February 2009 Archives

Welcome to the new devotional area of the Libertyville Covenant Church web site!  The URL is 


and it is also linked from nearly every page in the site.

Every week, the entire church will be reading and meditating on a single passage of Scripture.  Several times during the week, Pastor Dwight and Pastor Brian will share reflections and ideas related to the passage, and you are encouraged to respond with comments of your own.

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Smartphone users please note: You will have better results if you look at just one blog at a time, since the main address is designed to give users a single place to find both Brian's and Dwight's thoughts and reflections.  Those URLs are


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We built this site in response to feedback from you, in the recent Sunday morning survey. Many of you expressed interest in blogs and email as ways to strengthen your participation in devotional activities, and we hope these blogs accomplish that.

If you are familiar with RSS feeds, you can subscribe to the feed of either blog by clicking on the link in the header of each one.  If you would prefer to be notified by email when there is a new entry, you can enter your email address in the form that appears at the end of each entry (you only need to do this once for each blog).

You will find it easier to leave comments if you register.  There is a link to do so in the header of each blog.  You only need to do this once for the entire site.  If you do not want to register, you will need to enter a name and email address every time you comment, as well as fill out a challenge form called a CAPTCHA; this is a protection against "comment spam."  Further details about registration are posted below; if you are familiar with registration systems, you won't need to refer to it.

We will be improving this site over the weeks and months to come, and if you have suggestions, you can send them to me at this address:


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REGISTRATION

When you click on the "register" link you will see a form like this (click on the image to see it full-sized in another window):
register.jpg


USERNAME is anything you want.  It could be your first name and initial, for instance.  No one but you needs this; you use it to sign in.

DISPLAY NAME is what you want associated with your posts.  Your full name is fine, but again anything you want is OK.

EMAIL ADDRESS:  This is where the system will send you a confirmation message when you register.  You will need to respond to this message by clicking on a link in it.  IT IS NOT VISIBLE ANYWHERE ON THE SITE.

INITIAL PASSWORD and PASSWORD CONFIRM:  Give yourself a password.  It needs to be the same in both boxes.

PASSWORD RECOVERY WORD/PHRASE:  Enter a hint that will help you remember your password if you forget it.  For example, if your password were ABCDEF (not recommended), your hint might be "alphabet start."  No one will ever see this but you, and then only if you forget your password.

WEBSITE URL:  This is an optional field.  Use it only if you have a Web site that you want people to associate with you, like owenyoungman.com in my case.

CAPTCHA:  This is a device that tells the system you are a person, not a program or a machine.  Type exactly what you see in the box (in this case, ru3gc2).

SIGN UP:   Hit this button.  You will get an immediate response telling you to go to your email and click on a link in a new email from "webmaster@libcov.org."  When you do, you will get an email welcoming you to either "Pastor Brian" or "Pastor Dwight," depending on which blog you registered on.  Your registration covers both, don't worry about it.

This email will contain a link back to that blog.  If you click on it, you will go to that individual blog instead of the page that contains both.  If you want to go back to the main page, just enter www.libcov.org/devotions/ in your browser.  If you are happy just to go back to the single blog, click the link.



     Our theme for Lent is "Remaining in Christ." We are to be as fruitful branches, securely connected to the vine. Joel's prophetic insight is that 'returning' is the first step in 'remaining.'

'Returning' is done, he says, with 'all your heart.' For Joel, that means fasting, weeping and mourning.

     Fasting is a discipline of the will. It involves our thinking. I find in fasting that I have to tell my body what I will do that day. There will be no food. Then the hunger goes away, although my resolve does get tested from time to time. So, returning to God involves the will to obey God. You tell your body what you intend to do each day. Our words have power. Commitments and affirmations enable us to do God's will.

     Weeping is a matter of the heart, or spirit. God looks for a broken and contrite spirit. We weep, not because someone hurt us with words or actions, but because we hurt God and others with our behavior. Weeping is not a matter of feeling the pain that we have received, but feeling the pain that we have caused. This is the capacity to feel in the heart what our words do to others, and what our irresponsible behavior causes in others, and to sincerely weep over our sin.

    Mourning is a very physical reaction to loss. It can be described as an illness. It takes time to recover. Something of great value in our lives is missing. There is a feeling of being incomplete, of being empty. In the spiritual life it is knowing that you are 'poor in spirit.' It is the experience of restlessness that moves you to God as the only source of life.

     Jesus calls us to love God with all our mind, heart and srength. This is the way of returning to God.

"Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love."

http://tinyurl.com/joelchapter2

Rend Your Heart
 12 "Even now," declares the LORD, 
       "return to me with all your heart, 
       with fasting and weeping and mourning."

 13 Rend your heart 
       and not your garments. 
       Return to the LORD your God, 
       for he is gracious and compassionate, 
       slow to anger and abounding in love, 
       and he relents from sending calamity.

 14 Who knows? He may turn and have pity 
       and leave behind a blessing-- 
       grain offerings and drink offerings 
       for the LORD your God.

 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, 
       declare a holy fast, 
       call a sacred assembly.

 16 Gather the people, 
       consecrate the assembly; 
       bring together the elders, 
       gather the children, 
       those nursing at the breast. 
       Let the bridegroom leave his room 
       and the bride her chamber.

 17 Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, 
       weep between the temple porch and the altar. 
       Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD. 
       Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, 
       a byword among the nations. 
       Why should they say among the peoples, 
       'Where is their God?' "

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from February 2009 listed from newest to oldest.

March 2009 is the next archive.

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