prayers is world peace, which is particularly threatened in Ukraine and Israel. As we have close ties with the Holy Land, where we spend much of our time, I have written a prayer that I ask you to pray with us throughout Lent. The written version can be found at the end of the meditation text, and the audio version can be found at the following link:

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To resist temptations

Jas 1:12-18

Blessed is anyone who perseveres when trials come. Such a person is of proven worth and will win the prize of life, the crown that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Never, when you are being put to the test, say, ‘God is tempting me’; God cannot be tempted by evil, and he does not put anybody to the test. Everyone is put to the test by being attracted and seduced by that person’s own wrong desire. Read More

Resisting doubt

Jas 1:1-11

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greeting. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Read More

NOT TO LOSE HEART

In prayer, I heard one day these words: “Do not lose heart when evil seems to triumph. These are Pyrrhic victories, fictitious victories, after which comes defeat and the definitive separation between good and evil.”

When we notice how evil seems to triumph in the world and around us, the temptation is great that we become despondent, lose heart and thus indirectly give evil even more influence. But it should not be so! Read More

Everything comes from Him!

1 Kgs 12:26-32; 13:33-34

In those days, Jeroboam thought to himself, ‘As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David. If this people continues to go up to the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people’s heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death.’ So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people, ‘You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt!’ He set one up at Bethel, and the people went in procession in front of the other one all the way to Dan.

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