What if Lent Could Rekindle Your Faith? Exploring the Kerygma
Life can take us on unexpected paths, and sometimes our faith journey can feel like it’s taken a detour. If you’ve found yourself distant from your faith, or if you’re simply curious about exploring it again, this Lenten season offers a gentle invitation to reconnect. These daily reflections focus on the Kerygma, the core message of Christianity – a message of love, hope, and new beginnings. We’ll be exploring eight key “Acts” of God’s story, from creation to our present call to partnership with Him. There’s no pressure, no judgment, just an invitation to consider a different perspective and perhaps rediscover a connection you thought was lost.
Act 2: Paradise and Choice – Free Will and Trust in God’s Command
Theme
Kerygma Act 2: Creation, the Fall, and Free Will
“God created us in love and for love. He gave us a free will to choose to love Him or not. Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent, chose to disobey God, breaking their relationship with Him and bringing sin and death into the world. This is the Fall.”
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
“See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the Lord, your God, walking in His ways, and keeping His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. If, however, your heart turns away and you do not obey, but are led astray and bow down to other gods and serve them, I tell you today that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, obeying His voice, and holding fast to Him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the Lord swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Reflection
God’s love is never coercive—He offers us freedom to choose Him or to turn away. In this passage, we see the heart of God’s invitation: to choose life by following His ways, or to turn from Him and face the consequences of separation. Though the people of Israel were given a land of promise, their future depended on their faithfulness to God’s commands.
This same choice is presented to us each day. Do we choose God in our words, actions, and priorities? Do we place our trust in Him or in the fleeting things of this world? Lent is a time of renewal, an opportunity to realign our hearts and commit ourselves again to the path of life. Through prayer, we seek God’s wisdom; through fasting, we detach from what leads us away from Him; through almsgiving, we embrace the love that reflects His heart. Today, let us hear God’s call and choose life.
Prayer
Lord, You have placed before me the choice of life or death, blessing or curse. Help me to desire what is good, to follow You with my whole heart, and to walk in the ways that lead to life. Strengthen me in times of temptation and draw me ever closer to You. Amen.
Action
Be intentional today in choosing life. Make a conscious effort to reject negativity, sin, or anything that pulls you away from God. Replace it with an act of love, whether in your words, your thoughts, or your deeds.
The Kerygma
When Time Allows Reflect on the Posts in Library and Musings
Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post