Welcome Springtime!

Now what says love more than a chocolate heart nest full of chocolate eggs? Ha ha. Now, in all seriousness, it was fun getting together with friends over break and putting together these chocolate nests with eggs (I got the idea from some of these wonderful blogs I read all the time) but the way people celebrate Easter is even worse than the way we celebrate Christmas. It's not about the resurrection of Jesus Christ after he had been crucified and died three days earlier. It's about bunnies and eggs and baskets...and I bought into it too. I got my family members chocolate bunnies.


Today we went over to my sister's house for church. My family is part of a home church. We meet with my sister and her husband and another family. Occasionally another family from the church we all used to go to will come too, but only so often. I really like it. I'm part of the other Bible study on Tuesdays too, but this one is more like family. Anyway, today we listened to a message by John MacArthur on the resurrection and it was really good. He covered a verse that I hadn't remembered:
John 20:21
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

What a commission! We are ambassadors! Do we live like we are representing the risen Lord? The only begotten Son of God? I don't. Not as much as I should. Honestly, it isn't always the first thing on my mind. But I want it to be.

Reading from the four gospels, it is amazing to see the different reactions from people in the Bible towards the resurrection. No one understood (even though Jesus explained several times that he must be sacrificed and raised again on the third day) that Jesus had to die. Even those who lived with him for 3.5 years and were taught by him all that time didn't understand what would take place.

Luke 24:45-47
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He (Jesus) told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

I think the most beautiful "Easter" celebration I ever saw and participated in was a Sedar (sp?) meal that was put on at my old church. A group of people from a Messianic Jewish church came and explained the Jewish way of celebrating the Passover and how it illustrates the way Jesus came a died for us. They even did Jewish dances and got a bunch of people to get up and do it with them, which was really fun. I love dancing. :) It was just a very interactive and focused way to celebrate the holiday. I'm not Jewish, but I would love to participate in another Sedar meal celebration if I had the opportunity. Especially with people who acknowledge Jesus as the only begotten, risen Son of God. It really was neat.

(My sister, me my friend Courteney)

So in answer to my question, what says love more than a chocolate heart nest filled with eggs? How about a God that loved us so much that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Some food for thought. But to finish up my day, it was nice. Quiet, but nice. Especially since my week was rather crazy. I'm not sure what was wrong with me this week, but I was being really...dumb? Yeah, that's it. On Thursday we had a surprise baby shower for a lady at work and I was sent out to pick up some balloons at a local florists. I got them and brought them safely back to the office, but locked them and my gift for the shower in the car with my keys and my dad had to come with the extra key so I could get in. I was so flustered that when I went out to meet him at the car he had already unlocked it and had my keys in his hand. He handed me the keys and I unlocked the car door and began to look for my keys before I realized he had actually already handed them to me.
And after that I kept confusing my words and forgetting what I was doing and messing up on things I haven't messed up on for a long time. I told my parents on Friday that my sister and her husband were planning to go to the Palm Friday service at church (I meant Good Friday, but confused it with Palm Sunday).
The funniest thing though is that on Friday night I stayed up late with my younger sister, Holly and we were watching a movie and around 12 pm a police officer rang the doorbell (scared me to death...I thought maybe some weirdo was creeping around outside or something). He said he was looking for a 223. Keep in mind that my mind was not working well and I thought he meant some sort of police code. I was like, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't know of a 223." He was actually looking for an address. We live out in the country and not everyone has road signs and numbers on their houses. They get knocked down and no one replaces them. Not a good system. I guess he saw our light on and figured we were awake so he stopped to ask us. After he left Holly explained to me that he was looking for an address and not speaking in code. She's so smart. And funny. She told me, "A man in blue is a friend to you!" What would I do without her? I should have let her handle it, but she's 6 years younger than me and my parents were asleep, so I figured I should get the door. I'm usually not this out of it. I really hope I do better this week. My mom told me to take more fish oil.

I better go to bed. Back to work tomorrow.