love and joy... 9 days till easter!!!

remaining in HIM = true joy

I know He is the source of joy... the creator of it.... so of course only He would know how to truly attain it and He said... live in ME.... then you will be more than happy..you will have joy... contentment despite any circumstances... peace despite the storm... I want to live that way ....with every breath... IN HIM!

John 15:1-17(One of Jesus’ messages the week before his death and resurrection)

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ³ You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. ⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. ⁷ But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸ When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. ⁹ “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. ¹⁰ When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! ¹² This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. ¹³ There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. ¹⁶ You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

OUR ACTIVITY/ART PROJECT FOR THE DAY.... share the JOY!!!

How to make Empty Tomb Eggs:

PART #1: You will need - eggs, tack or pin/possibly exacto knife, and container. Poke a small hole on one end of the egg and poke a larger one on the other end. Put your mouth around the small end and blow like you are blowing up a balloon and put it over your container so that all the yoke comes out in the container (you may need to break the yoke with the pin to be able to blow it out.) Let dry or dry with blow dryer on cool mode. Must be dry before dying.

PART #2: You will need – food coloring, ½ c water per color using , dipping containers, tbsp of vinegar per color using, for special effects you will need- decoupage and funky paper, white crayon, and/or tape. Mix water, vinegar and enough food coloring till you reach your desired color. Start dying with light colors first then go to dark. Dip the egg in the dye for at least 30 sec. For special effects you can color a pattern with white crayon first then place egg in dye the pattern will show up or put tape around it before dipping it - it may bleed a little through the tape but still looks cool. Let dry or dry with blow dryer on cool mode.

PART#3: “To be cracked open on Easter morning" You can print this label below or make your own and glue it on egg. Inside the egg we inserted a paper with the easter story on it(content at end of this post). After we printed it we had to fold and roll it up very tight to get it in the egg. But it will a nice surprise on Easter morning for some very special people.

PART#4: Give them out or make up a little Easter basket and bless people that may not really know the Easter story. See my hubby helping the boys along their assembly line... though Jeriah, i think, was eating more than he was helping.

We gave them away to lots of special people and we even left 3 as Trail Magic for our Appalachian Hikers that pass through this area. :)

Easter story that we stuffed in the EMPTY TOMB EGG:

Just like this egg is empty of life so was a man’s tomb over 2,000 years ago and that empty tomb changed the world. You see, there was a man, like you and me, that lived here on this earth long ago. He was different than us though in that He really loved everyone even if it hurt Him. He did everything that God asked Him to do and nothing that God asked Him not to do. He healed the sick, blind, even brought people back to life. Everyone knew He was special. Some religious leaders were mad at Him. They plotted to kill Him yet He seemed to know it was going to happen and was okay with it. Three days after they brutally killed Him, He came back to life. When His friends came to cry over His dead body the stone in front of His grave was rolled away and His grave was empty. Nothing could destroy Him, not even death! The secret about this man is that He was God’s plan. You see since God created people we have all done things against Him… acting like we don’t need Him even though He is the ALL POWERFUL creator God and He made us to need Him. He created us to have a relationship with Him but because of our pride and the things we do against Him we can’t. He is perfect and we are not. So God came in the form of a man to this earth so He could know what our life was like, the hardships, the temptations, the heartache, the hope. He knew we could never earn our way to this relationship with Him. We could never be perfect. So He, being perfect, died where we should have so that we could have a relationship with HIM, OUR CREATOR. This is the story of Jesus. It is a wonderful story and history proofs this story is true. Through Jesus everyone has a choice… we can choose to follow Him and be His friend, or choose to do life on our own. So the question is do you want to be YOUR CREATOR GOD’S friend and fulfill the purpose He created you for, or do you want to try to be boss of your own life and act like Jesus never came? The decision you make effects not only this life but the one after your earthly body is gone. I share with you this story because Jesus is real and through Him I have a friendship with God. Please read the account of Easter in these parts of the Bible… 2 Peter 1:16-21, Colossians 1:15-22, Romans 3:17-23,31 , Romans 6:23, John 13:1-17, MATTHEW 26:17-25, Matthew 26:36-56, JOHN 18:12-40, John 19:1-27, Luke 23:32-43, Matthew 27:45-66, Matthew 28:1-15. This may sound crazy… but if you so dare, ask God if this is true to show you and help you see Him as He really is. Be prepared I know He will.