Final Easter Thoughts
Our church has three worship services tomorrow. Since my husband and I are both involved in the music, we are to be there at 7:15 AM tomorrow morning. Lots of big celebration-type music, so I am sure it will be exciting.
Afterwards, we are having the Easter meal (you know...ham:-)) potato casserole, rolls, greenbeans, jello (that holiday favorite), deviled eggs, cauliflower casserole (for those still trying to low carb), Easter cookies (from Friday) and the tomb cake.
If you have a big glass pitcher from Pampered Chef, you can make the tomb cake. Just mix up a box cake mix...if you want to get really creative, take the mixed up batter and separate into three bowls...
Mix a different food coloring in with each. Then carefully spoon into the glass pitcher (greased!) and bake. Not sure how long...just keep an eye on it. OR you can make in a bundt pan.
When the cake is done, if you used the pitcher, loose the cake onto a plate. I usually cut horizontally in half and frost with canned frosting (chocolate). Then frost the whole thing. Cut a tunnel in one side and frost in the tunnel. Put a big cookie over the hole. Ta-dah!
If you use a bundt pan, cut the cake in half, and turn both pieces on the side. Frost. The tunnel will just be the hole that was in the middle. Add the cookie and you are good to go.
My group likes a few yogurt covered raisins scattered for "rocks".
Now, that aside...here are some thoughts from just a regular person...not a biblical scholar or anything. But I was looking at this and thought I would share it with you, for whatever it might mean for you.
When Jesus came to the earth, He came as the payment for our sins. So that if we repented of our sins and asked Him to save us, we could be reunited with the Father as His children, with, among other things, the benefit of someday going to Heaven when we die.
For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. John 3:16, Amplified
But beyond that, it would appear that He also freed us, by His death, from the Mosaic Law.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:17-18 NIV
For Christ is the end of the Law [the limit at which it ceases to be, for the Law leads up to Him Who is the fulfillment of its types, and in Him the purpose which it was designed to accomplish is fulfilled. That is, the purpose of the Law is fulfilled in Him] as the means of righteousness (right relationship to God) for everyone who trusts in and adheres to and relies on Him. Romans 10:14 Amplified
But then, if that is true, do we have guidelines that are given to us as New Testament believers, given to us by Christ Himself? Commands as it were?
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7:24 NIV
I am inclined to believe that before Jesus died for us, He instructed us as to what He expected from His followers in the way of how they should act Matthew 5-7, as well as other places in the gospels...but it was different from the Law of Moses because the Mosaic Law only spoke of the outward action, while the Law of Christ spoke of action and an inward change. We would follow these words of His because of an inward change, made possible by His death and resurrection.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
Because I am not that confident in my abilities to just feel love for Jesus and follow Him (doing what I think He wants me to do), this was comforting to me. My feelings are so transient, I would worry that I was somehow rationalizing some of my behavior. So for me, this was another in a succession of "it's-always-been-there-under-my-nose-but-I-really-just-"got-it"-for-the-first-time passages. Bear with me...I can be kind of slow to learn.
Afterwards, we are having the Easter meal (you know...ham:-)) potato casserole, rolls, greenbeans, jello (that holiday favorite), deviled eggs, cauliflower casserole (for those still trying to low carb), Easter cookies (from Friday) and the tomb cake.
If you have a big glass pitcher from Pampered Chef, you can make the tomb cake. Just mix up a box cake mix...if you want to get really creative, take the mixed up batter and separate into three bowls...
Mix a different food coloring in with each. Then carefully spoon into the glass pitcher (greased!) and bake. Not sure how long...just keep an eye on it. OR you can make in a bundt pan.
When the cake is done, if you used the pitcher, loose the cake onto a plate. I usually cut horizontally in half and frost with canned frosting (chocolate). Then frost the whole thing. Cut a tunnel in one side and frost in the tunnel. Put a big cookie over the hole. Ta-dah!
If you use a bundt pan, cut the cake in half, and turn both pieces on the side. Frost. The tunnel will just be the hole that was in the middle. Add the cookie and you are good to go.
My group likes a few yogurt covered raisins scattered for "rocks".
Now, that aside...here are some thoughts from just a regular person...not a biblical scholar or anything. But I was looking at this and thought I would share it with you, for whatever it might mean for you.
When Jesus came to the earth, He came as the payment for our sins. So that if we repented of our sins and asked Him to save us, we could be reunited with the Father as His children, with, among other things, the benefit of someday going to Heaven when we die.
For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. John 3:16, Amplified
But beyond that, it would appear that He also freed us, by His death, from the Mosaic Law.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:17-18 NIV
For Christ is the end of the Law [the limit at which it ceases to be, for the Law leads up to Him Who is the fulfillment of its types, and in Him the purpose which it was designed to accomplish is fulfilled. That is, the purpose of the Law is fulfilled in Him] as the means of righteousness (right relationship to God) for everyone who trusts in and adheres to and relies on Him. Romans 10:14 Amplified
But then, if that is true, do we have guidelines that are given to us as New Testament believers, given to us by Christ Himself? Commands as it were?
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7:24 NIV
I am inclined to believe that before Jesus died for us, He instructed us as to what He expected from His followers in the way of how they should act Matthew 5-7, as well as other places in the gospels...but it was different from the Law of Moses because the Mosaic Law only spoke of the outward action, while the Law of Christ spoke of action and an inward change. We would follow these words of His because of an inward change, made possible by His death and resurrection.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
Because I am not that confident in my abilities to just feel love for Jesus and follow Him (doing what I think He wants me to do), this was comforting to me. My feelings are so transient, I would worry that I was somehow rationalizing some of my behavior. So for me, this was another in a succession of "it's-always-been-there-under-my-nose-but-I-really-just-"got-it"-for-the-first-time passages. Bear with me...I can be kind of slow to learn.
posted by angela at 7:41 AM
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