40: Jesus in the Wilderness

A Real Spring

Growing up in south Texas, I seldom experienced a real spring. Coolish winter weather morphed unnoticeably into summer heat and humidity. By the time we were celebrating Easter, early spring blooms had faded and the a/c was running full blast everywhere.

This year we've had one of the coldest and longest spells of real winter weather on record and our reward is a glimpse of real springtime! Seeing the new green shoots peek out of frost-damaged bedding plants and grow quickly into nice fluffy borders is a welcome reminder of the new life in Christ that we will be celebrating next week as Holy Week begins. Here's a photo of one of my favorites, in the appropriate liturgical color for Lent.

What a treat!

Observing Lent with Faith Comes by Hearing

There are many ways that Christians observe the season of Lent which just begun. My church (Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Houston) is encouraging every member of the congregation (and their friends!) to participate in a program called Faith Comes By Hearing.

MP3 recordings of the entire New Testament have been distributed in worship, in Sunday School classes and in small groups. The idea is that if you listen for 20 minutes a day to the Faith Comes By Hearing recording, by Easter you will have listened to the entire New Testament. There is also a recording for children that families can listen to together so all of the family can participate. For those who cannot use an MP3 player, CD's of the recording can be purchased or you can purchase a special "Bible stick" to play the MP3 on.

There is also a mission aspect to the program: Faith Comes by Hearing records the New Testament in many obscure tribal languages and then distributes the recordings to remote villages around the world. Since many of these villages don't have electricity, the recordings come in a clever gadget called a "Proclaimer" that works with solar power or hand-cranking. MDPC's Palm Sunday offering will be given to help fund the recording of the New Testament in Amharic, a tribal language in Ethiopia.

I began listening to my copy yesterday. The recording includes some musical background (helpful when listening to Matthew's begats) and when there is conversation several voices read the different parts. It is easy to listen to--in fact one of my good friends is so enthusiastic about it she told me she is already up to the Gospel of Mark!

If you'd like to join us you can go to the MDPC website here and listen to the entire New Testament online.

(Cross posted from Presbyterian Bloggers.)

UPDATE: A word to the wise. Be sure the "shuffle" function on your IPod is off. Otherwise you may be startled to hear the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 followed by some really scary stuff in Revelation. Just sayin'.