We pause in mid-Lent to see where we are. Is our path through repentance been what we need? Is our walk closer to God?The sermons in Lent begin within a place that all of us find ourselves - temptation. Jesus is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where He is tempted. The writer of Hebrews is right in proclaiming: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin." -Hebrews 4:15 Jesus knows our pain and suffering as we deal with temptation, and so, helps us resist temptation. The second week found us with the disciples as they answered Jesus’ question, "Who do you say that I am?" And we found that our call to discipleship came with a cost. Dietrich Bonhoefler in The Cost of Discipleship, said it so well: "Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again. It is costly because it calls us to discipleship; and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs people their lives; it is grace because it gives them their lives." This past Sunday we went to John’s Gospel as Jesus cleared and cleaned the Temple. What is it that misuses faith? What about our worship and/or our practices as a Church that keeps people from coming to God’s love? And at the Lent service, last Sunday night, I used Psalm 19, that beautiful psalm that moves us from creation to redemption to sanctification. All of us want to be at that place that the psalmist proclaims so eloquently: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." There is still time to repent, to get on that path with Jesus, of living a life compatible with being His disciple. Search the scriptures. Pray. Think on what Jesus wants your life to become. And may the glory of that life go to God. -Jim