4 hours ago
Showing posts with label Resurrection Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resurrection Day. Show all posts
Despite the snow outside my window right now, my favorite day of spring, Resurrection Day, is right around the corner! I am planning a few crafts this week to point my kids' back to Jesus's death and resurrection, and I have a whole Easter study planned for morning time. I'm also going to finish getting my kids’ Easter baskets ready - we don't usually give our kids alot on Resurrection, because we want the day to be about celebrating Jesus’s resurrection first and foremost. But we always do some type of Easter basket, and I thought I'd share what I got with you this year (just for fun).
First I should say, the bedrock of our Easter baskets every year is a new Adventures In Odyssey volume for each of our five kids. I save up our credit card points every year to pay for Easter baskets, and so we've been able to collect quite a few of the old Adventures In Odyssey CDs for no extra cost to us. We will probably stop collecting after the James Dobson Odyssey era, so we only have a couple more years of doing this, which will be just about right for our kids' ages. We really enjoy listening to the stories in the car, and they also provide good opportunities to discuss biblical or character topics.
Another thing that has been practically free for the girls' baskets this year has been earring sets from Claire's. My youngest got her ears pierced last fall, and Claire’s had a deal that you can get a “year of free earrings” with an ear piercing, so each month we receive an email coupon for any earring set under $17. Since my older girls didn't get this deal when they got their ears pierced, I decided to split the free earrings for all three of them, so I've been collecting the earrings with the coupons, and I'm adding them to the girl's baskets!
So in their individual Easter baskets we'll have:
-An Adventures In Odyssey volume
-One of these devotional books by Joel Beeke
-Earrings for the girls
-Sunglasses for the boys
-Playdough eggs
-Candy
-Peeps
I decided to do an extra all-kids basket this year as something a little different (for us). Even though actual spring doesn't come to our mountains for another month or two, I wanted to give them some things to enjoy on warmer days, so the communal Easter basket is my chance to do it! I also collected a few Christ-focused books for them over the last couple months, and I'll sneak them into the basket too.
For the group Easter basket I got:
-A very large bouncy ball
-A colorful volleyball
-A colorful football
-A kite
-Bubbles
-A light-up bouncy ball
-Sidewalk chalk
-Socker Boppers
-Splat balls
Books:
-The Knight's Map by R. C. Sproul
-The Poison Cup by R. C. Sproul
-Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen L. Taylor
-Big Truths For Young Hearts by Bruce Ware
It's nothing too special, but with five kids there are always those little items that they point out in the grocery store that we have to pass by. They are such good kids and never give me a hard time when I say "no" to something. I'm using this Easter basket as my chance to give them all those fun odds and ends!
The group basket is also a good excuse to collect some beautiful picture books that I've been eyeing for a while and add them to our family collection. What I love about R. C. Sproul's books is how he communicates such poignant biblical truths in story form. I've also heard good things about the other books on my list - we've read Pilgrim's Progress with our kids already, but I think having read it they will enjoy this illustrated version even more. Big Truths For Young Hearts is supposed to be almost a systematic theology for kids, which we'll go through as a family. The “Building On The Rock” devotionals for their individual baskets are something we will end up reading all together as well!
Do you have any items that you put in your kids' baskets every year? Are you adding anything new to the mix this year?
Sharpening Shares is a long-neglected series on the blog in which I share various Christian resources I have found spiritually edifying lately. These are some of our family's recent favorites!
Paul Washer's Studies In Proverbs Lessons - Paul Washer leads a proverbs Bible study for children and young adults and up through this podcast - there are 89 lessons covering the first four chapters of Proverbs (at least so far). These lessons are so thorough and offer so much wisdom to my kids - and me too! I would recommend this as especially helpful starting in 4th grade, but my younger kids listen in with some Bible verse coloring sheets. You can also watch video versions here, and I was excited to see that Paul Washer just recently started recording lessons again starting in Chapter 5!
Catechism Music from Brian Sauve - The kids and I have been working on memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism for years now (it's a marathon, not a sprint). We recently starting listening to Sauve's catechism songs on Spotify, and I like how easy these are to listen to - they'd even be nice to just play in the background around the house.
Chapel Library - I was recently made aware of Chapel Library, a ministry that will send you FREE Christian literature each month. You just sign up for an account, select which books or pamphlets you want them to send to you, and checkout for free! I tried them out last month and selected several tracts, some catechism booklets for my kids, and a few pamphlets from authors such as Charles Spurgeon, A. W. Pink, and J. C. Ryle. They have a whole lot more available to request and also a great free app where you can listen to audio versions of alot of the literature!
Loving The Lost Prayer Guide - A friend of mine from our church recently made me aware of this handy little booklet from the International Mission Board. This guide gives information and prayer prompts for 52 unreached people groups around the world. We use a curriculum that teaches world history and geography with an emphasis on praying for different countries around the world, and it's been a really meaningful part of our homeschool lessons. I love that this prayer guide is so compact and will hopefully help us continue that habit through the summer months! Also, I forgot to mention, you can order the booklet for free.
To Seek And To Save by Sinclair Ferguson - This is a devotional for the weeks leading up to Easter, and I am enjoying it - each day has reflections on Jesus's own travels toward Jerusalem leading up to His sacrifice on the cross for us. Ferguson pulls out great points of personal reflection, but I really appreciate how this devotional concentrates on pointing us to Jesus, not ourselves. I'm sure it'll make an appearance when I eventually write an April book roundup, as I'm on track to finish it by Easter Sunday! Bookmark it for next year.
Facing The Cross: A Homeschool Morning Time And Family Worship Guide For Holy Week - Since we are currently in Holy Week, let me remind you of this free guide to reflect on the cross and the Resurrection this week as a family! We haven't worked through this before, but I'm planning on using it with my kids this week.
Resurrection Day is less than a week away, and I thought it would be fun to share a few Easter resources and favorites! These are all the things in the Easter notebook that lives in my brain.
---
This Easter week guide from G3 ministries includes alot of hymns and poems, and looked really good.
Home + Haven Homeschool Community sent out Easter activity printables that we'll be utilizing this week! I can't link to the printable, but go here to sign up for their newsletter if you are interested in future printables!
We have used the Easter guide from Gentle + Classical in the past, and I may pull it out for some inspiration in the next few days.
This week we're going to hopefully use these free Easter lessons, coloring sheets, and audiobook chapters from AIG!
We love making Resurrection rolls, and if you have never done it, it's a great Easter tradition! It really drove home the idea of Jesus's resurrection for my three-year-old last year!
We will be working through our Resurrection Eggs this week too - we have this set, and my kids love it.
I bought these dresses from Walmart for my girls - hooray for inexpensive matching Easter dresses! My boys are going to wear these shirts with kakis. (They still don't mind matching for holidays.)
I get a new Adventures In Odyssey set for my kids for Easter each year (this year we are buying #18-22).
We are going to practice these two hymns this week: When I Survey The Wondrous Cross, Christ The Lord Is Risen Today
I'm listening to this album for Easter week as well!
I'm looking forward to reading my kids these books: The Tale Of Three Trees, The Donkey Who Carried A King, The Week That Led To Easter, He’s Risen! He’s Alive!, The Story Of Easter, Jesus Is Alive: The Amazing Story,
Also, I got the Bible verse cards that are in the picture above from here. I don't know if the associated podcast is good, I just got the freebie!
Are you doing anything to get ready for Easter, friends? We have had a difficult and busy month, and this week feels like a much-needed break and refreshment as we slow down to remember and celebrate Jesus's resurrection!
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Mark 11:9-10
That is what the people shouted when Jesus entered Jerusalem, humbly, riding on a donkey.
They were joyful, thinking he had come to set up an earthly kingdom. They thought he was going to kick out those pesky Romans and declare Himself king right there.
But He had something else in view - He came to die. He suffered the death we deserved as sinners who have rebelled against a holy God.
Jesus is God, and death can't hold Him - He rose again, victorious over death forever! He came to save the souls of all those people who would repent and believe in Him, all down through the ages.
Palm Sunday WAS a happy day. It WAS the beginning of His Kingdom, and His return is coming, when He will reign on the earth as King of kings forevermore.
But that first Palm Sunday? They missed it.
"It should have been evident to everybody that His Kingdom was not of this world. But they were so hysterical that they never got the point of the donkey.
You know, I hate to say it, but so many people through history have been just as mistaken as the mistaken multitude. Just like they thought Jesus was nothing more than a social reformer, there are people today who think the same thing. They look at Jesus as sort of a patriot, a reactionary, a revolutionary, somebody who has got a social message to proclaim, and they forget that Jesus didn’t come to remove poverty from the world...If you think that Jesus came into the world just to heal the social institutions, you’ve missed the point...
His kingdom is not an earthly kingdom, His kingdom is not a kingdom of physical power, His kingdom is a kingdom of spiritual reality; He rules the hearts of men."
-John Macarthur, The World's Rejection Of The King
(This is what it looks like at our house right now - spring vibes, some grass poking through the pine needles, and patches of melting snow everywhere. It's been snowing every couple days for the last two weeks! I don't hate it.)
Currently...
Feeling...stuffed up, as of the time I am writing this post, anyway, maybe not currently as you are reading it (it's taking me days to write this post, guys, ugh). I had plans to get more posts in the blog queue last week, but then our entire family came down with a rather nasty cold. We ended up laying around on the couch and watching a lot of TV for the rest of the week. My throat first started to feel sore the day after I did an ab workout for the first time in months. Of course. So coughing was particularly unpleasant. I felt pretty horrible over the weekend and didn't accomplish a single thing except finishing a couple books I was reading. This is, unbelievably, the first real sickness our family has had in over a year, we had the sniffles once or twice this winter, but this was the first cold. Now I kind of want to go get an antibody test and see if this was IT, but I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle, so we may never know.
Looking forward to...Resurrection Day! I had grand plans to start a whole Easter-themed unit study with the kids last week, but bad colds kind of put a damper on those kinds of plans. I am trying to make up for it a little this week with Easter activity sheets, books about Jesus's resurrection (we like the Arch books a lot), resurrection rolls, some crafty projects, and egg dying. Oh, and we are also doing resurrection eggs (these ones). We'll go to an Easter event at our church on Saturday, though I'm still debating about the Good Friday service because gas prices just keep climbing. And on Easter Sunday we are going to a baptism service for some of our extended family. It should be lovely!
Arranging...a homeschool support/social group (at least attempting to arrange one). Last fall I had the idea that I wanted to get a little group together of the homeschool moms I know, to chat and visit and support each other, especially for any mom friends that were going to be new to homeschooling this last year. I was able to schedule one fall visit, but I dropped the ball a bit over the holidays. As the spring approached, I decided to get organized and put a park day or a hike on the calendar every couple weeks, inviting homeschool friends to join us. Unfortunately, our sickness put last week's park day on hold, but try, try again! Next week we are going to do a hike with several families, and I hope it will be the start of a fun group for all of us.
Craving...Junior Mints. I kept telling Derek last week, when I couldn't breathe through my nose, that I wanted Junior Mints, but neither of us were healthy enough to go to the store. Derek recovered quicker than I did and picked up some yesterday. They hit the spot.
Discussing...where and when to go on vacation. We have the hardest time nailing down vacation plans every year. Does anyone else have this (first world, I know) problem? First we have to wait for our tax return to see how much wiggle room we have in the budget. Then we have to decide how much we are willing to spend, then we have to see what destinations might fit in with that. We inevitably end up with two or three possibilities that we vacillate between for months. We can only go in May or in the fall, because of Derek's work, which makes things tricky for certain cooler-climate options. Another complicating factor is that we have never had a strong preference on the type of place we go - we like mountains, we like beaches, we like desserts, we just like to travel and see the country. We've done a beach vacation for a couple years now, so I'm thinking we should try something different.
Enjoying...these "hairdresser reacts" videos on Youtube. I can't help myself, they are just so entertaining to watch!
Preparing...for spring and summer nature study! As the weather warms up, I hope to spend a lot more time outside and learning more about our native plants and creatures. From the months of November to April there isn't much botanical activity in the mountains that is conducive to consistent study. The trees are dormant, except for the abundance of pine trees, and I feel like we've examined pine trees to death at this point. I'm excited for the birds to come back and start nesting (hopefully not in our eaves), for the first crocus to work it's way through the snow, and for all kinds of bugs in just a couple months. I am stocking up on nature guides, art supplies, and activity ideas, and I hope we can go on nature hikes at least a couple times a week this summer.
I might hop back on the blog to wish you all a happy Easter, but in case I run out of time - I hope you all have a wonderful Resurrection Day, celebrating that we have a RISEN Savior!
(This week last year, we were visiting New Orleans. Is it cheating to recycle those photos for this post?)
Walking to the mailbox has become something of a lifeline over the last weeks. Though I am so blessed to be able to say that our day-to-day life has not changed much through this virus situation, it is still difficult on all of us to be stuck at home. So we are making a tradition of fresh air and mud on our shoes, as we trudge on the dirt roads of our neighborhood for the post.
The other day, as we were walking, my oldest stopped in his tracks. "Did you hear that, Mom? I think it was a robin."
And we all stopped and looked around, and from the eave of our neighbor's house we saw a swooping movement, a flash of orange-ish red.
"It is, it's a robin! That means it's spring!" my boy cried, and somehow seeing that little bird did my heart good. The world may have ground to a halt, but spring is still coming.
I've been thinking alot in the last few weeks, about the juxtaposition of some things going on unchanged, as other things cease entirely. I may not be afraid of physically suffering, but the frustration and disappointment and uncertainty of these days is still stressful. I'm remembering that these feelings qualify as the cares I need to cast upon Him. He cares for those things too. And in the midst uncertainty, I look at spring flowers pushing their way through the dirt, and I remember all the things of which I can be certain.
I am certain that even if this world burns to the ground, this is not my real home.
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Philippians 3:20
I am certain that we are all sinners, but Jesus took the punishment we deserve for our sin by dying in our place on the cross.
"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
I am certain that Jesus has risen and conquered over death, and that if we turn to Him in repentance and faith, He will save us - and He will hold us in the palm of His hand, and no one and nothing can snatch us out of it.
"For if you confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9
"And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand." John 10:28
I am certain that we are going to have trouble in this world, and we can see some of that trouble clearly now. But I know that He has overcome the world.
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7
I am certain that one day He's coming back, and He'll wipe away all our tears. He will give believers the crown of righteousness that we cannot earn, but that Jesus bought for us on the cross.
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4
"Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing." 2 Timothy 4:8
And in the meantime, I know that God is our ever-present refuge, upon whom we can cast all our cares.
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Psalm 46:1-2
"Cast all your anxiety upon Him, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:
"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31
That last verse feels poignant at this moment. I'm sitting here, typing this now, listening to the birds making nests in the eaves outside my window. Tiny peeps, flashes of shadow against the screen. And I remember that not even one of them falls to the ground without God seeing. And He cares for us more than the sparrows.
This is our comfort, our help in trouble, our peace with God - bought by the precious blood of Jesus. Today is Good Friday, and we remember His death to pay the price for our sins, the penalty we owed. On Sunday we will celebrate, because no matter what is going on in the outside world, He is risen. His is the victory. And He has us in His hands forever when we trust in Him. What peace and joy there is in that, even if we have to celebrate stuck at home this year.
If you don't know that peace, I pray that through all this you will find it. And if you do know Christ, I pray that you'll also remember with me that we can turn our eyes to Jesus, rest in His peace, celebrate His resurrection well, and take this chance to share the truth of the gospel of Christ with a world that is full of fear.
Happy Resurrection Day in advance, friends!
If you don't know that peace, I pray that through all this you will find it. And if you do know Christ, I pray that you'll also remember with me that we can turn our eyes to Jesus, rest in His peace, celebrate His resurrection well, and take this chance to share the truth of the gospel of Christ with a world that is full of fear.
Happy Resurrection Day in advance, friends!
"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." Matthew 28:6
"this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it..." Acts 2:23-24
This verse never fails to make my heart jump. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, demonstrating His great love for us by paying the penalty we had earned. He died to pay it, even while we were still defiant and rebelling. But it was not even possible for our Savior to be held by death. Now He is alive forevermore! He has paid for our sins and conquered death!
This is everything!
Happy Resurrection Day, friends. He is risen!
My mom has always been better at sewing than me. The most impressive thing I have ever stitched is quilts for the cribs of each of my children, but any experienced seamstress would look at the back of those and note how messy they are. But my mom, she was amazing.
One year, she made my sister and I matching Easter dresses, navy blue fabric with yellow roses, double-layered with a sheer, silky yellow fabric on top. It had ties around the back. I was almost to the age where I didn’t want to match very much anymore, but that year I loved the matching dresses and felt very stylish.
I don’t know exactly what led our family to try that little church, but I do have an idea. The winter after I turned nine, we had attended the church at the top of the hill in our little mountain community. It was a bigger church in the community but still quite small. I can remember the shape of the pastor’s hair, I remember going to the church one night to watch a testimony movie and feeling inspired by it. I remember being baptized there and being so excited by the portable CD players my grandparents gave us as a congratulatory gift.
But what I remember most about that church is the kids. Unfortunately, I don’t remember them in a good way.
I remember always sitting on the perimeter in Sunday School class, and avoiding speaking as much as possible. I remember fidgeting in my chair. I remember dreading the moment the class was over. Because after the class the other kids, who all knew each other (I didn’t know any of them), would go sit on the couches in the corner of the lobby and talk and laugh. It always sounded like a mean-spirited laugh to me. I didn’t join them, I stood across the room, right outside the door of my mom’s Sunday School class, waiting for her to come out. I just didn’t feel comfortable sitting with those kids.
One Sunday I plucked up my courage, and I went and sat on the couch while the kids talked. None of them really talked to me, and it was nightmarishly awkward the whole time. One of the ruder boys started pointing at me and teasing another boy about having a crush on me. I don’t know if that boy did actually have a crush on me or not, I don’t know if I was the target or he was, I just know my nine-year old heart started thumping in my chest. I finally got up the guts to sit with these kids, and now their attention was focused at me in a way that made me feel as if they were laughing at me. Maybe they were. Or there is the possibility that my childish self misunderstood the situation, but I didn’t wait around to find out. I grabbed my hardcover kids’ devotional Bible and booked it back over to my spot by the adult’s Sunday School class door.
I never sat with those kids after that. I cried every week while I was getting ready for church, not sure what to wear, terrified that the kids were going to laugh at me again and not wanting to give them any provocation with a silly outfit. I vividly remember my mom trying to help me get dressed one day, but I was convinced all the kids would make fun of me. I stood crying in front of the mirror, my eyes red and puffy. I look back at this as an adult and realize perhaps I was being rather sensitive and a smidge ridiculous that morning. But my mom looked back at me in the mirror, and I saw her eyes soften. She turned me to her, gave me a hug, and softly said that I could just stay home with my dad.
My dad and I watched football on the couch that Sunday morning. And I don’t ever remember going to that church again.
The next time I remember going to church, I was dressed in that pretty yellow Easter dress, matching with my sister. We drove to a new place, a little white church in a high altitude park, surrounded by fields and mountains. A boy was in the foyer with a tall white-haired man helping him pull a thick rope that rang the bell in the steeple. We listened to the sermon while trying not to be distracted by a red-haired girl with the same name as my sister who sat in the row in front of us, grinning over the seat back. My mom visited with the adults after the service and then walked us kids out back to the merry-go-round, one of the metal kind that spin impossibly fast, the kind they don’t make anymore. Another girl with dark braids and a bright white smile, dressed in a long fur coat, elegantly watched the other kids as they spun, but she turned to grin at me as we walked up.
It was a cold, blue day, with a strong wind that carried laughter. But this time it was the good kind. Laughter born of joy and friendliness and love for each other and for our Savior on that bright Easter morning. The kind of laughter that I’m sure Heaven must be filled with.
We never left that church, we stayed there until I was grown and married. They weren’t perfect, there were a few church dramas, but those people truly functioned as the body of Christ in our lives. We spent countless Easters there. We spent many Christmases caroling to the smattering of houses at the foot of the mountains. The pastors taught us more about our Savior. The church payed for Christian summer camp for all the kids, in exchange for Bible verses memorized. They invested in us, and trained us, encouraged us, and taught us truth. They helped grow me into maturity. The whole church came to my high school graduation. The ladies threw a bridal shower for me, they helped plan my wedding. And the whole church came again the day I married Derek.
Sometimes I’m not sure why children grow up and feel the need to leave something that was good to them as a child. Because I’ve never found a church that I loved, or that loved me as much, as that one. It was the love of Christ they showed to us, the love of the One who suffered and died to save us from the wrath we deserved, the love of the One who rose again to free us from our sin. The love of the One who keeps us still, now and through all eternity as we will worship our King forever in a place with no more tears.
They reflected His perfect love imperfectly. But it was still dazzlingly bright.
Happy Easter, my friends! Praying you reflect the love of Jesus our Savior to all who enter your church doors this Good Friday and Resurrection Day. You never know when the Lord will use you, His hands and feet, in your little church right where you are, to make a lasting impact on someone's life. Even someone who is already a believer, like I was.
(Photos taken in April last year, because the trees are weirdly delaying their flowering this spring.)
I'm going to be totally honest guys, it's been a difficult few weeks around here. Actually, if I'm being totally honest, it's been a difficult year for me so far.
By all measures, this should be a great year. It's our first year in our new house. The kids are all getting bigger, and a little easier since we don't have a tiny baby anymore. Derek is happy in his job, and homeschooling is going fairly well. It's not an election year (ha!).
But I've been having a hard time. There is the difficult church situation that is leaving me feeling unanchored. A couple relationship struggles that are giving me some stress. Disturbing trends in the culture, and in the "capital-c" Church, that are making me fearful and deeply discouraged. And my own sinful impulses that make me impatient and irritable with those I love most.
It's not too much, a bunch of (mostly) little things really, but all together it's done a number on my emotional state.
The last couple weeks I hit a breaking point. One whole week I found myself waking up every hour of each night. I've never done well on little sleep. I was completely exhausted, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually as my relationship with the Lord has taken a hit through all this too (no one to blame but myself for that one).
I cried my way through the week, and I just so desperately needed a break. I could see only endless months of the same ahead, with the only break (vacation) pushed out from May until August this year. I needed a reset button, and vacation so often is that for me, but I couldn't even look forward to that for a long while.
Derek was due to go on a work trip in a couple weeks to New Orleans, and I could not imagine holding down the fort very well with him gone. I was so worried about it, I remember shooting up a pathetically short prayer that the Lord would help me to maintain a good and cheerful attitude when Derek was absent.
But then Derek called my mom. And she agreed to watch the kids. So I get to go with him to New Orleans.
There is something about getting away from my normal surroundings that gives me a clear perspective on life. It reminds me what I love about home. It allows me to look with fresh eyes on the things that I need to change. Vacation almost makes me internally sheepish about how I've been taking my wonderful blessings from God for granted. It all becomes more clear, somehow.
It's silly, so silly, to write about this during Passion Week. This is the week that we remember how Christ suffered and died to pay the price for our sins. For all my sin. Including my sins of forgetting that Christ is my only anchor and hope, even when the church lets me down. My sins of selfishness and pride that lead to the relationship struggles I've been dealing with. My sin of fearing something earthly and temporary when God holds the future in His hands.
I deserved to die and bear the wrath of my own sins, but Christ bore that penalty for me. He suffered more than I ever will have to suffer, He took my punishment. And then He rose from the dead, victorious! He cast my sin away and credited His righteousness to me when I put my trust in Him, and now I'm free of that burden forever.
How silly of me to worry and agonize about the future. My future is secure for eternity because of what Jesus did for me. As it is also for everyone who turns to Him in repentance and faith that He alone will save them.
And I'm remembering all this now, as I'm packing a bag for New Orleans.
Maybe it's just a trip to The Big Easy, but planning for that trip at the same time that I'm planning for celebrating His resurrection on Easter has reminded me. He took care of the biggest thing, the sin that has separated us from Him. He took care of this relatively small thing of giving me the refreshment of a break that I didn't even dare to pray for.
He's got the rest of it under control too.
"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 15:57
I may try to write again before Easter, but if I don't, Happy Resurrection Day, friends! I pray you know the peace that comes from knowing our Savior. He is Risen!
I woke up, blurry-eyed, and snuck quietly into the living room to do my morning devotions before the kids woke up. But before I started I shot off a quick text, apologizing to Derek for the night before. I had gotten angry at him for something, and yes, I'm admitting right now that we don't always resolve arguments before we go to bed. This case is a good example why - they night before I was furious, and felt perfectly justified in my anger. When the morning came, I realized what a "contentious women" I was really being (and if you've ever read Proverbs, you know that is not a good thing).
Appropriately, after reading the day's passage in the Bible, I opened up Matthew Henry's Commentary, and this is what I read:
"The way to be angry, and not to sin, is to be angry, as Christ was, at nothing but sin."
-Matthew Henry
Initially my reaction was one of ugly self-righteousness and trying to justify my own actions (even though I had already recognized that I was wrong - just being honest here, guys). Could it be righteous anger then, to be angry when someone has sinned against you?
But immediately this verse ran through my mind:
"For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."
And I realized what a hypocritical attitude I had, to direct anger at someone else's (supposed) sin against me, and completely forget the blackness in my own heart.
The only way to really be safe in righteous anger at sin is to be more angry at your own sin than anything else.
The example of righteous anger that is always cited is when Jesus become angry because of the money tables in the temple. And Jesus did have righteous anger at the cheating and lying that was going on, but there is a big difference between Jesus and me - Jesus has no sin of His own. He had a pure right to be angry. I, on the other hand, have a heart full of sin - and if I am going to claim to have righteous anger, it needs to be directed at my own sin first.
And today, of all days, it is easier to be angry at my own sin. Because today, thousands of years ago, Jesus suffered unspeakable things to pay for it.
Justice is a big talking point among Christians these days, and people mean so many different things by it. But if we are going to talk about justice, let's apply it to everything. What would be just here, really? God could have chosen to be angry with us forever, to give us our punishment, and He would have been just in doing so. But instead Jesus, our righteous Judge, took our punishment Himself. That is the most unjust thing that ever happened, but He did it because He loves us, and He continually offers us every chance at His forgiveness.
When we accept and believe what Jesus did for us on the cross, there is no more anger there, though we continue to do things to deserve it - but Jesus took all that anger on Himself. Now, for the one who trusts in Him, there is only love, and mercy, and grace. I am so grateful for what He has done for me, even though I constantly prove I am unworthy of having the King of the universe die for me (see example above).
And I love that it doesn't end with death. Death and sin did not defeat Jesus - He defeated them once and for all when He rose from the dead on Easter morning!
"One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore!"
-One Day, J. Wilbur Chapman
He is risen, and He is coming back someday to take His own home!
Are you one of His too?
I hope and pray each of you reading this can know the mercy, and grace, and victory that is only found in accepting who Jesus is, and what He has done for us!
Happy Resurrection Day (on Sunday), my Friends!
He is risen indeed!
I'm still working on the birth story post for Clyde - I'm hoping to have it up next week! In the meantime I wanted to get this post up about the kid's' Easter baskets, because I always have so much fun picking out stuff for them. Stay tuned for more on Baby Clyde!
-------------------
I'm really looking forward to Easter this year. I feel like Wyatt is understanding more and more. The other day we were talking about how Easter is the day that Jesus came back to life, and he has brought it up a few times since then! He was also pretty interested in his Easter basket "presents", but I know more and more about Jesus is sinking in too, and that is what is most exciting to me.
Anyway, we went shopping for the kid's Easter baskets the other day, so I wanted to post some of the things we picked out! The best part is that most of the things I found for their baskets only cost $1 - I like that price! So here are my (inexpensive) Easter basket ideas for toddlers.
If Jesus Lived Inside My Heart book - Alright, we already had this book, but I wanted to post it here because it's one of my favorites. I can't even explain it, you just have to read it. It makes me cry every time, and I think it's such a sweet little book for an Easter basket, so I thought I'd recommend it now!
Hot Wheels cars - Wyatt loves Hot Wheels cars - the other day at the store he grabbed one and was asking me if we could buy it, and I told him we'd have to wait. So I'm going to sneak one or two into his Easter basket. I love that he loves these, because they are only a dollar, and such an easy present that I know he'll like.
Bubbles - What toddler does not like bubbles, I ask you?
Ponies - Gwen picked out these little pony horses at the dollar store the other day - similar to My Little Ponies, but cheaper. I want to try to find a couple more for her basket. This is the first toy that she has actually picked out for herself, which I think is so cute!
Water bottles - Thank you dollar aisle at Target.
Fun dough - Or Play Doh, or silly putty. Whatever you like best.
Flower growing kits - I found these at Target too and snapped them up. I think it will be a fun project, for Wyatt especially, to water them and watch the flower grow! Hopefully they actually do grow or it will be disappointing, but if these don't work I have some seeds and some soil in our shed we could use instead.
Yogurt Melts - I just feel weird about putting too many jelly beans in the kids' Easter baskets. Plus Gwen can't chew that stuff even if I did want to put it in her basket! Yogurt melts are a good alternative, and my kids think they are candy anyway. I just put a few in each of their plastic eggs!
And I decided to change it up a little and put it all into these:
Toddler Backpacks - These are Skip Hop backpacks - I had been eyeing them, but I just wasn't sure I wanted to spend $20 a piece on backpacks for the kids right now. Then I was walking through JC Penny the other day, and spied these on clearance for $6.99 each! Yes, please! They only had the shark and the ladybug, but I wasn't going to complain if I could get them for such a good price! Wyatt has been really into bags lately, and I think he'll love having his own little bag to carry his stuff around.
And Clyde is a little small yet for all this fun, but his favorite thing at the moment happens to be his pacifier - so I finally broke down and got him one of these:
He might get to use his before Easter though.
What are you putting in your kids' Easter baskets?
Yesterday was Good Friday. Tomorrow is Resurrection Day.
I don't like to let this time of year go past without saying something on my blog about why we celebrate. It isn't because of the arrival of spring, or to give honor to bunny rabbits while we stuff ourselves with boiled eggs and Peeps. All that stuff can be fun, but the real reason we celebrate Easter, as Christians, is to remember our Savior. His death. And how He came to life again, to save us!
This is the seventh Easter that I've celebrated since I've been blogging. That's a lot of posts to come up with over the years.
This is the most important holiday to me, even more than Christmas. Without Christ's death and resurrection, we could not be saved. That's huge, and I want to always spend time reflecting on what Jesus did for us.
So on Thursday I grabbed my old hymnal, hoping to glean some inspiration while the kids were napping. I read through so many hymns. I couldn't find a single one to use today, mostly because I've shared all my favorites before.
Finally I just put the hymnal aside, and sat there thinking. I thought about how Jesus lived His life on earth all those years knowing what was coming. And I wondered how He felt when He thought about the death He was going to die.
I just had a baby a few months ago. As silly as it is, the thing that flashed through my mind was how I felt late last year. I knew labor was coming soon. I knew how it would feel since I experienced it once already with Wyatt. And last year, as I waited, I felt anxious and scared when I thought about it.
But I also thought about what was to come after. I knew at the end I'd be holding a beautiful baby, and I tried to think of that instead.
As bad as labor pains can be, crucifixion is worse. It's the most painful way to die, and not only was there the physical pain for Jesus, but there was also all the pain and isolation that would come when the sins of everyone in history were laid upon His shoulders. It can't be compared to labor - I know it was much worse.
And Jesus knew that. How did He feel when He thought about it? Was He scared?
I think in His humanness He was, a little bit. I think that's why He prayed asking God if there was some other way.
But I think Jesus also thought about what was to come after. The Life He would give us when He rose again.
And that was worth it to Him.
In the words of my hymnal . . .
Jesus Paid It All. On Good Friday.
And tomorrow? We remember that Christ Our Lord Is Risen Today!
Hallelujah! What a Savior.
Easter has snuck up on me this year.
In a normal year I’d have eggs decorated, items bought for Wyatt’s Easter basket, and plans already in place for Easter Sunday. But this year I have been very unprepared.
I was laying in bed on Tuesday night of this past week, thinking about how un-festive this Easter season has been at our house. But more than that, I was frustrated because I felt like my heart has been so unprepared to celebrate my Savior’s resurrection this year.
Normally I have more opportunities to ponder about what Jesus went through as He rode into Jerusalem before His betrayal and crucifixion, what agony He must have experienced as He died for my sins, how thrilling it must have been for Mary Magdalene and the disciples on that day when they realized He was alive!
But we missed church last Sunday because Derek and Wyatt were sick, and I had no other teaching or devotions (as it seems I normally encounter this time of year) to focus my heart on Him this week.
And if that weren’t enough, over and over again this week I was being stricken with the realization of what a dark world this really is. It settled over me like a fog, and I was having a hard time focusing on the goodness and beauty and light that Resurrection week should bring, feeling oppressed by the darkness of this world that is not my home.
But as I was laying in bed in the middle of the night, thinking all of this over, I let my mind wander over the story of Jesus’ resurrection one more time. And I thought how appropriate it was that Jesus rose from the dead early in the morning, as the sun was rising.
Every day, since God established time, the sun rises. Every day, it peeks up over the horizon and without even trying it has victory over the night. The dark has no defense against such radiant light, and it disappears without any trace.
Nothing must have been so dark as the Son of God dying on that cross. Dying because of our sin.
But then . . . Jesus rose and defeated sin and death, just as the sun was rising on that Easter morning so long ago. Death has no more victory – darkness cannot stand against His glorious light.
Even though those of us who believe in Him still have to live here in this dark world, we have the victory over death and sin and darkness, because we have Him. Jesus, the ultimate victor, the One who saves us, has the victory!
He died and rose to save me, I belong to Him. And now, though I may be grieved by the spiritual darkness around me, I am reminded that this world is not my home. The darkness will not overcome me because Jesus already overcame the darkness for me! He has filled my heart with His light from the moment He washed my sins away.
Someday He will come back and take the darkness away from us forever – and there will be nothing left but His light, and His love, and His grace. If we believe in Him we will get to enjoy that for eternity.
Until then, I’ll let the sunrise remind me that the victory has already been won – our Jesus has the victory! And nothing can change that, no spiritual darkness can snuff out that Light.
Because He is Lord, and He is risen!
I wish you a Happy Resurrection Day, my friends! I pray you each know Jesus, and may you be overwhelmed with His light and His grace this Easter.
P.S. I have to admit that I didn’t take that picture in the morning, but the light was so pretty shining through those blossoms that I thought it seemed an appropriate picture for this post!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
