Lent Liturgical | Book of Mark

Follow Along with the Message

Lent Liturgical: A Conversation & Musical Liturgy (Lectio Divina: Sacred Reading / Audio Divina: Sacred Listening / Visio Divina: Sacred Viewing)

1. What does the meaning of Jesus’s name (the Lord’s salvation or the salvation of the Lord, personified) mean to you? Do you pray using the words, “In Jesus’s name?” Are you able to grasp the power in His name?
2. What is calling you to a place of confession, fasting, weeping, or mourning? What rends your heart? (Joel 2:12-13)
3. Do you fully understand your assurance of forgiveness or are there places where doubt creeps in or parts of you that feel unworthy to accept this gift? Are there places you feel you must hide from God? (1 John 1:9; Isaiah 55:6-7; Psalm 100)?
4. Thinking of the Doxology and blessings flowing to us, how does praise or worship flow out of you in response to this gift? Do you identify with any Biblical person (e.g., King David; Mary Magdalene)?
5. What is your practice or your goal to find quiet and solitude?
6. Lent is a time of remembrance, preparation, and reflection, utilizing spiritual disciplines of repentance, fasting, self-denial, and self-examination. The Orthodox Church calls it the season of Bright Sadness, and forty-day periods in the Bible include testing, reflection, fasting, and wandering. Our culture tends toward being pain-averse. What is God showing you to focus on this season as you meditate on the suffering of Christ?
7. Considering where you are right now, what is God calling you to turn from or self-deny to become stronger in Him?
8. If you consider the Kingdom of God is around you right now, how would your life be different, better, more restful, or more joyful?
9. What is the kindness God is showing you, to lead you to repentance? (Matthew 4:17; Acts 3:19; 2 Peter 3:9)
10. Do you see God as merciful, gracious, and slow to anger, abounding in steadfast, unfailing love and faithfulness? What might be preventing you from seeing God’s character in this way? Have you seen God like Santa Claus, keeping a list or filled with wrath? (Romans 2:4-5)
11. Have you considered a different view of fasting, one that brings a kinder self as you deny yourself to have your own way and give God the driver’s seat? (Joel 2:12; Nehemiah 1:4; Matthew 6:16-18)
12. What do ashes symbolize to you today compared to the Jewish condition of repenting, grieving, and mourning with sackcloth and ashes? (Job 42:6; Daniel 9:3; Esther 4:3)
13. Is Jesus the King you need instead of what you are looking for? Has the Holy Spirit revealed to you the places you are looking for a king other than Jesus?
14. What does it mean to walk the way of Christ, in death and not life through suffering? (Matthew 10:39; Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:16)
15. What if the whole idea of giving something up is not to bring pain but to bring something better?
16. How is God leading you to self-examine your heart (Psalm 139:23-24; 1 Corinthians 11:28; 2 Corinthians 13:5)
17. How do you demonstrate that you consider God/Jesus/Holy Spirit worthy of this repenting, fasting, self-denial, and self-sacrifice?
18. What does drinking the cup of sacrifice at Passover look like in your life now, at this point, where you are walking with God?