Cinnamon Roll Liturgy

Cinnamon Roll Liturgy

Q: Why do we eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast on this day, when all other days we eat toast, cereal, or eggs?

A: We eat them to remind us this is Resurrection Sunday, the day we celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead.

Q: Why are the cinnamon rolls made with sweet bread?

A: The sweetness of the bread reminds us that Jesus is the bread of life and our one and only true source of sustenance and sweetness.

Q: Why is cinnamon used in the rolls instead of another spice?

A: The cinnamon reminds us of the bitterness of the cross, and its shame – our Lord Jesus endured it- to pay the penalty of our sin, to bring us life everlasting.

Q: Why are the cinnamon rolls made with so much sugar and fat?

A: The sugar and fat reminds us that in Christ’s obedience we are imparted His goodness, and in following our covenant God we are free to enjoy His good and pleasant gifts and thereby escape the pain and death of hell.

Leader: The gifts of God for the people of God.  He is Risen.

Response: He is Risen, indeed.

Blessed be His name.

We eat homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas and Easter... always.  The last 3 or 4 years we have done this liturgy or a form of it before eating the rolls. 

Caiden, my little grandnephew and I were elbow deep in cinnamon and brown sugar as we prepared the rolls for this afternoon - I reminded him about the liturgy and he said, "I will forget what to say."
I told him I had a page with the liturgy, just like church, (he's four - he can't even write his name yet).  But he's quite sure the paper will help.  I just had to smile.

It's coming.  He is risen, He is Lord.  And it is almost time to CELEBRATE!

Five Things I like about Pilgrim's Progress

Five Things I love about Pilgrim's Progress

1. I can be am dense- names that clearly label actions and intentions help me see myseslf. ahh..yikes.
2. Adversity happens. A lot. Often. It's normal.  Go figure...
3. Brothers have different strengths, and pull eachother out of near calamity.
4. God plants the weight of adventure in the soul- waiting is usually where we're planted admid soul growing adventure.
5. You need a hall pass to get into the celestial city.  Period. No exception, no part sies, no nothin - Just Jesus... everything drops at the cross and is given at the cross.

Eucatastrophe

Tomorrow we will finish our last study on Pilgrim's Progress.  We finished the book a few weeks ago, and have a pizza and movie night planned.  We previewed the video on Monday and C. was here with us.  Last night we were talking about it  as we read stories:

C- "What's that part where it's scary and the bad's gonna happen? You know..."

Me- "Ummm..."

C- "You know the bad part, then the good comes!" (Fierce faced and claws outstretched)

Me-(chuckle)"Oh! You mean the eucatastrophe."

C. - "Yeah! The eus so tras to phee...that was like the part with the fiery arrows.  I like that part, and the arrow went through his hair like this." (With animation and passion to melt a greatauntie's heart)

Me- "Yes, exactly!  Goodwill pulled him inside the gate.  He was saved."

C- "Yeah, he was saved from the eus so tras so phee."

Eucatastrophe was a new word for me and I learned right about the time we were reading about the Dungeon of Despair in Pilgrim's Progress. God, in His good grace and sovereignty, sent that story just as I was entertaining enemy thoughts of giving up.  I love that - His timing... always pushing us to the brink - the eucatrastrophe, no way out and then... there is. 

This is my year of story, I want to learn how to read stories, I want to learn how to love my story, to love the stories around me... not to love the sin, but to see how Christ's grace saves  us from our sin, how His Holy Spirit surrounds us in Truth and how the Father's love always pursues us.

So, I give thanks for eucatastrophe, I wouldn't order 'em on life's menu - I'm not certifiable.  But, I want to thank God when they come...they are from Him, and besides - the whole arrow through the hair and Goodwill yanking Christian into the gate  - well, now that I think about it- that is the good stuff of life...

Afraid of the dark

"SALVATION IS OF THE LORD!" Charles H. Spurgeon

And if GOD does require the sinner—dead in sin—that he should take the first step, then he requireth just that which renders salvation as impossible under the gospel as ever it was under the law, seeing man is as unable to believe as he is to obey, and is just as much without power to come to Christ as he is without power to go to heaven without Christ. The power must be given to him of the Spirit. He lieth dead in sin: the Spirit must quicken him. He is bound hand and foot, fettered by transgression; the Spirit must cut his bonds, and then he will leap to liberty. GOD must come and dash the iron bars out of their sockets, and then he can escape afterwards, but unless the first thing be done for him, he must perish as surely under the gospel as he would have done under the law.
I would cease to preach, if l believed that God, in the matter of salvation, required anything whatever of man which He Himself had not also engaged to furnish.. I am the messenger. I tell you the master's message; if you do not like the message quarrel with the Bible, not with me; so long as I have Scripture on my side I will dare and defy you to do anything against me. Salvation is of the Lord The Lord has to apply it, to make the unwilling willing, to make the ungodly godly, and bring the vile rebel to the feet of Jesus, or else salvation will never be accomplished. Leave that one thing undone, and you have broken the link of the chain, the very link which was just necessary to its integrity. Take away the fact that God begins the good work, and that He sends us what the old divines call preventing grace-take that away, and you have spoilt the whole of salvation; you have just taken the key-stone out of the arch, and down it tumbles. There is nothing left then.

Faith

I believe in the world and its bigness and splendor:
That most of the hearts beating round us are tender;
The days are but footsteps and years are but miles
That lead us to beauty and singing and smiles:
That roses that bloom and toilers that plod
Are filled with the glorious spirit of God.

I believe in the purpose of everything living:
That taking is but the forerunner of giving;
That strangers are friends that we some day may meet;
And not all the bitter can equal the sweet;
That creeds are but colors, and no man has said
That God loves the yellow rose more than the red.

I believe in the path that to-day I am treading,
That I should come safe through the dangers I'm dreading;
That even the scoffer shall turn from his ways
And some day be won back to trust and to praise;
That the leaf on the tree and the thing we call Man
Are sharing alike in His infinite plan.

I believe that all things that are living and breathing
Some richness of beauty to earth are bequeathing;
That all that goes out of this world leaves behind
Some duty accomplished for mortals to find;
That the humblest of creatures our praise is deserving,
For it, with the wisest, the Master is serving.
- Edgar Guest

Riveting, pivoting lines:

The days are but footsteps and years are but miles
                                              ...the footsteps of a good man are ordered by the LORD.

That taking is but the forerunner of giving;
                        ...we can only give what God has put in our hands and worked through our hearts.

And not all the bitter can equal the sweet;
           ...Fall, Gethsemane, the Cross, Resurrection, Redemption, Reconciliation - that's the plan.

That even the scoffer shall turn from his ways
And some day be won back to trust and to praise;
                 ...enemies brought near - that's the norm, and there are no exceptions!

If I did FB I'd like this...

Coming Home from work I saw this great CHURCH SIGN, in front of a  little bitty brick church with flower buckets and I think it had a red door, too ( no surprise there!)

God wrote the first valentine with two pieces of wood and three nails.

My response: Yes, You did Lord, we ascribe glory to Your Name, and in You alone, do we live.