a weekend and a baptism....

It was a very full weekend for me. I can't really remember what Friday consisted of but Saturday I was up early to head over to the church and help set up for our ladies luncheon on Sun. We set up tables and made a backdrop for Amanda to stand infront of to speak and finished wrapping up journals that all the women were going to receive as gifts. Then I headed over to the grocery store to get the stuff for the desserts that I was planning on serving at my Open House later in the day. I am still a member of Procrastinators Anonymous. Sometimes I doubt that will ever change, sadly. I went and had lunch with my mom and we started baking brownies, which we took over with us to my place and finished cooking chocolate chip cookies. Folks started comin over at about 2 and the last of them didn't leave till past 5. There were people who didn't come who I wished really would have put in the effort, but the folks that were there were the ones who needed to be there. It was the coolest that my 2nd cousin David showed up and then I got a good visit with Renee and Kevin. That made it all worth it!



Sunday ended up being quite eventful. Rosanna got up at the end of the service and surprised us all by giving her testimony and then getting re-baptized, along with Jeff. As I watched them both getting baptized I was really reminded of how important and beautiful baptism is to the Christian faith. As far as I know there isn't any other religions that do baptism, but as Christians it's vital to our faith. Of course, the most well known and awesome baptism story is Jesus' baptism; 13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
15Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.
16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."


I think that Jesus was baptized as an example for us and this was also the sort f "send off" for the very beginning of his 3 years of ministry in which he called out His disciples and showed Himself as the Son of Man. But I think it's different for us, as His followers. Baptism is death and resurrection. We die to the old creation; our sinful nature dies and in it's place, as we're raised out of the water, we're resurrected as new creatures. 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come' 1 Cor. 5:17 I seriously got this beautiful image in my mind as Rosanna and Jeff were being baptized as all this grime, caked on dirt and muck were being washed away as the came out of that water. Jesus provided a way, in His death (taking on of all that dirt) and resurrection (a washing), to be LIKE HIM through baptism. I read a book where the girl described her baptism and she was wearing a white gown. I really like that.

Jesus' blood cleanses us. During this time of Lent it's been so easy for me to just go about my day, not get on FB or Twitter, fast on Fridays and go about doing what I always do but lately I've really been convicted about truly setting aside these 40 days to contemplate and meditate about what this season is really about; repentance.

http://rachelheldevans.com/lent-calvin

I really love the way this blogger writes about Lent and our response to our Heavenly Father. I especially appreciated when she said, "For if we are worthless to God, our sins agaist him are inconsequential; if we are but pesky isects or venomous sertpents, our rebellion would not grieve him." I read a book that used the metaphor of a family out on a picnic. Mom and dad has set up this delicious feast of amazing food and it's a beautiful day. Mom makes a plate full of all the yummy items that she made specifically for her child, things that he enjoys and sits the plate in front of the child. Instead of going for all the goodness in front of him, he grabs a fistful of rocks and dirt, pushing it into his mouth as his parents sit horrified, finally finding their voice to tell him to stop but he continues. Soon his teeth are chipping, blood is pouring from his ripped open gums. There's lots to say about this metaphor but the thing that I thought about while reading the above blog was the fact that God desires the very best for his kids, he's a daddy offering what we want and how often I reach for things that aren't His best, things that hurt me. He doesn't sit there and say, "I told you so" when that happens, He grieves. It hurts Him. So, I think that Lent is a time in which we intentionally decide to enter into a time of repentance for those moments we chose the rocks and dirt, instead of the delicious feast and as Rachel said, "It is the beginning of restoration and redemption and all the beautiful things that God does through people who know they came from dust."

It was also cool reading this blog and getting to the quote from the liturgy and remembering being apart of that on Ash Wednesday!

Okay, well this is a nice long post that's been long in coming! I hope you enjoyed it.

Shalom! Read more!

Pictures!

512 at sunset
Isn't it beautiful?

I especially love the colors here.

I took those pictures awhile back but I didn't have a way to upload them to my computer till this week...so voila!

And now here's a picture of my hairy legs! Be prepared. If you don't think you can handle see a woman's legs be hairy then you better just stop now and don't scroll down! It's only one picture but more will come. I'm pretty proud of them my self, but I think the hair is probably going to go in the next week. I actually really do love the feel of smooth legs. But no worries, the hair will come back next Winter. And knowing me the hair will probably reappear throughout summer time when I get lazy and remember these last 4 months in which I never touched a razor and never spent time in the shower lathering up my legs and attacking them with a blade.

Here's my thigh

Here's me on Ash Wednesday. It was really exciting. I got to celebrate Ash Wednesday for the first time this year. I've been observing Lent now for 3 years or so but this was the first time I'd been part of a Ash Wed. service, ash cross and all! And I took the whole house since it was supposed to be our house meeting, so that was cool too. We all went to an Anglican church down town. The service was cool. I've never gone to a church who does liturgy and afterwards I realized that I really enjoy that. I think others just think of the Catholic Church and all their ups and downs and reciting Haily Marys but I think it's more than that. Funny enough I've even ended up reading several things about liturgy and how important it is after that service so I'm planning on going back there for Palm Sunday, the end of the 40 days of Lent.

But anyways, I just wanted to get these pictures up before I got busy again. I'll write more later.

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