Enjoy The Bible This Lent

In his helpful book about evangelicalism and Christian tradition, In Search of Ancient Roots, author and Professor Kenneth J. Stewart notes that "So many more evangelical individuals and congregations now observe the season of Lent, when only a generation ago doing so marked one out as leaning to high church ways".

If you are sceptical about Lent, you are in good company! Kenneth J. Stewart has a fascinating article about it which you can read here, and Trevin Wax has written a helpful overview of the issues for a blog post at the Gospel Coalition. He focuses on the words of Paul in Colossians 2:16-17 to give us a biblical principle for thinking about these things:

"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ"

‘Found in Christ’ is of course the great promise and hope of the Christian – one we can be confident in because of the events of that first easter, events foreshadowed through the whole of the Bible. A couple of years ago we published a Lent book by Chris Wright with John Stott, which aims to introduce us to the observation of Lent by pondering the beauty of the Cross of Christ. The Radical Reconciler considers the cross – whilst our new Lent book by Ros Clarke, Forty Women, follows the scarlet thread from Eden to Easter. As Ros writes in her introduction, the season of Lent (roughly forty days) gave shape to her book, looking at different women in the Bible’s grand story:

“There are forty chapters in this book, although they include slightly more than forty women because some are considered in pairs or small groups. If you follow Lent from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday, remembering that Sundays are not included, you will have a chapter for each day. There is a suggested Bible reading as well as the key verse for the chapter. At the end of each chapter, there are a couple of questions for you to consider and a prayer that you could use in response to what you’ve read.

The book ends, appropriately, on the first Easter Sunday, with a woman meeting her risen Lord in a garden. It is my prayer that, as you spend time with each of these women, you too will seek Christ and cling to him, and that you will find him and be transformed by him.”