Category Archives: Jesus

Easter Week

We are on the letter E for the A to Z Challenge and my choice for the letter E is Easter Week.

This Easter Week will go down in history as the Corona Virus Holy Week of 2020!

Our church will be celebrating Easter together in the flesh once the Stay at Home orders are lifted, sometime in the summer. We will have an online celebration this coming Sunday, on Easter.

Part of Easter Week (Holy Week) is Maundy Thursday, The Last Supper and the Washing of the Disciples Feet.

The Last Supper and the Washing of the Disciples Feet are both remarkable events.

While in Milan in March of 2013 I was able to see Leonardo da Vinci’s mural of the Last Supper. The original mural is on a wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. No photos allowed.

Dear and I were in England in 2014 and we saw two amazing paintings of the last supper, one in the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist in Windsor and one in the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford.

The Thames 104 - Copy - CopyFrom the Lectern, look down the centre aisle and observe in the West Gallery a painting of The Last Supper. This is a national treasure. The picture was originally presented to the Royal Chapel c. 1660 by Brian Duppa, Bishop of Winchester, Prelate of the Order of the Garter. It was “bought by him beyond the sea”. Another tradition ascribes it to Franz de Cleyn (1588-1658), Rostock, Mecklenburg, Court painter to James I. It was rolled up and buried “in the plumery” (plumbers workshop?) in the Great Rebellion. It hung over the altar at St George’s, Windsor in 1702, and can be seen there in Sandby’s drawing dated 1786.

The Thames 094

Oxford Day 6 141Above the stalls in the chapel hangs Giampetrino’s remarkable 15th copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, on permanent loan from the Royal Academy. In view of the bad condition of the original fresco in Milan, Magdalen’s copy on canvas is a piece of increasing historic and artistic significance.

Oxford Day 6 144This next sculpture of Jesus washing Peter’s feet is at the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, California.

GOTW-practice035

Excerpts from John chapter 13…

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;  so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Thinking of all my friends and family during this time of “Social Distancing”. Hoping you all are holding up under this time of unrest. It’s a good time to heed Jesus’ words and love one another and care for one another and wash one another’s feet.

This song is one that our Russian Community sings at funerals but it is a song with words that are relevant in this time of being apart. I am looking forward to that time “till we meet again”.

Jesus is All the World to Me ~ Hymn

Jesus is All the World to Me

Jesus is all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without Him I would fall.
When I am sad, to Him I go,
No other one can cheer me so;
When I am sad, He makes me glad,
He’s my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me,
My friend in trials sore;
I go to Him for blessings, and
He gives them over and o’er.
He sends the sunshine and the rain,
He sends the harvest’s golden grain;
Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain,
He’s my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me,
And true to Him I’ll be;
O how could I this friend deny,
When He’s so true to me?
Following Him I know I’m right,
He watches o’er me day and night;
Following Him by day and night,
He’s my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me,
I want no better friend;
I trust Him now, I’ll trust Him when
Life’s fleeting days shall end.
Beautiful life with such a friend,
Beautiful life that has no end;
Eternal life, eternal joy,
He’s my friend.

Words: Will L. Thompson, 1904.

This is Palm Sunday and it’s hard to not be in services with other believers. So thankful for being able to meet online and enjoy time together in another way…

The Time is Right

When I learned last August that one of my neighbors was given 3 short months to live I felt the urgency to share and knew this wasn’t a time for sugar coating. I feel the same about this time we are all finding ourselves in globally over the danger of COVID-19. Here’s what I wrote to her:

Dear ****,

Greg and I (Ellen) were so sorry to hear that you were given such a short time to live on this earth. We have prayed for you, especially that you can die in peace knowing you will spend eternity in heaven.

We believe in the one true God who made heaven and earth and all of us. We believe the Bible is the true Word of God. The Bible tells us about what Jesus did for us-

“Jesus Christ came into this world and did the greatest thing that will ever be done. As the perfect Son of God, He died in our place, absorbed the wrath of God, paid the penalty for sin, provided the righteousness of the law, and rose invincible from the dead–all in a vapor’s life of thirty three years.”

Jesus Christ wants a personal relationship with you. He wants to be your Savior. In order for Him to be your Savior you need to admit you are a sinner (need a Savior). Our sins separate us from God. God provided the way for us to be forgiven through Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross, paying for our sins. We cannot save ourselves. We need to come to Jesus personally and cry to Him to have mercy on us. When we ask He will forgive our sins.

God is in charge. “This then, is the gospel our Lord sends us forth to proclaim: That Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, humbled himself to die on our behalf. Thus He became the the sinless sacrifice to pay the penalty of our guilt. He rose from the dead to declare with power that He is Lord over all, and He offers eternal life freely to sinners who will surrender to Him in humble, repentant faith. This gospel promises nothing to the haughty rebel, but for broken, penitent sinners, it graciously offers everything that pertains to life and godliness.”

We pray that God will have mercy on you and draw you to Himself through forgiveness so that you can be born again.  It’s too late to sugar coat this message. Ask God to show you right now the truth of His Gospel and the way to eternal life.

With concern and hope for your eternity,

Ellen and Greg

Our neighbor left this earth in October of 2019.

We will all spend eternity somewhere. I’m grateful to be able to say I will spend it with my Savior. Do you know where you will spend eternity?

John 14: 1-4, 6 ~ “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going…Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Eye Has Not Seen…

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NKJV)

9 But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

It’s time for me to forewarn that ellen b. will be away from the computer and all reading material for a time. On Monday I am scheduled for Vitrectomy Surgery in Spokane. My right eye has enough floaters to form my own galaxy. They affect my vision in my right eye. The surgery will involve removing the vitreous (the clear jelly like substance that fills the middle of the eye). They will replace it with saline (a saltwater solution). I’ll be under Dear’s care who will have to instill 3 different eye drop medications in my eye at different intervals for days. I don’t really know how long it will be before I feel like typing or reading so when you don’t see anything on my blog you will know why. I hope some of you will pray for me when God reminds you by His Spirit. Thank you in advance!

This is the latest devotional book that I am reading along with my daily Bible passages.

It’s proving to be a book I copy quotes from into my journal. Piper shares this quote from C.S. Lewis and then I’ll share a subsequent paragraph from Piper.

In the middle of the last century the British writer C.S. Lewis got it shockingly right:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His fee and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (Mere Christianity)

Then Piper goes on to say:

In other words, Jesus will not be domesticated. But people still try. There seems to be something about this man for everybody. So we pick and choose in a way that shows he is on our side. All over the world, having Jesus on your side is a good thing. But not the original, undomesticated, unadjusted Jesus. Just the revised Jesus who fits our religion or political platform or lifestyle.

These quotes are just from the preface. I’ll be jotting down many more thoughts to ponder as I continue to slowly read through this one.

Happy Monday to you all. Hope to have Dear add an update on this post on Wednesday to let you know how things are going.

Can You Imagine?

Zephaniah 3:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

17 The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Can you imagine God singing over you?

Are you a child of God? Have you responded to His call to repent and be born again? Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be saved and be born again. Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Are you following and growing in relationship with Him?

If you answer yes then you are His child. You are one of His lambs. Stop and consider the fact that the God of the universe sings over you…

My daily readings right now include the Bible, Daily Readings by C.H. Spurgeon, The Pleasures of God by John Piper and Pray Big by Alistair Begg. In Piper’s book I’m in the chapter called “The Pleasure of God in doing good to all who Hope in Him”. The beginning sentence reads; “Can you imagine what it would be like to hear God singing?”

This chapter brought my thoughts to who I have sung over in my life. There is a simple song I sang over each of our children when they were babies. I made up the simple words to a simple tune and sang it when I held them or rocked them.

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

I sang the same song over our second born son, Daniel.

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

Then we had our daughter, Katie.

There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.

Now 40 years later I’m singing this same simple song over our granddaughter and grandson.

There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.

and

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

Today I’m dumbfounded in thoughts about God singing over me. God singing over His lambs. I’m waiting on God for the day when He returns to gather his lambs. How about you? “Open our heart-eyes to see much further and see much better, to the riches of your eternity.” ~Begg

John 17:24-26 English Standard Version (ESV)

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Ask God to make his name known to you…

Thoughtful Thursday

On Tuesday we met with the pastor and deacons of First Baptist Colville to give our testimonies for consideration for church membership. I rewrote my testimony to share with the deacons.

Nestled close to  Kings Canyon National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada is the Youth Camp that I was able to attend in 1963, 1965 and 1967. I was 12, 14, and 16 during these wilderness adventures.

I was raised in a family who attended church regularly and often, very religious. The church I was raised in gave me the impression that because I was Russian and a member of their church that I had an exclusive connection with God. What I learned at Bible Camp was that the only exclusive connection I could have to God was through Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross. Being Russian and being a part of my father’s religion did not give me a direct link to God. In 1963 at Hume Lake while listening to a speaker talk about Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to save sinners I was moved to step out and become a follower of Jesus. God’s plan of salvation was exclusively through his perfect son Jesus, who is fully God and came to earth to live a perfect life among us and be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. I knew I was one of those sinners and I needed a Savior. This decision began a journey of ups and downs, highs and lows, but a journey forward with my God and Savior. When I began my new life following Jesus I was clothed with His righteousness and reconciled to God. I continue on this walk, never perfectly but with God’s grace I carry on. He will be teaching me by His Holy Spirit all the days of my life. My God and Savior is and will be faithful to see me through all of my life on this earth and I look forward with the Hope of seeing Him face to face in heaven. During this same year, 1963, my father began his journey of following Jesus after hearing Billy Graham at the Los Angeles Coliseum share the truth of Jesus Christ and why He came to earth over 2000 years ago. 1963 was an epic year for me and my family. For my father and me we became part of God’s movement of love and grace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My mother was a follower of Jesus when she married my father. My two older sisters had started following Jesus before my father and me.

I’ll share this verse that Billy Graham proclaims in every interview I’ve ever heard him give. John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

High School scanned4HUME LAKE CHRISTIAN CAMP 1967

Fresh quotes from my reading this week and a quote from Dorothy Sayers that I read on Thistle Cove Farm blog:

“It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.” ~ Dorothy Sayers

Form Piper, Taste and See:

“We should continually look to the cross and the work of God in Christ because this is where God makes the light of the gospel shine. If we become excessively introspective and analyze our emotions too much, we will sink into hopeless doubts because the self-authenticating light shines not from within us, but from Christ in the gospel. We must look outside ourselves to Christ and his work if we hope to have assurance sustained inside ourselves.”

Second, we should continually pray for God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts.

Third, we should express our trust in Christ by loving each other.”

1 John 3:14 ~ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.”

Hope you have time to pause and consider what God has done for you on this Thoughtful Thursday.

Good Friday

John 17: 1-5

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

John 19: 16-18

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

This week in history is so important to our world. It’s no wonder that we still take notice 2000 years later. The events leading up to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ are powerful. His Resurrection will never be trumped by any other event in history. Even the name of Jesus has more power then any other.  Today my sister Lana G! and I will be baking and keeping with our Russian traditions of making Easter Bread (Kulich) and a sweet cheese spread for the bread called Seerney Paska in anticipation of our Resurrection Sunday celebration. Growing up Good Friday was a day of fasting until our church gathering Friday evening. After the service the congregation would break bread together and have a meal to break the fast. Good Friday was a very sorrowful day for the followers of Jesus 2000 years ago because they could not understand the miracle of His resurrection that brought them out of their despair. I’m glad we know the end of the story. Our Savior conquered death and He lives and still saves today. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Have a wonderful Easter Everyone!

 

Outdoor Wednesday ~ Saturday in the Northwest

It’s time for some outdoor shots wherever you are. I happen to be in the Western Washington which is part of the Great Pacific Northwest area of the U.S.A. Thank you to Susan at A Southern Daydreamer for hosting this weekly event…

My girlfriends and I walked the Burke Gilman Trail on Saturday morning for about 4 miles and it was nice and sunny.

 

The blossoms are gorgeous and prolific. This tree was at Blyth Park in Bothell. So many blossoms that they look like snow when they fall.

The tulips are beginning to bloom, too.

My apple tree will soon be in full bloom. I’ll take more photos when more of the buds open up…

Hope your Easter week is filled with the wonder of Jesus and what He suffered and accomplished for all of us…

 

The Light of the World is Jesus ~ Hymn

The Light of the World is Jesus

The whole world was lost
In the darkness of sin,
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Like sunshine at noonday,
His glory shone in.
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Refrain

Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee;
Sweetly the light has dawned upon me.
Once I was blind, but now I can see:
The Light of the world is Jesus!

No darkness have we
Who in Jesus abide;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
We walk in the light
When we follow our Guide!
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Refrain

Ye dwellers in darkness
With sin blinded eyes,
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Go, wash, at His bidding,
And light will arise.
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Refrain

No need of the sunlight
In Heaven we’re told;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
The Lamb is the Light
In the city of gold,
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Refrain

Words & Music: Philip P. Bliss

update: Christopher Tan left a link in the comments with him playing this hymn beautifully on piano. I wanted to leave the link here if anyone would like to listen to this hymn played on the piano. Just click here.