My First Steps With Jesus

Last week was Don's birthday and my puppies wrote him a Happy Birthday post on their blog. Yes, my puppies have their own blog. That post got me to thinking about other birthdays which led to Christmas and how we give presents to the birthday boy or girl but on the day we celebrate Jesus' birthday we give presents to each other rather than giving Him the only present He wants which is us.

My puppies had the same discussion and I'd like to direct you to their blog so you can read their view on the subject. I hope you enjoy it. The Bestest Present Ever by Stretch & Ellie

When I lived in Chicago I went to a church that I loved. I enjoyed the people, the fellowship and I felt I was spiritually fed there. When I moved to Alabama I couldn't find a church that gave me the same sense of belonging that I wanted in a church. It's been 5 1/2 years now and I still haven't found that place I long for.

When friends from Chicago ask if I've found a church yet I cringe because I don't know how to answer that. When friends in Alabama ask what church I go to I feel embarrassed because I don't go to a church. Not for lack of looking mid you.

When I have a problem I usually throw myself a pity party and don’t think to go to God until I’m worn out and exhausted. I go to Him as a last resort instead of involving Him from the beginning. I’d save myself a lot of stress, headaches and tears if I’d only think of God first.

Today as we celebrate Easter let’s not forget the true meaning of the day. It’s not about Chocolate Bunnies, Marshmallow Peeps and colored eggs. It’s about the fulfillment of God’s promise in the resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.

Before Christ God required blood sacrifices as atonement for sin but Christ is the final sacrifice, the final atonement.

When I was saved I became very interested in the Jewish customs. After all, Christ was Jewish and he took part in the Jewish celebrations and traditions. The last celebration Jesus took part in was Passover. One year we had some representatives for Jews for Jesus visit our church and they gave a presentation on the Passover or Sedar Supper and how Christ is portrayed throughout the entire meal.

If you’d like to see the connection between Christ and the Passover Supper I suggest you view this video. Suddenly things start to make sense and you’ll see God’s promise being foretold in the ceremonies and understand how they were fulfilled through Jesus Christ. You’ll see how the Matzah is a representation of Jesus. When Jesus raised the cup and said this is my blood it was after the meal, you’ll understand the significance of the timing.



John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast - as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

, Se

I remember before I was saved I enjoyed the bible stories like Noah’s ark and Jonah and the whale but didn’t really understand the rest of it. The bible was boring and I couldn’t get past who begat who.

The same thing happened with Jesus’ disciples. He told them over and over again that He was going to die yet they didn’t understand it or couldn’t grasp it.

I’m going to be honest. My bible reading has been very lax but I’m in the process of changing that. A couple of years ago Don and I decided we’d read the bible every night starting with Genesis 1:1. We did OK for a while but soon daily life took over. A few weeks ago we were talking and realized there was something missing in our lives. We have a relationship with Christ, we look to Him for answers and we go to Him when we’re happy, sad and need help but we still feel that there’s something missing. We didn’t have time set aside just for Him. I’ve written about this in earlier posts and said that we needed to adjust our schedule around Christ not try to fit Him into our schedule and here I am doing just the opposite of what I said. Well, that’s changing and we started reading our bibles after starting with the New Testament.