Easter Dresses

Since today is March 1st, that means Easter is 30 days away. I love Easter. I'm even more excited about it now that Chris is in full-time ministry. As a child, I looked forward to my basket filled with goodies and the egg hunt with candy. I always had the hopes that I'd receive the golden egg with money inside. As a teenager, I looked forward to the new dresses and the nice gift I would get from my Mom. As an adult I now grasp the concept of Easter and the miracle of Easter and the gift of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday blow me away. (I still look forward to the new dress too!!)

You know what would be an Easter miracle to many villages in Zambia in Africa. Water.

Yes, we spend money on Easter baskets filled with goodies, pictures with Easter bunnies that make our children scream, dresses for that family picture that never turns out as perfect as we envision, and meals to feed our families five times over. We never thought about water. Water just is. We have clean water to drink, clean water to bathe, clean water to wash those new dresses that get messed up by us and/or our kids. So how about this year we do something different. How about this year, we bring that Easter miracle to a village in Zambia.

My friend Jacob started a ministry called Water282 to bring water and the living water to villages in Zambia. Join in on this Easter campaign and help him bring not only clean water to drink but also the story of our Easter Miracle, our living water, our Saviour to this village in Zambia...

Go to Water282's website to say Yes to the dress!

 

Seder Meal/Good Shepherd

Last night at church we had Dr. Jim Fleming who is a well known Biblical archaeologist came to our church to teach us as we took part in the Seder Meal. We ate the traditional Seder Meal and learned about what truly happened during Jesus' Last Supper with his Disciples. I might add that this Traditional meal was DELISH!

I knew this one already but hate it for old Leo but this is false...

Instead, Jesus Last Supper would have looked more like this. Yes, I know those people don't have faces.

So among the cool things I learned....

The man in white is Jesus because in traditional biblical times that spot was reserved for the host and Jesus of course was the host for the evening. To his right was the Beloved Disciple, John because to the right would have been your assistant/right hand man/etc. To the left of Jesus would have been Judas Iscariot. This is the spot of the guest of honor. We learned last night that Judas was the guest of honor for many reasons. At this point, Jesus knew that Judas would betray him. Jesus announced this to his Disciples and then told them that it would be the one who he dipped his bread and gave it to him and proceeded to give the bread to Judas. So why of all people would Judas- the one who would betray him be the guest of honor? Because Jesus is LOVE. Jesus was showing Judas that he forgave him. Last night, Dr. Fleming encouraged each of us to take one thing away from the night. We could have taken away a world of new information. I learned all types of things that I could go on and on about. However, what is the most important message that I believe Jesus would want us to understand on this day is love and grace. This weekend, show someone a little grace and forgiveness. If Jesus showed Judas love knowing good and well what he would do shortly then we can go out and show someone a little of Jesus' love and grace. So if you have been hard on someone or been critical or angry- ask Jesus to help you let go of that and to be able to show that person love because 2000+ years ago today Jesus did just that.

It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people.

Hebrews 10:14 (Message)