Comments on: Going Silent for Lent http://www.ubfriends.org/2014/03/04/going-silent-for-lent/ for friends of University Bible Fellowship Wed, 21 Oct 2015 04:34:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.1 By: Joe Schafer http://www.ubfriends.org/2014/03/04/going-silent-for-lent/#comment-12785 Tue, 04 Mar 2014 20:49:01 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=7659#comment-12785 Sharon is making paczki right now. And she’s not even Polish.

]]> By: BK http://www.ubfriends.org/2014/03/04/going-silent-for-lent/#comment-12784 Tue, 04 Mar 2014 20:36:04 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=7659#comment-12784 And for the next 40 days at least, I’ll be writing my book. I am really grateful that your article today Joe sparked the last piece of my outline for the book. I now have a complete outline for the first draft, and it’s rather timely that it happened on Paczki Day just before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

]]> By: BK http://www.ubfriends.org/2014/03/04/going-silent-for-lent/#comment-12781 Tue, 04 Mar 2014 18:16:07 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=7659#comment-12781 I love those articles you link to Joe, by Reverend Roberts.

This is one quote that stands out to me:

“In time, all Christians came to see Lent as a season to be reminded of their need for penitence and to prepare spiritually for the celebration of Easter.”

I suggest that most Christians in America need to think far more deeply about the meanings of “penance”, “penitence” and “repentance”. The value of all three has been nearly lost due to not being able to tell the difference. I find that most American Christians I encounter use the word repentance when they are actually describing penance, and so they get bound up in what I call the hamster wheel gospel (which I don’t consider the gospel at all).

I am considering re-reading The Scarlet Letter to ponder these meanings again.

This quote from the book is worth considering more deeply:

“No, Hester, no!” replied the clergyman. “There is no substance in it! It is cold and dead, and can do nothing for me! Of penance I have had enough! Of penitence there has been none!”

]]> By: BK http://www.ubfriends.org/2014/03/04/going-silent-for-lent/#comment-12778 Tue, 04 Mar 2014 16:31:22 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=7659#comment-12778 Yes Joe, I will be joining you in fasting from ubfriends for Lent, as we join with millions of people around the world celebrating Lent. I don’t feel alone at all.

I really like your point though about not forcing our observance on others. For some, reading and commenting on ubfriends for 40 days might be a healthy way to observe Lent. So I’m not in favor of temporarily halting this website.

I’ll actually want my password to be scrambled during the next 40 days, so that I can’t login here.

Grace and peace.

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