Katrina's Musings (Easter Packs)

It's "Easter Pack" season again. On the days leading up to Easter, I use "Easter Packs" as an evangelism tool to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each "Easter Pack" contains a gospel tract, a note written by me, and a couple pieces of candy, all packaged in a Ziploc bag with a flower sticker on it.  As I'm running my errands, I hand one to the attendant at the counter and say, "Happy Easter! This is for you." It's that easy. I encourage you to give this idea a try on the days leading up to Easter.

 This year's "Easter packs" are pictured below.

Here's the text from the note I included in each pack:

Did you know that Easter is about more than colored eggs and candy? Easter is celebrated because it is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. His life and death were predicted (in the Bible) hundreds of years before he was born.

In the book of Isaiah, it reads, "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one-- to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity [sin] of us all." (Isaiah 53:4-6).

I have provided for you a gospel tract with a little more information about this event in history and its ramifications. I simply ask that you consider this information today and ask yourself, "Is it true?" If it isn't true, then reject it. If it is true, then it demands a response.

Thank you for taking the time to read this today. Happy Easter! May it be your best one ever.

Cookie Baking Night 03/25/13

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan and Carissa. Tonight we made our traditional spring treat/cookie: Bird Nests. 

The recipe is simple: 

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 bag chow mein noodles

candy eggs

Melt choc chips, butterscotch chips, and peanut butter together (I do this in the microwave). Stir in chow mein noodles. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper. Decorate with candy eggs (our egg of choice is the Cadbury mini egg). 

We also continued reading our current book selection: God's Names by Sally Michael. This week we learned the names Jehovah, Yahweh, and I AM meaning: self-existent and unchanging. As we are learning about the names of God, we are learning about who he is, his character and nature.

As usual, a fun time was had by all.

Katrina's Musings (the death of death)

I've noticed lately how one particular word in our vocabulary as a society has been "dying" out. That is the word death (and its cousins die, dying, and died). It has been replaced with the phrase passed away. Ah, passed away a much gentler term; it doesn't cause one to think nearly as much as that nasty word death does. I certainly can understand why the world as a whole would prefer the phrase passed away to the word death, particularly when we're talking about a funeral and someone we loved. Death is abrupt and ugly and makes us very uncomfortable. Passing away fades us off into another existence. Passing away can be whatever we want it to be. It's very comfortable. Yes. I can understand why the world likes this phrase, but I'm not sure why Christians have adopted the practice of using the phrase passed away. It seems to me that Christians should be "the death people" if you will (no morbidity implied, please hear me out).

Death is the reason we are Christians.

Death entered this world because of sin.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17. 

Jesus Christ conquered death.

"But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay." Matthew 28:5-6

"When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:54-57


Jesus Christ reconciled us to God through his death.

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." Romans 5:6-11

We die to ourselves and to sin through Jesus Christ.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:9-11

Sin brought death into the world; Jesus Christ makes eternal life possible.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

Christian, let's think twice about replacing the word death with the phrase passed away. Doing so desensitizes us to death and could result in removing the word from our vocabulary altogether. How will we ever share the gospel message without it?

Cookie Baking Musings 03/18/13

Last Monday night, the Cookie Baking crew was in Florida. It was Oseid family vacation time (Oseids go to Disney World every seven years). Emily came with Greg and I as part of our family. In fact, the three of us returned home today (to a whole lot of snow). It was a fun break from the Minnesota winter as well as an opportunity for sanctification (nothing brings out the little--and big--sin natures like 11 family members all coming to an agreement about one activity, that, and waiting in long lines). I love how God uses the real stuff like that!

It truly was a lovely time, and below you will find a picture of Carissa, Ethan, and Emily at Disney's Magic Kingdom (Side note: Carissa is dressed as princess Merida. She really enjoyed wearing that dress around all day).

Katrina's Musings (Quietness of God)

From the journal of Jim Elliot, November 3, 1949.

"I think there is nothing so startling in all the graces of God as His quietness. When men have raged untruths in His name, when they have used the assumed authority of the Son of God to put to death His real children, when they have with calloused art twisted the Scriptures into fables and lies, when they have explained the order of His creation in unfounded theories while boasting the support of rational science, when they have virtually talked Him right out of His universe, when they, using powers He grants them, claim universal autonomy and independence, He, this great Silent God says nothing. His tolerance and love for His creature is such that, having spoken in Christ, in conscience, in code of law, He waits for men to leave off their bawling and turn for a moment to listen to His still, small voice of Spirit. Now after so long a time of restrained voice, bearing in Almighty meekness the blasphemies of His self-destroying creatures, now--how shall break upon the ears, consciousness, hearts, and minds of reprobate man the Voice of one so long silent? It shall thunder with the voice of offended righteousness, strike with lightening bolts on the seared consciences; roar as the long crouched lion upon dallying prey; leap upon, batter, destroy and utterly consume the vain reasonings of proud human kind; ring as the battle shout of a strong, triumphant, victory-tasting warrior, strike terror and gravity to souls more forecefully than tortured screams in the dead of night. O God, what shall be the first tones of that voice again on earth? And what their effect? Wonder and fear, denizens of dust, for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a battlecry, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet blast of God Himself, made more terrible, if that could be, by the long-suffering of His silence."

Cookie Baking Musings

No Cookie Baking Tonight, so I thought I would take this time to answer some frequently asked questions about Cookie Baking Night.

Q: What is Cookie Baking Night?

A: Every other Monday night our (mine and Greg's, both sides of the family) nieces and nephews come to our house to have supper with us and we bake some kind of cookie. We also read a Bible lesson from our current read at the time (God's Names by Sally Michael, right now), play games, enjoy each others company.

Q: Why Cookie Baking Night?

A: To share the gospel with our nieces and nephews and teach them in the ways of God. Side motivation: To know them as they grow up on a level deeper than that which holiday and birthday gatherings afford us.

Q: How long have we been doing Cookie Baking?

A: 10 years

Q: How old do the nieces and nephews have to be before they can join Cookie Baking Night?

A: 3 years old.

Q: Does Greg participate in Cookie Baking Nights?

A: Yes. Greg always joins us for supper on Cookie Baking Nights if his job does not take him out of town. He makes it a priority to be there. He leaves the "cookie baking" part to me, though.

Q: How do you keep the cookies from being all germy?

A: It's part of the initial training. Everyone must wash their hands before starting. Hands must remain away from your eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. If your hands touch these areas of your body, you are required to wash your hands again. If you've been asked to wash your hands three times in an evening, then you're demoted to watcher instead of helper until next Cookie Baking Night. I've found one demotion pretty much does the trick on learning this lesson.

Q: Do you buy extra ingredients in the case the kids eat some along the way?

A: Hmmm. Interesting Question. No one is allowed to eat ingredients along the way. When we've completed the making of the dough, everyone gets a spoonful of the dough and a piece of candy if we're using candy in the recipe (a spoon of frosting if the recipe has frosting). This is also a training process, but I've found that knowing they'll get some of the product at the end of the process keeps them from eating ingredients along the way or even trying.