Good Morning Gloucester

With His Stripes We Are Healed (22×28 mixed media)

The physical death of Jesus was a horrific thing. The physical abuse and pain of the beatings and scourging He received, the scorn and suffering of death by suffocation on the cross is impossible to imagine. However, His physical death was not the worst that has ever been suffered by a man. What Jesus suffered, and willingly sacrificed for our sakes, was going through physical death (which He could have chosen to walk away from at any point), but so much more — separation from God. Being part of God come into flesh to walk among us and show us the way, He who was without sin took upon Himself all the sins of mankind. At that moment (when He said: “Father, why have thou forsaken me?”), He had become the thing that God cannot abide, so God had to turn away – He became separated from Himself and became selfless, so that we might be redeemed. He became the ultimate perfect sacrifice for us.  Then he said: “It is finished.”  He had completed his purpose in coming here. God’s perfect plan had been put into place.

His tear is not from physical pain or His own suffering, it is for us. It is that tear of love and compassion so great that it makes you cry, multiplied billions of times.

Isaiah 53:1-7

“Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. 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 bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, 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 of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. ”

This scripture is the only place in the Bible where Jesus is physically described.  Throughout time, artists who know and love God, have generally painted Jesus as this strikingly beautiful man, because through love’s eyes, that is how they see Him, just as anyone who is in love sees their beloved as beautiful.  In fact he was just an average looking Jew, with no imposing physique or physical beauty that would make people want to follow him.  They followed Him because of who He was, just as people do today.

I found it interesting that my assigned post time is 3:00pm, scripturally called the 9th hour, the exact time that Jesus is said to have uttered His final words and died, and so most appropriate for this post on Good Friday.

E.J. Lefavour

www.hobbithousestudio.com

I’ve been missing the sunrises with all the rain we’ve been having so today just a simple sunrise from Eastern Point Light to warm up the day a little!    Have a great Friday!

Wow!  There were A LOT of guesses in regards to just how much $$ is in our big water jug at home.

I printed out all of the guesses from both our GMG page and the Facebook page on Wednesday after the “deadline.”  There were almost exactly 200 guesses in all.

So far we’ve emptied the jug and sorted the coins into buckets of quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, and a pile of bills.

I’ve completely abandoned the idea of actually rolling the coins because it took hours alone to simply just sort them.  The boys were a huge help and had a lot of fun. From here, we’ll take the 4 buckets to the change machine at the two banks we use in town. Watch out, Cape Ann Savings Bank in Rockport and TD Bank at Harbor Loop!

So, here’s what I know so far….   there were $62 in one dollar bills and a total of $1,246 in quarters (that’s 4,984 quarters in all).

That makes the total so far $1,308.00…..before adding the dimes, nickels, and pennies. So, if your guess was less than that…or super close to it, you weren’t right.  Sorry.

If you’re still in the running, start thinking about the charity of your choice. Stay tuned for the final tally.  Probably Monday morning’s 9:00 post.

So we were in the mood for pizza so we ordered a couple of pies from Minglewood.  I show up to pick them up and for the fun of it have them check my reward card to see if there was anything on there to take advantage of.  The guy tells me I have a free pizza on there, so #boom, didn’t have to pay for it!!!

It’s so stupid not to have one.  I swear every third time I go to Lat 43 or Minglewood or Hale Street there’s a freebie on there, just for having the card and it costs you zero to get one!

Craaaazy not to have one.

If you don’t have one yet Here’s a link to fill out the form to in on the free rewards program-

http://sereniteerestaurants.com/about/rewards-program

Here’s the pizza I got tonight!!!!

Click link for my Italian Easter Cookie Classic!

When I get engrossed in a project, like I have been this winter, I let everything else slide, including my healthcare. I had been suffering with tooth pain for a number of weeks, and just kept applying Orajel and carrying on.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed a voicemail message I had missed.  When I listened to it, it was the dentist’s office calling to remind me of an appointment I had never made.  Unfortunately, or so I initially thought, the appointment had been for the prior day.  I called the office and explained that I had missed the message, but also that I hadn’t scheduled an appointment.  They said that they had called me by mistake, but since they had me on the phone we should schedule an appointment.  The earliest one they had available was in April, which I took.  Later that day I got another call from the office, saying they just had a cancellation and could I come the next day.  I went and had x-rays and an exam, and found I had a badly infected tooth that needed to be pulled.  I also had a cavity and needed to schedule a cleaning.  When I was leaving, and went to the desk to schedule follow up appointments, the receptionist said: “This is your lucky day.  We just had a cancellation, so can you come tomorrow?”

Some people would say it was luck, or coincidence; but I know who was behind it, and no one could ever convince me otherwise. The tooth was pulled, pain is gone, and I’m happy.

Then my refrigerator started making this dreadful loud grinding noise. It would happen intermittently at first, but then more and more frequently.  A few nights ago I had to unplug it overnight so I could sleep.  I plugged it back in the next morning and it was quiet for a while, then the dreadful noise came back.  I told God I had a refrigerator problem and needed help.  I looked online for refrigerator repair places and decided to call Donyon’s.  They said they would come the next day and it would be $140 for the service call and repair, unless I needed part(s) which would be extra.  After I hung up, God told me to move the refrigerator, which I started to do, unbalancing a large vase stored on the top back of the fridge in the process, which smashed on the floor behind it.  I plugged in the fridge, pushed it back in place, and returned to painting, not wanting to deal with pulling it all the way out to clean up the broken vase.  Since that happened, the fridge has not made a single peep, and is even quieter than it was before it started making the dreadful noise.  It was being so quiet I had to open it to make sure it was still running.  I thanked God, then called and cancelled the service appointment.

Without pulling the fridge all the way out and looking, I don’t know exactly what happened back there, but I think God used a piece of the broken vase to wedge in and fix whatever was causing all the racket.  As long as there isn’t something dead, I don’t worry about what is behind the fridge, so I won’t be looking behind it any time soon.  I will continue to be grateful for my refrigerator and dental miracles.

E.J. Lefavour

http://www.hobbithousestudio.com