Sunday, April 4, 2010

Day 98 - Easter!

It was wonderful to celebrate Christ's resurrection with family and friends, both at church with inspirational music and some new thoughts about God's love and sacrifice for us so that we might be forgiven.

El Nosey (no-say) Forgiving God.  Micah 7:18 "Who is a God like you, pardoning the sin and overlooking the rimes of the remnant of his heritage?  He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in grace."

I recall growing up watching an aunt and uncle who would have a spat and not talk to each other for days. Finally one of the relatives took them to task for their poor example to the children and then those two couples argued and did not speak to one another for years!  It was sad to watch the women in particular being pursued by bitterness.  Wasted time - missed memories - and neither were very pleasant to be around during that time.  I learned quickly that an unforgiving spirit will often attempt to justify their own action by hurting another person.  I probably over-react running from conflict to this day because of the conflict and examples of a lack of consideration and familial love.  I recall one of my cousins, after observing an outburst, say that his life motto was going to be to do unto others what they might be thinking of doing to him, only do it first.  How sad to spend life filled with vindictiveness.  How insecure that would feel, to for each one of them to always wonder if she talks about others, then others must be talking about her.  Retaining the anger, delighting in hurting others and feeding the attitude took a high toll on both their healths and relationships with others.

God is not like that.  El Nosey is a Forgiving God.  Note that he does not hang on to his anger forever.  That is a lie of Satan to convince the believer that incidents are permanent indications of one's spiritual health or 'real' personality.  For example if I do something stupid, I can ask the person(s) involved for forgiveness.  I can ask God's forgiveness as well.  Or, I can hide it in my heart (where scripture belongs) and nurse it hour by hour, day by day.  The lie that gets whispered is not that I did something stupid,  but that what I did somehow proves I am stupid... usually with a further push that I always have been stupid, and always will be stupid....  When I examine my sub-conscious "self-talk" and realize I am hearing or saying things that make something wrong into a permanent wrong, I can recognize that that thought did not come from El Nosey.  God would agree I did something stupid, but then He would forgive me.  I tried to do that with my children, promising if they told the truth, the consequence would not be as severe and once the consequence was administered, put the incident where it belonged - in the past.  Though I loved them and forgave them, still there is always a consequence for sin.

I was surprised to find that forgive in Micah 7 translates to "accepts or bears".  God doesn't just say that's ok, I'll forget what you did.... he accepts the consequence for my sin and bears it.  That is what Easter is all about.



Lots of wonderful food.  Above - Edamame lime salad... cooked beans 5 min. Chop in food processor and add equal amounts of lime juice and Greek salad dressing.  Salt to taste.  I made it by request for friends last Easter and have been eating it myself since.  I don't care for the beans by themselves, cooked traditionally, but love this salad.

Left:  Roast chicken, home made spaghetti and sauce, mandarin oranges and pineapple.  The lemon and olive oil dressed salad is also pictured above right.  Below is a close up of pumpkin bars.  Perfectly delicious.

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