We'll be spending the day as a family, making resurrection cookies, planting tulips, playing with sidewalk chalk (no rain, please!) and just, well... rejoicing! The Lord is good to us. We are seeing His creativity, His sovereignty, His provision, His fingerprints in our lives and on our kids' hearts on so many levels. And we're grateful, thankful and even blown away by it all.
My friend Carmen and I both watched a "visual-Bible" DVD with our kids the other day, uh, Thursday. She and her kids watched the Gospel of John and we watched Matthew. She said that she'd come back into the living room after taking care of something and her 4 1/2-year-old daughter (Kennady's little bestie) was crying on the couch as the Crucifixion scene was unfolding. Carmen snatched her up and asked her why she was crying.
"I don't want the Son of God to diiiiiiiiie."
Oh, it just touched my heart! What's awesome is that we get to tell our kids that the Son of God didn't stay dead! We get to tell them that death had no power over Him. Jesus, the Son of God, the LAMB of GOD rose on the third day!
And that's why we celebrate Easter. His death gave us life. And that's a really big deal.
I re-dedicated my life to the Lord in October 2000 and I was washed & renewed in the Umpqua River on Easter Sunday 2001. So every spring, it's like an anniversary celebration for me and I guess I find myself looking back at what the Lord has done in me, thru me, and for me. And I'll tell ya. He is Faithful!
And since I've been thinking on these lately, you'll see below that I've copied and pasted two biblical pictures that we're given in Scripture about how one who gives their heart to the Lord may grow and change in relationship to Him. Check it out... I'll follow-up with the rest in the next few days. Ponder these, if you know the Lord, see if you can identify the Potter/Clay season and the Sheep/Shepherd season in your walk. And if you are someone who has yet to invite Christ to be Potter and Shepherd in your life, hey -- His arms are wide open (on the Cross!) -- He loves you that much! And He didn't "stay dead" -- He rose again, just to prove the Power of His love to you!
POTTER/CLAY
When we first come to Christ, our spiritual life has little shape or form. We submit ourselves to Jesus Christ as our Savior and ask God to begin shaping us into what He wants us to be.
“We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:4-6
As a piece of clay, we can allow the Potter to mold us, but we cannot express our love back to Him. When we comply and feel God using us, we feel good about ourselves. When we mess up or don’t have a clear sense of purpose, we feel distant from God. We often withdraw because we believe He is angry with us due to our poor performance.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”This affirms that it is important for us to submit to God and allow Him to shape our lives into something that brings Him honor. However, He doesn’t want our relationship to stop there. He wants it to become deeper and more intimate.
SHEPHERD/SHEEP
It may not be flattering to be compared to a sheep, but this metaphor illustrates how well God takes care of His people, just as a shepherd carefully tends his flock. God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel:
“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places
where they were scattered… They will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord." (34:11-12, 14-15; also see parable of the Good Shepherd in John 10:1-18)
Although sheep know the shepherd’s voice and will follow him, they have no idea what the heart of the shepherd feels for them. Sheep can’t share the shepherd’s dreams and hopes. They are merely concerned with their daily need for food and water. While it is important for us to follow and trust God as our Caretaker and Provider as a sheep follows a shepherd, God longs for us to have a more personal relationship with Him.
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