Lenten Readings

I love these trees. So glad I'm in Tennessee to see them bloom this year. I did miss them last spring.

If last year was the first time I really appreciated the cycles of the Christian liturgical calendar, then this year is the first time I'm actually fasting from something for Lent. Something a little too near and dear: desserts. It's day three and I'm already better for it.
Just some good reading for the first week of Lent:

Isaiah 58 (A mix of NIV 2011 and NLT)
6 “This is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “Keep the Sabbath day holy.
Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath
and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
And if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 Then the Lord will be your delight.
I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Deuteronomy 8 (NIV and ESV)
Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you, [but] to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.


A Good Source of Spiritual Readings for Lent