As I began planning, I decided to reference both the Old and New Testaments to show how this message from God to us over the centuries is so wonderfully knit together.
The Alleluias, seven of them, would be the foreground and focus of the banner. The next step was research - gathering verses to list under the additional design elements - the vertical of the cross, the horizontal of the cross and a text to use across the bottom or in the lower right.
The vertical of the cross became Isaiah 53:4-6. It was build of strong, sturdy, heavy letters, because of the great sin burden Christ carried. the anguish he suffered to bring us peace, healing, forgiveness and redemption. The bunched, packed letters spoke to me of Christ, our strength, our Rock; his determination and faithfulness to his Father in carrying out His will.
Close-up of Isaiah 53:4a
The horizontal arm of the cross is two texts. Luke 24:5-7 is Easter morning when Mary Magdalene and other women were looking for Jesus. Job 19:25 is back to the Old Testament with Job's declaration of his Redeemer's victory.
Close-up of Luke 24:5-7 and Job 19:25
The lower right section, Matthew 28:18-20, is The Great Commission. The disciples had just witnessed so many amazing and wonderful things. Jesus told them to go and tell others the wonderful things they knew.
Close-up of All authority ... Matthew 28:18-20
All the lettering was done by hand then scanned at high resolution so the design could be built in digital format. The five design elements - 1. the vertical section of the cross 2. the horizontal section of the cross 3. the lower right text 4. the Alleluias 5. the background - can be managed and arranged individually.
This work is available as it is presented on my website or it may be customized. Your specific preferences for a variation in arrangement of the layers, colors, size of text and final printed size can be tailored for the particular space in your church, office, school or home.
Through the study of these verses, I have grown in my love of Christ, have a greater awe of his saving work on the cross and have such a joy in my heart. Easter will be a wonderful worship of my risen Savior. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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Where is it in lives of folks experiencing loss of good health, disappointments in broken relationships,
unfulfilled expectations, loss of a job,
death of a friend, spouse or child?
When God seems so distant and unreachable?
When you are tired and worn with the weight and discouragement of circumstances?
When fear, anger, stress and worry invade thoughts?
–––––––––––––– –––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––
Our HOPE is in Jesus - the Son of God. His arrival was anticipated for so long. He came so unpretentiously. He brought amazing, life-changing, hope-filling news.
Welcome to Advent, the time of
waiting, anticipating and preparing
for Jesus' coming at Christmas.
Preparation for the short term
involves stuff like planing our gifts, ordering our cards,
making our home festive.
On a deeper level, it is preparing my self, my heart, to welcome Jesus.
This preparing happens over the long-term by becoming familiar with HisStory; returning often to read the Bible making a well used path through its pages.
Seek Jesus to anchor your HOPE in him.
You see, there is nothing we have experienced
that Jesus has not experienced.
Isaiah tells us
... Unto us a child was born ...
he grew up, endured hurt, sadness, pain and rejection.
He was despised, shunned and killed, but the story does not end there.
God's plan was being revealed. Death, the grave, darkness and sin were conquered.
Through Jesus' death and resurrection
He showed his righteousness, incomprehensible greatness,
his power and authority over sin, death and darkness.
This great love was for us.
Isaiah continues describing Jesus ... he is called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
Isaiah 9:2-7
We have HOPE because he is who he says he is.
In him we have a future with HOPE.
Jeremiah 29:11
We have HOPE because we can call out to him
in our need and find that he is with us.
Isaiah 41:10
We have HOPE because we can trust him.
He will take away our fear, be our light, salvation and stronghold.
Psalm 27:1-6
I hope your adventure with Jesus brings
deeper understanding of the HOPE we have in him.
May the God of Hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing
so that by the power of the Holy Spirit
you may
abound in hope.
Romans 15:13
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What do I need to remember to remember?
What does The Marshmallow Test have to do with me?
What do I hope for your 2015 year?
Looking back on 2014 - I remember joy & satisfaction as well as regret & disappointment.
Looking forward to 2015 - I have joy, eagerness & confidence mixed with some apprehension & doubt.
As this NEW YEAR REVEALS ITSELF, what can I expect? similar actions and feelings to last year? forgetting stuff? selfish and willful actions? bungled situations? This stuff and others will happen. I will fall - get bruised by my own choices, be disappointed in unrealized goals, feel crushed by a heavy load, experience loss and aloneness, wander without directions etc. etc.
However, during, simultaneously, in the midst of all that … I need to REMEMBER TO REMEMBER God is all about love. God is Love. I (we all) live in his mercy and grace. He loves in spite of what I do. He has given his all to get my attention and reveal his love. I will love him back very imperfectly and forget to remember his love, his amazing grace. Yet my desire is to THANK God in EVERY MOMENT for all he is, for all I am in him and all he is to me.
Remember falling in love? You thought about that person all the time. You wanted to be in their presence as much as possible. You wanted to talk over everything. As the relationship grew, you grew in trust and confidence of that person.
We know, oh, so well, that people fall out of love. When things go south, they bail. They demand too much, don't love back anymore, disappoint you, betray you, give up on you.
God is not like this at all. I will disappoint, betray, turn away from him. It is his nature to love. God is Love.
It is God's nature
to want only good things for our future and
Future Hope II, Jeremiah 29:11-13
… not want us to fall or stumble.
It is God's nature
to abundantly supply his grace, mercy and precious love.
It is God's nature
to always be near, never leave or abandon.
God Never Leaves Us, II Corinthians 4:8-9, James 1:2-4
It is God's nature
to listen. He can handle way more than my biggest problems.
It is God's nature
to supply and equip far more abundantly than I can ask or think.
It is God's nature
to be a light in the darkness. Putting my hand into his
is better than light and safer than a known way.
I WILL LEAD THE BLIND
BY A ROAD THEY DO NOT KNOW,
BY PATHS THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN
I WILL GUIDE THEM.
I WILL TURN THE DARKNESS BEFORE THEM INTO LIGHT,
THE ROUGH PLACES INTO LEVEL GROUND.
THESE ARE THE THINGS I WILL DO, &
I WILL NOT FORSAKE THEM.
ISAIAH 42:16B
Life is a series of choices. What choices will I make this year? Will they move me toward success or failure? toward falling or getting up again? into or away from more trusting relationships? toward accomplishing short term or long term goals? toward instant or delayed gratification?
A recent PBS News Hour referred to The Marshmallow Test. Click HERE to get the episode. Then move ahead to the 21:30 minute mark. Walter Mischel researched brain development. A person was offered a marshmallow or another object and told they could have it now or wait 15 minutes and have a second one. Revealing the way choices were made, his conclusions included that 5-6 year olds had ability to inhibit impulses, to delay gratification, to keep a goal in mind, to shift attention in extraordinary ways. Click HERE to see the Charlie Rose interview. Click HERE to view The Atlantic Article. Click HERE to see Walter Mischel's 4/9/14 lecture at the U of Michigan - 3:15 for the introduction; 5:25 for his lecture. There are so many application for these insights in all areas of living. I ask myself ... Am I willing to delay doing something in order to have something more satisfying and more valuable at some future time?
The path ahead is unknown, but we have some tools to help us navigate. It is interesting and fun to apply the lessons learned from Walter Mischel's studies to reach for goals. We can't always choose our circumstances, but we can choose our response to them. Some choices I am making are to practice gratitude, live joyfully, focus on the important, enjoy the present, exercise, be teachable, trust Jesus, thank God for all he is 'n all I am in him, not skimp on time spent in God's Word.
SEEK THE LORD &
HIS STRENGTH; seek
HIS PRESENCE
CONTINUALLY!
PSALM 105:4
May your 2015 be blessed with joy, gratitude and choices to make this your best year yet!
Thanks for visiting my blog.
__________ __________ __________ __________
This blog was also published in my Pens E-News. Click to view.
Advent 2014 thoughts published in my newsletter, Pens E-News, can be read:
Click the underlined words to view.
Advent 1 - HOPE
Advent 2 - LOVE
Advent 3 - JOY
Advent 4 - PEACE
&
Merry Christmas - Joy to the world
]]>
The tradition of lifetimes is being relived as Thanksgiving preparations are underway.
Memories ~ of Mom kneading dough, of seeing a lump formed into a braid or loaf, taste buds delighting in the warm bread and butter ~ pour into the present for this wife, mom and grandma. I give thanks for Mom. Through her joy and versatility in baking all kinds of breads for her family; her patient waiting; her delight in sharing the yumminess with others… skills and joys pass from generation to generation.
I am thankful for the flour, all ingredients and for so many hands that contribute to getting these from field to table …
including the farmer sowing and harvesting…
Grain ripe for harvest.
rains nourishing the seed and soil
Rain to water earth and fields.
How fun to share gifts of bread - to love, serve and encourage.
Pumpkin bread with cranberry butter to new neighbors.
Pumpkin Bread with Cranberry Butter and greeting card, Footprints on our Heart
Swedish Cardamom bread to a recent widow.
Cardamom Braided Bread, from the Scandinavian tradition
Babka made with friends from New York.
Babka, a delicious bread from the Jewish tradition
Bread symbolizes fellowship, sharing, togetherness as folks gather around the family table ... "break bread" … to celebrate a birthday or Thanksgiving or Christmas… to ponder the ups and downs of life, the wonderings and discoveries, the experiences of the day … to share ... to love .. to be together ...
a Thanksgiving table
Bread symbolizes patience, for the results only "rise" to realization in an environment of cozy warmth and space to expand.
Patience - waiting for the bread to rise.
There is respect for bread - not in and of itself, but for what it represents physically and spiritually. Through it all I thank God for providing the soil, sun, rain, seeds, plants and growth … for making our bodies capable of tasting, smelling, absorbing nourishment from it … for giving us his only son, Jesus, to be our Bread of Life.
So, bread is a reminder that Christ and his words are bread for us - we study, learn, are hungry for and "eat up" his words.
In 1918 an elderly man's meeting with Eric Enstrom in Bovey, MN, results in a well-loved photo. It graces our kitchen (with its story taped on back). The man's pose embodies grace and thankfulness for the things he has; his demeanor communicates deep familiarity with the Bible and Jesus.
Bread is a remembering of Jesus as Bread of Life. Bread of Life broken for me, Jesus' body broken for me. My Body broken for you. My blood shed for you. "Every time you eat the bread and drink the wine," Jesus says, "remember me."
What God has given in Christ is amazing … with all my rebellion, self-centeredness, willfulness, running from him ………he continues to love, give himself, offer wholeness and joy in Him.
This is good news - amazing, exciting, mind-bending, joyful; an un-imaginable, unrealistic but … so very real gift.
My spirit is humbled. My heart is filled up with gratitude, joy-full of Thanksgiving!
Bread is more than dough, rolls and loaves. What is bread to you?
• breaking bread ~ breaking fast first thing in the morning with breakfast? Sharing a meal with family or friends?
• meeting a "knead" ~ listening to a friend over coffee or a meal or making a loaf to welcome a new neighbor, offer comfort to a sick friend ...
• Jesus as bread ~ Jesus, Bread of Life
• thankfulness ~ communion, family time and meal time as bread and remembering … bread as a celebration of God's presence in our lives?
- Now … let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with praise. Ps 95:2
- O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Ps 107:1
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This is a recipe I enjoy preparing, especially in March and around St. Patrick's Day. Why?
It's E.A.S.Y. It's Ina Garten's yummy recipe. Click here for her recipe link and here to watch her short video.
There is no kneading or rising.
Simply mix, bake, enjoy.
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for currents
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced in 1/2 inch pieces
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 cup dried currants
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
2. Combine dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking soda, salt - in mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment.
3. Add the diced butter and mix on low speed until butter is mixed into the flour.
4. Combine wet ingredients in measuring cup - the buttermilk, egg and orange zest. Mix with a fork - enough to break up the egg, then, with mixer on low speed, gradually add buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture.
5. Combine the currants with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet. Be careful not to over mix.
6. Put dough onto a well-floured board or silicone surface. Roll or knead enough to shape it into a round loaf. Place the loaf on prepared parchment paper on baking sheet. Cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife.
7. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean and when you tap the loaf, it has a hollow sound.
8. Cool on baking rack. Serve warm, at room temperature or toasted.
Enjoy this tasty bread with your breakfast, lunch or dinner!
Also, visit my Penscriptions Calligraphy Cultural Connections Gallery and enjoy 10% off Irish items.
(St Patrick's Breastplate, Be Thou My Vision, Faed Fiada, Beatus)
LIMITED TIME - only 4 days - from today, March 11, 2014 through March 14, 2014.
Use coupon code MENSBC at checkout.
Will close this missive with a couple Irish thoughts ::
May your heart be warm and happy,
With the lilt of Irish laughter,
Every day in every way
and forever and ever after.
and ...
Bless you and yours
As well as the cottage you live in.
May the roof overhead be well thatched
And those inside be well matched.
Judy Dodds
PENSCRIPTIONS
Making thoughts visible - calligraphy of hope and inspiration
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Inspired by her outlook on life and guided by her basic recipe, here is "Mom's Banana Bread" with the addition of a couple surprise ingredients and an "upscale" technique.
Mom's Banana Bread yield - 1 loaf
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease and flour 9"x5" loaf pan
INGREDIENTS
• 1/2 cup or 4 oz. butter softened or 1/2 cup coconut oil : )
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 3 ripe, mashed bananas (about 1 2/3 cups)
• 1 3/4 cup flour (about 210g)
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons buttermilk (3 oz)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Bake in prepared 9" x 5" pan at 350º for 50-60 minutes
Carefully remove from oven. Insert cake tester or long skewer into center of bread. It should come out clean. If there is any uncooked batter on the tester, bake bread an additional 5 minutes, or until it tests done.
Cool on rack in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and finish cooling on the rack.
Yield: one loaf
DIRECTIONS
1. Put your butter - or coconut oil - in your mixing bowl.
I love using my kitchen scale to measure weight of dry or wet ingredients.
Coconut oil has been getting some healthy press, so I have been using that in place of butter
Here's a quick "how-to" of this "upscale" technique using the convenience of a digital scale.
1. place your mixing bowl directly on the scale.
2. make sure it shows zero.
3. put spoonfuls of coconut oil right in your mixing bowl until you get 4 ounces or the same weight as 1/2 cup of butter. (King Arthur flour was my inspiration here. They list their recipe ingredients by volume or weight.)
4. place your mixing bowl back on its stand, unless you are measuring another ingredient.
2. Measure the 3/4 cup brown sugar by volume, add to the bowl and blend well.
3. Add in the room temperature eggs and mashed bananas and mix well.
4. Mix flour, soda and salt in a small bowl. Add all to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl.
I come back to the scale for measuring the flour. This flour was 30g for 1/4 cup. So, 30g x 4 = 120grams for 1 cup plus 90g for 3/4 cup for a total of 210g flour. (The weight of 1/4 cup flour varies by the type of flour, so always check nutrition facts on your bag. for the grams per 1/4 cup.)
5. Add 6 tablespoons buttermilk (2 TB = 1 ounce, so 3 ounces total)
6. Now the second surprise ingredient ... stir 1/2 cup chocolate chips in to the batter.
7. pour batter into greased and floured pan
8. Bake at 350º for 50 - 60 minutes.
ENJOY the cooled bread sliced and buttered.
Well, I'm off with this fresh parchment-wrapped loaf - to welcome our new neighbors.
Enjoy filling your kitchen with the delicious aroma of fresh-baked banana bread.
]]>It is good to be grateful - to speak thanks for kindnesses • to call that friend you have been thinking about • to write the thank you note • to acknowledge the goodness in our lives • to create a gratitude journal or list (we can return to it and remember with joy a particular entry; we will be blessed by the sheer visual length of the list; one item will trigger the remembering of another!) • to pray • to respond to the nudging of the Holy Spirit • to "pay it forward' (help others when you see need) • to worship with your family. To be aware of things all around that are just there is eye-opening. We didn't make them, provide them, grow them, develop them, influence them or invent them. We can just appreciate them.
When I give thanks for new morning with it's crisp air and the sun's light giving life and sparkle to the frost on the deck I feel happiness and joy. What blessings! I anticipate all this day holds.
When I watch the sky - clouds, sun rises, sun sets, storms - I rejoice in the awe-full beauty of the earth.
The whole earth is filled with the glory of the Lord. Isaiah 6:3
We have a great and awesome God.
He loves when we delight in his creation. He loves when we delight in him.
He loves when we have happiness and joy. He loves when we have happiness and joy in him.
He loves when we are thankful. He loves when we thank him, the Giver of all.
So my happiness and joy in the new day goes beyond the end of my deck. I delight in the creator of the new day, the frost, the sun, the ability to feel emotions.
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad it in. Psalm 118:24
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his lovingkindness is everlasting. 1 Chronicles 16:34
Practicing gratefulness is a way for people to appreciate what they have instead of always reaching for something new in the hopes it will make them happier. It helps to realize physical and material needs don't always satisfy our need for happiness. Studies speak of the mental health benefits of gratitude and recommend cultivating this state of mind.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. Psalm 28:7
Just look at these blessings - strength, protection, help, joy - gifts from God! Trusting his goodness, we give thanks - for him, to him.
I speculate — what if I woke up today with only the things I had thanked God for yesterday? Well, God just doesn't operate that way. It is not his nature. I am grateful that God, in his mercy … forgives all my forgetfulness … my take-for-grantedness. His mercy is no reason to cut back on gratitude, but rather to ramp it up … in gratitude for who God is! He continues to love and bless.
Sometimes, I'm not too coordinated. Syncing the network --- the network of my heart, head and face. In other words —
syncing my heart's desire to be thanks-living
with my head to think "grateful"
with my face to show the joy of gratefulness — not always successful! Again, he forgives. His mercy is so great!
God loves when we delight in our family. He loves when we delight in his family — Father, Son, Holy Spirit, us. Jesus gives sacrificial love, light, forgiveness, his
presence, his example. Trusting Jesus I experience his grace making a change in my heart. I am thankful for the resulting benefits — joy, hope, peace, wonder, awe, patience, kindness, goodness, love, faithfulness.
I am grateful for the joy of sharing and the path of faith and love from one generation to another.
As we live into each day, be blessed by these words from Paul in Romans 15:13...
What encourages you in your adventure in gratitude?
What is something on your thanks-living list?
In gratefulness for [physical, mental and spiritual] benefits of thanks-living,
For the harvests of the Spirit, thanks be to God.
For the good we all inherit, thanks be to God.
For the wonder that astound us,
for the truths that still confound us, most of all,
that love has found us, thanks be to God.
from the hymn For the Fruit of All Creation, Vs. 3
Judy Dodds
PENSCRIPTIONS, owner, artist
Making thoughts visible — calligraphy of inspiration & hope
651 645 4223
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Surprise a friend with this package on a birthday or a "thinking-of-you-especially-today" kind of day!
Tonight I will bring a pumpkin loaf, the berry butter and the Footprints On Our Hearts card as a hostess gift.
Here's my DIY Pumpkin Bread with Berry Butter recipe.
With Fall in full swing and Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, what could be yummier ... and easier ... on a cool day than fresh-baked pumpkin bread spread with tasty Berry Butter!
Super moist and flavor packed, this pumpkin bread is delicious. Just took two fragrant loaves out of the oven.
Today my loaves were plain, but they can be enhanced with chocolate chips, nuts, cinnamon chips, cranberries, ginger or ...
Ingredients for Berry Butter
• 2 tablespoons dried craisins
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
Ingredients for 2 loaves of Pumpkin Bread
• 1 cup oil (I like using coconut oil or half coconut and half softened butter)
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 15 oz canned pumpkin
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I used Penzy's)
Directions for Berry Butter
1. Soak craisins in the hot water for 5 minutes; drain and chop.
2. In small mixing bowl, mix chopped craisins, powdered sugar and butter.
3. Enjoy this deliciousness on slices of your warm pumpkin bread
Directions for Pumpkin Bread
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease and flour two 9" x 5" loaf pans.
2. In large mixing bowl, beat together oil and sugar, then eggs, pumpkin and water. I like to measure the coconut oil by putting my mixing bowl directly on my kitchen scale. Make sure you are starting with zero and the unit is in ounces; then spoon 7 ounces of coconut oil into your bowl. Move the bowl back to your mixer stand and continue.
3. Using a small bowl, measure the flour on your kitchen scale. Notice the Nutritional Information on your flour bag. Mine says 1/4 cup equals 30g. So I need 420g of flour. Add and mix the baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin spice. Pour all into the wet batter and mix.
4. Now add the extras - chips, berries, nuts - if you are using them.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans
6. Bake at 350º, 60 minutes or until a cake tester or long skewer inserted into the enter of the loaf comes out clean.
7. When done, move pans to cool for 5 minutes on cooling rack. Then, remove bread from pan and let it continue to cool.
I couldn't wait for the loaf to cool - the cranberry butter is melting in. Yum!
8. When completely cool, wrap the loaves in parchment paper to store until serving.
Tied with harvest gold ribbon and topped with this card and a note inside, accompanied by a little crock of berry butter, this loaf is ready for gifting!
• Title • Footprints On Our Hearts
• Text • Some people come into our lives and quietly go. Others stay a while and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never the same.
• Description • 5x7 card with envelope • can be ordered as single card or in packs of 10 or 25
You can purchase this card from Penscriptions Calligraphy - Fine Art Prints 
• click here 
• Title • Bread
• Text • Be gentle when you touch bread. Let it not be uncared for, taken for granted or unwanted. There is such beauty in Bread. Beauty of sun and soil, beauty of patient toil. Winds and rains caress it. Christ often blessed it.
• Description • 5x7 card with envelope • can be ordered as single card or in packs of 10 or 25
You can purchase this card from Penscriptions Calligraphy - Fine Art Prints • click here 
Enjoy making this wonderful quick bread for your family and friends.
Enjoy sending these thoughtful cards.
Judy Dodds
PENSCRIPTIONS Calligraphy
http://pens.zenfolio.com
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• printed by Mpix & Penscriptions
As I journey through this Lenten season I have been reflecting on gratefulness for Jesus.
… so grateful for … what I, we, the whole world have in … Jesus.
These few weeks of focus on Jesus, have enriched my Lenten journey and resulted in this new piece, O, what a Savior.
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness (NAS). I have continued my faithfulness to you (ESV). Jeremiah 31:3
Come see the cross where love and mercy meet.
O how marvelous! O how wonderful! Is my Savior's love for me!
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-6
... but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
In Christ Jesus there is no separation from this Mercy and Love of God.
Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer. If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit it, then it isn't mercy, but forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness. The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller, p. 93-94
During his ministry he wandered, settling nowhere, and said: "Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.(Matthew 8:20). He remained completely outside the social networks of political and economic power. He did not even seek academic or religious credentials. The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller, p. 113
Obedient to his Father... he was betrayed and denied, arrested, mocked, rejected, crucified ... in my place, for my sake.
He was merciful … forgiving … innocent.
... And as he died he said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?: (Matthew 27:46), a tremendous cry of spiritual dereliction and homelessness. The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller, p. 113
What had happened? Jesus had not come to simply deliver one nation from political oppression, but to save all of us from sin, evil and death itself. He came to bring the human race Home. Therefore, he did not come in strength but in weakness. He came and experienced the exile that we deserve. He was expelled from the presence of the Father, he was thrust into the darkness, the uttermost despair of spiritual alienation — in our place. He took upon himself the full curse of human rebellion, cosmic homelessness, so that we could be welcomed into our true home. The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller p. 113-114
the lyrics and the song.
The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. He is Risen!
He talks and walks with others and with the disciples.
Because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow with all the uncertainty it brings. (the song)
Lay down … your tears, struggles, hurts, pain, frustrations, losses, discouragement, failures, regrets to Jesus … at the cross.
Trust him with all this stuff and more.
Give him your self just as you are.
Let him wrap you in his love and mercy. He knows your pain and anguish.
His grace and love will bring relief to your spirit, newness to your life.
With the eyes of your heart you will know him as your Savior and Redeemer.
O, what a Savior! Alleluia!
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The lights, the glitter, the gifts, the manger scene are put away.The wishes for peace and goodwill have been expressed. Oh, there are still some cookies in the cupboard.
We have sung with the angels, looked for the star, worshiped with the kings and shepherds and visited our Christ Child at the manger.
Now what? What do I do with the joy experienced, the filling up of gratefulness for Jesus during the Christmas season?
Yes, Jesus came. He, Love, came down to live among us ... to follow the will of his Father ...
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace.
Powerful words. How does that look? Are they words that can live ... through me? Hm-m.
Can I, will I, with his grace, share him like he shared himself to find, heal, feed, release, rebuild, bring peace and share the joy in my heart?
So. About life everyday; every moment. It is God's gift, his grace, a sacred opportunity ... to love fiercely and lavishly the way God loves us.
This Charles Spurgeon quote speaks to the sacred moment.
To a man who lives unto God, nothing is secular, everything is sacred.
He puts on his workday garment and it is a vestment to him.
He sits down to his meal and it is a sacrament.
He goes forth to his labor, and therein exercises the office of priesthood His breath is incense and his life a sacrifice.
He sleeps on the bosom of God, and lives and moves in the divine presence.
To draw a hard and fast line and say, "This is sacred and this is secular." is, to my mind, diametrically opposed to the teaching of Christ and the spirit of the gospel ...
Peter saw a sheet let down from heaven in which were all manner of beasts and four-footed creatures, which he was bidden to kill and eat. and when he refused because they were unclean, he was rebuked by a voice from heaven, saying, "What God hath cleansed that call not thou common." (Acts 10:15; 11:9)
The Lord hath cleansed your houses, he has cleansed your bed chambers, your tables ... He has made the common pot and pans of your kitchens to be as the bowls before the altar, if you know what you are and live according to your high calling.
You housemaids, you cooks, you nurses, you ploughmen, you housewives, you traders, you sailors, your labor is holy if you serve the Lord Christ in it, by living unto Him as you ought to live.
The sacred has absorbed the secular."
As daily tasks are approached ... I strive to practice awareness of each moment as ...
• being sacred opportunity
• filled with God's presence
• imbued with his grace enabling God's followers to have expanded vision, purpose, energy, prayer, joy and love to make a difference in every life encountered
• random acts of kindness becoming habitual acts of faithfulness
• evidence of Christmas not fading away or merely lingering, but growing, abounding and flourishing in this new year of 2013
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