Happy Passover

Here is a good explanation of Passover from Wikipedia: 

It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which is in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and is celebrated for seven or eight days. It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays.
In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the slaughter of the first-born. The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes, an easy way to remember the holiday^{[clarification needed]}. There is some debate over where the term is actually derived from.^[4] When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread".^[5] Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is a symbol of the holiday.
Together with Shavuot ("Pentecost") and Sukkot ("Tabernacles"), Passover is one of the three pilgrimage festivals (Shlosha Regalim) during which the entire Jewish populace historically made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.^[6] Samaritans still make this pilgrimage to Mount Gerizim, but only men participate in public worship.^[7][8]
The Christian feast of Maundy Thursday finds its roots in the Jewish feast of Passover, the night on which the Last Supper occurred.^[9]"

Z: There is a VERY interesting explanation of Christ in the Passover HERE.  For anyone interested in seeing, it please click on the link.  There are other amazing ways Jesus is foretold in the Passover dinner and you can Google for them, too.


To my Jewish friends, please have a blessed Passover, particularly the seder of such delicious (send me some tsimmis or latkes or matzo ball soup, please!) and very meaningful foods and rich celebration of when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt.
To my Christian and Jewish-believer friends, some of you celebrate Passover, too, because Jesus was a Jew and did participate in Seder dinners, particularly his last one when 'participating' actually meant his death.....he said  "It is finished"- at the moment that the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the shophar was blown from the Temple. The sacrifice of the lamb of God was fulfilled at the hour that the symbolic animal sacrifice usually took place."

May God bless us all, Jews and Christians..........during our holy season and always.  And may he bless our country.

z

What's so GOOD about GOOD FRIDAY?

Why do we call Good Friday “good,” when it is a such dark and bleak event commemorating a day of suffering and death for Jesus?

For Christians, Good Friday is a crucial day of the year because it celebrates what we believe to be the most momentous weekend in the history of the world. Ever since Jesus died and was raised, Christians have proclaimed the cross and resurrection of Jesus to be the decisive turning point for all creation. Paul considered it to be “of first importance” that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised to life on the third day, all in accordance with what God had promised all along in the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
On Good Friday we remember the day Jesus willingly suffered and died by crucifixion as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. It is followed by Easter, the glorious celebration of the day Jesus was raised from the dead, heralding his victory over sin and death and pointing ahead to a future resurrection for all who are united to him by faith (Rom. 6:5).
Still, why call the day of Jesus’ death “Good Friday” instead of “Bad Friday” or something similar? Some Christian traditions do take this approach: in German, for example, the day is called Karfreitag, or “Sorrowful Friday.” In English, in fact, the origin of the term “Good” is debated: some believe it developed from an older name, “God’s Friday.” Regardless of the origin, the name Good Friday is entirely appropriate because the suffering and death of Jesus, as terrible as it was, marked the dramatic culmination of God’s plan to save his people from their sins.
As Doug Wilson recently wrote on the Resurgence, in order for the good news of the gospel to have meaning for us, we first have to understand the bad news of our condition as sinful people under condemnation. The good news of deliverance only makes sense once we see how we are enslaved. This is simply another way of saying that it is important to understand and distinguish the Law and the Gospel as the “two words” of scripture. We need the law first to show us how hopeless our condition is; then the gospel of Jesus’ grace comes and brings us relief and salvation.
In the same way, Good Friday is “good” because as terrible as that day was, it had to happen for us to receive the joy of Easter. The wrath of God against sin had to be poured out on Jesus, the perfect sacrificial substitute, in order for forgiveness and salvation to be poured out on the nations. Without that awful day of suffering, sorrow, and shed blood at the cross, God could not be both “just and the justifier” of those who trust in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). Paradoxically, the day that seemed to be the greatest triumph of evil was actually the deathblow in God’s gloriously good plan to redeem the world from bondage.
The cross is where we see the convergence of great suffering and God’s forgiveness. Psalm 85:10 sings of a day when “righteousness and peace” will “kiss each other.” The cross of Jesus is where that occurred, where God’s demands, his righteousness, coincided with his mercy. We receive divine forgiveness, mercy, and peace because Jesus willingly took our divine punishment, the result of God’s righteousness against sin. “For the joy set before him” (Heb. 12:2) Jesus endured the cross on Good Friday, knowing it led to his resurrection, our salvation, and the beginning of God’s reign of righteousness and peace.
Good Friday marks the day when wrath and mercy met at the cross. That’s why Good Friday is so dark and so Good.....
By Pastor Justin Holcomb
I don't know who Pastor Holcomb is, but I thank him for this excellent explanation and wanted to share it with you today.

Have a GOOD GOOD FRIDAY
z

Could things get worse?

....oh, yes, they could

And not voting is re-electing him, Conservatives!   (To my liberal commenters....Yes, we KNOW it's photo-shopped)   geeeeez!  :-)
z

Should Santorum leave the race?

Gingrich did worse than Ron Paul in Wisconsin, did you see that?    People know he's broke and doesn't have the steam to keep going, I guess.  Who'd keep giving money to guys who aren't doing as well as Romney?

Do you think Santorum will close up shop?   And when do you think he'll do it?  The Pennsylvania primary is on April 24...think he'll quit before or have that his 'grand hurrah'?


AND, do you think Romney'd dream of picking Santorum as VP?

z

I need your help

I've Googled several ways of finding EXACTLY HOW LONG DID CONGRESS HAVE BEFORE VOTING ON THE HEALTHCARE BILL? and I'm getting nothing.......do any of you have any links for the date Congress got the bill to read and the date of the vote (which is easier to find)?
Thanks for any help

Economic Woes

We've all seen parts of this video...I've posted the Daniel Mudd "deer in the headlights" speech myself...but I ran across this collection of really pertinent information that the media's missed in their damning of Republicans.  While I don't believe Republicans are innocent of involvement in our economy's mess, I do believe in truth.
'nuff said?
z

Mrs Obama ....a CHOICE choice for the Kids Choice Awards

I don't get into this kind of catty stuff much at geeeZ but I publish this because it says so much for the dignity of the presidency these days.   To Michelle Obama's credit, she presented an award to Taylor Swift, who really deserves credit who raised almost $1 million for tornado/hurricane victims last year.  That's a nice thing for Mrs. Obama to have done.   One site mentioned this was her "first live appearance ever on the Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards (as if anybody's ever heard of it...'first ever'  WOW!! :-) , another site RAVED about Mrs. Obama's outfit but, in the text, mentioned that she is 48 years old....which made me wonder if they thought what most of us think when we see this get-up.
I miss dignity that has usually been represented by the White House.
Am I being too hard on her?    

z

Obama threatens the Court .........

So Obama says that if the Supreme Court finds the Health Care Bill unconstutional, they're ACTIVISTS?   Is he kidding?  Is this only said for the public?  There's so much I could say, but I'll let you do it....................what's your opinion?

HERE is the article...........Here's part of it:  "I'm confident this will be upheld because it should be upheld," the president said Monday afternoon at a White House press conference that included ‪Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who are attending the North American Leaders' Summit. The president said overturning the law would be "an unprecedented and extraordinary step" and compared the court's rejection of the law to "judicial activism."

He has VERY smart people behind him feeding him just what to say to make Americans believe he's right.  The man doesn't take NO, no matter what it is.  He's furious, he's belittling and making a mockery of the Supreme Court which DID ACCEPT THIS CASE.  OH, but now that it might not go his way....hell to pay.


MAN.
z

Is EVERY country a "Closest Ally?" Mr. President!?

And is every country a boxer?  Wait till you hear the kind of information our own media would never put together.  I promise this is a fun Monday video....you will burst into laughter by about halfway through!  But, then you'll relate to this comment that was left on YouTube about it;

Dear World,
We are sorry.
Sincerely,
The American People

Sunday Faith Blog

"The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. ..."  John 12:12-19

For anyone interested in more, I found this excellent explanation of Palm Sunday:

The people who witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus learned that Jesus would enter Jerusalem shortly thereafter riding on a donkey. The people of Jerusalem interpreted this to mean that Jesus was the Messiah. But their conception of the Messiah was that He was King David come to conquer the world, deliver them from their Roman enemies, and bring peace. They expected Him to destroy their enemies by might. So he rode in just like the prophet Zechariah said He would. But he did not fulfill the next verse, Zechariah 9:10, where He establishes world peace. He will fulfill that verse when He returns. The people expected him to fulfill it then.

The reason that they proclaimed Him king this day, shouting "Hosanna!" and turned on him a few days later shouting "Crucify!" is because He did not do what they expected. They thought he was an impostor. Their traditions and teachings led them to believe that the Christ would come and conquer. They did not realize, or did not accept, that the scripture also said he must first suffer (e.g., Psalm 22 and Isaiah 36).

The triumphal entry proved two things. It was Jesus' statement to Jerusalem and the world that He was indeed the Messiah. He fulfilled the Zecharian prophecy that promised the Israelites that their king, in the form of David the conqueror, would ride into Jerusalem meekly (which he truly did after the defeat of Absalom) and that he would then deliver the nation from their enemies.

It was also proof of the fickleness of mankind. One day Jesus was their conquering hero, the next He was a liar and a charlatan who entered Jerusalem as Messiah only to fail to accomplish the promised mission of delivery. People today are just as fickle as they were then.

This was the beginning of a series of what the world would consider to be misadventures. Yet, these supposed "misadventures" were all in the will and the plan of God. He knew that these things would lead to the crucifixion of His Only Begotten, which would allow for the salvation of multitudes, yea for the very salvation of us in this day some two millennia after the fact.

Have a Happy Palm Sunday... interesting to consider that the man, Jesus, humbled himself by riding on a donkey instead of on a great stead like the people thought he would...A week later, he died, and many in Jerusalem and Rome, cynics from the start, turned off even more because he didn't appear like King David, galloping into Jerusalem, heard enough about the crucifixion that they started believing all he'd said.  Quite a story......

z