Dear Ones,
A blessed Good Friday to you! We are at Mark and Andrea’s now and thank you for prayers for the long journey here. What a joy to see family after so long and to hug and play games and catch up.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
My favorite magazine, Just Between Us, is celebrating a 35-year anniversary and many of the articles are focused on the subject of celebration. As the word celebration implies, we give praise to the Lord and are mindful of His goodness to us. I personally like celebrations, especially when we can honor our family members on their birthdays with parties presents, and perhaps a special meal. I have always believed that every person needs to have one day when they are honored and appreciated as they experience God’s love flowing to them through others. Here at Northern Lakes, we celebrate birthdays every month of the year.

In scripture we read of special times the Israelites were told to celebrate, and soon we will celebrate Good Friday and Easter. We want to never forget but rather to celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Pastor Sharon Miller writes about how everyone needs to celebrate and it can become one of the spiritual disciplines in our lives. She mentions how God created everything in 6 days and then celebrated on the 7th day by resting. His first miracle was at a wedding celebration when the wine had run out and he turned the water into wine. Jesus also celebrated Passover meal with his disciples before he was crucified. Sharon also mentions the wonderful celebration we have to look forward to in the future and that is the marriage feast of the lamb. In Revelation 19 it says, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” As the church we are the bride of Christ and we can look forward to this wondrous celebration one day.

Another celebration we may not have given much thought to is our identity in Christ. We celebrate that we are chosen by God, we are adopted, forgiven, redeemed. We can fully trust everything we read in the Word about how we matter to God and He loves us unconditionally, He forgives us and even forgets our sins. We are beautiful in His eyes and every day we can celebrate who He made us to be. There is no one else like us!

Let us take time in our lives for celebrations! In June Al and I are going to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary and we give praise for all these many years that God has given us together to love each other and to serve and love Him.

Challenge for today: Celebrate something that you are eternally grateful for!
Blessings on your Easter weekend and prayers and love, Judy