Archive for the 'Enjoyment & Rest' Category

Published by Kelly Wilson on 13 Apr 2020

Passover for Gentiles?

As I start to write, I hope to write carefully and gingerly… I don’t want to create aggravation like I promised my friend Patty that I would not do way back in 2005. At that time we each had a 4th grader, who is now 25 years old and we got to teach their class about the connections between “Passover” and Communion.

Patty is a Messianic Jew and she made sure that we would be reverent and accurate and true to Jewish culture. Since then, I have loved this celebration and had studied it so that we “gentiles” can celebrate it in a way that would honor Hebrew traditions, but also connect to Christ. So yes- it can be for non Jewish people.

Passover 2020 will begin on the evening of Wednesday April 8 and ends on the evening of Thursday April 16. Many people in Israel will eat the special meal, called a “Seder” meal on the first night. In other places people will eat the meal on the first or second night and maybe any night during these days.

The Seder meal is meant to commemorate the first “Passover” that is described in the Bible in Exodus 12:1-20. That first Passover occurred as God emancipated the Israelites from Egypt and gave them the freedom to worship Him as His nation.

I was fortunate to teach this celebration again at school when my daughter was a third grader in 2015. A group of mom’s each prepared one of the traditional items and we let the kiddos sample them. It was an absolute blast and they learned so much about the connection between Communion and Passover.

Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples right before His death and resurrection. This is described in Luke 22:7-22. And ironically in 2020 Passover is a few days before the Easter/Resurrection Celebration which is Sunday April 12.

Because of the corona-virus spread around the world, most of us won’t be at our regular church services…

But I’d like to encourage you to commemorate. Prayerfully you have at home some grape juice or wine along with bread or crackers that are made without yeast. In the original Passover there was no time for the bread to rise because the people were leaving quickly and also in many places in the Bible “yeast” is used as a symbol of sin. It spreads fast and people might not even be aware that it is lurking to take them off path. Hmmm…. sounds like COVID 19, but I digress.

May I encourage you to take communion on Wednesday evening and Sunday morning to celebrate the first Passover of death but also to remember Jesus, who is called “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” in John 1:29.

This Lamb gives us freedom from slavery to sin and gives those who believe in Him adoption into His family and life that is eternal.

If you are interested in learning more about celebrating Passover as a non-Jewish person, please let me know at Kelly@betterdaybetterlife.com

One last thing… I read the following this morning in Luke 12:8-9 NLT. Jesus says…

“I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels.”

I had never connected this passage to the Passover until now. In order to be passed over by the angel who would be delivering God’s judgment, those who sought protection had to make a very public declaration.

They had to place blood from the lamb that was sacrificed and eaten, over the door frame and side posts of their homes.

This would be a show of total dependence on God. It would show humility in that they needed God’s protection and favor. It showed that they would do things His way – even though it didn’t make sense in the non-spiritual realm. It also that they were turning away from the provision and protection of Egypt, a symbol of the world’s power and system.

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So as part of my celebration – I am placing some red tulle on my front door as a show that I am trusting Christ for everything. (It’s not sophisticated. I’m using a CHRISTmas wreath holder to secure it.) But my red covering declares that: He will protect and provide for me and my family; He will care for and rebuild our community, city, state, country, world, when the comes; He will heal the sick; He will strengthen and encourage believers all over the world – and He is inviting anyone who wants to come – to come into His Kingdom – by the pathway opened by the Lamb.

Blessings to you and yours-

Kelly

Published by Kelly Wilson on 03 Feb 2017

The Hidden Value of a Good Friend

Lately when I sweep my kitchen floor I want to cry. It’s not because I hate cleaning my kitchen. I actually like having a clean kitchen. I want to cry because my floor had a hidden kitchen sweeper that I am reminded of when I sweep. It was my nearly 13-year-old dog, Kondi Wilson.

Kondi on the way home from the groomer, 2016

Kondi on the way home from the groomer 2016

Kondi was a Wheaten Terrier. She was loving, kind, funny, loyal and protective. Whenever the doorbell would ring, she was over the top crazy, making sure we knew a possible intruder could be at hand. But if we allowed the person to enter, she was a friend.

We got Kondi in May of 2004 and she was named after Condoleezza Rice. My husband bought her for me as a surprise, a few months after our oldest daughter, Kennedy died. He thought Kondi would be a good distraction for me over that first mother’s day weekend without our infant. She was.

Of her many talents, Kondi was a great vacuum sweeper.

I candidly didn’t realize how much she did to help me keep the floor clean. She must’ve licked up millions of crumbs over her 12 years of being our pet. I never noticed until now, how fraught with crumbs the kitchen floor is and has been. It makes me miss her even more.

Kondi was a really good friend. She was always optimistic, believing the best of me. She was always available to play or just sit next to me while I worked on my laptop or read my Bible in the early morning. She was quirky, loving to lie on stinky clothes that she dragged from the laundry room. The worst the smell, the better it was to her.

I suspect that my human friends and loved ones have value that is hidden too. I am afraid that I overlook or take for granted so many of the wonderful things that they do – and I don’t fully savor the quirky and unique ways that they are. Or worst, I get impatient and annoyed.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, this will be a great time to acknowledge many of the wonderful people in my life. Maybe I will make them a treat. I trust Kondi would approve.

 

My command is this: Love each other as I [Jesus] have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:12-15 NIV

 

Published by Kelly Wilson on 21 Dec 2016

The Best Gift

I love CHRISTmas. I am grateful that God choose to come to earth as a man. Sometime that love gets lost in the buying, wrapping, cooking, decorating, hosting, cleaning, driving and every-other-thing-ing.

This year, I didn’t feel like putting up decorations when I typically do it. But I heard God say in my heart, “you like it when people celebrate your birthday. I like it when you celebrate My half-birthday.” (Jesus was likely born in the spring.) I laughed, because He is right. My birthday is on Halloween and I always say that everything that happens – is happening – for me. So this season, I tried to remember that everything I did was for Him.

I put wreaths in the dining room, garland on the stairs, and fresh evergreens in vases. We put up two trees. The small one is in our family room. It’s pretty and delicate, but had no gifts under it. One morning while sitting near it, I came across a Bible passage that noted how God gives us grace and peace and boy do I need grace and peace.

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It dawned on me that the very best gifts I have are not things at all, but salvation, hope and love.

So I decorated empty boxes with oversized tags that remind me of the gifts God gave me in sending His son, and placed them under that tree.

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I encourage you to strategically place a few “labeled” boxes in your home to remind yourself of His great love. I know you will be blessed for it.

Wishing you a Merry CHRISTmas & Joyous New Year

 

Kelly

 

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