Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

lent

Ash Wednesday and the Gift of Lent

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We are delighted that Bobby Gross, author of Living the Christian Year and who has contributed previous series during Lent and Advent, has agreed to write a new series of Lenten reflections with future pieces appearing on Mondays beginning February 26. Why would anyone think of the penitential season of Lent as a gift? Forty or so days leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday during which we deprive ourselves of good things—like coffee or chocolate or wine or social media—and fast on certain days and generally … [Read more...] about Ash Wednesday and the Gift of Lent

Lenten Reflections: Grappling with Greed

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This is the third in a series of weekly reflections through the season of Lent, written by Bobby Gross, who contributed the reflections for this past Advent Season. The first appeared on Ash Wednesday. You can browse the second reflection here. When the devil put it in Jesus's mind to “command” God to turn desert stones into round loaves to satisfy his ravening hunger, he did not bite on the devil's subversive insinuation (If you are really the Beloved Son’) nor cave to his body's craving at the expense of … [Read more...] about Lenten Reflections: Grappling with Greed

Lenten Reflections: Temptation

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This is the second in a series of weekly reflections through the season of Lent, written by Bobby Gross, who contributed the reflections for this past Advent Season. The first appeared on Ash Wednesday. We are all subject to temptation. The slippery tendency to think selfishly or perversely. The quick impulse to speak hurtfully or deceptively. The ready inclination to act unkindly if not unjustly. The craven or just plain apathetic inertia that leaves the right things undone. The instinctive choice to privilege … [Read more...] about Lenten Reflections: Temptation

The One Thing Needful (Lent 2019)

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Here, then, is the clue to our erratic life patterns, our inconstancy, our unfaithfulness, our stupid inability to distinguish between fashion and faith: we don't rise up early and listen to God. We don't daily find a time apart from the crowd, a time of silence and solitude, for preparing for the day's journey. "A very original man," says Garry Wills, "must shape his life, make a schedule that allows him to reflect, and study, and create." Jeremiah had a defined priority: persistently rising early, he listened to … [Read more...] about The One Thing Needful (Lent 2019)