Yes Indeed, He IS Risen!

Jesus said that if His disciples did not praise Him, then the very stones would cry out. One of my thoughts in response to that is, “How embarrassing would that be!?!?” Shameful, and embarrassing.  But what a word stating that God’s creation cannot help but sing His praise! After all, what do you think of when you hear the wind, or see the waves breaking on those glorious Oregon coast beaches, or witness thousands of leaves swirling down from the branches in the fall, or the sweet song of birds in the springtime, or a fiery red and radiant orange sunset? I think these things provide us the same opportunity to speak of what we have ‘tasted and seen’ of His goodness, just as when people ask “why are you so happy today?” What is our response? “Oh, I’m just having a good day!” “The world is spinning perfectly today!” “I’m just happy.”
Really!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!
(Trust me, I have definitely wasted this opportunity on more than one occasion.) But let us drift away from such “nonsense” (dare I say!), and welcome the urgency of the Gospel- our only true purpose here on this earth! “Let us make the most of every opportunity.”

Well, that was just a thought for today.

We’ve been enjoying a “relaxing” week of Spring break! Last Friday, we went out to Lake Michigan (Warren Dunes State Park) for the first time. it was absolutely lovely! Not to mention about 80 degrees!

On Sunday night, Noe and I hosted a Messianic Passover Seder with 4 other couples. (We put the children to bed and began the celebration at about 8.00pm.) It was a wonderful time of fellowship, reflection, eating, and singing. What an incredible joy to be looking BACK on the Messiah who has COME! The Passover Lamb HAS been sacrificed! The Lamb of God who HAS taken away the sins of the world! It was also neat to have included in the prayers a prayer for the nation of Israel who has yet to receive Him. (we know from Scripture that only a small remnant of them will receive Him in the future.)
[And yes… I did make a roast leg of lamb which did turn out pretty good!…]
Also, the woman in the picture who is pregnant went into labor just after our Seder, and they had their first baby boy on Tuesday! I blame it on the horseradish… 😛

The rest of break, we essentially just relaxed and gradually did our reading that’s due next week. We did a little bit of spring cleaning… and unfortunately a cold has been going around our family again, particularly poor little Jocellyn who also developed a minor double ear infection. But we are all on the mend!

On Monday we jump back into classes- Noe is taking the Bible Basis of Missions, and we are both studying Acts.

Looking forward to our last month of studies this semester.

Keep us in prayer for our summer plans, as they are currently waaay up in the air. 🙂 We would absolutely like to spend time in Seattle with family and Church family. But employment and finances are a huge factor.

With love,
the Martinez family

p.s.— to see VIDEOS of the girls, open my previous blog entry, and click on the video link. then you can view “More from nlmart”, and it will show you a whole list of video clips of the girls. Some are older, but I just finished posting a few recent ones. Enjoy!