Asbury UMC Lenten Devotional
Dear Friends:
In these pages you’ll find the hearts and minds of folks you know, myself included. I have written for all the Sundays, Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. I hope this will give you an opportunity to get to know me better. I love projects like this; they help us get to know each other better, too. It is an opportunity for me to learn about the folks who are and have been Asbury Church. I hope you’ll take the time to read each day as part of your Lenten devotion this year.
Lent is a good time to consider again all the ways in which we depend upon God. We depend upon God for our salvation. We also depend upon God for all the blessing of our lives – home, family, food, clothing, and an abundance more! It is my hope that this Lent you’ll come to appreciate all the different ways God is blessing your life. Perhaps you’ll recognize new ways in which God is blessing you! Yet, God’s blessing in your life is not just for you: We are blessed that we might be a blessing to others.
During Lent, I’ll be focused on the Letter to the Galatians in our Bible Study. I’ll be leading a study of Bishop Job’s book Three Simple Rules on Sunday mornings at 9:30 a.m. in Holy Grounds, and preaching on Spiritual Gifts and Fruits. Those gifts and fruits are part of the blessing we receive with which we can bless others to God’s honor and glory. You’ll have an opportunity for service on March 14th, too. Come help fill the meal bags for Midwest Mission Center in Parish Hall that morning. I hope you’ll take advantage of the many opportunities for spiritual growth and enrichment being offered this Lent – from this daily devotional to opportunities for fellowship, learning, growth, and service.
Finally, my sincere thanks to all the contributors for this booklet and to our editor-in-chief for the project, Carolyn, and her many assistants who have helped put this booklet together. This is another gift of ser- vice which is a blessing given to the rest of us. Thank you. May this Lent fill your heart with gratitude and your tongue with praise, in Jesus’ name.
Peace, Dr. Daniel F. Diss
Ash Wednesday
Rev. Dr. Daniel Diss - Wednesday Feb 18, 2026
One of the readings for Ash Wednesday comes from Joel 2. At verses 12 & 13, the prophet says, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with sorrow, tear your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, very patient, full of faithful love, and ready to forgive.” This is the invitation which begins our Lenten journey. It is an invitation to repentance and renewal.
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When the prophet proclaims that God tells us to “rend our heart and not our clothing,” he is telling us that God hopes that what will change in the world, and in our lives, is our heart. The heart is not merely the physical organ of the heart. Rather, “the heart” in the Bible is the central core of human existence, encompassing the mind, emotions, will, conscience, and spiritual life. It is the source of thoughts, desires, decisions, and actions—often described as the "wellspring of life" (Proverbs 4:23). The heart is where love, faith, obedience, and sin originate. The heart determines a person's relationship with God. The invitation is from God asking us to look at all the parts of our life, and to amend our own hearts, not another’s heart or actions. This is a key understanding for Lenten devotion. God’s invitation is to self-examination and the amending of our hearts to more closely match what it is God asks of us. Micah 6 gives us a simple summary of God’s expectations of us: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and to walk humbly alongside God.
Lent is an invitation by God, and the church, to pause and take account of how we are living in comparison with what we know to be God’s expectations, God’s hoped, for behavior, from us. Micah 6 summarizes it well. Jesus summarizes it this way: Love the Lord your God with all your hearts, all your mind, and all your strength; love your neighbor as yourself. This is what God asks of us. Knowing that we will fall short, God doesn’t expect perfection just that we’ll keep seeking the renewal of life and heart which life with God promises. May this Ash Wednesday mark not just our foreheads with ashes but that it will make our hearts as open for God’s renewing Spirit to guide and lead in the days ahead.
Prayer: O God, open my heart to your renewing Holy Spirit that I may move a little closer to the hope you have for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Some Lenten Facts
Kavin Sampson - Thursday Feb 19, 2026
We say that Lent is forty days long, but there are more than forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. How is that possible? It’s because we don’t count the Sundays of Lent. Every Sunday is like a “little Easter” so that makes Lent sort of like a tithe, about one-tenth of a year. What is “Mardi Gras”? It is French for “Fat Tuesday”. At one time Lent was observed with quite strict dietary restrictions. Since Lent always begins on Wednesday, It became traditional to use the day before that, Fat Tuesday, to have rich food and celebrations.
Why do we talk about ashes? In both Jewish and Christian traditions, ashes are a sign of repentance and morality. In Numbers 19:9-17 ashes are mentioned in connection with sacrifice and, in Isaish 58:5 and Jonah 3:6, ashes are connected with mourning and fasting. Other biblical references connect ashes with grief for the dead and national humiliation. In the New Testament (MT. 11:21, LK. 10:13 and He 9:13) mourning and purification rites used ashes.
I would like to quote some thoughts from Sarah Parsons who has written for the Upper Room.
“Lent is a time to search out the blocks in our lives – the habits, thoughts or patterns that weigh us down and deaden our hearts. In that sense, Lent is a heavy season. But it is also a time to choose one of those deadening blocks and to clear it gently away, allowing natural love to flow back and forth again between ourselves and God. Lent is an invitation to self-examination, not as an end in itself, but as a means to fuller life.
So take this long time, these forty days, and be gentle with yourself. Quietly survey your inner landscape and seek out a part that needs tending. It may mean taking thirty minutes of rest each day; time with the phone and computer turned off, the door closed, reading a novel or doing anything that seems like fun.
You won’t be able to do everything you need to do in forty days. That’s okay. Lent will be back again next year. Just begin to come back to life.”
May your Lent be blessed and followed by a wonderful Easter.
The Passion of Christ
Phil Hays (1997) - Friday, Feb 20, 2026
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. We turned our faces away and esteemed him not. But he took upon himself all our pain. He was wounded for our transgression; he was bruised for our iniquities; And with his stripes we are healed. He was scourged, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; Like a lamb that was led to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth.
From Isaiah 53
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As we enter the season of Lent, we are reminded of the Passion of Christ-how the death of our Lord was an inevitable outcome of his ministry, one that was predicted by Old Testament prophets like Isaiah. Chapter 53 of Isaiah describes God’s “Suffering Servant”, whose identity is not entirely clear to modern Bible scholars. There is no question that the early Christian church applied this passage to the Messiah. The first specific use of this text in the New Testament applied this passage to the Messiah. The first specific use of this text in the New Testament occurs in Acts 8:26-40, when Philip discussed this passage with the Ethiopian eunuch.
The spirit said to Philip, “Go and join yourself to this chariot.” So, Philip ran up and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He said, “How could I do that unless someone were to guide me?” He invited Philip to get up and to sit with him. The passage of scripture which he was reading was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he received no justice. Who will recount his lineage because his life is taken from the earth? The eunuch said to Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet speaking about? Is it about himself? Or about someone else?” Philip opened his mouth, and, taking his start from this passage of scripture, told him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road they came to some water. “Look,” said the eunuch, “here is water. What is to stop me from being baptized?”
As we listen to the Passion section of Handel’s “Messiah,” as we worship during this Lenten season, let us be reminded not only of Christ’s sacrifice for us, but of our responsibility to share this good news with those around us.
Fasting
Submitted by Miria Chicke - Sat, Feb 21, 2026
Lent is a time for fasting. Fasting for spiritual growth is a practice that involves abstaining from food or other comforts to focus on prayer, devotion, and spiritual development. It is a practice of humility, refocusing our hearts on God, and a tool to quiet distractions.
Pope Francis gave these simple tips on fasting:
— fast from hurting words, and say kind words;
— fast from sadness, and be filled with gratitude;
— fast from anger and be filled with patience;
— fast from pessimism, and be filled with hope;
— fast from worries and trust in God;
— fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity;
— fast from pressures and be prayerful;
— fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy;
— fast from selfishness, and be compassionate to others;
— fast from grudges, and be reconciled;
— fast from words, and be silent so you can listen.
Here’s practical and biblical advice from Arthur Lichtenberger, a former presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church:
— fast from criticism, and feast on praise;
— fast from self-pity, and feast on joy;
— fast from ill-temper, and feast on peace;
— fast from resentment, and feast on contentment;
— fast from jealousy, and feast on love;
— fast from pride, and feast on humility;
— fast from selfishness, and feast on service;
— fast from fear, and feast on FAITH.
Methodist Helped People Learn to Read
Pastor Daniel Diss - Sunday, Feb 22, 2026
As Methodism grew across England and the whole British countryside, Methodism came to Cornwall. Cornwall is an English county in the southwest of the country, just south of Wales. It was considered its own nation at one point long ago, just like Wales. Again, just like Wales, Cornwall has its own language. In the 18th Century as Methodism spread across the Land, in Cornwall piracy became the norm. With the United Kingdom having fought a costly war 3,000 miles away in the American colonies, taxes were increased again on daily goods. There wasn’t an income tax as we would know it. Rather, the government placed an import duty on all goods from tea to silk. These taxes were so high, the people of Cornwall found they could be more prosperous through smuggling.
While the American colonies were a drain on the government because of the American Revolution, so too was the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. The nation had to raise capital to fund an army to defend against Napoleon’s rise and the military expansion of the French empire. The smugglers of Cornwall would sail (or row) to the Guernsey Islands, trade with the traders who were venturing to France for goods, then bring back goods like tea, cloth, silk, salt, and sugar to sell at a large profit all the while not paying the duty imposed by the UK government. This pattern went on for many decades. Instrumental in ending the piracy and smuggling in Cornwall was the rise of the Methodist chapels.
Methodism gave folks a chance at education (at first, Sunday School). They could learn to read and write. This changed the fortunes and values of many. Because of the rise of the Methodist chapels in Cornwall, piracy and smuggling ended. It was no longer seen as either moral or acceptable. The Methodists help change a lawless and mostly illiterate population to a population which wanted to abide by the law and were able to do the one thing which fundamentally changes a person’s future: they learned to read. This was in large part a result of the Methodist Chapels. Something so simple as learning to read, and then reading the Bible for ones’ self, changed people and society. Doing something simple, like reading the Scriptures, can be life changing not just for an individual but for a whole society. Do you read and study Scriptures regularly?
Prayer: O Lord, open the Scriptures to me that I might understand You and love You more fully and completely in Jesus’ name. Amen.
