Passover...

And when the hour had come He (Jesus) reclined at the table,

and the apostles with Him.

And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat

this Passover with you before I suffer;

for I say to you , I shall never again eat it 

until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks,

He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves;

for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine

from now on until the kingdom of God comes."

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks,

He broke it, and gave it to them, saying,

"This is my body which is given for you;

do this in remembrance of Me."

And in the same way He took the cup 
after they had eaten, saying,

"This cup which is poured out for you 
is the new covenant in My blood."

Luke 22:14-20

Until a couple of years ago, I always thought this account was just about Jesus establishing the practice of communion.  For Christianity, this is the first account of communion and Christians have been participating in communion ever since.  Paul later tells us we should practice communion to remind us of Jesus' sacrifice for us.

Paul, being a Jew, understood something that many Gentile believers don't understand about this supper that took place in an upper room.  As the above verses state, Jesus and the apostles were observing Passover that night.  Jesus was talking about how He was going to complete Passover by being the ultimate Passover Lamb.  Yearly sacrifices would no longer be needed as His sacrifice would be all that was needed for ever more.

Passover was established by God when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt.  Each family was to kill an unblemished lamb, spread its blood on their door frame and roast the lamb to eat it later.  The last of the plagues of Egypt was the Angel of Death going over Egypt and killing all the firstborn among man and animal.  When the Angel of Death saw the blood on a door frame, he passed over that home and the firstborn that were there were saved from death.

The next two days, we will explore the meaning of the cup and the broken bread mentioned in the above verses.  It's amazing!

Middle East Update

Passover begins at sundown this Friday.  I was reading Joel Rosenberg's weblog and clicked on a link to an article at Ynetnews.com (Israeli news) by Yossi Yhoshua posted on March 28, 2012.  He says that for the first time in years, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will be on full alert during the Passover holiday.

"Over the years, an army-wide break during Passover became a tradition followed by all major military units, including the Air Force, Navy and intelligence corps.  The IDF's headquarters in Tel Aviv is also traditionally deserted during the holiday."

Fly Lady

Today is Anti-Procrastination Day.  Make that list of projects around the house that need done by Easter, then get started!  For me, I need to finish planting flowers out front and pull weeds in the back yard then get the house ready for company.  There is so much to catch up on since I was gone for two weeks!

Recipe - Peeps Cake

My youngest daughter made this cute Easter cake. This recipe is pretty easy because you just make a chocolate box cake (or make your own homemade chocolate cake - definitely better) in two 9" rounds.  Stack the cakes and frost with fluffy chocolate frosting.  While the frosting is still somewhat soft, put yellow Peeps around the top with the beaks facing away from the center of the cake.  Fill the center with chocolate chips, points up.  Brush the sugar off an extra Peep over the chocolate chips.  It looks like a sunflower!

There are lots of different colors of Peeps now.  It would also be cute to make a white cake with white frosting and any one of the colors of Peeps.  Fill the center with white chocolate chips or Easter M&Ms.