"Desperate times"

Timberlake is bringing "something back", but Postmodernism is giving a completely new life to the old tradition of Lent. I've even seen people save money not eating meat, so they can buy more beer! It seems to me like many are just "going through the motions", if that, during this time and it's almost a mockery of what lent supposedly stands for.

Recently, I have come across many blogs of friends that say lent is "all the rave". I've heard how "spiritual" it makes them feel and how since the rest of the "christian world" does it, "why shouldn't we?". What happened to the Sunday gatherings? What about the Lord's Supper? In reading these post I have mixed feelings of anger and fear. Anger, because it's never been my practice and I've always viewed it as "against" true Christianity. The reality is that I see Lent primarily practiced by Catholics. Catholicism is one of the most effective tools of Satan on the planet. In Mexico Catholicism is fueled by culture (you're not a Mexican if you are not a Catholic) and ignorance (people don't read the Bible, so they don't realize that all they practice and believe is a lie). Fearful, in the sense that the evolution (syncretism) of Christianity seems to be pointing in another direction other than Christ. I see Lent as a symptom of a greater problem. It seems to me like more and more are jumping under the huge umbrella we are calling "those in Christ". The problem is people are using "other ways" to God when Christ said, "I am the Way" John 14:6. When people pray to Saints, the virgin Mary and an other myriad of people/things that makes "other ways" to God.

Please keep the church in Mexico in your prayers as we fight against decades of false religion, and years of oppression by the Catholic church. There are divisions in marriages, and rejection from families over those who would leave Catholicism. Somehow love and perhaps original "good intentions" have left Catholicism and been replaced with traditions and lack of true faithfulness in daily lives.