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A daily Lenten e-mail with lessons of hope and courage, inspired by a variety of resources to encourage us in these confusing and turbulent times from St. Luke’s Church, Lebanon.

Thursday - Second Week in Lent

The prophet Jeremiah is not a cheery soul. He describes the human heart, the deepest, most inner and directive part of the person, as “perverse,” such that no one can understand it. That is, no one except God. It is a bit unnerving to realize that God is able to look into the innermost part of our beings and see, totally uncensored, what’s there. But once again, this is a God who, thankfully, does not turn away from us. As painful as the injuries humans inflict upon creation and upon one another, as terrible as they must be to look upon in our heart of hearts, God continues to refuse to turn away.

Sin always makes its mark upon the human heart with the force of an iron pen and the depth of a diamond point. Nevertheless, In spite of this "downer" description, Jeremiah refuses to despair because of this one thing he is convinced: a promised day will come when God will overwrite those marks with a new covenant - a new relationship - inscribing God’s law upon the human heart so that humans will no longer turn away from the God who never turned away from them.

Scripture Lessons appointed for the day
(Click on the lesson for the text)
Jeremiah 17:5–10
Luke 16:19–31
Psalm 1

The truth is that God is really not hard to believe in. The problem is that it is our hearts that are fickle.

Overcoming a fickle heart . . .

How often have I changed my mind about God?
Do I trust myself enough to commit to God's way in my life?
What do I hope for when I feel trapped or alone?

Hosea - Come Back to me

John Michael Talbot
Tune and text by Gregory Norbert
The Orchard Music (on behalf of Troubadour for the Lord Records);
BMI - Broadcast Music Inc., and 6 Music Rights Societies

God's love and compassion is unshakable even with the constant unfaithfulness on the part of his loved people.