This week will bring us to the end of our Lenten journey, as we gather on Thursday to remember the night when Jesus celebrated Passover with his friends and forever transformed it by lifting bread to say, “This is my body, given for you;” by lifting wine and saying “This is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you.”  We will remember how he got down on hands and knees and washed the dirty feet of his disciples, to their shock and amazement.

On Friday we will come together again to hear the difficult details of his arrest, trial, condemnation, and death in our Good Friday service.  And Saturday we will watch together the very difficult movie, The Passion of the Christ.

I hope you will be here for all of it, so that the joy of Easter’s resurrection can really reflect the death that preceded it.

As we close out our Lenten study, I want to share with you some “Signs of Spiritual Growth,” according to Michael Foss, author of Real Faith for Real Life:

• I find that I am able to trust God sooner in difficult circumstances
• I find that I am able to accept God’s forgiveness and let go of a wrong I have done, earlier than before
• I accept failure more easily and learn from it
• I can celebrate success and understand that it is ultimately a gift from God
• I find that am less inclined to try and control others
• I am less judgmental of those who are different from me, or who have difficulties I cannot understand
• When I wake in the middle of the night, the first question I ask is what or whom God would have me pray for
• I am more frequently and freely generous with my resources — especially my money
• God speaks to me through the Bible
• I see worship as an opportunity to be with God in the midst of God’s people
• Prayer is my first response to human need

These are just some of the “signs” Foss outlines — signs that will inevitably show up as we practice the spiritual disciplines of daily prayer, daily scripture reading, weekly worship, serving others, and sharing our resources generously with others.  So if you are NOT seeing these signs in your life, or if you would like to see more of them, the corrective is not punishment, or giving up.  It is to pray more diligently, read the Bible more often, worship every Sunday, reach out with love to serve others, and give.

And the God of all love and grace and goodness, who has the power even to raise the dead, will work in you by the power of the Holy Spirit to make of you what He would have you be.  It’s a promise.  Not my promise, but His.  You can count on it.

May it be so for all of us

Blessings and Peace,

Pastor Deborah