When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

• Luke 19:45-48

Good and upright is the Lord;
    therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
    and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful
    toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, Lord,
    forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Who, then, are those who fear the Lord?
    He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
They will spend their days in prosperity,
    and their descendants will inherit the land.
The Lord confides in those who fear him;
    he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are ever on the Lord,
    for only he will release my feet from the snare.
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
    for I am lonely and afflicted.
Relieve the troubles of my heart
    and free me from my anguish.
Look on my affliction and my distress
    and take away all my sins.
See how numerous are my enemies
    and how fiercely they hate me!
Guard my life and rescue me;
    do not let me be put to shame,
    for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness protect me,
    because my hope, Lord, is in you.
Deliver Israel, O God,
    from all their troubles!

• Psalm 25:8-22

Your procession, God, has come into view,
    the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
In front are the singers, after them the musicians;
    with them are the young women playing the timbrels.

• Psalm 68:24-25

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.

• Psalm 27:4

“When the Psalmists speak of ‘seeing’ the Lord, or long to ‘see’ Him, most of them mean something that happened to them in the Temple. The fatal way of putting this would be to say, ‘They only mean they have seen the festival.’ It would be better to say, ‘If we had been there we should have seen only the festival.’ Thus in Psalm 68 ‘It is well seen, O God, how thou goest … in the sanctuary … the singers go before, the minstrels follow after; in the midst are the damsels playing with the timbrels’ (24, 25), it is almost as if the poet said, ‘Look, here He comes.’ If I had been there I should have seen the musicians and the girls with the tambourines; in addition, as another thing, I might or might not have (as we say) ‘felt’ the presence of God. The ancient worshipper would have been aware of no such dualism. Similarly, if a modern man wished to ‘dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord’ (Ps. 27:4) he would mean, I suppose, that he hoped to receive, not of course without the mediation of the sacraments and the help of other ‘services’, but as something distinguishable from them and not to be presumed upon as their inevitable result, frequent moments of spiritual vision and the ‘sensible’ love of God. But I suspect that the poet of that Psalm drew no distinction between ‘beholding the fair beauty of the Lord’ and the acts of worship themselves.”

• C.S. Lewis, Preparing for Easter (from Reflections on the Psalms, chapter “The Fair Beauty of the Lord”)

Boilerplate

First, the concept of Lent is the preparation for what is to come, the anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  But in some denominations, the entire time from Advent, the anticipation of Christ’s coming (remembrance of His birth but preparation for His return) to Easter (Christ’s resurrection from the dead)…  This bracket of time is a celebration of the entire life of Jesus Christ on earth.  Christ’s conception to His ascension and on to the Holy Spirit coming upon the Apostles at Pentecost can be presented and celebrated from early December until Pentecost Sunday.

Many denominations only focus on Christmas and Easter, or maybe the entirety of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter, and then may or may not focus on Pentecost.

But for those that recognize Lent, the Lenten season in many denominations has an element of fasting.  Sadly, this is done as Jesus teaches us not to do.  They make a big deal out of it when we should do it in private, something just between us and God.  But that tradition stems from the forty days of fasting that Jesus did in the wilderness after His baptism and before His ministry started.  The Lenten season is kicked off on Ash Wednesday.  And after forty days, we reach Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.  The concept of ashes is symbolized by at least one denomination having a cross painted on their forehead in ashes, sometimes from burning the palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday the year before.  Again, that draws attention to the fact that they have started their fast.  But they are also announcing that they are Christians.  There is good and bad there.

So, when we are in the Lenten season, what should we focus on?  It depends.  We should focus on Jesus, but we might want to focus on our service to God.  What can we do better?  How can we spread the Gospel?  From Conception to Pentecost…  His mission was completed on earth, but He left us with something to do.

As for the Lewis book, it comes from a compilation of Lewis’ writings, edited by Zachry Kincaid.  In the book, there is a devotion, of sorts, from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday, the Lenten Season.  Each devotion contains suggested Scriptures and a writing of C.S. Lewis.

I am going to use my free time posts, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons (EDST) to correspond with that day’s devotion in the book.

Discussion

C.S. Lewis is not saying that we physically see God, but if you have ever been in a room where the Holy Spirit is awakening people, the presence of the Lord is a palpable thing.  Maybe your eyes seeing the Lord Himself may be the only thing that does not happen.  It is like the room has a pulse and you don’t need a stethoscope to feel it.

It is at times like the Holy Spirit awakenings on college campuses today when the doubters, skeptics, and atheists rally around the concept of mass hysteria.  They have to give it a label.  Yet, if they could do as a common expression says, “Let go, and let God …” then they would feel it themselves.  The Holy Spirit must be alive within us for us to feel anything at such moments, but the commitment is important.

Having felt the very presence of God is only part of the worship equation.  Allowing God to reside within us, surrendering to His will, is the point of salvation, but it is necessary.  Many feel the presence of God and then go do what they always did.  Within a few days, the glow of God’s presence that might linger is gone.  But has God also left because the moment was just a moment?  Did it change you?

In this week, Holy Week, I spend a lot of time thinking of the crucifixion.  My Dad fussed at me about that.  Our Savior is not a Savior nailed to a tree, but a Savior who died, was buried, and rose from the dead.  But I know that I sin.  I know that I have sinned a lot in my life.  And I find it helpful to realize the agony Jesus went through for me.

We need that time in our prayer life when we feel the very presence of God.  We need to have our senses roughed up a bit.  God paid a high price, and He did so while we were sinners.  He loves us that much.  Saying a few words is inadequate.  We need to feel the living God in our midst.

Note: This is being said by a Presbyterian, a member of the “Frozen Chosen.”  I am not going to dance around the church.  I have never spoken in tongues.  But I have felt the presence of God, and it feels like your heart will burst within you, the sensations are so real.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.