Ash Wednesday Service - Old Testament & Epistle Reading by Pastor Mark Lund
“In his great power God becomes like clothing to me; he binds me like the neck of my garment. He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.”
-Job 30: 11-19
Old Testament Reading by Pastor Mark Lund
Old Testament Reading by Pastor Mark Lund
-Job 30: 11-19
Job’s Final Defense
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence. 12 On my right the tribe[a] attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me. 13 They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me. ‘No one can help him,’ they say. 14 They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in. 15 Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.
16 “And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me. 17 Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest. 18 In his great power God becomes like clothing to me[b]; he binds me like the neck of my garment. 19 He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
Job 30: 11-19
Epistle Reading by Pastor Mark Lund
-2 Corinthians 5:16 - 6:2
Epistle Reading by Pastor Mark Lund
The Ministry of Reconciliation
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a]The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
6 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says,
“In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”[c]
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
