In Her Easter Bonnet With All the Frills Upon it! FRIDAY FOLLOW!

The promise I made to myself earlier this week with all of you as my witnesses is harder to do than I thought! BUT, I have done it....so far! I decided to use the slogan..."MOVE FIRST....THEN BLOG!" to get back into the routine of exercise that my new Mac sabotaged so well. (Yes, I blame this lovely hunk of technology.) Every day since March 30th I have moved my body in serious workouts before coming to see you all. (Ha! "since the 30th"?...that's what?....FOUR DAYS !) This morning I even took a BEFORE photo of myself, but you will never see it unless there is an amazing AFTER photo to put next to it! :)

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This Sunday is Easter Sunday! The photo above shows you my background experience with Easter as a little girl. It was about Jesus & pretty dresses. Because we loved Jesus we dressed up for Him on that special day. Even though I am not the excited one with her arms stretched out all drama-queenish, I loved my new dresses, shiny shoes and especially the WHITE GLOVES made of lace!

I still love Jesus very much & I'm looking forward to our Easter service in two days, but the fancy dresses are a thing of the past. I probably won't wear my usual jeans that I wear on most Sundays to service, but new clothes are no longer a part of the day for me. I helped stuff Easter eggs this week for the kids ministry egg hunt & I love seeing the little ones all dressed up special.......but my focus is completely different than it used to be on this celebrated day each Spring.

The best part of the holiday for me are the words, "It is finished." When Jesus uttered those famous words on the cross, He was not talking about His life being finished or even that His time of suffering on the cross being finished.

The thing that is........ done with..... over........ finished.......... is our need to run to Him for forgiveness every time we blow it. He was talking about the price for our sins being paid for. We ARE forgiven, not just at that moment but forever. PAID IN FULL. I am forgiven of my past mess ups, my current mess ups and my future mess ups. What? That just sounds too good, how can that be true?

The word "sin" has come to include a lot of things that are truthfully not sinful. A bad thought is not a sin. A drink of alcohol is not a sin. Smoking is not a sin. Staying home on Sunday morning is not a sin. Going to a bar is not a sin. (Can you tell what kind of church I was raised in?) Any of these things can become a sinful thing if they begin to control you rather than you controlling them.

The cross and what happened there is huge in that it was the beginning of our freedom. I don't keep running BACK to the cross to get forgiveness, I live FROM the cross in total forgiveness for my mistakes. I can say to Jesus, 'Wow, I messed up there. Thank you so much for forgiving me, it won't happen again." And go on with my day. Just like that! Honest! FREEDOM!!

*** And yes, I have accepted Jesus' forgiveness for letting my mom dress my firstborn son in the Easter outfit you see below! Not so sure that Hubs is forgiving me yet though! Ha!

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