Dear CCOV Family,
Each Lent I buy a devotional-type book to guide me through the church season preceding Easter. Last year I studied “The Miracles of Jesus: Meditation and Prayers for Lent” by Wessel Bentley, which inspired and helped to resource my 2017 Lenten preaching series on the Miracles of Jesus. This year I bought the book “With Jesus in the Upper Room: A Workbook on His Final Lessons for Today’s Disciples” by Rev. Dr. Maxie Dunnam. Rev. Dr. Dunnam served as the president of my seminary from 1994-2004. I attended the Florida Dunnam Campus of Asbury Theological Seminary, which he founded in the late 1990’s. Perhaps best known as the world editor of the Upper Room Devotional Guide (1975-1982), Rev. Dr. Dunnam has significant insights about the importance of what Jesus communicated to his disciples on their last night and supper together. I am using his book to guide my 2018 Lenten preaching series called “One Last Night with Jesus,” and during the Sundays in Lent before Palm Sunday, you will hear all about Jesus’ last words to his disciples in the Upper Room. I think you will find that Jesus’ actions and words on this night were as monumental for his twelve disciples as they are for us today. If you want to read ahead for Sunday, February 18, take a look at Luke 22:24-27 and John 13:1-11. I will be preaching on the servanthood of God. I hope you will consider following a devotional guide of your own choosing this Lent as well.
Grace and Peace,
Rev. Sandi