Ash Wednesday service set for March 5 at Newsong’s 10Ten Church

Santa Ana’s 10Ten Church, formally known as First Baptist of Santa Ana, is hosting an Ash Wednesday Service on March 5, at 6:30 pm.  This will be a combined service with the congregation from Irvine’s Newsong Church.

The Ash Wednesday Service will be a night of worship and prayer in preparation for the Lenten Season.

*Full children’s programming will be available for walkers-5th grade!

The Meaning of Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in the Western Christian calendar. Occurring 46 days before Easter; in 2014 Ash Wednesday is on March 5th.

According to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day liturgical period of prayer and fasting. Of the 46 days until Easter, six are Sundays. As the Christian Sabbath, Sundays are not included in the fasting period and are instead, “feast” days during Lent.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of participants as a celebration and reminder of human mortality, and as a sign of mourning and repentance to God.

The use of ashes is biblical: * Job repented using ashes (Job 42:6) * Daniel prayed with fasting and ashes (Daniel 9:3) * When King Ahasuerus ordered all Jews to be killed, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. So did the Jews throughout the land (Esther 4:1-3) * Jeremiah and Ezekiel mentioned mourning with ashes (Jeremiah 6:26, Ezekiel 27:30) * Jesus mentioned ashes as a sign of repentance in the case of Tyre and Sidon (Matt 11:21)

The essential truth, and gift, of Ash Wednesday is its call to come to terms with ourselves before God. The invitation of Ash Wednesday is to fast from our self-justifications, complaints, blame and accusation of others and take a good, hard, honest look at ourselves.

Ash Wednesday is observed by many Christian denominations, including Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists, nondenominational churches, among other denominations, also observe this day.

For more info visit: www.newsong.net/futurepast.