For "give"

I actually wanted to post this post on Thursday, but tiredness overcame. So, I'm writing it today. I have this little book entitled "The Passion of Jesus Christ" and happened to flip it open to the chapter entitled "For the Forgiveness of Our Sins". There were some good points, ones that I must write!
"When we forgive a debt or an offense or an injury, we don't require a payments for settlement. That would be the opposite of forgiveness. If repayment is made to us for what we lost, there is no need for forgiveness. We have our due.

Forgiveness assumes grace. If I am injured by you, grace lets it go. I don't sue you. I forgive you. Grace gives what someone doesn't deserve. That's why forgiveness has the word give in it. Forgiveness is not "getting" even. It is giving away the right to get even.
...with God's justice. All sin is serious, b/c it's against God. He is the one whose glory is injured when we ignore or disobey or blaspheme him. His justice will no more allow him simply to set us free than a human judge can cancel all the debts that criminals owe to society. The injury done to God's glory by our sin must be repaired so that in justice his glory shines more brightly. And if we criminals are to go free and be forgiven, there must be some dramatic demonstration that the honor of God is upheld even though former blasphemers are being set free.

That is why Christ suffered and died. 'In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses'. Forgiveness costs us nothing. All our costly obedience is the fruit, not the root, of being forgiven. That's why we call it grace. But it cost Jesus His life. That is why we call it just. Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins against us! And how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it right for God to do this.

Jim Tressel

Yes- you're eyes are not playing tricks on you! That is Jim Tressel standing right beside me. A couple of weeks ago I got an invitation from the OSU alumni association inviting me to a fundraising luncheon with Jim Tressel. Normally I don't do much with the alumni association except to belong to it so I can obtain those coveted Buckeye tickets :) However, since this luncheon included Jim Tressel I was all about going. What I like about Jim, is his character and integrity- and I got to tell that to him too! I feel like he has vision and that was confirmed as he talked about a new Woody Hayes center to be created for the players to keep them away from the temptations of High Street. He cares about the well-being of his players and has forsight to implement safeguards- I like that. To be a coach, one has to have vision. You have to have vision of winning and the game plan of how that will happen- what will be the offensive plays- how will the defense be set up. He seemed personable and was very generous signing numerous programs, T-shirts, signs, etc. As I sat with a random grouping of people I had to chuckle to the lady beside me and said this is one event where the men outnumbered the women :) Jim talked about the NFL draft tomorrow and the character of AJ Hawk- how he turned down ritzy places and offers to rather be home with his family for the annoucement of the draft- that he told the NFL recruiters that he would not miss out a workout if he were to visit their facilities and I'm sure to be wined and dined. So he has been getting up at 4:30 AM in the morning to work out. Dilligence, Determination...I like that. I like that Jim wanted to talk about what a great person AJ is- not on all of his athletic abilities, which speaks for themselves, but on AJ as a person. Can you tell that I enjoyed the day? Go Bucks!
I had to put one more picture of me getting his autograph :)

O-HI-O

Oh, "I want to go back to Ohio State to ol' Columbus town....I gotta go back, to O-HI-O..!" We'll see how the Bucks do at the spring game!

Standing on the Roof

So today is my last day off of spring break- I think it will be hard going back to work! That's the problem with having a lot of time off, it's hard going back! So, today I'm packing in everything that I wanted to get done in my week off. My dad came today to help me put my fascia back up. For those of you who don't know what fascia is let me explain (I didn't know until 2 years ago when my first piece of fascia came undone). Fascia is the aluminum that lines the side of the roof. So, my dad who is a great handy man came over he planned that I would go up on the roof to stabilize the fascia while he would nail it in. I start my ascent up the ladder one rung at a time, until I get to the last rung. My dad forewarned me that standing on the roof for the first time can be a scary experience. My problem was as I started to bring my left foot onto the slanted roof and my right foot was still on the rung, I felt unbalanced. I kept bringing my foot back- my dad down below, starts laughing so hard that he began to cry. Feeling compassion for his nervous Nellie daughter he starts to trek up the ladder to assist her. However, I exclaim- Dad don't come up- hold onto the ladder!! So I finally made it up- and once I did it was beautiful to be on top of my roof. I then started to think about the people living in New Orleans who had to climb ontop of their roofs, and not only that- they had rising water to contend with. My empathy sure improved- it seems many of times we can't fully understand something unless we go through the same thing ourselves.

Happy Easter

"It is finished"- Jesus

Isaiah 53

"Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom mend hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem him.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

Good Friday

It seem befitting as I am sitting here on Friday afternoon and the dimness of the sky is encroaching as the lightning is the only light part of the sky. It's reflective of the actual weather and sights seen on Good Friday. "For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man in His day. But first, He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." Luke 17:24-25. Today I was looking up the word suffer as this is what Jesus did for us on Good Friday. When I looked it up in the Greek the definition is as follows: to experience a sensation or impression (usually painful)- feel, passion, suffer, vex. The other verse that I ran across was Mark 8:31-33 "And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." I think of the word Good Friday- and how man would not thinking suffering and dying on a cross would be a good thing and that's exactly what Jesus addresses with Peter- you're eyes are on man's affairs, not God's. For in God's eyes this was good. How Jesus then goes on to say- If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me. The same is true for us. If we walk with Christ we will experience suffering- together- however my suffering will never compare to Christ's...The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Knowing that there is something that comes after the suffering- that Jesus rises- death, sin is defeated.

Candle in the wind

Today I went down to the Dayton Art Institute to see the celebration of Diana exhibit. The world was fascinated with Diana- and that includes me. I think the fascination stemmed from her genuiness, her realness- she didn't present herself as uppedity royalty but rather like someone you would want to share a cup of tea with. I am amazed that she got married at the age of 20, she was yet sooo young! And Charles was 13 years her elder- I didn't know that piece of information. They actually had not dated long- the first date happened in July of 1980 and they were married less than a year later in 1981. Interesting enough, Charles used to date Diana's older sister. The exhibit was wonderful, it made you see even more of Diana's realness. In one of the rooms a video was playing showing Diana's christening at just a baby and then you watched her grow up- swimming in a pool, dancing her heart out. I didn't know that dance was her passion. Then another passion was serving in different charities. She traveled to Indonesia where she visited a leprosy colony and not only interacted with people but literally touched them. Mother Theresa had given her a prayer book- where Mother Theresa inscribed inside that Jesus is the light. When looking at newspaper articles, I had forgotten that Mother Theresa had passed away the same weekend. Diana's life was beautiful- seeing the exibit saddened my heart- England's rose.

stoplight

What a beautiful day- a little windy, but can you say, I love the warmth? So spring break is flying by-I can't believe it's the end of Wednesday. I've been spending a lot of time with my grandparents. Yesterday I had breakfast with my grandma P and we ate a Bob Evans, a long standing tradition of ours. Then today I drove to see my other grandparents. I got my oil changed in Tipp City before hand and took 571 to route 40, for those of you famiiar with the area and yes there's a point for me mentioning this. I'm not used to this intersection. There is a stoplight and oncoming traffic is hard to see as there is a hill. So it's a little scary because cars descend this short hill and here I am turning left. All that said- the light is green and there's all of these cars coming. I focused so much on the cars, I totally missed my green light- it became red!! Agghh! I thought- how true this is in life- I get caught up in all the circumstances around me and totally missed the light. The light that was green- oh Lord help me to see the green light and not get consumed with circumstances around me.

sweet forget-me-nots

Wow- what a busy week! I"m glad that it's Friday and the beginning of my week long (and one day!) spring break. Yeah :) I don't know what spring break will look like yet, but that's okay. I'm looking forward to some rest and relaxation. As I look back on the week- there were some rougher points, but also some sweet little (not really) blessings from the Lord. I'm so glad that God knows what is going on in our lives. This week I had two little forget-me-nots from the Lord. When I say forget-me-nots- I'm referring to blessings that He allowed me to be a part of that I hadn't told anyone, just as an encouragement to me. I felt like the Lord was saying, "Lynn, I know you- I know your heart and your thoughts and I just wanted to show you in a tangible way that I've got your back- more like I have your future." He's so good- so real-

Removal of specks from my eye

What a Monday- do you ever have many odd occurences in one day. Initially I was finding myself getting upset at different events that occurred and sometimes it seems when one event you find irritating the other circumstances start to snowball. I so need the Holy Spirit in those times- later I thought- I need to find a bathroom to lock the door and pray- and say Lord help me and renew my mind. Instead I find myself feeding off of my own anger and my own misunderstandings. Then the Lord allowed grace to flow in my life to step back and gain understanding. To gain understanding is so important; it takes away the edge. I was so focused on me and what my views are and that I need to communicate these- that I can't assume that another can read my mind. I'm so glad that the Holy Spirit convicts, because then I could see my own plank in my eye- my own misunderstandings, criticalness and the pride in myself that likes to rage.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
4 "Or how can[2][Lit will ] you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?
5 "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

I like verse 5- then- key word then suggesting an action taking prior to this...you will see clearly.

To see clearly after removing that log out of my eye so I can see! Amen!