Today is “Ash Wednesday”, which is the first day of the season of Lent (the season of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection at Easter). So today we begin our Lenten journey of preparing ourselves to celebrate Easter. Typically (or maybe traditionally) people give something up for Lent as a way of preparing themselves to celebrate Easter - chocolate, sugar, coffee, extra things that are ‘unnecessary’, etc. The act of giving something up is an act of sacrifice meant to help prepare to celebrate Easter.
However, in the Reformed tradition it’s common, instead of giving something up as a sacrifice, to start a new spiritual discipline to draw nearer to God. This could be reading the Bible in a more intentional way, praying at different times throughout the day, fasting, or practicing times of solitude to prepare oneself for celebrating Easter.
This year, throughout Lent, we will be reading through the book of Hebrews. Our theme is “Jesus is the Greatest”. To prepare ourselves I encourage you to read through Hebrews throughout this season once a week. And, in keeping with the Lenten practice of taking on a new discipline, I also (strongly) encourage you to take up a new discipline of listening to Scripture. I encourage you to, at least once a week, listen to the book of Hebrews.
There are a few ways that you can do this.
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You can purchase an audio Bible from Amazon (I’m sure Inspired Christian Storehouse or another Christian bookstore may have something too) like “The Bible Experience”. You can search for audio bible on Amazon.ca to see some others.
- Some of them are pricey but I encourage you to think of it as a worthwhile investment. Sometimes listening to Scripture can make you hear it in a whole new way, and by listening to larger portions of Scripture, or an entire book at a time, it can help you better understand.
- You can purchase an audio Bible from Biblia.com (prices are in USD): http://www.biblica.com/en-us/store/bibles/niv-listeners-bibles/
- You can purchase an audio Bible on iTunes or Google Play. On iTunes you can purchase an NIV Audio Bible of just Hebrews and James for a good price.
- You can use apps like Bible Gateway and YouVersion to listen to the Bible for free on your phone or tablet.
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You can visit these websites and listen online:
- https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/audio/ (and then pick the book and chapter and listen)
- http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/niv/hebrews/1/
- http://www.biblestudytools.com/audio-bible/nlt/hebrews/ (NLT Translation - This one will keep playing so you can start in chapter 1 and it will play through the whole book)
These are only a few ways, and there are others I’m sure. Feel free to share some other ways in the comments below.
As we study Hebrews and the theme that “Jesus is the Greatest” I pray that this discipline of hearing God’s Word (and reading it) throughout this season would help you draw closer to God. I pray that we can truly do this together as a congregation and share with one another the ways that God is speaking to us (encouraging us, convicting us, reminding us) through the book of Hebrews and be surprised that some of the things we notice are the same, and some are very different. And, I pray, that this experience of meditating and reflecting on one passage of Scripture will make God’s Word come alive for us in a new way.
This Sunday our Scripture reading will be the first four verses of Hebrews (Hebrews 1:1-4).