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Ash Wednesday

The evangelical world seems to be enamoured with liturgy and ritual these days.  I am absolutely amazed by how many so-called evangelical writers made there blog today about lent.  To me the most pertinent question is "Which Scripture encourages us to observe a period of self-sacrifice and mourning to commemorate Christ's death and resurrection?"  This observance was begun by a church that believes our sufferings are necessary to fill up/complete the sufferings of Jesus' redemptive suffering.  That is unbiblical.  It seems to me that this passage in Zechariah asks some important questions about our man-made observances.

ESV Zechariah 7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.

2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD,

3 saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, "Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"

4 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me:

5 "Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?

6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

7 Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?"

8 And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,

9 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another,

10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."
 (Zec 7:1-10 ESV)

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