Resurrection Day

On Easters' past, I have celebrated my Risen Lord's sacrifice for me and for you so that we could be reconciled to God and have eternal life. But this Easter, I'm really, REALLY celebrating Jesus' conquering of the grave. You see, this Easter is different from all the other Easters before it. THIS Easter, my beautiful niece Hannah is celebrating Easter face to face with Jesus. What must that be like?

I don't think I've ever really wondered before how Jesus celebrates Easter. I'll bet there's lots of laughing, singing and dancing! I've also never really spent a lot of time wondering what Heaven is like. It was always in the back of my mind but always seemed so far away. I knew it was good, and that Jesus is there and I'm going there someday to be with Him and that was enough. But in the nearly 2 months since Hannah left us, my kids and I have talked a lot about Heaven. And the more people I love that go there before me, the more it just feels like HOME.

The most exciting part of the whole Easter story though is not just that Jesus rose from the dead. That's exciting but He didn't do it JUST so we could go to Heaven...He's got BIG plans! You see, my Jesus is coming back for me and you and when He does this earth will never be the same!

The Bible gives us this to look foward to in Revelation 21:

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

I love a happy ending, how about you?

If you don't know my Savior I'd love to introduce you.

Christianity in Crisis: 21st Century

A book review for Thomas Nelson Publishing.



Hank Hanegraaff is the host of Bible Answer Man, a radio program heard daily throughout the US and Canada. He is president of the Christian Research Institute and author of several books. In Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century, Mr. Hanegraaff takes on the Faith movement or prosperity gospel. He rails against so-called prosperity preachers including Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes. While I am certainly no fan of any of these people, I found Mr. Hanegraaff’s attacks to be almost of a personal nature rather than doctrinal. While I am uneasy with the likes of Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer, I also found myself uneasy with Mr. Hanegraaff. After googling him, I found that he is himself a very controversial figure having been sued several times and accused of plagiarism, unethical behavior and financial fraud. While I don’t put much credence into anything found on the Internet, these findings did somewhat confirm my uneasiness about blindly accepting Mr. Hanegraaff’s assessment of these prosperity preachers. In fact, I can’t even determine that he has any formal education in theology. He offers supposed examples of the Faith preachers’ heresy, complete with numerous footnotes, but I found his book to be redundant with repetitive use of the same few examples. He employs extensive use of mnemonic devices which I found to be a little hokey and largely unnecessary. Please read this book with a healthy dose of skepticism and do some research on your own of all the players mentioned.

Pantry Pickle

Have I told you how sad my pantry makes me?



Please don't look at it too long or you too could become overwhelmed by despair.

Yes, the shelves are unpainted. That's another one of those things that we were going to finish after we moved in...three years ago.

Yes, those are grease stains on the unpainted shelf from various "nutritious" snacks that my kids (or husband) spilled onto said shelf and left there. But really, if you spilled something in here would you feel compelled to clean it up either? I mean, it's OBVIOUSLY so well-cared for!

There's the bread-maker that I thought I had to have and haven't used in years. There's the cupcake maker that Caitlin had to have for Christmas that hasn't been used since. There's also a can of chickpeas. Why?

Yes there are three identical bags of cereal. For some reason, once there is a new bag of cereal my kids refuse to finish the current bag, even if they are the same kind so I have to time my cereal purchases very carefully. Guess I've fallen off that wagon.

Oh, and I hate that wire shelf thingy. It's functional but soooo ugly. Any ideas?

See those pretty glass canisters with the stainless steel lids? I heart those. Got 'em at Hobby Lobby for $3-4 a piece. I taped the cooking instructions to the bottom of each canister. I've got one for spaghetti, one for rice, and one for instant mashed potato flakes which is a staple at our house. I haven't decided what to put in the fourth one. They look out of place in that dismal hole I call a pantry.

I'm thinking of painting the walls and shelves a fun color. Any suggestions on some other ways to beautify and organize my nemesis?

Ten Places I Want to Visit

My friend Mer was kind enough to send me the code for her cute clickable button for her Ten on the Tenth Linky but unfortunately I have no idea how to insert it in my blog post. I know how to add it as a gadget on the sidebar but I want it IN this post. Anyone know how to do that in Blogger?

Since I am inept with html code, I will just insert a picture of her button.



Ta Da!

Okey Dokey, here's my list of ten places I would LOVE to visit in no particular order:


10. Maui


9. Isle of Capri, Italy



8. Bermuda

7. Costa Rica

6. Stonehenge

5. Scotland

4. Ireland

3. Egypt

2. Israel

1. Washington, D.C.

Have a blessed Easter!

Freedom Friday 04.10.09

Welcome to Freedom Friday!

Today's principal is : I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

“Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.” -Thomas Jefferson

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." -United States Declaration of Independence

The key to understanding how our government and society were designed to work is to recognize that while "all Men are created equal" we were never guaranteed equal results. Ideally, our government provides the framework for us to operate in and then gets out of the way, leaving us to our Lives, Liberties and pursuits of Happiness. What I decide to pursue may differ significantly from what you decide to pursue. The things that make me happy are not necessarily the things that make you happy. I may be ultimately more successful in my pursuits than you are or vice versa. And that's okay.

What matters is that you and I have equal opportunity.

What we make of that opportunity is up to us.

Meet Chris Gardner, the man whose rags-to-riches story inspired the movie Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith. Chris did not have any positive male role models as a child, since his father was absent and his stepfather was a violent man who physically abused him and his mother regularly. Despite her unhappy marriage, Gardner's mother, Bettye Jean Triplett, was a source of inspiration and strength. She encouraged Gardner to believe in himself and sowed the seeds of self-reliance in him. Gardner quotes her as saying, "You can only depend on yourself. The cavalry ain't coming."

Bettye was imprisoned and Chris and his siblings sent to live in foster care when his stepfather reported her for working while receiving welfare. They re-entered foster care when she later tried to burn down the family home with the stepfather inside. From those experiences, Chris determined that alcoholism, domestic abuse, child abuse, illiteracy, fear, and powerlessness were all things he wanted to avoid in the future.

Long story short, Chris kept trying to work his way out of poverty and powerlessness and kept getting knocked down. Gardner eventually worked to become a top trainee at Dean Witter Reynolds. He arrived at the office early and stayed late each day, persistently making calls to prospective clients with his goal being 200 calls/day. His perseverance paid off when, in 1982, Gardner passed his licensing exam on the first try and became a full employee of the firm. He still barely made enough to support himself and then after a failed relationship, he found himself with sole custody of his infant son. The rooming house he lived in didn't allow children and so Chris and his son secretly struggled with homelessness while he saved money for a rental house.

This is just a glimpse into the trials and tragedies of Chris' life. But the good news is that Chris never gave up. He persevered and in the end his hard work was rewarded when he founded his own brokerage firm.

Today, Chris is wealthy beyond his wildest dreams and he uses his influence and wealth to fund many charitable organizations some of which provided assistance to Chris and his son many years before. Now I'm not suggesting that hard work and perseverence will always result in wealth; nor am I suggesting that wealth for wealth's sake should be our goal. I simply offer Chris' humble rags-to-riches story as an example of how we can overcome our circumstances through perseverance and we can use our stories of struggle and success to inspire and encourage others to do the same.