Oh my, folks, I'm just about in tears. I'm so emotionally overwhelmed at the understanding and knowledge God has revealed to me tonight. I want to share this here...but I'm really excited right now, so if I make little to no sense, just let me know and I'll try to explain better! Here we go...

It all started with PG and I deciding to celebrate Passover with a few friends this year. We decided that, since Jesus celebrated it, and no where in the Bible are we told to STOP celebrating it, and since it was one of the feast days God commanded His people to celebrate, that we should celebrate it. So I've been online, doing research, trying to figgure out what all goes into a Sedar meal. As I was reading through the order of the feast, I was struck by a couple of things. First, there is a point in which the leader breaks a piece of matza bread. I thought "Huh, like Jesus did! He broke the bread at the Last Supper!". Then I read about how a blessing is said over a specific glass of wine and thought, "Huh! Just like Jesus did! He blessed the wine at the Last Supper!"

This got me to thinking about Communion. How we've pulled just those two parts of the Sedar out as Christians and call it Communion. Why did we pull just those two parts out? Because they were the only ones mentioned by name in those passages of Scripture? What about the rest of the supper...why wasn't it mentioned? Well...the obvious answer is because those passages were written to Jews. They would have understood what went on at a Sedar. They didn't need to have it all spelled out. Those two parts were the only ones written about because something was *different* about them. And what was different? That Jesus was telling His disciples "when you do this...remember Me."

Then I thought, now why would Jesus say that? In the Christian church it seems that we've interpereted it to mean "When you break bread or drink wine (ie, have Communion), remember Jesus and His saccrifice. That's why we have Communion so often...at my church it's once a quarter. In other churches it is weekly. But the more I thought about it, the more that just seemed to not make much sense.

So then I did some more digging. Jesus was clearly pointing out these two parts of the Sedar meal for a reason. There are about 15 parts to the meal. What was it about those two parts...the breaking of the bread and the blessing of the wine...that were significant? So I looked up what the meaning behind those two parts were. That is when the real epiphany came! Are you ready for this? This might change your WHOLE THINKING about Communion! So if you aren't ready to NEVER see Communion the same way again, you should stop here.

Ok...I warned you!

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

The bread part of the meal includes 3 pieces of matza bread. In the Sedar meal, the leader blesses the matza and then breaks the middle piece. Up until that night, the matza of a Sedar meal signified the "swift salvation" of the Jews. They were ousted from Egypt so quickly their bread had no time to rise. The Jews are reminded of their salvation from bondage when the matza is eaten. But when Jesus breaks that middle piece of matza (and yes, I think the breaking of the middle of 3 pieces is significant as well because Jesus is the second of the three parts of the Godhead) he is saying "Do this in rememberance of Me." He wants his disciples to know that every time they eat a Sedar meal, when it comes time to break the matza, they are to remember that Jesus's broken body is THEIR salvation. Do this in rememberance of me...not every time you break bread to eat, but every time you break the matza bread - the bread of the salvation of the Jews - remember that Jesus is their salvation.

Luke 22: 20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Matthew 26: 27Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Then there is the wine. It says that after the meal Jesus blessed the wine. This indicates that the passage is talking about the 3rd cup of wine (in a Sedar meal, there are 4 cups). The 3rd cup comes after the meal and is the "Cup of Blessing". Each of the 4 cups of wine signify a promise from God:

Cup 1: I will take you out
Cup 2: I will rescue you
Cup 3: I will redeem you
Cup 4: I will take you to me

Cup 3, the one we are told is the covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins...is that not redemption? Jesus, our Great Redeemer! When we do this, we should remember Him and that He has come to redeem us! It also would have made sense to those who were there with Him, because of their Jewish herritage and culture, that Jesus was referring to His relationship with the church as that of a bride and groom. From this site: http://home.comcast.net/~jovial/learn/mc/passover4cups.htm

Note that the 4th cup is "I will take you to me". This is what happens when two people get married. The bride is taken to the groom - they are together. Note how the 3rd and 4th cups parallel the wedding betrothal process of ancient Jewish custom. When a man proposed to a women in ancient Israel,

At a betrothal...
* The man would negotiate a bride price Y'shua paid the Bride price when He died for us and rose again. (Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24 , Luke 22:20)
* He would hand the bridal candidate cup of wine and say "This is the cup of my covenant" Y'shua did this at the last supper - said these exact words! (recorded in same verses as listed above)
*If she drank it, it meant "I do" She had all the rights of a wife, but no marital
intimacy until the wedding night

At the wedding...
*They’d drink of another cup

So, for me, the take home message is that Communion is just a church instituted rite. Jesus wanted us to celebrate the Passover, but to know that His coming and death changed the way we should look at the symbolism of some of the parts of the feast. Jesus didn't mean for us to have Communion often so that we could remember Him. He meant for us to remember Him when we celebrated Passover...to rememeber that HE is our salation and HE is our redeemer!

How amazin is that?!

Snow Day!

We FINALLY are having a snow day! It hasn't snowed here in YEARS! Ian was so excited. He stood by the window all day watching it fall. I told him we couldn't go out until the grass was covered, so he waited (pretty patiently) and then we got all bundled up and went out in it. It's so beautiful. It's been snowing (very fine fine flakes) all day. We probably have about 4 inches right now. We even had snow cream for dessert!

On the political front, I'm very glad that we had a smooth transition of power and that it was a safe day for everyone involved. I thought Obama's speach was very well done. I disagree with pretty much all of his platforms, but I'm still praying that God will be able to use him to get His will acomplished.

God always provides!

I mentioned in my last post a prayer request for PG because (among other reasons) our finances have been really tight recently. I have been praying for God to give me another child to watch in my home, but I didn't think it would happen any time soon due to my weird schedule. I teach on Mondays and Wednesdays and the HOME co-op will meet on Fridays, so the only real days I can watch a child are Tuesdays and Thursdays. What are the odds that anyone will *only* need a sitter on Tuesdays and Thursdays?

Well, God cares about the details, that's for sure. I got an email the day after I posted that prayer request from a wonderful woman at my church. Her son is in preschool M/W/F and daycare T/Th. She is unhappy with the daycare situation and is looking for someone to watch her son...you guessed it...on Tuesdays and Thursdays! I am SO excited to get this opportunity! She's even hoping that I can include her son with our homeschool activities. All I can say is YAY GOD! She's coming by Sunday afternoon so her son can see our house and we can talk about all the details.

On another note, I just finished reading a really interesting book. It's The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. I've read some reviews online about it and they are mixed. Some feel the book is pure hipocracy, others say it's spiritually eye opening. I'm in the latter group. There were a couple of things in the book that I'm not sure were Biblically accurate, but for 99% of the book, I thought it was very revealing. It gave me a look into the Trinity unlike any I've ever had before, and the first one that actually made sense. It gave me a renewed interest in fostering relationships and how important they are. And it gave me good insight into what forgiveness actually means, which for me was significant, since that is something I've struggled with for years in reference to a family situation. I would definately recomend this book. I would caution the reader to remember that the book is a work of fiction, but the plot sucks you in and you fall in love with the characters. Give it a read, but, as with all things theological, test the idea you take from it against the Bible.

Praises: Praise God for putting this babysitting opportunity in my lap! And for a really fun playgroup this morning with some of my Natural Mama friends.

Prayer requests: Pray that all the details work out well for me to keep this little boy (we'll probalby have to add a rider onto our insurance to cover him). Also, keep praying for PG's anxiety, as well as our homeschool journey.

We're off and running! Or at least, walking quickly...

I officially started homeschooling preschool with Ian this week! I was nervous about getting him excited about school - Ian rarely does things (without a significant battle) unless he *wants* to do it, so for the past couple of weeks, PG and I have really been talking it up. "Oh Ian!" says daddy, "I hear you get to start school with mommy next week!" and so on and so forth. It must have worked, at least enough to pique his curiosity.

We're using the Weaver Interlock (their Preschool book) for our spine. It includes Bible lessons, stories with comprehension questions, intro to math (shapes, counting, etc) letter recognition and writing readiness, art projects, nature projects...all sorts of things. It's set up to go 3 days a week, so since my Mondays are booked with Great Worth and teaching at Roseleaf, and Fridays are always iffy in case we are out of town, I've decided to do school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I also found a GREAT preschool worksheet book at Sam's Club for about $7.50, so that is providing coloring sheets and tracing letters and shapes for us.

For Christmas we got a new bookshelf for the school area. It has 3 shelves up top and a cabinet down below with 2 shelves in it. I have our school books and puzzles on the shelves and all of the art supplies in the cabinet. Zollie and Ian quickly figgured out that the FUN stuff is in the cabinet, so I need to get some sort of lock for it. Alas! My children are soooo resourceful!

So far we've been doing about half an hour first thing in the morning (I can put Zollie in the high chair with some breakfast and read our Bible lesson and story to Ian while he eats his breakfast, and then maybe get in a coloring sheet before Zollie decides he needs to GET DOWN RIGHT NOW) and another 30 min sometime in the afternoon when and if I can get Zollie down for a little nap. I also considder watching things like Sesame Street, Behind the Lions, and Super Why! to be school-related. *nod* My goal is to hit the library at least once every 2 weeks as well. This week we picked up some books that have the colors and animals in English and Spanish.

Prayer requests: 2 big ones this week...First off, PG has been really stressed out lately. His mom has had brain surgery twice now, his dad had an overnight hospital stay for chest pains, we've had all the lead issues with Zollie and getting the house lead free, he's started his fellowship so there are new schedules and coworkers, and our finances are super tight right now. Please pray for peace for him as his anxiety level is really high right now. Secondly, please pray for a relative of mine. She is young and unmarried and due to give birth to a daughter any day now. Please pray for wisdom in making decisions related to her birth and the care of the baby. We have some serious concerns about what her living conditions will be like as well as how involved the baby's father will be.

Praises: God always provides! Praise God for family who is there for you when you need them! Praise God that my mother in law seems to be doing well. Praise God that Ian has been excited about doing school the past couple of days.