He is NOT here - He is RISEN!!!!

I love the scripture in Luke (Chapter 23, I think) Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is NOT here - He is Risen!!!!

Oh yes, He is risen - risen INDEED!!!!!

What a miraculous thing the resurrection of the Christ is! As our pastor stated yesterday (in Andrea paraphrase) - it is the hingepin of our faith.

One of the things I enjoy about nursing (and there are SOOOO many good things about nursing a baby) is the time it affords me to read. Normally I won't take the time to sit and read but while I am nursing I can read half a hour or so at a time throughout the day. One of my latest RE-reads was a book called Skeleton in God's closet. It was an interesting premise and overall a well written piece by a Christian professor - I think his name was Meier I can check if anyone is interested. Anyway...... the premise of the book is the main character (who is an archaeologist) discovers what he first believes to be the remains of Joseph of Arimethea and then much to his despair finds evidence for what seems like prove unreservedly that the remains are actually of Jesus Christ. The main character is the son of a Baptist pastor and he professes a Christian belief --- so his faith is shaken. Can there really be saving faith if Jesus was NOT raised from the dead???? The book shares through conjecture the world's reaction to this discovery -- is there still Christianity? Is it a farce?? It was interesting to revisit the novel in the season where we remember Christ's resurrection. It also was interesting to discuss with Tim and Elijah -- would our faith be shaken? What is the hingepin of our faith???

I think as Pastor Mark stated yesterday our faith does hinge on the resurrection of the Christ in a physical, bodily resurrection just as his death was a physical, bodily death. Otherwise, is any of scripture actually true??? Is it all just allegory??? It would be easy to just assume that all of Scripture would be an allegory of good and evil if Christ did not physically live, die and rise again. I won't spoil the ending but it was neat to see people of faith in the novel that rose up and stood with unshakable faith. I hope I would stand as well as the characters did!

The kids just finished a great class called True U put out by Focus on the Family that talked about the scientific and physical evidences of the scriptural account of Creation. Pastor Mark is looking to do the next one in the series that focuses on the physical, scientific, historical, and archaeologic evidences of the Bible as truth in the fall. I can't wait!!! We watched most of the True U Creation class and really enjoyed it -- I think in fact Tim and I enjoyed it as much if not more than the kids did!!!

In family news, there is not too much new to report.

The Jews have a tradition of cleansing their homes prior to Passover. They remove all the dirt, grime and particularly leaven (yeast, baking powder, etc.) from their homes as a physical reminder to cleanse our hearts and spirits of sin. I am not called or convicted to pick up the Messianic faith but I do think there is a great amount of rich heritage in the traditions, feasts, etc that the Jews hold to --- especially when you understand and recognize the fulfillment of the prophetic nature of them in Christ's birth, ministry, death and resurrection. There is so much evidence that Christ was indeed the Messiah or in Hebrew the Mashiach-Nagid :)

ANYWAY...... I thought what a neat tradition to incorporate into our Spring Break. Our house and family would benefit from a good deep cleaning and our spirits can be focused on a deep cleansing as well. I cancelled our calendar, ignored the phone and the computer (for the most part) and we focused on deep cleaning. It was a good week, a very busy week of lots of hard work but how rewarding! We didn't accomplish everything we set out to accomplish but we did make a good dent in it. Tim built a small storage shed and we emptied out the rented unit we had. We reorganized, rearranged, and CLEANED absorbing some of the stuff in the house and packing the rest of it away neatly. I can't believe where dirt finds a home; even Josiah commented in one of the areas were he was cleaning - how did dirt get there??? Isn't that the way with sin also??? How did that get there? When did I start harboring that bitterness? When did I choose to not forgive? When was my decision here anxious, fearful or faithless???? It was a good week.

We had a few interruptions in our week with ear infections for Bekah and KJ -- total bummer there, but I am blessed we have such easy access to antibiotics and they are well on their way to being fully whole once again.

We attended Good Friday service at our church - did I mention I LOVE our church!?!?!? I was blessed as I am always to be in God's house -- not just a building of people unattached and aloof but a house of living stones as Scripture says in 1 Peter 2:5 -- You also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Service was marvelous -- Pastor found a FABULOUS video clip that was completely scriptures and pictures where Christ "amazed" the people in His earthly ministry and at the end of the clip it asked - "are you amazed?" Yes, I am -- I am amazed as I always am as we remember Christ's sacrifice for us. He GAVE himself for ME!!

We watched the Passion of the Christ as is our family's custom -- the woman who represents Mary of Magdalene speaks so strongly to me. I realize that there are liberties taken and not every action/word is scriptural but as she reaches, head bowed to the ground to touch Christ's feet, as she pleads with the Romans to stop the trial of Yeshua, as she weeps when he is beaten, as she cares for Mary Christ's mother, and as she throws her head to the ground in despair as He is nailed to the cross I see a lot of my heart physically represented in her actions. I told Tim I had not paid significant enough attention as we viewed it previous years to the blood that was spilled, splattered and dripped on everyone and everywhere. I'm sure it meant nothing to the Romans who beat him or the Pharisees who scorned him but every drop of Christ's blood is so precious -- in it lies our redemption. How many wore it that day without even knowing what they carried - the significance of the life given for the salvation of many? My heart was laden heavy as it always is. In truth I cannot even watch the entire presentation - I have to watch and then get up and leave for a few minutes as I cannot stop weeping when I watch it.

Sunday morning we celebrated with breakfast at church with our church family. One of the wonderful benefits of attending our church is we have some absolutely spectacular older women who KNOW how to cook - they are amazing!!! We brought some cinnamon rolls and added them to the table HEAVILY loaded with goodies. I was given the opportunity to sing in worship was a privilege for me that I haven't enjoyed for a long time and Gabrielle and I were also allowed to sing which was SOOOO wonderful. Gabrielle was unsure about singing; she really has a good voice but she lacks confidence to use it. She did PHENOMENALLY - you wouldn't have even known how nervous she was. In fact one of the ladies in the church asked if she would sing again a song that she has been looking for a young woman to share with the body :) I was blessed and so proud of her for sharing her abilities and being a willing vessel!!! I am excited to see that God is using my kids; I am anxious to see what God will do with them as they mature. Bekah and Judah also got to sing with the little children's choir at our church and did a great job!!! Bekah is the only girl right now and therefore gets FAR too much attention from everybody. Judah loves to sing, in fact he has been writing his own music lately which actually is amazingly good for his age/experience. His teacher told me that he had informed her which mic he thought would serve him best as they were headed out. He was disappointed he didn't get to use a mic this time -- maybe next time :)

The kids got WAY too much candy at church. I had a little girl who was riding on sugar all day at 90 mph!! I took away the candy as soon as we got home but it was already too late. She finally crashed about 8:30 or 9 last night and slept 12 hours undisturbed. I think she probably could have slept through a hurricane!!!

Natalie and Steve's family joined us and Mark and Lynde's family for Easter dinner. We had marinated/grilled goat, homemade foccacia bread, mixed roasted vegetables, sauteed asparagus, twice baked potatoes, mandarin orange salad, and fresh fruit --- SOOOO extra yummy!!!! After dinner the ladies went on a short stroll with the strollers and the littler guys. Tim, Mark, Steve, Josey, Gabrielle, and all my boys except KJ (yes even Judah) went hiking on the McMaster hills behind us. They hiked about three hours yesterday and came home exhausted but happy! We had carrot cake, vanilla ice cream and strawberry-rhubarb pie for dessert and concluded our day with a viewing of St. John in Exile. A day absolutely superfluous in blessings!!!!

This morning we are back on our regular schedule for the most part. School, chores, and smaller projects. Tim is working on putting up our deck and we are looking to seal up underneath the deck as an addition living space which will be SOOOOO fabulous when it is finished for spreading our family out a bit and organizing things better. Tim is such a great designer and talented builder. It is going to be fantastic!!!

Gotta run - miles yet to go today. Hope your Easter celebrations were as blessed!!!!